Quilts, Quilts, and More Quilts.

Since we are on a roll with quilts here goes all the projects my mom and I finished over Christmas break after we completed the Double Wedding Ring Quilt (DWR). The DWR is not shown in this post because I decide to share it in a post of its own, when you take months to make you deserve your own post! Here are all our creations I have yet to share with the world:

This is a turning twenty in all patriotic fabrics I made for my Republican man!

This one is actually a year old, I just never posted it. It is a rail fence design that took me for ever to finish because of children, but once done, I donated it to my Grandfather-in-laws Kings-of-Columbus auction. So in the end it went to a good cause!

Another turning twenty's. I love this pattern. This quilt is on Serafina's bed!

Mom's yearly Christmas quilt!

This pattern is called Hearts on Fire. My mom made it for my cousin Megan's Wedding.

Another one of my mom's quilts. She did a great job on this one. I did the same one, and it did not turn out as well I had to improvise as my lines were not straight. You will notice it is not pictured here, mainly because it doesnt have boards yet! My version is going to go to my good friend Jon.

My mom's turning twenty quilt. This one is now in Philadelphia with my Uncle Craig.

A memory quilt we did for one my mom's teacher friends.

And lastly, I think I might have posted this one all ready, a baby quilt for Madison. This one is also a year old. Madison turned one this week!!


So there are just a few of our quilts. Some we forgot to take pictures of, some still don't have borders! Like Jon's! Hope in joy, and don't forget to come back to see the DWR quilt!

Tangram Quilt

Over the last month my Mom and I have embark on new quilting style/technique/design that we are very excited to share. On Monday that quilt was finished and now with a picture uploaded I am ready to share it with the world.

How our adventure stared:

Every year at The Laureate they hold an annual dinner and benefit auction to raise money for the school. Each class donates a class project that is then auctioned off that evening. My mom had a great idea of offering to Sam's teacher that we teach the children about Tangrams, then have them create pictures using the tangram pieces...after we would take those pictures and turn them into a quilt. It was brilliant. I presented it to his Teacher and she was very excited. In fact had just done tangrams with the kids and had them make pictures, it was a beautiful thing! (Mainly because the week we had planed on giving the kids to do the pictures was now an extra week we had to quilt.)


Here are a few of the kids original art:


We took the pictures and counted up each triangle, square, and parallelogram by color and shape pick out the colors that best match the color choices of the kids and then began cutting. We cut somewhere upwards of 150 triangles, squares and parallelogram. Well technically my mom did, this was her department. Then using an applique method we carefully, painstakingly laid out each one of the kids pictures in fabric to match the original, trying our hardest not to straighting or make seamless but follow the kids tilted roofs and wild boats! After each picture was applique we then sewed the whole top together and sent it back to school so each child could sign their piece of art and get to see one stage of the quilting process.

Then came the fun part, embellishments. First graders love to add eyes, smoke, seaweed, flags, suns, and even sun rays to their pictures. Well mom and I couldn't leave that alone, so we went to work. First my mom embroidered what aspects of the pictures she could, such as eyes, mouths and even one girls golden brown hair. Then we sandwich the quilt and I took over adding the rest of the embellishments through the actual quilting. We had metallic green seaweed, golden, red and orange metallic sun rays, black stair cases, windows and doors. And what fish picture would be complete with out metallic blue bubbles! I have never changed my thread color that many times on one quilt! But it was fun and in the end we had a beautiful quilt:


On the back we quilted in a key, which gives the title and artist name of each picture. Of course my mom and I were in love with this quilt and as we drove to the auction last night we were begging the boys to bid on our hard work so we could have it back. Well....

My dad put up a good fight, but when the price went up to $400.00 he/we decide to let it go. (I knew the mom we were bidding against and knew it would have a good home.) The final price was $402.00. I was happy to have helped the school raise that much money in one auction item. My mom and I are also proud to say that out of all the classroom projects the quilt brought in the highest $ amount!! YEAH.

