Little Apples Cascade Quilt

It's been a hundred years since I blogged. Well not quite a hundred years but several months & even though I haven't blogged in a while I've been busy being a mom, started a new job, cross stitching, & even finished a few quilts (but I'll share those in a later post). What I want to share with you right now is my latest quilt. I used the new Cascade Quilt Pattern by my sweet friend Susannah of Susannah Kate Sews for this quilt. It turned out better than could have hoped for. I love it! Thanks for letting me be one of the first to test out your new quilt pattern.

I loved how simple the pattern was to follow & when a few questions did arise (turns out I'm a terrible pattern reader, lol) she was so quick to get back to me. I think this pattern would be perfect for the beginning quilter or someone who has been quilting for years. The awesome feature of this quilt pattern is you can make it using 10 fat quarters & a few yards of fabric. Also there is very little waste. How awesome is that? It's the perfect size too. Not too small, not too big.

The back

My little guy wanted me to take a picture of him with the quilt. Such a silly kid!

I used Aneela Hoey's Little Apples fat quarters that I bought a few years back when I went to Sewing Summit. I just hadn't found the right project to use it on until now. The backing & binding fabric I purchased at Joann's & Hancock Fabric. 

You can buy the Cascade Quilt Pattern ::here:: & see some of the other Cascade Quilts from the blog hop ::here::

Monogramed Wedding Quilt

My friend Mike contacted me last year to see if I could make a custom wedding quilt that he could give to his wife as a wedding gift on their honeymoon. Seriously the sweetest most thoughtful gift ever! Of course I'd help him out! I've known Mike since we were young & it was so fun to be able to do this for him. There was a specific design element that needed to be used, the custom monogram that his soon to be wife had designed for a phone cover. She used this monogram for their wedding invites & planned on using it through the years for stationary & such. Mike sent me a copy of the giant B. The only other request was the color pallet. He wanted the colors of the fabrics to be grey & yellows. Those were the wedding colors.

 I knew I wanted to keep the design fairly simple, chic, modern, & yet it still needed to keep a little bit of a traditional feel to it. I always buy fabrics before I sketch up a custom order. That might sound backwards but I have to know what I'm working with before I can get started on a sketch. Once I knew what fabrics I'd be using I made a fabric sketch of what the quilt would look like. I sent the sketch to Mike & he approved it right away. We were on a pretty strict deadline. I had two weeks from start to finish to make an over sized king quilt.

The middle section seriously took me a little over a week to finish. I had no idea it would be so labor intensive. I made patterns for the giant B & the design around the circle. Once I got all the applique ironed on the sewing it down was what took so long! Once that part was finished sewing all the rest of the quilt together was simple. It was pretty much over sized strips sewn to make a giant log cabin like pattern. Really a box, but you get the picture.

Mike also wanted a custom label for his quilt.

I free motioned the label with my Babylock. 

That touch of modern I mentioned earlier in this post, well I used it for the back. I think it's nice to have a mix of both. I mailed this off to Mike 4 days before his wedding! I think I was more nervous about how last minute it was. When he got the package the next day (I overnighted it) he freaked out! He was so happy with it. I love making something from start to finish. When someone is so happy with the item I have made that makes it all the more rewarding! Thanks Mike for believing in my talent. I wish you & your sweet wife the happiest life together!

Tula Pink Shoreline Quilt

My sweet friend Nicole contacted me last year to see if I could make her a memory quilt using the table runners from her wedding reception. I thought it was such a wonderful idea & was up for the challenge. She sent me her runners & they sat is a bag for a few weeks while I thought about, sketched ideas & then finally found the perfect pattern to use for this project. Most of the time I like to come up with my own pattern when it comes to custom quilts but nothing that I sketched felt right. When I saw Tula Pinks free pattern for her Shoreline Quilt I sent the image to Nicole & she fell in love with it! I've known Nicole since elementary school & it just warmed my heart to be able to do something like this for such a dear friend.

I went shopping for fabric & then got everything cut & ready to put together. The project sat for almost a whole month. There were reasons why but they aren't worth mentioning on my blog. I kept in contact with Nicole & she knew I'd start when I was able.

Once I got started again everything went pretty quickly. She was a total joy to work with. Good thing because she restored my faith in custom orders.

