Suzi's Visit and Her New Quilt

In the beginning of June, my cousin Suzi came home for a visit.  It was so good to see her because I haven't seen her in years.  She is living in Alaska and loving it there.  So she and her boyfriend, Doug, came for a whirlwind trip of NJ and PA (and a trip to NYC of course).  

Suzi, Me, and Cindy on the boat

I decided that Suzi needed a new quilt to take back to Alaska with her.  Of course, in my true fashion, I waited until the last minute to finish it (or even start it).  In one night I whipped up a fun quilt for her.  On fathers day we had a BBQ and I was able to give it to her in person.  

I made her some pot holders last year with mustaches on them so I decided to continue the theme onto her quilt.  I used mostly neutral fabrics with just a touch of color.  There is a little pink in the floral print :) The back is a leaf sheet that I had in my sheet stash, easy for backing when I don't want to piece it.  

Matt helped me take pictures.  It was really windy and more pictures looked like the quilt was a flag than not.  He Said he was hoping it would blow into the pool, thanks Matt.  

 At the BBQ we played games and had some good food.

My mom and her sister, Aunt Katie, were table to spend a lot of time together.  Aunt Katie spent the night at our house.

They played a family game of kickball while I took pictures and we did a water balloon toss, although Chris was sneaking the balloons to play with before the toss.  

It was a fun family day.  And the best part was we extended our family fun time to the next day when we took Doug and Suzi on the boat to go crabbing.  Doug was all into going on the boat and seeing all the sights of the Barnegat Bay.  Though he was too afraid to hold a crab, haha.

Family fun days do not come around nearly enough but when they do we make them count.  Maybe next time the family fun day will be at Suzi's place in Alaska.

Pot holders for Suzi

I have to say that I have some super fun cousins.  Of course, we live all over the country.  I'm in NJ, and then we range all the way from Florida to Alaska.

My cousins loved my mustache items that I have been making.  We all have a little quirky side being the closest in age.  So two of my cousins asked me to create things for them with mustaches.  Suzi wanted pot holders and requested something with yellow and green.  So I came up with these.

The background fabric is a yellow period reproduction that I picked up years ago when one of my favorite places was going out of business.  I have used it in a number of things including a quilt for my sister where it made up half of the entire quilt and I still have 6 yards left! I love it with its little green paisley and little flowers in pink on it.

I again zig-zaged around the mustaches and I made the fron and the back separately, quilting the fabrics onto the insul bright.  When I put them together, I serged the edges to hold it together for me.  Then stitched a rectangle around the mustaches to make sure it would all stay put.

For the back I used a small green plaid and I used the same for the binding.  I machine stitched the binding on.  And also made a little loop with the yellow to hang them with.  I think they turned out super cute and hope that Suzi loves them.  

Now, Payton will have something else fun coming to her.  I have a super fun idea for her mustache item and can't wait to try it out!

Update on my modern mini....

Yes this is a cell phone pic.  My camera card and I are no
longer on speaking terms!

Just a sneak peak of the progress.  Next time I decide it is a good idea to quilt by hand, someone please remind me how this moment because I am so unbelievably slow at this!  What was I thinking!  But it does look good.  Oh and also remind me to only draw what I will quilt in a day with my disappearing pen.  Thanks!

Oh and on a positive note.... I have made it through 5 physical therapy sessions without crying!  (and these are some crazy long, 4 hour physical therapy sessions) That is an amazing thing to me at this point.  It has taken 5 months to hit this milestone!  Spring is coming and maybe I will be able to enjoy it! :)

A couple more mustaches

I made a couple mustache mug rugs yesterday.  I am calling it my "Barbershop Quartet"

They have musical notes and instruments on the mustaches.  I fused it to a white on white background and then zig-zag stitched around them.  Then quilted them on my machine.  

I used a geometric black and white print for the backing and the binding.  And added tabs, just in case they would be used as wall decorations rather than mug rugs.  They measure 10.5" x 5.5".

I think they turned out super cute!

Almost as cute at my Mustache Mini Quilt!

I am linking up to Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday!  I love to see all the creative projects that everyone makes!

Mustache Mini Quilt

So I have been playing around with little things lately because, well... I have the time and not much else to do.  I have been seeing so many items out there with mustaches on them and thought, hmmm that would make a fun min quilt.  So I looked around the internet and found a few mustache shapes I liked and drew them out.  I dug trough my scraps and found some mustache suitable fabrics.  I then dug into my desk and found an entire roll of heat and bond (score!).

I fused the scraps to the heat and bond, then traced out my mustaches and cut.  I then found the perfect background material.  I pressed the mustaches on to the background then zig-zag stitched around them.  I then made my quilt sandwich, using a nice small plaid for the back, and straight line quilted (making sure to not go over the mustaches).  Then binded it with the same material as the backing.










I added some tabs to the back to make it easy to hang.

I absolutely love how it turned out.  So much that I made some coasters too.

I put these all up on my etsy shop.