Strawberry Shortcake

I said yesterday that I had completed two quilt tops this week, but I only had room to talk about one.  That's probably because I'm too wordy and picture-crazy in my posts.  But, it gives me an excuse to write another blog post this week!

This quilt is called Strawberry Shortcake.

It's actually been in the planning stages for over a year, and then in the partially-made stage for at least three months.  I got the fabric for Christmas 2010 from my husband and kids.  2011 was a crazy year, and I never had a chance to get started on it.

My quilting obligations last year were: 
my daughter's college quilt, a wedding quilt for my friend's daughter, three commissioned quilts, and my husband's Boise State quilt for Christmas.  


Sadly, six quilts were all I could accomplish last year.  Major problems with my sewing machine that had it in the shop seven different times made all those quilts go really slow. 

Projects that I have planned for myself usually get put on the back burner anyway.  I think it's probably like that for most of us.

I finally did start it early this year because I got a major guilt-trip at Christmas by my kids when my husband gave me a fat quarter bundle of Ruby.  They said I didn't need more fabric because I still hadn't used the fabric they'd given me last year.  You fabric addicts out there know that theory just isn't correct! 

That motivated me though, because I didn't want my kids to feel bad about the gift they had pooled their money together to give to me.  I got to work pretty quickly after that.  I finished the 'stacked coins' and hung them over my cabinet doors.  There it sat until I finally caught the bug early this week and finished it.

I think it's beautiful.  I love Bliss and the way all the fabrics and colors just work together in such a magnificent way.  

My husband told me it's "Strawberry Shortcake-y."  I think he was talking about the character, not the dessert.  I'd say that's accurate.  The reds, pinks and greens especially make it seem like that.  So, in honor of my husband, I decided to name it Strawberry Shortcake.

I used the white-on-white dots in the Bliss line for the white space, instead of just a plain solid.  I love how it works in this quilt.  (wrinkles up there. yuck.)

 My little helper again.  She was getting pretty bored by this time, so I had to let her take some pictures to keep her helping!

This is one of the pictures she took with me holding the quilt.  Not bad, huh?

The pattern is a traditional stacked coins.  The coins measure 4 1/2 X 2 inches (finished).  The white strips are 3 inches across finished.  

The quilt measures 66 X 72 inches.

I plan to use it as a lap quilt in our living room.

I'm going to back it in Bliss Flannel--the red with white dots.  The binding will be the red print on the top right of the picture above.  I'm so excited to get it put together and quilt it.  It will be the first quilt I've ever made for myself in the 12 years that I've been quilting.

I'm linking up today!  I really appreciate these great ladies for hosting these fun linking parties!  Hop over and check out all the great projects out there.










and,
Crazy Mom Quilts

Spring break starts today.  I'm so excited!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Works in Progress

I haven't had a lot of time to sew in the last month!  The last time I was down in my sewing room I ended up cleaning it and not sewing at all.

This last weekend, I finally did find some sewing time and I've been working like crazy since!  I managed to finish two quilt tops.

First, Ten Little Things Baby Quilt

(Notice the cute little shoes peeking out from under the quilt)

My daughter Ari was gracious enough to help me with photography yesterday.  But first, she had to put her high heels on, because she said her feet were cold.  I think she just wanted to look pretty for the pictures!

"High" heels on a five year old are the cutest things!  She begged and begged for these adorable things.  They have a heel that's really chunky and only about 1 inch high.  Before she could commit to the purchase though, she had to test them out...to make sure they made a 'pretty noise' on the hard floor, like mom's.  They passed the test, and now she hardly ever takes them off!

Anyway, I digress...

This quilt has been sitting up on my design wall for a LONG time.  Actually, since February 20-ish.  I first blogged about it here.

I got a little ahead of myself in the process, though.  I put all of my half square triangles for this quilt up on my design wall and found a layout I liked before I'd even trimmed them.  So to sew it together, I had to take the blocks down, row by row, and trim them first.  Ugh.  It took longer than I wanted, so I trimmed and sewed half the rows together, then came back and finished them about two weeks later.  Next time, I'll remember to trim first, then work on layouts after!

This quilt is for a friend of mine that just had her first baby.  

Ari had a little help holding the quilt.
It measures about 40 inches square.

She needed it because it was really windy yesterday.  It was hard for her to control, and I was a little afraid the wind would yank it out of her hands and blow it away!

She managed to keep it under control, though.

The brown is Kona Chocolate, which I think is just a touch too dark.  It was in my stash, though, and I'm trying hard to use what I have if I can.

I just love the prints from this line.  Each one is so adorable!  There are owls, trucks, cars, pebbles, numbers, jacks....just perfect for a little boy.

I plan to use this adorable owl print in dark blue from the line to back it in.  I just realized the owls are upside down.  Oops!

I chose the yellow dots on blue to bind it in...you can just see it there on the edge.  I found the fabric at my local quilt shop, but now I have it home, I'm a little worried that it's going to be too much next to the 

busy-ness of the quilt.  There wasn't a big selection in this line there; in fact, only 5 bolts, and mostly different colors of the owl fabric.  It doesn't look so bad with just the quarter-inch strip.  I guess I'll just have to see once it's quilted and ready to bind.  Any thoughts?

Since this post has gotten way out of hand and much longer than I expected, I'll talk about my second quilt top tomorrow.

