My 10th anniversary quilt!

I so happy that it is mostly finished. I need to bind it. But that won't happen for another year. If I'm lucky. So serious.

The story of the anniversary quilt goes like this. Damon and I were discussing anniversary gift ideas and he was shooting down every gift idea I had for him, left and right. I was cleaned out, I had nothing left.  When all of a sudden Damon had this vision and it came to him with angels singing. 
The idea of the anniversary quilt was born. 
It was a great idea and I loved it! However in my mind it was a lot cuter. I did not have the time that I needed to make this quilt into the grand thing that I wanted to. I would not have finished it at all if it weren't for all of Damon's help. He saved me. It's amazing the amount of time that went into this thing. I was setting my alarm to wake up before my children and working on it after they went to bed. I gave up exercising to have that time to work on this quilt. That is love.

You can see the blue marking pen since I have not washed it yet. All the pets we have ever had are on this quilt. Man, if it wasn't for them this quilt would look rather sparse.  This orange kitty, Miss Muffet, lived with us for only about a week or so. She died when she ate a black widow. I was telling this story to my children and they just giggled at the irony of Miss Muffet's fate.

I filled the 'g' with colonial knots.

Our love for gardening.

Damon designed this "A" and then made it for me. He's the man!

All the quilt squares are paper pieced. I sewed all of the pieces together so they were in units and then Damon would sew the units together turning them into the complete picture.

Damon also designed this paper piecing arch (though I appliqued the rounded top of the arch--the only applique on the quilt)

We love snowmen! Each one represents a favorite holiday: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Birthdays. I wasn't sure how to make the snowman into a birthday snowman. So it doesn't really look like a birthday snowman. But, hey, I did the best I could.

The Salt Lake Temple. Awesome!

There are many things that make me so sad about this quilt. There are so many mistakes it's pathetic. The quilting is one of the major things that brings me down. Damon and I didn't get to quilt this one. The shop had double-booked our appointment and so we chose to let the shop quilt it. I chose the design but I thought it was going to be smaller like what I saw in the sample book. I've been thinking about taking out the stitching. Damon says no. I haven't decided yet.  Damon says he has already decided for me. We'll see who wins this one.  :)

Hello, Dear Sue!

I've missed you and think of you a whole lot.  :) 

I've finished a baby quilt that I made for a dear friend who is about to give birth any day now. 

My ward had a service action where I donated an offer to make a baby blanket. The lady that won my donation told me she wanted it to give to my friend, Janae, who I wanted to make a baby blanket for anyway. Win-win!

It has minky for the back side.  My first time working with minky. And wow, I love the stuff, it's great! I can't keep my hands off it. I just hate the cost. So mean. Won't be working with minky again for a long, long time.

Damon quilted it! We both are now certified to work on My Girlfriend's Quilt Shoppe's long arm. But he is the one who knows how to work it. He is so talented, seriously. This guy puts me to shame! 

No contest.

He did such an awesome job! He's so good to humor me. 

All the fabrics I already had in my stash (expect the minky). Which makes me sooo happy!

I feel justified in all the yards of fabric I buy when I can whip up a lovely quilt without having to stop by the shop. This was an easy quilt too. It was such a nice breath for fresh air to finally be working on something easy. It was rejuvenating.

So, back to everyday life.  I sliced my finger today with my rotary cutter. Nice. So much blood came pouring out I thought I was going to die.

 Let's talk soon.

xoxo!

I'm so so happy to announce that I just finished my Hocusspocusville quilt last week! Yippee! And it only took me two years. :) Double yippee. :) I am so in love right now. Smitten to the bone. Seriously, I can't take my eyes off this thing.

Can you see the pumpkin quilting on the black square? They are hard to see but so cute!

I googled Hocusspocusville and saw on images a lot of these quilts by other quilters. One gal said it took her 3 months to complete hers. WoW.  I also saw one made with all color thread. I didn't think it was as cute doing it that way. I did see one, though, that the quilter put the embroidery on lime green instead of muslin and I loved it. I wish I could of seen that one when I was starting mine.

The marking pencil that I used to draw on the houses, that cost me like $12 or $14 bucks -just so you know-, was suppose to come out when washed. But it did not. There are places on the quilt where you can clearly see the green markings. It makes me so sad!

