Snoopy Beginnings...

After many years of frustration, tears, and prayers my good friend Melanie is having her first baby! She wants a snoopy themed nursery so I began planning a baby quilt for her. Here is the fabric I found at the Hershey Quilt show. Isn't is perfect for a Snoopy quilt?  It's called Down Under by Mint Blossom. I also gathered a bunch of different solids to go along with them.

 Next I decided to be crazy and try my hand at what people are calling 'thread painting'. I found pictures online, printed them out the size I wanted and traced the design onto the white fabric.  I used an iron on stabilizer and then just free motion stitched all around.  I think it looks like it was drawn on which I actually like. I have four other pictures to do.

I just ordered a few new colors of Robert Kaufman Kona solids from Pink Castle Fabrics which came in the mail Monday!  Azure, Jade Green, Bahama Blue, Candy Green, and Cactus.  These could be contenders for my Mystery Row Quilt Along!

Happy sewing friends!

Blessings, 

Rowing Along with the Wild Threads

My quilting group the Wild Threads is doing a Mystery Row Quilt-Along.  My friend Lisa aka 9patchnurse, is the brains behind this project.  You can play along with us if you want!  

At our last sew in I brought three different piles of fabric because I couldn't decide which to use.  Lisa and another friend Jennilyn went to town mixing all my piles together!  Horror! :)  

Here is my first row.  I am not 100% sure about block number three with the green.  I guess I will get a consensus at our next sew in this month.

Happy Sewing!

Blessings,

A Mug Rug Parade

I made these mug rugs in July as gifts for my aunts at our annual family reunion.  

 Aunt Jane's - she lives in New Bern, NC and loves to go sailing with my Uncle Lloyd.

 This one is my mom's.  I couldn't give all the aunts a gift and not have one for her. 

 She LOVES cardinals.

 My Aunt Anne's - she is now the Matriarch of our Meade family so I thought something 

like a family tree would work for her.

 This one went to my Aunt Jo - she lives on Belle's Island, NC where my family has spent many wonderful vacations. She has lots of bird and squirrel feeders there.

This one is my Aunt Muriel's. She has gone through quite a lot of health issues, her own and my Uncle Vinny's. She never loses her sense of humor. 

 Whoops!  I made this one for my neighbors birthday!  She is a Virginian and loves birds. 

The mug rug with the birds is a close look alike to one made by Kimberly aka bahamadawn.  I changed it a bit and asked her if it was ok to share.  

Enjoy the parade!

Blessings,

Wall Art

I saw this piece of art at Target last year and really liked it but didn't like the $80.00 price tag. I took a picture with my cell and thought I would try to make my own. Here is the finished art work hanging in my family room. 

          

I bought a 3 foot long, 12 inch wide piece of pine at Home Depot. My husband cut it into three pieces and that was all I did until this week!

 I painted the sides a green similar to what I have on the wall in my family room. I choose three different colors of scrapbook paper that I thought would work and modge podged them to each piece of wood.

 I printed out a copy of the picture from Target and used my handy dandy Tracer projector to trace the tree on each piece of wood.

I used black acrylic paint to hand paint the tree. When the paint was dry I used a clear acrylic spray to seal them.  

 Here they are together before I hung them up.

My wall had been naked for over a year.  I am happy with the result and it probably cost me $10.00!

Blessings,

The Bloggers Quilt Festival

I just realized I never posted about this baby quilt I made.  I am taking an English class and a History of the United States class this semester and I am doing so much writing in those classes that unfortunately blogging hasn't been high on my priority list.  Today I found out about the Bloggers Quilt Festival that Amy's Creative Side is hosting so I thought I would enter this little quilt.   My mom asked me to make a quilt for her close friend Lena's daughter who had a very premature little girl.  Little Ella was 1 pound 15 ounces at birth.  I actually babysat for Lena's children a long time ago when I was a teenager. My mother asked her prayer group ladies to come over and they all prayed over the quilt before my mom sent it off. I am happy to say that Stephanie loved it.  I got the sweetest thank you from her that just made me cry. 

 The front

 The back

One of the fabrics I bought had a flower pattern large enough that I was able to use them for appliques in the center of each block. Each block is the same I just rotated them in each row.

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 44″x 58″

Special techniques used : applique

Quilted by : Kathleen Weber

Best Category : Baby Quilt

Blessings!

A Wonky Log Cabin

This is the first queen size I've ever made.   Twenty-five 14" blocks.  My quilt group the Wild Threads had a block swap and this is the pattern and fabric I chose.  The group made 9 of the blocks and I made the rest.  One of my quilting friends, Shirley, has a long arm so I had her quilt it for me.  This was a belated graduation gift for my daughter Jocelyn.

 Close up of quilting pattern.

 The front of the quilt.

The back.  

I decided to use the left over fabric and just make one HUGE wonky block.  Finished size is 86" by 93".  I hope it keeps her comfy and warm for many, many years.  I am so happy with it and my daughter loves it too!  What have you been up to?

Blessings, 


PS.  I am going to enter this quilt into the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  Check it out!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 86″x 93″

Quilted by : Shirley Rouse

Best Category : Professionally Quilted, Favorite Bed Quilt, Favorite Bee Quilt

A Public Service Announcement

I've spent the last two days weeding my yard I thought I would share a tip.  If you don't want your garden to look like this -

You need to use this - 

I don't know why I can't remember that I need to cook my bird seed in the oven to de-germinate it before I put it in the bird feeder.   Here is said bird feeder.

Here is a close up.  See that?  Yes, that is grass growing right in the bird feeder.  

Never mind that it doesn't grow in the lawn where we purposefully put grass seed.

 

And this is my small vegetable garden - around the corner from the bird feeder.  Usually it holds 5 or 6 tomato plants.  This year I never got them planted - I cleaned it out and got it ready but that was it.  My daughter commented the other day that my 'tomato' plants were looking great.  Then my husband added, yeah, it's a good thing you have those tomato cages in there to hold the weeds up. :)

Any one else have days like this - or I should say seasons like this?  I hope this helps you to remember to cook that bird seed first.  Two hours in a low oven does the trick.  It is a pain but I will keep this picture in my mind for next summer.

Blessings,