I experienced a Christmas Miracle...

This is a story I've been waiting to tell you...I knew it would be a good one, I was just waiting for it to unfold.    It has unfolded in a miraculous way and I am so excited to share.

My husband's best friend & wife have been trying to have a baby since I was pregnant with my first born...who is almost 7.  Seven long years where, despite all efforts and without any real cause, they were plagued with infertility.  These are the kind of people who were born to be parents.  She's worked with children as her profession of choice and he's the guy who we call "Santa" once a year.  It was a mystery to everyone why they were struggling. They finally decided that adoption was their hope.

Back in August I was making a quilt for MY boys and the size was not working.  I couldn't understand.  I didn't want to change the design but I had spent a good deal of money on this and a LOT of time and effort (not to mention some out of print, hard to find fabric from American Jane).

I visited BFF Amie and we sat in the floor and wrestled with what to do to make it work.  She gave me her scraps of American Jane in the hopes I could make it work.

But I sat at the sewing machine and said "God, if not for my boys, WHO IS THIS FOR?"  Our friend's names flashed into my mind and I thought "oh, ok."  I picked out my favorite blocks and arranged in a baby size.  Since this was big enough to be a twin size quilt, I took the remaining blocks and made another baby quilt to donate to the local pregnancy crisis center.  I finished the quilt up with Look and Learn on the front, Basic Building Blocks for the binding, and a big strip of wee play cheater fabric down the middle of the back.

As I laid down in bed that night I realized these are a lot of the colors they have chosen in their house and I was so at peace knowing I had understood and done what was supposed to be done.  For a minute I kind of worried that it was too boyish, but then I thought that I was 100 percent sure of my mission so that meant the colors were just fine.  My steps had been numbered.  I folded the quilt up and it stayed folded until Thanksgiving week.

When we were packing up our van to visit family for Thanksgiving (hours and hours away), my husband told me if God led me to make that quilt then it was important that we deliver it to them since this was our first opportunity go be anywhere near our friends who live 10 hours away.  We drove an hour or so out of our way so that we could rendezvous with them to hand over this quilt.  It was my hope they would realize that we had faith that this dream would come true, too.  We handed it over and she said "it's our first baby gift...I'm getting goosebumps."

Less than a month later we received the call we had waited for.  A woman had gone into labor and, despite her never even being on THEIR radar, she had already decided they were the people she wanted to raise her baby...a beautiful little boy.  They drove hours and hours to go meet their first child. 

There are tons of little coincidences I can't share out of respect to the privacy of this situation, but please believe me when I saw this has God's fingerprints ALL OVER IT.  I feel so privileged that God allowed me to be a part of his plan because it showed me that he cares for everything about us.  He made preparations for the important things like this baby having parents and these parents having a baby...but he even cared about something so minute like this baby having a handmade quilt!  No detail in our lives is too small for Him.  As much as He loves that little baby, He loves each of us (even if we aren't as cute or tiny or innocent).

So Thanks to God for still being in the business of Christmas miracles.  Thanks to God for knowing what hope a baby can bring.  Thanks to our friends for being a great example of faithfulness through struggle.  Thanks to the young lady who made a hard, hard decision.

And if you don't mind, say a prayer for the brave young woman who searched for just the right family to raise the child she was carrying...and say one for the little family who finally got to be together and the journey they just started.

New Pattern: A Houndstooth Heritage!

As y'all may know, I'm an Alabama girl living in Texas.  My family are all big fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide.  As Alabama fans, we like to wear houndstooth in a nod to Bear Bryant...probably one of the greatest football coaches of all time.  He used to wear a houndstooth hat and Alabama fans kind of adopted it for themselves.  Last year during their National Championship run, my sister Shell sent me a houndstooth scarf to wear here in Texas after a Longhorns fan gave me some smack at a fabric counter upon learning I was purchasing houndstooth fabric to make an Alabama quilt.  I saw that scarf and I knew I was gonna make a pattern out of this eventually. 

Flash forward to October, I gave you guys a tutorial (see my sidebar under My Tutorials) of how to create a houndstooth quilt block using the strip method.  I never felt right about selling that as a pattern b/c the bias edges were not as crisp as I'd like for such a graphic pattern AND b/c my wrists were very sore after cutting those triangles out in the tutorial and double hourglass quilt I had made.  One day, I realized I could do the same pattern with NO BIAS EDGES.  I got started and the rest is history.  My sisters are so excited to get the Houndstooth quilt I have promising for so long!  This quilt measures in at 56x64 and is available as a PDF only pattern in my etsy shop

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! My husband is singing this at church Sunday and I loved the message and wanted to share. I hope you all have a blessed holiday!

