Ta Da!

I love my new blog look! Thanks to each and every one of my three children! I got my background and header from Heidi's House of 3 then my daughter Katie downloaded it to my blog page and then my super creative and tech savvy son Cameron custom-designed and applied my blog title to the header! I've always believed in the motto "it's not what you know but who you know". Thanks so much kids; you are all so awesome!

Swirls and Twirls

 

Seriously, where did this week go??? I can't believe that it has been a week since my last post! On one hand I don't feel like much has happened that was worthy of sharing on a post but on the other hand, whew, the days are just jam-packed and fly by! I decided that I'd share my most recent quilt project with you even though it isn't totally finished. It still has to be quilted. That is the weird thing about making quilts... when you get to this point and you have this wonderful, beautiful (my opinion) quilt top that you have spent hours and hours putting together and then you realize that you are actually only half way finished because you still have to spend many more hours and hours quilting it together... I have to stop and relish the part that is completed and not think about what still will need to be completed.

I began this quilt at a class I took last fall from a very talented quilt designer and teacher named Karen Stone. She makes the most wild, colorful, unique quilts and I have admired her work for years. When I got the chance to actually take a class from her, I was thrilled. Her class was so delightful and she was so low key and easy going and positive and encouraging. It made for a really great experience and now to have this quilt as the results of that enjoyable experience makes it just that much more meaningful.

Each block has been sewn on a paper background and then when all the blocks were put together, the paper is carefully removed. It is quite a fragile top and it will need to be machine quilted to give it stability so all those spirals don't come undone. Karen Stone named her quilt "The Happy Rick Rack Quilt" because she sewed multiple colors of rick rack all around her spirals but I didn't choose to use rick rack so I just used the same piece of braided trim to embellish all of my swirls. The whole top measures 54" x 61" so it will be a wall hanging. I still need to put together the backer fabric. I'm going to use all the leftover pieces from the front and sew them together in random sizes. That is what I have been doing on most of my quilts lately and I like having a "show and tell" on the back as well.
Now I just need to find a couple of hours to get the back put together and get it to my machine quilter and then I can focus on where I want to hang it in my house!

Mother - daughters play date

 

 

When I checked into Heidi's blog this morning I saw that she had posted her latest creation, a welcome to Spring banner. It is so darling! I knew then and there that I had to make one for me to enjoy. I went to her House of 3 website and purchased the downloadable kit. Just as I was finishing printing off all the letters, Katie showed up because we had planned a trip to IKEA. As soon as she saw the Spring banner project, she wanted to make one also. So when we got home from IKEA we immediately went to work, I mean PLAY! We had such a fun time putting it all together. It is super easy! Even I could do it! It is so gratifying just be able to print everything off right there on the spot and then pull out whatever scrapbook embellisments already on hand and come up with such a fun end product in such a short amount of time (it probably took us 45 minutes and really Katie is lots faster than I am).

So if you are sick of winter like I am. Feel free to create your own welcome to SPRING banner and even if the outside weather doesn't cooperate you can be constantly encouraged that it is, in fact, on it's way! Enjoy!

Happy Valentines to my "One True Love"

Valentine scrapbook 2009

Guess what I did for Valentine's Day? I kind of went out of my usual element and came up with a really unique gift for my sweetie! It turned out to be a big surprise for me as well as for him!

Back a few weeks ago when I went on the Scrapbook Cruise, I was fortunate enough to get to take all of the scrapbook classes. I came home with 3 semi-finished albums which mostly just needed the photos inserted to finish them up.

My daughter Katie downloaded a cute Valentine kit from House of 3 and made her husband a darling photo album to give him for Valentines which also is their wedding anniversary (8th already!). When she showed it to me I suddenly remembered the amazing love album I had put together in the class taught by Teresa Collins. So I pulled it out and spent the whole day Friday printing out photos and dolling up the pages. I had so much fun! Paul was really surprised and it brought back lots of enjoyable memories and sharing of feelings. Thanks for the inspiration, Katie and for the creative, beautiful album basics, Teresa!

(I tried making a slide show to share the inside pages but I couldn't get it to cooperate but if you click on the photo you can see the other 7 picture I was trying to include.)