Alisha - A Lovely Year of Finishes April Finish!

I started on my April goal with gusto, I laid out all the fabric I had from the fat quarter bundle I used to piece the front. I thought I might have enough for the back so I went about pressing and squaring all the random pieces. I didn't pay too much attention to sizing all the pieces the same - I wanted to carry the wonkiness to the back :) . After I squared all the pieces I started laying them out which took me a few hours. I pieced the rows and packed everything away, that was around the 5th. Fast forward to today and I realized I hadn't finished and I desperately wanted to keep my finish streak alive so back to sewing I went!

The back is interesting to look at and I'm still debating if I want to add a border - I didn't check the size of the back but I think I need a few more inches all the way around. I was thinking white to break up the busy prints and give your eyes a place to rest but yellow might work too. Thoughts?

Here are the top and back together (sorry I didn't press the top!)

Ashley- Finished Quiet Book!!!!!

     Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait between posts life has been..... well life lol. I will it explain all that at the end of my post, BUT I want to share with you the finished product, Melody's finished quiet book! We leave Saturday afternoon out to see all my family back home and I am so excited I can't wait to get home and give my niece and nephew a big old squeeze. My little 4 year old niece is even counting down the days <3 She melts my heart. Anyways back to the book, here it is in all it's glory!

    It turned out great didn't it?!?! I'm pretty dang excited that I got it done. And it wasn't hard, it's just a little time consuming but it honestly was a lot of fun because you can create almost anything with felt, it's great.


    Now to fill you guys in, I have been really busy with my little girl, we have been doing speech therapy and been seeing an occupational therapist. We went to see a developmental pediatrician today and my daughter was diagnosed autistic. So I'm sorry for not getting this up sooner, we've been a busy crew. So since it was such a long grueling day and they poked, prodded, drew blood, and pretty much anything else you can think of, my husband and I took Melody out to build a bear and we got her the autism awareness bear.

    Well we are hunkering down for the night but I will be back on sometime soon, Alisha and I will be crafting for an upcoming book fair that she is the head of so be sure to check back!

Ashley - Mickey Mouse quiet book page

     I am so excited for these two ages I'm planning. Since I found that doll and I realized I could use my embroidery machine to add to the pages, I have beenn just coming up with ideas left and right. This is one of those ideas. My machine came with quite a few disney designs on it which included all 6 of the Mickey Mouse gang. I wanted to incorporate them so I started brainstorming and came up with a great idea. My daughter loves the finger puppets from the barn page so what I have been doing is running the designs and then backing them and gluing them to popsicle sticks. These are the ones I have finished so far.

Now just to finish the other three and make the back drop for her to play with them at :) I can't wait to show you! BUT you're going to have to chack back to see it all done! Come back soon!

Ashley - Quiet book pages part 4

     Ok so my loves and I were walking through Joanns (dangerous I know) and I stumbled across chalkboard fabric. I had seen it on blogs and pinterest so when I saw it in person I had to get some. I believe it was only like 5 bucks a yard too so not bad and that's a lot of chalkboard mats lol. So with my chalkboard fabric I set to work to make Melody a chalkboard page.

I may add to the little desk in front of the chalkoard but we will see. The desk lid lifts up and that's where you store your chalk. Very simple but I showed it to Melody and she loved it so it gets the job done lol. Check back for more pages!

Ashley - Quiet book pages part 3

    Hey everyone! so I have been trying to get cooking on the rest of this quiet book because I fly home to see my family in less then 3 weeks now! So aunt Alisha has been poking around online and found an adorable site with a felt doll pattern for my embroidery machine and well I just had to get it and make it for Melody. This is where we got the pattern: http://www.dejahvuedesigns.com/category_11/In-The-Hoop-Projects.htm Make sure you take a look around because she has some amazing designs! And here is my finished product.

I added the little wardrobe (yes it does hold all the outfits) and the mirror. It turned out so incredibly cute. I'm thinking I might add a little rug or something to take up some more of that free space but we will see what I have time for. I can't wait to make more outfits lol That Sleeping beauty dress is SO cute! I have a Cinderella kind of dress too to make and I'm thinking of buying the other princess dresses she designed too lol.

lol all the other patterned felt I have to try. I really want to make the Rapunzel dress out of that purple and pink ond in the middle :) Check back for updates and more quiet book pages!

Ashley - a craft update

I'm very sorry I've been so busy lately! I've still been crafting I just haven't taken the time to actually sit down and post things for you. So I'm going to post the pictures and then explain them that will be easiest.

This was the shirt I made for Melody to wear on Easter :) My husband is in an artillery unit so the saying goes along with that. My first applique on my new machine and it turned out great.

 

Someone, we wont name names (Alisha), got me hooked on felties so now I'm making felties lol, so if any of you bow makers need felties leave a comment and if there is interest I will start up and link an etsy store to the page :) These were made for my niece who just started playing T-ball, her first game is Monday!

 

This design I found on etsy and I'm hoping that a certain aunt to a certain little girl will make her hairbows to match when school slows down for her a little lol.

 

 

 

 

First off this isn't a finished pictures, I accidently deleted it before I shared :/ This bunting I made for my husband's unit's easter party. I put little berets on all the bunnies and I embroidered in each of them. This idea comes from one of Alisha and mine's favorite blogs. Here is the original post on that site. http://www.danamadeit.com/2008/07/tutorial-peeps-bunny-bunting-and-door-hangers.html Take a look around at all her other stuff too you will love it!

Ok and I still have a couple projects going right now so I should be on soon to fill you guys in again. Have a wonderful day and check back soon!

 

Alisha - A Lovely Year of Finishes - March's finish and April's Goal

I'm a little late in blogging my finish but I was able to post my picture on flickr and get linked up. Whew! With that all done I can focus on taking lovely pictures and setting my April goal - time is flying!

Here is my beautiful March finish quilted, bound and washed!

 Here is the top and a close up of the quilting. Unfortunately I didn't have anyone to hold the quilt up for me but I think the picture are alright.







The back is kind of low key but carries some of the color from the front to the back, which I do love.

On to April! If you'll remember one of my previous goals was to finish my wonky stars quilt top (which was worked on by the lovely ladies of a bee I participated in).

Given that I had an entire fat quarter bundle of this line I had some left over... So I dug the scrap out to asses what I had and how I might be able to incorporate it into the back.

I have far more than I thought I did. I'm thinking I might sew some of the smaller pieces together to make larger blocks and see if I can stretch what's left to make the back. Since school is consuming more time than it usually does my goal is to just get the back pieced. I'll have to save quilting it for a another month's goal.