Fun Mail- Patriotic Swap

Came home from our glorious trip to Kauai.  We had a wonderful time with 30+ family members.  It's been a few days and I am still adjusting to the time change.  I think my body liked it when I got up at 6am Hawaii time...but somehow 12 noon doesn't really work in Texas.

When we arrived at our house, I had a wonderful package from my partner in the Patriotic Sewing Swap waiting for me.  The package contained four hand made items and this mini quilt is my favorite.

Isn't this lovely!  Angie my partner, did a fabulous job.  I love setting a patriotic table and this goes perfect with my Stars & Stripes Hartstone dinnerware I purchased in the 90's during Desert Storm (back when my love for tabletop began).

I'll show the other items in the next few days.  Thanks for stopping by!

Kauai Photos

We visited alot of wonderful places in Kauai.  One of the things we did on the first day was take a one hour airplane tour.  This was actually my Dad's idea and to be honest, I was not exactly convinced it was something we needed to do.  All I could think of was a plane crash.

A couple weeks before the trip, I booked the airplane tour and tried to keep a positive attitude.  Here we are right before we took off!

Somehow- by luck... I ended up sitting next to the pilot (we were assigned seats based on weight)... lucky me!  Not!  My husband glared at me when the Pilot told me to sit in the seat next to him.  I must say I had the best view but I was a nervous wreck the whole time because all of the controls and pedals in front of me and at my feet where live.

Here are some of the photos I took with my phone... the window glare shows but you get the gist of how gorgeous it was. 

Touring the island by air on the first day helped us formulate a list of the places we wanted to visit during the week.

Later on during the week,, we went to a many of the places we saw from the air.  Here are a few of the favorite spots.

The Kikauea Point Lighthouse

 Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

 Opaekaa Falls

Kalihiwai Beach

It really was a wonderful trip. 

Micaela could not get enough of the beach, she especially loved writing in the sand.  Thanks for scrolling down this far. 

Last full day in Kauai

We spent the majority of the day at the beach today.  We leave late tomorrow. 

That's my feet and Troy & Micaela in the water.  It has been a great week. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Fabric Bowl Cover

One of the items I made for the Patriotic Swap was a fabric bowl cover.  I had been wanting to make some fabric bowl covers for a while.  The other day when I was at my grocery store I spotted some red, white and blue melamine bowls and right away I knew they would be perfect for the bowl covers and the patriotic swap.  The bowls are 6 inches in diameter, perfect for a side dish or a small amount of chips.

I looked at several tutorials, in the end I followed this one at Green Lifestyle in Australia.   I love the idea of reusable bowl covers and NOT using plastic wrap.

The tutorial was easy to follow.  I liked that it used two different fabrics so the cover is reversible.
I used some fun Texas fabric I've had in my stash for a while and fussy cut it so a big Texas was in the center.  My partner for the swap is also in Texas.  The other fabric I used was white with red and blue stars.   I didn't think about photographing the other side until the bowl was in the sealed box ready to ship. 

I am planning on making more of these.  I think using fun seasonal fabrics would be really cute for holidays too.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Fabric Basket Swap MMQG

A Modern Quilt Guild just started in McKinney.  When we met in June, we exchanged bags of fabric for a fabric basket swap. 

This is what I received....

Holy cow was that ALOT of different fabric strips and one half yard of pink solid.  Gulp!

I decided I would use as many of the strips as I could and make the basket itself pink.  I tried piecing the strips together several different ways until I decided 2" strips diagonally worked best.  Here are the strips pieced together. 

I trimmed the strip to 1.5" and top stitched it all around the bag.  There are 16 different fabrics all the way around.  I was originally going to have the top edge fold down but decided to embroider the recipient's name on it and just top stitch a decorative stitch around the top. 

This is how the basket turned out.

 

 

I decided to make a few things to fill the basket.  First a wonky pieced pin cushion.  Instead of leaving the seams plain, I top stitched a decorative stitch that looked like beads and added a big B to the center panel.  I think this turned out pretty cute.

The next thing I made was a crisscross tissue holder.  I didn't have enough of all of the fabrics so I pieced strips together to make it work... the inside is "lined" with different fabrics. 

The last item I made was a zipper pouch.  If you follow my blog you know I have made many of these.  This is actually the first one I make in a solid color. 

This is a college of everything I made for BettePat. 

I was not at the meeting because I was in Kauai but here's a picture of BettePat when she received it. 

This swap was so much fun, I look forward to more of these opportunities.  Thanks for stopping by!

Greetings from Kauai

We've been in Kauai since Sunday...

We're here with 30+ other family members for a reunion celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and graduations.  We are having a great time.  It's technically still the 3rd of July here but already the 4th in Texas.  Hope you are having a great day!  

