Win a sewing machine?

I am so excited to be entered in the Blogger's Online Quilt Festival.

They even have a sewing machine give away. It is a baby lock melody! I can't even imagine sewing on a machine as nice as that!

Go check out the festival at Amy's Creative Side. There are some amazing quilts!

Embroidery Update

Somehow I have not completely messed up my two embroidery projects!! I am kind of stunned!

I did have to redo part of the black horse, but I fixed it! I really think I may actually be able to complete my first counted cross stitch with this piece!

Then my embroidery is working! Definitely wish I had a steadier hand when tracing my design!

Here is a view of the flowers on the bottom. I know the lazy daisy stitch is supposed to be easy, but I kind of don't like it. Maybe I just need more practice. I did an extra stitch in the middle to fill them in. I think they just look better. But now I need to go and add a little to leaves, them seem empty next to the flowers. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Here is my Skipping School Fish Quilt. I am entering it in the baby quilt category of the Blogger's Online Quilting Festival. This is my first time enter a quilt in an festival or show. I am very excited to show you all my quilt because it is only the fourth quilt that I have ever made!

The pattern is from Tulip Patch. I did not know how hard curved seams are when I started the quilt. Boy was I in for a surprise! Some how I managed to get her done! I wasn't planning on entering my quilt so I do not have tons of photos.

The fabrics are a mix of cottons from Joann's and some quilt stores around Phoenix. The background is a Moda marble. The sky is a white with olive polka dots. I wish I had a nice artsy photo of the backing. It is such a nice pretty blue. Here is my hand embroiderd label!

I quilted in the ditch on the front which made a nice cross-hatch on the back. For the front I used an invisible thread and the back a matching light blue. It was my first time using an invisible thread. As alwasy I hand stitched the binding on the back.

Thanks everyone for taking a peak at my quilt entry! I hope you all have fun looking at the rest!

<3 Mags

Stash Building on the Cheap!

I love goodwill! Who doesn't! This spring I had an amazing goodwill fabric find with my Alexander Henry vintage bronc rider fabric. So now I try to swing by goodwill just for fabric.

This is what I found today for only $7.50! I think it is around 3 yards of fabric.

A vintage pillow case with yellow flowers. I think once it is pieced it will look cool. Even though it is kinda lame as a pillow case. Then I found about half a yard of this kids fabric its a light flannel in fall colors. Super cute!

Then I found this home decor weight fabric. I am not sure if it's too old lady-ish. But I think it would make a great cover for an outdoor pillow!

Then I found an old red fabric that reminds me of calico. I know it is not, but it has that old school feel that I think will look great in a traditional looking quilt! Maybe for my bestie Maia! The other fabric I think would make a great and simple table runner. I think it would be a nice country touch to my new place in Flagstaff!!

Sorry for the bad iphone photos!

Needle point shop in Paris

My mom and I found the most wonderful needle point shop in Paris!

It is in the Left Bank District in Paris sitting just across the river from Notre Dame. 

They literally have two walls full of boxes with different colors of wool.

The colors peek out at you from the handle slot and just taunt you to buy them!!

The cotton floss was kept in this gorgeous cabinet! Ugh it was too die for! My crummy iphone doesn't do it justice!

They even had wool hanging from the staircase. 

The shop has two local painters who hand paint every single canvas in the store. They were amazing. Almost too beautiful to cover with wool!

These are a couple of my favorite designs. Unfortunately they were all very expensive. 

My mom calls it "yarn envy" when you see yarn you just gotta have, but won't buy.

If you like to needle point and are on vacation in Paris you must go here! And since it is near Notre Dame you really have no excuse!

Bayeux Tapestry

We are staying in Bayeux which is well known for the Bayeux Tapestry. It is one of the oldest tapestries still around. It was made in the 11th century and depicts the story of William the Conqueror. It is 70m long and is really amazing. Here are some bad iphone photos.

Can you see the fallen soldiers on the bottom border who were dismembered and stripped after the battle. The artists were very specific about the detail work. 

My favorite was the horses. They were so realistic!

The whole tapestry was done in two stitches. Stem stitch and the Bayeux stitch. Stem stitch was used for all the straight lines and outlines just like normal embroidery. The spaces were filled in with the Bayeux stitch. It is a special crewel work stitch from that part of France. 

After the tapestry my mom and I took an embroidery class (or broderie as the french call it) from a local woman. We learned both stem stitch and the Bayeux stitch. I hate to admit it but until that lesson I really could not learn stem stitch for the life of me!!! 

My mom may have had a little bit harder of a time with the lesson than I did. 

The Bayeux stitch is just long straight line stitches to fill the space then you use perpendicular stitches to hold them down. It goes really fast once you get the hang of it. 

