Nice list

I must have done something REALLY good this year because boy was I on Santa's nice list! Unknowingly, my whole family get together and got me everything you could possibly need to be a quilter!

My sweet husband got me a sewing machine! It's not quite a big girl sewing machine yet, but, hey, it's new, it's mine, and it has some decorative stitches on it, so I'm a happy girl! He also got me Elizabeth Hartman's new book that I've been drooling over and some good old fashioned cash for fabric! What a guy! :)

My parents got me a huge 6'x6' design board! I've always had to lay my quilts out on the floor and it's hard to make color choices when the color of the carpet is acting as a second background. I'm really excited to have my own design board! And, it even folds up into it's own cute little carrying case so I can take it with me places or store it when I'm not needing it. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

My husband was the best man in a wedding in Houston this November. My in-laws came to the wedding, too, and it just so happened that we were in Houston over the International Quilt Festival! I told my mother in-law about it and she agreed to go with me one morning while my husband was doing best man duties. We had so much fun wandering around the show and just did a lot of taking it all in and looking at all the beautiful quilts and fabrics. One of the few booths we did stop at, though, was the Easy Quilter booth. The gentleman at the booth was very sweet and let me sit and try out their long arm machine. It was fun to sit and play with, and my mother in-law and I each took a little handout and continued on our merry way. I honestly thought nothing more of it. Care to guess what made an appearance under the tree this year?

My very own long arm set up! I still can't believe it! It's like a quilters dream every time I walk into the basement. Sigh. This little table and I are going to have many good years together...

The only complaint I can make is that nobody took our "quaint" little 1300 square foot house into account with all these gifts. Right now the long arm is in the "man room", as is evident by the neon Minnesota Twins sign in the background. :) Honey, I think we better get a contractor over here to start looking at adding on. And I suppose he'll want to be paid, so better stop and pick up some lottery tickets on your way home. I'm sure who ever would look at buying our house down the line would love a big, custom sewing room!

Merry Christmas!!

Fabric Tuesday!

It's that time again over at Quilt Story and I actually have something I can share this week!

I'm still all Christmas presents all the time, and am almost done with my second of three (or maybe four if I can) Christmas quilts. This one is for my in-laws. My husband is a third generation Eagle Scout on his Dad's side, so scouting has been a big part of their lives. My husband's grandpa was an Eagle Scout and also a vet, so in my in-laws basement they have a flag from when he passed away, as well as all the Eagle Scout certificates and patches and the like of all of them in the family. When Robert Kaufman came out with the scout line, I quickly snatched some up and have now turned it into a quilt that will (hopefully) make a nice addition to the wall of scouting! :)

I'm really happy with it and can't wait to get it basted and binded! I love this quilt pattern because it allows more of the pretty fabric pattern to show, and it's really easy and went together super quickly!

Happy Fabric Tuesday!

Sneak Peak

My first Christmas project FINISHED! Yahoo! Now I just have to keep the momentum going and do three more in less than three weeks... :)

Enjoy this sneak peak. I'm really looking forward to showing you the whole thing. I'm really happy with how it turned out!!

Christmas Cards - for free?!

I discovered Shutterfly a few years ago and just love using them to print my pictures and make gifts. My favorite thing I've made with them is a picture book of our wedding. I love having all the pictures together and the designs they have make it look like it was professionally done (for a much better cost, too!) This year, they're having a promotion where bloggers can get 50 FREE Christmas cards from them - how great is that?! I've used them for our Christmas cards the past three years and they always turn out great. They have hundreds of cards to pick from in just about every style you could imagine. I'm having a hard time narrowing down which one we'll use. Here's a few of my favorites:

I can't wait to order them and get them out in the mail. There is something so fun about sending a receiving Christmas card and hearing what everyone else has been up to in the past year. This is definitely my favorite time of year!!

I am officially 1 for 4 in my Christmas quilts! I'll post a peek tomorrow for Fabric Tuesday. I love the way it turned out and I think the recipient is going to love it too!

Thanksgiving

I saw this on another blog and thought it looked fun, so here's to nothing! :)

1.   My Thanksgiving plans this year will include ... Thanksgiving day with my dad's side of the family at my grandparent's house, Friday and Saturday with my husbands family at their house, and a quieter meal with my immediate family on Sunday.

2.  My favorite Thanksgiving was ... I don't know that I can even pick! thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays because my dad comes from a very large family (he's one of 9 children, and his dad is one of 12) and we all get together and cook and share a meal. My grandparent's house isn't huge, so there are people everywhere and so much great food and fellowship. There is just nothing like it and I live for those family times.

3.  My signature Thanksgiving dish is... Fruit Salad! It was my job in the kitchen many years ago and it stuck, so now I always help cut everything up and get the cream whipped. Yum!

4.  My favorite Thanksgiving food is... Cheesy potatoes. My Aunt Sandy makes the best potatoes I've ever had. The first year I took my now husband along I told him about them, but he missed them on the first pass and by the time he was ready for seconds they were gone! Now we laugh when we got here because he ALWAYS makes sure to get some of her potatoes! And Aunt Rosanne makes some killer rolls, too. There is honestly so much good food it's hard to limit my favorites!

