A Special Baby Quilt

This is a baby quilt that my daughter started a few months ago for her baby.  She picked out the fabrics from my sewing room stash and sewed charm squares together to make a pretty quilt.  Because she doesn't have a sewing machine at home, she worked on it when she came over to visit.

I helped her cut out the squares and she sewed them together into rows.  She picked out pretty pinks, some old and some new fabrics and some soft teals along with some teal-colored minky fabric.  I like how the colors all blend well together.  

Once the squares were all sewn together, she never got a chance to come and finish it.  So I found a pretty bright pink for the border and finished up the quilt to give to her at the baby shower that I had for her at my house.  I put soft pink minky fabric on the back with no batting in between the layers and quilted it along the edge of each of the rows.  This blankie is SO soft and warm.  I just know the baby will love cuddling up in it.

The special part about this quilt is that we both worked on it together.  My daughter started it and I finished it up for her.  My daughter is not much of a quilter, and that is what makes this little baby quilt so special.  

 

Sewing at the Campground!

One of the goals that I've had for the past few years is to do some sewing while I'm camping in my RV.  Last summer I finally got to make it happen!  

I camped in my retro RV at a campground in Lake George along the Schroon River not too far from where I live.  Most of the places that I camp are state parks and don't have electricity, but this campground did and my friends and I camped there last fall.  

While I was there I cut out some squares and made this cute little tree wall hanging.  It's a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop and I've wanted to make this for a while.  

This is my friend, Tracy who made a patriotic quilt for her mom.  

And Carol, who is finishing up a hand-pieced hexagon quilt that she has been making since I've known her.  Lol

Here is our set-up for sewing.  We sat right along the edge of the river working on our sewing projects.

In this photo, you can see that we are watching a Hallmark movie while we are sewing.  Having electricity while camping sure does make me spoiled!

Here is a photo of the finished project. I used Fig Tree fabrics for my project and love how they coordinated so well.  It was a fun and easy project to make.  Hint: there are more of these to come!

 

Birthday Thanks to My Friends

This year I celebrated one of my milestone birthdays at an outing with some of my friends.  We gathered together for the day and went to Olana, a historical home in Hudson set up on a hill along the river.  We toured the home and grounds and had great day together.  If you live near the Hudson River valley and haven't been there yet, you're in for a treat.  We had a great time!

For the Thank You cards, I took out an old set and mixed it with some new things.  I've been a SU demonstrator for 18 years and I have a LOT of stamp sets.  Bur surprisingly, I don't have a lot with women as friends in them.  

I paired this old stamp with some new Hand Penned papers and added the saying, "Life is better with a friend like you."  Seriously, I love how they came out.  

When I made the cards, I only had some scraps of the Hand Penned designer paper leftover from my class.  So I had to use a secondary color scheme to make all of the my cards with.  This time I added some Peach Parfait cardstock instead of Fresh Freesia to complete the cards.  I used the Hand Penned cards and envelopes for the base of the cards.  

I loved using this old set and making it into something "modern."  

Here I am with some of my friends along one of the the trails at Olana.  What a perfect day to celebrate my birthday!

 

 

Baby Bibs, Burb Cloths, Blankies & a Baby

If you have been keeping up with my life, I recently became a Nana for the first time.  :)  She's only a few weeks old and I am loving spending time with my new grand daughter.  

I made my daughter some bibs using flannels and pretty soft colors.  I made up the pattern myself and used Velcro for the attachment.  

One day when I was over a Joann's Fabrics, I found this pretty flowered fabric in different fabrics.  Some of it is flannel and some is cotton.  I also found it in a Minky type fabric, too and knew that I wanted to make something for the new baby with it.  My daughter loves soft colored flowers and I knew that this would make something nice.  

I also made about 10 burp cloths from the flannel to match the bibs.  Then I found more of the gauze fabric and made a couple more receiving blankets with that.  The gauze fabric is nice because it's not too heavy and is just right for wrapping the baby in the summer months.

Using the flannel fabric, I stitched up some flannel receiving blankets, too.  I used a piece of flannel for the back and one for the front, so they are reversible.  I love the soft colors of these items and how well they all coordinate together.  

There's plenty of fabric left over (!) and I hope to make some more items in the upcoming months.  :)

Here she is wrapped in one of the gauze blankies that I made for her.  Maybe someday she will learn to sew with her Nana.  But for today, this is all I need.  

 

Peaches & Cream

One of the Suites in this year's Stampin Up catalog that caught my eye was the You're A Peach.  It's soft, pretty colors and cute sayings made me want to get it.

For this card I used the scalloped border from the Scallop Contours die set for the bottom of the card.  I put a piece of the coral designer paper on the inside to show through.  Then I embossed the front of the card using the Subtle folder.  I added a thin piece of the pretty papers to the top of the card to give it some color.  I stamped and added the flowers, the peach and the sweet saying, Have a peachy day, mounted onto the die from the Scallop Contours.  Who wouldn't want to receive this cheery card? 

For the Sweet as a Peach card, I embossed a layer of slighter colored cardstock and put some designer paper on the left side of the card.  I added a tag from the Tailor Made Tag dies and embossed the saying in white powders on a circle.  You can also see the mini jam jars that I filled with candies and added a strip of the designer papers along with a tag and a peach.  Peachy goodness all around.  :)

For the next card, I folded the front flap of the card in half, creating a fancy fold card.  I added the focal point to the front of the card using Tear n Tape to hold it in place.  The inside has a white piece of cardstock to write the sentiment on.  I used some Wink of Stella to highlight all of the flowers and peaches on my cards.  

The fourth card features the designer papers with peaches on it.  It's very colorful and happy looking.  I'm really happy how my projects using this set turned out.

For the next time, I may make some cards using this set and switching up the colors.  The flowers would like in other colors, too.  Would getting one of these cards make your day "peachy?"  I think so.

 

Masculine Cards

As a stamper of greeting cards, we see a LOT of cards that are designed for female recipients.  This past week I worked on putting together a plethora of cards for the males in our lives.  I had a good response at my stamping class where the ladies got to choose 4 cards that they wanted to make.  

This first card features a Paper Pumpkin stamp set that had feathers and birds in it.  We stamped the background with the Dictionary background stamp that I pulled out of the "archives."  Then we used a splatter stamp that we spritzed with water to give it a watercolor look.  I used the new tag dies and added a saying and some feathers.  I love how it turned out.

This next card features the stamp set By the Dock.  Again I used the new Tag dies and added a rowboat, some oars, grass and a sweet bird flying off in the distance.  I added the green designer paper to give the cards some color.  From Cindy Brumbaugh.

Here are 2 seagull cards that I designed last year.  They also feature the Hugs from Shelli stamp set that came in the Paper Pumpkin box. I saw this idea from KB Papercraft.  I can almost hear the seagulls calling from the shore.  

The next few cards are made using the man from the stamp set Senior Years.  He is very silly looking and I didn't know if I liked him or not.  But now that I've used him, I just love the look of these cards.  :)  I got this idea from Christine Pierce.

For this birthday card, I added a goat from the Way to Goat set.  He's peaking out from behind the "old guy" and making this card very whimsical.  On the inside is the saying, You're the Greatest of all Time (GOAT).

And last, but not least are the sailboats from Sailing Home.  It's a cloudy, rainy day here today and I wish that I was out at the lake watching these boats.  I saw the idea for this by Terry's Cards on Etsy.

Which 4 would you pick to make your Masculine cards?