Quilt Shop Review

Last week on my way home from San Antonio I made up my own quilt shop hop.  I stopped at three stores on my way home.  All three were terrific but Valli & Kim in Dripping Springs, Texas southwest of Austin took my breath away.

Here are a few pictures I snapped with my phone.  These pictures do not do the place justice.  It's a good thing this place is more than 4 hours away or I would go broke!

Enjoy!

Owl Pillow

This is another one of the gifts I made for end of the school year.  This pillow was for the school librarian who is expecting her first baby girl.

The colors in the nursery are pink and lavender and the theme is owls.  This is what I came up with.

This pillow measured 12x12 stuffed.  The little owl was fun to applique but a little time consuming.  Towards the end of the stitching I opted for button eyes instead of doing fabric applique.  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Harper Kate's Items

One of my friends/customers recently talked to me about making some baby items for her friend's daughter who is expecting her first baby.  The baby will be named Harper Kate, isn't that a beautiful name.  My friend was particular about the fabric so we met at one of my local quilt stores The Quilt Asylum so she could make the selections.

The first item I made was a pillow using "Cute Patchwork" fabric by Michael Miller.

I love how eclectic this turned out.  The pillow was 15x15 inches square.

The second item I made was a burp cloth and bib set.  The fabric my friend chose was Riley Blake's "So Happy Together" by Deena Rutter.  I apologize for the not so great picture. 

I absolutely love this bright cheery little hexagon fabric.  This is the first time I have done two large applique initials using this font, I love how the initials turned out.   I hear the "Mom to be" really loved her gifts, that made the late night sewing all worth while.  Thanks for stopping by!

San Antonio Trip

I've been in San Antonio for the past week for the Keep Texas Beautiful annual conference.  We drove to San Antonio over the weekend and had the opportunity to spend some time with my parents who met us here before the conference started. 

One of the things we did was visit the Hemisphere Tower of the Americas.  The Tower was opened in 1968 when the World's Fair was in San Antonio, it is 750 ft tall.  The last time I was at the tower was when I was around five years old.  The best part of the trip was having dinner at the Chart House restaurant.  It was wonderful to have dinner in the rotating restaurant above downtown.  Micaela was so excited!

After dinner we took a stroll around the observation deck. 

I love seeing our daughter spend time with my parents. 

It was quite windy as you can see.  My Dad hardly has any hair but Mom and Micaela's hair was blowing big time.  I love this picture!

I hope Micaela remembers this like I remember my trip when I was five years old.  Thanks for letting me share. 

Patriotic Fabric Basket

Here is my first project completed while away from home. 

This Patriotic Fabric Basket is for the American Spirit Sewing Swap I am hosting.  I looked at many tutorials for fabric baskets and finally ended up following the larger basket pattern featured in this:  Sew 4 Home tutorial.  I found the tutorial easy to follow and I plan to make more of these. 

Sewing Away from Home

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the end of May.  I am traveling for work and at the last minute I packed my sewing machine to bring with me to the hotel.  The family spent the weekend with me but headed home on Sunday evening.  Here is my little sewing area set up on the desk in my hotel room.  I tend to be a night owl so this will be a nice diversion from just watching tv. 

I don't expect to have a lot of time to sew but I figure any sewing is better than no sewing.  I have several things to work on, my patriotic stuff for the sewing swap I am hosting, a fabric bin for the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild and some gifts to start.

Thanks for stopping by!

End of the School Year Gifts-- catching up!

Wow, the last two weeks have flown by.  I've done alot of sewing. 

These are a few of the zipper pouches I made for some of the teachers and administrators at our daughter's school for end of the school year gifts the first week of June.  Each pouch was specifically made for the recipient.

This one was for the art teacher.  She is kinda funky modern artsy and I thought this fabric was a nice match for her.

This one is for the school principal.  She has two little boys under 5 years of age and LOVES baseball.  I thought this fabric would be fun.  I monogrammed an A for her last name in gray.

 This one was for the assistant coach.  She is a modern beach babe kinda lady and I thought the sunglass print would be fun for her.

 This one was for the front office manager.  She saves the day for us often when I deliver Micaela's forgotten lunch money, glasses, and books.  Sandy likes jewel tones and coffee so the inside of this one was lined in a brown polka dot print.  I also included a Starbucks gift card for her. 

 This one was for the assistant principal.  She loves the beach and sun so I thought the flip flops on yellow would be fun for her.

 This pouch was for Micaela's BFF, Emma loves monkies especially sock monkies.  I love this print!

Well, that's the zipper pouches.  I also made two pillows.  I will show those in a seperate post. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my hubby.  Here he is the day he became a Dad and today. 

Time flies.  Can't believe it's been 8 years!  We love you!