I have always been intimidated by crewel work until now. I bought a kit at the shop to work on at home.

I think it will look so cute in a kitchen with a little wooden frame!

The Bayeux Broderie shop has a great website in both French and English. They sell kits and individual supplies. If you are looking for amazing linen definitely check out her site. 

Fish Quilt Finished!

I did it! My Skipping School Fish Quilt is finally complete! I am so excited that my drunkards path blocks came out so well for only my fourth quilt!

Sorry for my unceremonious photo. I am at my parents house and didn't have my clothes line 

to hang it on.

I kind of like the back more than the front. I just love the color combination of the blue and green. Especially with the label it just looks more girly. Also, I hate those damn fish. 

I literally finished this quilt a couple hours before I went to hand deliver the quilt to my good friend Henrike. I had machine stitched the binding on the day before I left Phoenix. Then I hand stitched the back of the binding on my flights. I tried to machine stitch it and it looked like POOP!!

This is a photo of me hand sewing in the airport. I was getting a couple of funny looks from people so I asked them if they wanted to see it. Surprisingly they were really excited to see it.

The last photo is my dad holding baby Eleanor. As you can see she isn't too excited for my dad to hold her. But can you see the quilt in the background? Henrike's mother in-law made it like 20 years ago. It is applique with cross-stitch and some crewel work. It is really amazing! 

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!!

Only one mistake (well since I have restarted after my BIG mistake)!

Can you find it?
Probably not because it is so small it really won't matter! HA! Take that cross stitch!!

My first horse is almost done! 

I want to have the top two horses done by the time I get back to Arizona.

Speaking of France, I have been eating so many deserts! 

Raspberry Macaroon! 

I finally get this whole macaroon fad!

Marzipan fruit!

Cross Stitch oh Cross Stitch

Counted Cross Stitch and I do not get along! I always think that I can do it because it looks easy! NOT!! I always have a hard time getting started and making sure I count my stitches right. This time I picked an easy cross stitch with very little designs. It is a replica of a Navajo rug. So most of the pattern are strips.

So I started.

And then I realized that I had messed up already!

Ripping out stitches is never fun!

I even tried to make a grid like the one on the pattern. But that was where I messed up. I got so focused on my Aida fabric that I assumed my grid was per inch so 14 stitches between the grid lines. WRONG! The chart is meant for any type of fabric so it was ten stitches not 14.

So here is my cross stitch all fixed and ready to go!

Let's hope its smooth sailing from here on out. 

Getting Ready for France

My parents and I are going to France next week so that my dad can achieve his lifetime goal of seeing the Normandy Beaches. Hopefully the government gets it's act together and the memorial re-opens in time for us to actually see it!!

Anywho, my mom is greatly concerned that I will be bored in France. (Maybe because she knows I don't really like France? Don't kill me people I prefer Italy!) My dad has Parkinson's disease so there will be ALOT of downtime so that my dad can rest. Hence, me needing something to do.

So I have packed seven books.

And am starting to work on some more embroidery! I really started liking embroidery when I made my quilt labels. I came up with a couple ideas that I want to do for Christmas presents. I thought what better time to do them than in France!

Pile O' embroidery projects

Stash of embroidery floss! (bad late night photos...it was only 10:30)

Am I even going to see France with all of this stuff to do?

Making Decisions......or not

Ever get to the fabric store and you cannot make a decision for the life of you?

I had to buy the backing (again) and binding fabric for my fish quilt. I sat at the table with bolts in front of me, just staring at them! Nothing seemed right. The nice lady's at the cutting counter finally took pity on me and helped me out.

I picked a nice light blue cross hatch-esk pattern for the back and a green chevron fabric for the binding.

Lucky, thread was on sale so I was able to buy 3 get 1 free! Which is good because I need one thread color for the back and FOUR colors for the front! I wish I could get this quilt quilted for me. Alas, I am stubborn and want to do it all myself!

Since I still cannot make up my mind, I am only pre-washing the back. I guess I am hoping that I may find a fabric I like better for the binding. 

Fish quilt fights back!

Has anyone ever had their fabric stain it's self in the wash? While you are pre-washing to prevent staining? 

Well it happened to me! I bought a light blue cozy flannel from Joann's to use as the back of my fish quilt. I pre-washed it and when I took it out of the dryer I found stains! They are on both sides too! 

I have been told that I am basically screwed and the stains probably won't come out. I can salvage some of the fabric for another project, but if the stains don't come out I need a new backing! 

Sad face, I felt like I had just taken the upper hand with this damn quilt. Clearly I was mistaken.

On the bright side, I finished piecing the top to the fish quilt!

I cannot wait till I have a sewing room ! Pinning the longest side on the small table was not so much fun.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions for my stain problem?