Quilting for Butterflies.

We knew it wouldn't be long until I was back on my Long-arm. That day proved to be sooner than later when my Aunt Toni sent me this ....

She made this modern monstrosity (it's King Size) for my cousin, well first cousin once removed if we are getting technical. This quilt is the absolute BIGGEST quilt I can fit on my machine.  Seriously, one inch more and it would have been too big. It took all 12 feet of my machine to handle this big boy.

 I love the pattern. I have not seen this pattern before, every time I look at it I see something new.  The corner triangles remind me of butterflies and isn't spring just the perfect time for them.

This all over flower and leaf combo is one I use pretty regularly.  It is so rhythmic I tend to loose myself in it.  It has soft curves and sharp points, yet it flows just the same.  The curves and flow of the quilting complement the angles in the quilt top.

Initially I was just going to meander this quilt, because of it's size.  The more I looked at it the more the butterflies called to me.  They said, "we need flowers and leaves to rest on.  Won't you quilt us some?" So I did.  I am a sucker and I think I may be hearing things.

Loving Homemade

This past weekend along with Mother's day was also my Birthday.  It was a glorious weekend with breakfast made for me, a lunch and shopping date with my hubby and lots of homemade gifts and cards. Let me just say, "I felt Loved."   I love receiving homemade gifts.  It puts life into perspective.  Reminds me of what is truly important.

I did some sewing on Friday before the weekend.  Still working on the end of the year teacher gifts.  I know! sew many!  But really, I do stop making gifts once the kids are in High School, my time is running short. (sniff)

Recently I have stumbled upon several key fob and lanyard patterns.  They are a wonderful idea for busy moms (or dads) on the go.  Who doesn't need an extra hand?  There are days when I could you several.  Thinking that the key fobs and lanyard paired nicely with the pouches I have been making I set out to try my hand at making a few.

First the lanyard.  I used this tutorial by Gen X Quilters.  A very simple and straight forward tutorial that took me all of 15 minutes. It is a fairly good length for me, but I am of a smallish stature.

I then moved on to the key fob.  There are literally hundreds of patterns and tutorials for lanyards and key chains.  I chose this pattern at The Idea Room simply because I had all of the materials on hand.

I used these sweet planters the kids filled for me as my mother's day gifts as my background for the photos.  How, I ask, could a mom not love that?

A 'Hand'-y surprise

Yesterday they did it!  Secretly Emma's class during art to cover the apron in their hand-prints and all without her teacher knowing!  Great Job Class!  I know she is going to love it!

Armed with Fabric markers and creativity the kids drew their hand prints all over the apron.    I love that the kids took it upon themselves to decorate their hands. The overlapping hand prints are a great touch.  To me they look like they are supporting one another or giving a round of applause.  Either way it makes a great statement.

Before she left for school we wrote Let us give you a Hand! across the top. This will surely be a treasured Teacher's gift.

Teacher Gifts Galore

I tried to catch up on my sleep last week.  I really did.  Sadly, I don't think it is possible.  I feel like sleep is all I want to do.  I lay down for a nap and POOF it is suddenly 3 hours later.  I am up with a start realizing that now I have to pick up Emma, Jack or Mark and my day is now 1/2 over.  Well, you can imagine that didn't last long.  Before long I realized that if Mama didn't go to the grocery, do laundry and vacuum soon I would be in jeopardy of loosing my Mother of the Year Award. heehee.  While I may have been able to pull all nighters 20 years ago in college (really? has it been that long?) I can no longer.  A pot of coffee, or three is no match for my lack of sleep.  I realized I had to dig deep and just push through the day, as painful as it may be.  By the end of the week I back to my "old"self.  Seriously ready for some crafting!

When we left for Disney I realized I had not gotten as much accomplished as I would have liked. The story of my life.  I still had yet to complete 2 teacher signs.  The teacher apron I so eagerly volunteer myself to sew was still a pile of fabric. Time to get down to business.

I set to work on 2 more teacher signs.  The first Emma decided needed to be for her English teacher.  She liked idea of having a large apple on the front.  Since I did not have a templet large enough for my 11X14 inch canvas I had to free hand the apple design.  Not to bad.  I was seriously worried it would look like a large green tomato. ( Nothing says "teacher" like fried green tomatoes. LOL.)

 Emma assured me it does indeed look like an apple.  I wanted to make the polk-a-dots yellow since the school colors are green and yellow, Emma had other ideas.  She did not really care for the green apple and fought hard for a red apple.  Worried the black would not show up as well on the red we compromised, with red dots.

