fun with swaps!

i've been having such a fun week with two swaps. a fabric swap with nettie, and celebrating handmade: the swap.

nettie and i are swapping some adorable japanese fabrics, hr fabrics, and some flea market fancy!! i feel so lucky to be doing this with nettie, and it has been so much fun!! thinking of all these fabrics just makes me feel so giddy! :)

for the celebrating handmade swap, i'm swapping with jessica yen, and it has been another wonderful experience. there is such a sweet story behind this swap, but it is kind of lengthy, so i hope you don't mind me sharing.

to start out, jessica emails me and tells me that she doesn't have any kids. since this is a swap where we are making a handmade toy she asked if she could gift hers to a little girl that lives next door to her. the little girl is here with her family from iran, and when i read that i started to tear up. i was born in iran when my parents were there with boeing back in the 70's. we had to leave quickly when the shah was taken over, and have never been able to return to visit. i've always had a longing to someday go there. (not right now though with all their political issues) but isn't that some coincidence?

and there is more!!! then jessica emails me a few days later, she tells me about how she just got back from dinner with some friends, and that they gave her a red envelope for chinese new year. jessica then explains to me how the elderly give the red envelopes to the kids for chinese new year, and how her grandmother did that for her. now this was dear to me as well since i lived in shanghai, china for a few years and knew exactly what she was talking about. i taught at an international school since my parents lived there while again, working for boeing. she then emails be back and tells me her brother is living in beijing right now, and she lived there a couple years ago, and that she loved visiting shanghai and is more a southern chinese girl! and of course since i was a young adult living there i have many more memories of china, than iran, and loved every minute while i was there.

hopefully you didn't mind finding out so much about me in one post. :)

little red riding hood~ i thought since little red riding hood is a western fairytale, it would give the little girl something she can take with her when her family returns to iran, that will remind her of living here.

i hope the little girl likes little red riding hood.

my week-end projects

i had a couple week-end projects that i worked on saturday and sunday. a version of the whirly giggle for my first little kiddo, and then i got my first project improv block done!! yah!!! i spent a lot of the time cutting and cutting and doing more cutting for both quilts!! at least the cutting is mostly done! :)

here is my first block for project improv~ the wonky log cabin

whirly giggle blocks~ i'm wanting to make some bed quilts for my kiddos but want to do a few more lap ones first so this one will go at the end of my daughters bed. the colors match her room!

i have 15 done and still need to sew 10 more together. almost done though with the blocks. i'm thinking of adding some sashing in between the blocks so they pop out more. not really a traditional way of doing this type of quilt though. do you think that would look o.k.?

here are a few of my favorite blocks. as most are getting to know, i love the japanese fabrics!! this one is the mushrooms in a line with a pink background.

the super cute birdie fabric!! there is a little sparkle to the birds that i love!!

i just got this little red riding hood fabric in the mail about a week ago so i'm excited to be able to put it in a quilt already!

hope every one has a magical week!!

project improv~ the fabrics!

i'm so excited to start project improv. this will be my first improv quilt and am planning on doing the wonky log cabin. i chose my fabrics~ red, aquas, browns and a tint of green so it can be a quilt for our living room. there are about 30 fabrics!! wow!! is that too many?

the japanese ones!! i love japanese fabrics; aren't they so yummy!!

the other yummy stack!

now i'm off to start cutting! :)

more lovelies for baby ava!

here are a few of the other handmade lovelies i made for tashas shower to also go in ava's nursrey. baby ava has the sweetest nursrey so you'll have to check out tasha's blog and see the adorable pictures!!!

the pictures from ava's nursrey are from tasha's blog! :) to see more click on the link above!!

yummy booties!! i made these ones from tanya whelans picnic rose in blue fabric

booties from the ohh, so cute japanese hedgehog fabric!!

i am in love with these vintage lamps!!! i found this at a second hand store and now have a couple for my family! :) and am still looking for more!!! this one though, was so perfect for ava's room.

for the banner i used this simple tutorial. the hardest thing with the banner was deciding on which fabrics to use since i could only use a few!!! i had too many cute ones to choose from. now that can be a problem!! :)

the ava doll!! i used bit of whimsey's doodle girl doll pattern for this adorable doll!

i also have to include one picture of the coin quilt in ava's nursrey! :) doesn't it go perfect with the adorable bumper tasha made!

i had so much fun making all the these lovely little handmades for tasha! she is one of my best friends and she has always been an inspiration to me. i would have never gotten into quilting if it wasn't for her encourgement. thanks tasha!!! :)

the ava doll quilt

this is my first scrap quilt! all from the scraps of the coin quilt. since i had used a charm pack for the coin quilt and had cut off an inch and a half from the width it made quite a few small strips. i used all those strips in a mini log cabinish style by framing them around 2 1/2 inch squares.

i made this for the table topper for my sister in laws shower that could also be used as a wall hanging in ava's room! i went thrifty and made everything for the decorations that also could be used in her room! i'll share the rest of them later this week. but for now here is the doll quilt:

my favorite part of this quilt is all the japanese forest animals!! i am in love with all of them!! aren't they sooo yummy!

hope everyone has a magical day!

ava coin quilt

i have it all finished!!! yeah!! i did the binding last night just in time for my sister in laws shower that is tomorrow.

this was inspired by netties colorful coin quilt that was in my sister in laws etsy favorites. hope she likes it as much!

the quilts finished size is approx. 42X52 with the coins being 2X3 finished. i used a charm pack i had gotten from quilt taffy by cutting off an inch and a half from the width and then cutting it in half (the charms were 5x5) and then added to it from my stash for quite the variety of fabrics! i love that there are so many different fabrics in this one!

now i need to finish the decorations! better get back to sewing! see you next week! :)

a sneaky peaky!

i'm making this lovely baby coin quilt for my sister in law in reds, aquas, and pinks to go in her nursrey! i'm making some other things for her baby shower for decorations and can post them next week!! this quilt was inspired by nettie's colorful coin quilt.

my little guy helping me stipple!!! i love having company when i'm quilting! :)

lovelies from 2008

here are a few of my fav's from dec. 2008.

a cute table topper i made for a gift! this was inpired by twinfibers.

i love the little deers!

a christmas table runner

christmas pillows

a christmas quilt