Mother and Daughter Sewing Day

I helped mom make these bags with a Cotton Blossoms Jelly Roll over the weekend. The pattern is by Bunny Hill. They turned out cute! Does anyone have any advice on an easier way to sew on those buttons with the loop on the back? They're cute, but a real headache.

September Charming Girls Quilt Club Goals and a winner

Can you believe that September is already here? I certainly cannot. Time to set those goals again. This club is really helping me make a dent in my UFO's and my stash. Again, thanks to Kelly for organizing it.

Well, you probably saw most of these goals coming:
Goals 1,2 and 3 are to quilt and bind each of the baby quilts I have made. This is quite time consuming for me yet, especially since each one is over a 48 inch square. They are pretty big. Sorry to bore you again with pics of each one, but it is part of the rules.




I am going to be a risk taker this month and throw in a 4th goal. Say what you ask! Yes, 4! My fourth project is going to be making 2 of these cute snowman wall hangings.

The pattern and Crazy 8's fabric is by Sandy Gervais. I bought the fabric at Kelly's shop. I cannot say nice enough things about Kelly's customer service or her reasonable prices. You just can't beat it. You really should go check out her great selection of precuts and yardage.

Finally, thanks to all of the great comments on the giveaway. I enjoyed reading about everyone's favorite baby quilts. It was truly fun! The winner of the fat quarter pack is Mary on Lake Pulaski (please email me your address)! Congratulations.

Happy Sewing you Charming Girls!!

Charming Girls Quilt Club August finishes

Okay, Charming ladies! I am so pleased to be announcing my 3 finishes this month. I can hardly believe I got all 3 done, with all of that bag sewing I seemed to distract myself with!

Let's recap:
Finish #1: I finished my Crazy 8's quilt top for one of the twins.

Finish #2: I finished my Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt top for another friend's baby.

Finish #3: I quilted and sewed on the binding this pinwheel quilt that I have had sitting in a closet for over a year.

It feels great to have this quilt finished.

Now, I promised my faithful readers last week a giveaway. So, for all of you that are reading (perhaps you are a regular commenter, perhaps you are a regular reader who doesn't leave comments, perhaps you are a visiting Charming Girl, or perhaps today is just the first visit you've paid my blog), leave a comment about 'your favorite' baby quilt you've seen or quilted and I will enter you in the drawing for these cute 8 Paddington Bear fat quarters from my lqs.

Just leave a comment and I will enter your name in the drawing. Please don't send people this way, this is just for people who stopped by to read about the doings here at DQ. Have a good day! I'll draw a name Saturday.

Thanks to all who entered. The GIVEAWAY is now closed. I will be announcing the winner shortly.

And Around, And Around I Go

Making progress. I'm going to get this third project done on time for my Charming Girls Quilt Club August deadline. I am proud to say my loops are getting loopier. 90% of them are curvy not pointy. That, people, is progress.

I had an issue with Fray check leaving a stain. Has this ever happened to you? I will not be using it any more.

Disappearing 9 Patch

This was one of my 3 goals for the Charming Girls' Quilt Club this month. I made it for my friend's new baby girl, Bradlie. I am proud to say that I completed the top particularly because I errored in my cutting the sashing. I only discovered the problem after all of the sashing was sewn on and things were not lining up correctly. I felt like someone had punched me. I just felt ill that I was going to have to take it all apart when I was so close to the finish line I could see it. I persevered. I ripped all of it off. Re-cut. Re-sewed. And this is what you get when you do that, a beautiful quilt.

Having a bad day yesterday made me want to have a giveaway. Keep checking in the rest of the month because one of these days, I am going to post the giveaway goodies and you don't want to miss out on signing up for the drawing. Makes me smile just thinking about it.

I am off to clean my much neglected house. Seems there are millions of specs of threads floating about.

Making Progress

Good Tuesday afternoon to you! I have been busy this week. I haven't had a lot of time for sewing, but am happy to report that I am well on my way to finishing my 2nd Charming Girls' goal of the month, the other baby quilt. Turns out that my friend had a girl. This worked out great for me as I had just started playing around with some charms for this quilt pattern by Rachel Griffith which can be found at the Moda Bakeshop. I love that site...LOVE IT. And Rachel sure is one talented gal, I'll say. And she is very nice to boot, you should check out her site too! Okay, enough with the lovefest and onto the quilting. I have all 9 blocks done in this disappearing 9 patch and I have the sashing trimmed. Can I hear a Whoo-who! Seriously, I am quite pleased with this.