Quilting Confession #2 - My first quilt was a hot mess.

 You know when you're looking through flickr and you see a beautiful quilt full of designer fabrics and read a caption that says "this is my first quilt!".  Does that ever make you feel like crap?  Well, it does me.  In order to take photos for this Quilting Confession, I had to first drag my 1st (non doll) quilt out of the dog kennel and wash it.  I know some people would find this shameful to admit...even my husband keeps dragging it out of the dog kennel.  I keep shoving it back in.  It's not nice enough to gift, not useless enough to throw away. 

 Have you ever wondered why the phrase "bursting at the seams" was considered a good thing?  Whoever said that was definitely not a quilter.

 This pic is a "kill 2 birds w/ one stone" shot.  You can see how my coins get really uneven at the bottom AND my bunchy attempt at free motion quilting.  I only FMQ part of it.  The rest of it was straight line quilted.  I distinctly remember going to the fabric store and asking for the cheapest white they had b/c I wanted the fabric to crinkle.  I had no idea you were supposed to use cotton batting for that effect.  I thought cheap fabric was how to get the crinkly look.  This quilt has that really thick poly batting.

 Oh, and don't forget my mitered corners. 

 

And here is how it looks from the other side.  I thought it would be more secure to attach your binding ALL the way to the end instead of stopping 1/4" from the end to make my miter.  I would up with rounded off wonky corners b/c for some reason I felt like I knew better than the lady who wrote the tutorial (crazy mom herself).  Yeah, I'm hard headed.

So there you have it...my first quilt.  You know I still like that crazy fabric.  I am glad i made this quilt and (at least temporarily) thought it was HOT instead of a hot mess.  Quilting brings me a lot of happiness and I'm glad I had enough confidence to keep on going.  Two years later and I've been able to make lots more quilts, be featured on Moda Bakeshop, have a quilt at the Quilt Festival, and now I'm working on my first quilt for a magazine!  I'm glad I listened to the person who said "it's just fabric" and started cutting instead of being paralyzed by a fear of failure or perfectionism.

Do you have a quilting confession?  Email story and (if possible) pics to marylane_brown@yahoo.com to have your story featured here on The Tulip Patch.

 

Christmas Giveaway Closed. The winner is...

I'm closing the giveaway now in order to get ready for Christmas with no distractions or looming deadlines. I do have a couple of posts scheduled but I am going to be cleaning, cleaning, cleaning in reality.

Let me say I'm sorry to all the NO REPLY commenters. I did not have time between a weekend vacation and over 500 comments to track you down to respond (plus it seems a little stalkerish since you are marked NO REPLY). I did enjoy reading all the comments. A few of you mentioned things I didn't know existed. A lot of googling happened on my part and my wish list has now grown a bit.

I don't know how to post a screenshot from firefox, but I did ask my computer engineer hubby. Here's how that went:
Me- "How do you get a screenshot in firefox?"
Him- "what."
Me- "Huh?"
Him- "EXACTLY!"

Take my word for it, y'all. The winner is out of 517 comments is:
____________
466
Joanna said...

I have been desperately hinting to the hubster that I want quilt related gift cards for Christmas! I don't care if it's to a real store or an online store or even Joann's - I love gift cards!!
December 16, 2010 7:27 PM
___________
So glad I took the time to figure out the HTML code for comment numeration! Yay me!

Joanna, here is what you will be getting.

1 Dilly Dally Layer Cake by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda

1 Moda Bakeshop needlecase (I have one for myself, too...it's fun to use) & some Fons and Porter Block markers...these come in handy.

1 whirleygig/windmill template

1 FQ of some funny Michael Miller fabric depicting quilting nightmares.  I love this fabric.

Thanks for playing along everyone!  I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!!!

Finish: Happy Campers Jewel Box Quilt

First things first, if you're here for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day or if you haven't entered my Christmas giveaway, check it out!

This is my take on a traditional Jewel Box Quilt.  It's a twin size quilt I made for my oldest twin to be a companion to this quilt.  I love American Jane, diagonal movement, and half square triangles.  This quilt has it all, but I kind of think it's too much.  I hate to sound like a whiner or a downer.  I still think it's a good quilt, but just not what I was expecting.  Sometimes when you find a pattern you really love you have to be patient to find the right fabrics to go wtih it (and vice versa).  That's one of my biggest flaws as a quilter...falling in love with a fabric and a pattern at the same time that really don't go together.  I am too impatient to wait for that perfect combo.

