silent night...

Wishing you all a very...

Luke 1:14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth

and a little of that...

Here are some of my finished embroidery work. I think I am off to tackle the pretty little maids. I think I might try to finish another gift using those!!


In other news, tomorrow I get my braces on. I'm not looking forward to having to trudge through the next 30 months with them, but I do look forward to the rewards! It's also nice to know that there are so many adults with braces nowadays...so here's to having a reason to stay away from gooey fudge, caramels, and sweets in general this holiday season, may my smile and waistline benefit!!

a little of this...

I've been on this embroidery kick lately. It's nice to settle in on the couch with a christmas movie playing and just stitch the night away. I picked up this cute little pattern from Jenny B. Harris at AllSorts, so it's been a lot of fun working on a holiday stitchery!

I also purchased a set of her pretty maids all in a row. I just couldn't resist. I have a couple girly quilts to make and I think this just might work for one of them. I'm very excited to get started on this, but I'm thinking after all my christmas projects!

life in the fast lane...

Seems like I had almost given up all hope on the blogging world. My life has been super hectic the past few months! With the new business, a baby, cleaning house, maintaining the quilt store's website, and quilting for people. I just zonk out at night! Here is a little of what I have been up to. I'm trying to get some Christmas gifts done now, so I won't be sharing everything.


Since my camera is almost always attached to my neck, I decided to make me a prettier strap. I used Heather Bailey's new fabric line and stitched this up.

I made this flannel blanket for Maxton. I used the minkie fur on the back. He loves his new blankie...he will lay his head on it and feel the softness.

I used this Santa panel and quilted it for a wall hanging. My goal this year was to make more seasonal quilted projects, so this was just one of my many projects planned.

My new niece was born on Nov 18th. We were not so certain on the gender while I was making this, so I figured this quilt would suit either. I used Baby Genius 2 and added borders. I used minkie on the back since I can't resist the softness. Now little Mattie Rae will have a cozy comfy quilt all to herself. I now have 4 nieces (2 of which (from the same mother) were born in 2008) and 1 nephew: Mindy 11, Austin 9, Macie 7, Ava 10 months, Mattie 2 days

I made this Christmas quilt for my couch. I bought all the top fabric at the Minnesota Quilt Show in Rochester for a total of $12! I did the quilt in one afternoon and quilted one afternoon. This was my first time quilting with loops.

I had always wanted to hang some ice skates as decoration, so I found a couple old pairs and jazzed them up a bit. I cleaned them, painted red polka dots, black antiqued them, glued some fur on the ankles for cuffs, then laced them with some funky fur cording I bought at Walmart. I plan to keep a pair for myself and sell the other pair at The Little Red Hen.

Hopefully I can set a time to regularly blog now.

Holy Wows Batman...

I can't even remember where I had left off....It's been a crazy crazy couple of months in our house. While I have been busy with business work (learning, learning, learning), raising our now 10 month old baby, playing house wife, I have found the time to finish 2 quilts, and am still stairing at a box all packaged up and yet needing to make it's way down to the post office. I promise it will get there!!! I have been making consignment items for my favorite local store The Little Red Hen, which has been a lot of fun. There is always something new to try out. Here is what's on my list of to do's:

1) 2 baby quilts (one blue, one pink)--as we do not know the newest niece or nephews gender yet.
2) 2 Christmas Quilts
3) 30's box quilt
4) The Very Hungry Catapillar quilt
5) Baby blanket for Parker, my friend Christina's baby to be
6) Stitchery wall hanging for my aunt.

I know the list isn't that big, but with as crazy as it has been here....it just seems overwhelming to me!!!!!!!


Well, here's a couple of my accomplishments this past month.

missing in action...

It has been one crazy week... and so was last week! My husband has ventured off to start his own business and I've been behind the scenes doing a lot of work for that. I think this is going to be an adventure, but as long as we put as much work into things as we can, we will be alright!

I decided to make a pair of shoes for Maxton from a pattern I had filed away since he was born. I think they turned out cute, but I will have to make some more for him and maybe make them a little larger as he has chubby feet! I've been searching for a perfect pair of shoes for the summer that he can wear without socks...these might just be what i've been looking for! Since they were so simple and fun I decided to make a pair for my niece Ava too..it's fun making little girl stuff for once!

I'm also in the works of finishing up a prize and a quilt for my mother-in-law....I can tell this is going to be one crazy summer!!

and the winner is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1 

Timestamp: 2008-05-22 14:27:46 UTC

Roxane....congratulations! I guess the chances are a little better when there are only 2 comments! I will put your prize in the mail when I get back from my holiday trip!

fix'r up...and 100th post...

I've been blogging for a couple years now and have finally hit my 100th post...pretty pathetic, but it just means I need to be doing this more regularly. Hopefully I can hit number 200 in less than 2 years!! For this post leave a comment with some object that is your favorite (like an animal or a fruit, or buttons) and a random person will win something fun!

I did a fixer up yesterday. I love it when my husband will help out with some household chore, but I hate it when I find out that he didn't empty his pockets and an ink pen gets left in a load of clothes!!! This happened last spring and to one of my favorite pairs of pants.So I took this pair of pants and cropped them down to capri's and added a little embroidery floss..

and voila! Just like new again for me. I wanted tone on tone, so this this the best I could do.
Now hopefully the ink pen episode will not happen again!!

an after without the before...

