What Do You Do When You Have An Appendicitis? Quilt Of Course!!

I have been super excited to make a quilt for a friend of mine at work that is having a baby boy soon. Her shower was moved up with only a few days warning because baby Parks appears to be considering making his entrance into the world early. (Parks is his first name.) Luckily I already had my fabric gathered and design in mind. I wanted to make a strip quilt like the awesome one I had seen at Film in the Fridge. She has a mini-tutorial about how to make one here: Strip Quilt Tutorial. The problem was I started feeling sick last weekend and I wasn't getting much better.

I had been working this week in pretty bad pain, but didn't go to the doctor because I though I had too much to do this week. (Yes, stupid....I know! I cut all the fabric Tuesday night and pieced the front panel. Wednesday night I put together the back panel, basted the quilt, straight line quilted it, and completed the binding. I was sooooo not feeling awesome, but I thought I was being a Hypercondriac. I broke down and called my doctor Thursday afternoon and was sent straight to the ER. It turns out I have had an Appendicitis all week. They did an emergency Appendectomy immediately. Luckily I should be able to return to work in 3 or 4 days. I even got to come home around midnight the same night.

On a fun note, the surgeon said I had 2 Appendixes! In 20 years of practice he has never seen or heard of that and asked my permission to write it up in a medical journal. One was about to rupture, the other was fine. He took both out. He said I was "one of a kind". My parents have told me I was one of a kind for years, but are normally rolling their eyes at that same time. (haha)

CLICK ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE

The grey and black guitar fabric is Parks nursery fabric. The rest I picked myself. It is a mix of mainly Michael Miller and Moda prints with a couple others thrown in. I love, love, love the final product. (I can say that about my own creation without sounding vain.....right??)

I added 3 more bright strips to the back and bound it with a solid black fabric.

I wanted to include a picture of the piecing process. I literally just started cutting the fabrics into strips ranging from 2-9 inches each with no rhyme or reason to each. Then I laid them out on the bed and my hubbie helped pick the perfect placement for each.

A friend ordered this set as a gift for baby Parks. I made it the morning after my surgery, which provided a great distraction from the pain. He will be quite a stylin' baby boy! 

A Personalized Birthday Present for Mom

Life has gotten even busier and crazier than normal, so I haven't had time to blog lately. I have several things to show from the last few weeks in my upcoming posts. I wanted to start with the pillow I made my mom for her birthday because I was super happy with the final product. She also seemed to love it!


I had an idea of what I wanted and looked all over the web for a pattern, but couldn't find one to match my needs. I decided to make my own, so I made graph paper on Excel and printed it. I then used the graph paper to design the look of the pillow and proportion out each fabric piece before actually cutting any fabric. This worked great.

I used seven different upholstery fabric that each had a different design and texture. The picture just doesn't do the fabrics justice, the colors are actually much deeper and richer. The name in the middle is my mom and step-dad's last name and is embroidered in dark brown.

The back is the same velvety sage fabric as the center of the front. I made it as a pillow cover so it could be cleaned if needed. I even made the pillow inside it myself.

Here is the front before it was sewn together. Excuse the horrible picture. Once it was time to sew the piece, I realized I had no idea how to sew this kind of piecing together. (Each piece is sewn to three others, so they have to kinda have to be built on each other. I have no idea how to explain this well.) After a few seem ripping episodes, I figured it out. I did the embroidery first so I could get the correct placement of the name easier. The paper pieces around the edges are part of my pattern.


Linked up at @ mommaskindacrafty.blogspot.com

A New Bag

Today is one of my best friend's birthday. (As she once said, she is now 29 plus tax, shipping, and handling!) She and I taught together, went to grad school together, and now sit just a few feet apart at our main office. We have watched each others' kids grow up the last few years as well. We are heading to a conference in Houston in a couple of weeks that we are excited about........and yes, in our world a kid-free trip to Houston is exciting. I wanted to make her some special to carry around at the conference that she could also use at work sometimes. Here is what she opened today:

The main fabric is "Mocca" by Alexander Henry. The great red and white polka dot is from the Moda Bliss line. I used blue thread for the stitching so it would stand out and appliquéd on a fabric by her name.

Back View

Side View- I used stiff Pellon as the liner to make the bag very structured.

The inside is a Michael Miller print, which I love mixed with the others. I added three pockets from the red dot fabric, a magnetic closure, and a zipper pocket.

The pocket is lined in the outside fabric.

Linking up at:

Dove of Peace T-Shirt

I love my cross shirt so much that I wanted to make another appliquéd shirt for myself. I bought a plain navy shirt for about $12 and I knew I wanted to use an abstract Anna Marie Horner fabric I had in my stash. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted, but finally decided on the dove of peace holding an olive branch. I added a 1.5in. x 1.5in. peace sign to the sleeve for fun. I love how it turned out and it has held up well after several washes!

My 7 year old took this picture. She was so excited to 'help' with the blog.

The peace sign on the sleeve was fun to add.

Pillow Covers

I whipped up these pillow covers for a friend's nursery with fabric from the Michael Miller Groovy Guitars line. They were fun and quick to make. I used a wonderful tutorial from Momfetti. (Momfetti Tutorial) I was happy with how they turned out and was surprised at home simple they were. I think this fabric is a super cute accent for her baby boy's nursery!

Our New Family Member and A Snowy Dallas Day!

This is the newest member of our family. It is a Janome Harmony 9102D. She was a Christmas gift from my wonderful husband. ( I picked it out and ordered it, but he wrapped it and put it under the tree. That still counts as being from him, right?) I have it threaded and have played on it some, but I haven't made anything with it yet. So I have a couple of questions for the peanut gallery:


1. What do you use your serger for? Why do you love it?


2. Do you know any good resources for serger beginners? (ie. website, books, ect.)

I thought I would show you the rest of the crew as well. Here are my other "babies":

I love Nomey, my Janome DC2007LE. I bought a cheap Brother for my first machine when I started sewing in November 2009. I outgrew that machine almost as soon as I pulled it out of the box. Within a few weeks I bought this workhorse of a machine and have lived happily ever after. (Well, in my own little sewing world!)

I bought the Brother PE-770 embroidery machine in May 2010. I like it and it has served me well, but I have not utilized it as much as I should. I have much more to learn about this machine and need to put more time into it.

Finally, it snowed in DFW today. We actually got much more than this, but I didn't get pictures of the rest before dark. This is a rare occurrence here, so the kids were thrilled to get outside and play in it!

The Final Christmas Run-Down Post- Another Bag

My sister commissioned this bag to give her boss as a Christmas present. She even went shopping with me to find the perfect fabric in the warehouse district, which was a fun day! The fabric she chose was a beautiful heavy home drapery fabric. 

The fabric is a beautiful deep brown and turquoise. The bottom is not really wonky, I took the picture at a bad angle.

I found the matching interior fabric on my own. It was to hard find, but it was a great match and I was really happy with the final product. The inside has a zipper pocket and several regular pockets.

**This is the last post with my bad cell phone pictures. Whoo hoo!