A little bird outside my window...

Look at the pretty little bird I spotted outside my window perched in a tree. What a rare bird to be seen!!

I wonder what you would call this bird?

Well, I know you girls are smart and have guessed it's not really a real bird.
It's actually a........ pincushion!
I know. Totally cute, right??


I was at my LQS last week and they just happened to have one copy of the new Nancy Halvorsen book waiting there just for me to buy.
So many cute things to sew in this book!!
I knew when I saw the bird that it was the perfect thing to go along with what I made the other day for a special lady.





So, they are already for take off. Safe flight little birdie, hang on to that bag!!

Wayyy back in May I blogged about completing this lap size quilt top. It's made with Nancy Halvorsen *swoon* charm packs and some yardage for borders and those little squares( I think there is proper name for those little squares).

Well yesterday I finally basted it and started machine quilting it!! I used the walking foot and followed all the straight lines. I knew I wanted to do something for the charm squares but wasnt' sure...then an idea came to my little mind. There are little apples on alot of the blocks so I wondered..."could I machine quilt an apple on them"? (Remember I am a total newbie to all of this machine quilting but am willing to step out of my stippling comfort zone!)
I got out my new sketch pad..like I can draw..hahaha...and did a quick scribble. Definately not the greatest drawing, but a plan was in place!!

And for a lot of the blocks the plan worked!! But, I am not going to lie..there were a few bad apples in the bunch, lol and I can promise you I won't be posting any close ups of those ones! Actually two were so bad that I did rip them out and once I quilt nicer ones back on, I will be adding the binding and sitting down tonight to work on the hand binding part..yay..I just might be posting a comleted quilt picture tomorrow!!! yahooooo!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We SOLD the house..now we wait for all the conditions to be met so it will be finalised. Please pray it all goes through, the stress of it all is really getting to me....ahhhh.

Holy smokes...I'm behind in my blog, I'm behind in my tisket a tasket blocks!!! BUT, I did complete my first ever pincushion!! Isn't it cute. I used the pattern out of one of my Nancy Halvorsen books. It's for the pincushion swap I joined(first swap too) and I got it sent out today..yay! It has a long journey, I hope Mr. Postman is gentle :o)

Side view.
I never did get my lap quilt quilted yet, but I do have a baby quilt all basted and ready to be quilted. It's for a girl at work who is having a baby girl. I am hoping to have it complete by tomorrow night or sat.

Well I sure haven't been a very exciting blogger lately!! I guess I was side tracked a bit with the nicer weather....

...And Isabella came to stay with us for 5 nights and I had to play with her in my spare time!

BUT, I did finish this quilt top last week. It's using two nancy halvorsen charm packs(cider mill road). Lot's of sewing with those little strips, squares and corner triangles! I am planning on stippling this baby this week/weekend.

Oh and I have had these little squares together for a while, just stippled them tonight. I wonder what it could be?? Hmmm...we'll have to wait and see ;o)

I figured I made a diaper/wipe tote for my soon to arrive nephew Benjamin, I better make one for my niece Isabella too! Isn't it sweet? I used most of the fabric from the past two quilts I made her. The pink flannel plaid is from a quilt I made her before she was born and other pink is from her Isabella quilt.

Today is my day off and I should be right into the cleaning etc. But no...before I drove the kids to school I had started laying out my quilt I will be sewing up. This was a unplanned project. I was at my quilt show last Friday and some vendors were there from another province and I fell in love with some charm packs(Cider Mill Road by Nancy Halvorsen), there was a pattern for purchase so I bought the coordinating yardage. I finished cutting out the sashing and setting squares last night and couldn't wait to get at it this morning. I will try and get some house work done today but there are no promises!! ;o)

Benjamin's quilt is done! Today was my day off so I went and spent the afternoon with one of my best friends. As we sat chatting I was able to finish hand stitching the binding. My sisters baby shower is next weekend. I am planning on making a diaper/wipe holder with coordinating fabrics. I decided to try something different with machine quilting..leave it to me to not master one and move on to try something new. I tried a little spiraly pattern. Notice I am not posting any close ups, lol. It turned out pretty cute over-all, even with the little flaws here and there "o)
Ummm..well you could click on the pic for a bigger version, which I suppose, will be somewhat of a close up..yikes!
This pattern is from Nancy Halvorsens Baby Winsome book.

Yay!! I just noticed that I have someone signed up for my first Pay It Forward. I just need two more PIF participants. If this is new to you as well, please see my previous post that explains more.

Sometimes it's just nice to see quick progress. I was thinking yesterday I would like to make something that could be done in a day or two instead of weeks. So I was looking through the Nancy Halvorsen "Baby Winsome" book yesterday and decided to make the diaper/wipe holder. I used the coordinating fabric I had left from the "baby winsome" quilt I have in progress. I wanted super quick results so used the zig zag stitch on most of the applique...I won't do that again ;o) Anyways, it turned out pretty dang cute. I put two empty wipe holders in it to see how much room and it can easily fit a wipe container and a couple of diapers(depending on size)

Two projects done in one week..woohoooo! This is a first :o)