A New Year

Ahh, I adore the freshness of a new year. I hope it's starting out great for all of you. I feel so hopeful that I'll:

1. Be more organized
2. Be nicer
3. Complete more
4. Have a better memory
5. Find more time 
6. And so on and so forth

I never really change year to year, but I always feel hopeful that it's possible - at least through January. By February, I've realized that I'm pretty much the same, but that's still pretty great.

I did actually complete quite a few things in December, so maybe I was most of those things already? Anyhow, I finished that baby quilt I mentioned last month. Oh, so pleased with it! But how could anyone do a bad job with such a fun feature fabric and such a great pattern. Star sashing is one of my favorite piecing patterns and it's just perfect when you want to feature a fun juvenile print like this monkey one. Plus, I was lucky enough to find the exact same print in a flannel for the backing. So cozy! I feel pretty confident that mama and baby are loving it right now!



I loved the pairing of the monkey and the polka dot fabrics.
Inspired, if I do say so myself!



A finished project is always a treat. One this cute is especially wonderful.

There's nothing cozier than a flannel-backed quilt! Ahhhh!





Mama's Got a Brand New Bag. . .and Wallet

All my favorite colors - and of course they
coordinate with my carrot bag charms!

About a year ago, just after I opened my shop, I designed a tote bag that I wanted to offer for sale. Before selling most items I make, I give them a trial run to make sure I like the design and that they hold up well and function as expected. So, I dutifully made myself one of my Perfect Big Sis totes and have been carrying it day in and day out for a year (I've never been the type to switch bags often or coordinate my bag with anything, like my clothes. I just use one bag until I'm forced to retire it.) My bag has held up so well and its use has provided me hoards of information so that I can continuously work to perfect the design. And now I've decided that it's time for me to make a new bag for myself. And so I did - I made my dream bag (I have indeed actually been dreaming and thinking about it for months!)

I simply love just taking this out of my
bag and opening it - simple pleasures!

Making a new bag also provided me with the opportunity to make a matching wallet in a new design I have been working on for a few weeks. It is a billfold-type wallet with space for six credit cards, business cards, or IDs and space for money. I'm very pleased with the design, but I want to use it for a few weeks before I introduce any to my shop. It's such a fun process to design and make and test and redesign and make and . . . ahhhh!

The card slots in this wallets are SO fun to make!

Quilting in the Rain

OK, I wasn't really quilting in the rain, but it was gray and rainy outside this past Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, so I decided to spend some time making a couple mini quilts for two wonderful friends of mine. This first one is for a friend who is very fond of bright colors. I thought it would be fun to pair a bright, bold pieced tumbler block background with a white flower applique. I named this one "SummerSault" as a little play on the tumbler block and summer flower and colors. This one will is in the mail on the way to its new home!

This second one was so fun to make. It is for a very fun friend who loves Converse All Stars / Chuck Taylors. I've had this quilt in my mind for quite a while now - about a year! - and I've finally got it down on fabric. I wanted to try something a bit three-dimensional and I think it turned out really great! It's definitely a technique I'll use often. The way I did it was to make some parts of the shoe little quilts in and of themselves: pieced front, batting, and

backing - and then instead of sewing the whole piece down, I only sewed parts of it, so that the rest would stick up a bit and give the piece dimension. Then, once I had the whole shoe pieced together, I backed it again with batting and backing before sewing the whole thing to the main quilt. I'm probably not explaining it well, but in my mind it was a very easy process - though I'm sure there are lots of other ways to do it, too! This little baby is called "You're an All-Star" because, well, it just makes sense, plus the recipient really is an all-star in my book! Wish I could see her face when she receives it!

I had fun this weekend and kept myself busy. You know what they say about idle hands, right?