Whims and Fancies Trunk Show

 

I'm down to the wire, but wanted to join  Soma at Whims and Fancies' trunk show.  Have you checked it out--it's been so fun to visit blogs and see some amazing quilts.  It's been fun for me to look back on the year a bit and realize we've made quite a bit.

  

First I want to share my kids quilts.

This is Mowg's Quilt.  We participated in a Primary Bee with 10 other kids and each month they took turns picking a block and color scheme for everyone to make.  I love how different each block is and love the bows that my niece quilted it with.  Mowg's idea was a Christmas tree:  Brown for the trunk, Green for the tree and red for the decorations.  We ran out of the solid green we'd planned to use for sashing and found some neat tree fabric that he liked.  It's been hard to find fabric for this dark green lovin' kid.  It was a great if sometimes difficult experience to make these blocks together and put it all together.  It's on his bed now and he loves it.

Here's a closeup of the quilting

Tiny chose the Friendship Star with yellow for the sun and blue for the sky.  We added white for the clouds on some of the sashing.  The top and bottom are a Lizzy House light blue print of asterisks stars.  She used that on the back as well.  It's been so fun have them done.  So fun to see their sense of accomplishment.  It's such a bright quilt.  It always makes me smile.  

The quilting is really fun on this too

I made a few quilts too these are my favorites:

A new baby came to the family and in collaboration with my Mom, sisters and brother we made made this Hugs n Kisses Quilt to send her hugs and kisses from all of us that couldn't be there to do it in person.  Everyone picked out fabric that they liked or that represented something they likes--something about them.  It was so fun to have it come together.  I pieced the top together and helped a little with the quilting, but mostly it was my Mom and two of my sisters that quilted it. (I thought I'd mention that I used a tutorial at Canoe Ridge Creations here for this quilt)

This quilt is a favorite mostly because it was such a challenge for me.  I tried 3 different methods of making the orange peels before one of them worked for me.  I was delighted with how it turned out and so was my niece whose baby wasn't quilt a year old yet.  That's pretty good isn't it?!

These next two are the smallest quilts I made and are my favorites.  I'm not a big fan of paper piecing, but I sure loved the results.  The potted cactus is from a pattern that I can't find anywhere now that Amanda at Material Girl designed for Heather Givens' Succulents line blog hop.  (Whew!)  I made it for a local miniature quilt show--which is my yearly try-something-new-quilt.  In the process of making it I realized my fabric choice for one the sections got completely swallowed up in the background.  Since I had a deadline that was looming I decided to just use the one that didn't get swallowed up and call it "It's a Start".  I really love how it turned out.  It's hanging on my wall now.

Last, but certainly not least is this quilt for a dear teacher that moved away.  She was Tiny's teacher for two years and made her enjoy school so much.  She loves pigs and crowns and math!  Both my girls suggested that I make them one for their room too.  I haven't pulled that off yet, but I was able to get it to the teacher before she left.  I also had Tiny "sign" it and embroidered her signature on the bottom of it.  (I forgot to tell you the pattern is on Craftsy: here--it's not my pattern)

Thanks for checking out my quilts!  Thanks Soma for the chance to take minute and look back.

I've been so busy this fall and I have so much to share, but no time to share it in.   It's been taking a super long time to load photos, so at some point I'll share some of the fun we've been doing and making.

Just for fun I wanted to share some fun thing I've seen lately:

Redwork Sample Quilt is very intriguing to me.  I fall in love with all things Scandinavian this time of year.   Red and white seem so cheery to me.  I think some of my attraction to this comes from my very most favorite shape --heart.  I  don't know why, but I just love that shape.  I'm wondering if anyone has anyone seen this is person.    The little tiny hearts in the Connecting Threads Kinderfolk line have my heart pitter patting.  :)  As does all the red and whiteness of it.



Some Things I'd like to try:

Hand Lettering

  Tom bow Brush pens

and these:

I'm also curious about these pencils:

I've wanted some inks to play with for a long time

Dr. Ph Martins' Bombay Inks

And F.W. Inks

Rice Paper

Block and Screen Printing have been on my "I want to try list" for a long time

As has Whittling

I'm having a harder and harder time threading needles--this would be a fun way to fix that.

PVA for Bookbinding

We may have solved out pencil sharpening difficulties recently with a battery operated one, except for the battery thing.  I that sounds like one I'd like to try:

A saying that's heard a lot around my house is, "What the heck is Sugru"   It's a clay like substance that cures into rubber.   I'd love to give it a try:

Large Mouth Mason Jar Pouring Lid--would make pouring milk so much easier!

Chocolate Frogs!  Need I say more?

Then there's books:

Thanks for letting me make a list---it's like shopping without the guilt!