By request - Biirdly consignments

In addition to the stuff done with/for Julie, I've sold a couple of other baby quilts. The first was to a coworker as a baby gift for a cousin.

front:

label:

The second was a direct result of wearing/bringing the purse I made into J.O.B. #2 on aqn off day to pick up a couple of things. The woman saw it and we started chatting. Turns out she had a baby shower to go to a few days later. Fortunately I'd been playing with turning a full sized quilt pattern into a baby sized quilt. I ended up with 4 (FOUR!!) tops from the blocks I ended up with. Talk about things so not going in the right direction. :) When I quilted it, I did a stitch in the ditch around the outside of the colored shapes but not between the colors. The back looked really cute with that quilting. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of anything after the pieced top. But I have 3 more to work with! :)

-Biird-

Purse and accessoriies

I found a really cute pattern and used it to make myself a purse. The pattern is Leyvie Bag by Whistlepig Creek Productions.

LOVE it! Thinking about making a couple more in different fabrics so I've got more choices. Only thing I changed was the strap - the only wide enough cotton strapping I had didn't match so I covered it in my favorite fabric from the purse.

I also made a zippered wallet/pouch out of the same fabrics (okay - 3 of them with different fabric combinations). I used Atkinson Designs' Cash and Carry pattern - Pocket Zip view

pattern:

finished products:

These are two of my favorite designers/pattern companies. Everything is really cute!

I also made a wallet of my own design. One of the women I work with at J.O.B #2 wants me to make one for her. :)

Couple of glasses cases finished off the accessories. I winged it on these as well. :)

And it all fits nicely in the purse.

I get lots of compliments. Especially when people find out that I made it. :)

-Biird-

Giifts for Baby Season

Is it ever NOT baby season for a quilter? Sometimes I think baby quilts are the most quilting I do. Nevertheless, they're always fun to make and imagine the little bundles of joy that will be sleeping under and on top of what I've put time, effort, and love into. I've done two for gifts lately

Number one was for my boss at my retail job (aka J.O.B. #2). This was baby number 3 for her. I had a hard time deciding what to go with and finally decided on butterflies.

The next one was for someone that my husband works with. Again, tough to decide what to do. Jungle/Monkeys seemed to fit the bill.

I've got 2 more that I need to do in the very near future. One is a collaboration quilt with a co-worker at J.O.B. #2 for another co-worker at J.O.B. #2. K's doing some cross stitch blocks and I'll be using the embroidered blocks in a bag, changing pad, and quilt. I'll base the final blocks and layout on what K's done for cross stitch. We've got about 4-5 months to get this worked up.

The other baby quilt gift I'm still noodling on is for one of my favorite drive-thru baristas. This will be daughter number 5 if I remember correctly. I'm debating working a coffee theme into it but I'm not sure yet. I've got about 2 more months for this one.

A quilter's joy is never done. :)

-Biird-

Organiized? (or just wiishful thinking?)

In the midst of getting organized, or at least pretending to get organized, I made a decision. I decided that my finished quilt tops needed to be rolled onto empty fabric bolts instead of folded up into my clear plastic bins.

Now that the decision was made, I started bringing bolts home from J.O.B. #2.

Then I started rolling them up. Got quite a few and freed up a large bin for stash fabrics.

I also used some bolts for larger (>3 yard cuts) of fabric, interfacing, etc. Certainly makes it easier to find some things.

-Biird-

Fiinally - Kimono Topper

Finally. A bunch of blocks that I paper pieced eons ago. They were enlarged versions of a block I used in a consignment quilt. I finally put them all together and created a table topper - just the top - out of them. That sat for a while. I pulled it back out not too long ago and finally got it quilted and bound. My free motion quilting leaves a LOT to be desired (I definitely need more practice) but it didn't come out half bad.

the full top:

the individual Kimono girls:

To go with this, the hubby and I have been picking up some table ware to go with it - chopsticks and holder, mats, rice bowls, small dim sum plates, etc. It'll make a good gift for someone some day.

-Biird-

Giifts from JulieBird

Did some sewing for JulieBird in June - a quilt for her newest niece, pillowcases for that same niece and her older sister, as well as place mats for her friend who was born on the 4th of July.

Julie and I went shopping together to pick out the quilt fabrics. As always, we had fun. She went girly-girl with cute animals.

front/top:

back:

We went with some of the quilt fabrics for the pillow cases. Sooo freakin' CUTE!

Then I pulled stuff from my stash (basically leftovers from my 4th of July stuff) and made a set of 4 place mats for her friend who was born on the 4th of July.

I love working with Julie. She's got great ideas and is always a lot of fun to talk to and do things with.

-Biird-

4-July - quiilting for the block party

Did some sewing for the neighborhood 4th of July block party.

First was the cover for the ping pong table that one of the neighbors puts in the middle of the street for the shared food:

front/top:

back:

Then was the tablecloth for the folding table we brought out to eat on:

Artsy-fartsy sewing not withstanding, a good time and good food was had by all. :)

-Biird-