Merry Christmas & Final Post on Operation Sunshine!!!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything on this blog… In May my family and I went to Mexico on a humanitarian service trip, and when I got back, the unthinkable happened…. I did NOT want to even look at my sewing machine!!! Yikes! I felt quite an aversion to sewing and all the huge projects I had piled up waiting for me to get around to finishing.  I couldn’t even bring myself to begin tackling them, they felt so huge and overwhelming.

But after a few months of healing time, Christmas has renewed my willingness to sew, and I felt compelled to finish a wonderful project we had started earlier this year which is Operation Sunshine!  I had started two quilts myself and they were ones that sat in the waiting pile for these months, while other things in life happened.  But alas! I completed them! And, I think it’s a great time to be giving them to this family for Christmas. What wonderful Christmas gifts quilts make!

 

This is a twin size quilt. The solid blue, maroon and brown are corduroy which makes it really soft and yummy.

This queen size quilt is for the sweet mom, who deserves something lovely for herself.

I also made her two pretty pillow shams to match.

Now, in all, there are 9, count them – NINE! – wonderful quilts to give this amazing family.

9 lovely quilts,

1 set of sheets,

2 pillow shams,

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree! :)

A HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED TO OPERATION SUNSHINE! Your kindness and hard work is so VERY much appreciated!!!!

My daughter and I will be delivering these to the family tomorrow morning, on Christmas Eve. Ho! Ho! Ho!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

2 more Operation Sunshine donations!

 

Boy, have I been a slacker! I have two more amazing quilts to show you that have been donated for Operation Sunshine (a few months ago!) by a super sweet lady named Amy who lives in Texas. She was so kind to send two wonderful quilts! Here they are!

I remember that Amy has a blog, but for the life of me I can’t find the paper where I wrote it down! Please forgive me Amy! But, I did find her pinterest page!!!!

What wonderful quilts! Thanks SOOO much Amy!!!

Another Operation Sunshine Donation!!!

Sweet Maggie, over at ShortCookie.blogspot.com, made this beautiful twin sized quilt

for Operation Sunshine!!!

Yahoo!!

Isn’t it lovely?!!

 

She said that she used this pattern from April over at A Little Bit Biased.

 

So cute!

I really love the color scheme Maggie chose and the borders she put on it.

 

 

Here’s the pretty backing…

 

Thanks SO much, Maggie, for this wonderful quilt!

It is going to make someone in this family very happy!!

Easter Dress

This Easter I decided to get out of my comfort zone of sewing dresses only with cotton, and went with some hot pink satin and some sheer white wedding type fabric. (What’s it called??)

 

 

I basically cut out two dresses, one out of each fabric, and sewed them together to have the pink show through the sheer white fabric. It turned it to a more of an icy pink. I think it turned out rather nice!

 

You can see the color of the satin as it’s what I used in the sash and the sleeve trim.

 

I was going to make a matching dress for her 18” doll like I did last year, but I got a little burned out on trying to keep double layers of slippery fabric together and decided that one dress is enough. She didn’t know I was considering making a doll dress, so she is not disappointed. :)

 

I hope you had a lovely Easter!!

 

Linking up with Quilt Story’s Fabric Tuesday

Thanks Annie!

Last week, Annie from Annies Ruby Slipperz held a giveaway, and would you believe it, I won!!!

Woohoo!

Three gorgeous charm packs of Honey Honey by Kate Spain.

So pretty!

I’m excited to see what kind of quilt they will end up making. :)

Thanks Annie!!!

Laura Ingalls came to visit!

 

For Liberty Girls this semester, we are reading and doing activities based on the book “Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

It is such a great book!!!!

Each semester in Liberty Girls we read a historical series or book about a certain time period, and meet twice a month and do activities based on the book(s). I’ve been helping some of the girls by sewing period costumes for them and their 18” dolls each semester as some of the moms of our group don’t sew. (See here and here.)  But this semester I decided I had better not try to sew more than my own daughter’s outfit, and it is turning out rather fun! Each girl is coming up with their own outfits and they are all looking great! We’ll have a family barn dance at the end of April and I’ll take pictures of everyone then and post them here on the blog.

 

 

Since my daughter’s favorite color is pink, that’s what she wanted her pioneer dress to be! PINK!

 

 

Pretty cute, don’t you think?

 

 

The pattern had pantaloons with the dress so I made them. I think they are cute but a little long. :)

 

 

She loves her American Girl doll!

