Cookie Monster Stocking

Here he is baking cookies and ready for Christmas!  I made this stocking for G.  This will be his second Christmas and I wanted to make sure I had a stocking for both the boys.  Cookie Monster is timeless and so perfectly captures G's unstoppable appetite.   Where does he put all that food?

Cookie Monster came from a page of a book I found at Target for $1.  I photocopied the image and cut him out.  Only the top half of him was on the page, so I sketched the rest.  Add in some cool accessories, and there you have it!  I hope G grows to love his stocking as much as I do when he gets old enough to watch Sesame Street.

This stocking was also blogged @ Gen X Quilters.

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Posted in: applique,holiday,self-designed,stash-buster,stocking

#20 Thomas the Train Panel Quilt

I found this Thomas the Train panel at the NQA show this year and just had to pick it up for my oldest son.  He loves trains (as I think I may have mentioned in the Train Christmas Stocking post)!  Since there wasn't much for me to do but add a border around the large panel, I decided to play with free-motion quilting for the first time.  

The center section has a random stars pattern, then I used a walking foot around the train tracks.  Whew!  It was challenging and I struggled with uneven stitches, thread fraying and "bobbin spit-up".  At first when I finished this quilt, I was pretty critial and didn't like it very much because all I could see where mistakes.  Now that it's been finished a few days, it's growing on me and I am appreciating it for what I intended it to be:  an experiment in free-motion.  Practice makes perfect!

I think it's growing on my son too.  Happy 4th Birthday T!

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Posted in: lap quilt,trains

#19 Large Tote

My friend had her baby shower over the weekend. She is one of my oldest friends - from the junior high school era. Remember all the bangs and braces? We've lots of those pictures as we grew up (most of which I wonder "What was I thinking?!")

Anyway, we were in each other's weddings and now she is having a little baby boy in August. I made this "Mom Bag" for her. It's great for throwing books and toys in for church or using as an overnight bag.

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Posted in: self-designed,tote

Gen X Quilters GiveAway!

Be sure to hop on over to Gen X Quilters for my first GiveAway! A pair of Ginger 4.5" thread snips. I hope to spread the word about this blog and make some new friends! The GiveAway ends Wed. 7/21 @ 11:59 PM EST. See Post for details!

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Posted in: Gen X or Gen Y Quilters

#18 Vintage Garden Quilt

June 2010

I love this quilt! There's nothing really fancy about it. Just simple blocks and great fabric. I took a chance an ordered 2 charm packs online (that's something I usually don't do - I like to see and touch the fabric usually). When they arrived, I had a good feeling. I started this quilt in the fall of 2008. There was quite a bit of work with all the feature squares, sashing, and cornerstone squares. I didn't get all that far before I lost my energy being pregnant with my second son. For some reason, making all the cornerstones line up was so daunting..... So, it was put away until my baby boy allowed me to start getting enough sleep at night and I could spend a little nap time sewing.

My longarm quilter did an adorable little flutterbys pattern with butterflys that adds to the garden theme. So here we are, June 2010 and it's finally finished!

Fabric: Moda Natural Garden by Holly Taylor

Pattern: "Vintage Charm" Quilts & More Summer 2007 Issue

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Posted in: lap quilt,wall hanging

#17 Super Size Stars Bed Quilt

June 2010

My biggest and longest UFO - finished! This quilt was one of my first projects started in 2007. I absolutely love stars and these giant super-sized stars are 16" blocks.

Once the quilt sandwich was finally put together, I was halfway through quilting on my tiny beginner sewing machine when I lost steam.

Coming back to it over a year later, I decided I wanted to have a long-arm quilter do the quilt, so I started ripping out what I had done. After spending 3 hours with my seam ripper, I lost steam again.

Another year passes..... I re-quilt what I had torn out and finish quilting. Yea! We then used this quilt on our bed for 6 months with the binding sewn on, but not finished. (If you look closely in my opening photo, you can see the unfinished binding! Shh!) I finally can cross this one off the list! Whew!

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Posted in: bed quilt,self-designed

#16 Train Christmas Stocking

June 2010
I am eager to explore all the decorative stitches on my new machine. I decided a small project would help me figure out all the new tricks! No better time to start doing holiday projects than in the hot summer heat!
My oldest son LOVES trains, so much that we eat and breathe Thomas over here. So picking a train theme was a no-brainer when it came to designing his stocking. I used all scraps from my stash with the exception of the blue background fabric (that was used as lining too).
My favorite parts of the stocking are the red and green eyelets I used on the train wheels and the train-track stitch. Super cute!

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Posted in: applique,holiday,self-designed,stash-buster,stocking,trains

Who is this Gen X Quilter?

Please stop by and check out Gen X (& Ytoo!) Quilters latest post "Who is this Gen X Quilter?"

I am working on getting GXQ added to the Quilter Blogs directory, so I apologize for the redundancy.

Please pass the word to interested others!

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Posted in: Gen X or Gen Y Quilters