Quilts of Valor Sample Done!

Wednesday night I finished up the Quilts of Valor Sample for the store. It felt so good to put on the final borders on. I'm not a big fan of borders and that's all this one was, so lots of measuring, squaring up and more measuring. Paul was holding it up, but it was really big, 66"x81" or something like that.

Mikaela is 14 Weeks Old!

Mikaela turned 14 weeks old this week. She was hanging out on the couch with me while I was doing dishes tonight. I figured I'd get a few pictures of her on my pillowcase/sewing themed quilt that I made to use in the hospital when she was born. This is the pillowcase, a purple swirl. I absolutely love this fabric! I saved it for a long time until I decided to use it for the backing of this quilt. I bought the rest of the bolt in Martin about 2 years ago and had about 4.5 yards of it. The pillowcase is made of the leftovers.

Mikaela was fairly happy tonight. We went shopping with daddy and she got a nap in before her bath and bedtime.

She's getting really good about sitting up and staying put. This is the quilt I made to take to the hospital when Mikaela was born. It kept me so warm!

Mikaela was done, she turned over and said "Bye Mommy, I'm done taking pictures!"

Aunt Jane's Stitchin Chix Bag

Saturday night I made my Aunt Jane a Stitchin Chix bag out of some fabric of my mom's. It has knitting needles and yarn on it. The inside has some pink scissor fabric.

I figured out that I can make one of these bags at right at 2 hours from start to finish, including cutting out the fabric. I just love how it turned out and I hope she'll get lots of use out of it.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! It was a beautiful weekend and we were busy! Mikaela and I spent Friday at home cleaning house, doing laundry, and sewing. My little bro Ed helped Paul replace the shocks on his pickup and checked the brakes. We went out to supper at Red Lobster for Good Friday.
Saturday I fed Mikaela about 5:30 am, put her back to sleep, and then just got up and went and sewed until the rest of the family got up and moving. I got 3 hours of sewing time in! I was able to get another border set on the Quilts of Valor sample. I now "only" have 2 borders left. Since they are all simple pieced borders, it takes quite a while. I'm not a big border person, so it's taking me a while. We did our errands for most of Sat. Paul's grandpa and his wife came out Sat. night. We were able to take some 4 generation pictures with Mikaela.
Grandma Leslie and Mikaela

Great Grandpa Joe, Mikaela, and Paul

Great Grandpa Joe, Grandma Leslie, Daddy Paul, and Mikaela

Great Grandpa Joe and Mikaela

Great Grandpa Joe, Mikaela, and Eva

Our family before Easter Mass, Daddy, Mommy, and Mikaela

Uncle Tom, Aunt Jane, and Joe & Eva came out for Easter dinner.
Great Uncle Tom and Mikaela

Great Aunt Jane & Mikaela

Great Aunt Jane brought Mikaela a sun dress for Easter. She said she hasn't gotten to baby sit enough to smuggle new clothes into Mikaela's diaper bag.

Mikaela is 13 Weeks Old!

Mikaela is growing up so quickly! It's nice to have the pictures to look back at and see how much she has changed. She's ready for bed and has her snuggly blanket.

Friday while I was off and Mikaela was home, she was laying on her boppy pillow and playing with the toys on her kick and crawl gym. I was putting laundry away and I looked over and she was asleep with her little fists clenched.

A little while later, she was still asleep and her hands were flying out an held in that position. I thought it was so cute. She's starting to get bumps in her gums, so I got out the keys and her chewy ribbon blanket. She loves the blankie, but not so sure about the keys yet.

Friday night I was sewing and daddy was holding Mikaela while on the computer (we're in the same room) and she wanted to sit up more than daddy's arms would allow, so I got out her bebe pod. She absolutely loved sitting in it! She sat there for quite a while.

Saturday morning I was sewing again and daddy sat her up to watch me. She sat there for quite a while and I was able to get a lot done. She just loves it. She sat upstairs in the kitchen Sat. night and watched us get the food ready. She doesn't fuss when she's in her chair.

Mikaela is 3 months old!

Mikaela turned 3 months old on April 19th and boy is she growing! This past weekend I took her 3 month pictures. The first few are in her baptismal gown. She was only a week old when we had her baptized, hoping my mom could be there, but she was in the hospital. Knowing she wouldn't get well enough to be there in the future, we went ahead with the baptism since my dad, Paul's mom, and all my siblings and their families were there. So I decided to try the dress on her since it's so amazing and take her pictures now that it fits better. It was crocheted by my Aunt Jane. She's laying on a pink minkee blanket I made for her.


She definately has fists and shows them off a lot!

She's on an afghan knit by my mom's cousin Wayne's wife Linda. It's a beautiful dark pink and so cuddly!

I picked up this I Love my Aunt shirt on clearance. They just don't have any I love my Uncle shirts. I finally found an I Love Grandpa onesie, but it's a bit big on her.  I thought this one was super cute and she has an aunt and many great aunts that love her to pieces.

In this picture she's holding the bear that Patti and Regina got her. The afghan was made by my Aunt Jane and has the most beautiful hearts.

