Smocking & Stitching finished!

Hello to all! We are moved and settling quite well in a new state...a new city...our new home.
All is pretty much in their places, except in my sewing/quilting/crafting/art room. (Which I cannot wait to get organized).

Meanwhile, I would love to share a few photos of the little smocked apron-dress for our little grandbaby. She was the flower girl to our son's wedding at the beginning of this month.

I love, love, love the Australian Smocking & Embroidery magazines! And I am sad to hear that they will no longer be publishing them. Are there any of you, who have some of these magazines they would like to sell?

This particular pattern by Kathy Dykstra, was in Issue 88, that a dear friend shipped to me when they were in Australia.

It is a little different smocking that I did, since I couldn't seem to stop! lol   And I was sooo happy that this fit our little "bunny", since she does not live near us and I had to guess on her actual size.  And the pattern was for a bigger girl, but I was able to "cut down the size".  

This is all one piece; however, it looks like a layered apron over the ruffled underdress.

On my Smocked & Stitched post on my blog, I wrote and posted more photos of our little flower girl in action (She definitely is in constant motion :o)

And for the groomsmen, I also was able to finish bow ties and hand embroider their initials on them, so they could keep "track of them"...which I was also very happy that they fit! There were 8 groomsmen, but I sewed an extra one for our son.  He loves bow ties, but just to be a little different, he wore a dark navy on navy tie.

(clockwise...first top left: 3 of the 8 groomsmen; top right: our younger daughter Girly~Whirly & her hubby; one of his best men and our son the groom; three groomsmen before their speeches; our older daughter's hubby and our grandbaby with another groomsman).

Thank you Wendy and Dawn for this wonderful blog of Sew Its Finished! And thank you to all of you with your inspiring finishes! I hope to get to more piecing of some quilt tops...

Blessings & Aloha!

Bubble dress ~ Pumpkin inspired!

Oh! I am catching up on reading and seeing so many amazing finished projects here!

I'd love for you to read more about this pumpkin inspired bubble dress for our soon to be 6 month old grandbaby girl...if you get a chance, please do pop over and let me know that you did, by leaving a short comment :o)

I have so much fun sewing projects to do...and now able to get to some more of them, now that we are through with packing and moving after the sale of our home!

Blessings & Aloha!

Pillows, pennants, pouf...and a valance...

Yay!!! I love seeing all the beautiful and completed work of everyone's here! And I am happy to be able to post some completed projects...

You can read more about them on my recent post *Spring break, Sewing, and Surprises...*

 

The two pillows each have a handle for our little grandbaby *Bunny* to hold on and carry around with....when she is big enough to.

 This is the sweet nursery that our daughter and son in law created for her.

and here is our little grandbaby, who I will call *Bunny* on my posts :o)

(I've been in and out of town and will still be heading in and out of town, but I will be sure to visit when I can!) Blessings & Aloha!

Wee baby Cathedral Windows quilt

I have had this little baby, hand-pieced, Cathedral Windows quilt in the "works" for some time...started...then set aside...then worked on...stored away...and pulled out and worked on...etc...

I know that it is just a little baby quilt...and I should have completed this ages ago!

*I debated sewing down the edge so that it would be a straight edge, but decided on keeping it as it is, cuz I really liked the zig zag edges or corner points*

  

*It is two panels of the scrappy fabric squares sewn on a muslin background. Each panel is about 23 inches wide by 46 inches long...so overall, it is 46 inches by 46 inches.*

But yay! I have it finally completed and it's ready for a future grandbaby...

For the complete story and a few more photos, please take a peek at my post: Quilt...completed...

If you would like, you can read more about this quilt here: "Q is for Quilt"  
or on this post, I've shared some other quilts, here: Quintessential Quilts and Quilting Quandry

(And if you do get a chance to visit, please leave a comment on those posts, so that I know you stopped by.)

I appreciate all of you and am inspired by all the lovely quilts & projects completed and shown here.

*Blessings & Aloha!*

A couple simple pillows...

I really love that this blog exists! It has been great to see everyone's completed projects and be inspired to get back into sewing!

