Can't Stop Myself

Today I drove 2 hours total to donate a bunch of fabric (7 garbage bags full).  Most of it was scraps, remnants and denim.  I have been collecting fabric for a very long time.  I find fabric and think to myself, "this will be great, I just need to cut it into squares or something useful.  Well four kids later and I have not really touched them and feel guilty having them unused in my basement.  So I donated them to Project Linus.  This is a great organization that I had the privelegde to work with this summer.
However- the place I took the fabric too has a surprisingly amazing collection of fabric.  I used a lot of self restraint but still ended up spending too much- yikes.
They had a great collection of Kona solids which I need (wanted) really badly.

Here are some pics of my goodies.

A Good Stack

While I had my long arm (sigh) I did a bit of quilting!  Here are 13 of them.  They still need binding.  All that binding is very overwhelming.  I also did a king sized dresden plate quilt that has the binding but needs a few more appliqued circles.  Two twin sized and another quilt that I had the bright idea of mixing hand quilting and machine quilting- it is a lot more hand quilting than I thought.
I am excited to show these quilts when they are done.
I wonder what will happen to each of these quilts.
One is going to a silent auction for our friends with MS.  One will probably be a Christmas present.   The rest?  Not sure.  Does this ever happen to you?  You make the quilt for the love of quilting, but what to do with the finished product...

A Girl With Many Sides

Three years ago I bought an industrial sized vinyl cutter start a little business from home. I really wanted new couches and a Bosch mixer so that I could make bread every week. The problem was I only had money saved for one of them, so logically I bought neither and purchased the cutter instead. I had a great business that I worked hard at establishing- then we moved. I don't do very much of it any more. I do enjoy it and since it doesn't cost me anything I have kept it. Here are a few of my latest creations.

A side note, if anyone is interested, contact me and I make it for you.

Fabric Anyone?

I have recently discovered this lovely lady how has some great unique quilt patterns and she is having a give away!! These fabrics look wonderful and rich.

This photo is from her blog- not only can she create beautiful quilts ( I just purchased She Zigs, He Zags pattern) but she is talented with photography.

http://www.aprilrosenthal.com/blog/

Long-Arm Love

I found a 15 year old APQS longarm on Kijiji that I just needed to have and my husband said yes. I loved it, it was great fun- in fact too much fun. I used it a lot and realized that it was too much for me- four children, big dog and a husband who works a lot of long hours. So, as my dad said, I grew up and sold it. I showed great maturity in this decision (I need to keep telling myself). I miss it but the good thing is that the people who bought it don't live too far and they said I could use it any time.

While I had this tremendous machine I was able to do a lot of quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest. Carin is amazing and I am thrilled to know here. Here are some of the quilts I quilted for her. I was also able to donate some as well. Two of these quilts were designed by Crazy Mom Quilts at the retreat last summer. (the long ones blue and green).

Here it is with two quilts on it!! Double duty.

Finally

One of my all time favorite blogs is Crazy Mom Quilts. I really enjoy her blog. She is down to earth and so inspirational. I decided to join her quilt along this summer. I was quite faithful and finished the quilt by Christmas for my daughter. I made it queen size (what was I thinking?!?) which was perfect because we rearranged beds and rooms and now her room is the guest room which allows me to have my very own studio for sewing and creating!! This is very exciting stuff.

So here is it- in all it's queen size glory.

feeling the love

I had the privilege to make these bibs for some very sweet babies in an orphanage in China. How sweet are these kids?!?

This orphanage is run by some very special people. http://www.morningstarproject.org

It truly warms my heart to see these good works by people all over this world.