Cute Cute Noelle Quilt

As with every quilt that I make, this cutie has a story. This one a little more of a story than some others. It all started with my quilt group. Where else would it start? This particular quilt was put together using a non-bonded batting. That means that the batting will come apart after using it and then you get little bits of batting spread out in globs. I'm sure you have had a quilt like that before. So when you have non-bonded batting the quilting needs to be closer together than if it is bonded batting. With this in mind, I brought the quilt home, ready to machine quilt it.
Then my sister-in-law got really sick and we needed to make the 12-14 hour (depending on conditions of children) drive to Salt Lake City, Utah. Quite honestly, I don't do well just sitting around. I like to have something to do. So I grabbed this quilt, my needle and thread and decided to hand quilt it. I had a few hours to kill.

I didn't work on it much on the drive there because we left late enough in the evening that it grew dark rather quickly. So during the next week, while we were there, I had some time to work on it some more. Then we packed up and come home. My quilt still unfinished by the time we returned home.We got home, school started and life began again. My quilt sat in the closet waiting for me to stop and enjoy it again. That time shortly came when my sister-in-law took a turn for the worse and passed away. We again made the venture to Salt Lake City, with a few hours to kill. I kept at it, this trip was a little more hectic and we came home again with the quilt, still unfinished.

This sweet little one was finally finished this last week. I had a back injury that left me completely down for a week and a half. My that was sure boring. I don't do well with that. But I have a great support system, husband and friends! I love them all! Thanks to them, we made it. And my quilt it finally finished, all done by hand. I don't know how many I will do by hand. They require a lot of sitting around.

One of my other sister-in-laws nicknamed this one the "Noelle" quilt. I think I agree. Too bad another sister-in-law (yes keep counting, there is 6 sisters on my husbands side) is having a boy.

I entered a challenge...

...I hope I win! There are some really great things submitted already, so we will see. Check it out here and enter for yourself.

Miss Tee's baptism dress is my entry. If you didn't check out the inspiration, go here. If you didn't get a chance to see here whole dress, go here and here.

A good picture...

I realized that I didn't get a full standing shot of her dress to give you the full effect. Thanks, Stacy.

Quilts...quilts and more quilts

In the mix of all that has been happening I have been getting together with a small group of women to quilt. We sure have a great time and have become good friends. Some laugh at me...mostly the husbands of the other ladies. You see, most of these women are in their sixties and seventies. I don't really know how old they are but you get the idea. And then there is me, in my late twenties, hanging out with these older women and having a great time.

It is interesting what brings a goup of people together. We all like to quilt and we have a common goal. To provide quilts to people in the community that may be in need. I don't think there is a better way to build friendships than by serving together. I don't accomplish nearly as many quilts as these other ladies do but here are a few that I have been able to do. I must say that I have learned a lot from these women!

This quilt was a one panel piece of fabric that I was able to machine quilt and bind. I have now learned how to actually machine quilt a quilt. I never really knew you could do that and now I am doing it myself. It is a small baby/lap size.

This quilt I was able to piece from some left over blocks from a different project. That was pretty fun for me to be able to use something that I had already started. It too is machine quilted. My second or third attempt at free motion quilting. I think I may have the hand of it. Although it definatey takes longer than straight line quilting with my walking foot!

This quilt is actually Ace's quilt. One of me friends gave him this animal/creation fabric and told him that I needed to make him a new quilt. So I found something to go with it and he loves it. I asked him if he wanted free motion or straight line quilting and he asked, "Which one is faster?" So that is what we did...straight lines. Doesn't hurt my feelings.

Ace is also our helper. Since the other kids are at school and I am the only young mom that attends, he gets all the attention. He is definately our little quilter in training. Thanks, Ace.

Baptism Dress

I have been a busy mama lately. Sometime this summer I...

moved,

went to 2 family reunions,

went to Salt Lake City, twice,

and made two dresses for a darling little girl to get baptized in.

I am not really sure how it all fit in. Oh...that is why my head isn't really on straight.

A sweet little girl needed a pretty white bracelet to go with her new princess dress.
Many, many beads were used on her dress. Two and a half packages to be exact...probably several hundred. (The lining peeked out in this picture. The hem ends with the line of beads.)

The neckline had to match the hem.

I couldn't turn this picture so forgive me and turn your head instead. The back laces up and she loved it. It helped with the fit also. All summer I have been thinking about this dress and I sat Miss T at the computer and have her take a look at some dresses online. Mostly to get an idea of what she liked and not. I have a bad habit of making her what I think is pretty and not what she likes. So I don't think that this is fully what she wanted, but she loved it in the end and it is exactly what I pictured in my head. I love that. Not always things come out of my head the way I picture them.

The inspiration came from this dress. And I sure enjoyed every step of the way. Stay tuned for the other dress. I still need to take pictures of it.

Recent Wedding

Before we moved I had the opportunity to work on a wedding. These three darling girls received matching flower girl dresses. Their grandma knitted them matching sweaters. The oldest has an American Girl doll (an 18" doll-my favorite to make clothes for) who received a matching dress as well. They were darling!

New Ties

I took a few minutes from my crazy wedding work to make new ties for my boys. They turned out great, were easy to do and the boys were proud to wear them.