 

We were going to read the “Kirsten” series from American Girl dolls this semester, but I have to say, I wasn’t at all impressed with the series. Sure, it has some nice parts to it, but I felt the story line was quite mediocre and there were really no good values being taught. (IMHO, life is too short to spend time reading mediocre books!!!)  So, last minute, right before the semester started, we switched to “Little House in the Big Woods!” You can’t ever go wrong with Little House!!!

However, I did use for the Kirsten doll dress pattern and it can be found here:

http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html

 

Linking up with Quilt Story’s Fabric Tuesday

Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2013!

It’s here again!!! Woohoo!

When I began quilting again last year, I also began realizing that there were a ton of wonderful quilting blogs out there! (Who knew!)  One of the blogs I quickly fell in love with was Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I LOVE that she is so involved with doing charity work with quilts!!! I discovered her blog just after she kicked off her Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge last year, and I KNEW I had to participate! You can go here to read about the awesome quilt I had a chance to make for the challenge last year. (That sounds a little self-serving, but once you read why it was so awesome, I think you’ll understand why I can say that! :)

Anyway, it’s that time of year again. If you want to see what it’s all about, or get involved, go to her site and read all about it.

Happy Quilting!!

More Operation Sunshine Donations!

 

A couple of days ago I met my friend Marion from My Quilt Diet and she gave me a quilt top and a finished quilt for Operation Sunshine! Two wonderful ladies donated these quilts and took them to Marion, who in turn brought them to me.

 

The first one is an adorable quilt top from Pamela Caldwell from French Knots!

 

Such lovely blues!

 

This will make one of the girls very happy!

 

And this cool quilt came from Emily Herrick from Crazy Old Ladies!  Yup, you’ve probably seen this quilt somewhere before…

It’s a quilt from her Geared For Guys book! The very one she made and that has been to international quilt shows. Wow! How cool is that?!

 

This will make one of their boys very happy! :)

 

So, to Pamela and Emily, I thank you both!! You have both been so kind in your donations. They will be very appreciated by this family!!

Operation Sunshine Donation #3!

Sweet Jeanenne Nielsen sent this cute quilt to me in the mail for Operation Sunshine! 

 

 

What a sweet D9P!  One of the little children of this family will love it!!

 

 

 

And Jeanenne’s good friend Liesha Farnsworth donated the quilting. Didn’t she do a beautiful job?!

 

Thanks SO much Jeanenne and Liesha!!  They will love your quilt!

Second Operation Sunshine Donation!

Today Tricia Sagan brought over her gifts for Operation Sunshine!

This is such a beautiful quilt!

(I’ve got to find the pattern! She said she got it from the Moda Bake Shop.)

I found the pattern! It’s here! Woohoo!

 

 

And of course, since it has pink in it, my daughter wanted me to take a picture of her wrapped up in it. :)

 

And look at this gorgeous backing. So cute!

 

Tricia even bought some sheets to go with it. How totally thoughtful!

 

Thank you Tricia!!! What a great lady you are. It was wonderful seeing you again!!

First Operation Sunshine Donation!!!

 Amber from A Little Bit Biased came over to my house today to deliver her donations for Operation Sunshine!

This is a GORGEOUS Christmas quilt top! 

 

This family will Love having this cheery quilt this Christmas!

 

 

Amber also brought some cute little WIP’s!  A table runner and some blocks that could be made up into another table runner or some pillows.  So fun!

 

Thank you so much Amber! You are a sweetheart! It was really good to meet you today. :)

Operation Sunshine!!!

HEY QUILTERS!!!  WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!

Hello friends. I just learned of a family that is going through some serious crisis in our community.  I know the family, and to protect the children involved, I'm not going to share too much information about them.  Due to some horrible circumstances, the mother and her 6 children had to leave their home with not much more than the clothes on their back.  Some wonderful friends and community members are working to help the family obtain new living arrangements, clothes and other household needs.

In trying to find ways I could help, I began thinking of how wonderful it would be to make quilts for each of them. And, since I’m not Marion, at My Quilt Diet, I won’t be able to make 7 quilts in my sleep like she could! ;)  (Thanks, Marion, for helping to spread the word!!!) So, I am organizing a collection of new quilts for each of the family members as they are in need of bedding.  Wouldn’t it be great to give them each warm loving hugs every time they get under their new quilt?!?!

We are looking for new, pieced and quilted twin size quilts for each of the children, and their mother. There are three girls ages 16, 10 and 4, and three boys ages 14, 12 and 6, so it is desired to have seven quilts in all. If you would like to help out, please leave a comment below so I can get back to you.  (Please make sure you are not a "no reply blogger," and if you are, please give your email address in your reply.)

