Picture Quilt

My sister Brittany got married last Saturday ( December 18). It snowed pretty much all day. We got up way early so I could go help Britt get ready. When we were almost there I realized that I forgot the "picture quilt" that I made for them to have at the reception. I got Brittany ready and my girls ready, then we headed to Logan. It was way snowy on the roads we had to drive really slow the whole way. On the way to Logan I realized that I didn't have my temple recommend with me! It was not turning out to be a good day for me. I don't know why I forgot the most important things for me that day!

So the picture quilts I make I choose a picture that I think is good of them close-up and that has a good shadow to light ratio, like this one:

I put it on my photoshop software and put it in gray scale and flip it so its a mirror image of itself and I mess with the lighting a bit more, and then posterize it to 4 different shades of gray. I print the picture 3 times and get started! I have 4 different shades of fabric and its a lot of tiny cutting and puzzle piecing the fabric scraps back together. I quilt over it to give them a little more detail and wa-la! A beautiful 11 x 16 picture quilt to frame for a wedding reception (or just have in your home).

Short December

I don't think November and December are "blogging seasons", it is so busy even though it doesn't seem like it! I haven't even thought about blogging for at least a month. I've been super busy quilting for Christmas and Brittany's wedding and I set up my new quilting machine and have done some customer quilts. So here is a small update and I promise to be better next year:

We visited Temple Square this year as a family. Brad was going down to the Jazz game so we rode the front-runner with him. We barely made it to the train on time or we would have had to wait 30 minutes and Brad would have been late to the game. Whew! It was so awesome to get on the train after running so hard.

Here we are in front of the nativity!Brad left and the girls and I walked around for a while and went to Deseret Book for a minute-there was a girl in there playing the piano. We got a little snack for the way back and we headed back to the front-runner to go home.

Marlee fell asleep in Deseret book- so we just parked her on a bike rack and sat beside her on the train.

Here is me and Allie eating some Lion House orange rolls and hot chocolate!

I made a king size quilt for Brittany's wedding from some fabrics that my mom had plus a couple more blues. I gave it to her at her bridal shower. It was a lot of work and I'm glad that I got it done in time (Barely-I finished the binding a 1/2 hour before I left!)

Here is a closer up of it(kind of). It was really nice to have my new machine to quilt this one because Kytie's was a queen and it took me 16 hours to quilt on my small machine and no frame but this one is a king and it took me 6 hours to quilt and I didn't have to un-pick at all.:)

I've been making a lot of things for Christmas presents, too. I made this one for my Aunt Kathleen.

Here is a close up of my quilting on it.

This is the one I most recently did, but I didn't make it. It is a customer quilt (for Brad's Aunt's Cousin's Father-in Law) The family made it together, all of the hearts have a different member of the family's message on it for this Grandpa who is dying from cancer. It is the sweetest thing I was crying while I was quilting it because of some of the sweet messages they wrote to their dad or grandpa or husband.

Here are some of the hearts:
She didn't really know what quilting she wanted but something with hearts so I outlined each of the hearts twice and then did hearts and loops around them and in the brown parts and I did a simple hearts border. I love this patch they put on the corner that labeled it.

It was such an honor that they would let me quilt it. I put the backing together, quilted it, squared it off, and made and hand-stitched the binding all in one day. They were so nice to work with and they maybe want me to do a baptism quilt coming up too.

I would like to start quilting a lot for customers soon so I think I will be starting a quilting blog really soon that is different that this one.

The girls and I went to the annual All-Girls-Christmas-Party with my mom and sisters and here is a picture of me and my girls before we left our house in Layton.

Here we are at our "appetizer buffet". We didn't have an actual meal because it was in the afternoon so we had a bunch of appetizers. I made deviled eggs, spinach-artichoke dip, and oreo truffles.

Mom gave us aprons this year and Lion House pies books and red pie plates. We practiced making pie dough and just put pie filling in it and did the edges and tops pretty and baked them.

Allie has been having so much fun at pre-school this month. They have made a lot of things and learned a lot of songs to get ready for a program. And she is writing her letters really good too! She made this gingerbread house one day it was so cute.

For some more quilts:

I quilted this panel for a wall-hanging for my aunt and uncle in Colorado

This is one of my favorites- I sent it to my Grandma and Papas in Colorado:

I love the quilting on this one and the prairie points give it some dimension.

I made this mosaic wreath wall-hanging for myself. :)

This one is my Christmas quilt to myself this year. I planned it all out and got my fabric in July but I just barely finished it 2 weeks ago. It was a way fun one to quilt because I could just roll it and quilt a whole row at a time. I think it really showcases my quilting because each of the prints is quilted a different way.

I put up our Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving night with my sister Chelsy. I wanted white lights this year because I've done colored every other year.

Chelsy stayed the night Thanksgiving night and we got up early to do the Black Friday thing. I wanted to go to Joann for the flannel fabric sale. I like to make receiving blankets for babies and I had some baby showers coming up. I got some other stuff too but it was a long time to wait there to get fabric cut. We also went to Walmart and Lowes and that's all. Then we went to see Tangled in 3D with my whole family and Brad's too. It is the cutest Disney movie ever! Me and Allie love it and go on the website every day. We went to see it again with Brittany when she got back from Virginia for Thanksgiving. Us 3 girls are pretty much the biggest Tangled fans there is.

Here are my two little sweeties. We have been having so much fun together lately I'm just so proud of them and how smart and good they are.

This is another one of my favorite pictures-I was taking a picture of the poinsettia that our neighbor brought to us and they squeezed in and hugged and said Mom take a picture! Turned out priceless.

Have a Merry Christmas!