After the auction the Mother who bought the quilt came over and told us she was willing to go to $600.00!! She told me that when she was a little girl her grandma (or mom) had made her a quilt out of her baby things and then put it away and on her 18th birthday presented her with this quilt from her childhood. It meant the world to her and I guess has become a family tradition in away. Her aunt did it for her kids and she wanted to do it for her daughter (who's art work is in this quilt) so when she saw the quilt she wantedit. Now she will save it for her daughter and give it to her when she is older. I knew then that the quilt truly had gone to the right family!!

We cant wait for next year, who knows what quilt we might do for the second grade class, or the primary class room, or the toddler room!! OH no..3 kids, which classroom do you choose to make the quilt for?!?

Twin Quilts

Well I am happy to say that my new machine is now properly broken in. It successfully helped me finish off the first of the quilts in line, which I must say are about the cutest, must darling, beautiful quilts ever (I am so not bias). So with out further ado here is a picture of the master pieces:


These two quilts were made for my friend Jeanette who is pregnant with twin girls. Needles to say I am very excited for her and her family. She already has an older son Henry who will be 2yr. If you look closely you can see in the close up picture of the two quilts they are the same except for one has a plaid fabric and the other has a pink flower fabric. My mom carefully had sewed all the X's in the center of all the little squares and I machine quilted both in one night!! With my machine breaking down mid way through, we were crunched for time and ended up until midnight on Friday finishing all the handing stitching on the binding!! But it was worth all the hard work. The quilts are beautiful and will hopefully with stand all the love the twins and there older brother just might throw at them!!


One last thing; here is a picture of the new machine (on the right) next my old machine (on the left), just to show how cool my new one is!! Yes I am this dorky and this excited about a sewing machine!


Also this cracked my up; have you ever wondered what my 17 month old does why am doing my marathon quilting:



In case anyone is wondering and wants to ask, yes those are scissors and there are lots of needles in those drawers!!

Hunting for the Right Word

We had a nice low key Easter round our house. On Saturday we attended the Easter party at our club were the kids saw the Easter bunny, hunted eggs, decorated cookies and just had a great time. That evening we went down to our friends house where the kids had a chance to dye Easter eggs and just run around being silly. After laying down 7 children (1: 8yr, 2: 6yr 1: 4yr, 1: 3yr, and 2: 1yr) in a 3 bedroom house and having them all fall asleep us adults had a great time playing Apples to Apples. I believe we played for nearly 3hr?!? I would highly recommend the game to anyone.

On Easter Sunday we started our day out right by driving to Santa Maria Starbucks for breakfast! Yes I am serious, our Auntie Jen had to work so we thought we would go down a wish her a happy Easter before Church. Then it was off to Church, where we had the chance to sing the tradition Hallelujah Chorus, practically my favorite part of Easter.

By the time we arrived home form the morning fun (oh yes they had a hunt at Church, how many hunts does one child need?!?) Matteo was exhausted and went straight down for a nap with no lunch. We had planned a hunt for the kids here at home with Lego's in the eggs, with just a few eggs having snickers and mm's. Off we sent Sam and Serafina on their hunt. After awhile (Uncle Trevor hid the eggs, it was awhile) they had found the all the eggs and started to head inside to open them up. Little did I know the hunt was not over...

Serafina ran in-side plopped down on the living room floor and began opening eggs. Lego's everywhere, then she found one with a snickers, she thought she had scored.

I had entered the room now, and Matt was just behind me, everyone else was still outside working their way in.

The next egg was open, score I thought, another snickers....oh no...that is not what my daughter thought....and then from the mouth of my three- year-old..

"That pisses me off, its the same candy."

My jaw must have hit the floor, "What" I said, I could not believe those words just came out of my daughters mother and on Easter!!

Oh they had. When I asked what, she repeated. Matt's face turned bright red, as he knows he is the reason for this verbiage that has just flown so easily and carelessly from our daughters lips. What is his statement you ask..

