Hairy Issues

My daughter, (I won't say which one) was coloring my hair. 

I didn't realize, but apparently a necessity when one becomes a Gamma. 

I asked her if she would be willing to trim it up a bit, cut an inch or two to freshen it up. 

She eagerly agreed. 

My hair is bra length (can I say that on a blog?) with long layers. 

You know, the style that works when the wind blows,  because it is just curled layer. 

Anyway she began underneath of coarse, and made the first cut. 

It was too short. 

I assured her it was OK... it was underneath, but that the very top layer 

should be that length when finished.  

  

She giggled and continued to cut.

Right before she finished cutting, 

she shares with me about how she cut her teen sister's hair a few years ago. 

I had wanted her hair long, the sister wanted it short, so she cut it short, but they both

told me it was uneven, so she had to keep cutting. 

I think at this point she was trying to warn me, but I didn't get it.

What I ended up with was really not layered much at all AND at my shoulders! 

Yikes!! 

At least I didn't let her touch my bangs........Hmmmm, I wonder if it was on purpose?  

 Oh well, it will grow back : ) 

Thanks, my precious daughter, you did a fabulous job!  

  Love, mom

NOTE - no photo.   I'm just not happy with any of the photos.....maybe its not my hair. 

Hmm..... something to ponder.

Girlfriends - a tutorial

The next two months will be my months for my quilt bees, 

and I am asking each lady to make a girl block.  

I thought I would share a little tutorial for her. 

This is my block.

 Isn't she cute? Let's get started. 

I didn't use exact measurements, 

but I will try to include the general measurements I used

for those of you that prefer to have them.

These are her bits and pieces. 

Cutting measurements

Head - 2 X 2     Hands  1.5 X 1.5     Arms 1.5 X 6.5      Legs 1.25 X 4.5

Dress 5 X 5 including dress trim which is about 1.5 X 5

Background about 15 X 15

2.5 X 15 Sky  

2 X 15 head section

1.5 X 15 arm section  

5 X 15 dress section

4 X 15 leg section

Lets start with her clothing, since its the
largest piece. Cut dress fabric the length you would like it to be. Cut a background
5 X 15 or the length you cut her dress by the width of your background, 15 inches.

Cut the background in half.  Spread it apart a bit, maybe 1.5 - 2 inches, lay dress on top and slice through both layers at pleasing angles of her dress. 

Sew together.

 Next, lay out arm and hands. How do they look? Arms too long? Hands to large? Cut a piece of background the width of arm/hand section then in half.  Adjust and sew together with background to form arm strip.

Somehow I added my background later, but that's OK, it all worked out. ; )

 A 2 X 2 square for the head seemed really large, but turned out to be just right.

 

        
I decided to add a hair style, using small scraps and framed her face nicely.













Trimmed it all nice and neat . 

Then added a small background piece to help the hair and background fit better.
       
Add a strip of background cut in half to complete the head section.

Now let's get her some legs. Lay out the background piece and position legs. Slice background at a pleasing angle and sew all five pieces together.

Each layer is a bit uneven, so trim some straight, but wonky lines.

Sew her all together and attach sky piece above head.

She's ready to be trimmed up. Mine ended up 12.5 X 13. I wanted a good 2 inches at least above her head.

Here she is......ta da!  You can easily add stylish friends by changing her clothing. 

Try pants, skirt or sleeveless dress, different hair styles or maybe some shoes. 

Make her thin or wide or wonky. 

Please let me know if I missed or need to clarify anything.  

Hope you enjoy making a beautiful group of girlfriends. 

My plan for the bee girlfriends is to make a quilt that will be special and cherrished by my grandchildren as they dream about all the friends.

Sunday Sweetness

She's here

Fresh from God

Kinlee Joy

Our newest granddaughter

Welcome Kinlee.
You have already captured our hearts.
We are so blessed.

Photo taken by her Auntie

Big Red

This week is the bi-annual quilt festival hosted by Amy of Amy's Creative Side. 

I'm so excited to be participating for the first time.

Today I want to share Big Red.

I quilt, yet I had never made a quilt for my mom. She is very talented and has made all kinds of beautiful things, yet is always interested in what I'm making and thinks my creations are wonderful even when they are lacking. She is a wonderful support to me. And really, who quilts and doesn't make a quilt for their mom? Even though she likes everything I make,  I wanted to make something she would really love. About a year ago, after leafing through some quilt magazines she showed me a cover quilt she really liked.

Not a problem. I could make a quilt like that and in those colors. 

No, it turns out she wanted that quilt, that fabric, that exact quilt. 

I've never made a quilt exactly like the original and it was a

FALL/WINTER 2008 Quilt Sampler magazine, already two years old. 

After some online searching I was able to locate the fabric. 

 Here are some un-quilted close-ups

The quilt went together beautifully, but about half way through 

I realized (actually I always knew, but pushed the thought aside) I couldn't 

quilt it. It was too large for me and my little machine and I would have to send

it out to get quilted. It was hard to let it go. I've never sent a quilt out before and

Big Red and I had bonded.  Christie, a local Longarm quilter did a wonderful job, 

really bringing Big Red alive. The quilt turned out more beautiful than anticipated. 

My mom loves her quilt, in fact she loves it so much she won't put it on her bed. Go figure.

Please, mom, use your quilt. A quilt grows more beautiful with use. 

