All Framed Up Baby Quilt

I finished this baby quilt over the weekend.  I have been working on this project on and off for a while now.  I wanted to wait until I was confident about the baby's name, as I have run into a baby name change before.  Nothing worse than having something personalized when it isn't right. 

Fabric:  Ruby
Pattern:  All Framed Up, which can be found at the Moda Bake Shop

I also made these coordinating burp clothes. I was very happy with how everything came out.

Out of curiousity, I have had some requests at work for some baby quilts, which I haven't agreed to.  I keep very busy with my own projects.  However, I was curious...how much would you charge for a baby quilt like this?  2 charm packs, 1 y kona, binding, yard and quarter backing, embroidered. 

Little Retro Birdie

 Graduation Time.  Or at least it is getting close, right?  I have a few towels to embroider this year.  I am adding them to the laundry bags I already made.  I really like this retro birdie.  So, there you have it...my towels this year.  I have another set.  I am going to make them the same way, different name.  The bird came from SWAK embroidery.

Saturday's Doings

I must say...I spent quite a while Saturday in my sewing room...and really felt like I was spinning my wheels.  I was trying to applique some towels with some designs from SWAK.  It didn't go so well...or at least not as well as last time.

First up was a candy cane.  That was a complete disaster.  I still don't get when to switch the fabrics on that one...it did this odd stair case design.  I will spare you the meltdown photo.

Then I made this cute little owl.  He turned out okay.  But I do get a bit frustrated when not all the of the cloth seam is hidden.  I tried to be extra careful cutting and everything.  You can see it there one right side.

I moved onto this retro snowflake.  At first I was unhappy with how the towel was showing thru the navy.  Then I was really unhappy when the final stitch moved a quarter of an inch past the original design.  UGHH.  I give up. 

Then I decided to start cleaning the room of shame...the sewing room.  It is horrible.  I admit it.  I spent a lot of time in there. 

Finally, I got out my Go Cutter.  How fun is that?  Lots.  I used some Figgy Pudding I bought last year to cut up some charms.  I made a set for myself and a set for a gift.  I downloaded an MBS pattern for the second set, cut out the backing and binding, and whhaaaa-la, a nice kitted gift.  I did figure out though that now that I might do that in the future, I should always save the cardboard that comes with my Moda charm packs. 

A Sweet Finish

Oh I was so excited that my friend had her baby this weekend.  Obviously, I felt joy for their newest addition to their family (baby Roman), but I was also tickled to be able to finish this quilt I started a while back.  I had a fun idea for the center, and it was great to see it finally come together. 

Here's the finish:

I love the Lake House Fabics. 

Here's  a close up of the center:

I love how it turned out.

Here is a finished picture of the set, including 2 personalized burp clothes. 

I LOVE the burp clothes....they turned out so cute.  I especially loved the frog from SWAK embroidery.  How darling???  I cannot wait to send this out in the mail, pronto.

The theme for The Charming Girls Club this month is Quilting the Quilt.  I don't have a lot of good tips for this really.  Everything I have learned has been trial and error.  In fact I had a bit of an issue near the center block on this one.  I like to use curved safety pins to baste with.  I use to religiously spray with basting spray, but it is rather expensive (and makes a sticky mess everywhere) and I have found that some of my smaller quilts really don't need the spray.  The problem I had with this one though probably could have been avoided had I sprayed. 

The one tip, and this is pretty important, I do have is to TAKE A BREAK every now and then.  The first time I quilted a quilt on my machine, obviously I was a bit tensed up and nervous...I am sure that this had something to do with the story I am about to tell you.  Anyway, I quilted for several hours straight.  In the night while I was in bed, I had a rib displace and slide under my shoulder blade.  It was very painful and the chiropractor assured me that it had to do with my quilting that day.  So, TAKE a Break, Stretch a Bit, and don't displace a rib.

Another scrappy project

My scrap pile seems to be out of control lately, that is why I enjoy these projects I can use scraps on.  This project came from SWAK Embroidery.  What a cute little owl, don't you think?

In other news, buddy had a great week at soccer camp.  His coach was from the UK and she was just a delight.

 His team also won the World Cup, which was a huge victory!  :)  Loads of fun.  They finished up the week with a super soaker fight, and I think that was a hit.

What I've been up to. . .

I think I am addicted. Hello. My blog name is Dandelion Quilts and I am addicted to embroidering towels. That seems to fit.

Someone asked last post, all of these designs came from Embroidables.com

Happy sewing!

Mama's been busy (CGQC finish)

Wa-laaaaa!

One finished apron for my nephew, Zack. Poor buddy has had a cold, but was a trooper modeling the apron despite his condition. Sorry for the poor "nightime" photo.

I have actually finished 7 towels, but here is a picture of 5.

I hope you had a productive weekend. Did you do anything exciting? We also decorated the tree and house! AND, I cut out all the pieces for my Secret Santa gift/project.

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.

Don't look so surprised, it is an actual project!

So amidst this whole kidney stone fiasco, Mr. Dandelion is on his annual fishing trip to Canada. When he left, we both thought I was on the other side of this and all of the stones had literally been flushed (LOL). My parents came up to enjoy Buddy's soccer game for the weekend and my mom had a couple of projects she needed help with. Luckily, we got right on the projects Friday night while I was still feeling well. These are some towels I embroidered for a graduation present she is giving. I thought they turned out cute. The body towel took 45 minutes to sew (not including hooping) and the hand towel took 15 minutes. I loved the colors she picked out. She also helped me baste a quilt together, so I am ready to quilt it, when I have another good day or 2.