This poor little pillow's stuffing has been beaten down, so it is nice and soft...a wee bit too soft!

I have had some sample squares of fabric that I purchased for next to nothing! Seriously! A furniture store was closing down last summer and my hubby and I saw the samples in a corner... We picked out about 20 squares (17x17 inches each) (some printed and some plain) for a couple of dollars! None of them were identical, since they were samples used for customers to choose fabric for their furniture and accessories.

This past Weds, I didnt have to work, so I went to Hancock's fabric and bought some decorative rope trim. Last night, I sewed one pillow and this morning, I did the second one.  I had old pillows that I used the batting or filler from....so these cost $7 for each pillow (The cost of the trim was the most expensive  part).

And here is the back...the fabric for the back is sooo soft!

 ...just in time for our younger daughter and her boyfriend's 

long 10 hour drive to our home. 

(my hubby and I get to meet him for the first time) 

And thank you to those that answered my question previously about what sewing machines you use. I have been looking and looking and having a hard time deciding! I love quite a number of the machines that were mentioned, but some were more expensive than I felt I should spend.

I did decide and purchase from Overstock.com this Brother brand.   (It was on sale and with free shipping.) So...yay! I was able to try it out for the first time on these pillows! And it worked great! (I had given my old machine to our older daughter, so have been without a machine for about a year!...a big reason that I have mainly been hand quilting :o)

Here is my machine. ...it is very easy and the manual gives great instructions! (It comes with a rolling carrying case too :o)

Oh! many of you are familiar with models that can do many things, but I was amazed that they make sewing machines that can really thread the needle!  haha...Yay for such brilliant people that invent things like that!

Also thank you so much for all you experienced quilters that have answered some of my questions! 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings & Aloha!

A little introduction...

I'm so excited to join with all you talented quilters! I truly believe that I'll get some of my many UFOs completed this year, since looking at all the ones being completed by this group-I am inspired and motivated!

I started my blog, when our older daughter won a blog design drawing and gifted it to me so that I could have a blog to share the art that I do.  Blogging opened another avenue for me to meet so many talented folk! And to think I didnt even know what a blog was, until our daughter had shown us hers in the Spring of 2009!

Here is one of my UFOs - cut and handpieced for the hexagon quilts that I had started. (Oh! Wish I knew about paper piecing before cutting each individual hexie!)   One for each of our daughters, but now I've told them when I do get them done, perhaps it will be for one for each of their babies ;o)

I posted about these on my blog post: "Stitches...at a standstill".

(If you do get a chance to look at any past posts, 

please leave a comment there, 

so that I know you were by.

...thank you so much :o)

I've always loved quilts and am blessed to have some made from family, especially thankful that my mom had made all her children and her grandchildren a quilt before she passed away.  This post:  "Quintessential quilts and quilting quandry" on my blog, shows more of the quilts that I have.

(This is one of my mom's cross stitched quilts she completed). 

I learned to sew from my mom, but it wasnt until a dear friend (also a military spouse) showed me the basics of quilting that I first began quilting.  The military moved our families to different installations, and I tucked away my projects.

Until a couple of years ago...when another military wife and dear friend expressed an interest in quilting, and I pulled out my UFOs and shared with her what little I knew.  She has completed several quilts already!  Since then, I've decided to keep my hand piecing and hand quilted ones readily available.  I am working on this cathedral quilt.

If you would like to see more about my cathedral quilt, here is my post "Q is for Quilt" that I talked about it.

I'm a novice quilter, so would also like to ask all of you to please give me your opinion on the type of sewing machine you use. ...is it user friendly, etc? I gave our older daughter my old Singer, and am still on the look out for a machine that I can do free motion quilting, embroidering monograms (maybe), ease with use. I've asked this from other quilters before, so I am taking everyone's input in deciding which machine I hope to purchase.

Since I started quilting, I've actually only completed one wall hanging and 6 little mini Hawaiian style quilts for a quilt exchange. ...but hopefully before the year is up...I can say that I have more quilts finished!

Blessings & Aloha!
Maria B @Personalized Sketches and Sentiments