My second apology

I could sit here and make up excuses all day but the fact of the matter is I've been completely ignoring my blog!  It's been a mix of internet issues, not crafting, and making friends.  Now my issues are solved, I'm going to make an effort to craft more, and my friend is going to help me with it.  EW is my new best friend over here and she has introduced me to the world of cloth diapering!  It's sooooooo much to learn but I am learning and I am liking it.  I always thought of putting Munchkin in cloth diapers (G-diapers to be exact) but when I tried to jump into it I realized it was waaay over my head so I decided not to.  But now that EW has been able to sit down and show me I'm really starting to understand!  So one night we were talking and I told her that I really wanted to try and make a cloth diaper and she totally spurred me on telling me it was a great idea.  So I gave it some thought and went through a list of materials in my head: cotton print, check; flannel, check; elastic, check; left over all natural cotton quilt batting....check!  The only thing I was missing was some velcro but that was all to easy to fix. We went to the thrift shop on post and I found an item with some good ol' fashioned white velcro!  So the next day I did some cutting and sewing and some seam ripping and some more sewing and viola!

I made a diaper.  It totally needs some improvements, like different elastic and pattern tweaking, but still, pretty effin good for a first try from stuff that was lying around!  Not to mention it looks uber cute on Munchkin's little tushie!  I fully plan on making more and refining my technique.

I also finally got my Michael Miller fabric and I do have to say it's super fabulous!  I got it all washed and today so now I'm off to start clipping my tangled mess of fabric!  Wish me luck!

Drum roll please...

Finally!  Here are the pictures from the Summer Breeze quilt!  I'm quite happy with the way it came except for the boo boos here and there.  I also apologize for the low quality pictures.  This was the first sunny day in like 3 days.  It also happened to be the day I needed to send it out and because I have trudge to the laundry mat on foot I opted out of lugging my nice camera there.  Why not take it home and take pictures of it you ask?  Simple answer: our post office is literally right across the street from the laundry mat, so camera phone it is!

Front

Close up of quilting

Back

I've got a couple of projects lined up next, but I'm not sure what order I'm going to complete them.  I got one of the Moda Sudoku kits.  I've already completed the puzzle and I'm sorry to say it wildly unsatisfying.  I mean us quilters deal with these kinds of puzzles every time we try to figure a layout for the quilt.  There were at least 2 lines that were only missing 1 number.  This puzzle was way too easy, I spent maybe 2-2.5 minuets. It is nice that it does come with the pre-cuts though.  This might end up being my cats quilt she seems to like laying on them, or she just likes laying on whatever I'm doing.

These are a bunch of fabrics I got in a care package from my in-laws.  Specifically this is from my SIL stash that she had put in the craft room for anyone to use.  I'm delighted to say I'm going to use several of these fabrics!  The solid white is a nice flannel that I'm going to make receiving blankets that I'm going to trim in the green floral.  I'm also planning on using the Alexander Henry fabric along with a purple velvet in some turtle plushies.  The other fabrics will probably sit in my stash until I get a stroke of creativity.

AND THESE FABRICS..... I'm super excited about!  The prints are from the new Michael Miller collection Peacock Lane.  I paired them with coordinating solids from Kona Cotton and I plan on doing a gray fleece backing.  My plan for these is a hexagon quilt I'm not sure how large it's going to be but I will probably use 3 inch hexagons.  I'm pretty excited about this because hear hexi's are addictive!  Not to mention I'm super in love with these fabrics!

Finally!

I finally got the Summer Breeze quilt done!  Well pretty much done, the last thing I need to do is run it through the wash again to get rid of the blue lines from the quilting.  Unfortunately that's going to have to wait for tomorrow because it's raining in buckets outside!  But fear not!  I do have pictures to share with you today!

I've been browsing around on the web and came across boatloads of embroidery things and it got me all excited!  I don't have much embroidery experience but I'm definatly gaining some.  A while ago I did some note cards for my SIL for her birthday.  The patterns I found were retro and I thought they fit her taste.  They mostly came out pretty cute, everyone enjoyed the cat clock one.  My down fall with this is I didn't take any pictures of the finished product.  :(  Anyway where this is all leading is I got both of the embroidery books that Aimee Ray put out.  I'm really in two minds about these books.  Yes they are very helpful, did I need both of them?  Absolutely not.  If there is anyone out there that's thinking about getting one of these books I would suggest going with Doodle Stitching the Motif Collection.  This book has pretty much exactly the same things as Doodle Stitching does only the projects are different and you get page after page of just designs, which is what I'm looking for in an embroidery book.  Doodle Stitching the Motif Collection also has the added bonus of coming with a CD that contains all the designs in convenient .tif files so you can size and edit to whatever your project calls for.  Although if I were putting books like these out I would make my second book for intermediate-advanced levels and show more intricate stitching rather than having the basics in both books.  One it sells more books and two those who would buy both books don't feel like they wasted money.

This is a design from the Motif Collection, it's a WIP

I made this card for a friend of mine.  She was in a car accident recently and is having a tough time with recovery.  I stuffed her box full of chocolate too!  I think the happy chocolate hippos were the perfect touch.  I can't take credit for the actual design, I Googled 'daisy bouquet' and 'bow' then used Photoshop to combine them.  I added a cute font to follow as well.  I decided to do this on fabric and then attach it to the card.  I haven't quite figured out how to do a proper satin stitch through paper.  I definatly really enjoyed making this.  I just hope she enjoys it as much as I do!

Just a random card I did a while back, can't remember where I found the design