 The recipient is a big fan of his Daddy, and he told me this picture is his daddy.  He loves that.  Just between us, his daddy is WAY cuter :)

 One thing I really love about this quilt is the backing.  I did this on my last Happy Campers quilt and I love what a neat look it has when it is turned down on a bed.  It's Camp Basics Stripe, an American Jane fabric that was made to be a companion to Happy Campers.  Sandy Klop does this for many of her lines, I think.  I found the backing fabric for 3.99/yard online and I bought yards and yards (and I actually bought the very last yard they had!).

 The difference between this and the traditional Jewel box is that this quilt has little picture squares instead of 4 pieced squares in that spot.  I wanted a way to display the scenic prints.  I also fussy cut some scenic prints out of the Happy Campers Panel that I found on clearance for $2 each.  My best friend got me started with 2 charm packs and scraps from HER Happy Campers quilt.

 Here is my scooby lovin' kid showing me where his daddy is.

And here is looking for his brothers...

Myy best friend talked to me about this quilt and made me realize that even though it kind of makes my eyeballs hurt that isn't the important thing.  My son loves this quilt and it is HIS...not mine.  I'm glad I just sucked it up and finished it because she's right- It's not all about me and what I like.  You should make quilts YOU like, but if something goes wrong and you don't like it, find a gracious recipient out there who will.

Note: I have added comment verification after getting my first spam comment.  I know it is annoying, so I apologize.   I just don't think a viagra ad belongs on here...

The Quilting Confessions- #1

If you're here for the Christmas giveaway, go HERE.

For a while now, I've been wanting to start a confessional post. There are a few things in my life that are probably shameful for a quilter to admit. I'm willing to bet we all do.  If you have a confession, see the bottom of this post for details on how to share.

EXHIBIT A

EXHIBIT A- I have made quilts for all of my children...multiple quilts, actually.  There are many nights that they ask to sleep in the above...a Lightning McQueen sleeping bag from Le Target.  My sister tells me that when my kids wake up at night to play musical beds (which is only when she visits), they are dragging their mama made quilts with them, but when they ask me for their sleeping bags...somebody just pull that knife outta my heart!

EXHIBIT B

EXHIBIT B:  As if the sleeping bags aren't bad enough, my best friend and I went to Joann's and I was going to find character fabric.  My oldest has several homemade pillowcases, so I was shopping for the twins.  One found scooby fabric.  The other found that fleece fabric above.  I tried to convince him to get another fabric...a fabric suitable for PILLOWCASES.  He just begged and begged for that "Thomas Quilt."  It had Percy and Mavis and all his faves on it.  Well, I caved.  I bought 1.5 yards of it and I was going to bind it but then I thought WHY BOTHER.  My baby sleeps with the quilt I made and a 1.5 yard piece of unbound fleece.  For realz. 

So now I want to hear YOUR quilting confessions.  I'd love to have them featured here for all of us to laugh at with you ;) Do you have something to admit?  Have you ever done something you considered really boneheaded when making a quilt?  Do your kids prefer a nasty chewed up lovie blanket to a quilt you lovingly made?  Did you ever learn (way too late into your quilting life) about something others consider really basic?  Have you ever made a quilt that was a total, unabashed DISASTER.   Is there something that would make the ladies at the guild clutch their pearls and GASP????

If you have a quilting confession email me at marylane_brown@yahoo.com with the subject : QUILTING CONFESSIONS and I'd like to feature your stories.  A lot of times in blogging we only see the best someone has to offer and we get discouraged.  I want to hear stories that make us laugh or commiserate and realize that perfection is not the norm.

A Christmas giveaway! NOW CLOSED

Special Thanks to my nephew Noah for being my quilt's feet.  He was the perfect height for this quilt!

If you're a regular reader of this little blog, please head on over some time to Moda Bake Shop to see my latest project. If you're here because of my tutorial on the Bake Shop or the Sew Mama Sew giveaway, WELCOME!

In honor of the 1st Christmas gift (Jesus!) I want to do a Christmas giveaway with y'all. Because I am too lazy to get my camera out at this time I love surprises, the prize will not be revealed until the winner is.  Sound fun? Here are your chances to enter:

1)Leave me a comment on this post telling me what sewing related thing you'd most love for Christmas: fabric, notions, machines, or tools. I wanna hear! I want a rolling case for craft night and a new iron.

