Pillow swap and Quilt Retreat!

So, I know it has been awhile since I posted. I've even had a few friends ask me about it. I guess the time has just got away from me. I am going to try to post much more regularly in the future.

The  DSMMQG arranged a pillow swap challenge. We exchanged out completed pillows at the April meeting. Here is the pillow that I made for Veronica.

She is in my small group and has been involved in several bees where she asked for aqua, red, and gray. So I knew she loved this color combination.

This was the first time I ever made a pillow. It was very fun and I can see why some people make loads of them! Now I just need to try a zipper. Emma was great at retreat and walked me through installing one in a little bag she was making.

I received this cute little pillow from Etta. I just love the colors!

I also went to a retreat this month with my small group, except for Dawn who was at guard. We had a great time sewing and socializing. It is always so great to hang out with a bunch of people who have the same love for quilts as you!

Back row L-R Teresa, Veronica, Me
Front row L-R Emma and Lisa

I made this Berenstein Bear pillow case for my little guy. He picked out all the fabric and made sure I brought it along. We took the front rails off his crib the day after I got back and he wanted a new big pillow and case for his big guy bed. Now the challenge is keeping him in bed every night. Him and big brother now think that bedtime is party time!

My small group is doing the Farmer's Wife quilt along this year. So, I worked on some more blocks. All I got made was five. The green and yellow one took me at least 3 hours! All the little pieces and sewing backwards and flipping the pices the wrong way under the paper. Thankfully I had good company to talk me through it.

These are the Farmer's Wife blocks that I made last month.

Sorry about the light in these block pictures. I had to take them fast because they kept blowing away. I am trying to do one a week. I'm not sure how many I will do yet. I'll have to figure out what size quilt I want to end up with. I think 50 is a good lap size. I'll see how long the project keeps my interest. I am loving choosing the fabric and color combinations for each block. The fabrics are mainly Art Gallery and Mark Lipinski with some Kate Spain and others thrown in.

I am linking up to  

and

Progress from my 1st Friday Night Sew-In

As promised, here is what I did last night for my 1st Friday Night Sew-In.






As I mentioned in a prior post, my small groups', Seams Sew Easy, challenge for September was to try something new. I was thinking about doing curves, but then I remembered that I had purchased a Christmas embroidery pattern about a year ago. I have been wanting to learn for awhile now, and since Christmas is creeping up on us, I figured "why not".  I watched a couple how to videos at We Love French Knots. On Sunday night I put on stabilizer and traced the pattern on my light box. This was extremely difficult. I came to find out at our meeting on Wednesday night that I had used the stabilizer for machine embroidery. So, for my next project I will be buying some much thinner stabilizer!

Here is the pattern that I am working on. I am hoping to finish it by Christmas. (Yes 2011)

The pattern shows a pillow, but I am thinking a wall hanging will work much better in this household with the two little guys and all.

Here is my progress from Monday and Friday nights. Not too bad for a newbie, heh?

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Hopefully I can make this a regular thing and get some WIPs done.

Our November group challenge is to have a Christmas present all finished! I have been working on designing the Brown Bear quilt for my little guy tonight. I have a pattern worked up. I'll see if I still like it tomorrow, and if so I will start cutting!

In other news, I quit my job on Tuesday and after training someone on my accounts for the next month or so, I will be a stay at home mom! No more crazy tax seasons! I will have time to sew between December and April 15th!

Check out all the cool projects at

Pattern Challenge

This is the quilt that my small group Seams Sew Easy made for the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild show challenge. The 2011 DMAQG Quilt Show Challenge was for the guild to make 150 patriotic quilts by the time of the quilt show, which is September 28th through October 1st (our show is in conjunction with the AQS show). The quilts will be donated to the residents of the Veterans Home in Des Moines before Veterans Day in November. All of the quilts will be displayed at the show.  

As my last post stated, my small group had a challenge for our September meeting, that was held on Thursday night, to make a project from a book or magazine pattern. Here are every one's projects.

This is Veronica's cute little bag! I love her fabric choices!

Here is the quilt that Emma is working on. She still has a couple more rows to attach. This was the size of her new design wall that her husband made for her. All the pinks are so pretty!

Here is Lisa's casserole bag unfolded and ready to load. Don't you just love the cupcake fabric? It makes me hungry for chocolate every time I look at it!

Here it is folded and all ready to go! She can use this to bring something to our potluck next month.

Teresa made 2 bags out of this laminated bright blue floral fabric. They will be great for her to use when she travels. She's thinking of making some more for gifts for her family for Christmas.

Dawn did not have a project to share. She just got back from serving in Afghanistan a little over a month ago. We were just so happy to have her home safe and back in our little group! We missed you so much Dawn!

Here is my finished project. It is from the Motif book by Jeri Kelly. I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a quilt for my dad. Well, I got it all cut out on Monday night and realized there was no way I was going to have it done by Thursday night (unless I didn't sleep or work!). So I decided on another project that I have been wanting to do for awhile. I have had this book for over a year and want to do many of the little quilts to hang up in my house for the different seasons. I decided to start with fall so I could hang it up right away!

Now I just have to work on my Habitat challenge for this Thursday...

Shop Hop

The local quilt shops had customer appreciation days last weekend. So...I went on a little shop hop!

The first shop I went to was Creekside Quilting in Clive, Iowa. I found some great bright, fun prints. I already have a pattern picked out for that Kate Spain Layer Cake.

The 2nd shop I went to was The Quilt Block in West Des Moines, Iowa. I found some fun black and white, gray, and orange fabrics.

Adel Quilting and Dry Goods in Adel, Iowa was the 3rd stop of the day. They had a lot of cool black and white prints. I have been collecting them for a while now to make a quilt. But, I haven't decided yet on a focal color to use. Any suggestions?

The last store of the day was Quilter's Cupboard in Ankeny, Iowa. They had some great bright floral prints. I had to really control myself here! I of course had to pick up a couple purple fabrics. Ahem-I have a little thing for purple...

The next day I stopped by Quilting Connection in Ames, Iowa. I finally found some eagle fabric for the back of little guys Brown Bear quilt. Yeah, I know those have nothing to do with each other, but he LOVES eagles! I had to pick up the Robert Kaufman Veranda Ten Square. Those fabrics were just so yummy. They also have some yardage that I might have to go back for when I figure out what I want to do with it.

The next day me and my big guy drove over to Jefferson, Iowa for their semi-annual quilt show. I picked up a few more things at the vendors that were there. There were a lot of great quilts to look at.

Here is my shopping buddy. After the quilt show we stopped at Dairy Queen for treats. He asked "Mom, when is the next quilt show that we can go to?" Ahh-Gotta love him!

Now I better finish cutting out the quilt for my dad. Me and my small group, Seams Sew Easy, have a challenge due at our meeting on Thursday. The challenge is to do a quilt or project from a book or magazine pattern that we have been wanting to do for awhile. I picked the fabrics and pattern out for this project almost a year ago, so it definitely qualifies. I'll already have one Christmas present done!