Quilt Label

If you love to look at quilts like I do, grab a refreshing drink, a bit of snack and head on over to Amy's Creative Side to enjoy all the beautiful quilts. You'll find everything from traditional to modern to art quilts from beginners to experts. I guarantee you'll find something you love. 

Thanks Amy for ALL you hard work putting the festival together!

Busy Bees

There is a little lull in my Quilt Bees, 

so I thought I would share some Bee blocks

This is the second block for Sew Fresh Fabrics boy charity quilt.

The first block was the "Who's Drivin?" blocks that I blogged previously.

Sew Fresh sent me a bag of scraps to use for the charity blocks.  

Not knowing what would arrive in the box made the blocks more fun.

Next was the Mod Mosaic Scrap Bee Swap

I've never done anything like these and although I love the finished blocks, 

I didn't enjoy putting all the white between the scraps. Very stressful for me!

And since this was a swap, I sent five and received these five in return.

Aren't they pretty? Each one is from a different person. 

Now, what to do with just five blocks?

Next was the spider web blocks for Simple Modern Quilt Bee 2

Now these I had a tiny bit of trouble with. The first block came out a smidge

under the 12.5 inch size it was supposed to be. So after some thought

I left block #2 untrimmed until the very end.

It worked perfectly.  I love it untrimmed. Very cool!

And here they are both together, side by side,
all trimmed as they should be. 

So beautiful! I'm sure Beth's quilt will be a beauty! 

  And last, I have just finished these two star blocks also for
Simple Modern Scrap Bee 2

The assignment was to make two star blocks,
different sizes, different stars.

One is 8.5 inches (supposed to be 8, but it's not) and the other 12 inches.

Here they are side by side. 

Well, that's it for now.   May is an extremely busy month already, 

 and more bee's should be coming in soon.

Sewing for Baby

I been neglecting my blog, which needs some major tweaking 

(which I don't know how to do) and instead been sewing for a new little angel due to arrive in a few weeks. Yes, I am Gamma and Meema to two precious little ones and about to be blessed with a third little one.  

Being Gamma and a quilter, I of coarse wanted to get right to making quilts 

for the new baby, but first she, ( yes, she is a she ) needed a few other things.  Amanda, our daughter showed me this photo of baby bedding.

Isn't it pretty?  We decided we could probably make something similar,
so we went off to the fabric store and to our surprise found very
similar fabrics.

I forgot to take a photo BEFORE I started sewing ; )
What do you think, a bit less pink, but pretty similar?



All six bumpers.

There is piping on top and zippers on the bottom just
in case a washing is needed.




Here is the finished bumpers and skirt together. They just need a pink sheet between them.
I'm sure everything will be much prettier in the crib, instead of leaning against my purple walls.

Next was the nursing cover, and since I've made several of these
it went together pretty quickly. Amanda picked the fabric.

Then a snuggly, made with Eden by Lila Tueller, from a giveaway I won
last year.  I used the Snuggler pattern by Lotta Jonsdotter and
lined it with pale pink flannel. It turned out adorable.

Last was some contoured changing pad covers. I made three with the pink minky. I have to say I did not enjoy sewing the minky. I had a bit of trouble, but noticed that the washed minky was fine, it was the unwashed that gave me a hard time. Note to self for next time.

Well, baby is due to arrive soon and I still need to get started on hats, and shoes and dresses and bibs and toys and........oh yea, quilts.  Oh no, I'm really behind!

Bee Block

I've joined a couple of online quilt bees.  I should have focused on the long sewing list of things for the new baby coming, but I participated in an online round robin bee years ago, before blogs, and I just couldn't stop myself! So, when Sew Fresh Fabrics started their bee, I  joined in, which lead to joining two more (their sort of addicting).

I want to share this block for Beth from Sew Scrappy Sew Happy Bee because its a little different. Instead of oohing and aahing over the fabric that arrives for the month, then playing with it. The "fabric" for this block arrived in small pieces, scraps really, and I needed to make the fabric. Fun, but oh my, what if I mess up. I read the instructions, thought about it and re-read the instructions for a couple days, then cleared a working space and got right to it.

Beth asked that we all make her block based on the Simple Insanity quilt from Chawne. Basically strips of scraps are sewn together, then those are re-cut and sewn back together to make a "new fabric". I was so afraid of wasting even the smallest scrap that I played with the layout for quite a while. In the end I laid all the scraps of similar length together. 

Sewed them in long strips, then re-cut.

These strips will be sewn log cabin style to make "new fabric".

Here is the back of the "new fabric" with lots and lots of seams.

 

And here is the new fabric. It's so pretty. I love it!

This new fabric was then cut in strips to complete the requested block. Some of the pieces are really, really small. It turned out to be 10 X 12 and I had barely enough fabric, even with the six scraps I added.  Can you find them Beth?

Here is the finished block. 

It measures 13.5 X 13.5

I love how this block turned out and I so enjoyed making it, that I'd like to make several more for a quilt of my own. It was time consuming, so I'll add this quilt to my to do wish list for the future. 

For inquiring minds - an online quilt bee is a group of sewers/quilters that take turns making blocks for each other.  The person assigned to that month sends fabric, directions and specific requests of what he or she would like the block to be. The recipients complete and return the blocks to the owners.  Fun, fun!