2 Grand and Glorious Years!

I can't believe 2 years have flown by since I married my awesome husband. We went back to the Milk Pail to have brunch on Sunday, but sadly they were no longer offering brunch. Oh well. We got a pic under the gazebo we were married at so that was nice.

 I sure hit the jackpot with that guy...Happy Anniversary, baby!

School Days

Grace (5th grade), Jess (3rd grade) and Jack (1st grade), headed back to school last week. Can't believe my baby Jack is in school all day!...and Gracie..5th Grade?!?!!....and my sweet Jess...looking so grown up in her new school clothes and VERY COOL pink shoes!

Sisters

Back to School

Danny and Kyle

...Checkin' out the choo choo's.

Can I come in....?

....definitely not.

Craft Room Pics....

Score!

Saw this sitting on the curb down the block:

Carried it home to find this inside:

It pays to garbage pick ;)

Project Quilting - Don't Blow My House Down - Last Challenge

Here were the instructions for the last challenge....I can't believe I did them all!

The inspiration for Challenge 8 is your favorite Nursery Rhyme. Remember, this is and INSPIRATION and does not need to be a literal translation.

I took my inspiration from the 3 little pigs. I didn't have a lot of time this week, so my project is small.
I started on Wednesday when I was at work sitting around waiting for my patient to kick into labor. I always carry a bag of art supplies with me in case I'm stuck at someones house for hours on end. Smart, huh?

I started this project by cutting up blue and green fabric into aprox. one inch squares. I didn't have enough variety of fabric, so I colored white fabric with green and blue markers and crayons. I also used some paper squares cut out of a magazine. I glued all the pieces down to a sheet of card stock and when I got home, I sewed over the glued down pieces. I then built my picture on top of that. A brick house, a straw house and a house made from sticks. I added trees, some sunshine and a picket fence and of course, some little piggies. I dug a frame out of the closet and "antiqued" it with some cream and brown paint.

All supplies came from my stash and no $$ was spent.

This project was started in Lake Zurich, IL and finished in Elgin IL.

A Rockin' Awesome Birth Team

Stash Clean Up

I like gingham.

I Like my doggy.

I like all my fabric lined up in pretty colors.

I've been doing some straightening up in the craft room this week. I haven't felt very motivated to work on any projects so I figured I should clean the place up.

Sophie supervises from her throne.

Project Quilting - Challenge 7- Karen's Crafty World sign

Here were the instructions for this weeks challenge:

1. The colors for challenge 7 will be black and white and no more than one other color of your choice. You can include multiple fabrics in each color, but only 3 colors can be used.

2. Your finished project can be any size, but cannot be a square or a rectangle in shape. It can be
 either 3D or flat.

I made an open/closed sign for the front door of my shop. What shop? you ask? My fantasy shop in my head, of course! At Karen's Crafty World you can come and do art and craft and sew. We will drink coffee and /or wine. We will snack on morning glory muffins as the sun rises and cheese and crackers while the sun sets. Like-minded people will come from far and wide to see such a wondrous place! My shop will sell vintage crafts that I've collected over the years from thrift stores. Vintage fabrics, vintage linens and all sorts of gently used art supplies will be for sale. There will be several tables to spread out on for folks to do their work. There will tables with sewing machines and tables with art supplies. There will be a big comfy sitting area with a library of art books, quilt/sewing books,etc. Oh, and this fantasy shop will be in my big Victorian house. The whole downstairs will be the shop and art areas and the upstairs will be our private living area. My husband is not yet on board with my fantasy but I plan to wear him down.

I've been into quilt/mixed media collaging lately, so this project was really fun. I first sewed together 2.5 inch squares and stipple quilted it. I then cut out the shape of a sewing machine.The border was done using another new-to-me technique. I twisted 3 pieces of black yarn together and sewed them then sewed it to the quilt. Then the embellishments which was the funnest part! (is funnest a word?)

The sign in the middle of the piece turns over to open and closed.

I wanted the whole thing to look just a bit raggedy, and I think I achieved that. (Actually that's not hard for me to achieve as most of my pieces are a bit raggedy....even if I'm not trying!)

Supplies used:

Fabric, Heat &Bond, blue,black and white thread, black yarn, buttons, pins, sewing needle,dmc black and blue floss, letter buttons, navy blue ink pad, fabric glue, Black Zig pen. Measuring tape, pattern and scissors all fussy cut from vintage fabric.

Techniques used:

Stipple quilting, couching of black yarn, thread painting (dress form), stamping.

All supplies came from my stash. 0 dollars spent.