Finished. And in use.

Just got these pics texted to me. This is why we make quilts and give them away... To see them being loved on, drooled on, and used!

I missed the LAMQG meeting (swap bag)

So I missed the last LAMQG meeting. I was super bummed out, and really had wanted to participate in the tote/grocery bag swap.
But then I learned that a few of my friends had been unable to go and swap, too. So we decided to swap on our own. (yay!)
Here's my bag that I made to swap. It's got an embroidered vintage tea towel piece inset on one side of the outside, and awesome red and white polka dotted IKEA oilcloth (thin, flexible and really durable) on the inside. It's big. I designed it to be big and strong enough to use for groceries.
The fun fact about it is that I sewed it entirely on Mimi's Hello Kitty Janome as I was trying to see if it worked well enough (it does). The lines are not as straight as with my other machines, but this was really heavy, thick fabric - the linen isn't linen - its actually drop cloth fabric that I bought at Lowe's. (crazy legit heavy duty!) - overall the Janome did great.
And the bag is fun. A little vintage. A little new. French seams. Oilcloth. Hardware store fabric. AnnaMaria Horner fabric. IKEA. Improv piecing. It's all happy to me. ... Hoping it's new owner will think so.

Happy Easter from our family!

Finishing up

I've been working on finishing a bunch of WIPs lately... Nothing creative or glamorous... But at least they are now finished. Just sewed the labels on these two quilts and have another binding to finish up, and then it's on to a bunch of new ideas I want to work out.
I'm really looking forward to those... They're all just sketches right now... The next step is the most fun.

Dollar store clay bunnies

Mimi has been asking for clay lately. I picked up some yesterday at the dollar store and she's spent the morning creating a little world for clay bunnies. These lucky bunnies are in their sleeping bags around a campfire (along with their Popsicle stick seesaw in the background).
The flowers from the first pic were crushed to make sleeping bags, but just the memory of their sweetness makes me smile.

Good morning, Z! It's your birthday!

Our birthdays around here always start with streamers and balloons in the kitchen for breakfast and lots of calls from cousins and grandparents.
We figured out this morning that we could snap pics of FaceTime calls and this suddenly made it feel like the whole family was in on our celebrating here.
Z is currently making his poster for the Laker gameS (plural!) we are headed to this weekend. (we will post pics of that for sure!)
It's a big day around here!

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"Quilting in the park on a March afternoon."

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Caught the sewing bug

Mimi the Designer has officially caught the sewing bug. She's made things before, even quilts and bags, but it wasn't until yesterday that she felt the addiction come on.
As she was making herself a drawstring tote bag, she stopped sewing, looked up at me and exclaimed, "I WANT TO SEW FOREVER!"

"Sew you think you can Sew" weekend work shots

So my main priorities this sewing weekend were to finish two pennant flag quilts for my kids' school auction. Each kid in their classes signed a piece of fabric in a triangle shape that they brought from home. (template was provided)

I had seen a wonderful pennant quilt on the Modern Quilt Guild website a few weeks ago and decided that this was my contribution to the school auction. So this weekend, both of those quilts were started and finished. (yay!)

I also did some other unglamorous work too - basting and quilting the purple speed-pieced quilt we made from scraps at the March LAMQG weekend sew (there will be another in the same color scheme)... Making this yellow quilt back for another project and attaching binding to my red/brown tumbler quilt.

There was other work done too, but these were the beauty shots I was able to take
If I ever get to go back to this lakehouse, I'm bringing more quilts just to take pics. I mean, can you believe the scenery?

Sewing weekend

My dear friend Tifanie invited me to come to her lakehouse in Lake Las Vegas for the weekend. We collected a couple of old and new friends and assembled a tiny sewing crew to join us in our adventure.
We set up shop in the house on the lake, basting in the courtyard, laughing till we cried at mealtimes and generally having an incredibly fun time.
I feel so lucky and happy to have been able to get away and have this weekend and I absolutely adore the friends that were there with us.
Next post ~ the fun projects... (my iPhone only lets me attach 5 pics at a time).