Also there is one block that Colton got to with a pen that did not come out either when I washed it. Colton was younger when he did this, so I can't be mad. You know, I fished the haunted houses a long time ago. They've just been setting around collecting dust forever. Such a happy feeling to have it finished!

Anyway, I am very happy with it. I can't wait to see you very soon!

xoxo

Dear Sue,

I must apologize for taking so long to get these photos up. But I still wanted to show you what we did, so here we go. 

Cambria picked out the paint and we had a lot of the decor already. And just so you know...I did not make the quilt on the wall. That was a gift from Damon's mom.

I got the metal flower from Hobby Lobby and we bought Cambria a cute new dresser! I'm so thrilled about this I can barely stand it.  It makes me so happy every time I look at it. 

True story.

I remembered how you got rid of your brown closet doors and liked the idea so much that we did the same.  I bought some curtains and sewed them up to fit. 

I really love how it looks.

The artwork is by my sweet Dad. :)

The boy's room isn't as put together yet. This really is all there is to show. Ian picked the color and they also got a new dresser. Yay! Hobby Lobby once again supplied the decor. I love that place!

Here is what I made for my oldest three for V-day. I got the idea from Lori Holt, she had something similar to this last year. But, needless to say, hers was a lot cuter.

That period after 'warmest' should have been a comma.

This one belongs to dear Colton and if you noticed how it already looks dirty it's because Colton cannot get enough nuzzling his precious, dirty little face in to it. What do you do? :)

(The Monkey backing is Colton's)

I didn't have enough stuffing to completely fill out the pillow corners.

Bummer.

Anyway. I think that they liked them. I guess I don't really know for sure. My spoiled kids definitely could use a good hard lesson in gratitude.

Here is Colton's awesome quilt. He has been waiting for-ev-er for it and I'm so glad to be done. I love the colors, they rock! But, sadly again, I had binding problems. Binding, binding, oh how I loathe thee.

I bought most of the fabrics from the quilt shop I took you to when you came. The backing I bought from a site called Fabric.com This is a great place to buy good, cute fabric. They have Moda, Amy Butler, Alexander Henry and Riley Blake (my faves) and, obviously, more. Plus, they have free shipping when you spend over $35 to boot! 


$35? That's not hard for me to do. :)

Colton really wanted me to take a photo with him "sleeping with his blanket". He's such a photogenic kid.


  We are finally getting around to sprucing up the children's bedrooms and replacing all brown doors in our home. I'm so thrilled to be finally transforming our ghetto home into something presentable. Though we have a long, l-o-n-g way to go. :)

What you see here is the "mystery quilt" quilt along from My Girlfriend's Quilt Shop. It was a week-by-week quilt but only had 5 blocks--so not too intimidating. This was my first ever experience with applique and is the reason I now despise the word. This, also, was my first time using embellishments and rick-rack--hate the stuff. The rick-rack that is. Will never use it agian. Ever. I could not get it to sew on straight for the life of me. I ended up sewing it on by hand and they are all still crooked! Evil things. 

Then again, I'm sure I'm going to have to eat my words when I come across another really cute quilt that I just have to make.  :)

Also, this quilt was a first for color bleeding. And it totally should not have happened. 

This is how it all went down.  :)

See the "Tis the seson to be giving"? The shop was selling this new kind of webbing that had that phrase already printed on it. All I needed to do was stitch over the perfectly written letters and then run the magical webbing under cold water and it would just melt away. Just like that. Easy. as. pie.

Amazing, eh?

Well, it would have been, if it wasn't for the fact that it wasn't magical. 

At all!

The stuff was super hard to get rid of.  It made the fabric stiff as a board and caused color bleed (though you can't see it in the picture)

You better believe I was crying.  :)

Anyway, I could go on for a really long time about all the woes that came to pass because of this quilt.

But I'll spare you.

You're welcome. :)

(I used fabric glue to attach the embellishments.)

I decided to give the quilt to my Aunt Jane and Uncle Mike. I lived with them for a space of time while in high school.  They mean great deal to me.

(For the quilting, I stitched in the ditch.)

Nobody knows the love that goes into quilts until you've made one. 

The mounds of thought, money and time, stitching and re-stitching, trying for perfection.

Thinking of your recipients the whole way.... of what they'll think, say, feel.

My Aunt and Uncle did love it. I was happy to see their joy.

They deserve it all.