One of the things she asked for was a label for the back of the quilt. I'd never done one before & had so much fun making it.

All of the fabrics were purchased at Joann's & Hancock Fabric.

I loved Tula Pinks pattern. It was very user friendly. The only thing I did differently was I added extra strips to the width & lengthened all the fabric measurements so that it would fit a queen sized bed. Because of the ease of the pattern this was easy to do. You can find the pattern ::here::

The best part about this whole process was sending it off & getting the email in my inbox saying just how much she loved it. Always makes the whole process that much sweeter.

Art as Quilts: Mini Quilt Inspired by The art of Bryn Perrott

Have you seen the wonderful artwork of Bryn Perrott? If not you should take a look. Her work is awesome & I'm quite smitten with all of it. So it seemed only fitting that I made one of her pieces into a quilt. This is my first "art as quilts" finish for the year.

I chose Russian Arms as the inspiration for this little mini quilt. My main goal with this mini was to work on my embroidery skills.

It took me the better part of a day to finish this. My fingers are still a little sore though. I usually hand bind my quilts but ran out of time & ended up machine binding it instead. It was so easy & looked so good it'll be awful tempting to bind this way in the future. I posted this picture on Instagram & Bryn gave a shout out on how awesome she thought it was. The ultimate compliment!!! This will be hanging in Neverender until the end of the month & then I'll be sending to my friend Shawn at the end of the month.

Thanksgiving Catchup

These two had so much fun together. We love our little cousin! 

Aris stuck to the smaller kiddie rides but still had just as much fun. 

Zoe was so brave & rode several of the grownup roller coasters.

Grandma Cindy & Zoe after a ride. 

Erik & Cindy

Omri wasn't too sure about all the rides. He had this reaction on almost every one he went on. 

This was one of the only rides he really could handle, can you blame him? Who wouldn't want to ride on a big rig ;) 

The kids on a ride with Uncle Ben.

Zoe wasn't too sure at first...... 

Daddy talked to her & she felt so much better. 

 Last ride of the night!

We had so much fun on our trip to San Diego. The ride down & back was super hard on Omri. He just didn't understand why he had to sit for so long. 9+ hours is a hard drive even for me. Hopefully next year when we drive down there it won't be quite so hard on him. Thanksgiving dinner was super yummy. Everything tastes better when you are surrounded by the people you love! Cindy, Sloan & I went on a girls day out the day before Thanksgiving. We all got pedicures & ate lunch at Chick-fil-a. It may sound silly that I get so excited about eating there but we don't have one in Reno. I love their nuggets & fries! It's probably a good thing we don't have one here, I'd weigh 500 pounds! Haahaa! 

Dean & I got to go out one night with his brother Ben & his wife Kristin. We ate at a very tasty Mexican/seafood restaurant. We walked around the marina & then headed downtown to the yummiest dessert place called Extraordinary Desserts. We all ordered several things & shared. Each dish had edible flowers decorating the chocolate. They looked like works of art & tasted like Heaven! If you ever have a chance to visit downtown San Diego you have to trust me on this one......don't miss eating here! You will thank me for it later.

Knotts Berry Farm was a lot of fun. There is a pretty decent balance of kids/adult rides. We all split up at various times during the day so all the adults could ride "big kid" rides while each of us took turns taking the kids on smaller rides. Sloan & Zoe were so brave! Both of them rode several of the "big kid" rides. I think the scariest ride was the Supreme Scream. I have never been so scared in my life! I screamed a scream that I have never screamed before. I seriously thought I was going to die! Haahaa! My husband was cracking up. It scared me so much I had to ride it two more times  &then I was done. I thought it would get less scary but it didn't. I'm pretty sure I said a curse on the last two times down. 

I think next Thanksgiving we are going to shoot for Disneyland. The kids will be at the perfect age for enjoying all the rides & Omri will be even easier to handle out in public. Did I mention he has a habit of running off in public places? Yes I've lost him twice. Only kid I've ever had that problem with. I don't know if it's because he's a boy or he's my curious little buddy or maybe it's because he's my fourth. Nothing is scarier than loosing a child in a busy public place. Hopefully when we head for Disney he will have outgrown this phase.

I always look forward to our trips to San Diego. I miss our family down there so much. I look forward to visiting again hopefully sooner than later!