Cabin fever

The guys ventured out today, but not for a good or fun reason...

We got a call this morning that some pipes in the ceiling at church had burst.  Nobody knows when it actually happened, but most likely, it happened a couple of days ago.  The damage is pretty extensive.  The entire south wing of the building was flooded.  In the top pic, you can see the classroom where the break occurred. 
While the guys have been busy at the church, Aimee and I have beaten our cabin fever the best way we know how...

Aimee is working on the quilt for her bed (her first bed-sized quilt) and I'm working on my missions quilt.

I'm about half-way done with the quilting.
And you'll never guess what else!...
More snow.  That's right.  We got another 2" today.  You know, because we needed more snow.
I'm so grateful for electricity right now.  So, since tomorrow will probably be yet another snow day, I will hopefully get the other half done.  And, of course, I'll post pics when it's all finished :)

Memory quilts

I'd like to introduce you to an incredible little girl.  Her name is Haley and you can read more about her story here.  In May of 2009, I made my first memory quilt.  It was for my daughter as a graduation gift.  I posted pics of it on Facebook and was contacted by Haley's mama (who I went to high school with).  She still had all of Haley's clothes and thought it would be cool to have a quilt made from them.


This is just SOME of her clothes.

But before I could make one for her mama, she thought it would be cool if she could give one to Haley's grandfather and aunt (her dad and sister).  So, last Christmas, these are what I made...

Using the same quilt-as-you-go method that I had used to make Kylie's quilt I made these 2 small lap-sized (or wall hanging) quilts. I was still very new to quilting, but these were fun to make and I was looking forward to making another one for Haley's mama.  I thought it didn't seem fair that she wouldn't get to keep these first 2 quilts, so I thought it might be cool for them (mostly for Haley's little sis) to have something they could cuddle with until the 3rd quilt was made.  So, using one of Haley's sweatshirts,

I made these...

This was one of Haley's favorite quotes.

It took her quite a few months to bring me more of Haley's clothes to make this last quilt,

but that was ok because it took me another few months to get it made. This time, I wanted to make it the traditional way...you know, make a top, then layer and quilt it as one big quilt.  We were going for a large lap size to maybe a twin.  I had finally figured out how to install longer rods on my Flynn frame and THOUGHT I wanted to try and quilt it myself.  Here it is all loaded on the frame and ready to go...

I don't know if any of you have ever wondered, but just in case you have, THIS is what "un-quilting" looks like...

And it's NOT fun.
I thought I had practiced enough on other quilts, but apparently not.  It was not good.  It took me about 5 days and I can't tell you how many hours to un-pick all those stitches.  So I called my friend Christie and begged for her help.  She let me bring it over and also let me help her load it onto her long-arm frame so that she could quilt it the way it was meant to be quilted.  And I am SO glad she did!  It turned out beautiful and was finished just in time to be included in their Christmas holiday...a whole year after the first 2.

Displayed on a king-sized bed

That block above the picture of Haley is the shirt she was wearing in the picture.  So many memories in all of these quilts.  And I am so glad her mama trusted me to make these priceless treasures for her and her family.

Follow the link to read about Haley's brave battle and to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis and how you might be able to help find a cure for this terrible disease.

Oklahoma Blizzard and a finish..

There's no sun today in my creative "sunny" haven :(  I wasn't going to let that stop me from sewing though.  Thankfully, we haven't lost power.  So I got a very important project out to work on, so excited to be able to finish it today...I didn't buy enough fabric for the 2nd border (@$#%%^$%$%)...

No trips to my LQS today...or probably the rest of the week.

Poor Mojo wants to play outside so bad.  I'm such a mean mommy.  I don't want to open the door or the snow will be IN my house.  Every door is blocked by snow drifts...this is actually the shortest drift!

Well, since I'm snowed in anyway, now's a good time to share my latest finish with you...

This one is for a very sweet friend that we thought we were losing just a few years ago. When I saw this quilt, I knew I had to make it for her.

The pattern can be found here.

I quilted it myself on my Flynn...fun fun.

LOVE the backing.

I'm speechless!

...not really!  I'd like to thank all the little people...oh wait!  I AM the little people!  I would sincerely like to thank my friend Mary over at The Tulip Patch for awarding my humble little blog with this...

And honestly, I DO try to be stylish...I AM a hair stylist, after all!  But not on my blog.  I really didn't imagine that anyone other than maybe my mother (Hi, Mama!) would ever care to read about my adventures in quilting.  I am SO very grateful to my followers for reading and giving me feedback with your comments :)

There are a couple of rules that go along with this award.  The 1st is, I get to pass this award on to 8 of my favorite "stylish" blogs.  And 2nd is, I have to share 8 things about myself that you may, or may not, know about me.  And in the hopes that you will stop at each of these links and skip over the 8 boring facts about myself, I will start with the links...
and the awards (in no particular order) go to...

Sandy @ Sandy's Sew Clever
Victoria @ She's Crafty
Grandmama Jane @ Grandmama's Stories
Natasha @ Joy of Quilting
Andrea @ Millions of Thoughts
Miranda (and Charlie) @ Miranda and Charlie
Erin @ My Patchwork Life
Vera @ Seams to Sew and Quilt

I "follow" roughly 85 blogs (yes, I counted, and yes, I read new posts everyday!) and it was really hard to single out just 8...I love them all!  These are just SOME of my favorites and they ALL deserve this award, too!

Ok, so I guess there's just one more order of business...

1.  I've been a hair stylist for almost 18 yrs now and I absolutely LOVE my job, although, it does cramp my quilty style occassionally.

