Family Tree Wall Hanging

I've had the idea for this project in my head for awhile now. I finally got around to making it for mom for mother's day, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I got my initial idea from this pillow, and then went from there. Here's the finished project:



I tried my hand at free-motion quilting on the leaves. The first few didn't turn out so well, but once I got the hang of it it went by pretty quick, and turned out to be very addicting. I embroidered mom and dads initials and the year they got married on the tree trunk. The names by the leaves were just written in sharpie (thank you Betsy, we all know my handwriting is terrible!), and a few of the leaves are left blank for when new kiddos come along.

I love the way it turned out, and I think mom likes it too. Now if I could only figure out how to make one for my little family of four without it looking ridiculous.

A July Project

I celebrated the 4th of July this year by finishing an unfinished project. I thought my project for the day was going to be sorting through all my fabric and organizing it into new little plastic bins. But I found this cute "America" I had stitched from who-knows-how-many-Julys ago in a bin of red, white and blue fabric. So instead of "organizing" it into a new bin, I sewed it into this wall hanging. I think it turned out to be a pretty fine way to celebrate a "too-hot-to-go-outside" holiday!

A June Project

On June 23, 2011 my Aunt Roma, who is my Mom's sister, turned 90 years old! We were invited to a birthday picnic for her the following Saturday. I really wanted to give my aunt 90 presents, but since I didn't know what she might want or need that I could afford, this is what she got. . . . . . a thought-a-day for 90 days!

I found 90 little thoughts or quotes and matched them up with a little Mary Engelbreit picture. After they were all typed and glued onto scrapbook paper, I took them to a copy shop to have the spiral binding attached. Just in case I'm not alive to make you one of these books when you turn 90 years old, here are my top ten favorite quotes:

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back

and realize they were the big things."

"A small house will hold as much happiness as a big one."

--early American proverb

"Learn that nothing very bad or very good ever lasts very long."

"Wear a smile and have friends, wear a frown and have wrinkles."

--George Eliot

"Enjoy when you can and endure when you must."

--Goethe

"Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want."

"Remember that triumph is just a little "umph" added to "try"!"

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more;

whine less, breathe more; hate less, love more;

and all good things will be yours."

--Swedish Proverb

Don't forget little kindnesses and don't remember small faults."

--Chinese Proverb

"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."