"I think that is my que, to head off to the Texas now." (he really did have to fly to Texas for business that day!)

So why most of the world spend Easter hunting for eggs, we spend it hunting for the right words!

Our "Upset" daughter

As always here is a link to my dad's site that has pictures from the whole day: click here

Newest Addition

This week is spring break, which means 5 free days to stay at home play around the house and finish all those quilting projects because there is no shuttling kids to and from school or what not. YEAH. I was really looking forward to some time in the quilting room, as I have 8 projects that must be finished, 2 on Saturday, 2 on Monday and 4 (little ones) Wednesday of next week. I have been working hard on them all during nap and in the evenings but with my mom home and the kids free to just run around the house and entertain each other I get a little more quilting in.

Well...the best laid plans...

To start with I have an old machine, I got in high school. My mom has a new one. When she is not around I use hers or when I am free motion quilting, as mine cannot do free motion. Well I had her machine set up for free motion and she needed to sew 3 straight seams on Saturday, I told her just to use mine (which she hates), and I left the house.

Easter- I was telling Uncle Jon about the quilts my mom and I are working on and my mom starts getting this look on her face. She looks really guiltily and starts talking about how my machine is so old and I really need a new one...yada yada

"Mom, what did you do to my machine."

guiltily look, and laugh,

"Did you break it"

"Maybe"

"It's repairable though, right."

Guiltily look, "I don't think so!"

I just start laughing, what are you going to do!! We have 5 days to get a huge load of quilts done and we have one working machine, what are two women to do?!

Go shopping of course.

I have been looking at new machines for years now but a good quilting machine is $$$! So today my Mom, Serafina, Matteo and I head down to Santa Maria Sewing Center, looked at all the models I had be researching narrowed it to two and headed of to Starbucks. There we compared prices and features made the decision, then called Matt; who had no clue about any of this as he had flown to Texas earlier in the day on Sunday. I proceed to tell him the story and ask if I could get my machine, after talking about my mom and I being a bad pair together, he complemented my salesmanship and said "yes".

Back to the store and as of 4:30pm this afternoon I am now the proud owner of a Sapphire Husqvarna Viking sewing machine. It is wonderful. Now all my quilts will be finished and have beautiful wonderful stitches and quilting. I could not be happier.


I was planning on doing a quilt blog with pictures of all finished sometime next week. I have bunch of finish pictures but can't published them quite yet as some our gifts, must wait until they have been given! Until then here is a picture of my newest addition:

How to really upset your 3-year-old....

First: Decide to be a cool mom and cook a fun April 1st dinner.

Plan the dinner: The April fool part will be that it will appear we are having desert for dinner and dinner for dessert. The dinner will be meat loaf and mash potatoes baked to look like a cake and bagels with strawberry cream cheese to look like donuts. Desert will then be kit-kats melted then rolled in toasted coconut, to represent fish sticks served with ice cream topped with caramel sauce to look like mash potatoes and gravy.

Next: Create Pure Excitement
Your 3-year-old runs into the kitchen and sees the "cake".
"Is that for dessert"
"No it is dinner tonight."
Now let her run around while you finish putting the finishing pouring the milk getting even more excited about the cake and getting to eat dessert for dinner.

LET THE FUN BEGIN: Cut into the cake: She sees the meat loaf; your 6-year-old laughs, your 1-year-old begins eating it like no tomorrow. And then......

Open the flood gates. Your 3-year-old bawls. Her hopes, and dreams dashed in just seconds. How could her mother play such a cruel April Fool joke on her.

Finally, serve dessert and redeem yourself. Thank goodness you planned on serving fish sticks and mash potatoes that were really coconut covered chocolate sticks and ice cream. Peace is return to the home.

And to put icing on the cake (If I can so use the term) in the end, have your 3-year-old asks if you can make the same dinner again next year?!?!?

How was your April Fools Day?