Last year for our quilt group challenge I made a quilt with little girl's dresses hanging on clothesline. We were challenged to use this 50's laundry fabric, which I had no hard time doing. This is a really awful picture that I took last August when I put this quilt in our local quilt show. I'm going to hang it up at some point, for a while anyway, either in my entry way or sewing room. When I do that I'll take a better picture. But you get the general idea. All the dresses are embellished in some way.

I started out basting the dresses for applique on this off white fabric shown above but it just didn't go with the theme fabric for the challenge so I changed to plain Kona snow for the background of the dresses. However, before I realized my mistake I had already basted 8 dresses on the off white fabric tone on tone. These 8 have been in my orphan block bin and a few weeks ago I dug them out to start the applique. Then this weekend I finished the embellishment.I liked fussy cutting out fun little novelty swatches to applique on the dresses and adding trim. I think I'll make these 8 into a baby quilt and so I can't put buttons on or any trim that isn't sewn on very securely.
This one has a little dog pocket and then a fussy cut dog near the hem. The most fun is picking out things to fussy cut for the embellishment.

These sew up really pretty fast. We watched a movie called "The Prestige" and even though I had to concentrate pretty hard on the plot I was still able to finish them. I'm confused about the ending of the movie, though, so thats what I get.

These two have rick rack and lace sewn on as well as a strawberry on the green with bows and lion's head on the other. I also fray check here and there on some of little items added.

I'm not quite sure how I'll join the blocks. I'll probably sash them and then use this border with the little girls playing house with their doll clothes. Its a fun project. I really try to use all my orphan blocks and over time I usually find a use.

Another reminder - today and tomorrow you can still enter the drawing for the give-away for the 2 kits with springtime umbrellas. Just leave a comment and you'll be added. - nanette

Read More

First thing a reminder - leave a comment between now and April 1 to enter the drawing for a spring umbrella quilt kit. I've had wonderful feedback on this project and its fun to have good participation. Thank you for the great comments. They are really very uplifting and fun to read.
Here are my 8 Dear Jane blocks so far. I'm caught up to the group. I don't have much seam allowance on the bottom far left block but oh well. I would never have attempted a project like this on my own. I bow to Anina who leads the group and instructs each block in the Dear Baby Jane Blog. She puts so much work into her instructions. I am enjoying the 2 block a week pace she has set. The blocks are on top of the gray fabric I'm going to use for sashing. I decided if I'm going to go Civil War I'm going all the way with a drab look. I didn't want to use black and I didn't want to use muslin so this gray seemed like a good choice.

My self-imposed fabric diet isn't going so well. I'm obviously terrible with diets and this one is no different. But there's always another Monday to start again. Right?
I got some Superbuzzy fabric this week along with some from Fat Quarter Shop. I'd be okay if they would stop getting in such great fabric! Its not my fault. I can't resist dots and kitchen fabric. I just can't.
I also got a Jolly Pack of Bees Knees, some of Glenna's fabric. She's redoing her website and going to list her feed sacks differently so I'm wondering what she will have when the change over is made. She's got such a fabulous selection. She's bad for my diet, too.

I finished my Bunny Hill table runner but I gave it to my mother-in-law today and didn't get a photo of it first. I wanted her to wash it first and e-mail me a picture so I'll post it when she sends it to me. It turned out so cute. I may do another one it was so fun. We had a belated Easter Egg hunt at my in-laws and I got a very very special egg! I'll save that for a future post. Maybe. Some things are almost too wonderful to brag about.

Have a great weekend.

- nanette

Read More

Isn't it fun to win something! It doesn't happen that often so its always very special to be a winner. Jane at Posy had a drawing for these lovely cleaning cloths. They are just darling. And I won one! Yayy. Thanks Jane. I've been a reader of her blog for some time now and I'm an admirer of all she does.

