Dresden Plate

February was also Sarah's month for the Busy Little Quilting Bee. I e-mailed her a couple of days ago because I never received my fabric, thinking it must have gotten lost. Sure enough, yesterday it arrived and took almost 2 weeks to get here. What the heck? I think my mail people hold on to my mail. Anyway, Sarah requested a scrappy vintage style quilt. She sent some really adorable reproduction fabric. I don't know why but I immediately wanted to do a Dresden Plate. Now, I've never done one before and I've read about how tricky they can be but I must say this was pretty easy.

I machine pieced the "plate" together and then appliqued it onto the background fabric. It all came together rather quickly and I think I might be addicted. Actually if I didn't "know" Sarah, I might be tempted to keep it for myself!

coming together

I think the last time I mentioned my Dear Baby Jane progress, I was about 40 blocks behind. I really, really want to be caught up, so I spent a good part of the weekend working on the blocks. I completed about 10 of them and have 3 ready for hand applique. I also decided to start adding the sashing to part of the blocks. I did this partially because I am excited to see it coming together but also because I couldn't imagine having to put all the 200+ blocks together at the end. I am really loving how this looks so far. I'm just hoping to finish it in my lifetime! Now, just to catch up on the 20+ blocks I'm behind on now!

spider web in progress

My new WIP: a spiderweb quilt. I had first seen a vintage spiderweb quilt in an old quilting book I found at the thrift store. I spent days staring at it and trying to figure out how to make one. Unfortunately, the quilt was not labeled as a "spiderweb" quilt, so I had no idea there was a fabulous tutorial out there for making one! That is until everyone in blog world starting making them. Of course I had to jump on the bandwagon and now I'm obsessed with making these little blocks. They are very addictive. Now if only I could muster up the energy to turn the dining room back into my sewing room I'd be in business!

A very Thomas birthday

I am finally recovering from this weekend and still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it Monday. These long weekends always throw me off. Anyway, Isaiah's birthday party turned out great. John surprised me with a visit from the hospital, something I was completely not expecting. He was able to get out on a day pass and it was so special that he was able to be there for the party. He's still in the hospital, but feeling much better and hopefully getting out of "jail" soon.

Isaiah really enjoyed all the attention, not to mention the presents and cake. Now the cake was really a work of art, in my opinion. My sister and I stayed up way past our bedtimes on Friday night and woke up early Sat morning to finish it up. Both Thomas and the shed are made of cake. Thomas' face is made out of fondant and was surprisingly easy to make. We made the rails out of chocolate twizzlers and chocolate modeling clay. And of course, lots of coconut "grass."

Now I'm ready to claim my sewing room back. Everything was cleaned up and put away for the party since my sewing room also doubles as the dining room. Perhaps I shouldn't say "everything" got put away as you can see the measuring tape and stitch witchery in the picture. I'm looking forward to finishing up some special projects and starting new ones. Hopefully this will be a nice productive and relaxing week!

The birthday boy

My dear Isaiah. Thank you for keeping us laughing, smiling and hopeful during these very rough times. You are such a shining light in our lives and we could not love you more. Happy 3rd Birthday my little one!

Right now I'm in the midst of frantically cleaning the house (which includes cleaning my sewing room, yikes!), baking a Thomas cake, and preparing for a large birthday party tomorrow. To add to that, John had to go into the hospital because he spiked a fever yesterday. They quickly got him on some antibiotics and we're hoping that it's just a simple head cold that caused it. Unfortunately he'll be missing Isaiah's birthday but it's better for him to be healthy in the long run. So that's a bummer and I'm still trying to get used to this whole process, but I'm just ready for it to be over.

Anyway, wish me luck. I'm going to need it! Thankfully Isaiah is spending the whole day with my in-laws, so I'll have a lot of time to myself.

Rainbow block

It seems the only thing I've been sewing lately are blocks for the quilting bee I'm a part of. Not that I mind. I really enjoy the challenge with each new block. It's fun to discover fabric combination that I would not normal use. This block was for Sarah. She's making a quilt for her brother's wedding present and her color theme is "rainbow." Now that's definitely not a color scheme I usually work with. She wanted something Denyse Schmidt inspired, something log cabinish. This obviously isn't a log cabin, but I instantly wanted to do this. Hopefully she likes it!

little blocks

At one point, I was nearly caught up with my blocks for the Dear Baby Jane-along. That must have been months ago, but I realized I'm about 40 blocks behind. Yikes! Last night I sat down and figured out which ones I need to complete. Then I traced about 10 of them. I think half the battle is tracing them. If I had the CD where I could just print out the blocks things might go a little faster. I was able to get 4 done today and hopefully tonight I'll get a few more done. I opted to do the ones I could paper piece because those seem to be the easiest. Now I need to get some more aqua and red fabrics. Anyone up for a trade?

I also was able to get two block finished for Juliette for January's Busy Little Quilting Bee. She's making a quilt for her son and sent the linen and cool dot/plaid fabric.

One final note I wanted to mention about the Ruffle Wristlet Pattern, since I did receive a few e-mails about it. You are welcome to make and sell wristlets made from this pattern, as long as you credit me with the pattern. You can also see the two adorable wristlets Mary made on her blog.

Have a great weekend! We're supposed to be getting a nice Spring tease with the weather.

Pattern is available!!

Whooohoooo I am finally finished with the wristlet pattern. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have this finally finished and up for sale! I am really excited albeit a little nervous to hear and see the feedback about it. Here are the ones my fabulous testers made ( I hope it's o.k. I'm sharing these guys!).

By Jamie
By Stephanie
By Anina
It's a PDF pattern and it is available in my etsy shop now. I've even created a flickr group in the hopes that if you do make one yourself you'll share your creation! Thanks to all my testers. You guys are amazing!

January Blocks

Well, this past week was kind of crazy. John's blood counts dropped very low last Monday, followed by a fever on Wednesday, which subsequently landed him in the hospital for a few days. Thankfully he recovered rather quickly and is feeling back to his "normal" self. It made for a very long week, as you can imagine, because we had to make several more trips over to the hospital than we usually do. As much as I love Isaiah, I was happy to have a day like today where he was in school and I didn't need to go anywhere! It was refreshing and I was able to fit in some thrifting and sewing.


I made these two blocks for Cathy. She is going to be making two quilts for her girls. I just love the colors she sent, they were very fun to put together.

Hopefully tomorrow my wristlet pattern will be ready for sale. I'm sure you're all sick of hearing me talk about it! I am really excited to get it finished, but I'm worried about it being a good pattern. Thankfully I've had very helpful testers and I can't wait to show you the ones they made!