Emma's quilt is finished!

Hey, remember this? Probably not, but I certainly do. Some time ago, my sister-in-law and I started working on this quilt for this baby.


Her mother is a good friend of mine and I really wanted to throw her a big and beautiful baby shower like she did for me, but Emma was born three months after we moved to Missouri so I settled on making her a baby quilt. My first quilt ever. The top went together in no time thanks to my sister-in-law Jen- the real hold-up came next when I realized that hand-quilting is not for me. So over the course of the next THREE AND A HALF YEARS (!) I hand-quilted each of the patchwork squares. I can't believe it took me that long. Then a few weeks ago, I machine quilted lines through all of the sashing, attached the binding and finally stuffed the quilt in a package en route to "baby" Emma, who now looks like this.


Sigh. I wonder if I'll ever send a gift on time. Here's what the quilt looks like:

And the winner is...

Thanks to everybody that left me comments in my Mini Cutie Giveaway. The winner (decided by random.org) is bparks! If you haven't already bparks, head over to Sewn Sweets (www.smollerup.etsy.com) to view the 5 sets of Mini Cuties debuted last week to pick your favorite set. Then just drop me a convo on Etsy to let me know which is your fave, and give me your shipping info. Thanks so much. I had a lot of fun with this giveaway and it will probably not be my last!

guilty as charged

I'm an Etsy thief! I know this is frowned upon, but I couldn't help myself after I saw these pillows at littlestitch.

My couches have been naked now for months and I've had some suede fabric folded and collecting dust, just waiting to be made into throw pillows. I just could not decide what to do with them, until I stumbled upon littlestitch's etsy shop. Here's what I came up with. My couches are so happy!

I just used felt and thick embroidery thread and sewed them all together! Really easy and fun. Just the sort of thing I was looking for.

The one on the left uses the same fabric I used for the curtains upstairs.

This one on the far right- lovingly referred to as the "apple tree pillow" by my girls- coordinates with the fabric I used for my downstairs curtains.

I've got a few more in the works. These babies are addictive.

One Year Etsiversary, that's right, I said Etsiversary

these are Mini Cuties - this is a set of 4 that I have already listed in my shop

Today is my one year Etsiversary. One year ago today I joined Etsy and it has been amazing. I owe many thanks to the people who heart my shop, who have blogged my sweets, and have loved my sugary creations enough to purchase them. I also owe a special thanks to my friend Katherine who has not only generously shared a spot with me on her craft blog, but was the one who introduced me to Etsy.

to get an idea of the size of these cuties, this in one in my 4 year old's hand

In honor of this anniversary I am hosting a giveaway (my first ever). Each day next week, starting July 20th, I will debut a brand new pair of Mini Cuties. I hope you'll check in with me in each day to see what flavor I come up with next.

To be a part of this giveaway, just leave me a comment on this post and at the end of next week I will randomly pick a winner who will receive a set of 2 of their favorite Mini Cuties. Comments will be accepted starting from today, until the end of next Friday, the 24th. Thanks so much for making my first year on Etsy a great one!

Nona's Quilt

It feels so good to finish a quilt. I made this lap quilt as a "thank you" slash Mother's Day present for my mother-in-law, who came and spent a whole week with my kids so we could go on our cruise. I told my sister-in-law Jen about my plans for Louise's gift and she helped me find the pattern in one of her books late one night while we were visiting them in Kansas City. I need to find the instructions and type them here in case I ever want to make this one again. So, pattern will come later. Louise loves these small print reproduction fabrics and they always make me think of her. The kids loves having their Nona here and so did I! We're always so sad when she has to leave. This was my first attempt at machine-quilting- if you can call it that- I couldn't figure out the walking foot or the darning foot method on my Mom's sewing machine. (I need some serious help with that machine. I'm seriously worried I've ruined my mom's antique Bernina, commonly referred to as the '57 Chevy of sewing machines!) So I basically just pushed the quilt through my sewing machine with my regular foot. Kind of a mess, but I still like the way it looks.

Now, let's get down to the KNIT-ty gritty

Raise your hand if you think it's lame to give your Dad a knitted dishcloth for Father's Day? Yeah, me too. Don't worry, I sent him another perfectly respectable Father's Day present a couple weeks later. I choked. It happens.

So I really love to knit. I am crazy about it. What appears to be a scarf in the picture above is actually the start of a very big and cozy and blanket. I've been obsessed with the idea of a knitted blanket ever since Jena sold me on them at her house about four months ago. I found that pretty blue and thought it would be nice to do blocks of that brown and blue and alternate them to make a big blanket. Then I learned how to knit in a new color from my new favorite knitting book with a naughty title. And then I just started changing colors willy-nilly. So this blanket is going to be crazy and fun, and it's going to look like my first big project. And that is just fine with me!

And I was missing my best friend and worried about her because they just moved to a new town and their car broke down and their old house isn't selling and her husband's slavery to the hospital was reinstated just like my husband's, so I made her this dishcloth. That's bound to solve all her problems, right?

Secret Weapons Revealed- Red Vines and Diet Coke

I am going to start posting my craf-T endeavors on this blog again or so help me... I've got a fist full of red vines and some Diet Coke on standby. (After all it is only 7:30 in the morning.) Sheesh. How long has it been? Since I made that potholder for Ashley's birthday?

Yikes.

Well, I recently forgot my sister-in-law's birthday and hurriedly got to work on another potholder. I'm currently working on a matching dishcloth. I just love pink and red together.


I also made this cute little Mama owl. Next I want to make her a little baby owl.