Quilt Giveaway

No, not by me... I have been trying to think of a great giveaway, but I don't have the time to give away a whole quilt.... maybe a doll quilt.... we'll see, stay tuned.

But this is about a real quilt and a real giveaway! Old Red Barn Co, can you believe it? She's brilliant, and a little nuts I'm guessing. So Go Enter, and if you win you must name your first born after me.... or next pet..... or next sewing needle (we all name those right?) or.....

Baseball embroidery

Here's the crayon tinted and embroidered one of Lore. The colors are off because it's early in the morning and hazy. I'll try to take another one later, but once the day starts that just always becomes less likely.

The waterbottle isn't as wonky as it looks on the picture either.

Now to make the rest of the doll quilt. Picking the colors may be difficult for me. I matched his clothes and such to what he actually wore, but those colors won't match my living room at all, so I want it to look nice on it's own, but match my living room. (Pink walls, light blue curtains with red white and pink in them.)

Free Musical Superhero Movie With Neil Patrick Harris

Ok, just in case you are one of the 6 people (or more,) in the world that haven't heard of this, I thought I should post about it, because..... well, it's funny, it's a musical, and it's around for a short time free.

Go, Watch, Enjoy, Pass it on
PS. Not for kids

Clean up is done!

I am so grateful that the flooding clean up is finally finished. The work isn't all done, but the cleanup and sanitizing is done. We didn't have anything too major here, but all of my family and friends within an hour radius had major damage. I'm so thankful that the clean up is done. The furnaces and water heaters have been installed, new washers and dryers are at their houses. People can go back to living fairly normally again. I'm sure it isn't that way for everyone, but around here things are returning to happiness.

Gifts For the Nieces

We made a few gifts and were able to give them to the recipients this weekend.

First, you've seen me working on this, but it is finished. I wanted to keep it simple, and I think it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Here's the finished front. (I these this crazy early in the morning, so I know the color is a little funny.)

Here's a bit of a close up, and you can see a peak of the corner of the back, and my mild label.

We also made my nieces (the ones in the quilt above) a frog game. The boys had tons of fun making/helping with these. We took the idea from Mama Urchin's Lilypad Game. We also used the same Purl Bee Frogs and they worked excellent.

Just a simple zipper bag to keep it all in. I meant to add handles, but I made it quite late at night, and forgot, so..... ooops.

And also, something I forgot to post a picture of. My Levi was in a musical version of Treasure Island. He played Chief Pigaloo. He spoke Pig-Latin and ROCKED THE PART! I was so proud, and truly impressed!

Sketch #2

Ok, so I fiddled around with the picture, and I took some suggestions, and this is my second try.

I got rid of much of the bench. Put in a bat and ball, and added his water bottle. What do you think?

Baseball- Embroidery

To a point baseball has consumed our lives. Funny thing is, only one of my boys is playing this year. Lore loves baseball, he especially loves being catcher. I think all of that gear gives him a sense of power!

I love baseball too. Mine is far more selfish than it should be. Practices and games for kids around 7 years old, is a lot of waiting. Not a whole lot of action much of the time. But we're outside in the lovely fresh air just sitting... or not. I have a hard time sitting still. Especially as the controlling person I truly am inside. So I need something to distract me. In comes embroidery.

Oh, Embroidery, how I love thee!

My doodles (and the patterns of others,) look so lovely stitched out. Far better than mine do on paper!

I have been on a doll quilt kick, and I have another one in the works now. I will work on this as I watch my little Lore running, catching, batting, making sandcastles, leaping onto home then doing a pirouette because he made a run and all of the other fun things he does while playing baseball.

I am fairly happy with it, but I feel it is missing something. I tried a chain link fence, but it didn't look right, and it made it too busy. I was considering some birds or something flying/sitting above the bench. Any other suggestions?

PS The mohawk was much more difficult to draw than I had anticipated.

Picnic Quilt WIP

I know I posted this before, but I am in a quilt square swap on craftster.org. We sent out our fabrics to everyone, they made a square and sent it back to us. (They are signing up for another round if you're interested.)

Anyway, here are the squares I've received so far.

I am planning on making a picnic quilt out of them. I can't decide what color sashing/borders/binding to do. My gut says white sashing, then blue border and red binding, but it's a picnic quilt, and I'm afraid the white sashing may be a bad idea. I'm open to suggestions. I also want to put something in the middle, but I'm not quite sure what. I don't want it too "picnic-y" but I think it needs something other than a plain pannel.

I really love it, the picture doesn't do it justice as I had to quick run out during a spot of sun, and before the rain cloud hit which was right behind the sunlight. I did get wet, but I wanted a sunny picture.

Thoughtful Friday

“Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow”
Norman Vincent Peale

Playing with crayons and embroidery

Right now I haven't had any time to get on my sewing machine, but I have had a bit of free time in cars, at parks and stuff like that, so I can bring along embroidery. I have been making my doll quilt for the doll quilt swap, I have also been making one for myself, and I have started one for my sister in law of my nieces. Although, I'm not sure if I like it. I don't know if it looks enough like the girls or not. The picture looked more like them, but the stitching didn't quite translate. Anyway, here's what I've been working on.

doll quilt swap with the scrappy border

The one for my sister in law. I don't know if it looks enough like the girls. I may just be being too hard on myself. (I do that sometimes)

The first kiss embroidery that's the same as the one I'm making for the doll quilt swap. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to send it, so I made one up for myself. I think I like the one for the swap better, so I think I will keep this one.