Young Women Values Quilt

 This is one of the first Young Women Values quilts I have quilted for clients.

This particular client made several different quilt tops. This was one of the first.

In the blocks in the center of the quilt I quilted flowers. In the sashing between the blocks I quilted an all-over loop with flowers.

 In the border I quilted the Young Woman Value in the color representing the value. So, Faith was White (So Fine! Snow). Divine Nature, blue (So Fine! Out of the Blue); Individual Worth, red (So Fine! Hot Chilies); Knowledge, green (So Fine! Ferarri); Choice & Accountability, orange (YLI California Poppy); Good Works, yellow (So Fine! Daffodil); Integrity, purple (So Fine! Rodeo Queen); and Virtue, gold (So Fine! Yellowstone).


She had also brought over some cute little flowers that she wanted me to stitch down in between the words. I used the corresponding color with the value and the flower to stitch each of them.

This is such a cute idea, and now that I have a daughter of my own, I figure I have 11 years to get one made for her. (Girls in our church go into the Young Women program when they turn 12.)

Mother's Day

 So remember how I said a few days ago how behind I was at posting things this year?  Well, I did this one for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day.

Yep.

Mother's Day.

She had a pile of quilts waiting to be quilted at the shop, and I decided to surprise her and get them all done. I almost did. I still have 1 or 2 left over from this year.

On this one, the fabric and pattern was so busy that I didn't really want to add to the business with an in-your-face quilt design. Instead I used a really light colored thread (I think I used So Fine! Putty, which is kind of like an ecru-colored thread). I quilted an all-over feather, going edge to edge and meandering the spine across the quilt top before filling in with the feathers.


It turned out looking great. And guess what? Mom was so surprised to find 3 of her quilts in a ginormous box on Mother's Day. She had quite the surprising holiday, especially since we had stolen her cell phone and replaced it with an iPhone 4S. heh heh heh. She wasn't too happy about having her phone stolen, but now that she knows how to use it, she totally loves it.

When I find the rest of the pictures I took of the other quilts, I will post them on here, because she did some beautiful quilt tops.

Quilt Retreat, and a Quilt

 We had our 2nd Annual Salem Days Quilt Retreat in August. And the only photo I took was this cute one of my sister-in-law Jana Nielson showing off my darling baby in one of Izzy & Ivy's patterns (the Ruthie's Romper).

Quilt Retreat was a blast though! We had Shari Butler from Doohikey Designs come down and show off her new fabric lines and patterns, and she did a cute make & take pincushion.

Jana from Izzy & Ivy showed us her new fabric line, Delicious Wishes and a few of their new patterns: Marshall's Favorite Fishin' Hole, Brooklyn's Boho Beach Wear, and Monster Mash. They are super cute, and if you haven't seen them yet, ask your local quilt shop if they have them and check them out, because they are DARLING.

We also had a few local ladies come show us some things that they do. One lady brought all of the quilts she had ever made and showed them off. She quilts them on her home sewing machine, which in my opinion is amazing. She showed us some of the different things she does to give her quilts that little extra Oomph! and I was really inspired to go home and try some of them out.

We also had a knit demo, where we showed different things you could do with old t-shirts. I demonstrated how to make a t-shirt quilt, and brought a few samples. Jana showed off some fun projects you can do with t-shirts, including super hero capes and refashioning boring basic tees into fun and fancy shirts for little girls.

We had a blast, and I really wish I had taken more photos. Maybe I did and they just didn't make it over to my computer. If that is the case, I'll be really sad.


 So, now onto the quilt I mention in this post title. :)

I had a new client come in and bring me this darling quilt top. She had never really quilted before and it was one of her first quilts.

I quilted an all-over interlocking floral design. I love this design because it gives texture and movement to the quilt top without detracting from the quilt top itself. And, it's a quick all-over. It's my new go-to design. It's so much more fun to look at than a meander, and it looks custom, when it's really just an all-over design.

Here's a close up shot of the quilting. The rings of the flowers are about 3/4 to 1 inch apart.

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that I used So Fine! It's a Girl! for the thread. It's a really pretty light pink color.

DIY File Calendar

The past few years I've been using a calendar file system to keep track of everything: orders, goals, reciepts, YTD sales vs prev year sales, sales tax, income tax, etc. All organized by month. It's been quite handy. Well this year when I went to purchase my 2013 File-It calendar, I was disappointed to discover that they don't make the File-It calendar anymore. :(

So, I decided to make my own! And then I decided to make a tutorial for you all, in case you want to do the same. Seriously, I never would have thought of using my calendar as my filing system, but I've been using it for years and it's fantastic!

SUPPLIES
12 - file folders. You can use just plain ones (I did on my first attempt) but I thought these pretty polka dot ones were great. I got them off Amazon.

Calendar pages. I printed mine off from a template using Microsoft Publisher, but you can find them anywhere, including scrapbook software.

Glue stick or double-sided tape.
Stapler (optional)
1 yd ribbon
fancy edge scissors


I wanted my calendar to be a little fancier, so I took my Victorian-edged scrapbook scissors and trimmed off a bit of the straight edge.