I've been thinking about doing our own give-away for some time now. Next week is the first week in April and to celebrate spring and April I am giving away some quilt kits. I will be picking 1 winner for the full sized April Showers quilt kit and 1 winner for the flag/banner size kit of April Showers/May Flowers. The winners will get kits that will include a pattern and materials/fabric to make the front of the quilts.

This is the larger quilt. The fabrics will be slightly different but this is mostly representative of what it will look like.

This is the small banner. This is called April Showers/May Flowers. The flowers I have to put on the bottom of the quilt are different than this picture, they are better I think.

I'll be using some of these fabrics to make the 2 kits that will be mailed off to 2 of you. I also have some other fabric I may choose from that isn't pictured.

All you have to do to enter the give-away is leave a comment between today and through April 1 - Tuesday of next week. On Wednesday, April 2nd I will name the winners. Tell your friends and spread the word, anyone that leaves a comment in the next 6 days is eligible.

That wonderful T at Purple and Paisley gave us an "I love your blog" award. She's so great. I love her blog, too. And a few weeks ago Rima gave us a "You make my Day" award. Rima leaves such nice comments, she always make my day! Its a good time to combine those two awards and pass them on.

There are so many great blogs out there and I get such sweet comments from so many people its very hard to choose. I award Diane at Out of the Loop Group - she has been a blog reader of mine from the beginning and is so supportive of all our posts. And get this!!! She's having a give-away, too. So run over to Diane 's give-away post and leave a comment and you can be entered in 2 give-aways today. Also to Darlene at Quilting Daze - she does some great work and is also very encouraging, and Anina at Dear Baby Jane - she is working her heart out for all of us following the Dear Jane project. They are all such great bloggers and people and helpful in their own way. They get both awards.

-nanette

Read More

Our local quilt group meets once monthly on the last Tuesday of the month. I have been forgetting to take my camera but finally I remembered it last night. Our group has gone through several names and I think the latest is "That Alpine Group". First on the agenda is items of business and then we move right into show-n-tell. Our show-n-tell is fabulous. The caliber of talent in our group is unbelievable. I didn't photograph everything because sometimes I was too busy talking or appliquéing.

My show-n-tell was my Vintage Christmas quilt by Elizabeth. Its always fun to show something you have worked on and are proud of.
We had a few new girls there last night and this quilt was a first quilt for one of the girls. She did a great job.
This quilt is a wedding quilt for one of the women's son and daughter-in-law. I love the colors and the 2 color leaves. Its so pretty.
This is Paula's quilt. She's a great appliqué queen. Its her year to be the "boss" of the group.
Speaking of Paula, she chose the Sue Garman Omigosh quilt to have as a project for 2008 for the group. This is what she has done so far (I didn't get all of it in the picture).

And now you can see the scale of the quilt pieces. Unbelievable. I'm not sure how many of the group are working on it but I pretty much gave up before I started. However, the year isn't over yet. We'll see.
Then we had a trunk show by Sandra Cindrich. I have taken a class from Sandra. Her specialty is paper piecing. Here she is peaking out from behind a cute chicken block she made.
This is one of my favorites she showed. I love the little buds and the corners in the blocks. Its so pretty.
I really liked this one, too. Its such a great way to may a 9 patch really special. The tulips are so well done.
This is taken from the back of the room, as are most of the pics. My camera has its limitations in the lighting of the room. Excuse the backs of the women in our group.

Paper pieced, of course.

I took a quilt class for the quilt above from Sandra at a quilt store in Draper called Thimbles and Thread. It seems like I took this class maybe 7 years ago. I made a pillow and some orphan blocks. The class was really fun. Sandra is from West Virginia and her humor is great. I loved taking a class from her but the paper piecing didn't stick to me. I got home and either forgot a lot of it or didn't work on it soon enough after the class to make paper piecing part of me.
I liked this appliqué quilt she brought, too. The purses are so cute on the ladies with hats.

