Argyle Quilt

I finished a quilt top! It's called "Argyle" and it's from the Kaleidoscope book that I also made the mushroom back pack from.

I think this is only my 3rd quilt?

I made a table runner and a flag wall hanging,

all quilted but this is my 3rd big quilt.

The fabric is Close to my Heart and it's the same fabric I made this top from.

The quilt is about 87"x 87".
A close up...oh, and it's not quilted. Only the top is done. Leah will be quilting it soon and then I'll post the whole thing again! ohhh how exciting!
Well it is for me:)

I know this picture is almost the same as the top one but this one has Katelyn peeking her head around one side and Jenny on the other side:)

Emily and Ava playing outside the other day.

They played with their friends, Emilee and Nicolas.

"I'm not fat, I'm big boned!".

I made this for my sister a while ago. Or actually I made it, sent it to my sister, had her try it on and adjust the straps then send it back. Sewed the straps where she wanted them then sent it back to her. Hopefully she'll send me a photo of her wearing it:)

It's the Spring Ruffle Top from here made from a batik and a solid kona cotton.

Crafty Gifts

Wall stickers from Mary H. for Emily and Ava. These things are sooo cool!

Thank you Mary H., Emily LOVES them:)

And Ava is trying to peel them off when I'm not looking..

The brand is Home Stickers, nouvellesimages.com.

Mary A.: aren't these the same ones you got Nicolas at DEPOT?

A ceramic dinosaur that Emily received (blank and ready to paint and decorate) for her birthday from Mary A. She had been begging me everyday since the 18Th to paint it..so I finally let her. Really really cool idea!

Thanks Mary:)

Emily and Ava received these crocheted beauties

from my Aunt Karen's niece, Tina.

A mermaid..she has coral and other really cool stuff on her.

Sumo Pigs. These are ADORABLE!

Some mushrooms with "lids". And in each one is 2 tiny hamsters! I can't believe the detail. This is really making me want to learn to crochet. I'm assuming this is crochet and not knitting... anyone? Thank you Aunt Karen and thank you to your niece!

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I am in the process of finishing a quilt top! So hopefully I'll be back next post with the top finished and ready to be quilted.

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A video of Ava at Jon's Chief's house last Saturday.

Red Letter Day

Another smocked top from the Weekend Sewing book by Heather Ross.

The fabric is Red Letter Day by Lizzy House.

I LOVE this fabric line!

Snacks

I'm faaamous!! I've been sort of "featured" over at the Oliver + S blog! Go look:)

In other news...this is the bisk (sp?) Emily painted at her birthday party. I took sticker paper, punched holes with the stores die-cut machine (although you can use regular punches) stuck them to the whale, painted the whole thing, removed the stickers and then had the whale fired. Had I taken the time to properly stick the stickers to the whale the paint might not have bleed around the edges. I still love it though!

I made another tutorial!!! This one is posted over at the store blog. It's for Reusable Snack Bags. When I was looking for a tutorial on how to make these, I couldn't find one I liked so I modified someone else's and made it my own.


Over at Heather Bailey's blog, she had Harry Potter themed treats. I LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate covered pretzels. LOVE THEM! So I had to make these. Why didn't they look like hers??? Whyy?? I have no common sense when it comes to cooking and only a tiny bit when it comes to baking so I thought I could do this. Well, as you can see they came out funny. They kept snapping in half and the caramel stuck to the wax paper so I had to throw a bunch of them out. And then the chocolate didn't get all creamy and pretty. It was thick and didn't coat the pretzel well. They are still really good though:)

She's 4!

Friday was Emily's 4th birthday (and my Aunts and her mother's and Leah's..Happy Birthday!)

How cute is this cake? I showed Mary A. what I wanted and she duplicated it! It looks just like the picture. It was super good too. Thanks Mary, I LOVE LOVE LOVED it!

Emily only ate specks of the icing. She still doesn't eat chocolate, candy, ice cream, etc. Crazy!

She got a checkup and shots on her actual birthday:) (Ava did too). That night she opened presents from family. I'll post another time all that stuff and a picture of the really cool crocheted things my Aunt Karen sent her and Ava (made by Tina)!

Yesterday (Saturday) was her party at the store. Everyone painted pottery, then she opened presents and had cake. She received lots of dinosaur things from us and her friends.

Hard to believe I birthed that little angel 4 years ago.

I can't put into words how much I love her. It's just not possible.

Before I had children I always said I only wanted girls.

I wanted to do for them what I lost out on, with my mom dying when I was 5.

I got exactly what I wanted.. twice!

I am the luckiest girl in the world:)

2+2

2+2 blouse from Oliver + S.

Fabric is "Close To My Heart" for Marcus Fabrics.

Buttons down the back..

I used Eye Candy Actions, "Circa 1963".

Arm hole detail..

I just inlcuded these so you can really see the shirt.

Tied & untied.

I love these patterns.

One Cute Pack Pack

I did it. I made the cutest back pack ever (or pack pack if your Emily)! It's from this book.
I htought it was well written but could have used more construction photos. It was fine though. I've alreasdy cut out the pattern for the Unicorn.

I put stuff in it so you can see what it looks like when used.

Emily loves it:)

Here's a shot of the straps which I love! It's from the Lizy House line, Red Letter Day. And you can also see better how the bag is put together from this side view.

And a close up.

I'm hoping after washing, the white spots will frey a little around the edges and look better.

eee-kay-ahh

Gigantor frame from Ikea (or ee-kay-ah if you think you're German...he he he). I took out the glass and put in a piece of paper for Emily to draw on. As soon as it comes in the mail it will have a piece of dry-erase where the paper is so she can draw and erase, draw and erase and we'll have new art all the time. I had to find a piece of the dry erase stuff large enough as the opening is 15"x20" or something like that.
I'm really happy with it.

We got these two chairs for Emily and Ava from Ikea too since they have destroyed Jon's chair from when he was little. It's stained and stinks from leaky diapers and bottles and greasy fingers. I'll have to get it professionaly recovered some day.

Boooo:(

They love the chairs and I like how they look in the living room, like adult chairs.

Random cuteness..

Just wanted to show something that I really enjoy cleaning off Ava and all the other places it gets stuck to. I especially enjoy stepping on it or finding it stuck to my pants later.
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My email seems to be working sort of. I have to get into it differently than before. yay!

email kaputt

Is anyone else having trouble with Yahoo Mail? I can see Yahoo as my home page and read and click on things but when I click on Yahoo mail & sign in, the page is blank and says "done" in the bottom left hand corner. Anyone? This has been since about 11am yesterday (the 10th). So if you've emailed me since then, I can't read it! I'm going crazy! I need to respond to some emails.

Hanging bag

I made a tutorial! My 1st ever! Corinnea will be testing it and giving me feed back and after that I'll post it. The tutorial is for this hanging bag/bin thingy. Not sure what to call it...
Any name suggestions?

The cool thing about it is it has boning around the opening so it stays open. The reason I made it in the 1st place was becaues I had 3 seperate containers for trash, paper and plastic. I recycle in my sewing room. A lot. I'm always suprised at how much I throw away that could be recycled.

But you could use it for so many things...thread bin, scraps, trash container next to your computer, etc. and it's so easy to make!

Halloween came early this year..

Our basement flooded so I had to bring up stuff that got wet and wash them. This costume, my friend Dara sent EMily, was one of them and now Emily has it on all the time!

And then puts it on Ava..

This is not what emily is wearing for Halloween though!