Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all got to spend some wonderful time with loved ones. We did! :)

I finished all my gifts on time this year. :)  I even made a couple more last minute gifts. I made a couple scarves for my friend's daughters in Germany. I added some embroidery and backed it with some warm fuzzy fleece.

They will definitely come in handy.

I made one for Taylor too and she loves it. 

 Here she is modeling hers. 

Now, I want one for me.  Must add that to my long list of stuff to make....

Happy Holidays,

Sunny

My Kids

I have 2 of them and they are a handful....

 but they're suppose to be, right?!?

Taylor

She is a very sassy 6 year old.

Michael (Mikey)

A very affectionate 3.5 year old.

So lucky to be blessed with them.  Where's my hubby?  Another post on him later.  He's been doing some really cool stuff with work lately so that's worthy of a post all its own.

OXOX,

Sunny

Some Holiday Decorating

I always make plans to make stuff for my home for the holidays.  It never works out.  But now, I am no longer a HOLIDAY SLACKER. 

I finished a few things for the Holidays! 

I'm proud to say that my christmas tree is no longer naked. 

I came up with the pattern on my own.  It's based on my Spiderweb block.  Just tweaked a bit.... 

I hand quilted it and here's a closeup!  :)

Much Better, huh?!?!

Wait!  There's more!

I'm also happy to say that I also made an Advent Calendar for my kids! 

The pattern is based on Oh Fransson's Tutorial, but just tweaked a bit (again). 

I did 25 pockets instead of 24.

I embroidered the numbers and I hand quilted it (again!)  :) 

Amanda's beautiful calendar was the 'kick in the pants' that I needed to finish this.  Thanks, Amanda!  :)

Taylor really loves it.  She said, "Mama, I love your new calendar.  It's so beautiful." 

What can I say.... the kid has good taste.

Gotta go.  More holidays gifts to sew...

Oxox,

Sunny

Some Weekend Sewing

So we spent this past weekend in Vegas.  We didn't fly, so it was a long drive.  Especially when you have 2 small kiddos.  To me, Road trip = Hand sewing!  So here's what I worked on....

A new pillow for our bedroom. 

These small squares were all English Paper Pieced.  Yes, hand sewn!  It's also hand quilted too.  Lots of hand sewing on this puppy!  Crazy, I know, but the end result is always great.

My husband was kinda bummed that I gave away this pillow.  He didn't realize I made it for a swap.  So this pillow has almost the same prints as the other one.  Just a little different. Nonetheless, he approves.

Here it is playng nicely with my Habitat Pillows. 

I also managed to hand quilt most of my Christmas Tree Skirt.  I'll be showing that to you very soon!

Oxox,

Sunny

Our Thanksgiving Weekend!

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!  I hope I wasn't the only one who put on a few more pounds this weekend...  To make mattters worse, we spent the rest of the weekend in Las Vegas!

Our generous friend Jae, hooked us up with an amazing room at the Palazzo.  All I can say is WOW!  What a beautiful place.  We all had some more great food and a wonderful wonderful time! 

Taylor & her Uncle Jae

Taylor at the Wynn

You're probably wondering where the photos of my son are....  He would not pose for a photo!!  He never wants to take a picture!  Hopefully, next time.

Oxox,

Sunny

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

My husband, Howard and I got married back in September 2003.  We bought a house in August 2004.  That year we hosted Thanksgiving and now we host every year.  I love cooking Thanksgiving food!  It's one of the few times a year we get to indulge and just enjoy a great meal with family and friends.  

This year, I'm making:

Turkey - Sage & Butter

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Bacon & Sausage Stuffing

Cream Corn

Green Bean Casserole

Potatoes Au Gratin

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Pecan Tartlets

Oh, I'm so excited!  I'm going to do a little bit of shopping today and Wednesday.  I especially love using all my pyrex and my County Fair Table Runner.

Are you cooking?  If so, what are you making?

Oxox,

Sunny

My First Flannel Quilt

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! 

As promised, I managed to sew this puppy up last night.  I used AHM Folksy Flannel and a Valori Wells Sole print that I've had for years.  This came togoether very quickly because I wanted to only use squares with no piecing. 

 Finished size will be 48" x 48".  Just big enough for me and my kids to hide in.  :)

As you can guess, this one is a 'keeper".  The back should be done tonight.  More photos to follow soon!

Oxox,

Sunny

A New Quilt!

