A quilt made with LOTS of love

A very dear friend recently welcomed her first niece to the world. As a shower gift to her sister, this very dear friend had me make this small quilt for the newest miracle in this family of wonderful women.



My friend and her sisters lost their mother when they were young. The fabric used in this quilt was from their mother's stash, the same fabric that she used to make a quilt for my friend and a doll quilt for the youngest sister. This baby quilt was made for the middle sister, who now had her own replica of the two other quilts made by her mother. Though it is no match for a quilt made by the maternal grandmother! I did shed tears over this quilt, especially when my friend texted me the words she wanted embroidered on the back:



"A mother's love is forever."

yep, there go the tears again.
Thank you for the honor of trusting me with such a special, special project.

Speaking of girly girl things...

I think this made for a very cute 1-year old birthday outfit.

A little something just for me

Fall was very busy...craft fairs, hubby's promotion testing, new nephew, more craft fairs, lots of sewing for craft fairs...

I am trying to slow down a bit the early part of this year to tackle some projects I have been wanting to do for us...for me. To remind me that sewing isn't just deadlines and hundreds of snack bags. But something fun and a way to provide something beautiful for my family.

So though I won't get all of those unfinished (or unstarted!) projects taken care of, I want to at least do a few!

This quilt kit was given to my by my mother-in-law the first Christmas after we were married. The colors are beautiful, though these pictures don't do them any justice. She bought it because the colors reminded her of our wedding (pink and orange were the accents). Finally, about a year ago I pulled it out and worked on it.

And kicked myself because it only took about 2 hours to put together. And it was beautiful. And I could have been enjoying it for 6+ years...

The colors just warm my heart. I also am reminded of our wedding, but also of a warm fall day. A little funky because of the irregularities of the color variations and the purposely mismatched stripes. The appliqued flowers that add a little extra pop. All I gotta say, is thanks to my MIL for getting this great piece for me!





Then last spring, I got it quilted by Gina up at Oodles of Doodles Longarm Quilting & Crafts up in Riley, KS. She did an AMAZING job. She used a non-bleached muslin on the back to showcase the beautiful quilting, and a pink, orange and marigold variegated thread. Amazing. If you are looking to have something quilted, give Gina a call. She does great work, is very imaginative (and does it all manually, no computer-generated quilting there!) and is priced very reasonably. Highly recommend Oodles of Doodles! She has some great fabrics, too!



And finally, I sat one afternoon last week and put the bias on it to finish it off. Again, wishing I hadn't waited a year to get this done! Can't wait to curl up under it to read a book or rock a baby to sleep these cold winter nights!

Dance bag

What little dancer wouldn't be thrilled to receive this? I love when customers give me creative liberty...

Custom camera bag

Around here, if you want something, you ask for it!

Never would I have thought about making camera accessories, but at the request of a friend, I made custom camera straps and this cute, custom camera bag! Hubby also got a tripod sling to clip on his camera bag for Christmas.

I will apologize in advance for the less-than-quality photos...the good camera was modeling in the bag, so ignore the glare off the silver rings!

Feeling so honored

This was perhaps the best compliment I have received in my sewing "career".

A mom emailed me a few weeks before Christmas. She wanted to order a bag for her daughter.

Her daughter is in 4th grade.

This young girl stopped by our booth at Pumpkin Patch. (Keep in mind that was September 23/24). She loved our stuff and wanted to buy something. She picked up a business card.

Three months later, she was still holding onto that business card in the hopes that someday she would be able to buy a MandiMoo bag.

Mom bought her this MandiMoo bag to use as a school bag. What an awesome mom! And I am so excited for this little girl. And so honored that she thought so much of the things I create to hold onto that card for three months. Wow! So fun to be a part of this!


(sorry this pic doesn't do the bag much justice...it is super cute pink and brown...perfect for a 4th grade school bag!)