The weekend is coming up fast and I can't wait...our Spring Break is next week!  I'm looking forward to some down time with the kids.  It's finals week for my husband, so unfortunately we won't be seeing a lot of him next week.

Maybe I'll be able to sneak some sewing time in and get some of my Swoon blocks done!

We Have a Winner!

I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely LOVED participating in the Quilting Gallery's Blog Hop! 

I had so much fun visiting all the blogs and getting to know so many new people.  

I also had a ton of fun hosting a giveaway in my little corner of the world.  

These two charm packs of Reunion and 1/3 yard each of two prints from the line.

I was entirely blown away by the comments and support that I received from all who visited my blog.  So many sweet comments were given about my blog, and I really appreciate them.  I also appreciate all those that offered some constructive suggestions.  It's not always easy to say things that are constructive.

One of the first comments I received warned me that I had word verification turned on.  I was thankful for that so I could get it turned off and not annoy everyone all week.

I do try to answer each and every comment.  If I didn't reply to yours, I apologize.  If you're a no-reply blogger, I couldn't reply back.  In the midst of the highest traffic, my email was malfunctioning, and it wouldn't register when I had sent replies.  So I might have even replied to some of you twice!

Anyway, on to the winner, which is what everyone is waiting for anyway!

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I used Mr. Randomizer from random.org.  He came up with #93.

Judy from Sew Rip Repeat!

Congratulations Judy!!

 I'm sending you an email and I'll also post a comment on your blog to tell you the good news!

Thanks again to everyone who entered my giveaway.  I had so much fun that I just may do it again really soon!

Hope everyone has a great weekend...it looks like it's going to be a nice one up here in Idaho.

Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge

If you're looking for the Blog Hop Giveaway, go here.

As I was browsing around through my blogroll last night, I came across Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  If you don't know Sarah or haven't visited her blog, DO IT.  She's an amazing lady with some great talent.  Best of all, she's so willing to share her talent by helping others.  She quilts for her church's quilt ministry, and she creates some amazing quilts to give away to others in need.

Right now, she's hosting an amazing Charity Quilt Challenge. 

  It's a challenge to engage participants to create charity quilts for two amazingly worthy charities: The NOLA project; which is a program to distribute quilts to grade-school children living in St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans.  This area was hit very hard from Hurricane Katrina, and there is a lot of need there.   And Happy Chemo; which is a program to distribute quilts to those going through Chemotherapy.  This is an effort from Emily at Em's Scrapbag; she's looking to distribute 1500 quilts and is now up to almost 400. Both are wonderful, worthy charities for quilters to get involved with.   The deadline to have the quilts finished and sent is May 27th.  That's two months from now.  I know that most quilters can easily start and finish at least one quilt in two months' time.  Most can make a full quilt in less than a weeks' time. I committed to make at least one quilt, and I'm going to try to make two.  It's a great cause and it feels so good to help out with a good cause. Click on the button above to go to Sarah's blog and read her post with all the details about this quilt challenge. (There's even giveaways!  She has the details on her blog) Sarah is taking names for signups now. Can YOU help out?  

Quilter's Blog Hop Party and my First Giveaway!

I went down to my sewing room this week for the first time in two weeks to spend some quality time in my favorite space.  I haven't been in there for so long because of sickness that's been raging through our family.

I was very discouraged to realize that my sewing space has gotten to be quite a mess!  I just can't seem to concentrate and get anything accomplished when my sewing room's a mess.  But it seems like it's always a mess.  I get it clean, start on a new project, and before I know it, it's a mess again.  *sigh*  It's a vicious circle. 

Does anyone have this problem?

So instead of sewing this week, I decided to spend my time cleaning up and organizing my sewing room. 

These were my little helpers during my cleanup.  My daughter Ari and our 7-month old Golden Retriever, Bronco.

During my hours of cleanup, I've managed to unearth some goodies that I'm going to put into my very first giveaway!

Two Charm Packs of Reunion by Sweetwater and 1/3 yard each of two of my favorite coordinating prints from that line.

I love this fabric!  It's just pretty.  I love Sweetwater also.  I made a quilt for my daughter from their Pure line last year.  There's just something classic and fun about their fabric lines.

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To enter my giveaway, all you have to do is leave me a comment with some feedback about my blog!

I've only been blogging for about four months, and I just changed the look of my blog, now that I've had some time to collect some pictures of my quilts and things for the banner. 

So take a quick look around and tell me what you think...good or not so good.  But please be nice!  Constructive criticism is always good to hear, but nothing mean, okay?

And, if you do like my blog, I'd love to welcome some new followers to my blog!  But becoming a follower is not a requirement for the giveaway.


I'm participating in the Quilter's Blog Hop Party this week with the Quilting Gallery. It looks like it's going to be lots of fun with lots of fun blogs to visit and lots of fun giveaways, like mine!

                                                                
                                       Click the button to check out the list of blogs participating.


Anyway, to sum it up, to enter my giveaway to win two charm packs of Reunion plus two 1/3 yards of prints from the line, leave me a comment with some feedback about my blog.  I would be honored for you to follow me as well.

I'll keep my giveaway open until March 23rd, at that point I'll randomly draw a winner and contact you, so be sure to leave contact information if you're a no-reply blogger!

Good luck, and have fun checking out all the fun blogs out there!  I know I will!

P.S.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!