Christmas, Cards and a Quilt

A couple of the Christmas garments I've been making for the fabric stores -- so many Christmas things this year!  (There are more pics for another time, don't want to overload you now.)

this one is green cordoroy

 This jacket is red velveteen.  It's a gorgeous look but oh my, what a mess to cut and sew!

A dear young lady who is a former co-worker of mine has a little daughter who is affected with a rare and incurable disease which causes tumors to grow on nerves.  I made this quilt for a benefit to raise research money to fight the disease.  Now isn't this crazy -- the quilt was auctioned and the buyer was my niece!  Little Logan Joseph will sleep with the owls. 

You might recogize that the quilt images are from Cricut's Give a Hoot cartridge. Traced with Cricut markers onto fusible web then appliqued.



 

This was made for a gift. It's quilted with Insul-Brite, an insulated batting for hot/cold use.  This is a flat iron travel case so you can put the iron away before it's completely cool.

Here are some of the cards I made to complete a gift set. I tried to include something for every occasion and a mixture of fun and serious themes.



I like the hippo's stickle toenails.  (kinda hard to see in the pic) And can you see the white glitter paper on the bridal dress?

This may be one of my favorite cards ever.  At least it is today!  Black glitter paper just looks so chic.  The flower is from the new Flower Shoppe cart.  (I made one of these to keep too.)

So it's been a lovely weekend but sometimes I still have my ups and downs.  So much love and support surround me though, that I can't help but recognize how very blessed I am.

I hope you can see and feel the blessings in your life today.

Special prayers today for Brenda, Mark, Dave, Jack, Betty and John. God loves you and so do I. xo



Little Girl Baby Quilt

This will be a quick post, just to show off the baby quilt that I mentioned my sisters-in-law were interested in seeing.  My step-son Tim & his wife Jamie are expecting their second child, a girl, in October. 

One of the blogs I follow is Piece and Quilt, and I fell in love with Natalia's Modern Baby Quilt some time ago.  (Click on the link to see her wonderful tutorial.)  As always, I did some improvising; I had some green bias I wanted to use for swirly flower stems and it was much narrower than Natalia's version.  I also revised the picture panel in the lower corner.  That adorable little dear is from Cricut's Cindy Loo cartridge.  You can cut fabric on the Cricut, but I prefer to use my Cricut marker to draw the image onto fusible web, then cut by hand.  You can use a much lighter fusible this way and for a quilt I want to keep it light and soft.  If you do this, don't forget to use your flip button to make your design a mirror image.  That is, if it's important to you -- and essential if you are doing text.  So anyway . . . here's the quilt:

 

These are my" colors, I love the pinks, yellow and turquoise blue.

And of course, this tiny dear is my favorite part. Isn't she precious?!


It was a great way to use some of my precious scrap pieces.  I just love this quilt (hope they do too) and I'm sure I will be making it again.

Prayers today for Larry, Brenda, and Dave.  For Emily, Leslie, Karen & John.  God bless you all.  Love, J

 

My, oh my. Where does the time go?! I have such good intentions but it seems I just can't keep up. I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted on the blog. Yikes! The wedding is eight weeks away (and counting down) and I'm pedalling as fast as I can. Tomorrow is the bridal shower so I thought I should catch up here. Since there will be more after the shower . . .

Here are a couple of display samples I hadn't gotten around to showing yet. If you are familiar with Sew Beautiful magazine, this dress is from one of their feature articles. (Wait a minute, that sounded funny, not this dress, ours is a re-creation.)

If you know me, you know I am not a fan of purple. But the lime green ribbon and red button in the trim really set this off.

The fabric is from a collection called Calypso. You might recognize it's the same fabric collection (different colorway) as the turquoise Bellanca bag.

Speaking of bags, this one is called the Abigail bag. I like the gathering and the tiny ruffle, such nice touches.

The back has an exposed zipper pocket. Nice. Functional. Everybody likes that. :)

And how about a Cricut-enhanced project to close? This was made for the company of a friend of mine.

I was amused at how tattered their old mail bag was. Certainly not befitting his sophistication or that of the two lovely girls who work for him.
His land development company is called Compass West. (I was trying to be clever with words/images.) He and his dad have several entities working out of the same office, thus the "York Enterprises" kind of incorporates everything.

So that's all for today. Much more to come. Shower, wedding, and a benefit for my cousin Lisa tucked in between. And then, as if there weren't enough going on there's the possibility we may have a pretty signifcant change coming along in our lives. Nothing for certain and I can't even talk about it as we haven't shared it with all our family yet. But it weighs on the mind . . . and no, we're not moving to Kentucky - chuckle,chuckle.

Wishing you a special and blessed day!

It Feels Like Spring in My Sewing Room

Over the last several weeks, I've been head-over-heels sewing spring samples for the fabric stores -- and hoarding photos! ~LOL~

But before I get to that, a couple of things I've meant to get to and hadn't yet . . .

I got the kindest anonymous comment a couple of weeks ago about how my entries have improved as the blog has developed. Wow, you don't know how I appreciated that as I thought I'd become boring as of late! I do appreciate every comment much more than you know.

There was a comment/question with the last post asking about the bags and whether I cut the fabric with the Cricut. The answer is no. Not yet anyway and there's a reason for it. The projects I make that I will also teach must be techniques that can be duplicated in class and can't be restricted to specialty equipment like the Cricut. I can however use it to trace the designs as that could be duplicated in another way. So what I did was to apply paper-backed fusible web to my fabric, adhere it to the mat fabric side down, create a mirror image utilizing the 'FLIP' button (so text will read correctly), then trace onto the paper side of the webbing using the Cricut markers. I then cut the images manually and used traditional applique finishes. I haven't experimented yet with cutting fabric in the Cricut but it's on my list of things to do. And if I can master it, yeah I might consider a tutorial. ;)

I also haven't mentioned on the blog yet that I was offered and accepted a part-time job. It's expected to be just a couple days a week and it's my intent to keep up with the blog and everything else that I'm doing at the present time. Time will tell, so wish me well!

So, now -- on to the projects.

This tote is a class sample. Zip closure and six exterior pockets plus more inside (3 patch pockets and 1 hidden zip pocket). The fabrics are from Lila Tueller's Soiree collection.

I love, love, LOVE this piece! The 'create' image was traced by Cricut from the Home Decor cartridge. The bird was drawn free-hand (inspired by the bird on HD but I needed mine to be shaped more short & wide), and the flower layers were created by cutting a large circle pattern (Plantin Schoolbook), folding the pattern in half, in half again and half again (eighths), then cutting to a petal shape. Stem and leaves drawn free-hand. The pieced border was done with foundation piecing technique. As you may be able to tell, this piece is unfinished, it will probably become a wall-hanging when I get it back -- but I'm not sure yet.

This is a display sample -- for Valentines Day. I must say when I opened the box and saw these fabrics I was hesitant. Certainly nothing I would have chosen (the look is a bit too traditional for me) but this is a lesson in keeping an open mind -- it came out darling.

Here's a close-up of the heart-shaped yo-yos. Both the ivory and the pink dot fabrics have a metallic sheen in the design that adds shimmer and interest.

By the way -- if you sew, you like yo-yos, and haven't tried the yo-yo makers -- you should do it! They are so much fun.

And lastly, don't these 'Sassy Bags' make you think cheery thoughts of spring and summer? They are also display samples.

OK! I still have more photos but I don't want to overload you for one day. I still have another purse (the Abigail bag), a child's halter dress (from Sew Beautiful) and remember the ruffled NieNie skirt? I have the other one in bright colors with a cupcake top -- OMGoodness, it's my favorite! Stay tuned . . .