Mommy Bunny, Baby, and Furniture Going Home

It's a finish before the last day of the month for A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts.

One little bunny is jumping on the bed....  This is Mommy and baby bunny.


 The goal for June was to make this house a home.  The post about the house is HERE.  Daddy is lonely and is waiting for his family.

Mommy and baby will be joining daddy after they get the furniture all packed and ready to make the trip across Kansas to Joplin, MO.

I had so much fun with this project and I'm so excited because I have been commissioned to make another one.  My deadline is September so I have already started gathering supplies.

These bunnies will have so much fun with little Kennedy,

Stash Building with Mom

I made the 3 hour drive to my mom's yesterday for a surprise visit for her birthday.

My Beautiful Mom

When I arrived, mom surprised me with a couple of items.  First was the Mother's Day Coupon Book she had kept all these years and then she offered me a drop of coffee in a tiny little cup. lol

There are many quilt shops where mom lives and after a nice lunch we decided to visit a couple to see what mischief we could get into.

Our first stop was Material Girls Quilt Shoppe, one of my favorites and mom had never been there, so we had to go.  Right away mom found a pattern for a fabric bucket that she liked and wants me to make for her.  (She is perfectly capable of sewing it up and probably much better than I).  But, I agreed to do it.

My mini bucket with the fabric for mom's large bucket

I made the mini bucket for practice and will make the large bucket soon for mom.  She loves the color aqua, even more than I.  The pattern is Bucket Brigade by Atkinson Designs and has 4 bucket sizes.  I honestly have not ever purchased a pattern at a quilt shop and have been very surprised how nice these instructions are.  The only patterns I have used are Simplicity, Vogue, or McCall's.  What a nice change.  A whole new world has opened up for me.

Mom was shopping for fabric for a table runner and when we went to the next shop, Picket Fence Quilt Company, not only did she find a lot of fat quarters, but she was able to purchase a very sweet runner already stitched up.

It's so much more fun shopping for fabric with someone, especially mom. We had fun shopping and giggling all day long. I found a few things to bring home with me.

I can't wait to use this black and white.  It really messes with the eyes.

My stash grew a little this week between shopping with mom and receiving a few things in the mail. (I'll post about later).

Happy Birthday, Mom.  I love you! 

If you've been following along, you know I don't have a computer right now and have been blogging with my tablet.  I'm learning, but I cheated today and used hubby's lap top.  That explains all the words tonight.  This is so much easier for me..

Trying to survive the wind,

Learning to be a Mobile Blogger

My mom is having a Birthday tomorrow and I spent the day with her yesterday to celebrate.She has had this coupon book I made for her for a few years.. ok, like 37 years.  Look how crafty I was.  My spelling was as good then as it is now.

I took her out to eat, so she has spent that one and I gave her a kiss and hug.  Be nice?  What was I thinking?

I am still working on tablet blogging, but this post happened accidentally by me uploading this collage accidentally.  I am in the process of posting about yesterday's trip to mom's.

Stay tuned. *wink,wink*

Carla

Mid Month Check In on my Tablet?

Tablet blogging is not for me. I was going to show pictures of the storm damage we had last night, but after working on it for an hour the post disappeared. Vanished without a trace. My computer was a storm victim and hopefully will be back in action or replaced soon. I started on this months goal of finishing bunnies and furniture for the bunny house, but I was distracted by a dress that had been cut out over a year ago and a tunic that needed finished. I started some new quilt blocks, too. I'm just going to show pictures (in whatever order my tablet and Google decide)and hope this post works. Sorry this post is a mess. Next time I do this, I'll use one liners and one picture. Have a great week, everyone.

Happy Flag Day

What is a quilter to do when a holiday comes around and she has ruined her coffee table by dropping finger nail polish remover on it?  Of course, she makes a table runner to cover it up.

I have been a bit apprehensive about free motion quilting since my machine fought me on the last quilt I finished, Natural Charm.  After a good cleaning and a bit of oil, I am happy to report there were no thread breaks on this little gem.  It's her, not me.  lol  My owner's manual does not suggest oil, but the Internet research I did paid off.  A couple drops was all she needed.  Thank you, Grandma, for leaving me a cabinet full of goodies, including sewing machine oil.

This pattern is a version of "Let Freedom Ring" from Quilter's World, June 2008.  The pattern is for a quilt in which I did one row of the blocks to make this 15 1/2" x 35" runner.  (My MIL and SIL have been sending stacks of magazines found at a garage sale and I've been having a blast going through tons of back issues.)

