Superhero Party Capes

This month I feel like I have been slowly loosing my mind. My eldest asked for a Superhero Birthday Party. You might remember last year I got overexcited with her Princess Tea Party - well this year I tortured myself again by deciding to make 19 superhero capes, 19 superhero belts, 38 superhero bracelets/cuffs & 19 super hero masks. I didn't realize how much all this effort was weighing on me - because after the party ended I felt a deep need to sleep for 2 days.

Each cape has a contrast lining & and emblem on the back (lighting bolts, diamonds, snowflakes. flowers, butterflies etc) all with a bit of bling of course. I worried that the superhero belts look like something from the WWF - but the kids LOVED the belts. As the girls arrived they were allowed to pick out their cape, belt, mask & cuffs.

I made everything adjustable by placing the velcro like this on the belts & cuffs.

It enabled me to make everything one size but ensure that they would fit everyone.

I recycled our pink satin chair covers which we got last year for $2 each. This year we rented some kid sized chairs and I found the covers fit perfectly over two chairs put together. I used twin flat sheets from our linen closet for the table cloths. The tulle pom poms are from last year too. The streamers, balloons, plates, cups etc were all from the Dollar Tree (love love that store - you can color-co-ordinate a birthday party for just $10!) I used 24" balloon sticks this year instead of helium balloons - much cheaper and just as cute - and the sticks are reusable for years to come as well.

Memorial Quilts from Kilts & Coats

When ever a family comes to me and asks for help making some quilts from their memories I feel utterly honored. I have been asked to make 4 quilts from a collection of wool kilts & coats and various other dresses etc. This is a big big project.

These clothes are from the families mother's attic - whom sadly passed last year. She had saved these beautiful coats & clothes from the children's childhood years as well as every kilt that their father had brought back from Ireland. There are some amazing details on these clothes that I am really excited about.

School Auction Quilt

Our kids go to a lovely preschool. Every year they have various fundraisers and I donated a quilt for their silent auction. After speaking to the family who won the bid they decided they wanted a 'purple, modern quilt with flowers'. I do not have a whole ton of modern designs on tap so I consulted my bookcase. This design is based off of the Peacock Blue quilt that can be found in Brave New Quilts. Though I replaced the tear drop peacock motives with flowers.

Camouflage Broken Bar Quilt

I've had some military material sitting around in my workroom for a while now - I got it so that I could start to experiment with how much material I can squeeze from various uniform/clothing items. When I saw this quilt - Broken Bars by Rebecca Roach - sent to me through the Modern Quilting Guild - it screamed army stripes to me.

Longarm Quilting: My First Client

At the moment I am practicing my free motion quilting on Freddie on some quilt tops given to me by a lady at my guild - NYC Metro Mod Quilters. Andrea blogs on The Beyondness of Things - her quilts are really pretty and I can not wait (in a terrified sort of way) to do some work for her. She doesn't like quilting and I'm not a big on piecing 'just for fun' - so it seems like a good match!

This quilt top was made for a 2 year old little boy - it is crib size.

I started. Panicked. Then unpicked.

Then finally got myself together and here is the end result. (Quilt has only been trimmed - not bound.)

Bee Purposeful: Navy and Aqua Chevron Striped Quilt

Back in July 2013 Little Miss Shabby asked for participants in a quilting bee that would fundraise for her churches mission work.

Diary of a Longarm: Week 8

I have loaded a little chevron quilt that I have made as part of the Bee Purposeful which is being hosted by Corey who is the very talented lady behind Little Miss Shabby.

I thought I knew what I was doing with this quilt top so I began with repeating ocean waves along the chevrons but after running the waves 3 times I wasn't convinced. 9 whole hours of unpicking later. I began again. I had found this quilt by Linda of L & R Designs Quilting and I loved it. Every chevron stripe is done in a different design.

Line Dancing at the Longarm

I've been told for a while now that it is good while you are free motion quilting to listen to music that has good rhythm and makes you happy and relaxed. I've been searching for that music (I usually listen to NPR talk radio) and I think I might have found it. Can you guess what it is from these photos (and the subtle post heading?)