For my dolls

A quick little quilt for dolls.

All washed and soft and ready…

…for my granddaughters to cuddle with their dollies.

An awesome AHA moment!

My sewing room is a small space…less than 10’ square…so I have to be very creative in getting the most use out of it.  Mr. Sunshine is always trying to explain to me how I can not get one more piece of furniture in there…and then I amaze him by finding a way to do it anyway. 

I’m doing great on storage ideas but my biggest problem has been table space.  Then the other day I read this post over at Bloom and she led me to this post at La Vie en Rosie and a giant AHA! moment hit me. 

Early the next morning I was out shopping for foam core boards and inexpensive batting and before noon my quilt boards were all assembled. 

And now…look what I can do!

And I love being able to carry them right to my sewing machine.  I can sew away without having to keep jumping up to get block pieces from the design wall.  Wonderful!

I am now using them to finish the last row on my “The Road Less Traveled” quilt. 

But the first thing I used them for was to finish my Nine Patch Challenge blocks

  

A beautiful pile of yellow and blue (with a touch of green).

And I finally have a plan for how to put them all together.

Dear Jane Glass… half full or half empty?

 

A small note to myself reminds me that I began my Dear Jane Journey a year and two months (or so) ago.

 

My swatch chart shows that I have completed 75 blocks.  So many beautiful blocks.  I need to get their pictures taken and posted. 

After a year, I am only nearly half way there.  But I’m enjoying the journey and feel I’ve made good progress…  “Glass half full!”

No end in sight

I started my Nine-Patch Challenge quilt…cutting up my choice of fabric and piecing them into blocks… but without any idea as to how I will put them all together.  They look prettier and prettier with each block I add…so I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

Planning a busy year

Now that Christmas projects are out of the way, I can get back to work on the Florabunda applique that I started last year.  I have six blocks finished and six to go. 

Yesterday I started a seventh one.  This BOM by Erin has been so fun.  She is doing another one for this year featuring birds.  I know it will be beautiful just like all her designs.

I made a goal to finish current projects and no new ones for a while but I broke that goal just two weeks into the new year by signing up for the 2011 Nine Patch Challenge at Anne Marie’s Quilt. The aim is to have a nine patch quilt finished by September 1st using fabrics from our own stash.  It was just too tempting.  This afternoon I picked out my fabrics.  I’ve been wanting to make a yellow and blue quilt…this one will have a little green with it too.

  This might be an omen that it’s going to be a good year.  I was a lucky winner of this pretty quilting calendar over at Ann’s blog.  She has one of her awesome patterns inside for the month of October.  I’ve made some of her patterns before and they are really nice. 

There are lots of other projects to finish in 2011.  I have a list and plan to get busy.

A little project to start off 2011

I was so close to finishing the top for this little quilt late last night that I stayed up stitching away till 1:00 a.m.  I should know better than to work on details such as measuring and cutting sashing when I’m tired because I got it wrong and had to come back this morning to fix things.  It made it very close for the sashing fabric…I started with less than a quarter yard scrap and after having to redo it, all I have leftover are crumbs… almost dust!  I was holding my breath!

Now to quilt and bind it and then I’m going to display it in a ready made frame.  The quilt is 18” x 24” and so it will fit just right. 

My Quilty Christmas

This was what I was doing just days before Christmas:

But they were finished just in the “St. Nick” (ho ho ho) of time for Christmas day!

And there were “I spy” quilts for the little ones.

Then Mr. Sunshine surprised me with EQ7 under the tree…

 

…and a featherweight machine that is just so tiny cute! 

  Looks like it’s going to be a very fun…

Holiday Wishes

This is a busy week…that just got busier this morning when we discovered that our stove is broken…right in time for all the Christmas baking and as we are planning on having the whole family here for Christmas Eve dinner.  Yikes!  But Oh well, I know it will all work out somehow…it always does. 

Very soon now I will be able to post all those projects I have been working on secretly the past while.  I am especially excited for those I love to finally receive them. So fun!

I hope you are all having a beautiful, wonderful Christmas. 

Look what I found!

I climbed into our little attic room to get out the Christmas decorations and came across a forgotten box filled with these felt ornaments.  I had to bring them down and have been playing with them.  So many good memories!  I stitched these up 31 years ago for our tree.  It was our second Christmas together.   

They came from a book by Sandra Lounsbury Foose.  I loved her designs back then and over the years have collected five of her books.  They are all out of print now so I feel lucky to have them.

I’ve also finished two more blocks for my little applique quilt.  Each one will finish at 5 inches square.

Projects for in-between projects

I have several finishes that I still can’t show.  However, this little zipper bag isn’t a Christmas secret.  It was just a fun break from the other bigger projects going on.  The pattern is from Keyka Lou.

For the most part I am on top of things for my Christmas sewing this year.  Wow, such a great feeling! 

Outside everything is snow covered and pretty.  Inside we spend our evenings by the fireplace where I relax and stitch away on these cute little blocks.  I just LOVE them! 

In a few days we will be putting up the tree and decorating the house.  Such an awesome time of year!

No peeking…well…maybe a little one

There are so many things I’ve been working on but most of them I can’t share just yet.  This is the time of year for secrets you know. 

But I can give you a peek at this miniature house block that’s a part of a bigger project.

The little window is only 1/4” square. 

I used part of a Carol Doak pattern for the house and added one of my favorite little quotes.  It’s all going together nicely, I think.

And these pretty pieces are part of a stack of fabric on my cutting table awaiting their turn for the next project.

Watch me grow!

When I go visit my parents I can still see the pencil lines on the kitchen doorway where my mom marked the growth of all the grandchildren.  The kids loved to have her measure them and make their mark.

I want to create the same kind of memories for our grandkids so yesterday I stitched up a growth chart to hang on our wall. I found this fun monkey fabric in my stash and made it up as I went along.  I still have to figure out how I am going to mark it.  Any creative ideas?

              

27 inches and thirty inches tall so far.  We have a lot of wonderful growing up years ahead of us.