I am feeling pretty good today, so I managed to get to most of your blogs and actually leave a comment or two! It was nice catching up with you and thanks again for all of your support!

More Baby Gifts. . washclothes

I did a little embroidering last night. I have a baby shower to attend this weekend, and I was quite excited to be able to personalize some washcloths. I think they turned out adorable. I bought a pack of 12 washcloths at Target for $2.99. I thought I would split them into 3 packs of 4 washcloths, and they would make a great addition to any shower gift. I am sorry but it is another dark and dreary day here and the colors were not captured so well on my camera. The washcloths are really nice bright shades of dark pinks, green, and white. The designs are from embroidables.com. I love that site.

I was recently asked by someone relatively new to the embroidering world (and please
remember as I say that, that I consider myself in this same category) about how to choose what colors of thread you will need in your thread stash. I thought maybe I would blog about this in case any of you were interested or were thinking of purchasing a machine...so you could know what you were getting yourself into just to get started. Thread is expensive ($5)...but it lasts FOREVER. That being said, you do need quite a library collection of colors though. For example, when I first got my machine I remember thinking...I could do a soccer ball until I looked it up on my machine and was astonished to realize it was not just white and black, but also a couple shades of gray/silver! Here is a picture of my basic colors. I don't buy too much thread these days unless something I am making calls for a shade that I nothing even similar to.


Basically if I was starting. . .I would stock up on a white, black, at least 3 shades of brown (light, medium, dark) that compliment each other, and cream. Then I went by seasons. I chose bright, springy colors (you tend to make a lot of little girl projects from these) in green, teal, pink, purple, orange, yellow. Then I went fall with several reds, greens, golds, oranges. That would be my advice on the subject. As you can see, I still haven't used some of the colors I bought, but someday I will.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Sorry bloggers, I have been gone for awhile. I have been busy (as I have read so have many of you) working on Christmas projects. TOWELS, TOWELS, TOWELS. . .to be exact. While I was visiting my folks, I was busy whipping up lots of these.

Mom helped some, but a lot of it was a one gal show. She kept the 4 she worked on and these are the rest of the lot. I think I am sending the bathroom hand towels to some friends. The kitchen towels I am dividing up and giving one towel with a homemade cookie mix jar to buddy's daycare workers. I think that should make a nice gift together.


Thanks for all of the buddy love. He had a great Halloween. I think we have enough candy for the year! He did get a lot of compliments on his chaps. He is just one cute, buckaroo!

Busy week

It certainly has been a fun but busy week around here. I had plans with my quilting friend, Bev, to go hit one of my favorite quilt shops. I say hit because we always seem to walk away with armloads of new stuff. I bought more of that cute Benartex Happy Trails (cowboy) material that you saw in bud's new pillowcase. I am going to make buddy a new quilt. It is going to be sooooo cute, just like him. I also bought quite a few nice fabrics/finds off the half off rack. That always brings a smile to my face. Bev bought this cute fabric that looks like a little town. Have you seen that yet? Very cute. I cannot wait to see what she does with it. Then we went out to eat. Good times, I say.

The director and I made plans to go visit some friends at their cabin. I have had some material that I had been itching to make into something and then the vision hit. So, I whipped up this cute little table runner for my gal pal and also a new towel for her.

Someone recently left a post wondering how my stippling lesson went. . .I thought it went well, and you can see that I put my new knowledge to the test here. I thought I did pretty decently on the stippling of this tablerunner, but I still need to work on keeping my stitching even.

We had a lot of fun at the cabin (so did the mosquitos, but we'll survive).


On the way home, we even got a bit off the beaten path to go to a quilt store I went to once on a quilt hop. It had a nice selection of quilting materials in a nursery and craft store setting. I went hoping to find a stock pile of my vintage materials and, boy oh boy, did I. I ended up buying enough Fig Tree and Quilts fabrics for my cottage quilt that I want to work on. That was exactly what I wanted. I was pleased some of the fabrics were from several past collections and so the price range went down a bit. They all flow nicely into each other though and I am very excited to get started sometime in the near future, I hope.

I've been a bit charm pack crazy this week too. I finally got busy and put these pinwheels together.

They are going to be part of a lap quilt. I also finished off this table quilt for myself this week.

I can't wait for fall to arrive so I can get using it. I stitched in the ditch on this one. I am still marveling at the difference my new machine does on almost every task compared to my old machine. This is yet another example of where I believe my investment paid off big time. This is a bit bright for me, but I just loved the pumpkins in the the charm pack.

I hope you all have been having as much fun sewing and hanging with family as I have. I am going to run for now and hope to catch up with ya'll in a bit!

Here's to the Class of 2008

So, I have been busy learning (mostly from my mistakes) about the embroidery elements on my machine. Check out these pretty schnazy (if I do say so myself) towels that I monogrammed for two graduates.



Another project down....can you say, what's next?

Oh and before I sign off, check out these adorable buttons I found at Walmart.


Buddy was so funny when we were looking at them, he said, "Fancy!"