Quilt group is always fun. Next time I'll try to take more pictures and talk less and not sit at the back of the room! (and remember my camera)

-nanette

Read More

Last month Kathie showcased her quilt with a border in cheddar. Now, the cheddar color is not normally one that I would be drawn to but when cheddar is used in a quilt, it makes the whole thing pop. I love Kathie's cheddar quilt and told her I had one too. She urged me to show mine on my blog so here it is.

I made this quilt when the Denise Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy came out. Broadbents, a local quilt shop, asked me to come up with a pattern to showcase the fabric. I wanted to make a simple block to really display the fabric and color variations but also have a bit of scrap look to it.

Since this line of fabric isn't all from the same color palate it already looked kind of scrappy and flea markety so I thought the different lengths of scraps sewn in a strip and placed inside the cheddar border would make the quilt look more random and more like it could have been a vintage quilt bought at a flea market somewhere. I liked the little bows the white made when blocks met, too. It was quilted by Wren Woodland and she quilts many of my larger quilts.

- nanette

Read More

Dave and I took a short several day road trip to southern Utah and the Nevada desert to visit 2 of my sisters, Polly and Michelle. There aren't too many fabric stores along I-15 in Utah but I did stop on our way in Payson Utah at Creek Side Needle Arts. They wouldn't let me take pictures in the shop for my blog, which is a shame because there were some really really cute quilts. My favorite was a Buggy Barn bunny quilt out of Ginger Blossom fabric I was dying to take a picture of. It was really special. I may have to make it. I did manage to buy a few small bit of fabric while I was there.

They have a great selection of cowboy prints and I added these 5 prints on the right to my cowboy fabric stash along with some great dots and others. They had a nice fabric selection there. Too bad no pics.

We went to Toquerville, Utah just north of St. George to visit Polly and her husband Ken. It was fun to see my niece and her family, too. The baby is adorable. Toquerville is a nice little community and my sister and her husband have a lovely home. They always make us feel like special guests.
This picture is taken from the large deck of my sister Michelle's home in between Hiko and Alamo Nevada. They have a lovely new home at their ranch and it was so fun to visit and see everything. They have thousands of acres and their surroundings, though not lush, still have beauty. My brother-in-law Brent was branding cows that day and we got just a peek at that.They have several warm and hot springs in the area there and this warm springs on their property was so amazing. If it had been hotter we may have jumped in.
Their warm spring is right by the Extraterrestrial Highway, of all things! If you keep going up the highway you will hit area 51, though you won't get to see much. Its a very secure area, obviously.
There was a funny little gift house right on the highway with all kinds of memorability from X-Files and scifi movies/shows with this huge robot type of alien outside. It reminded me vaguely of the robot from "The Day the Earth Stood Still". I watched that movie on TV as a little girl and it still scares me to this day even though I know it is just low budget old special effects. When I got home last night I had a great gift waiting for me! Terri at Purple and Paisley had sent me a sweet and wonderful gift.

She machine embroidered a really cute bee emblem with the name of our blog on it! I love it. Its darling. She's such a great and thoughtful friend. Thanks Terri!! It has a special place on my shelves in the sewing room.

Dave and I had a great few days visiting family and taking time off. And when we got home everything was ok, whew. The last time we left home there was a flood waiting for us. Thanks to the older girls for managing everything while we were gone

-nanette

Read More

For my birthday, Whitney got me a book called Felt Forward, put out by Interweave Knits. This book really inspired me. I love using geometry in my designs, so I made a purely geometric bag.

I used different colors of Cascade 220, and Cascade Quatro. I love the subtle color varigation in these yarns and the wonderful way that they knit up.

I used my favorite colors, which are red and green, using the blue and gray to keep it from looking Christmas-y.

On the other side, I used larger circles, which as I sewed them on, I realized I could use as pockets.

