A Pillow for Myciah

A while back a friend asked me to create a pillow from a very special sweatshirt.  My friend's granddaughter Myciah Rose passed away at 6 weeks of age from SIDS.  Every year on her birthday they do something special to remember her.  The sweatshirt was from one of those events.

My friend says that when she sees a white butterfly she is reminded of her precious girl, so when I found this fabric with the pink background and the white butterflies, I knew that it was the fabric that I had to use to border the pieces from the sweatshirt.

To make the shirt I cut the design from both the front and the back of the shirt and then basted it down to a base fabric that was not stretchy before I put the pink borders on.  

I installed an invisible zipper in the top so that the cover can be washed if needed.

Playing with the camera

Yesterday as I was snapping photos for my blog posts, my funny little Tifa decided that she needed in on the action. She always likes to "help", LOL.  I always like to play with my camera and to learn a little more and get some practice, so I just went with it.

Here are a few of the shots I took.  I did do just a little editing with GIMP.  It's funny that her eyes look kind of green in these pictures.  They are actually gold.  The last one I just threw in because it makes me giggle.

Orange Marmalade

I finished my little project for the quilt a long with Sew Can She.  I came in just under the wire as the finished project needed to be posted by tomorrow.  :)  I had to deviate from my original plan to make a lap size quilt when I realized that I had severely miscalculated the amount of fabric that I would need.  Instead I made a small wall hanging. I am loving the play of orange and green with the lighter fabrics!

I was constructing the blocks in a sort of chain piecing method when I realized that I was going to run out of fabric way too soon. I had all but the last round completed on all of 150 blocks when I realized that it just was not going to happen.  SO.... I have 125 smaller blocks that I am going to square up and use to make a matching runner to put on the top of my piano.  More on that at a later date, LOL. :)

Fabric deals...

I'm sad to say that one of my favorite fabric places is soon going out of business.  :(  They have been one of my favorite places to go to find great deals on fabrics for several years now.  I will hate to see them go. They always had good prices, lots to choose from and the staff was always friendly and helpful.

I stopped in one day last week to stash build since they had everything at 50% off and found some really sweet deals.  I bought approximately 20 yards of fabric for about $60.
Here is what I came home with, although I could have come home with twice this much if my budget had allowed it. LOL

I've had my eye on this print for a while now. 

I didn't intend to use these 3 together, but after I got them home I decided it might be a good idea!

These little birdies were just too cute to pass up. 

So was this kitty print and the stripes just matched too well to leave them behind. 

And finally these big pieces will make good backs for quilts. 

I'm excited to have some new fabrics in the stash!  I have not allowed myself to buy much in the way of fabric for over a year now and my stash was starting to dwindle a bit and I was getting tired of looking at the same old stuff, too. LOL 

New Year Sew Along...

Ok, Ok, so I wasn't going to start another project until I got a few more UFOs completed.  But I found this sew along (or rather IT found ME, LOL) and it looked like fun so I hopped on the bandwagon.  Its just simple mini log cabin blocks, but I am enjoying the social aspect of the group posting on Facebook.    A friend invited me to join the group, so I did, that's what I mean by IT found ME. :)  As much sewing and quilting as I have done in the last several year, I have never actually officially done log cabin blocks.  

Here is my fabric all ready to go except for the last light value fabric that I decided to add later.  The centers are cut at 1.5 inches and the "logs" are cut at 1 inch.  Everything was pulled from my stash which is a great thing!

And here is the first finished block.  I am loving the play of light and dark!   I can't wait to get more blocks done and start playing with the layout! 

Finished! At Last!

OK I know it's Saturday, but I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for her Finish It Up Friday this week anyway. That is because I have not one, not two, but THREE finishes this week!  Yay!  I could not bear to shout that they are finally finished. LOL

The first is this little wall hanging that I started about 2 years ago.  It was inspired by Amanda's little pillow, I decided that mine needed to be a wall hanging instead.  I finished the top right away and that was as far as it got until a couple of weeks ago when I decided it was time to finish it.  I sandwiched it and quilted it then and finished up the binding this week.  It still needs some little rings sewn to the back so that I can hang it up, but other than that it is finished!

The second is this little baby quilt that I started about  a year ago.  Not sure who will wind up with it yet, everybody seems to be having boys! LOL  I cut all the little tumbler blocks on my Go! cutter.  Love that thing!

And the third and final finish is this baby!  I am embarrassed to say that it was started about 4 1/2 years ago.  I got the blocks done in a reasonable amount of time, and finished the top several months later in a sewing session at Amanda's house.  She helped me arrange the blocks. :)  I finally got it quilted about a year later, the binding machine sewn on about a year after that, and I finally got it hand sewn this week. It was originally started as my effort to join in Amanda's One a Day quilt a long.  Needless to say I fell a little behind... LOL.  I am so glad to have this project off of my list and into use.  In perfect timing for a really cold week being forecast here in Minnesota!

I am not counting these as part of my unfinished project goal this year as I finished them before I set the goal.  Next up is to finish my Scrappiness Squared quilt and a small pillow a friend asked me to make from a special sweatshirt.  I hope to finish both by the end of January.

What projects are you working on?  Did you finish any up this week?

Welcome to 2014

The holidays are over and it's back to reality with a regular schedule at work,  no more short days or days off in the middle of the week for a while.  Sigh, it was nice while it lasted.

New Year's Eve was fun!  My husband and I try to have a party every year.  This year we had 11 people including my husband and me.  We played some Rock Band, we played some board games and card games and ate wayyyyy toooo much fooood! LOL

In thinking about the year ahead, I have been inspired to set some tangible goals for this year.  Inspired, in part, by my friend Amanda, but this is also something I have been thinking about for a while.  I'm hoping that by listing them here it will help me stick to them a little better than I have in the past.  I have a tendency to set goals and then throw them to the wind when I have a "better" idea. LOL

I have a rather embarrassing amount of unfinished projects taking up space in my sewing room.  Some of my goals for the year are meant to address that issue.

So, looking ahead I would like to set these as my goals for the year:

For The Merry Church Mouse:
1. Create a multi sized PDF pattern and make it available here on the blog.
2. Explore my creativity by creating 6 completely different flips all from the same pattern.  Pattern as yet to be determined.  Any suggestions?
3. Finish specific UFOs - dresses already cut out, strawberry feliz, and red, white and blue vida.

For my quilting:
1. Finish at least 6 unfinished quilts.
2. Have at least 50 completed hexi flowers for my hexi quilt finished.
3. Begin work on a quilt for my niece, Lexi.
4. Continue to use up scraps.

Blogging:
1. Blog at least 4 times per month.
2. Finish a post which I have already started writing with a pattern that I would like to share.

I'm hoping this will give me a sense of accomplishment at the end of the year. Some of these goals are a little lofty, but not unattainable if I put my mind to it.

What about you? Have you set any goals that you would like to accomplish for 2014?  I'd love to hear about them!