Ribbons for Mother's Day : :

Last night I added the binding to a new Diamond Strings pillow! It's that same wonderful size as the first one, but this time I used Bonnie Christine's beautiful Winged fabric collection with the addition of her gorgeous Winged Renaissance Ribbons. Butterflies & Flowers, yes please!



I love making these style of quilt blocks, whether I'm making just a few for pillows like this one or many more for a quilt. They're just so much fun and quick to make, I don't think I'll ever be sick of them!



The added ribbons makes this pillow seem extra special. The pretty color palette combined with these gorgeous embroidered, jacquard decorative ribbons adds such a fancy, beautiful layer of detail. So perfect for Mother's Day gift-giving, my plan from the very beginning!



The back is finished in one of my very favorite Winged prints, quilted with an aqua blue Aurifil 50wt, and bound for a nice, neat finish!



After snapping a few photos this morning out on our porch swing, I think this Mama needs one of her very own!



Wishing all of you Mamas the most wonderful of days with those you love!   ♡ Maureen

Surprised : :

Meet Penelope!

Penelope Rose Cracknell 

March 13th, 2013 

On Saturday my family surprised me with a new puppy, I am still in complete shock! Since we bought our house back in November, the kids have been asking for a puppy almost weekly. In the beginning I was completely against it, but slowly I have been coming around a little more. For about a month now we have been looking at cute puppy pics online, just for fun, and in these last few weeks anytime Holly would share a photo of her Morkie on Instagram I would gush to everyone! Still, I never thought for a second my husband and kids would surprise me with a Morkie for Mother's Day!

So far it's been going great! Minus that it's snowing here this morning in our part of Pennsylvania, another surprise!

My husband and I are a little tired today, we're crate training newbies. So if you have any tips, we'd appreciate it!

Lily is coming around. She has stayed in the same room as Penelope at all times, always keeping her distance, but I'm taking that as a good sign. 

We are all so thrilled! I couldn't wait to introduce Penelope, Penny for short, to all of you today!!

Happy Monday, everyone!  ♥,  Maureen

Scrappy Improv Quilt : :

This weekend I finally finished up my Scrappy Improv quilt! I'm sooo excited!! It took me a little longer than I thought it would -- beginning Friday, continuing into Saturday, with a nice walk and lots of picture taking on Sunday. It feels really good to be finished with this one!



The final measurement is 68" x 80"! This quilt was made using a quilt-as-you-go method, so for finishing I simply added a few long stitches, running both ways, a 1/2" from each of the quilting seams. I chose to leave the pieced backing large and did an easy peasy roll-over binding to finish. If you look back through the posts for this particular quilt, you can see how it all came together. It was quite the process!



The front of my quilt is made up entirely of the scraps I've accumulated from all the projects I've made over this last year or so, and I finished off the back with five different one yard cuts of aqua & red fabrics pieced together randomly. I chose the aqua & red since from way back when I first began sewing I've wanted to make an all aqua and red quilt. Finishing this one with some of the fabrics I've saved for that quilt just seemed like the perfect thing to do.

Here we have two prints from Riley Blake Designs new collections Apple of my Eye, one from Millie's Closet, all from Skye Reve Fabrics. The others are a Riley Blake Red solid and a Michael Miller Red & Aqua Dumb Dots.



Now that's it's finished, if I'm being honest, there are several things I would have done differently with the overall design. Of course there always will be, but if I just look back it really was such a fun project! I didn't plan anything about it, not even the Improv girl in the corner. I just had an idea and decided to give it a go. It was great to have a project that didn't require much thought,  just fun! Now I have this beautiful, large quilt for my family to use, a lot less scraps taking up space in my studio, and a keepsake that is very special to me.



I see a hundred different projects when I look at it, it's wonderful!



 ♥ Maureen

My Week. In Pictures : :

It really is amazing all that can happen to just one person within a weeks time. My week away was just what we all needed and was certainly a full one -- full of joy, fear, growth, loss, searching, and so much love!

Happy to back! ~ Maureen