2.  I'm "mom" to 3 beautiful, talented, extraordinary, funny, etc...children...who are not exactly "children" anymore.  At 20, 18, and almost 15, they are almost grown.

3.  I am married to the "Love of my life" who has 4 kids of his own.  I call them my "bonus" kids.

4.  I have NEVER won a giveaway in blogland.  And I've entered A LOT. 

5.  I have an addictive personality (self-diagnosed, of course).  But because of this awareness, I have chosen to make my addictions of the sewing-kind.  Also, puzzles of just about any kind, but mostly numbers.  I love math and I suspect that's why quilting is SEW appealing to me...lots of math in quilting :)

6.  My very 1st job was at McDonald's.  Which I am oddly kinda proud of...not even I know why.  I encouraged each of my kids to apply there when they were old enough, but none would :(

7. Both my girls are also hair stylists.  The oldest has had her license for 2 years now and the younger will test for her license in May.

8.  I can solve a Rubik's cube.  I keep one on my station at work and will occassionally ask someone to "mess it up" for me.  I love love LOVE coming into work and finding it "messed up".  And I cannot leave work until it's "fixed".

So there you have it.  Be sure to check out the links above and to those of you who have wandered over from The Tulip Patch, WELCOME!  I would love to get to know ALL of you so leave me a comment, click on "follow" and if you have a blog, let me know so I can follow you, too...there's always room for more on my reading list ;)

I survived...

...the holidays, that is!  But just barely.  Right after Christmas, we had company.  Our sweet friends from Mexico, G and Cesia came to spend the New Year with us.  They got here on friday and by monday, I had the flu.  Boo.

BUT while I was aching and chilling, Cesia was working on her first quilt.  She wanted to learn how and I wasn't going to let a little fever keep me from helping her.  She made a baby rag quilt out of flannels and it really was the CUTEST thing and I've waited to blog about it because I didn't get a pic of it before they left on thursday morning.  She promised she would take a pic and then left it at her parent's house on her way back to San Luis.  So I'm still waiting on that pic...but I'm so proud of her, I just had to brag.  So, Cesia, now it's a lot more than just me who wants to see that pic...just saying.

Before Christmas I was working on a commissioned quilt that I hope to show pics of soon.  So, so far I guess this is the most boring blog post EVER.

Oh, wait!  Ok, so after the New Year and our company were gone, I decided to make a few handmade gifts for Christmas.  Oh, I know Christmas is over, but who's gonna say "no" to a handmade gift?  As most of you know, I'm a hair stylist in my "other" life.  I found this tute by accident one day, and just KNEW I had to make these for my girls at work.

It's a case for your flat iron! 

I have a case that I paid WAY too much for and have thought several times, "I could make that."  But I wasn't crazy about the design.  then I found this cool tutorial.   This one is different because...

...it has a flap that holds your cord, nice and secure.  Now I can pick it up anyway I want and my precious (and very expensive) CHI doesn't fall out.  Genius!
I did change it slightly, though.  I wanted the seam that is made by the pocket to land in the middle of the case, so I shortened the width of the pocket by a 1/2 in.  I also did not want to mess with trying to line up bias tape on the front AND back and just "hoping" that I'm catching both.  So I made my own bias binding and sewed it on the same way I would machine sew a binding on a quilt.  If the stitches showing on the inside of the case would bother you, you could just hand-stitch the binding down to the other side.  I also went ahead and quilted the body of each case.  It doesn't seem right to put batting inside an item (insulated or not) and then NOT quilt it.

I almost finished a Christmas gift for a very dear friend...didn't quite get it quilted, but here's the top...

I found the pattern at the Moda Bake Shop and bought a kit for it from the designer Natalia over at Piece N Quilt.  I'll post finished pics later...you know, when it's finished.

And just a little side-note...I've been wondering lately...How do you suppose God was able to create the whole world and everything in it, without making a huge mess?  My sewing room is a disaster area!

A new quilter in the family...

So, last week the guild had our annual Christmas party. I invited my daughter to come with me...she didn't really want to come until I told her there would be food :) We played a game called Fat Quarter Frenzy. Each person brought 3 FQ's to play with. One by one, FQ's were thrown into the center of the table (the pot). At the end of the game, whoever still had a FQ in their hands got to keep the whole pot. So guess who won the whole pot? That's right.
She won 21 fat quarters. Of course, my friends were all asking her what she might make with all this new treasure. As of 2 hours earlier, she had no intention of ever going to a guild meeting and now she was the proud owner of a whole lot of fabric.

So on the way home...with no prompting from me...she announces that it might be cool to make a quilt. I know, RIGHT?!

When we searched for quilt patterns (I'm thinking beginner friendly), she really fell in love with the dresden plate. She wasn't totally convinced until I told her that it might be kind of advanced and that I haven't even tried to make one yet. Well, that did it. Determined to make a dresden quilt, I told her we really need to practice one first...

We used this tutorial

I wanted her to practice quilting too. Color me impressed. She free-motion stippled over the whole design. And did an amazing job!  I coached, but she made every stitch by herself.

On her practice piece, I gave her the challenge of quilting her name over and over.  On her finished pillow cover, she signed her name in the corner.

I think I might be the proudest mom in the whole world right now.

A little something extra...

I feel so guilty when it takes more than a couple of weeks to finish a baby quilt.  I know I should get over this, but I'm not sure how.  I can make one of these bears in just a day or two.  A quick easy project that actually seems to get more oohs and ahhs than the quilts.  I've thought about just making the bears, if I didn't enjoy quilting so much :)  So baby Jude is getting a little something extra to go with his quilt.
This is my 2nd finish for this week.  Wow.  When I look at it that way...
Cool.