Sorry the photo is so busy and lame with that quilt underneath poking through. Hopefully I will be able to show a completed top soon.

We had a nice time going to the fair with Grandma and Grandpa last weekend despite the heat. We spent the weekend at their house.

Tag You're It Charming Girls!

I've been tagged with by the Charming Girls Club.

1. Share your favorite quilting or sewing tip.
Hmm. So many things a person could say, but since I almost had a bad accident last night...pay attention to your rotary cutter and keep you fingers out of the way. Luckily for me, I just got rid of a callous on my index finger.

2. Share your best tip for managing time more effectively (what works best for you)!

I try to get going during cartoon time in the morning to get my sewing done. Somedays it works better than others.

3. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would love to take a Europeon tour. LOVE to. I will do it someday. I serious will.

Onto something else

I spent a HUGE chunk of time making 2 burp clothes. . .mind you, originally the plan was 4. The large letter in the background of each took over 40 minutes apiece. This was not counting the hour I spent dealing with computer problems on my monogramming software or the 10 times my thread broke on the B. I tried everything, even replaced my needle, praying, saying choice words, yelling "You've got to be kidding me" or "For Pete's Sake" . I finally slowed down my stitch and that helped. . .but again, it was SLOW. I was pleased with the end projects though, they are cute. Two separate friends. . .Mason (boy), Bradlie (girl).

All I can say is, I am relieved they are done.

Yet Another Bag-- It must be BAG week here at DQ

Have you seen the new Quilts and More from Better Homes and Gardens? It is a publication that I always look forward to. This edition has 29 quick projects. And many of them are must do's in my book. Seriously cute, people. Seriously.

This bag is from the pattern Daisy Dazzler. I needed a cute bag to head back to work with in a few weeks. This will do it. I had some sale Amy Butler fabrics from her Daisy Chain line and I had some scraps from previous lines that I incorporated into the bag. I really do like how it turned out.

I find the pleated ends of the bag perfectly charming. Sorry that I didn't capture that better on film. I will warn you to read very carefully through all of the directions. I decided to connect the lining a way that I like to do it, just a personal choice. I made this bag in about 3 hours and that included cutting. This is a BIG bag. I think I could easily carry a pair of jeans, a shirt, and intimates for an overnight bag, if I wanted to. It would also work well for a beach towel, water, and sunscreen. It would make a great gift, as well.

I think it is a darling design. There are supposedly a couple of different variations that you are suppose to be able to access online, but the link is not working. I hope APQ fixes that, as I would be interested in the scrappier version to use up some of my scraps.

Check out the new Quilts and More. You won't be disappointed.

Easiest Accessory Bags Ever by Fig Tree Quilts

So as you have probably guessed, I am still on my using some scraps and being distracted from my August goals kick. This time I was distracted by this pattern by Fig Tree Quilts called Easiest accessory Bags Ever. Might I add, it is never hard to be distracted by Fig Tree Quilts and all of their quilty goodness. Seriously. What is a girl to do?

So, I had some bigger scraps and decided I would make 2 of the Girly Girl Bags. (11 X 12)


I made one with green handles (this one still needs a draw string added) and one with pink. I really liked this pattern. It is quick, and quite easy to make. I like the wide variety of bags you can make. I have at least one of these in mind to send to a college girl, who is having to share a community bathroom. That is why I made the larger bag rather than the make up bag figuring she could throw in make and hairbrush, etc. all in one bag. I may make more of these I am not sure. If I knew someone who needed a laundry bag, why I'd whip one of those up, too.

Friendship bags

Do I have all of my August projects completed? No. Probably because I keep getting distracted by all of these projects I keep falling in love with. Here are 2 Friendship bags that I spent a chunk of the day on. I even just played around with ways to fill them.



I think the body wash would make a great teacher giftie...if anyone else is starting to think Christmas gifts. The markers are going to a big sis when I deliver the baby quilt. Good idea, huh?