"My name is Jennifer Chon and I'm a certified fabric hoarder". Yes, I admit it. My stash is ridiculous! I cannot resist a good sale so my stash has grown exponentially through the last few years. Maybe I'll have the courage to show it to you one day. Maybe...

Anyway, I'm trying something new. I recently purchased some AMH Folksy Flannel from Fabric.com. (My supplier!).  I've never made a quilt with flannel before so, I'm excited to start!

I already washed it, pressed it and even cut it!

I'll be sewing it tonight!  Yippee!  More photos to follow soon!  :)

Oxox,

Sunny

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies, originally uploaded by sunnyauh.

I finally got around to making Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies. These are my 2 absolute favorite desserts in the whole wide world. Why, you ask? Because you don't need utensils to eat either of these. You pick it up, take a big bite and then it makes you happy! Seriously!!

My daughter, Taylor celebrated her 6th birthday last Monday. She was absent from school that day. I'll explain why in a future post.

I didn't make cupcakes this year for her class. I ended up making these and they were definitely a hit with the kids. I did half semi sweet chips and half white chocolate chips. So they were perfect in every way!

Did I make you hungry?!?! Did I plant a seed in your head? Go make some!

Oxox,
Sunny

LAMQG Habitat Challenge!

My guild hosted another challenge. We got 8 Fat Eights of Jay McCarroll's line Habitat. We were told not to take any if we did not plan on using them. I never turn down a chance to work with free fabric!  :)   So here's what I came up with... 3 Pillows!  My goal was to use every last piece and I did!  The solid print that I used in every pillow is Kona Coal.  My new favortite!  :)

Pillow #1 are HST's (Half Square Triangles). I made it so I could get more comfortable with doing them. I'm still not crazy about HSTs but I'm even more not crazy about the free motion quilting I used here.  I really hate how it looks and that's because it's my first time with it. I need more practice....

 

Pillow #2 was inspired by Denyse Schmidt's Hop, Skip & Jump pattern. I've been wanting to make a quilt out of that pattern so I thought this would be a great test drive.  I love this pattern alot! The pebble quilting was cool too, but some parts are an absolute abomination.  Again, I need more practice.....

Pillow #3 is my favorite! It's a Spiderweb Block - My Way.  Tutorial is coming so you guys can make one too. Aren't they fun?!?!  I wanted to echo the web, so I thought hand quilting it would really make it pop!  I think it did the trick.  :)

So here they are all happy together! 

These are definitely a great addition to my couch! :)

Overall, I think pillows are great because they are so quick to put together.  It's a great way to test out a quilt pattern that you might be on the fence about. 

Now, go forth and make some pillows!

OXOX,

Sunny

Spiderwebs... My way

I love Spiderwebs blocks.  They're use up a tons of scraps and the end result is always stunning.

So, here's your classic spiderweb block.

(Bee Block for Tricia)

Here's what they look like all together.

Stunning, huh?

 

(Baby Quilt for a friend's baby girl, Rilee)

A different color way will give it a new look. 

Neat, huh?

(Linda's Seams Perfect Bee Blocks)

So I wanted to make a block that looked like this. 

I couldn't find any patterns on-line, so I made my own.

 Here's what I came up with. 

Here's one in orange and blue.

(For Jodi)

Red & Aqua.

(For Karen)

These came out a little "boxier" than I wanted...

I'll post a tutorial for this block, but I still need to do a couple tweaks here and there to get rid of the "boxiness". (Is that even a word?!?!) 

So please come back soon!  :)

oxox,

Sunny

NO More Naked Tree

I know it's early Novmber, but Christmas ALWAYS seems to creep up on me.  Shortly after Halloween, we celebrate my birthday, my daughter's birthday & then Thanksgiving. 

This year, I'd like to have my home decorated on black Friday.  It's a new goal of mine! 

Hopefully, I can turn it into a tradition. 

So a couple weeks ago, I cut up some red and green strips.....

And turned it into this!!!

It's ready to be quilted! 

Can you tell, I'm excited about decorating my home this year?!?!

More photos to follow when I'm all done.

oxox,

Sunny

Chair Makeover!

I had a very busy morning. I finally got off my butt and gave my dining room chair a makeover!

I bought these chairs when I boughy my first condo in 1998!  (Yes, I'm that old!)  This not the original upholstry.  It was an awful plaid before I changed it to this.  Unfortuanately, I don't have a photo to show you because I didn't have a digital camera back then....LOL!  :)

My kids have managed to messed these up pretty bad... 