AND/OR

2)Leave me a comment on this post telling me you are a follower (new or old).

SOOOOO...2 chances to win & since the first Christmas gift was for the entire world then in keeping with the theme my giveaway will be, too. International entries welcome!

If you are marked NO-REPLY please make sure you leave some way for me to get in touch with you on your entries (such as your blog URL or an email).  Merry Christmas and Good Luck!

Don't forget to check out Sew Mama Sew for other giveaways!

A Debate and Finish: Happy Campers Scrap Baby Quilt

Yesterday I finished attaching the binding to the twin size Happy Campers Jewel Box quilt that I'm working on.  Instead of hand stitching the binding to the other side, I decided to go ahead and get rid of all of the rest of my Happy Campers scraps via a baby quilt.  I still love the fabric, but after making 2 huge quilts with this line I really am done...don't wanna see it staring back at me from my fabric cupboard.  My American Jane scrap stash is getting a little obscene anyway.

I sewed 3 inch strips together and then divided the sections with a fussy cut little strip from the Camp Basics coordinates.

And I pieced all the scraps into the backing...I really hate piecing a backing together but this was about using fabric up.

 THE DEBATE: This is the first (and likely last) quilt I have tried to sell.  I don't want to make quilts for sale, but I don't have an immediate need for a baby quilt and I think 2 Happy Camper quilts is enough for any one family.  This was kind of an experiment for me and it confirmed all the reasons I don't want to quilt for money.

Materials Cost- $30
Time- 6 hours (that pieced backing killed me time wise and I hand bound it as always)
Unforeseen expenses: 4 ibuprofen- 50 cents
Etsy fees if it sells: ??

Cost: (and I personally think almost any handmade quilt is worth more, but I tried to price this based on other quilts on etsy to be competitive) $79.  And it may not even sell at that price...

That averages out to a number much too close to minimum wage.  I've got a college degree!  People don't seem to appreciate the time and money that goes into a quilt.

I found this cute little Alexander Henry print at Hobby Lobby today...8.99 but I used a 40 percent off coupon so it ended up being $5.39/yard.  I picked up a few yards for a backing for my next pattern.

And my mother-in-law saw my purse made out of Alexander Henry Sew Now Sew Wow and asked me to pick her up a bolt of it up at Hobby Lobby.  It ends up being 6.29 a yard there.  I think that's a great price for such cute, quality fabric.  I was shocked the first time I saw it there at HL.

And Christmas means potholders for teachers around here.  Most people are getting the tree potholders by Riley Blake but my oldest son's teacher gets some American Jane & some Moda Hoopla.  After I saw that she listed 2 of her fave things as Hot Pink and Tulips on her gift list (the school makes them do it) I knew I had to whip one up for her.  We tulip-lovin' gals gotta stick together.  I knew I liked her...

So back to the debate!!!  What do you think about selling a quilt...have you ever done it?  How do you decide what to charge?

I've got a secret...

And it's a good secret...I'm terrible at keeping those!  I don't want to give away any particulars because things happen and it might never come to pass since this is a loooong process, but I've been commissioned to do a baby quilt for a major quilting magazine!  Do I sound like a contestant on wheel of fortune or what???  My husband even knew what magazine I was talking about, and he would not know a Log Cabin block from a Drunkard's Path. 

So on a totally unrelated note (ahem, ok, it is TOTALLY RELATED), do y'all have any great color combo suggestions for 2011???

Sneak Peak: a baking project!

I've been baking again and fortunately for my thighs it is the fat free variety- Moda Bake Shop!

I wanted to give y'all a sneak peek of Tunnel Visions. I will also confess that this quilt did not turn out 100 percent as expected but I'm hoping that is for the best...I guess the world may never know!

Helpful hints: if you're ever doing something math heavy, do not decide it would be a good project to finish up at the church craft night where giggling and chatting are top priority. Luckily there were some great quilters there to tell me it would be ok. This fabric, Hoopla,  doesn't come out until January so it's not like I could run to the LQS and change it around.  My favorite fabric is that huge white on red dot in the left side of the photo.  It's WONDERFUL.  I wish I had yards and yards of it.  There's also a pink on red just like it.  It's really cute.  Y'all check it out on December 12! 

Have you ever made a quilty-math mistake before?  How did you like the result???

