Birthday Flowers

I love flowers.  I think I miss the garden the most living in the barracks.  At home my lilies and other summer flowers are in bloom and making the yard pretty. That is if the dogs have not dug them all up.  For some reason they really seem to like the bulbs of the lilies. 

My mom and dad sent me flowers for my birthday.  They are gorgeous and all in my favorite color, pink! What a lovely treat to start Monday after a mini iron man march.

Gracie Girl Quilt

Last Christmas I happened into a local quilt store while home in Victoria. While leaning against the counter waiting against the counter to check out a colorful bundle of fabric caught my eye.  It was called Gracie Girl by Riley Blake.  I am a fan of Riley Blake, finding their fabric works in all sorts of creations that I make. It also comes up with some great boy fabrics which excites me greatly as boy materials are hard to find. This particular fabric bundle is very feminine without being overly sugary.

 

As my mom's name is Grace I thought this fabric would make a great quilt for her. The pattern that I choose was one that I had in my collection of patterns for a while.  It is called Labyrinth and from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts.  Its an easy pattern but a little care has to be given to how you place the fabrics to get the optimum effect. It is quilted with a variegated thread in an all over dragonfly meandering pattern in a fairly tight sequence which really fills in the negative space nicely. Now all that is left is to wrap it up and put it into the mail.  Happy Birthday Mum.

Spring Placemats

Place mats seem to be my go to gift for my parents.  So it is not surprising then that I choose to make another pair of them for my mom's 65th birthday.  Of course I have other stuff as well, but I always like to have one handmade gift to add to the pile.

Mom and Dad - Happy B Day

 Back in March my LQS had some Fandango fabric by Kate Spain.  Some of it I used to make cathedral windows pillow (still in progress cause I am hand stitching it), the rest I put aside to make place mats for this birthday.  I added to it some orange dots by Riley Blake, and some other fabrics in my stash and have this scrappy looking mats. 

Place mats for two

 The back is the Fandango print, as is the carry case for them.  Though I did put a band of Riley Blake fabric on it to give it an extra pop. The carry case is nothing special, just fabric sewn up the side to corral all the place mats and keep them in one spot.  Now all that remains to do is pop them into the mail! 
 

Carry Case for place mats