I decided to try out the basket pose. She actually did pretty good for as young as she is. The blanket was given to her by a few co-workers. She actually has 2 of this blanket. I love the hearts on it! It's a soft minkee that cuddles well.

Here she is, with her attempted smile/coo face. She's holding the stuffed frog she got from cousin Molly. She's wearing the cutest hearts onesie from Patti and 1I and laying on a fleece blanket from Jacey.

Here she's holding a rabbit called Munchkin given to her by friends Julie and Emily. It's so soft and easy to hold. This was at the end of the photo session and her eyes were red from crying. She was saying "Mommy I'm DONE!"

I just love to look back at her newborn pictures and see how much she's grown in just a few short months. There are more in the photo album. I only took 140, but I didn't upload them all!

Quilts of Valor Sample

I'm working on a new sample for the shop and it's definately different than most of the samples I work on. This one is from the Quilts of Valor line by Faye Burgos. This is the panel which I've already cut and squared up.

I'm now in the process of making these star blocks. I need to make 8 and somehow they are taking me way longer than I expected. The first mistake was sewing the flying geese unit's 1/4" too big, so they had no seam allowance. Luckly I only did these 4 to test the block before I made all 32, so I fixed the problem easily. They also call for pressing the seams open which I'm not used to doing. The other big change for me was to put on my quarter inch foot. For those who know me well, I tend to sew almost everything with a walking foot. But I do have exceptions to the rule and anything on the bias is an exception. So block 1 is done and I'm on the 1I plan... she sewed 9 blocks in 11 days. I've finished one block in 4 days so far and I've sewn every night this week! I finally got all the flying geese units done tonight and I finished sewing the rows together. Now I just have to add the 3rd row to all 7 blocks. They are even pinned! I just had to quit for the night though, so maybe in 5 days I'll get 8 blocks done, but don't hold your breath.

After these blocks are done, it's just a matter of cutting this strip into border pieces and putting the top together. I think it's taking me longer because I'm actually following the pattern to a T and I drew the line on all the flying geese, whereas if it were for me, I'd have winged it and just sewn from corner to corner.

So with any luck, I'll finish this top this weekend and have time to make some fun projects. I'd like to do a little pair of boots and another stitchin chix bag and quilt a baby quilt for my cousin, but we'll see.

Mini Shop Hop

This year the Western SD shop hop was the first three weeks/weekends in April. We were busy the first two weekends, so Paul said he'd go with me last weekend. So we had breakfast with a friend early in the morning and then headed to Belle Fourche to the Tri State Bakery. It's in an old bakery building and she has a lot of contemporary fabrics. My best find was this panel that makes into a fabric book. I bought one a couple years ago for my niece and made it for her. After I found out I was having a girl I was so sad I had given it to her. But alas I found this one and now can have one for my little girl, who is much more likely to be a little seamstress.


I also found two pieces of Blush by Basic Grey. I've wanted some to go with the jelly roll I won last year and this was the only shop I'd ever seen it at in the area. I got a couple yards of each, figuring I can make something work out of them.

In Sturgis, I found several prints from the Wanna Be a Cowboy 2 line. I picked up 1/2 yard cuts of each, since I think we're getting it in. I plan to make something for Mikaela out of them.

In Spearfish I found this kit to make a ribbon blankie. The sample was really cute and I wanted the pattern for some minkee squares I have.

I hit the jackpot in Spearfish, finding this pattern for little cowboy boots. I'm so excited to make these for Mikaela. I'm making myself finish the sample I'm working on before I do any fun sewing, so these will be made soon hopefully!

I also found these Thimble It's for hand sewing. My finger has been sore, so I think these will really help!

It was a fun day with my family, but I sure missed my shop hop partner in crime. It just wasn't the same.

Birthday Boys

I usually don't give my siblings and their wife/girlfriend gifts for their birthdays, but this year is different. With all of my mom's fabric, I saved fabrics that I thought I'd use for making my family members something from mom's stash. Jim's birthday was April 9th and since it was his 30th, his wife had a birthday party for him. I made him two pillowcases. The first is mechanic tools which mom had gotten on the shop hop last year to make him a pillowcase.

The second is an Case IH one. It's vintage, 1998 on the selvage. It's pretty thin fabric, but I was using it for backing and had enough left over for a pillowcase. He liked both of them.

I was so excited to see the quilt Patti had made and Jen had quilted for him. They put so much love into this quilt and my bro/SIL had it in the living room to snuggle with. Thanks girls for thinking of my whole family! We love our quilts. I forgot to take a picture of Ed's, but I'll do that the next time I'm home.


Paul's birthday was March 30th and I was a bit late, but I made these two Santa Coke pillowcases. He thought the fabric was cool when we were going through it, so I saved it for him.

Then last weekend when we went to my dad's for the weekend, we were trying to conserve space, so I let him borrow on of my stitchin chix bags. He thought it was great, but didn't care for the quilt fabric, so I made him his own on Sat. night. It's made from the motorcycle chicks fabric my mom had gotten to make him something. I didn't know what to do with it, but this turned out to be the perfect use for it. I have enough left to make him a bathroom bag to go with it too.




It's been so fun and rewarding and relaxing to sew up my mom's fabric. I just love the sense of accomplishment it gives me.