Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Back to School Journal Pages have arrived!

This sweet bundle showed up on my door step this afternoon!  There are lots of pictures - enjoy!
 This Vintage Back to School Journal Page Swap was hosted by Michelle Geller of Hold Dear.  Look at that adorable cover!
 The first page was created by Jan Clem. Do you see that yellow ruler tab on the side?  When you pull on it, the readin', writin' and rithmetic pages flip open.  It is so cool!
 I need to learn how to do that!
 The page with the apple is the back of Jan's page.  The page with the medal was made by Sheila Earhart.
 The page on the left is the back of Sheila's page.  On the right is the page made by Cynthia Fawcett.  Cynthia made a pocket out of a protractor.  Love it!
 Lots of cool "tucked in" items throughout this book.  So neat.  On the right is from Michelle Geller.
 Back of Michelle's page;  Jan LaFollette's page on the right.
 The back of Jan's page; Beth Leintz cloth page on the right.
 The back of Beth's page; Rachel McGough's page on the right.
 The back of Rachel's page and bonus division tag for a page.
 On the right is Mollie Morrison's page
 The back of Mollie's page; Lorraine Peltier's page on the right.
 The back of Lorraine's page, Heidi Redfield's page on the right.
 The back of Heidi's page; Barb Rickard's page on the right,
 This is the inside of Barb's page.
 The left is the back of Barb's page; on the right is Jessica Rodarte's page.
 The back of Jessica's page; Jill Sibbald's page on the right;
 The back of Jill's page; My page on the right;
 The back of my page; a cute "lunch money" envelope.
 The back of the journal.
Isn't this fabulous!  I wish I could show you all the fabulous little bonus pages, tab pulls, notebooks, chalkboard pages, tuck-ins and everything else included in these amazing pages.  This was so much fun and I'm so happy that I participated in this swap.  Thanks Michelle!  :)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Faerie Pages

I've finally finished up my Faerie pages for Karla's swap
 They are very sparkly and I'm happy with how they turned out.

 The frog is my favorite.
 There were five faeries to choose from as seen below.  We had to make 8 pages total.
Thanks Karla - this was a really fun swap!  Can't wait to see the pages I receive.  :)
Also - I got an email from Michelle today and our Vintage Back to School Journals are on their way.  Stay tuned for pictures later in the week - these are sure to be amazing!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Quilt top two!

Here is the sewn together quilt top for my second quilt.  I still need to add the borders but I'm so excited with the way it is turning out.  This fabric by Riley Blake called "Bohemian Festival" caught my eye the minute I first saw it.  The colors make me so happy! 
I had the blocks finished last night and played around with how I wanted to assemble them.  I kept calling Doug in to see what he liked best - he has a great eye for design (and I just like his opinion!).  The seven pattern is what we both liked the best to highlight the beautiful colors. The light areas are just the dappled sunlight.
 This is a closeup of one of the blocks:
 Here is the quilt looking from the other direction:
I'm already in love with it.  I think I may have someone else quilt this for me.  I don't really want to do the "stitch in the ditch" again and I'm thinking a pretty squiggly pattern or maybe a cute flower pattern might look nice.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Finished Quilt and New Fabrics

I finished my very first quilt and I'm thrilled how it came out!  All you quilters out there, don't look too close ~ there are definite mistakes and some not so perfect stitches,  but I had fun and I learned what to do and not to do on my next quilt.

 The only part that I didn't really enjoy was the "Stitch in the Ditch" quilting.  It was so much turning and it was so tedious!  I discovered that one mistake I made was not completely smoothing the top with the batting and backing so I ended up with a few "puckered" stitched areas.  I'm also not in love with using the nylon invisible thread, we had a few tangles along the way...  Surprisingly, I actually liked putting the binding on!  I was afraid of it at first but it was an enjoyable part of the process.  I'm so happy with my quilt!
 So happy in fact that I went out and picked out fabrics for my next project.  This one is going to be a wallhanging - probably for my office.  The pinks, blues and greens are my favorites.
 These fabrics are beautiful and I can't wait to get started!
I'll keep you posted on my progress.  Enjoy the weekend!