Wedding Quilt!

Man. Didn't think that I would be back did ya? We'll I'm not going to share an excuse. I just got lazy and haven't wanted to sit at the computer. Do I have lots of things to blog about? DUH! But it's time and the desire to do so. I have missed this space and am excited to be back!

Last month my hubbies brother got married. As per tradition I, with the help of Emma and Darin made the couple a quilt. They didn't really have a home style that they described to me, so I went with a patriotic theme. Darin and Emma each sewed a seam in the quilt so it was a family project.

Darin and Emma were both in the wedding. I attempted to get Emma to nap early because the wedding was at 3pm, smack in the middle of her naptime. After and hour and a half of screaming she finally fell asleep for 45 minutes!!! AHHHHH! In my head this was going to be a disaster. She had never walked down an aisle before, nor had she done so in front of over 100 people she didn't know. I was praying that she wouldn't meltdown right there in the middle of the church! Once the ceremony started, the ring bearer grabbed her hand and she walked straight down that aisle and back up after the ceremony without any fear or tears. It was the CUTEST thing ever! Damn camera wouldn't focus and I missed the shot! Oh photographer I'd like to see these photos!!!!

Once at the reception she ate, and mingled with the rest of the family. Danced with mommy, daddy and grandma and even gave up some cash for the money dance and danced with her uncle Ryan. She made it through most of the reception and crashed out on my chest. She was such a champ and it was such a good day! I love going to weddings with my hubby. It reminds me of our wedding day and I just want to go back and celebrate that day all over!

I will be better about posting blogs from now on! I promise!!!! I have lots to recap over the last 5 months!!!!

A craft blast from the past!

I know, it seems like this is becoming a craft blog. I assure you its not. I am just trying to go through and document all of the crafting I have done in the past two years, plus the quilts that I had done previous to blogging. Although my life isn't all about crafting, it is something that I truly love to do! The hubs may have been a little frustrated with it at first, now he understands my need to stay busy, and I think truly appreciates all the things that I create! While updating my All Things Crafty tab up top I realized that I missed some really cute and fun quilts that I had made some years ago, as well as a camera strap cover that I did last year, and a Bachelorette party menu also! While the quilts and the menu don't have a tutorial to go with them, I still thought that I would share them with you to see some of the other things I have done. Also I will post a link for the camera strap to the tutorial that I used! Enjoy!

This is the one and only quilt I have made for myself. It came as a kit that I bought at a quilt show with my mom in Ontario. We went for the day and perused all the fabrics that were to be seen. I also got fabrics for the first quilt I ever made for our dear friends The Anthony's wedding in April of 2008. Since then there has been a little disaster with this quilt as our puppy, when she was a puppy thought that it was a chew toy and gnawed a nice hole in the borders. It's really fun and funky with little kittens riding scooters and Eiffle Towers with brown and pink graphic prints! I still love it. Hopefully I can fix it! My mom also made me a tote bag out of the left over fabrics too! Oh and those little tootsies at the bottom are D's!

This quilt was made for our other dear friends the Roben's for their wedding in June of 2009. It's a little throw quilt and it was made entirely out of scrap fabric. I made it in one day with my mom's help and when it was done it had a little Americana feel to it! Again the toes belong to D! Haha

This one is another wedding quilt. For our friends the Ransdall's in May of 2010. This one was also made out of scrap fabrics and it went really well in their Tuscan inspired home with the warm reds and golds!

Please excuse the poor photo. I took this with my blackberry, when I had one, since my nice camera was the subject of the photo! I made this really cute camera strap cover. Priddy Creations had a wonderful tutorial on how to make this simple slip cover for your camera strap to show it a little personality. There was some errors in cutting that made me have to create more than one of these babies, but it was still fun and super simple! Not the most masculine of fabrics as the hubby uses this camera too, but he doesn't mind!

And finally something not sewing related. For a friends bachelorette party I whipped up some cute menu's in Photoshop, glued them to some black card stock and added a little bling bling! The idea was to make all the names be wedding related. These babies went on the table at the restaurant where we ate in San Luis Obispo. We had a great weekend dressed in purple attire, ate great food, wine tasted and all around shenanigans were had!!

