finally

Some sewing is getting done around here. It took a backseat for a while with all the Jasper stuff going on.

Remember the gracie quilt. Yeah, I should've finished it like months ago. I didn't... but it's finished now. And it's amazing if I do say so myself. I switched out some of the fabrics from when I originally posted a pic of the quilt top. And I love how the back turned out. Making quilts is so wonderful, I find great joy in the process and end result.

Some other exciting news... we are going to Philadelphia the first week of August! We will get to meet little Gracie {who shares my birthday} for the first time and visit with the rest of her cute fam {who just moved to PA last week} and we'll also get to explore some of the East Coast {Philly, DC, NY, New Jersey}. I am SO excited because E and I haven't been back East {together} before. Yea for new places and new adventures. can.not.wait {5 weeks away}.

love this boy

as requested

test

the beast + finish =

the beast

A couple months ago as I was driving around on a Saturday morning, I saw a sign for an estate sale. I found my way over to the house and took a look around, everything within sight was for sale. I spent a good while looking through all this woman's stuff and then I found it. A vintage quilt. It was quite large and just the quilt top, but I grabbed it. I found a second quilt inside the house that had all 3 layers pin basted together but needed to be finished and I grabbed that one too. I paid a total of 8 dollars for both quilts. Which I decided was awesome.

I just stashed them for a while trying to decide what to do with them. The one that is already put together with all it's layers I am going to machine quilt (haven't done it yet). But it was the quilt top that had me questioning what to do with it. It is 90x100 and I didn't want to quilt the beast. So I thought about cutting it up and re-purposing it. But I didn't really like the idea of cutting up all the hard work someone put into it (even though the quilt is pretty ugly). My sis had the great idea to make it into a beach/picnic blanket and instead of quilting it, tie it. I went to CA a couple weekends ago and brought the quilt with me. I enlisted my mom and sisters to help me tie the beast. I bought the backing fabric at Joanns and when we got home we measured it again and it was 4 inches too short (I calculated wrong). So instead of going back to Joanns to buy more fabric, my mom pulled out some vintage fabric from my great grandma's stash. We happened to find some fabric that went perfectly (the bird cages). We added the extra fabric to the backing fabric and tied the whole thing over the weekend and all that's left is for me to finish up the edges.

See I told you, it's ugly. But I love it.

The back is my favorite. I am so glad I was short fabric and was able to add some of my great grandmas fabric to the back. I am in love with it!

an adorable baby and a quilt

I made this quilt for Bella (Andrew and Loni's baby girl born in October).

Then while we were in Utah I took pictures of Bella on the quilt. It looks much better with a cute baby on it.

The best part about making quilts is giving them away. It is great.

so charming

This is the quilt I made for my niece Elise. Yes, she's already five months old but with moving and everything that's been going on, I just finished it. It is one of my favorites, I love how it turned out.

Here she is on the front of it.                                   And on the back

Isn't she just too cute! Look at those blue eyes.

the homemade gift

Christmas was good to me this year, in many ways. We draw names in my family and make a homemade gift for the person we picked. They end up being the best gifts. Seeing what everyone made for each other is so fun. It is a great tradition, one that I am glad we started.

The person that had me this year is amazing. I was so excited that I was going to be the recipient of her gift. She always makes and gives amazing things... and she didn't let me down. She is one talented woman and I love & admired her tremendously.





















See... she's amazing. It's perfect, thanks Jenn.

Celebrate Spring

It is complete and I must say I am in love with it.











It started out as just another project and then progressed to a big project that I wasn't so sure about. I pieced the top together in a couple weeks and I still wasn't liking it that much. Then I decided I was going to actually machine quilt it. With the help of my fabulous mother and her new sewing machine we took an entire Saturday and quilted the whole thing. What an accomplishment, thanks mom! After that was complete I started falling in love with it. I proceeded to finish it by adding a hand binding. I finished the binding within a couple of days. I put a lot of work into it and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I love the feeling of finishing something. I love that I actually did the work from start to finish and still like how it turned out.








I feel bitter-sweet about giving it away. I am sad that I wont get to enjoy it, but the special people I am giving it to will get to use and enjoy it and that makes me happy!