Butterflies Fly

And here it is--my last Cole's Quilts finish for a while. I've finished the commitment I made back in February to stitch quilt squares for six children. 

Now that I have that done, I'll be getting back to my personal stitching. I think I'll first concentrate on catching up on the Brooke's Books Advent Animal freebie series. I've only got the first one done and now I'm four behind! It's amazing how quickly a month goes by, isn't it? I must be getting old.

A Rose for Zoe

Another Cole's Quilts finish. 

Sleepy Little Monkey

Triumph! Well... sort of. I'm still on schedule with my Cole's Quilts finishes. Here's the May quilt square, completed... in May!

The fabric is actually a soft baby yellow, but the camera isn't seeing it. Two more squares to go!

Happy Stitching!

Under The Sea

Here's April's quilt square for Cole's Quilts. I just love that little jelly fish.

Three more to go!

Rawr.

Here's my March quilt square for Cole's Quilts, a green dinosaur for Logan.

The fabric is a very pale sea green, but unfortunately the camera isn't seeing it. I'm off to pull colors for my April quilt square while my needle is still smokin' and my q-snaps are still warm! I've got a trip to The Promised Land (that would be Texas) scheduled in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to have the April square finished before I go so I don't fall behind. Two squares down, four to go.

Happy Stitching!

Oh, by the way, Happy 100th Post to me! I can't think of a better way to mark my 100th post than with a quilt square for a memorial quilt for a precious little one. 

Poodle-y

A Cole's Quilts finish for a little girl who loves dogs and puppies.

Snow day!

Last night: Tiger Lily excitedly waiting for the big winter storm and a snow day!

Four o'clock this morning: Snowing like mad. 

Eight o'clock this morning: Snowed in!

Snow day = Stitchy day! Ready with my tea...

... and a square for Cole's Quilts.

Does it get any better than this? 

Nope.

Houston Texans Awesomeness

Finished JD's Houston Texans quilt square for Cole's Quilts. This was my first attempt at charting a logo, and of course it had to have lots of curvy and pointy bits to make it challenging. My main concern was getting the shape exactly right, since it's very bold. I had seen some Texans logo finishes online, and they had gotten the shape right, but they were huge. It's easier to get a good shape on a larger scale. For the quilt square I needed a much smaller logo but I didn't want it to look blocky.

First, I found a logo the size I wanted and printed it out. Next, I used transparent graph paper and traced it. Then I went crazy. Actually, all I did was work backwards (if this doesn't surprise you, it means you've been visiting awhile). Instead of stitching and then backstitching, I did the backstitching first and then filled in. That way I could get the shape exactly like I wanted it. The consequence of having to fill in, though, is that with a curvy, pointy design like this you end up with lots of little bits around the edges that you can't fill with a cross stitch, or even a proper fractional stitch. So I took what I like to call an "embroidery approach" and just filled in with whatever was needed: fractional stitches, backward stitches (top leg going the opposite way of the other cross stitches), straight stitches, etc. Here we are in progress.

And here's the finished logo.

The resident Houston Texans expert, Mr. Wonderful, approves. We both are Texans fans, and when I saw that JD's quilt request included Houston Texans football, I had to stitch for him. I'm proud to send it off for his quilt.

Cole's Quilts

Taking a break from stitching for myself this week to whip out a quilt square for Cole's Quilts. Well, "whip out" might be a bit excessive. I'm in the process of charting/stitching a Houston Texans logo and it's a bit slow going. I don't have design software so I'm going old-school with the graph paper and the light box. So far, so good. While the world waits for the finished product, check out some of my past Cole's Quilts contributions. And if you're not familiar with Cole's Quilts and would like to learn more about how to become a stitcher for this project, visit them here: Cole's Quilts

For most of my stitching I use linen and hand-dyed threads, but I also really enjoy pulling out some good ol' aida and DMC and stitching up a quilt square to send off to Linda Z., who will sew it into a wonderful quilt (she's super easy to work with, by the way).

And of course, I have lots of... help.

Really, you'd think I'd be able to get so much more done with all of the support I get.