I used scraps leftover from other projects. This came in handy as Mr. Dandelion received his official termination letter this week due to reduction in workforce. He has been on call for months, as many of you know. This was not really a surprise at all, but it is sad all of the same. When you work somewhere for close to 18 years and it is a good job, it is sad to have to start over. Mr. Dandelion is going to try school this time around. So, I have decided I am going to be doing lots of smaller projects with scraps. You may remember the darker fabric from my NY Beauty quilt top. I still love that fabric.

A big thanks to Rachel for the great tutorial.

A finished present for Christmas

Oh hold your groans and moans, it is raining here today, so I thought I'd sew up a Christmas present. This adorable tote is a variation of a tote from Whistlepig Creek Craft Patterns charming totes 3. I say variation because you will see that I decided against the band.



This is a picture of the pattern, which you can find here.

This tote will be for Buddy's Kindergarten teacher this year.


I am quite pleased to have it done. I decided to use covered buttons for the pinwheels instead of a regular button. I had never covered a button before- how easy is that? And, I think they turned out just darling.

I am contemplating some kind of tacking on the prairie points because the top one keeps flopping down. What do you think? I tried some starch alternative. Didn't seem to do much for it.

The fabric is Cotton Blossoms Charm pack and coordinating fabric.

Sweet Enough for a Baby

I've been busy sewing for my August goals. I am pleased to say, my first baby top is done. Oh, I am in love with it. Let me tell you, when I first had just the blocks done....I was a bit disappointed with it. I don't know why. It just wasn't as I had envisioned it. But, now that I have the entire top done...I just love it. L-O-V-E it. It is so sweet.

I just love the fabrics.


If you remember, I am making these quilts for twin baby girls. I wanted to do similar color families, but different/unique quilts. This is the other top that I have already finished

Q and A

Last week I was asked about the quilt underneath my disappearing 9 patch. I promised to post a picture. It is in fact store bought. I bought it 10 years ago before I was quilting and I really liked the pattern. You could easy duplicate it yourself with your favorite 2 tones.

Buddy's eye is looking better today, I think. I think it is starting to turn that mustard color. Thank you for all of your thoughtfulness.

Look who's 5 and has a black eye

See the birthday boy who turned 5!

See the birthday boy on his new slip and slide!

See the birthday boy with his black and blue eye from bumping heads on the slip and slide.


Yes, turning 5 also marked Buddy's first trip to the Emergency Room. This picture actually looks a lot better than the actually boo-boo did. Right after he and his cousin konked heads, he had this blue sack hanging over his eye (which turned out to be a broken blood vessel). We put ice on it and all the adults present decided it didn't look good, so we went straight to the ER. They were wonderful there. By that time, the rest of the eye lid swelled, which (is what you see in the picture) made the sack not look so nasty. And of course, the next day the bruise was even worse. When he shuts his eye, you can see he has quite the shiner.

Charming Girls' Quilt Club August goals

Is it August already? This summer is really zipping by. I swear! Well, this will probably be the last month I will be able to complete more than one big project as it marks the end of my vacation. Rats! I had so many projects I wanted to get done this summer and most of them are still sitting around here. As Buddy would say...Good Grief!

Project #1- A baby quilt top

My friend is having twins. I am so tickled for her. I already have 1 baby girl top done, so I am making a second this month. I decided to do similar shapes (squares) similar colors, but make each quilt unique. I am following the pattern Crazy 8's for this one.

Project #2- quilt and bind this pinwheels quilts

Finally...some you remember I made this quilt last summer for a friend who lost her mother. Then my husband's job went a bit touchy and I never got it to the quilter. Then I wanted to do several practice runs of stippling before I touched this one as it meant too much to me. I was quite pleased with the house quilt, so I feel I am ready now to give it a go.

Project #3- (hopefully) another baby quilt top

My friend, Tiffany, is having a baby this month and she didn't find out the gender of the baby. I hope to get a quilt top done for the baby once I know the gender. SO, this one is a mystery quilt as of right now. She is due to have C section on the 15th...so this quilt may get done this month and it may wait until September. But, I hope to get the top done this month.