I had in mind some leather straps that I purchased from Purl a few weeks ago, but after felting the bag, I realized that they were far too dainty, and decided to felt one large strap - which I think better fits the style of the bag.

It has been fun making it, but I'm glad its done!-

Shelbie

Read More

I've started a spring applique project and I am thinking I can get it done in 1 week? I purchased Anne Sutton's Bunny Hill patten " Table Treats for Spring" and I'm also using Anne's fabric for the outer border. I am still loving little birds.

I'm using the freezer paper method for appliqueing this project. I traced all my applique pieces onto freezer paper and then ironed the paper (slick side down) to the back of the fabric. I cut around the freezer paper/fabric (sticks together when you iron it) leaving a fabric edge about 1/8" all around the edges of the freezer paper. I will pin the pieces in place and use the hard edge of the freezer paper as a guide to tuck the fabric under as I stitch. Then towards the end of the applique I use tweezers to pull out the paper. It works great. I like this method for projects with little pieces. I'm going to use this braid trim for the basket handles and the narrow green rick rack for stems. Its all in a baggie ready to travel with me.

As soon as Anne's Miss Emma's Garden fabric was at the Fat Quarter Shop I ordered 1/2 yard with this project in mind. I love the little yellow/blue birds.

Also I finished some family gifts. The quilt is for my niece Amber's new baby and I made it out of left over Ginger Blossom fabric with lots of others from my stash thrown in so its pretty scrappy but with the same theme as the other tumbler baby quilts I've been making. The two quilted zipper bags are gifts and the envelope bag is to hold diapers/wipes for my other niece Tricia and her new baby.

All fun stuff. - nanette

Read More

I thought I would share some of the good things out there on other blogs today. Cherri at Cherry House Quilts is giving away quilting books. She's giving away 2 every week until she's pared her stash of books down to a manageable size. Go over and leave a comment to get in on the action. She's got some great stuff and you might come away a winner.

Peek in on the vintage book show-and-tell starting at Meet me at Mike's . On the side bar is a whole list of blogs participating in the vintage illustration sharing. They are all so fantastic. I have loved seeing the wonderful drawings. And the banner at Meet me at Mike's is the cutest vintage birds. I'm totally envious of that picture. I want that framed on my wall! Go see it.
Of course I love Dick and Jane. My mother-in-law was a school teacher and let me have my pick of her vintage children's reading books when she retired. I have some great books (mostly put away) but this one called "Happy Times" (so true) has some really cute illustrations along with the sweet and simple writing. Its written in generic Dick and Jane style.

So because I am loving birds right now I looked for some birds in my books. Hey spring is on the way! Mine are not as fabulous as Meet me at Mike's but they are cute and I love the sweet faces of the children, too.


If you go to Eileen's Attic then you can see her books that she is showing and also some of her really cute baby quilt squares. I found the vintage children's book share because I read Eileen's blog.

And now onto appliqué. Jeanette at Piper's in SLC, a local quilt store, has some video clip tutorials. I always love tutorials. Even when I know how to do something I learn something valuable from each one. Expert Village is featuring Jeanette. I took an appliqué class from Jeanette years ago at Piper's. She's done some amazing appliqué that is shown in her store. Stuff way over my head. Jeanette shows a quilt from Anne's Bunny Hill collection that is super cute, too. Jeanette has her master's degree in textiles and has done everything from making bridal gowns to knitting and most everything in between.

She shows English appliqué method in one of the tutorials, which is one method I use. Jeanette shows how to do the process and its well worth watching. She hand bastes her appliqué before needle turning but I machine baste with long stitches.
I clip every 3-4th stitch and pull out the threads as I go. The needle line made from basting makes a great memory place to turn your fabric under with your needle. This is the method Natalie used for her avant garde quilt. I also use the butcher paper method sometimes, depending on what I am appliquéing. I loved all the comments when I talked about appliqué previously on the blog. Its great to turn on your computer and learn new things every day, isn't it? - nanette

Read More