New Fabric

This week I braved the quilt shop with my 2 boys. This is the reason I don't go to the quilt shop very often! I was in and out within 5 minutes, not nearly long enough, but long enough to get some yummy fabric.

It's the Moda Daydreams line by Deb Strain - you can see the whole line here. Just gorgeous. I am particularly in love with the wallpaper prints. I want to make a bag with these. A nice big one that I can take to church with my piano music, snacks for the kids, activities/books etc. So really, it must be big!

Also, I thought you'd like to see what happened in our bathroom yesterday...
Can you see the chunk out of the front? There is another one at the top. And can you see the scissors and hair in the background?

I know, hilarious, but it gets better...my hubby later said, "I think I just realized what happened". Our son had noticed hubby's receding hairline and said, "Daddy you need some more hair there". Then he disappeared and well, you know the rest!

A Very Pink Valentine's Day

Today it is only fitting that we celebrate with the color pink!

Above is part of a block I have appliqued, with of course, what else, a pink heart!

And then we have the pink playdough I made today for my kids to play with. I grew up with my Mum making homemade playdough all the time, but I realized I have never made it for my own children! So today was the day and it was a HUGE success - they were completely overwhelmed by how much they had - not a little tub of it but a big bag-full!

And the most recent additions to my quilt room - some pretty little containers - and they were only $1 each so how could I stop at just one?! And my new trash can which is meant to be an umbrella stand, but really, isn't it the most perfect quilt room trash can ever?!!

Great thread day

Firstly, I don't have a pic of Sofia's quilt to show today as all the projects are being kept at school for a week. So more to come on that come the end of the week.
Also, your comments were so great - Sofia LOVED reading them!

Onto business....I went on a little bidding spree on Ebay last week and bought 2 sewing tins filled with threads and nic nacs. The first tin cost me $5.99 and second was $4.99. I was the only bidder and think I got a bargain! This is the first pretty tin and the contents - lots of ric rac and bias bindings... When you bid on Ebay you hope that what you bought will meet expectations and not be a dud. My purchases exceeded my expectations! And especially my hubby's - he thought I had bought just the tins with nothing in them. Silly man :) Not only did the second tin have a ton of cotton thread in it, but it also had some spools of silk thread
Both cotton and silk are perfect for needleturn applique, so I was super excited about that! And so many beautiful colors too. My kids have had the best time this weekend stacking them, making towers, and rolling them around. I let them play with the cotton threads but my precious silk ones were out of bounds!

Another bonus for me is that the threads are all on the old wooden spools. Reminds me so much of my childhood. I remember my Mum would put nails into the big wooden spools and I would do knitting - I think we called it French Knitting? Where you wrap the yarn around the nails and flip it over and a tail comes out of the bottom. I'm sure someone can explain this better than I? So I am excited to do this with my kids, now that I have my hands on some wooden spools!

We are all home sick today. It's been a horrible weekend with everyone coughing and sneezing and not a lot of sleep going on. I was up every 15 mins with my youngest on Friday night. It reminded me of why I don't want to have another baby!!

Hopefully I can get lots of quilting done this week. Grand plans and all. I'd love to have some good eye-candy for you all finally!

I can't believe it!

I NEVER imagined that those crooked rows would turn into the sweetest little quilt. Next time 7 year old Sofia tells me to leave it alone, I will! Tonight she learnt how to audition fabrics for the borders, and how to sew them on and hold onto the ends so it all stays nice and even.

Tomorrow we will finish it up. Layer, quilt, and bind it. Stay tuned!

Rows sewn together

Sofia got her rows all sewn together! It was a very hard experience for me. I just wanted to rip out all the wonky and too-big seams and make it all neat and straight, and have all the seams meeting up perfectly. But when I suggested it to her she teared up and said, "But Mum it's only the first quilt I've ever made - I don't know how to do it right yet"! So I decided that it's more important that she has a great experience making this quilt than learn correct piecing. That will come with time. Right now I want her to gain a love of quilting!

So we sewed those rows together, me guiding the fabric and her pushing the foot pedal. That was very interesting trying to get those two things in sync!

Next step tonight is to square it up (that will be an experience in itself!) and put some borders on. I actually can't believe it's as flat as it is! A lot of the end pieces will be mostly gone, but there will still be 100 squares in there, I promise....then tomorrow we will quilt it!

Even 7 year olds can quilt!

My daughter has their 100th day of school celebration coming up this Friday. They have been instructed to make something with 100 objects. The other children are making things with sugarcubes, toothpicks, straws, you name it! But not my girl - oh no, she wanted to make something with 100 squares of fabric. Yay I have trained her correctly!!

A friend of mine had given Sofia a bunch of fabric scraps on Friday, so Sofia picked the ones she wanted to use for her little quilt and I cut them out for her. 100 2 inch squares. We decided to make a little doll quilt, and on Saturday night she lined up her squares in front of my machine and together we sewed the first row. I taught her how to line up the edges just so, and she sat on my knee and did the actual sewing. You will notice how nice and straight that first row is :) Then I showed her how to start with the 2nd fabric for the 2nd row, and so on. Then I left her by herself and came upstairs. About an hour later she came up with 10 rows of squares sewn together! I must say, I was mightily impressed - yes the rows are crooked, and yes she messed up a bit with the order of the fabrics, but I think it's just darling and we are going to sew it all together as is! I should also mention that she did all of that sewing on my Juki 98Q which is not an ordinary domestic machine - it is one fast beast!

I will have updated pics as the work progresses. Tonight she irons the rows and sews them together. This will be interesting!