Seen in traffic:

Yesterday the hubby chuckled and pointed out the license plate frame ahead of us:

Born to Quilt...

FORCED TO WORK!!!

I was LOL'ing all up in that car. I know it's a weird post but I just had to share.

On a non quilt related note, I am selling tickets to the Fiesta Bowl (Connecticut vs. Oklahoma) and the Insight Bowl (Iowa vs. Missouri) for my seestur. Want to go...or better yet, want to send your husband so you can have some quilting time to yourself? Email me and I can hook you up with my listing!

Now I am going to have that song "OOOOOOO-klahoma" stuck in my head until these tickets are sold.

Mrs. Claus...she is a crafty one.

I grew up in a family that was...wealth challenged.  My mother and father were hard working, smart people, but unfortunately that doesn't always mean a life without monetary struggles.  My sisters are quick to remind me that I am a spoiled rich kid compared to them.  They like to give me stories about wearing 1 pair of shoes throughout high school (um, all 4 years) and not having a phone PERIOD when I complained that we had a rotary phone when everybody else was using touch tone.  We did have a farm and at some point or another we had fish in a pond, chicken, bees, quail, guineas, cattle, pigs, geese, mules (which my dad was known for training...is that gives you a clue about the stubbornness in my genetic makeup), sheep, sugar cane, and a vegetable garden.  My mom helped a lot with the gardening aspect as well as cooked our meals, canned, sewed, and crocheted.  My oldest sister gardens (and can cook).  My middle sister cooks (and can garden).  I sew (and I can do a little landscaping).  My mother was the domestic triple threat: she could do it all.

Christmas 1982 rolls around and money is tight.  I remember very distinctly that Christmas was on a Sunday that year...I remember that because I was so excited to go show off my haul because I knew I was a good girl and I knew I was going to get something fantastic.  I don't remember what else I got...and honestly it could be the ONLY thing I got, but at the very end of the gift giving, I got a little crocheted purse with a grandma doll face on the front.  In the purse was a little note in which Mrs. Claus herself told me that while Santa gives presents to most kids, the REALLY REALLY good kids get something handmade by her.  I took that mint green purse to church and was proud as a peacock.  It's one of the few things I vividly remember about Christmases past.

I have been richly blessed  by God with 3 of the best boys I am sure He ever put on this earth.  I think I might have to give my old friend Mrs. Claus a ring to see if I could ask for a favor...for old time's sake.

Christmas-ifying the house.

The family and I just got back from a trip to visit the families and the van engine was not even cooled from the trip before I started throwing all the harvesty stuff into a bin to make way for CHRISTMAS!  Ten hours in the car, laundry to put away, kids to get in bed...but I managed to get the Harvesty stuff put away in the midst of doing other things and left a clean slate for Monday Morning to get the house all Christmas Cozy.  I'm not done yet, but here is my start.

I sewed some chocolate colored Christmas fabric onto my red gingham Christmas curtains (a ralph lauren gingham sheet I found at the thrift store).  I put some blackout fabric behind them (thumbtacked) because honestly lining curtains I will use for a month at a time is really not appealing to me.  I added some other Charlie Brown/Peanuts stuff.  As you will come to learn, this family is kind of into that.  It all started with my oldest thinking we were related to Charlie Brown...ya know, with our last name being Brown.  We started buying the movies and collecting things we saw that were Peanuts related with the help of my equally Peanuts obsessed sister.  We completely enable each other on that addiction.  The kids love it.

And I love a skinny tree but this thing has got to be fluffed more.  Half of our big light strand was burned out so I am going to go to the store some time this week and get some serious illumination for this puppy.  See that Christmas Skirt?  I made that last year and I am already over it.  Oh well, it will get covered in boxes soon enough.

And I hung the stockings with care.  The kids stockings are made with their footprints or handprints as antlers.  Ours are Peanuts stockings from (you guessed it) my sister.  The figures on the mantle all play a song (which is why they are on the mantle).  My favorite is the Shepherd Linus because he talks about the true meaning of Christmas.

And I made this pillow today with Wal-Mart fabric.  Yes, I am gonna admit that.  Hopefully nobody will revoke my blog for that admission, but it was cute and it was cheap.  I think I made the right decision because I did not get high blood pressure when my son smeared all this lipstick on it.  Christmas spirit was kept in check thanks to cheapo fabric.

And I'm considering stealing a few train tracks from Train World to make a track around my tree.  That's probably asking for trouble though.