Life Happened!

I know I have been away for a long, long time. Things have been a bit crazy in my neck of the woods. Long, boring story, so I won't burden you with it! I hope to get back in the swing of things soon!

Dresden Dreaming...

I love, love, love dresden quilts! I have always yearned to make one, but was just to dang scared. It looks difficult and very time consuming, both categories I do not have much patience with. Sometime ago, I ordered an easy dresden tool and promptly forgot about it. It finally arrived in the mail today and I thought I would give it a try! Oh me, oh me, oh my! My poor scrap box is in trouble!

I present to you my very first Dresden plate. Let's call her....uhmmm, Spring Sunrise! Or, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, or (oh, this is so fitting) Rhapsody in Redneck! Ha!

Isn't it FABULOUS!!! (Don't let the untrimmed threads allow you to think otherwise, they will be gone in a snapola! err, or a snipola!) I am on a roll tonight, aren't I???

And, just in case you didn't "get" the fabulousness of this plate, one more looky!

See ya! I am off to "fix some more dresden plates"!

Saturday at my LQS and more dresses.

My Mother-in-law and staff at my LQS, Kelley's Pins and Needles. We had a fabulous time at the quilt shop where we found two future quilters sewing away on some gorgeous bags! After finishing our visit at Kelley's, we had lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was soooo good. I had hamburger steak and she got ( of all things) chicken livers and had enough left over to bring home a doggy plate. My son, Bailey was home working on the fence, so we ordered him a "to go" plate of hamburger steak, turnip greans and potato casserole. We put both his to go order and her left-overs in the same bag. When we got home with them, he grabbed the bag and tore into a plate of food. I noticed he had a yucky, funny look on his face and discovered that he had Mother-in-Laws chicken livers. When I told him what they were he turned white as a sheet and was unable to eat his order. Funny, funny, funny! I wouldn't touch a chicken liver with a ten foot pole and he insisted that they had no place " in his house"! Poor boy!

Future quilters:Below is my new little peasant top and pants, the pattern will be ready next week.

The next two pictures ( not so good pictures) are photos of another one of my new designs, The Elizabeth Play Suit.

Another photo of the peasant play suit. I will be teaching both of these outfits and the Sherri dress this Spring. The peasant outfit was designed to feature the use of the serger in making children's garments. It was a ton of fun to make.

This wonderful Carpenter Star, made by Laura Hensleigh, is creatively made using bright and cheerful Batiks set against Kona black. I love it!

Mom and I both were exhausted after our day and happy to get back home for a nap!

Oh, and here is my "hunka chunka" of burning love, my baby boy, Bailey.

The Sherri Dress

I have been itching to do a little dress making. So, I designed a little pattern for a little girl, I am gonna call this pattern The Sherri Dress. It is a size 4 and is for sale in my Etsy shop, SewGlenda.

The fabric is a beautiful floral fabric with an aqua background and large flowers in gold, lavender, olive and chocolate. The lined bodice is trimmed in chocolate ric-rac and a gorgeous fabric flower in coordinating fabric. The inside waist seam is bound with tiny chocolate polka dot fabric reminiscient of dotted swiss and the hem is bound in same sweet dotted chocolate and finished by hand. The back of this dress has a loop button closure with a custom covered button and a lovely sash that ties in back. All seams are finished on the garment either by French Seams or binding. There are no raw seams on this garment.

Happy New Year and First Finishes!

This post has been edited to answer inquiries from friends.

This baby quilt is for Baby Paislee. God bless this precious baby with health, love and long life. The tumblers were so much fun to make!
This is one of my "creations". I wanted to learn some new techniques, so this is my practice run! I think this is the best binding I have ever done! Helen, yes, it is machine appliqued (I promise I didn't have a clue what I was doing)! This pattern was loosely inspired by a pillow I saw on Cluck Cluck Sew's sight.
I quilted this on my Janome 6500. And yes, Reenie, the quilting was quite intensive. I learned sooo much doing this little wall hanging. My biggest problem when doing machine quilting is that I get in a hurry and don't rest when I get tired, resulting in sloppy work.
Thanks for looking!

Quilts Blowing in the Wind

This is part of what I have completed in December 09.

Shown above are three completed quilts and 3 tops. I completed 2 more tops; one is hanging in Kelley's Pins and Needles and the other was a gift that I didn't get a photo of.
Please be patient with me as I learn to use my new Cannon Powershot super huge, smarter than me, camera.

Below is my 23 year old daughter, Sherri's quilt. It is made from the Turning Twenty pattern.

My 19 year old son, Bailey's, quilt is shown below. After following some one else suggestion and pinning the quilt sandwich together instead of using spray adhesive like I usually do, I was not happy. I will stick with the adhesive unless it is a really small quilt. This quilt is 90 x 90 and I only have my floor to sandwich on, it was, again, like wrestling an anaconda and I got less than desirable results. It is very lightly quilted using the stitch in the ditch technique.

This is my Mother-in-Law's quilt. Very simple vintage inspired layer cake.

The quilt top above is one of the prettiest ones I have ever made. I love the rich colors.

The top below is a Turning Twenty self challenge to combine wild, crazy colors.
The brown quilt below was created by combiningg a bunch of ugly fabric that turned into a gorgeous top. When I was in the quilt shop picking the fabric out, the owner Kelley said the fabric was " so not me." She, nor I, could beleive the results!

Thank you for looking.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year filled with creativity, wealth and health!

Kangaroos and Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there in Blog land! Sorry for not having a good recent post. My camera is on the blink( but I am pretty sure Santa has me one under the tree)! But, don't tell anyone.

As for quilting, I have got a ton of stuff done. I have completed four quilts and still have 4 tops to go.

I got a wonderful "Airmail" postmarked from Australia! Guess who it was from! Helen! Enclosed in the envelope was a gorgeous little quilt featuring a wonderful kangaroo fabric! I will treasure this little beauty Helen, and your work is impeccable! Soon as I get my camera, I will post a pic for you.

Don't give up on me, I have lots to show you amd lots to share.