Have you heard???

Have you heard? The Jolly Jabber is helping Santa make a few wishes come true…They have asked that we write a letter to Santa telling him what we would like from the Fat Quarter Shop…

Dear Santa…

Dear Santa, I want to start off by saying that I have been a VERY GOOD GIRL this year…
I know you're really busy and all and I don’t want to take up to much of your time. I know you have lots of toys to get ready for your BIG night. The girls over at the Jolly Jabber said that they were in pretty tight with you and were going to help you make a few wishes come true…
I don’t have a lot of items on my wish list, but if you look and see that my name is there on the GOOD LIST and could pull a few strings, I would LOVE to have a fat quarter bundle of BLUSH and a Layer cake of OZ from over at the Fat Quarter Shop. Here are some pictures so you know what they look like…


Pretty, huh? I think I could make some really cute stuff with either of these :)
Merry Christmas and give Rudolph a rub behind the ears from me!

Guest Blogger…

I have been asked by Natalia over at Sew What to be her guest blogger on Friday.

I could just cry!

I am so disappointed right now. Last night I decided I would get started on the letters to appliqué my kids names on the back of there quilts. After getting the stuff together I realized that I didn’t have any fusible web…no problem I will just glue them to the quilt and hand stitch around the letters. Laying in bed last night after getting the letters cut out and glued in just the right places, I realized that my letters would end up fraying after being washed (I didn’t cut the letters so that I could needle turn). I haven’t done too much appliqué especially on things that would get a lot of ware and washing. So new plan…I in all my infamous wisdom (haha) I decided that to cut a piece of material to match the back of the quilts and then machine embroidery the letters. I planned to needle turn appliqué this patch to the back of the quilt…Great idea, right? WRONG! I seem to have forgotten one tiny little detail…I have NEVER machine appliquéd before! Some of the letters didn’t turn out too bad, but the curved one look AWFUL!! I don’t know what to do. I have spent 5-1/2 hours working on this. I still have Kyle’s to do (thank heavens his name doesn’t have any curved letters in it. If I would have known when I was naming my kids that one day I would be trying to machine appliqué the letters of their names on crap I guarantee Parker and Hunter would have different names!

By the way…don’t try to rip out a satin stitch…IMPOSSIBLE! Don’t ask me how I know :(

So what would you do? Would you use them anyway after working so hard and using good material? Or would you scratch the idea of having their names on the back? I have more matching fabric but it was put aside for another project…I guess I could start all over…I don’t know what to do??? Take a look at the pics…any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Doesn’t look too bad from this angle. It is when you get close up that things start getting really UGLY!

The U is the worst and the second letter I tried to appliqué (not smart). I also tried to use a smaller zigzag stitch on this one…didn’t work! For the rest of the letters I did a zigzag stitch that wasn’t so small and just went over it 2 times… I also used black to do my stitching…another not so good idea!

The T and the E actually turned out ok…

Another bad R…

The R just looks crummy!

By the time I go to this R I was getting a little better…still looks awful!

Making Progress!

I have quilt tops #1, #2, and #3 finished and ready for binding. As an after thought I decided to applique their names on the back as the label. So hopefully that will turn out ok since the quilts have already been quilted. I always forget about the labels :)
Kyle’s quilt…(He really wanted something simple)
I am going to bind this one in blue and applique his name in red on the back.

Hunter’s quilt…
I am going to do a scrappy binding with the left over jelly roll on this one and applique his name with left over charms on the back.

Parker’s quilt…
I am going to do a scrappy binding with the left over jelly roll on this one too and also applique his name with left over charms on the back.

I’ll post more pics when they are finished.

Need help and Ideas…

I am getting ready to make my husband a quilt. His birthday is in May and I would like to have it finished by then (seems like a long way off but I would only be able to work on it during the week to keep it a surprise and time just seems to be flying by). My problem is he wants a solid white quilt with white quilting. He LOVES white. It is his favorite color. I am at a loss as what to do. He really liked the free hand flower quilting I did on the jelly roll scrap quilt. Of course he doesn’t want flowers, but he did mention “fancy” stitching…that’s what he called the free hand quilting, LOL. I am at a loss. Any ideas? He also loves the ocean and sail boats…

One thought I had was a log cabin type quilt with different shades of white. I need some suggestions…PLEASE! I want it to be special :)

Looking for my Motivation…

anyone seen it?