Plus, I've been wanting to change these for awhile now.

So, 30 minutes and several staples later... 

Voila!

Much better!  It makes me smile whenever I look at it! 

1 down 5 more to go!

Ill do a quick tutorial in a couple weeks! :)

oxox,

Sunny

Experimenting...

I don't know what my problem is....  I cannot make a plain quilt back!  I just don't have it in me.  I really love experimenting with new designs when I make quilt backs.  If it turns out good, "Yippee!"  If it doesn't then, "Oh well, it's the back..."

So here is it! 

This is going to be part of the back for a String Quilt I've benn working on.  This experiment was a success.  I'm definitely going to make another one like this!  :)

Here's the almost finished front. 

She's a beauty, isn't she?!?!

I didn't do this alone.  It was a collaborative effort from all the lovely ladies of Seam Perfect Bee! 

Here was my inspiration for this quilt. 

Yes, Original Starburst!  It's Taylor's (my daughter's) favorite candy...

I can't wait to finish it! 

oxox,

Sunny

Embroidery 101

On Saturday, I got the chance to take an Embroidery class at Lauren's shop, Sew Modern with these lovely ladies! 

Just in case you don't recognize them, they are Cath & Kirsten aka Prints Charming!
Yes!  All the way from Australia!  :)

Check out all the loveliness they brought to inspire us. 
(There is some serious needlework going on over here!)

I don't know how to embroider.  I've always wanted to learn so I was very excited to get started!  :)

Class started and we got our choice of either one of these.

I went with this one because I always use white, and I wanted to try something different. 
Look!  They even provided a little booklet (like CliffNotes!)
Super Cute, huh?

I learned a bunch of new stitches:  blanket, daisy chains, couching and how to hide knots too! 

This is what I came up with at the end of class. 

YEAH,  RIGHT!

Ok! Ok!  This is one of theirs...

Before we knew it, class was over and it was time to say good bye to this dynamic duo.

If you ever have the opportunity to take one of these classes, I highly recommend it!

Kirsten, me & Cath

Kirsten & Cath, I loved meeting you and taking your wonderful class. 

I promise to keep practicing and make you proud. 

Please come back again.

LA Loves you!

Oxox,

Sunny

PS.  Thanks so much, Lauren for arranging such a great class!  :)

The Pillow Talk { Swap } - Round 6

3 posts in one month!!!  What?!?!  I know...  I'm really trying to be better about not neglecting you, Miss Blog! 

Anyway, I decided to participate in The Pillow Talk { Swap } - Round 6.  I've been waiting to participate since I joined the group in January.  There are so many talented folks in this swap.  So getting a pillow from any of these peeps is a real treat. 

It was fun stalking my partner!  I decided to keep the keep my color palette limited to grey, greens, blues & yellows. 

I found some real beauties in my scrap bin!
So here's what I came up with....
 I added a small Kona Coal border and I used some Black Authentic to bind.



I was going to machine quilt this, but my Amish alter ego took over.....  I hand quilted it!  :)

Here's the back....

More Kona Coal with a zipper in the back!  This was my first time putting a zipper on a pillow!  I'm so glad I didn't screw it up...  :)

I added a little label.  I hope my partner doesn't mind...

So that's it!  All done!  I enjoyed making this for you Partner! 

I hope it's a welcome new addition to your home. 

I will be sending this over at the end of the week.



Enjoy!!  :)

oxox,

Sunny



Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild - 2nd Anniversary

I can't believe this guild had been around for 2 years now!  Latifah and Alissa just decided to gather a few quilters and start meeting up.  How cool is that!!!  There are now over 200 modern guilds all over the world.  That just blows my mind!

In celebrating the anniversary, we always have an annual swap.  Each participant has to bring in a bag of scraps and your partner can only use one print from their stash.  I participated last year and it was so fun that I decided to do it again this year.

I got Rhonda.  She eats lunch at her desk everyday so she asked for something that would show others that she's "at lunch". Her exact words were "something to show that I'm having lunch, so back off, YO! So, here's what I made for her.

A placemat, a mug rug and a hair pin for her daughter.

Here's the back of the placemat and mug rug.

Here's a closer look at the back of the placemat.  Rhonda really liked it!  :)

Here's what I got from Vanesa!  2 Circle of Geese Pillows! 

Thanks again, Vanesa!  They are a lovely addition to my home.

oxox,

Sunny