Christmas gifts

More Christmas gifts to show. This first is a post to a friend's website, Prairie School Farms . I am so honored to have been featured on her blog, and even more honored that she enjoys her MandiMoo gift so well.

Another great honor this holiday season--I was approached by a non-profit organization to provide snack bags for their donor gifts for Christmas! Edenvigil.org, run by a local Manhattan couple, chose handmade gifts from a local crafter for their donor gifts. I admire that effort on their part, and not just because they ordered their gifts from me! Thank you for shopping local this season!

Friday Fun

A priest, a football coach, and Willie the Wildcat walk into a bar...

Okay, that is all I've got. (Father K always opens his homily with a joke, so in honor of him, I thought I would write one but didn't get very far.)

Chirp, chirp, chirp...

Anyway, the Cats are playing in the Cotton Bowl tonight, and Father K has been in Texas with them all week as the team chaplain. Look for him on the sideline. He will be the guy wearing the black pants and black clergy shirt. Wait a minute...what is that? Is that a...? No, it can't be. Wait, yes, it is. It is a powercat on a clergy shirt.



Bet you don't see that every day! Thanks, Father K, for letting me add some purple to your priestly attire.

Christmas fun for Thing 2 and Thing 1

I had grand plans for Christmas morning.

The door to the playroom (which was a guest room/office up until a few weeks ago) was going to be wrapped with a big bow.

The children were going to wake up bright and early, rush down the hall, see the wrapped door, throw it open, and see THIS...


I had grand plans...until we were hit, hard and fast, by a bug. It was all I could do to drag myself out of bed long enough to watch the kiddos open their gifts.

So after several days, many loads of laundry and disinfecting our entire house when everyone was feeling better, I finally got around to finishing the play room. Still have some things to add, (and some firefighter "stuff" to move to the new guest room) but so far I am very pleased.

And more importantly, the kids ACTUALLY can find toys, REALLY put them away, and LOVE to go in and play or lounge on the pillows to read.

A lamp in the reading corner. Found it on craigslist, tore off the "beautiful" pale pink trim, sewed together some scraps, and TA-DA.



(Conversation as we were clearing out guest room)
Hubby: Oh, you can just throw away that (budweiser) trash can.
Me: Oh, no, I already have plans for it.

days later...
Hubby: We even have a crafted trash can (imagine the least excitement possible here)
Me: Dear, you knew what you were getting into when you married me.


The cabinet was a gift from my in-laws. It used to be a kitchen cabinet long ago, and since has served as a buffet, a sofa table, storage for crystal, entry table, and now a book case...all in only the 5 years we have owned it!

Thankfully, we were able to re-organize a few things around the house and received a hand-me-down shelf, so creating this play room was pretty inexpensive. Fabric for curtains, a few canvases to paint and a couple of plastic storage tubs to put on the open shelving.







Merry Christmas, Thing 2 and Thing 1!

A perfect Christmas gift...

...only this time I was the recipient! Dear hubby and I love sushi (okay, so not real sushi...I can't eat the raw stuff yet...but volcano rolls at Green Tea Sushi bar? YUM!) Anyway, this cute package came in the mail for us. I don't have the heart to take it apart yet, as it is too cute.




In case you can't see the label very well, yes, there are bills wrapped up in each small felt sushi...money to be used for a dinner out at our fave sushi spot...if I can make myself tear these little beauties apart!



What a sweet and original way to give us a night out! Thank you H!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Liturgically speaking, it is still the Christmas season, so my greeting is not at all late :)

I want to let the pictures do the talking the next few blog posts...and hopefully there will not be a 4-month hiatus between them as happened last fall. Just two words to describe that phenomenon...craft fairs. Busy and good, but glad to have a break!

These are some overnight bags for some lucky grandkids from a grandma who is hoping they will come visit quite frequently. They actually turned out pretty large, so would be great for an adult weekend bag. Note the chalkboard fabric pockets on the yellow duffle!