I was finishing up the binding when my hubby walked in and said something about what a nice quilt for Flag Day.  Yes, I said.  Wait, it's Flag Day?  Well, there you go.

And for those waiting to see why I need the table runner, here it is....

Looks like a good excuse to get a new table, but I'll probably make runners for awhile.  Maybe I'll paint it.  Which will lead to me having to paint the other table that matches it....

Happy Flag Day,

Cardinal Inspiration and a Great Picture at My Backdoor

It's been 16 days since his arrival.  I haven't needed an alarm clock.  Mr. Cardinal has been tapping at my sliding glass door at first light until the sun goes down.  He sees his reflection and is fighting with that bird in the window. 



Cardinal in my window

I was thinking about covering the door with a sheet to hide his reflection, but I have grown a little attached.  He is quite entertaining, except for the poop.  This morning it occurred to me that I had a little cardinal fabric in my stash and I should create something in my cardinal's honor.

I made a pillow using Postcard Garden fabrics from Red Rooster Fabrics that I picked up on the 520 mile quilt shop hop I went on back in April.

 

It's a 14" cushion with the cardinal postcard and a 4 patch appliqued onto the brown fabric with blanket stitching.  The quilting is straight line and I made my own piping for the edge.

 

I spent the rest of today trying to get the perfect picture of my pillow and the Cardinal.  He actually came over to it....

 

 

And then...

 

 

 

I think I'll see how long he stays.  I'm becoming quite the bird watcher. 

 

Have a great weekend,

 





A Lovely Year of Finishes June Goal - Make a house a home

I can't believe it's June already and time to set the goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts.  Where is the year going?

 

I'm going to try to make the Bunny House a home and finish the furniture and bunnies for sweet, little Kennedy.  The original post about the house is HERE.

 

An empty house :(



 

"I'm so lonely and the floor is not so comfy to sit or lay on."

 

Maybe I can finish this goal before 10 pm on June 30th.  HA  The house and bunny are now located in Missouri and  I'll have to send the rest of the bunny family and their furniture to Joplin. Hopefully there will be a photographer there to send pictures of the finished look.  I'm kinda having fun with this....

In other news, look what came in the mail this week. 

All this and thread too! 

Is it my birthday? no  I only won the best prize ever over at Sew We Quilt.  Thank you Madame Samm, you are the best cheerleader of the best blog hops!  The fabric is lovely, but you spoiled me extra good with the surprises!  (was that good grammar?)  Happy DAY!

Update:  Finish Post Here.

Have a great week,

Natural Charm for Charity

Natural Charm was made for the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and will be donated to Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.

Natural Charm quilt

You may remember this quilt from this post. I had a lot of trouble with my machine and with thread breaks. Since I was on a deadline for my May goal, the binding was done by machine and it was GREAT! I don't know if I saved time by doing it this way (pinning took forever), but it was fun getting out of my little hand stitching box.

Fabrics: one charm pack (Love Letters Batiks by Moda) and a light neutral batik yardage from my stash.
Pattern: 9 patch with borders.
Quilting: Stippling and leaves by me on my domestic.
Size:  50 1/2" x 50 1/2"

Machine stitched binding

 

 The binding was pieced with a charm pack (Love Letters Batiks by Moda) cut in half and sewn end to end.  The binding was sewn to the back first using the double fold binding technique and then wrapped over to the front.  About a thousand pins were used to hold it in place and I picked a swirly design from the stitches on my machine to sew the binding down on the front.  That binding isn't going anywhere...lol

 

Picture taking fun

Edyta Sitar has Laundry Basket Quilts, Carla has Disc Golf Basket Quilts.  My hubby loves the sport of disc golf, so he is making his own baskets in his Duck Creek Design workshop and is building a course on our land.   Picture taking, for me, is taking on a life of it's own...

 

 

 

 

It's amazing what a couple of days can do for healing.  I was crushed with the troubles I had with my machine and threads on this quilt, but I'm ready to "get back in the saddle again."  I really love this quilt and am so happy to be donating it to such a great cause.

 

I am on a quest to find my perfect thread.  What thread do you use for Free Motion Quilting?  Suggestions please.  I can't quilt another one until I find a thread that works for me.

 

Thanking everyone for help,