And so it begins!!

I started my holiday gift making in earnest today. When I make gifts I like them to be cute and useful and these fit the bill. Plus they are nice and easy on the wallet. I bought a box of Microwaveable Soy Wax with my 50% off coupon at Michaels. I had my reservations because the directions made it sound like you had to fill them part way, come back later after they had cooled , poke holes in the surface to release air bubbles and then top it off. It also said that it might have trouble adhering to some surfaces. It made it sound sort of finicky. I wanted it to be more one step than that. But I bought a box anyways, brought it home and tried it out. I will say that they looked so smooth and pretty and then I poked the surface like they said and poured more wax over it and they ended up all lumpy looking. Then I poured one just straight to the top and that one is perfect. So one step it is and they haven't had any trouble in the containers I used. I bought my containers at a thrift store which had a huge selection of darling orphan glasses and teacups for good and cheap. I found some more modern looking mugs too for my mid century modern friends. I used essential oils to scent them and it worked great. I think it is a nice touch to add a little pretty paper wrapped match box. I went and bought two more boxes of wax tonight so I know what I am doing this weekend! Ack!! Gotta run! Glee starts in 10 minutes!!

Birthday gift for a world class napper

It was my father in laws birthday not too long ago so I made him this quilt for his daily nap. He is still working as an engineer and has a lot of get up and go and I think it might be because he makes sure to get a few winks mid day every day. Reason enough for me to subscribe to his plan.

I love this print- it is an Alexander Henry and I love all the great colors. The pattern is a Valori Wells. He loved it! So any suggestions as to what to make him for Christmas? I am all ready to start getting my Christmas crafting on!

Thank you!!!

Thank you so much for all of the sweet sweet comments and emails about Party Dress! I can't tell you how fun it was to finally put it out into the world and get such kind support from out in Bloglandia. My Blue Hill friends tell me it was a wonderful market and we got some good orders so I couldn't be more pleased. As a special thank you I embroidered these little flowers from Diamond Garden and this weekend I will put a free pdf together so if anyone else wants to stitch them up, they will be right here for you. Have a great weekend!!

Sort of like a birthday!

It feels sort like a birthday because there has been many many months of preperation and thought and effort that went into all of this. I have kept this in the bag for a long time now, but today is the day I get to spill the beans! I have wanted to do my own line of fabric for about forever and it has finally come together. I am so excited (and nervous!) to be putting this out in the world finally! I have partnered with Blue Hill Fabrics and couldn't be happier to be working with such wonderfully nice people. So I would like to introduce to you, Party Dress!

Fiesta is the first colorway- bright and fun and a little more saturated. There are nine prints total in three colorways. When I was a kid, you had play clothes and school clothes and party dresses. Everyday was for those Hee Haw overalls (yes, really!) and special days you got to bring out the beautiful dresses and shiny shoes that you had to save for only the best and funnest of days. I wanted the collection to have that fun and celebratory feel to it.

This print (above) is called Diamond Garden and it was the first one I really hashed out and the rest of the collection drafted off of it. I can't wait to see a big huge piece of it in fabric!

I made these sheets to show what the fabrics would look like pieced next to each other and the folks at Blue Hill said, let's do this as a print. I love that idea and can't wait to make a baby quilt with a big fat ruffle edge on it with it.


Here is Shindig. I love blue and I think this came together nicely with those pretty greens and that little hot pop of pink.




And last but not least, a nice softer version, Soiree. It is the first colorway I did when I was working the designs up. I used to be an apparel designer and I designed a lot of these with girl's clothes in mind. Though my daughter would like a set for her bedroom out of this.







So there you have it! I am so excited to say that Blue Hill will be showing it at Quilt Market this week! I won't be able to make it there myself this time but do go and say hi to Dan and Roger in booths 956-960. I hope so much that it makes you want to sew up something cute for someone special! Thanks for hanging on to the end of this post and thanks for indulging me with my big reveal! And I have to say Thanks to Kristin for all of her help and support on this and Paula was very helpful too! Thanks girls!
Hmmmm- blogger seems to be cutting off some of the pictures- If you click on them you can see the whole thing. I will need to fix that!

Favorite new old toy

My dad had this great old typwriter and asked if I wanted it. I said yes thinking it would be really fun for me. I didn't even think about how much the kids would love it. They love to write on it and think it is just the coolest toy in the house right now. He sat down the other day and typed out all the Greek Gods he could recall from memory so not only is it entertaining, it is educational too! I can't believe the ribbon still has ink in it. I need to order a new one soon though. Note to self: call for haircut appt. for him next week...

And how pretty are these dalhias? Cafe Au Lait dinnerplates? I think they look so great with the chocolate cosmos but I think everything looks great with chocolate cosmos. And dig my new vase. 50 cents at a rummage sale last weekend. It has orange gladiolas in it right now and I love it.

DQS 7 Received!

I LOVE the houses! Here is my doll quilt that I received in the swap. Handmade by the lovely Lois.

I love the colors and the log cabin with the sweet little houses. I love doing swaps like these because you always end up with something different than what you would have put together yourself. Just a different way of looking at things. And I love it!

Love the orange in this one and the sweet little tree.

DQS 7

Here are photos of my Doll Quilt Swap 7 that I sent out. I made the block from the Spider Web Quilt that is in the recent Sew Hip. I just bought the magazine not too long ago so you can probably still get it. It looks like a really fun quilt. You would actually put several of these blocks together to make the spiderwebs- you can see them forming in the corners. My partner said she liked black and pink and lime green and I had lime green fabrics to add to this but they never made it in. I hope she likes it!


Here is the full view with the binding. I was able to use all fabrics from my stash, which is always fun. I can't wait to get mine in the mail. I keep looking at the flikr group and finding ones I like and hoping that one of them ends up on my doorstep!