We understand that making a whole quilt may not be possible for everyone, so if you would like to help by making part of a quilt, please let me know.  Many hands make light work :)

Thank you all for being the wonderful people you are! Even if you are not able to help out this time, I know there are so many good hearts operating those sewing machines out there!

Have a wonderful day!
Myra

4 Christmas Quilts – WIP’s

I know it seems I’ve been missing in action since I haven’t posted anything since the beginning of January.

But I HAVE been sewing!

This past Christmas, we revived a tradition we used to do when my oldest kids were younger, but let go of for the past few years for some reason. This is the tradition of reading a Christmas story each night during December while we burn down a number on our advent candle.

It’s such a wonderful tradition, I don’t know why we ever let it go!

So this last Christmas, I got serious and ordered a few advent candles, (so we’d be all set for the next few years) and also got super busy researching and buying lots and lots of really yummy Christmas picture books. Wow! Was that fun!!!  Maybe someday I’ll list some of our favorite books.

After Christmas, I was sitting down one evening and reviewing how Christmas went, what went well and such.  I sat there and relished the memories that were created while cuddling up on the couch with my kids and reading these wonderful stories.

 It was perfect - Mom with wonderful kids snuggled up with her on the couch – the lights dim and the Christmas tree lights on – the advent candle burning slowly nearby – reading yummy Christmas books.  The sweet feelings and moments were so precious!!! Perfect.

Then it hit me. No. It wasn’t perfect! What do you think was missing???

You guessed it, Christmas Quilts!!!! We needed Christmas Quilts to snuggle up in while we read!!!

So, I got busy and I have four Christmas Quilts in the making. Three flimsies done and one still getting pieced together.  I’ll give a more detailed post for each of them when they are done, but for now, here’s just a peak at each of them.

And, of course, I’m going to back each of them with yummy minky!

They HAVE to be super snuggly!!!

 

 

First up is a Christmas stacked coins quilt. I’ve been dying to make one for a long time and finally did it! I’m so pleased with it.

 

 

Next up is a kit I bought from my LQS. It’s so cute, and came almost completely cut out. YES!

 

   

The third one is not necessarily my favorite, but it is nice and will do. I got the layer cake on a good deal and just wanted to pump out something fast, so I left it in the large 10” squares and just sewed them together.

 

And the last one is going to be real cute. It’s called Retro Christmas Quilt from Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter.  So cute!

I messed up a bit on the cutting of one of the fabrics, so I’ve got to do some fancy figuring to solve the problem, since it, too, was a kit, and only came with so much fabric.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to lately.

These quilts are going to be so wonderful to have next Christmas!!!!

 

Linking up with Quilt Story’s Fabric Tuesday,

and Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday,

and Confessions of a Fabric Addict – Whoop! Whoop!

2 Pillow Shams… finally!

I made these patchwork bedspreads for my two youngest sons about 3 years ago for Christmas, and had planned on making pillow shams to match them. (I even had them cut out.)  But, I ran out of time that year and didn’t get them done. And unfortunately, they sat on my shelf for the past three years, mostly forgotten about, until the other day when my son mentioned that he wished he had a pillow sham for his bed. (A bell went off in my head and I said, “Oh ya!”)

So, I finished ‘em up and gave them to them for Christmas this year.

 

First up is the quilt I made for my animal lover. He’s loved animals since he was tiny.  I love this quilt as the fabric colors are so warm and cozy. The dark squares are either dark brown corduroy, or black fake fur.  They make for fun texture differences here and there.

 

 

  The sham’s outer border is out of the dark brown corduroy.

 

In my mom’s stash I found a couple yards of cheetah print corduroy. It wasn’t enough to fill the whole backing, but it fit nicely in the center with a brown cotton border.

 

Next is my youngest son’s bedspread and sham.  He doesn’t have a particular ‘love’ like my other son, so I had to choose something that I just thought he would think was cool. So, since he likes learning about the world, I chose travel/map fabrics.

 

 

His borders are out of flannel.

 

It’s funny… I made these bedspreads before I ever heard about free motion quilting. Up until Spring 2012 I thought all quilting had to be done on a long arm with fancy software… Well, a friend of mine mentioned to me that there are people who ‘tie’ patchwork quilts on their regular machines all the time. It was a foreign concept to me and it was quite a stretch for me to wrap my brain around it.  I dove in and tacked each fabric square corner on my machine, like a dutiful quilt tie-er, and was pretty amazed with myself. : )

 

It’s about time I got these shams done!

 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict’s Whoop! Whoop!

and Lily’s Quilts

and Crazy Mom Quilts