Hand Quilting & Vintage Finds

Little Oblio playing with our "new" Fisher Price toys

I thought I'd share my AWESOME vintage find that I scored at a yard sale last week. I saw it in a yard sale ad on Craigslist on Thursday night & about had a heart attack. I honestly had a hard time sleeping that night (I'm a total dork) I was worried I wouldn't get there in time to get it! I've been looking for one for YEARS! YEARS!!!! Friday morning I set my alarm early & arrived just a few minutes after the yard sale started. I tried to act like I was looking around but really couldn't help myself. I headed right for the school house. I was so happy that I got it! The lady was kind of laughing at me because I told her how happy I was & reminded her of the lunchbox I had bought from her last year. Yes I love vintage toys & lunchboxes. I told you I was a dork! I've been watching this school house on EBay for a couple years now & the bids always go too high. Finding vintage Fisher Price toys is hard & to find them in good condition is even harder. This one was in really great condition. All of it was pretty dirty but wiped up well & it now sits on top of our piano until the bookshelves are built. The girls can play with it anytime they want. Omri really loves the mini bus. I got everything pictured above for $22! A steal!

I finished basting Omri's quilt & started hand quilting it. My sweet friend Christi let me borrow one of her quilting hoops when my tiny one just wasn't cutting it. I'm on the lookout for a big one (like in the picture above) but haven't found just what I need yet. I'm heading to Carson City next week & hope I can find one while I'm there. If not I'll be buying one online. Hand quilting is such a slow process but I'm really enjoying it.

There is something so calming about the whole process. I'm working on this every night when Dean & I watch TV or a movie. I also take it with me wherever I go. That way I can work on it in any quiet moments that come along during my day. Those quiet moments are rare but do happen & even if I only get a row of stitches in, I'm that much closer to being done :)

I'm linking up to Amy's Sew & Tell Friday. Hop on over & take a look at all the awesome projects people have posted & if you are stopping by for the first time please leave a comment so I can come & say hello :)

Race Car Quilt Top

 I'm overwhelmed at the sweet comments I received on my last post! Thank you so much for all of your kind words about my first quilts. Thank you Amy for sending some bloggy love my way ;) I've been working on this little embroidery project in the evenings & while at Dr.'s offices with Sloan. I finished it up the other night but haven't had a chance to take pictures until today. 

It's super wonky & I'm sure any seasoned embroidery enthusiast would giggle at my attempt but that's okay. It's kinda crooked & honestly only the second time I've ever done something like this. I sketched out my idea with Tailor chalk (it will wash off in the washer) & then picked out floss that I thought would go well with the vintage fabrics. It's totally cheesy but looks pretty close to the little race car drivers in the fabric. Seriously, even his name is crooked but I'm leaving it. It adds character, right?

Here it is all ready to quilt. I've decided to hand quilt this one. I've never hand quilted before so I'm pretty excited to learn. Since this is smaller quilt I think it is the perfect size to learn on too. I'll be working on it in the evenings & also adding a back to the giant log cabin quilt I made months & months ago. I'd love to hear what you are working on too. Please don't be shy.

My First 2 Quilts! (Scottie Dog Quilts)

Here are the fronts & they are both the same size but the wind was blowing like crazy so the right one looks a little smaller.

When I took a picture of the backs this nice young man came by & held it down. You can't see it but my sister & two other girls that were walking by are holding up the quilts up top. I'm glad I got pics of them down town because they are HUGE! It was way too bright for photos but it give you a chance to see just how large they are. 

 Quilting these tops took me FOREVER (to be said in the voice of that kid from the Sand Lot movie) & I'd be lying if halfway through the whole process I wasn't quite sure I'd made the right decision about how I chose to quilt them. 

Once I washed them they came out of the dryer with so much crinkly goodness. I knew I'd made the right choice. I was a little nervous putting them in the wash. I'd put so much sweat & tears into them. What if they fell apart!?!? 

Thankfully they didn't, lol & I am so very happy with how they turned out. I'm hoping that my sweet friend is just as happy.

Even if it did take almost a year to finish them ;) 

Prepping For Spring

Time to take down the 2 misfit trees & make room for our new "gently used" play set.

 It took all day but was so worth it. Dean will be pouring the footings this weekend. The girls are so excited!

Dean cleaned up the mess from last fall & moved out compost onto the mounds where we will plant again this year. It was a mess before he started & now it looks so nice. 

We'll be planting two kinds of peas again this year. They are wonderful in soups & stir fries.  

garlic coming up 

Still loving our greenhouse. We've enjoyed fresh lettuce & kale all winter long. The cabbage are coming up great & on the other side (I didn't take a pic, sorry) he's started a ton of new seedlings getting them ready for when we can finally plant outside. I think we'll be trying out cloches again this year. They worked pretty well last time. 

Life has been pretty busy around here. Not only have we been working on things inside but outside too. Gotta get ready for spring. It's right around the corner. Can you believe it's almost March? The back yard still has such a long way to go but eventually we'll get things to where we want them to be. 

Today I'll be working on the last 2 blocks of my granny square quilt along quilt. I'm almost done binding the quilts to send to Elizabeth woohoo! I made a pile of "to finish" projects & almost passed out. How does such a pile come to be? I have a good 7 projects that are almost finished but not quite. So silly. The only good thing about this is I will have some fun finishes to post about over the next few weeks. It will feel so good to get them done. In fact I may just post a few pics later today if the weather cooperates.

Granny Square

I was a little apprehensive about my fabric choices after my last post. I usually feel like I have a pretty good vision of how things are going to look in my mind but they don't always turn out as I plan when put together. I'm very visual so I figured I'd put one block together to make sure I was on the right track. Since I'm new to quilting I also mapped out the quilt block to make sure I understood how to construct it. It's a simple block but I didn't want to make a mistake. I don't have any extra of the vintage fabric. Plus it gave me an excuse to work in my new sketchbook.

In case you missed my last post here are the gingham's I choose to finish the quilt with.

I love how my first block turned out. I think it's going to be a little funky, in a good way. I really feel the gingham's are going to work together perfectly with the vintage prints. I'd love to hear some feedback.