I scored a must have at a garage sale last week and only paid $5.00 for it. As you can imagine it had the most awful upholstery..think some 80's style tapestry. After I removed that it had some faded shambled pink velvet upholstery on it. I picked up some home dec fabric and quickly recovered it. I love my cheap find!!I wish I would have taken a before, but it was one of those projects where you just wanted to hurry up and make it look better!!I bought Maxton a little table set from Ikea back in March and finally got outside to give it a couple coats of paint. I figured he would enjoy a little table to color or play at, then someday maybe if we have a little girl it would be perfect for tea parties! I decided to paint it white to match the crib, and I still plan on making some cute little cushions for the chairs. I've sat Maxton up to his table and all I get is an ear to ear smile. It's too cute! In other news, I'm surprised that he has been in such a great mood. My little man has 3 new teeth! I always heard that once they get one the rest are soon to follow...well, that's true. The 3 all came this last week!

pillow post...

I've been doing a lot of hand embroidery lately. It's something very relaxing for me. I had started a bunch of Hello Kitty blocks about a year ago and only finished 2 of them. I decided to stitch up a pillow for my sister, since she is a HK freak! My mom made a quilt for her, so I decided not to do all the blocks for a quilt.
This one is reversable...i personally like the lavender one since purple is one of my favorite colors.
I made this "party pillow" for my cousin's wife who turns 25 tomorrow. I got Sublime Stitching
around Christmas time and have enjoyed the fun funky designs in it. You can also visit her site and blog.
I love some of the patterns on her site, especially the craftopia one!!

weekend recap...

My very first mother's day was a wonderful one! Maxton popped his first tooth, so that was a gift in itself. It's so much fun seeing the changes in my little boy everyday. I never know what to expect from day to day. We visited family in Fairfax, SD and were even able to get out and visit the cows. Since it was a dreary day for the most part on friday and saturday, I didn't get my camera out for that. I did however snap a few pictures of Maxton and Aunt Amanda with Moony on sunday.Before we headed out of town on friday Maxton enjoyed watching his favorite dvd, They Might Be Giants. I swear, I put that in and his eyes are glued to the screen!
I have forgotten to post my bento box quilt. I still need to get it on the frame and quilted, but hopefully I will do that this week. Here it is:And here's my newest addiction: 3D bow tie blocks! They are super fun and easy. I'm using some of the fabrics from Amy Bulter's Midwest Modern collection. I used 3" squares for mine. For this, you need 3 patterned 3" squares and 2 muslin or plain 3" squares. Try it!here is a link to the tutorial...enjoy!!

to flash, or not to flash, that is the question...

Not not anything close to a photographer, but my goal for the year is to become more acquainted with my camera. I would like to learn a lot more about lighting and of course the dreaded f-stop! I purchased 3 yards of canvas at the fabric store since I got a deal of 40% off on it. For my white backgrounds I've just been using a sheet, so this is definitely a step up from that. Sorry that Maxton has been in so many of my posts, but he's really all I have to work with when it comes to taking portraits. I edit my pics in photoshop and my main thing to do right now is collages. They are super fun and usually are nicer to look at then just single photos.I order my pictures from mpix.com, and I love them! It only takes about 2 days to get your orders and you can order die-cut wallets and everything. My biggest addiction right now is the metallic paper!! Check them out!

Happy 6 Months Maxton...

It's hard to believe my baby boy has already turned 6months! Where has half the year gone? My once so tiny baby is now 18 lbs 10 oz and 27 3/4 inches. That puts him in the 75th and 80th percentile. He is doing extremely well and the doctor even thinks that he is above average when it comes to supporting his weight. I'm sure if he had any more balance he would take off walking! He's a very strong boy. We were told to start giving him a cup, so he can get used to it and it would make getting off the bottle a whole lot easier. He loves to drink water from our cups and has mastered the holding of his own sippy cup. He never ceases to amaze me!

On Sunday, Maxton will be baptized at church. Seems like the past couple of months we have been waiting for a weekend that would mesh well for everyone to be able to attend. We are very excited for this ceremony. He was going to wear his cousin's baptism outfit, but turns out that the "6 month" apparel was a little too small for my tall guy. My mom whipped up a very cute outfit for him and hopefully he can wear it to church a couple more times afterwards.I may have another post to make this afternoon. I have half a block to make on the bento quilt and then the top is finished....stay tuned!

this then that....

I got this one done!!

off in a dash...

So I finished this...


Now I'm off to get some border fabric and will hopefully be back to work on something like this ...

Using these... Happy Weekend!!

the aftermath...

I guess they declared that we are in a spring blizzard. I've seen worse, and it really isn't cold out, but the snow has been blowing to white out conditions. Lucky kids these days, we never got days off for something like this!!
I finished the middle section of the quilt I started yesterday. I like borders on my quilts, so I will have to hit the quilt store to find some fabric for that. On a sad note, I cut my pinkie finger with my rotary cutter. My rotary cutter has a one of those levers that you pull when you use it, so when you let go, it closes. Well after I cut a block I was turning it around and my hand slid into the blade and caught it just right. I don't think it is really as bad as it could have been, but boy did it bleed. After 5 band aids and finally some super glue I got it to stop. Now I know what they mean when they say that those rotary cutters have been known to kill people!!

On today's agenda I plan to start another quilt using some more of my charm packs. I just love those things!!

sewing the day away...

So while it's doing this outside...


I'm doing this...I'm using some of my charm packs from this post, and just slicing my 9 patches apart. My aunt and friend gave a fun lesson last Saturday at quilt guild on this and it's very tempting and fun! It's from this pattern from Eleanor Burns. Try it, you will be hooked too!