5.  Thanksgiving free association!  Turkey, potatoes, family, travel, love, happy, weight gain ;)

6.  Thansgiving is... So much fun! I love time with family and the kick off of a season of love and happiness.

7.  I am thankful for... My husband, my parents, my family, my puppies, our jobs, our house, friends, and the abundance of love we have in our lives!


Head on over to the little things we do and link up, but most importantly have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

A trip down memory lane: My first quilt

I am full swing into Christmas quilts, and I know many of those who are getting homemade things from me this year read here (Hi Mom! ;) ) so I'm going to be pretty light on new content over the next few weeks. I'll probably do a few sneak peaks of bits and pieces here and there, but for the most part I thought I'd go back and show you some of the quilts I've done in the past.

I've fairly new to the quilting world, but not at all new to quilting and crafting in general. I am lucky enough to have wonderful mother who has taken all sorts of time to show me how to sew, knit, quilt, cook, and pretty much anything else you'd need to know. Growing up, she'd always let us pick up a counted cross stitch kit or skein of yarn when we were out and about. It gave me so much appreciation for the hand crafts and lots of skills I'm so thankful to have now that I'm an adult.

Fast forward to early 2009. My husband and I were over at my parents house for a weekend dinner when I mentioned something about sewing. Longs story short, they offer to let me take my Dad's aunts old sewing machine and table home to play around with. It was so much fun to play with and I fell in love with the idea of quilting again. One of my dearest friends had just announced she was pregnant with their first, and would be having a little girl that summer. I got really excited about the idea of making a quilt for her. On my birthday in April, my mom took the day off and we had a mother-daughter day and I got to pick where we spent the day. My big choice was the fabric store. I asked her to help me pick out fabrics and a pattern for this quilt and I love what we came up with. I whipped up this little beauty and was able to give it to my friend at her baby shower.

Man I tell long stories! (I'd apologize, but, hey, it is my blog! :) ) Here is the quilt!

*I have to put in a little plug here for my friend, Ingrid Barlow. This is one of her many amazing quilt patterns! She has a great website with lots of tricks, recipes and general crafty goodness. I love checking in with her on Monday's because she does a great thing called "Movie Monday" where she offers some tips for the week. She's like a Midwestern, crafty Pioneer Woman. Her tag line is "quilting for the modern traditionalist" - right up my alley!

(I'm on the left, new momma's on the right)

Overall, I'm thrilled with my first quilt. I wasn't adventurous enough to do any quilting on it, but the colors are great and fun for a baby girl. (They remind me of those pastel wedding mints) The only bummer is that I know it is stuffed in a closet some where and hasn't seen the light of day. One of those hard lessons as a quilter, I guess, is that not everyone wants a quilt or will use one. All I can do is hope that someday she'll be cleaning out things from her mom and dad and find it and at least know that someone loved her and spent time making it for her.

Happy quilting!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I am SO excited to be linking up to my first quilt festival! I love looking at all the amazing quilts made by others, so I hope you enjoy a peek into my quilting life as well!

It is really easy for me to pick my favorite quilt. The Hope Valley fabrics jumped into my bag during a trip to my local fabric store this spring. Don't you just hate it when fabric some how jumps in without you knowing?! My husband thinks I may have something wrong with me because it happens all the time! :) Anyway, the fabric sat in my sewing room for a few months and I just couldn't find the right project for it.

My husband and I have been trying for a baby, and as with most great things in life, it's taking a little while. One Saturday this summer, he was gone at Poker Night with his guy friends and I was surfing the internet. I pulled up Facebook and found that yet another friend was pregnant. As happy as I was for them, it was hard to hear that yet again it was someone else's turn and not mine. After a good few minutes of sulking, my eye caught the fabric. I decided that although I couldn't do anything about when our little one would arrive, I could make something for them. The evening turned into a wonderful time of prayer and thinking about my hopes and dreams for this little one. Before I knew it, the quilt top was done and I LOVED it! I went to the fabric store the next day and got the backing and this quilt now happily sits in a drawer that I'm slowly filling with things for a baby. I can't wait for the day it will be puked on and loved on! :)

Without further ado, here's the quilt!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out tons of other projects at Amy's Creative Side!

Love Dare Quilt

My husband and I have been working our way through "The Love Dare" by Alex and Stephen Kendrick. It's been great so far and we're learning lots of new things about each other and our marriage. Each day, the book give you a little devotional, followed by a "dare". The idea is to step outside of your comfort zone and do something out of the ordinary for your spouse. One of the dares was to buy your spouse something that shows them you love them that you wouldn't normally do. Well, my wonderful husband bought me fabric! I was so surprised and so excited. He did a great job picking out fabric and I've really had fun putting it together. Every time I look at it it makes me smile to think of him picking it out just for me. :)

It looks pink in the picture, but it's much more deep orange in person.

I'm really happy with how it turned out! I'm thinking about putting a brown border on to tie it together a bit more. Thoughts?

Happy Fabric Tuesday!