Puss in the Corner Wedding Quilt

As is tradition for weddings of people near and dear to our hearts my mom and I decided to make her dearest friends daughter a quilt for her wedding that was this past weekend on 8-11-12. This quilt was not difficult, but it was ambitious. We used the Puss in the Corner pattern, but a queen size quilt required 99 blocks, plus borders! Needless to say it was a divide and conquer project. We picked out our fabrics, mom cut everything and shipped me off with half of the blocks to assemble. 50 in total....I got to do 1 more because she was doing the borders, quilting and binding. (I think I got the easy end of this project ;-P) I sat at my sewing machine for 8 hours sewing those blocks. A girlfriend came over and we chatted while I put that little machine to work! Once they were all done I shipped them back with my mom and she quilted and assembled the quilt. I turned out so beautiful! The fabrics were spot on perfect and I wanted it for my bed!

Yesterday, before heading back out to the ranch, my mom stopped by the house to pick up some stuff. The bride and groom were there and she asked them to open the gift from us. She told me that they loved it! So each and every time I am proud of our hard work and effort that we put into the quilts! It's so worth it!

Finished Quilt!

All my blocks

Mom quilting away

We're both looking forward to the next project! I have some little things in the pipe-line to finish and post! It requires hand sewing.....boo. That's the one thing I hate. I like machine sewing! Stay tuned!

Congrats to The Halls

On May 27th our friends Mr. and Mrs. H finally tied the knot! Our good fried Mr. P picked us up and we headed out to Studio City's Sportsman Lodge to celebrate their nuptials. We arrived at the beautiful location as the bride and groom were taking photos. We mingled with other guests and then took our seats to wait for the wedding to start. Twinkle lights decorated the aisle and gazebo, and trees surrounded the area. Soon the music started and we got excited to witness such a great event. Despite a hiccup with the D.J., we were suggesting that we all start to hum The Wedding March, the bride made her way down the aisle escorted by her brother. They exchanged vows, and gave each other their first wedding gift. A red rose. Whenever they wish to express their love for one another, all they would have to do is purchase a single red rose and display it in their home. I liked the sentiment of that! Once they were announced we all headed inside to sign the guest book and find our seats.

We were seated with many other friends and even people that we knew outside of the bride and groom. It's funny how small the world really is. We ate a wonderful meal and drank some good beverages. Of course, my hubs cheated a bit and after the open bar was closed he just purchased soda's and spiked them with SoCo from his handy dandy flask. Once the dance floor opened up, we cut a rug. A little Salsa and some swinging hips. During the money dance I stood in the groom's line first, knowing full well that I would dance with both of them. It's my tradition. I told him that I would spin her and dip her! He was very impressed! Haha. When I got into the bride's line, her brother came up and asked to cut it. I of course told him that it was fine. He stood their for a couple of minutes before he turned around and asked why I was in the wrong line. I told him that it was tradition for me to dance with the bride. She always has to win the money pool! It was my turn and I did as promised. I spun her and dipped her and then let the little boy who was behind me show me up! We ate cake, danced some more and then said our goodbyes.

Mr. P and D

Mr. H

Mrs. H and her brother

So pretty

AWE!

First Dance

Centerpieces

Of course I don't go to any wedding without making something. This time I quilted some custom place mats. Here's how I made them:

 

Supplies:
Enough fabric to cut 5" squares to make (4) mats: total 48 squares. (I usually use a charm pack for this because they already come pre-cut at 5", but couldn't find any so I just used 5 fat quarters and it seemed to be enough.)
2 yds backing fabric (will be enough for binding as well)
Quilt Batting

Directions:

1. Sew your 5" squares using a 1/4" seam in 3 rows of 4 across. Sew all rows together to make the place mat top.

2. Baste, quilt, and bind as desired

There it is. Wedding recap and place mats! I hope they enjoy them as much as did making them! May their life be filled with love, laughter and a happily ever after!