CGQC-December list

I have a few projects in the works. I have 3 quilts that I am making for my boys for Christmas. I don’t have pictures taken yet, but I will post some soon. Two of the tops are done and need to be sandwiched, quilted, and binded. The 3rd hasn’t been started yet. I do have the fabric bought and the measurements figured out. Here is a preview of 1 quilt http://www.luv2kreate.com/2009/11/help-neededplease.html. I am also planning another Scruffy quilt . I will get to it if I have time.

Help needed…PLEASE!

I am making 2 quilts with the Neptune line for my 2 youngest boys (13 & 12). I had a couple charm packs and a jelly roll. I didn’t want to buy any more fabric (actually I have been put on a fabric buying ban for the rest of the month) so I used the charm packs to make the center of 1 quilt, and I am using part of the jelly roll to make the center of the other quilt. I have 2 full size black sheets and 2 full sized apple green sheets that no longer fit on the beds we have. This green matches the lightest green in the fabric line. I don’t care for the way the green looks on the front, but thought maybe for the back. I plan on adding a 10-inch border around the center of the quilt to make decent sized lap quilts for them to watch TV with and travel in the car with (we are BIG blanket people).

Why do I need help you ask? Well, I can’t decide what to do. Do I do the black border with a green back? If so what binding… black? (want to use the sheets don’t like the green for the binding)… Do I do a black border and a black back? If so what binding (I don’t care for the look of the green as the binding, remember). Is it ok to do black border, black back, and black binding?? HELP…I don’t know what to do.

Here are a few pics I took…maybe it will help you help me :)

 

In the pic it is hard to see that the black does match…the squares look more navy in the pic.

Maybe I should wait until December and order one of the matching black fabrics for the border and then do the black sheet for the back and binding…hmmmm

Pics As Promised Earlier…

Here is a full view. I never could get a good photo…but you get the idea. This Quilt is so much prettier in person.

Here is some detail shots of the border quilting…

This is the back. I decided to use white…

Another Finish…

The scrap quilt I was working on is finished. I had a few snags along the way, but for the most part it wasn’t too bad. After washing it I had to redo a few of my free motion stitches. My BSR was skipping and I think I forgot to secure my stitches in a few spots…Anyway it is done, and I didn’t ruin the quilt (I was terrified that I would ruin my quilt if I tried to FMQ). Fortunately, I had a friend convince me to just go for it! It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I will take a few photos later this afternoon. I tried to get a few this morning but the sun isn’t shinning and for some reason I can’t get any good shots.

Favorite Quilting Tools?

I have only been quilting for a short while and I am interested in knowing your favorite or must have quilting tools. What tools can you NOT live without!

I bought a pair of Fons & Porter quilting gloves the other day and love them. I couldn’t believe the difference they mad. Now I am wondering what else I have been missing out on! So please tell…

Mail Call…

I received my gift from Joanne from The Simple Wife. She sent me a signed copy of her book Misplacing God (and finding him again). I am looking forward to reading it. She also sent me a package of pens and an adorable little note pad with my Initial on it. THANK YOU Joanne!

Sheets for Fabric?

I was walking around our local department store looking at sheet sets. They had sets for as little as $12. Has anyone ever bought sheets and used them as fabric for a quilt? They had 3 coordinating sets that I liked. That would be an enormous amount of fabric for $36. Thoughts on this please…

It’s A Finish (More Than One)!

Whoo Hoo I have been busy the past week!
1st I finished my Quilt For Kids Quilt

And I also completed my Spring Magic Scruffy Quilt…I LOVE THIS QUILT!
   
Here is a pic of my quilt folded into a pretty little pile of quilted fabric!

I used 2 layer cakes, 2 charm packs, 1/2 of a jelly roll, and 5-1/2 yds backing for this quilt. With the rest of the jelly roll I decided to make another quilt. I am trying not to have too many left overs. The only thing I didn’t have on hand when making the second quilt was the Kona White. I had to purchase that. I bought a HUGE 108x108 inch piece so I have some for my stash now :)
Here are some previews… Wish I would have taken a picture of the 1 really long strip I had sewn this jelly roll into, but I was in a quilting groove and it slipped my mind until a friend reminded me to take lots of pictures!
   
I used every bit of fabric I had from the Spring magic line. I am sad that it is gone, but love the 2 quilts I made from it :) I have all the quilting finished on this one and just need to do the binding. I will be using the left over fabric from the back of my Scruffy to bind and label this one. I plan to do a matching flower appliqué on the back for the label. This was my first attempt at free motion quilting. It isn’t perfect, but I think I did a pretty good job.