The second teacher sign was for Jack and Emma's piano teacher.  Emma and I came up with several possible designs, all music themed.  In the end we chose this simple piano design, which proved to be anything but simple. Measuring and painting straight black lines that look straight even if they are not, is a lot harder than one would think.  The results were totally worth the effort.  I am still annoyed that the piano keys ended up askew but no one will notice. Right?

I finished out the week with the teacher apron.  Here is a picture of the apron after I finished.  

The next step is to have the kids trace their hand prints on the apron.  The apron is off to school with Emma tomorrow.  The class will use fabric markers to trace their hands and write their names.  I can't wait to see the finished product!  More pictures to follow.

Disney Days

I am just about recovered from my trip to Disney with the middle school honor band. A weekend filled with 80 teens, 14 adults, 2 nine hour bus rides and only about 15 hours of sleep total just about drove me over the edge.  But isn't that the stuff that memories are made of?

  While there the band participated in Disney's Magical Performing Arts.  A 4 hour extravaganza where the kids learned the music, performed the music and then watched as their music was put to animation.  How cool is that?!  Although their ideas of fun may have differed, kids and adults all had a wonderful time!

It was weird to walk around without the rest of my family.  I was amazed at how much the kids have grown since our last Disney trip.  I looked around and realized how many of the rides they have outgrown.  Wasn't it only yesterday I waited in line with Emma for Dumbo?  Now there is no way she would be caught dead riding it with her 'Mom'!  Looks like we may have to schedule one more Disney trip with the kids while they still want to ride with us.

I could Totally make that!

Do you ever see something and say, "I could TOTALLY make that!"  I do, nearly everyday now with the dawn of pintrest.  I find myself pinning nearly everything crafty.  Yet, rarely do I go back and to look it up.  Rarer still do I actually decide to make something from a pintrest board.  Well not today! (or er, this week.)  This week I jumped right up there on that Crafty bandwagon and made something.

As I told you in my last post I have been stockpiling teacher gifts, either for teacher appreciation week (may 6-10 for those of you who may not know) or for end of the year gifts.  I got tired of making the pouches and set out in search of something using an entirely different medium.  Paint!

I found this link to Personal Pizazz by Lindsey on pintrest.  Lindsey's designs are so adorable you cannot help but want to make them.  She obviously puts her heart and soul into each design.  So Stinkin' Cute!  Take a look and if you don't feel the need to whip one up yourself you are fortunate because Lindsey sells these from her blog.

Fortunately, I happened to have 2 --11X14in canvases just lying around in my sewing room.  I stumbled upon them at Walmart 2 for $7 (I think) and picked them up.  God only knows what I intended on doing with them.   So, there they were, collecting dust, getting moved from pile to pile, sad and lonely, well NO MORE.

I took both canvases and painted them with a coat of White Latex paint.  When that was dry I used a snack sized cup to draw circles at random.  I painted the circles a variety of colors blue, green, pink, yellow and purple.  After that coat dried I printed out some sheets with the names (properly spelled) in a font similar to what I intended to use.

For this size canvas I used a font Curlz with size of 140.  After measuring and re-measuring I drew a light pencil line where I wanted the text.  I used Black, fine point and medium point paint pen to draw the letters on each canvas.

Once the Black was dry I used a silver medium paint pen to put a few extra polka-dots around each large dot.  Now we're talkin'.

The final step in this process was Ribbon.  I purchased a few 'teacher-ish' ribbons from Hobby Lobby and used them.  I also added an assortment of other colors to brighten and fill the hanging ribbon.

TA-DA!  Teacher's Gifts a la Kristin.

Pretty Little Teacher Gifts

9 weeks left!  How can it be that the school year is winding down in only 9 weeks!  Before we know it Summer Vacation will be here and then we will be off to the park, the lake and destinations unknown.  But before we get there we still have tests, quizzes, homework, field-trips and end of the year parties.  In preparation for these end of the year festivities I have begun working on teacher gifts.

In the past I have given totes, fabric nesting baskets, baskets, and journals, this year it is pouches.  I purchased 2 great patterns from Michellepatterns.com (the zip pocket pouch and the little and long pouch). The patterns pieces are the perfect size for using up your larger scraps.  You could even do a little fussy cutting to surprise the receiver.

 The pouches are cute, easy to assemble (seriously it took me about an hour)  and I think they could be used for a myriad of things.  Stuffed them with a gift card and we have a cute, reusable gift that any teacher would love.  I may have to make up a couple of extra for Mother's Day gifts.