Momma's Valentines quilt

Mom bought these cute Valentine prints a few years ago now and this is the second incarnation of blocks for her! The first time round they just didn't speak to her, so into the closet they went! This time when she pulled them out she knew exactly what she wanted to do with them. And it's so cute!! Dad says that Little J is going to claim this when we go home next time and I think he's right. Mom said that was fine, it could be her quilt while at Mom's house! Hah! I think Mom likes it too:) I think it's fab, can't wait to see it in person!

And I seriously love that stripe for the binding, too cute.

Some of Momma's stuff

Well, I'm working on some stuff (amazingly) but haven't finished anything (not amazingly) so I thought that I'd show the 4 of you that aren't family a few quilts Mom has done. I'm a bad daughter, I didn't even ask or anything! Shame on me. But I'm still gonna share cause they are too cute not too!

So, this is my kids room at my parent's secondary home. The ceiling has an orange in the pattern (circa 1960's ceiling tiles!), my Aunt made a joke about doing the room orange, and well, here you go! Mom ran with the idea and they are sooooo cute! It's totally not Mom, but they are a fun combo and are darling together.

More white for The Girl, more orange for The Boy:) She made the shams to go with it, and matching note boards above the beds. I'm pretty sure she is envisioning a place to store all the artwork the kids create and right now they have a picture of their respective child on them.

I have to admit that I wasn't huge on borders till these quilts. I think they ended up being my favorite part!

This next one was made to live at the house of Mom and Dad's good friend that is gonna be a Grandma soon.

This is Amy Schimler from the Animal Party line.

At first she wasn't going to use a dog print cause Alice works Animal Control and is seriously a dog and animal lover; she thought it might be cliche! But, seriously, who can resist Amy Schimler?? And she added more cute borders. Seriously, she is winning me over the this border thing!

So, yeah, Mom has talent! Like me she has very few of her quilts that live at her house. Most live with someone else. She's always willing to give the gift of a quilt!

I haven't died or left the planet...

I just haven't had much to show lately. I only had one quilt related finish last year, and I'm shocked to admit that I already have a finish for this year! I figured that since there are a few of you that still amazingly check this little lost space I'd show you. Get ready for a lot of orange... Swirly quilting, still straight line. That's what you get when you quilt with no walking foot, especially with flannel!

The back isn't what I would have picked, but being in Hungary I haven't found a shop that has what we quilt with (read polyester as far as the eye can see), so I dug deep in the stash and found something that mostly worked. And then I pieced the heck out of the orange and bears fabric I had left over to tie it in.

My first pinwheels (which is sad as I adore pinwheels) and I'm happy with about 75% of them. And the rest? Eh, this was made for a very good friend of the family and he a) won't notice seams not matching and b) will be in love with a quilt of his beloved Bears, made just for him by me. He's been asking for one since I did the Dolphins quilt 2 years ago so I'm happy to get this to him. Back then he asked if one had to get cancer to get a quilt (I made the Dolphins quilt for a friend going through Chemo) and I told him that if he ever married his girlfriend I'd make him a quilt. Well, guess what? The wedding is on Saturday, so I made sure to get this done:) I'll admit that I'm happy to be quilting again. I've been away so long!

This is the whole thing, toes included. It's very orange but Steve will love it. This is actually quilt one of two. The other is a baby blanket for a another Steve that's, er, 3 months old now! Gah, well... I'm sure I'll get it done before his first birthday anyway:)

Busy, busy, busy!

Wow, a month and a half since I last made time to stop by and write! It's been busy here, lots of trips and Christmas stuff; sewing time has been limited to pajama pants and uniform patches!

Since last time I wrote we've done Thanksgiving here at the house for 7, decorated the house, went on a Grownup trip to Rome, and took family trip. We headed through Austria to Munich for one night, up to the north of Germany to an Air Force Base, and finished the trip with a night in Prague. Quite the adventure! The new banner photo is from Munich; it was a beautiful city all dressed up in Christmas lights!

Munich:

(This was on the top of a food vendor, it's an entire second story! You can't really tell but it's probably 10-12 feet tall!)

Prague:

The big cities in this part of the world do Christmas markets, generally starting in mid Novemeber. They are filled with vendors selling ornaments, candies, pottery, you name it they probably have a vendor with it! Hubby was in heaven for the week; he really takes after his Germany heritage and loves nothing more then good sausage! The markets were full of folks with fresh sausage, I had to talk hard to get him to leave:)

The kids are fantasticaly great travelers (generally) and we had a great trip. They were happy, fun and sweet the whole week. Couldn't have asked for a better way to kick of the Christmas season!

Costumes this year!

I finally got the make the kids costumes! Years previous one thing or another has kept us from making costumes, but this year they were done at home!

Er... Some took more work then others:)

This is Jaina's Dorothy costume "Before". I HATED it and so I tore the straps off, made them smaller and placed in a different spot, and then sewed it all back up.

And actually that was a pain since the straps are sewn into the waist band and top stiched on. But it was much better the second time 'round.

For Brendan I made the hat (I made a hat!!), topstiched on a muslin collar, and added yarn "hay" at the hands and feet. I figured that would be tons more comfortable then actual straw.

Finally the fun part, the patches. Loved that bit!

We used corduroy pants and a fleece pullover as the base and added the elements. It was effective and meant I didn't have to do his from scratch. Whew!

My Mom always made my costumes and I always felt more special for it. It was something that was important to me, even at a young age; so important, in fact, that I've wanted to do it for my own kids. Even though the seam ripper sat at my side, I had a ton of fun.

I have to admit,

I loved the outcome.