Then I took my file folders over to the sewing machine. I chose a coordinating thread color (a turquoise, in this case) and stitched close to the edge of each side of the folder. I set my stitch length to the longest setting (a 5 on my machine).

If you don't want to stitch your folders shut, or you don't have a sewing machine, you can always staple them closed (hence the optional stapler listed above). I'd recommend 3-5 staples per side, just to make sure they hold everything in nicely.

Next, attach the calendar sheets to the fronts of the file folders. I used Elmer's glue stick, but had a hard time getting them to stay on nicely. I'd really recommend something like double-sided tape or glue dots, etc.

Make sure you write the month and the year on the tab, so you can see what month is what once it's filed. :)

Now, to get it ready for hanging. Punch a hole in each side of each of the folders. Try to get them in the same position so that they line up nicely when stacked on top of each other.

Thread the 1 yd piece of ribbon through the holes, back to front, leaving a tail about 3 inches long. Tie it in a double knot. Eyeball how much you think you'll need for hanging. Thread the other end through the other side, back to front. Double knot that end too. Cut off the tail ends of the ribbon close to the knots. You are ready for hanging!

And, when you're finished with a month, you can just rip through the punched holes in the side.

And there you go! It took me maybe an hour (mostly due to the cutting with the fancy edge scissors) start-to-finish to make this. If you make this, I'd love to see your photos! send them to me at designsbylaurajo {at} gmail {dot} com, or link back to this post. :)

Bulletin Board Quilt

 This fun quilt was made by a client of mine for her mother, who taught school. Her mother sent her all of the fabrics she had ever used on bulletin boards. She then put the fabrics together into four patches, sashed them, and fussy cut one of the school's t-shirts for the quilt center. She wanted something geometric and school-ish quilted on it.

 I quilted an all-over geometric meander. I used So Fine! Yellowstone (a darker yellow color) to quilt this.

Hunter Star

 A new client brought this to me earlier this year to quilt and let me basically have free reign to do whatever I thought would look good. This is what I came up with.

 In the blocks (the set of 4 triangles) I quilted a feather wreath. I did a back and forth design in each of the small trapezoid pieces between the stars.

Because the stars had some bulky center seams, I chose to avoid quilting in the stars and just outline quilted them by stitching in the ditch.

 In the inner border I quilted loops. I then combined the two outer borders into one and quilted a large feather across them.

And I couldn't resist taking a photo of the back. I just love how all of the quilting came together on it. You might have to click on the photo to make it a little bigger so you can see all the detail. (I'm still learning how to use my camera, and my husband has changed some settings for the better on it since these pictures were taken!)

As far as thread goes, I believe that I used So Fine! Ginger, a goldish-brown colored thread.

New Year's Goals

You know how we set goals every year? And then you know how we swear that this year is the year we'll actually stick to those goals? And then inevitably something comes up and we don't end up sticking to those goals?

Well, I'm going to pretty much guarantee it's another one of those years for me.

However, I have a new partner to help me out. I've been using Stickk.com for help for a few weeks now, and it's been great. It actually motivates me. The basic idea is that you set a goal for yourself (my current one is weight loss), put some money on the line, set a deadline, and go. You report weekly (or at the end of the time period - it depends on what your goal is) and if you meet your goal, you don't lose anything. If you don't meet your goal, you lose the money you put on the line. So, my goal has a $5/week gamble. If I don't lose 1 lb/week, I lose that $5. And to motivate myself even more, the money is donated to an anti-charity: a group that I have chosen from a list that I don't really want to give my money to, but they get it if I fail.  Trust me, it's quite the motivating factor.

So what are my goals for this year? Well, some of them I'm not quite ready to share, but here are a few.

1) Finish and publish my new patterns.
2) Keep up to date on my bookkeeping.
3) Actually quilt some of my own quilts. 1 a month would be nice, but I'd be happy with even 6 the whole year.
4) Learn how to use the Silhouette Cameo I got for Christmas, and use it often.
5) Continue losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle.
6) Grow my Etsy store and my brand.
7) Keep up on blogging here.

There are a few more, but I'm not ready to divulge them to the world yet. If I tell people, then I really have to do it, and I'm not sure if I'm 100% ready to make the leap of faith that is required to do a few of them.

What are some of your goals this year? I'd love to hear what you're working toward. Also, I'd love to see you on Facebook. Head on over to my page, click the LIKE button (if you haven't already) and stay up to date with everything I'm doing. Make sure that you have it set to "Show in news feed" (under the drop down menu of the Liked button, once you've clicked Like) to make sure you see the updates!

And, because I'm trying not to post without including at least one photo, here's a picture of Brookie, back in October, in her holiday outfit courtesy of her awesome Aunt Jana. (That's Jana's fabric, by the way. It's called Delicious Wishes, and is sold by Henry Glass. Check your local quilt shop to see if they have it! You can find the pattern for the holiday outfit here, and info about Jana's fabric here.)

Happy New Year! May this year bring all the joy and happiness you desire to you and yours!