A Special Gift

This summer was a crazy one as far as crafting goes. With all the details that I made for my dear friends bridal shower as well as the beach bag. I couldn't stop there. My mom and I went to town looking into a pattern and fabric for a quilt for the wedding. We found some perfect material and each went ahead and did each of our blocks separately. Then my mom shipped it off to my Aunt back east to be quilted and returned looking beautiful. A special gift for a special couple. I hope they enjoy it always.

Back

Label Close-Up

Finished Project

It's in the bag - Bridal Shower Gift

I tend to hate giving items off of a person's registry. I mean yes.....its stuff they need/want, but it seems so impersonal. I really like to give things that have meaning and something that the bride and groom will remember for a lifetime. I mean really, 30 years from now are you going to remember who gave you that crystal vase or your set of towels that you got rid of 25 years ago? Probably not. So my mom and I came up with an idea. A Honeymoon beach bag! Filled with all the necessary items that any couple would need for a perfect day on the beach. My mom had a kit for a really large bag, 15 x 24 or something like that! So we got to picking fabrics and she went sewing away.

Of course she didn't stop there. Oh no, she had extra fabric so she went and made a little clutch to hold any various items that one would need: Cash (for those Umbrella-ed Fruity Cocktails on the beach), chap stick, hair ties, room keys.....etc. Complete with a zipper and a wrist strap so as to not lose anything! (My mom rocks!)

I had the idea to put beach towels in the bag and embroider them. I saw them being sold online, but it was over $40, plus shipping?!?! What? My mom and I could do this better, with a better product and it would be completely perfect! We went to the store and found some chaise lounge towels, only to realize (after we had embroidered on one already) that they were different sizes! AH! Since my mom had bought the last one we went on a internet search looking for them.....well we found one......in Inglewood. My mom and her cousin took a day trip (an experience that they wont soon forget) to pick up this bad boy so that both the bride and groom would have matching towels. Of course as they are lying on their lounge chairs in the Bahama's nobody will have any question as to their Newlywed status as Mr. & Mrs. are embroidered in contrasting colors along the foot of the towels. Yay!

Groom Towel

Bride Towel

Both of them together!

Of course the bag wouldn't be complete without the his and hers "Just Married," that leave impressions in the sand, flip flops. Also included in the bag was bottled water, sunscreen, hair ties, chapstick, a rhinestone hair clip (for the brides hair to be sparkly) and a disposable underwater camera. Of course they will need their sunglasses and swimsuits, but other than that they are prepared for a perfect honeymoon in paradise!

We know that the newlyweds probably wont pack all these items to bring with them on their honeymoon. We just wanted to include a nice and unique piece of ourselves for them to remember.

Quilt Weekend (Wedding Gift Style)

Of course as is standard operating procedure for my wedding gifts, my sister-in-law and my soon to me brother-in-law were sure to get a quilt as well. In the midst of all the 4th of July fun, my mom and I found some time to assemble the quilt top to the tropical inspired quilt for my honey's little sister. Of course my dad went golfing so we conned the hubs into sewing a seam as well. I mean it was only a matter of time before I realized that he needed to put a little work into the gifts I was making. So he sewed a seam that was about an inch and a half long. Then said "There I helped." Hehe. I found it so endearing that I made a point to tell my mom that we needed to highlight it in some way. So we embroidered next to the seam in coordinating color's so that it isn't going to stand out too much. He also helped with picking out the label colors too! It was a group effort and I think that the bride and groom truly appreciated the gift!

Piecing it together

Sewing all the rows together

Quilt top finished

The infamous "seam"

Completely done

The label on the back

Of course as we do when we get crafting I had to work on my blocks for our family quilts too. I did 2 blocks of a "Beatles" inspired quilt for a cousin.... (Note: I didn't pick the colors) and another quilt for my wonderful cousin Heather. When I get photo's of the whole quilts assembled I will post them!

Beatles Quilt assembly

Beatles Quilt

Beatles Quilt

Heather's Quilt