The 4 Year Old Quilt

Hi!  Welcome if you're visiting!  A quick little intro, my sister and I design quilt patterns and a little over a year ago we started Quilt Story.  Since then we don't blog as much as we want to here :(  But please stay, look around and then head over and see us at Quilt Story!

I decided I wanted to make quilts for my boys this year for their birthdays.  My Sawyer turned four on June 20th, so on my birthday May 24th I started his quilt!  At that time it was the fastest I finished a quilt until this quilt just recently.  I got Dino Dudes from Michael Miller at Natasha's Shop Skye Reve and knew this would be the perfect prints for a little guy.  I am so in love with color lately, I couldn't wait to get going.

It's square and the perfect size for a kid.  (I don't have the exact measurement in front of me and he's currently sleeping and snuggled in it!  But it's somewhere around 48" x 48")  When he opened it he said, "Oh, it's just a blanket."  But later he had more enthusiasm for me :)

It's a really simple and great pattern that we'll be adding to our shop in a couple of weeks.  If you'd like us to notify you when it's available let us know in the comments or email us at myquiltstory@gmail.com

I decided to do a focus square in the middle.  Those dinos are just too cute!  Plus I love fabrics that lend to fussy cutting.

I just did simple straight line quilting.

Sawyer picked out the backing.  I showed him a few minky fabrics that coordinated with the quilt top (he hadn't seen it) and asked him which his favorite was.  He chose red! I was really surprised, I don't do red a lot and I never do red for my boys ie clothes, decor, etc..  I am so much more of a blue/green girl.  But I am really happy that he took me out of my comfort zone!  (And I washed it probably ten times with white fabric swatches to be positive it wouldn't bleed.)

I don't have a full shot of the backing on this, totally spaced it.  I did get some snapshots though.  Through the center of the red minky on the back are more squares, then his name appliqued and a heartfelt quilt tag. I did a tutorial on the embroidered quilt label HERE.

\I went with orange dots for binding, I thought it fit in the colors but didn't stand out too much.

I just love this local park where I did the photo shoot.  I'm in Arizona so I get these lovely palm trees for my background.  This palm tree had the perfect notch to hang my quilt from. I think I'll be taking my next quilt here too!

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you'll head over to Quilt Story and see our other quilt there, here's a little peak:

And thanks so much to Amy for hosting the festival!  You're the best! 

Bliss Easter Dresses and Vest for the dude!

My Mother in law is the best! She made these darling Easter dresses (and vest for Wes) for my family!

How nice is she? 

sadly, and not surprisingly this was the best family shot I got!

They look like they are nice and innocent and sweet children. They are not!  Sophie is the feistiest 3 three year old on the planet, don't let the daintiness and cuteness fool you. Wes, okay, he is innocent and sweet!

and snuggly! 

Ahh...my little Pup Pup, just as sweet as she looks!

This is "best friend Addie"  she gets at least 20 birthday invites a year! Her social life is exhausting!

We call him Moose or Moose head.  Love the vest!

This girl grew about 4 inches this year! Gorgeous!  Love her!

Some may think I take advantage of my Mother in Law, but she says she feels cheated if she doesn't get to sew everyday. And she says when she makes the little dresses, she imagines her grandkids in them.  So I will continue to provide her opportunities to sew!

HAPPY EASTER

Fabric credit: Bliss

Pattern Credit: Simplicity Hannah Montana 3515

Sandi Henderson: gracie

Vest, Simplicity 5366

Finally!

Eeek-a-licious!  Has it been that long since we posted??  We've been busy with our upcoming Block Party (join!) and with market coming this spring, Heather and I have been working our little hands as fast as we can trying to prepare.  I have a couple of sneak peeks to share today, hope it looks fun to you!

We moved this last summer and with moving comes new design opportunities (and challenges).  I love the excuse of getting to do something new, I guess that's a good part of moving.  I am making over my kitchen completely, and so far I love it!  Since we're in a rental, changing light fixtures, cabinetry and flooring isn't an option...but I am so happy that our new place is really nice and up to date, that helps a lot.

I've painted my table and chairs. L-O-V-E!  I have a problem with aqua, I have it everywhere.  I decided to paint the table a really soft blue and the chairs white.  I kinda adore it.  Only time will tell how it holds up, I hope it does okay though!!

And new window treatments.  I've obviously decided to go with aqua and red, and really if I'm going to be bold and cheery, the kitchen is the place to do it!  (Right??)  I've ended my two and a half year stand-off with the color red and have welcomed it back into my life with open arms! :)  I think we'll get along this time.

I've been considering adding a giant piece of red ric-rac along the bottom, what do you think?  I'm currently working on a clock for the space and soon a table runner and maybe a quilted wall hanging?  So I'm ambitious, but I'm hoping to fit things in here and there and get it all "done" in the next month or so.

And a sneak peek at some new projects:

This is all part of a new baby pattern that I'm finishing up writing and will be available in our shop soon.  It's not a quilt which is new for us, but I think it will be really fun and useful.  Just looking at all those happy baby fabrics makes me smile :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Make sure to check out my linky parties for other fun things, I'll be linking up!  And of course, make sure to share your own fabric project at Quilt Story.

Late Christmas mantle decor and stockings...

Okay, I am not going to go into it, but I was not the most prepared Christmas decorator/blogger this year. I just got behind and couldn't catch up. I didn't get out a lot I normally do to decorate, but enough that it looked like Christmas and the kids didn't seem to notice. Lesson learned!

Anyhow, I still wanted to post these stockings, better late than ever.

As Megan said, we grew up with stockings like these. The last couple of years I had wanted to make them, but I only think of in in December. This year when my parents selfishly went on another vacation, my older sister Amy and I crashed their house again. We sent them text messages with pics of what how much we were trashing their house, and how they could do nothing about it. And I mean trashed! Amy and I like to make our mess and then clean up at the end (I mean end of the weekend.) It took us nearly 2 hours to clean up. Pathetic! We also enjoyed many murder shows and Bravo show marathons. FUN. After a whole weekend (minus a break for a triple feature) I barely finished mine. It was a lot of work. Amy has 10 children, so she didn't even come close. In the end I LOVE how they turned out. They have been hanging since I brought them home late October. The kids love them. I decided I would rather have them have a connection to their stocking, rather than the most gorgeous stocking that matched my room decor...

When are you going on vacation again M & D?

Here is our little family. We are a little outnumbered with girls, but thanks for little dude on the end to try to get the numbers more even. Bless his little heart, I feel bad for whoever he marries one day. I wonder if my girls will be nice. (I told my husband I want Wes to become a Co-dependant mama's boy when he grows up, he got mad at me, don't all Mom's want that for their little boys?)

Here is my simple Christmas mantle. I think I like it at least as much as last years, but this year was much easier for sure!

Can you find little Clarise joining us in this photo? Cute?

Okay, I got some clearance garland last year at Christmas, and it was perfect for my chandelier.  I think I may keep it up, it is super pretty and sparkly huh?

Thats all, sorry for the slacking of posting on this site. Megan and I have been busy with our quilting. Too much crafting to do, not enough time.