Wednesday, December 29, 2010

My year in review...

1. Cow Table Runner, 2. Friendship Bags, 3. Trees Mug Rugs, 4. mug rugs, 5. Halloween Table Runner II, 6. Halloween Table Runner I, 7. Sean's Quilt, 8. Vintage Baby, 9. "Maverick Stars", 10. HalloweenWreath1, 11. Fall Fabric Wreath, 12. Avalon4, 13. Sam, I am, 14. "StarStruck", 15. sent with love, 16. pinwheel sampler, 17. winnie scruffily front, 18. Gino front, 19. Scruffily Nostalgia, 20. twin#1, 21. twin#2, 22. Snippets front, 23. winnie front, 24. Ticker Tape, 25. littlequiltfront

Been seeing these popping up everywhere, so I figured I may as well do one too! And I'm glad I did!
#1 - I accomplished a lot! I didn't think I did this much this past year, so it's kinda nice to see it all in front of me.
#2 - I have learned to to take a little better of a picture. Take that back..I've discovered Picnik for my photo editing needs. So therefore, my pictures are a little better.
#3 - This was just the motivation I needed to start getting busy on my next year's worth of projects!

Our Christmas was great....Hubby left for his 8 1/2 month IA (individual augmentee) to Afghanistan on Sunday :( He is spending a week in San Diego doing medical stuff and a bunch of paperwork, then he's off to South Carolina for 2-3 weeks of Army training, then he'll head on over to Afghanistan. We (the girls and I) are doing just fine. First few weeks are always easy for me b/c we get into a routine. Now...4 or 5 months down the road.....I'll be pulling my hair out and I'll be trying to throw as many "pity parties" that I can!

Have a Happy and SAFE New Years!!

Friday, December 10, 2010

My friend, She's a COW...

What? You think it's mean to call my friend a COW. I don't. She doesn't. It's actually a great honor in our community. See, being called a COW means that you are a Commanding Officer's Wife! And that's exactly what she is now! VAW 112 (not my husband's squadron, but another here on Point Mugu) had their Change of Command today and my friend Jen is now the "Official" COW of Vaw 112! 
So this morning while they were having their Change of Command ceremony, a bunch of wives from our squadron (VAW 113) went and decorated her house "cow" themed.

Tonight is her Change of Command party at their house and I am giving her this:
a "cow" themed table runner....

I had made the top and after the fact found this on Etsy. So I did the applique on the back because when I laid it out to do it on the front, with the cow print fabric, you couldn't really see the cows. So the back will have to do! And...with my inexperience of doing applique and using fusible web, of course, it's reversed! I never know which side to trace on etc.! Didn't really matter for this so it still turned out ok.

Our Change of Command is on the 15th so you may just see a repeat next week! Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

More Friendship Bags

The friend that ordered all the mug rugs also wanted 5 "Friendship Bags" for her to give to her nieces and friend's kids for Christmas. She requested black and pink ones. They turned out pretty cute!
 
 
Tutorial found here

Friday, December 3, 2010

O Christmas Tree

This year we did something we have never done. We bought a Christmas tree from Home Depot. Usually we either go to a tree farm or a National Forrest to cut our own tree down. Since we are now  living in Southern California I just didn't feel like doing the long drive to the mountains or foothills somewhere to hunt for a tree. So I went and just picked one from good ol' Home Depot. AND I LOVE it. I think it's the prettiest tree we've ever had. 
 While decorating and going through all my ornaments, I came across a box that my mom sent me last year at Christmas filled with ornaments from when I was a child. For several years, as a child, my Grandmother would buy an ornament for me. This box contained those. I didn't even go through the box last year since I got it at Christmas time and my tree was already decorated. So it was real neat to see them. These are so old. Some almost 40 years old. I love the "vintage-ness" of them! Some I remember, some I don't. But these in particular, I love!
 
My mom made this little walnut mouse. Isn't it cute!

My mom made this one the year I was born 1971. It's a "Holly Hobbie" that is suppose to be hold a candy cane I just haven't gotten any yet!
Another one my mom made
How cute is this Raggedy Ann?! My eldest daughter loves this one too!
I absolutely LOVE this one. On the back of this it has the artists initials and the year '77

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I finally did it...

..bought a whole bolt of Warm & White Cotton Batting! (90" x 40 yards) I went to Joann's on Saturday and the batting was 50% off, normally $10.99/yard on sale for $5.49/yard. Then I had a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase! So I paid approx $4.39/yard! I'm so excited. I got sick of buying 5-7 yards at a time and then having this folded up wad of of batting shoved in a cupboard. So now this way, I have it all on a bolt and in a box (that now I have to find a place for!) But hey, maybe this will motivate me to go through a couple closets and weed out some crap! 

Monday, November 29, 2010

Disneyland....

....was packed. Fun, but way too crowded for me. The good part was that Thanksgiving day it was pretty empty, so that was nice. The day after Thanksgiving was the busiest I've ever seen it and I've been there A LOT! (too much actually.  Hubby and I decided we need to wait at least 2 years before we go again. It's actually getting a little old to me and I never wanted that to happen, so time for a break!)
The holiday decorations were amazing and I'm super glad I got to experience that! It really put me in the holiday mood. Here's some pictures that my hubby took.

