G+ giveaway

I happen to be an administrator for a Quilting Community over on G+.

I got +Alex Veronelli from +Aurifil threads to donate a box of thread.

We will be doing a giveaway when we reach 1000 members.

Head on over and join us there. its a hopping group of fabric addicts all helping each other out.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103068412669973411140

Andrea's visit

my best friend from Ontario finally came to visit for the first time.
We have been in NC for 4.5 years already. wow- time goes fast!

She mostly just blended into our lives but we did do a few trips with her in tow.

here are a few photos from her time here.

playing with the kids

a day trip to Mabry Mill in VA

and a drive home along the Blue Ridge Parkway

a flash mob

and playing at the park. before which we took a quick trip to Rock Hill SC and got Andrea another state. 

check out more:

Rylee's Quilt

I was asked to make a quilt for a friend in Canada.

I had made her a baby quilt a couple years ago and they wanted one for when Rylee moved into her big girl bed.

The request was for a twin Dora quilt with purple and maybe some green.



My first thought was how to make it easy on myself since they didnt mind.

I found a panel online of Dora and some butterflies.

The panel includes the pink border as well.

I then decided to do some checkerboards and add a couple borders.

The reason the checkerboards are highlighted in different colours is because thats how I added them to the panel starting with the yellow. 

 I had suggested a bit more of a non-dora back for the quilt so that this quilt can be used as she gets older by just flipping it over.

I took a few yards and spread them out trying to get things as even as possible.


I had the quilter (Pam Bowman) use her "Flutterby" pattern to quilt it with. It fit very well with the butterflies that Dora is chasing.

I loved this fabric

It was suggested to me that I needed to label my quilts- and not just sign them. This is my first label and I hope it stays on!

lovely striped binding

signed

With some of the leftover fabric I made a couple pillow cases to go with  the quilt. 

 

 there are 2 panels of dora - one running and one laying

They just picked it up this week and are already loving it. 

here is the pillow in use: 

and a video they made: 

Abigail's 1st

Abigail had her 1st birthday party!

we had some friends come over for Zeke too

yay party hats!

Abigail's buddies

mmm- cake!

more photos here:

Photography before and after

THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO


My mom and dad went to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom blooms.

I saw this photo

It was pretty but I knew it would do a bit better with some post processing (Oh how far I have come in a year)

so I added a contrast mask and played with curves and cloned out some debris in the water. 

You can click on them to make them bigger and flip between them. 

enjoy!

Zekes car quilt

One day my friend asked me if I could help her make a quilt using a pattern she found online. 

Its New Wave Quilt by Oh, Fransson! Link here 

I looked over the pattern and thought it sounded easy enough. I had never done a tumbler block quilt before. 

Then I started thinking what I could make it with. I remembered that I had this car fabric, Peak Hour, that I wanted to use to make Zeke a quilt. 

Christina came over one day and we started cutting out our material and then I lay out my fabric into stacks and started sewing

**click on any picture to view them all larger**

 I hung the pattern on the wall so I could follow it.

 It didnt take me long to get the top finished. I wish I would have pressed the seams open like it suggested to! but hey- it still worked.

I sent it off to the Long Arm Quilters to get it quilted. We looked for a car pattern to use and she didnt have any that seemed to fit. 

 We finally found this car with the arrow that Zeke liked. can you see it?

 and I used some great dots for the back

 I was told I better start labeling my quilts instead of just signing them. so heres a label.

 and signed

 striped binding that fit well with the colours I had.

 This classified print is what got my attention in the first place. You can actually read the ads!

 laid out

 and put to use as soon as he could.

This is the first time I have made a quilt to a pattern. I had to make my own template  even. 

although I followed the pattern I added a bit more to it to make it bigger. 

the end result was 58x68 or so... dont remember exactly- but close to that. 

thanks +Christina Borrego Buck for finding the pattern and getting me to join you in making this!

one year of Abigail

Here is 12 months of Abigail. 

Sometimes it was hard to choose just one photo from near her month birthday...

enjoy

 the prequel 

just born

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

(look- a tooth cut)

6 months

7 months

 I took these pictures beginning of December

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

Happy Birthday Abby Girl!