Wall Hanging

My craft room is also my office, which is also our guest bedroom so I've been thinking of a way to spruce it up a bit and add a quilt. Much to no ones shock, I found these blues and greens and fell in love with them. They really add some warmth to our office/bedroom/craft room!

I used a triangle log cabin pattern. They are so much fun to play around with and decide how to place the blocks!

I am married to a wonderful guy who often doubles as my "crafty consultant" and helps me pick when I can't make a decision. He swayed me to have the blue triangles prominent and I love how it turned out!

Now it hangs above our desk and I love to look up at it! There is nothing like a quilt to make a house feel more like home!

Happy Monday! I've got a few projects I'll be working on tonight to show off for Fabric Tuesday tomorrow!

Baby Girl Quilt

It's fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory! Here's what I've been working on today

I recently finished a quilt I know I can't part with, so it now sits in my "someday baby drawer" along with some other things I've picked out for our hopefully not-so-in-the-future critter. Since it was definitely a boy quilt, I wanted to make one for a little girl to have in my drawer as well. (By the way, honey, consider this another mention of how I'd love a hope chest instead of a drawer to keep this all in. I'm not saying, but Christmas is coming soon... :) ) Without further ado, here's my baby girl quilt!

The pattern is called New Waves from Oh, Fransson! She has lots of beautiful, modern patterns that I just love and has a new book coming out soon that I can't wait to get my hands on!

I spent a lot of time trying to find the right color for the back. I wanted the quilt to be obviously girly, but not too pink. The yellow I ended up with (Kona in banana) works well, I think, at keeping it female but not too babyish and pink. I like it, and I guess that's all that matters :)

I'm so excited to have this quilt done. I hope it will be a great companion to a sweet little girl someday!

His and Hers Table Runners

My husband, Dan's best friend, Mark, is getting married down south this fall, so when he and his fiancée flew home and had an open house I wanted to make them something special. I toyed with lots of different ideas, but after stumbling across this fabric at my local fabric store, I just knew I had to make something for them with it.

You see, Mark works at NASA and lives and breathes all things space. He and Dan are two of the biggest nerds you'll ever meet (Anyone seen "Big Band Theory"? Yep - that was my life while dating Dan, who lived with Mark, through out college!) They love finding things for each other that play on their nerdiness. For example, Dan bought Mark a Darth Vader wearing a Santa hat bobble head for his desk. I could go on and on, but I digress. Suffice it to say that I knew Mark would just love these space fabrics. :)

I had a hard time finding table runner patterns that were playful enough to go with the playful fabric, but still adult enough that it might actually get used. (You know, in case Mark's fiancée was feeling nice on his birthday or something :) ) I finally found one that I loved on my favorite free patterns and ideas website: modabakeshop.com. Click here to go to the tutorial I used.

I love the way it turned out and it went together so fast!

I love this table runner, but thought it probably wouldn't get much use after they were married, so I decided to make a "Hers" version that was more usable in everyday life. I haven't been to their house (yet) but I knew her kitchen was in reds, so I set off to find the right fabrics. I found the Bliss line by Bonnie and Camille and knew it was the one. I ordered a candy bar pack (because I've been looking for a reason to order some Fandango too!) and was able to put this together in just a few short hours. I didn't have enough to make the same pattern as "His", but I essentially made the center part and gave it a bigger border to make it close in size.

Isn't it beautiful?! I love how it reads as red, but isn't too over powering. It's perfect to bring a little life to the kitchen table!

Just because, here are pictures of them together:

I love taking the time to make things for friends. I hope they become worn and loved pieces of their house that bring smiles to those who see them. I wish you a long and happy marriage, Mark and Lacy, and hope God brings you joy at every turn. I'm thankful the distance won't interfere with our friendship. And Lacy: I'm praying for you and all the nerd paraphernalia you're about to acquire. Maybe together we can get them a storage shed to keep it all in! :)

Hope Valley

I love my local quilt shop and stop in as often as I can (or as often as my husband will let me! :) ). They have great fat quarter bundles of almost all their fabric, which is great for quilters like me who want the variety of the whole line, but don't want to lug 10 bolts up to the counter. I was walking through this summer and was struck by Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line. I bought it with no idea what to do with it, but after staring at it in my stash I finally decided to make it up the other week.

I made a stacked coin quilt, with white sashing between the rows. I love how this quilt turned out!

I free motion quilted this quilt. Here it's fresh out of the dryer and wonderfully crinkly!

For the back, I used a green solid to contrast the dark blues and grays on the front. When ever I have to piece the back of a quilt together, I try and put scraps from the top of the quilt in where the seam would be. I like it because it makes the back interesting and gives you something to look at on each side of the quilt.

The back and front together. I love the color tones - so masculine and modern, but warm at the same time.

This quilt is a definite favorite and now anxiously sits in a drawer in our master bedroom, waiting for a little one to come and love it!

A New Beginning

I love to spend my time gawking at other quilting blogs, so I figured now was as good a time as any to get my own up and running! I've got the quilting bug bad these days and look forward to sharing my many projects with you!