Spring is almost here, can you feel it?

I love Spring! The plants are just starting to peek out of the ground, promising lots of wonderful flowers this year. Although I love my summer flowers, especially the daylilies, I also really look forward to Spring for the daffodils, then the Peonies and Iris. This Friday it's going to be almost 70 degrees and I took the day off work. A happy coincidence! :) Anyway, for Spring I made myself this nice lap quilt for snuggling with my little baby on the couch.

I used Bliss fabrics from Moda. I love the red, aqua and pink together. I think I will have to buy several more yards of some of the polka dots and other red prints to keep for other projects. The quilt pattern is Piece of Cake by Thimble Blossoms. It was super easy to put together.

Sorry the photos aren't as bright as I would have liked because I took the photo indoors. The weather has been awful and I didn't think I could get a volunteer to stand outside in the cold and hold it up while a took a picture. I am having a great time with sewing and quilting. I took a free motion quilting class last weekend. It was a lot of fun but let's just say that I need LOTS of practice and will probably have my bigger quilts done by a wonderful local long-arm quilter for quite a while.

How am I going to balance sewing and gardening this Spring I wonder? Sewing will probably take a back seat while I try to get the garden in shape for the AHS daylily convention here next summer. We will have approximately 600 people touring our garden. {gulp} What have I gotten myself into? :)

Merry Christmas!

It has been forever since I posted here on the blog. I've just been going in a hundred different directions lately. I'm sure you know the feeling. I confess, I made no handmade Christmas cards this year. I'll have to do some stamping soon or I won't be able to justify any more new PTI stamps. :O

I've been doing more sewing and quilting lately, including this table runner that I made as a Christmas present for my Mom. This is the first project that I pieced, quilted and bound all by myself.

I made some mistakes (next time match bobbin thread to backing material), learned to bind (had to rip it all out once but I'm glad I did) but in the end, I was really happy with the finished piece and more importantly, so was my Mom!

I also made a small quilted wall hanging for my SIL with an appliqued snowman. I finished binding it at 4:00 a.m. of the day we were going to see them for our Christmas get together so no photos. Maybe she'll take one and send it to me so I can post it. I plan to make some more of them for other family members. It was a pretty simple project once I chose the fabrics I wanted to use for each piece. I am not super confident about mixing and matching fabric so that part takes me a while.

Well, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. We're super excited here at our house today waiting for Santa to arrive tonight. I'll be back on the blog in the new year with some more projects, I promise!

Blog Hop Treats

Welcome to the Papertrey May Blog Hop! Thanks so much for stopping by my humble little blog. Sorry I've been MIA in blog world lately. There's been so much to do in the garden and I've been devoting some time to making a quilt for my daughter's first "big girl" bed. Since I am having such a good time sewing right now I decided to sew a pillow cover and decorate it with felt for the challenge. Here is the challenge that was issued:

This month's blog hop is all about fabulous felt! We know you love this new addition to our product line-up and we would love to see what you are doing with it! From borders to focal points, paper crafts to sewing projects. Hair accessories to home decor accents. Cards to scrapbook layouts. We want to see it all!

Here is my contribution:

I hope you love it. I had a great time creating it! :) I stitched the pillow cover out of an repurposed table cloth that doesn't fit our new dining room table. The stems and leaves of the flowers were cut from fabric and fused onto the pillow top. Then I used Raspberry Fizz and Vintage Cream felt and buttons to create the flowers. The new cloud die made a wonderful addition. I tacked down the clouds with some fabric glue and then did a simple running stitch for a nice handmade look. Finally I added a butterfly out of Vintage Cream and Hawaiian Shores felt with some half pearls for a little bling. Enjoy your hop and thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I love reading each and every one!

I'm Late, I'm Late!

So sorry, I'm late posting for the Blog Hop. Too many things to do today. I hope you'll forgive me. The challenge this month was to use tissue paper so I made a tissue paper butterfly.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink: Turning a New Leaf; Butterfly Dreams; Beautiful Blooms II; Delightful Dahlia. Ink: Hawaiian Shores, Spring Moss, New Leaf, Hibiscus Burst, Smoky Shadow. Cardstock: Aqua Mist, White. Accessories: Tissue Paper, rhinestones and rhinestone brad, PTI ribbon and buttons, PTI wool felt, Scallop border punch (EK Success).

Birthdays galore!

It is busy birthday season in our house. My niece's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, today is my daughter and my husband's birthday and another niece. Three birthdays on one day!

I have been lacking time in the stamp/sewing room the last few weeks. Work has been brutally busy and the garden is starting to need a lot of attention. But I do have a couple of things to share in honor of all the birthdays.

This is a card I made for my 10 years old niece. She's a very "hip" girl so I chose a really bright color combination. Way out of my comfort zone but I had fun with it. Check out the cork star. It was an embellishment sent to me by PTI friend JenniferK. I added some little rhinestones to the star to give it extra pizazz.

Next is my attempt at making Fur Monster cupcakes. I adore making dessert, especially something as fun as this. These are from the brand new book What's New Cupcake. You should see all of the fun things you can make with easy to find ingredients and candy.

We had these for a birthday treat after lunch today. They were thoroughly enjoyed as you can see! It was straight to the tub after lunch. I think just about her entire face was purple!

Have a Monster Fun day!

Supplies for card: All supplies by PTI unless noted. Stamps: Say it With Style, Polka Dot Basics II. Cardstock: Orange Zest, Spring Moss, Hibiscus Burst. Ink: Palette Noir, Fresh Snow, VersaMark. Accessories: White embossing Powder (stash), rhinestones (Kaiser Kraft), white gel pen (Signo), cork start (JenniferK), Hibiscus Burst button, black wool felt.

Welcome Spring!

Spring has finally arrived! The weekend was so beautiful. I spent a lot of time in my garden cleaning away the old plant debris. This is one of my favorite times in the garden. I enjoy seeing the fresh green shoots peeking out of the ground. The tips of my peonies are starting to show, daylilies are growing, tree peonies are beginning to sprout and the Spring bulbs are starting to bloom.

I also had another sewing class with my friend Trish at Two Peas In a Pod designs. We made really cute envelope syle pillow covers and a table topper. I thought I would share a picture of my table topper with you because it is really just says "Spring" to me.

Aren't those fabrics just yummy? They're from Heather Bailey's new line Nicey Jane with another fabric (don't remember which) on the ends. Here's another shot a little closer of some of the fabrics.

The colors are just so fresh and beautiful. I can't stop looking at it --and telling my husband how much I love it. :) Thanks Trish! As always I had a ton of fun at our class.

Dots and Bots

I missed the PTI blog hop this month. :( I think I have the winter blahs because by the time I get some spare time I haven't felt much like stamping. February is a really tough month! I have a few birthdays coming up though so I have to find my mojo and get going! I forced myself to the stamp room last night to make this quick birthday card for a party we were attending today.

I thought Papertrey's new Dot Spot set was a great background. I chose to pair it with this robot set from SU! The card is for a little boy who is turning 3. I wanted quick and pretty simple since the card probably wound up destroyed by the end of the day. I like really like the colors Orange Zest, Enchanted Evening and Spring Moss together.

Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I will find some mojo this weekend and have more projects up soon!

Supplies: Stamps: Dot Spot (Papertrey Ink), Lots of Bots (SU!). Cardstock: White, Spring Moss, Enchanted Evening, Orange Zest (PTI). Ink: Orange Zest, Spring Moss, Enchanted Evening, (PTI) Palette Noir. Accessories: Nestabilities, screw shaped snaps (stash), copic markers.