Landon and Tracy's Quilt

This is my son, Landon, and his new wife, Tracy's wedding gift. They have a wonderful place to hang it over the stairway in their new home.

Christmas Gifts

I was so busy before Christmas making quilts for gifts! I made 3 snuggly quilts for the girls that work in my office. They LOVED them.. but I never even got a picture of them... I also made a quilt for my daughter (but it isn't quilted yet). I had made one for my son last year just like it and my daughter fell in love with it so I made another for her. It is a One Block Wonder quilt and it's a Cali King! Needless to say it took awhile, but it really is quite awesome. Here is a picture of it:

I also had big aspirations of crocheting felted slippers for the grandkids and anyone else I thought might like them. These are the only ones that I actually finished, and they fit little Savannah so well she wanted to wear them all the time... so I did end up washing them Christmas day after a trek outside in the mud.

I did make one more slipper, though. I was going to make a pair for my son, Landon and one for his wife, Tracy. They live in Washington and it has been VERY cold there so far this winter. I bought some gray and red yarn and was going to make one pair gray with red trim and the other red with gray trim. I got one gray slipper done and couldn't wait to see what it would look like felted so I went ahead and put it into the washer. It came out really nice and fit Tracy perfectly. I went ahead and crocheted the other one but didn't have time to wash it right away. Tracy wanted it to be finished, too, so she threw it in the washer to try and felt it. Well, we learned a good lesson in felting. Don't wash the slippers seperately if you expect them to come out the same size. So... I'm in the process of making another pair of slippers for Tracy. I'm not sure what I'll do with the other pair. Hmm... I wonder if I could find someone with one foot ALOT smaller than the other one.

Baby Booties

I have been busily sewing Christmas presents but I can't put any pictures up yet because I want these presents to be a surprise! So... pictures will come after Christmas. But, one of the girls that works for me, Heather, just had her baby today. She was born at home and I was invited to attend the birth. What a precious, exciting time.

I found a pattern for these adorable booties and had to try my hand at felting, never having done it before. I crocheted them with wool yarn and then just put them into a little cloth bag and threw them into the washing machine with hot water and a little soap (and a pair of jeans to help with the agitation) and voila! Aren't they adorable? I hope they fit!

Fall Mini Quilt Exchange

I finished my fall mini quilt exchange quilt. It turned out very cute. I'm sending it off tomorrow to my swap partner. I hope she likes it!

I started this quilt at Bear Cabin thinking I would just make a one block quilt. But after finishing the first block, I loved it so much that I made 3 more blocks.

I toyed with the idea of making them into one big quilt and then make one more for my mini quilt partner. But, when I got home, I realized that I needed to make a couple other small quilts for other friends and ended up making 4 small quilts and quilted each one different. I love ALL of them!

Bear Cabin 2009

Well, Bear Cabin was so much fun, again. Carol is the best host and makes everyone feel welcome and cared for. We did alot of sewing, alot of laughing and alot of eating! Julie and I got there Thursday afternoon. We both have to work half day so we weren't able to leave as early as everyone else. After saying hello to everyone, we set up and started sewing. Here are a few pictures of the activities around the room.

It's a wonderful place for sewing. The light is wonderful and the atmosphere is friendly and warm. The weather was beautiful.. just a little chilly but sunny and perfect. We took Maggie for a couple of walks out in the forest to stretch after sitting for too long and Carol fed us 3 wonderful meals a day (Carol is a great cook!). Who could ask for more?!?Maggie, Bear Cabin mascot

I will put pictures up soon of my projects at Bear Cabin this year!

Finished Double Wedding Ring

Tada! A finished quilt... It's hard to see in this picture, but I quilted it with random 6" circles. It's not one of my all time favorite quilts, but I like it... Now, on to something different!

This Thursday I'm off to a quilt retreat! It's one of the things I look forward to all year. It's a beautiful house with a room built on just for quilting and overlooks a pine-filled valley. The owner prepares wonderful food and pretty much waits on everyone hand and foot. Three and a half days of nothing but sewing, laughing and good friends. Can't wait!

Double Wedding Ring WIP

I'm in the process of making a double wedding ring quilt. I've never made one before but I've had the Shar Jorgenson templates for years. I finally dug them out and decided to just do it. But I didn't want to use traditional colors. I sat down with the Electric Quilt program and started picking colors. I decided I wanted it to be orange and torquoise, but it needed another color.. so I picked... PURPLE! So.. I designed this quilt.

Ok... I like that. So, I cut out the pieces and started sewing them together. This is what I came up with.

Ugh... nasty. The mellons are too small to put orange there and I didn't want to have to remake all the mellons in a different color.... So, I thought... what if I make the whole background orange. So, I cut again.. and came up with this.

Ok.. maybe a little better so I sewed it together... after I took out the lighter orange blocks and mixed them all up a little better and took off the last row so it's only 5 rings high. Now what to do with the border? I knew I didn't want to do binding around curves so I machine appliqued the whole quilt onto a border. My EQ design looked like this. Not terrible... So, I sewed it together. It's on the quilting machine now and almost done. I'll post a picture of it soon! (I wish I'd done a torquoise border instead of black.. it looks a little Halloweenish)