And you know what? I think they approved:)

Grosgrain and the Queen of Hearts

There are those in the world with talent they never discover. And then there are those lucky enough to know exactly what their talent is.

Kathleen is one of those lucky enough to know where her talent lies.

And it lies here:

A-fricken-mazing. Truely. I'm not going to enter beacuse Jaina is set on being Dorothy for Halloween, and it takes 3 weeks for anything to get here by mail! But, still, even if you don't have a little girl think about taking the time to go see her work. It's fantastic!!

Quilt Festival

I planned on posting this yesterday, but with a sick 3 year old my time was spent cuddling on the couch! I did want to still play along, though, as I have such fun going through all the blogs and seeing all the quilts.


This is one of my favorite quilts, mostly because I figured out the pattern all on my own. I was new to quilting (this was all of a year ago:) and I was so amazed that I was actually able to figure out sizing, cutting, and I got the whole thing together!I did have issues with the binding, and this is actually the second binding to go on this quilt, but I sure learned a lot! It's amazing what you learn with a seam ripper in your hand. It may have taken me forever, but I finally managed to get it into the hands of a good family friend at a time when he needed the reminder of friendship. For me that is what quilting is all about, being able to wrap someone you care about in a physical reminder of love.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ah, the kids are back in school for about 3 hours a day. They are much better friends now then they were a week ago!

But since we are not keeping them in for lunch the school doesn't provide a morning snack (it's all or none), so we take a bagged snack. And, of course, I had to make a cute bag for each kid! I found a tutorial here, mostly for the dimensions. I didn't really feel like having to figure them out on my own! I'll admit to fussing with the size, and though it worked well, if I make any more I'll make them slightly deeper. What I did works well for a snack but would be too small for a lunch.

I really do love them!

Jaina's is made out of Sandi Hendersons Farmer's Market Vintage Cherries via her rocking Aunt Angie (Thanks Angie!!). Angie sent me several pieces of the line since she knows how much I love it. And look how amazing it looks for this lunch pack!

Brendan's was a stash pull; his only requirement was that it had to have green. He loves green, just ask him, he'll tell ya:)

As for other quilting news, I have to admit that I finally did it, I finally spent a 50% coupon at Joanns.com for batting. I can't really get any here that are what I normally use, and I can't buy one at a time and make it worthwile, so I bought a 45x40 yard bolt of warm and natural. Can't wait till it gets here! I can get back to actually making quilts again once I have batting. What a concept:)

Couldn't help myself

Er...

Jaina's quilt isn't done being quilted, Brendan's has yet to be basted...

And didn't I say something about finishing my WIPs?

Yeah.

So, instead I cut these! I've collected these fabrics over a bit of time, but they sat as I tried to think of a good quilt design.

I just love them all together! And I finally found a great pattern. It's from AmandaJean, from crazy mom quilts, via Bee Square Blog.

It's a zig zag made from squares and not triangles, brilliant! And I'm in love!

(Please forgive the quality of the photo. I laid it out as a test this evening without my "helpers" that, uh, "help" so much!)

Can't wait to get this all pieced together!!

It's Offical, I Can Sew

I had thought maybe I'd lost the ability to sew... But no, I have managed to find the ability again! And it's thanks to the fabric bundle my Dear Mother sent me. She sent the pattern and the fabrics, I think, to kick start my lagging quilting life. And, too, to remind me that she loves me:)

I love her too! And here's the little quilt. And notice the hands at the top! They are finally starting to pull their own weight 'round here.I really like this little quilt top. It's small so it went together quickly, and it's the first time I've done a star. It sure was a learning process for me! I only had to rip a few seams:) Basting and quilting this is on the work list for next week.

I also managed to get the borders and the backings done for the kids brick quilts. I'm gonna sit and get those basted tomorrow. Hopefully next week I can get those quilted! Wouldn't that be a nice change. I've decided to just try to get my wips done and actually get to enjoy the tops that I've put together and love so much. It's such a waste to have them sitting in a closet.

Uh, I'll let you know how it goes!

Er....

I didn't mean to fall off the face of the Earth. I just don't feel like I have anything to talk about. The closest I've come to quilting is buying some fabric and cutting borders for the kids' brick quilts. At this point all I have to share is this:

Between being at my parent's house for 7 weeks, moving houses here in Hungary, and taking the kids out of daycare to stay home with me, I haven't had time for much. We've started eating better, going to bed at 9:30 (seriously!) and doing school work with the kids (Jaina just turned 5, Kindergarten here we come); I feel like life is changing and I'm struggling to keep up with the change. There have been casualties, and my poor quilts are one of those things. My 10 wips will be wips a while longer while the dust settles.

Oh, and it got to be in the 90's here this summer. For some of you that isn't hot... For me, it was horrible! And, needless to say, quilts weren't exactly in my mind!

So, now it's turning to fall, I can feel the change in the air. School has started, and the days are getting shorter; I'm beginning to see my life settling down, at least enough to get Halloween costumes made and Christmas presents started. Life here isn't perfect (it isn't anywhere I've ever found), but I'm happy, and I have my family. I am blessed and am trying to find the little moments to stop and breath.

I thank you for still stopping by in those moments you take for yourself. It means a great deal to me that you think highly enough about my little life to care what happens!

Jenn

Mother's Day Hungarian style

Today is Mother's Day here in Hungary. I was invited to the kids Preschool/Kindergarten this week to play. The kids all sang songs and the school was nice enough to mix English and Hungarian songs. It was really was quite fun and the kids loved that I was there.

And as with any good kindergarten there were gifts to Mom: Sweet little turds. It's fun to start being on the receiving end of school projects.

So, happy Hungarian Mother's Day to all you Moms out there:)