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.

 

Alisha - Tula Pink 10" Swap

I think I have an addiction to swaps as of late... I decided to join yet another but... It's Tula Pink so how could I resist! I have to admit that I was completely bummed to find out that I had already missed rounds 1-3 and all the great fabrics to go along with. However, I made it just in the nick of time for round 4 and 5 (which happen to be combined!).

Apparently the group has been searching for participants to finish the round (gasp!). I joined yesterday and was able to pick my fabrics with relative ease. The great thing about the swap is they are trying to not to duplicate any fabrics as they progress through all the different fabric lines. They do this by keeping detailed lists by line so it's fairly easy to identify what is and is not already taken.

I ended up selecting 1 fabric from Parisville and 1 from The Birds and The Bees. Here are my pretties:

If you want more information you can find it here, which is Mama Spark's blog (the host). I hope to see you over there!

 

 

Alisha - Bee Blocks

I've been a busy girl carrying 12 credits this term, t-ball started for both kids, cub scout leading and sewing. Some days I wonder how exactly I'll get it all done but by the end of the week it all seems to come together. This week I've been finishing bee blocks like a mad woman and managed to complete 9 blocks.

This block I made from the book Modern Blocks, Piece of the Garden is featured on pages 134-135. The fabrics were provided by the bee hostess, Laural of the Modern Blocks Bee.

Then, as I announced earlier, I joined the Granny Block Bee which was already underway so I had to go about catching myself up!

Here are blocks for CTNHTX, she was co-hostess in February an requested blocks in fall colors:

 

Blocks for Kelli (The Stitch Fairy) our other hostess for February, she requested that the inner 5 piece be of the same color range and the outter ring of another.

Blocks for Tessophia, she was the co-hostess for March and she requested blocks in reds, pinks and aqua (a girl after my own heart!). She also asked that we include a couple extra 2.5" blocks in prints from the blocks so she could use them for sashing:

Last but not least blocks for Ledgett, she requested bright blocks with black included somewhere within the block:

This week was very trying for me with a trip to the dentist, a fight with the bank about a tax document and a letter that I was being verified by the college for my financial aid. Thankfully, I had a few unexpected packages show up which really changed the coarse of the whole week for me! I used to swap with the ladies in the ACALF swap but it has become dormant, lucky I found MFSG! We swap 4 fat quarters, chocolate if we choose and a notion item.

My partner was findingsweetland and she sent me this lovely package! We agreed to not send candy but an extra fat quarter instead. I gave her a list of my favorite and she tried so hard (and succeeded) in covering al the bases!

Here you can see the package broken down:

She included prints from Tula Pink, Denyse Schmidt, Lotta Jansdotter and a true blue print (I'm short on blue in my stash for some reason). Not to mention the extra scraps, the thread and a really nice card! I can't thank you enough Jayme!


 And if that wasn't enough I got another package in he mail from the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap. If you remember I sent a really fun camping/critter inspired needlebook but I was unaware who my partner was. I waited (rather impatiently!) for my package to arrive and boy was a surprised it had to come all the way from New Zealand! I got this fun little fabric basket/bag from Seven Stitches with a load of fun polka dotty scraps and really fun flavored chocolate from a local shop (chili lime)!

Thank you so much ladies you truly made my day!

 

Alisha - Granny Gone Wild Swap - Round 2

After a small hiatus and a couple posts geared toward gauging interest in another granny square block I decided to bring back the Granny Gone Wild swap! That's right folks, granny is at it again! This round we've had a great turn out and blocks are starting to show up in my mail box (my favorite part!).

I think, during the coarse of the last granny square swap, I made 16 blocks and this round I managed to churn out 20 blocks! What am I going to do with 36 granny square blocks you might ask. To which I would reply, good question!

Here are the blocks I have finished (I might squeeze a few more in before the due date). There are a few I'm in love with which might not make it out of the house for the swap (sorry!).

Do I have the granny block making disease? Probably but that'll be our little secret. Did I mention I recently joined an all Granny Square Bee?! I know, I just posted I was getting away from bees but it was granny squares, I had to do it! Besides what am I going to do with all of these if I don't join the bee?

Alisha - Modern Scrappy Bits Swap

I had another goal this month but I've already completed it (go figure)! It seems recently I've been shying away from quilting bees and have started really taking advantage of swaps. It's hard for me to know what my homework load will be like from term to term so swaps have been a great outlet for my creativity.

With that said, I joined a group on flickr aptly named Modern Scrappy Bits Swap and was assigned a partner who wanted a needle book made for them. She also posted that she enjoyed camping with her family and little woodland creatures so I got to work on some ideas. My first stop was Pinterest (duh!) where I found some marvelous ideas for needle books but I finally decided on my favorite (and what I think is the most functional).

I started digging in my stash but already had an idea for fabrics. I don't usually buy a lot of fabric with animals on it but I fell in love with a line by Riley Blake and happen to have a fat quarter bundle in addition to several "extra" fat quarters.

Aren't these fun? Once I posted on flickr I received many comments and thankfully one of them was from my partner (did I mention this was a secret swap?) so I knew I was golden. Since I'd already done research on a needle book tutorial I was set. You can find the tutorial I used here, it was super straight forward. I was surprised it took me less than an hour to put this together  I figured this would be a multiday process (I have issues sewing anything that isn't a quilt.. lol).

Anyway, without further ado I present to you a camping and furry woodland creature inspired needle book!

This last picture shows the stack of scraps that are going along with the needle book. I included some of the scraps from the needle book incase my partner wanted to add them to another project. This will go off in the mail shortly and I can't wait for her to see it!