Tuesday, January 31, 2012

She's finished!

Short Post - Since I'm about to run out the door.
Miss Colada is here and is ready for Summer! 
She was a little more involved than I first thought. I did a new stitch for her glass called the long and short stitch. It took forever! Probably because I have never done it before, but it took me over an hour and a half :)  


I will post some pictures of the new girl in the series later today!
I hope you guys are enjoying your lovely day!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Embroidery Squared

I have a little news I'm excited about! My son Lake who just turned 3 in December went to sleep on his own without mommy laying down with him for the first time. I had to put him back in bed like 7 times and he was up for almost 2 hours, but he finally went to sleep on his own. Woot Woot. So proud of him, he's starting to grow up ;)

So here is the 2nd in my embroidery series. I still don't know what to call her, maybe Miss Colada. Anyways she has been a lot of fun to work on and I can't wait to finish her up. Here is the progress so far.






 I know I have said this before, but embroidery has been so fun and relaxing. I'm already thinking about my next little lady :) 

Finally some more Japanese X and + Blocks

 I got busy on some of these last night. I really don't know what happened to this first block. See the unit in the upper right hand corner by the scissors. I had to pick that out and squench it out a bit. The rest all went pretty well. It's funny how so many fabrics can actually look good all meshed together.


 




The more blocks I get together, the better it looks. It will be just a little hard to send them off, 
but I'm so excited to get the swapped blocks. 



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Miss Orangiana update



She was so much fun to stitch!! She's like a pin up orange :) 
So here is the first bit of color: Eyes and Lips

I thought I would give her a cute little blue dress and some hot red heels.




While I was stitching away I looked over beside me and saw this. Our little Bella (She is older than Twilight - just sayin) asleep in between a princess and the pea stack of blankets!

And here she is ready to say hello to the world. 





Monday, January 23, 2012

Farmer's Wife Quilt Block

So this week on the farm I did Blocks 3 and 4. 
I changed them up just a bit. It's my quilt and I think I can do that right? So Block # 3 is Basket and that's great, but I'm just not really into the basket handle look. So it got nixed. Then came Block #4 and I like it a lot, but it just reminds me of a swastika. With the red, black and cream/white color it's all I can see. Has anybody else thought this? So I turned them a bit.   

The lighting I have is horrible at night and doesn't make for good pictures. Sorry :(

I'm really enjoying these little blocks, they are a lot of fun to put together and really don't take up that much time - So far. I hope your having fun putting your blocks together too! Oh is anyone having any trouble with how to press the seams?
Oh and I linked up with the fabulous Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations for Modern Monday. It's so fun seeing what everyone is working on. Go check it out if you haven't already :)

Talk to you soon. 


I Need To Do Some Embroidery ASAP!

I had no idea how much I would like hand embroidery. In fact I was really kind of scared to even try it. That is really silly I know, but for whatever reason I was. So after diving into it with the Advent Calendar  (which still has to be completed..ahem) I found how much I love it! So yesterday I  was over at Craft Couture and saw this charming little princess that she was doing in a sew along. I fell in love and headed over to Lilipopo. She has the sweetest embroidery designs and is offering this free pattern for the sew along. If you love embroidery head over to her blog and check out her designs. So this got me into hand embroidery mode. While I wait for my pattern to come in, I remembered that I found some designs from a very old German cookbook that I copied down. What's funny is the designs have nothing to do with the cooking at all. It's all very random. So here she is in all her Glory Miss Orangiana!


Sunday, January 22, 2012

Things that Inspire me today

I'm linking up with Gussy Sews and her post about 7 things that inspire us. Well, things that inspire me are quilts, fabric and food for the most part. So the things that inspire me today are:


1. Fabric Swaps


2. Homemade Croissants 
Let me just say they were far better than any store bought! Thanks Martha Stewart



3. Mug Rugs or Mini Quilts



4. Smore Cupcakes
Thanks to Mad Hungry


5. Japanese X and + Block
Great tutorial on Badskirt



6. A Trivet 
I want to make a quilt block out of this. 


7. The Modern Block of the Month on


 Oh and one more thing: Quilty A wonderful blog about quilting. Also she does amazing videos that are so cool. You can check them out here

Friday, January 20, 2012

Japanese X and + Blocks

Rather short post, but I am really excited about this swap on Flickr and can't wait to sew up some more blocks. I got all my pieces cut out for 12 blocks and I finally got a couple blocks put together. Hip Hip Hooray!

 

Have a fantastic day!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

I'm A Farmer Now!

GGGGRRRRR!!!!!!
I wrote a whole blog post like three days ago and posted it and then the stinky thing disappeared! Of course I didn't figure that out until today :( That is a little irritating!! Oh well here we go again.

 
So I'm sure most of you have seen The Farmers Wife Quilt book and all the buzz about the Quilt alongs. I have been cyber stocking the lovely ladies over at Fussy Cut and Ms Mc Pork Chop Quilts for a long time. I have wanted to join in, but since I was overloaded with a million projects and still pretty new to quilting I thought I would begin with the new year. I think a lot of people have had this idea.  Over at Make Something she started a quilt along last week.
I have seen a lot of different ways to do the blocks: Standard templates, paper piecing, printing on freezer paper and figuring out the math. I tried printing on freezer paper and almost broke out printer. My husband didn't think it was such a good idea. I would love to just do the math, but I'm afraid of messing up something. I never thought that I would need math/geometry in anything that I would be doing. If only I could have seen quilting in my future :)
Anyways I decided to do the templates and will aim for at least 2 blocks a week. I started with Block 1 and Block 2 and really loved them. Can't wait to get hoppin on next weeks! 

 I really loved this block, it was super fun to put together. 




Block 1 - Attic Windows



I cut this first, but it was missing something 


I thought the pink dots added so much more

Block 2 - Autumn Tints 





  I also made a name time out of some of the scraps for 
 I forgot to take it however to the meeting last night :) Oooppps


  

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Another Fabric and Chocolate Swap

I LOVE SWAPPING!!
 It is so fun to meet new people and to put something together for them with just a little info of what they like. It really comes from the heart and it's so dear. I had the pleasure of doing two swaps this month and can't wait for them to get theirs! I'm waiting to post this, just in case they read the blog. I want it to be a surprise :) 


This was for Yvette over at Crafty Oz Girl

This was for Deb over at Trio Stitch Studio


This is the awesome package I got from Yvette.
 I was needing some additional Christmas fabric for my Christmas quilt that I have yet to even start! :) My whole Christmas plan has kind of fallen to the wayside. Oh well there is always next year.




If you haven't tried this chocolate yet, get in your car and drive to the store and buy it right now! It's really some of the best chocolate I have ever tasted! Can you tell how much I like it?
The other goodies I got were some flower pins (which you can never have enough of) some of my favorite thread and the cutest little snowflake which my boys immediately took and put on the tree.
THANK YOU YVETTE!



This one is from Deb and is equally AWESOME!!


I'm in love with the wild flowers from Heather Ross - Far Far Away 2! I was actually going to buy some of this the other day - glad I waited :) I really needed these colors. I don't have a lot of yellow/orange. In fact I don't have any. I need to broaden my color horizons. I also got some floss and my fav white thread which I can't get enough of.  And last, but not least some delicious Ghirardelli chocolate which I'll break in today. I'm sure most of you who read my blog already swap, but if you don't you should try it. It is so much fun!!

Extreme Close Up!

 Thank you again lovely ladies for being my partner!