 
"it's a small world" all lit up

Monday, November 22, 2010

More Mug Rugs

A friend of mine placed a custom order for some mug rugs to match her tea cups for a tea party she wants to have. I haven't seen her cups in person but she requested blues, yellows and white. I made her these eight:
Then she loved the mug rugs that I made previously of the trees and requested four of those for her family room. So, here are those:

I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving (well, those of you that live in the States, that is!) And  everyone else, have a nice week. We are headed to Disneyland tomorrow for the rest of the week and I'm so excited! (even though I was just there in June.) I've never been during their Christmastime decorations and I'm super excited for it! 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Today is the first day....

of the last year in my 30s.....Wow...I'm getting old....and it really hit me this birthday....

On a good note, hubby is suppose to return today! Keeping fingers crossed he makes it. We have approx. 6 weeks together so we are going to make the most of it! I think we are going to Disneyland for Thanksgiving....

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Doll Quilts

 I had 12 of these blocks assembled to make a baby quilt a while back and then scratched the idea because I didn't really like how it was looking. (and I didn't feel like making around 20 more!) So I decided with the ones I had made I'd just make some doll quilts for the girls. 
Then I saw this cute binding tutorial so I wanted to try that as well. First, I've never machine finished my binding, so I wanted to see how that went with something that "didn't really matter". So I tried the tutorial and it's really neat and very easy.  But I still need practice on that one! So then on the other 2 I decided I'd machine attach & finish those as well since I just did the 1st one in no time flat. BUT...I realized I attached the binding to the BACK (as it states to do in the cute faux piping tutorial) then finished it (by machine) to the front!! Another DUH moment. Didn't even realize that was wrong until several hours later when I was looking at the 2 that didn't have the "piped binding". I realized what you are "suppose" to do after the fact...oh well!  Machine finishing the binding is so fast! Talk about instant gratification when finishing a quilt! Although I enjoy hand stitching the binding to the back way too much to give it up. But I have realized that if I need something done quick and it's small, I now know that I can do it by machine.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Mug Rugs

Here's the other mug rugs I made. I tell ya, these are quite addicting! They are so fun because they don't take much time and you an try new stuff on a smaller scale. I've never really done applique, so this was a bit of trial and error. I realized you can use fusible web. Duhh!! I realized if you fusible web the whole thing, when it's done it's like a piece of cardboard. Oops!  (and it was heat n' bond lite!) I have no clue what I'm doing. Even with all my screw ups I still think they turned out sorta cute! Top 2 went to Crystal and the other 2 went to my BFF.

Check this out!

Remember my "Maverick Stars" donation quilt? Well the lovely Lisa over at Shiner's View suggested that I submit my story to Quiltstory and I did. Well they are featuring me today! Go check it out!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

questions....

What do you do with your quilts that aren't birthday presents, baby shower gifts, anniversary gifts, Christmas gifts, or any other gift imaginable??

  • Do you keep them for yourself?
  • Do you sell them? If you sell them,  do you have an etsy shop? Or other web-based shop? Do they sell? Do people actually buy quilts that are handmade? How do you set a price? How do you spread the word that you have quilts for sale?
I ask because I see myself making a bunch of quilts in the future for no particular person or reason. Then I think, "what am I going to do with 15 quilts in the house?" Yes,  I have my bed,  my daughter's beds, the guest bed, and the beds in our trailer to make quilts for...but then what? What do I do with all the "quilt along" quilts I have in the works? What do I do with all the beautiful lap sized quilts that I want to make?

All but two of my quilts I've given away to friends, family or donation. Now what?  What do you do with your quilts?

Monday, November 8, 2010

Decoupage

I saw this in one of my friend's kitchens when I lived in NV. When we moved into this house and I decided to do my kitchen "retro" themed, I knew I wanted to do this too! Right before I left NV I had purchased 6 yards of this fabric. I made a kitchen valance and now my EAT letters. This is also the first time I decoupaged. I got the paper mache letters at Joann's and then covered them with the fabric. 




Sunday, November 7, 2010

Couldn't resist!

Yep, I just decided I'd join another quilt along! Yeah, I know...I have 2 others that I've started and haven't finished yet! 
(sorry for the crappy picture. I took this tonight in my kitchen so the lighting and shadows are pretty bad!)
Fabrics: Dream On by Urban Chicks; Moda Bella Solids-White; Moda Marble Botanicals 
 
But I just got this gorgeous "Dream On" Charm pack that I'm dying to use, and I just came across That Girl...That Quilt's blog and saw the quilt along that just started, so I have to do it...right? Plus I have all the other fabric. I bought the "Marble Bontanicals" at a local quilt shop that was 1/2 off. It's not like it's my favorite fabric or anything, but for the price I couldn't resist. I figured it would make a good quilt back for a baby quilt sometime. But when I looked at it tonight with the Dream On charm pack, it looked perfect.

So let's see how far I get with this one! ;)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I'm totally starstruck!

OH MY what a fabulous day I had! I'm a HUGE Red Hot Chili Pepper fan...like, ridiculously huge! Last night I found out that RHCP were going to be at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove in LA today doing a book signing event for their book that was just released. Of course I missed the boat on getting a wristband to get a book signed. I was so upset! Then one of my friends here on base called and said I should go anyway and that she'd watch my kids. So this morning before I headed out I found out that they were doing an interview w/ Mario Lopez for Extra at 11am. I made it there! And oh my gosh was it ever AWESOME!!! They were so close to me! I'm so in love with Anthony Kiedis! Didn't score on the book signing, but after seeing them so close for the interview, I didn't even care! I know.....I sound like a ridiculous teenager! Oh well!!