A Trip To The Barnyard

I was recently commissioned by my husband's co-worker, Tracy, to make a quilt for her new nephew.  Almost 2 years ago, Tracy's 3 day old niece, Carissa, passed away from a heart defect.  It was a horrible time her entire family.  Tracy's brother-in-law & girlfriend have since had another baby that is happy and healthy named Allen. 

Baby Allen lives near his Grandparent's farm so Tracy asked that include bright colors and possibly barn yard animals, tractors, and a barn.  After a little googling, I found the perfect fabric; Farm Friends by Jamie Wood. 

Bright colors, check. 

Barn yard animals, check. 

Tractors, check. 

Barn, check. 

Adorable, double check!

Tracy wanted Allen's name & birthdate on the back of the quilt. 

She liked this font, so I printed out the letters and appliqued them on.  There were no numbers when I downloaded this font, so I had to just wing it.  I hope they look ok.

Would you look at this cow!  Seriously.  So cute!

She liked this quilt by Ruth Sloan, so we decided to use it as inspiration when making this.

Here is the tractor that Tracy requested.

The quilt is approx. 55" x 55". 

Seriously?  Can't get much cuter.

  

I was honored to make this and hope Baby Allen has as much fun playing on this quilt as my son Jack has had rolling around on it while I was in the process of making it!

~Val

I have a few more blocks to share that have come in to help me with my Heroes Helping Heroes quilt.  I love the colors & the flower print on this block from Juli Ann.  Thanks, Juli Ann!

A great friend of mine, Dayna, made this yummy block.  I LOVE IT, DAYNA!!!  Thank you so much!

And last but not least, I received the coolest package from Australia today.  AUSTRALIA!!!  Alison from Alioop was more than generous with her gifts.  First she sent two adorable blocks....

love those polka dots!!!

...then she handmade this adorable card...

...and even sent 3 additional cards!

She even sent this super cute bag.  (Wait til you see the inside!)

SCREAM!!!!

I just scheduled my appointment with Tammy who is going to quilt it for me on February 4th on her longarm quilting machine.  I will take pics of the experience! I better get moving on finishing up the front and completing the back. 

Agh! 

Thanks again ladies for sending such goodies!

~xoxox~

Val

More Gorgeous Heroes Blocks!

Man-oh-man do I have a lot of Show & Tell for everyone!  Heroes Blocks are still trickling in for my Heroes Helping Heroes quilt and I wanted to show them all off.  First up are two blocks from Kelsey of Kelsey Creates.  Her notes are blunt, honest, and touching and her blocks are a great combo of darks and lights.  Thank you so much, Kelsey!  (P.S.  I don't know how she did it, but she has created the code for the new "PinIt" button that you see at the bottom of my post.  Check out her tutorial here.)  (P.S.S.  The PinIt button refers to Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest yet, you are truly missing out.  I'd happily send you an invite if you need one.  Otherwise, they make you wait weeks to get accepted.)

The next two blocks are extra special to me. Traci, who made these blocks, is a year younger than I am and went to my high school.  We didn't know each other well, but have both become creative inspiration for each other via pinterest.  I was so excited when I saw her email saying she would help me out with this quilt, that I ran and asked my husband (who also went to our high school), "Matt, do you remember Traci that went to school with us?"  Knowing darn well what his response would be, he said, "Of course I remember her!  She was the cute little blond that all the guys had a crush on!"  I brought that one on myself!

Traci, thanks so much for helping.  I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your best friend and your husband's Grandma and I hope I didn't embarrass you too much. :) 

Traci's friend Erin made this lovely block.  I love every single print you used, Erin! Thank you.

Marsha of Marsha's Spot sent this strong block.  This will be a great addition to the quilt. Thank you Marsha.

Marsha, I am sorry I missed this note earlier.  Thank you for making this block in honor of your Dad!

 Mandy sent in this adorable block.  I love the blue/green flower print.  Thanks so much, Mandy!

Charlotte of LawsonandLotti sent three incredible blocks.  I love the ice cream cones...

 

...and of course I love the swimmers, since I was one....

...and for the finale.... The cutest block I have ever seen!!!!!  Lavendar represents cancer and Charlotte has made a lavendar ribbon block for the back of the quilt.  This is just incredible, Charlotte.  I didn't think this quilt could get much cooler, but you just put the icing on the cake.  Good work and THANK YOU!!!

Since I haven't sewn all the blocks together, I can't hold the quilt up yet and I am running out of places to display all the blocks together. The dining room table is too small now and so is the front entry way floor.  I thought my bed would work.  To give you perspective, my bed is a king size, so this quilt has grown enormously!  I think if I just added the two missing blocks at the top/right, it would be a perfect queen size quilt so that it will hang over the edges just a bit. 

So, so beautiful.  Good work, ladies!!!

xoxoxoxo

~Val

I'm linking up with Lee over at WIP Wednesday @ FreshlyPieced.

Homemade Thank You Cards

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

With the chaos of Christmas behind us, it is now time to get our thank you cards in the mail.  I would have loved to have sent a homemade card to each and every Aunts/Uncles/Grandparent that the boys received gifts from, but as I mentioned here, my boys refuse to sit down for more than 5 minutes to do any type of craft project with me.  It kills me!!!

So, the easiest solution is to make one card, photograph it, and mass produce that baby!

This year, I used a painted plate that I saw on pinterest via flickr as inspiration for our card.  The boys actually didn't mind making this because they thought it was fun having their feet painted. 

I used scrap fabric for Rudolph's scarf, cotton for Santa's beard, and sticky googlie eyes for both sets of eyes.  I then had Ethan write the thank you note at the bottom of the card.

To convert the painting into a card, I first photographed the painting. After adjusting the color a bit on the computer, I right clicked on the image and "rotated it clockwise" twice, so that it was upside down.  (This step is needed so that when you print it, it comes out correctly.)  

I then printed the card on 8.5 x 11" cardstock.  When in the print screen, I chose 4x6 inch with only 1 card per sheet of paper.  I also made sure the box that said "Fit picture to Frame" was UNCHECKED.  When it was checked, it cut off part of the picture.

 Here is what our thank you cards ended up looking like:

Super easy, fast, and bound to bring a smile to the Grandmas' faces. 

I hope they like it!  It's the best we can do.

~Val