Finally, I'm DONE!!!

My mother-in-law Marie is a very nice woman. But she's not the easiest person to buy for. She has EVERYTHING (I'm sure we all know someone like this). Every year since Ken and I have been married I've made her a small gift for Christmas. The first year I made her a quilted wall hanging of the Nativity. Last year I crocheted her an afghan. In January of this year, I decided to make her a counted cross stitch of a Thomas Kinkade painting because she loves his stuff. I used to do cross stitch a lot when I was younger. Well, I found out I don't really like to do it that much any more. After about 2 hours of working on it, I couldn't bring myself to make another stitch. Hmm. Then we got really busy with the baby and before I knew it, it was autumn. I had no clue what to make her. I was making quilted table runners for my sister gifts so I thought I'd make one for Marie. I did. Nope. I didn't like how it turned out. Then I got busy making stuff for swaps and getting ready for the holidays. And then it hit me. It was December and I still didn't have a gift for Marie! Eeek! I thought I could probably get away with not making her anything because of Madelyn and no one else makes her stuff. But that wouldn't be right! I found some really pretty patterns of scarves on ravelry so I thought I'd make one for her. But again, I didn't like it. I tried 3 different patterns only to rip them out and start again. I decided to pull out the table runner and work on it. I ended up appliqueing trees in the center square. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Whew! And I only have 2 days to spare!

Merry Christmas everyone!

ribbon tag blanket

Even though my daughter Madelyn is still young (she just turned 3 months last Friday), she knows a good craft project when she sees one. Case in point: the ribbon tag blanket. She just LOVES this thing! I made it after seeing similar ones in the stores. I made it using minky-like fabric that I got at Joann's. I made a triangle patch using 3 different kinds of fabric...a white striped fabric for two of the triangles, a pink fabric with a star design for one triangle, and a pink fabric with a raised heart design for the other triangle. I found 3 different ribbons that were sold by the spool...I know I could have used a bigger variety there. Believe me, I wanted to. But I had little Madelyn with me when I was buying the supplies and she was getting fussy so I just got the three ribbons. It still turned out pretty cute. I backed it with a pink and white striped minky fabric. I also used a low loft batting, but I don't think it really needed it. It is the perfect size for her carseat. I have to be sure to tuck it in whenever we leave the house.

Candy Corn Contest

I love fall. I love the crisp in the air. I love the sound of leaves crunching under my feet. I love fresh apple cider and other yummy fall goodies. So it comes as no surprise that as soon as it was cool enough to wear jeans, I started thinking about decorating my house for fall. Last year was our first year in our home. I guess you can say I went a little crazy buying fall decorations for our new house. When I got out the decorations this year, I was so excited! I forgot about some items that I purchased last year on clearance. It was so much fun putting all of my little pumpkins and acorns out! But I was missing something...something fun to put on our new coffee table. Hmmmm....then I came up with a fun applique idea. I started working on my candy corn table runner right away. But I can't work on any project for too long before I get antsy to start another project. So I put my runner away to work on other stuff. Then not too long ago, Amanda Jean from crazymomquilts posted this entry about a candy corn contest. Now I had no excuse to not finish my table runner. I just completed it last night. I love how it turned out!

my first baby quilt!

I found this fabric online at http://www.thequiltshoppe.net/ and I fell in love with it. It's Bella Baby by Michele d'Amore for Marcus Brothers fabrics. I wasn't thinking when I bought the fabric...I only got 1/4 yard each of 4 prints and 1/2 yard of the brown dot! I didn't know what to do with it so I just decided to make a simple patchwork quilt. It was very easy...it only took me an afternoon (but that includes taking care of little Madelyn!). I still have to hand quilt it and put the binding on...but at least I got the quilt top done! I'm pretty happy with the results. Here's the close-up of the fabrics....I just love them!

boppy

When we found out we were having a baby and only had 7 weeks to prepare, we were lucky enough to have family give us lots of baby essentials. One of the things we got was a boppy pillow, complete with its own travel bag. I was excited to have one since I've heard great things about them. The only problem was that I didn't really like the fabric it was made out of...it had giant letters all over it with creepy little kids. Eeew. I looked all over for a cover and I didn't like any of the ones that I found, especially when I saw the price of them...who wants to pay $20 for something that you could make for waaaaaaaaaaaay less? So I found a pattern online here. It was so easy! I had some fabric that coordinated with Madelyn's room (I love bumblebees!). Of course I had to embellish it too. :o) Here is the finished project. I like it so much more now!