Merry Christmas!

Or insert winter holiday of your choice. We're not picky! =)

As I commented in my previous post, my mother definitely helps 'feed the need' when it comes to fabric. One of my gifts this year was 10 fat quarters, 7 as a set and 3 just for fun, and  a beeswax holder for conditioning thread for handsewing.

She and I always wreak havoc when we set foot in a fabric store. Neither she nor my husband are appropriate chaperonage, it seems. Both of them seem to have ideas for projects for me, so the stash never seems to get smaller!

Hopefully once the baby is here, and has given us a little breather, I'll be able to start planning and sewing more items for my shop. It will be a good challenge for me, and one that I am looking forward to.

Speaking of the baby, we found out on Wednesday we are having a boy! We are all very excited, although my daughter would have preferred a sister for Christmas. =) Baby boys are not very common in my husband's family, so knowing that family name will continue makes the whole family very happy. We still hope to someday be able to move back to his hometown, even if we don't continue in the family business.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season, and best wishes for everything you need in the the new year!

How many yards is that?

aka Why my husband doesn't believe me when I say I don't have the right fabric for a project...

So I started out with a box of fabric like this:

And using Happy Zombie's fabric folding methods (found here) as suggested by Amy at Park City Girl ended up with this:

And trimmed the scraps into strips, squares & triangles resulting in this:

I've been working on it for a few weeks, here & there as I have time. Now that I can *see* what I have, maybe I can finally get it all used up. This is the risk you run when you (used to) work at a fabric shop and get a 30% discount on everything. That, and my mother is also a seamstress, so she sends me her leftovers from costuming. I love getting packages from her, as I never know what goodies will emerge!

Next step, getting our friend who offered to install the flooring to come out so that I can finish my work room & get all my sewing supplies out of the baby's room. We find out Wednesday what we're having, and I want to get started on painting & decorating that room! =)

But for now, I'll keep working out of boxes. Next project- get the community project quilts for my daughter's school finished. I'll post those when they're done, too.

12 Days of Catmas

This fun wall hanging quilt evolved from shopping during a trip to a quilt show back in 2003. If you haven't met my mom, all you really need to know is that she *is* the crazy cat lady.

We found this fabric, all cats in groupings that are plays on verses from 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', like 'Ten Toms a-Peeping' or 'A Tabby-cat in a Pear Tree'.

The base of the quilt is a log cabin wreath, and the motifs are appliqued on using fusible web and then machine stitched down. The quilting was all done with embroidery thread to give a little shimmer to the finished product.

It only took me 5 years to actually get it finished- not too shabby, right? =)

Sky Pirate

Logahn made his grand entrance to the world on 10/30/09, and his quilt was finished and delivered 10/31/09. Mom & Dad were thrilled, and they loved the back of the quilt, where I had planned a little surprise for them.

I am very happy with how the alternating diamonds worked out on this quilt. Not sure I want to make this pattern again any time soon, but they love it, so it was worth it.

The back of the quilt is pirate themed (hence the name, Sky Pirate), and the fabrics bordering the center are the fabrics Mom & Dad used for their binding for their handfasting ceremony. They knew nothing of what I had planned for this part.

2 new items on Etsy

I was able to finish up two of my mini-quilts the week before I had to go to PA, but never got a chance to photograph them for Etsy until yesterday. Here they are!

Garden Paths

Garden Square

Ok, so I'm running out of naming ideas for any garden-themed block. ;-)

As you might guess, I had started a quilt with a number of mini-blocks, but the quilt never materialized, so I am turning the blocks into trivets and selling them by themselves. My hope is that they will bring traffic to the shop, and will provide good smaller items for the craft shows, when I am able to start setting up at them.