Village Christian School Fundraising Gala

Village Christian Schools is my second home. I have spent more time there than I have anywhere else. Makes sense considering I attended that school from the time I was 5 years old. I have seen that school through the ups and the downs, and the same is true in reverse. This school has blessed me in so many ways. It is a warm, welcoming, safe, and friendly environment. It is a place I feel comfortable around. I know every nook and cranny of that school, and I love every inch of it.

That is why I was honored when I was approached to donate a few things to this year's fundraising gala.

First item on the list: a unisex VCS baby blanket. It will be included with other items in a gift basket.

Red and Black ~ the new school colors!

And the second item Miss Montana's will be donating to the auction is... drum roll please....

A personalized T-Shirt Quilt! Click here to see my portfolio of quilt possibilities. 

Thank you to all the wonderful teachers I had during my thirteen years at VCS. I am who I am because of their love and encouragment.

Wendy's Quilt

I made this quilt for Wendy back in December but it's taken me this long to put picture up (shame on me). To be honest I forgot to take pictures in the first place so these are photos Wendy snapped herself. 

Interested in having your own quilt made for you? Click here.

Valentine's Day

This weekend is another perfect example of how Nursing School has totally and completely taken over my life. Because i have a huge exam the day before the holiday of love, Mr. Montana was banned by me from coming down the weekend before to celebrate. So instead,  I drove home on Friday for some early celbrating.

He took me on the most amazing date! [Major shame on me for not snapping any pictures]. We went out to dinner at a Korean BBQ in downtown LA. I will admit, i was a bit skeptical at first. It turned out to be amazing. Plate after plate of different cuts of meat was served to us, and we sat across from eachother and cooked the meat on the mini grill that was installed in the table between us. Such a fun, hands on, eating experience.

Just before the meal came, he surprised me with two sets of pearl earrings. They are beautiful!

He came over on Saturday and helped me craft! SInce we were celebrating Valentines day, I decided to make a burlap heart bunting that i saw on pinterest. It turned out just like the picture! For a full tutorial, visit this blog: In His Grip.

I think it is pretty darn cute!

The photo in the pink frame is one of me and Mr. Montana on one of our first Valentine's days together.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. I Corinthians 13

 Happy Valentine's Day!

Checking In!

Hello world! Yes, i still exist!

I have just been burried in books that are thicker than the Gutenberg Bible. [not an exaggeration!]

Hopefully i will find time to catch up soon! But in the meantime i will leave you with this gem: the littles holding their Christmas present from Miss Montana

The littles holding their Christmas Presents from Miss Montana

Handmade Christmas

With a lovely three-week break from school, and a LONG list of people I wanted to give a Christmas present to, I decided that this year i would handmake a gift for everyone so I could save money, because after all, I am a starving college student!

I wish someone would have warned me.

Handmaking things can be extremely EXPENSIVE! Money expensive and time expensive! I quickly realized this which meant that not ALL my gifts were handmade. But of the gifts I made, there were some good ones and some fiascos. The Fiasco was the gift intended for Mr. Montana's mom. Oh boy. I envisioned buying a huge frame, printing a million pictures of her and her five kiddos, and making some adorable pinterst-inspired creation for her to hang on her wall. And at first I had success. I found a massive frame at the Goodwill store in SD for $4.60. Thats right. A moster frame (as in almost 3 feet wide) for under five bucks. But it was this hideodorous (I'm not sure if that word is used by the general public, in fact i may or may not have created it, but it is pronounced Hitty-odor-us) blue color. Yikes. Not a problem, I thought, I'll just paint it! And so its demise began....

You know when you see something lying around your room for weeks, months even, and the one day you go to use it you can't find it anywhere? That is what happened for my pinterest-inspiration. I swear evertime I am on that site I find some adorable idea for decorating frames and arranging pictures. But of course, when i went looking for inspiration as to what color I should paint the frame, I could not find anything. Anywhere. Ugh.

Then I tried to remove the glass, but instead of having nice little swing clasps that you move out of the way to change the picture, there was a piece of cardboard stapled to the frame holding the glass in. And people, I'm not talking little secretary staples. I am talking huge, thick, industrial staple-gun staples that required tools from my dads work bench to remove. In the process i broke the glass. Awesome. Five bucks down the drain. So I ditched the handmade idea and got her a gift card for a pedicure.

But besides that fiasco and the other store bought items I was forced to surrender to, there were a few gems. The first being the lace skirt i made for my sister.

Isn't she darling?

It was a hit. My older sister was a little miffed that she didn't get one! I decided to make them available to the public. I have it listed on my etsy shop. I will make it  to fit your waist perfectly!

The second semi-success was the headbands I made for Mr. Montana's sister. I say semi because I already had one of them made.

I have had these in my shop for a few months now, but they are now officially on sale! $4.96 a piece! I can make it for you in any color you'd like! 

I think I have had my share of crafting over break. I'm looking forward to spending time with Mr. Montana and my famdamily before heading back off to SD. 

How was your Christmas? Handmade successes? Failures? I'd love to hear about them!

And if you are looking for some DIY inspiration, check out Sweet-Verbena. I found her just last night and literally read every. single. post. She's amazing.

Such Is Life.

I have a serious case of crafting. You know, the oh my gosh that looks so easy i want to try it sickness. It keeps me from studying. It makes me spend money. And it makes me feel really giddy inside. As you can see, this is win-lose situation. My creativity wins, and my homework and grades lose. 

I find myself repeating... i'll do this!... i'll do this!...i'll make this! And the sad fact of the matter is that i probably won't have time to finish my list of items until summer. I think we just found the secret folks. Don't tell anyone... shhhhhhhh.... i wish it was still summer.

This is why i miss them!

Now all you autumn lovers out there are rolling your eyes at me. Its okay. Go right ahead. But let me cue you in on something first. While yes, fall is a great time full of baking and costumes and leaves, for me it is full of books, highlighters, notecards, and midterms. YUCK. Hence, when i  think of summer, hot days sewing, seeing my duddy, hanging out with my sisters... i get a knot in my stomach. The kind of knot that says... is it here yet?

What about now?

And unfortunately I am still quite a few months away. MONTHS. sheesh. All I can do is discipline myself to stay focused on my grades, so that when summer does come, I will have three whole months of solid crafting. 

quilts. blankets. skirts. books. dresses. pillows. Coming to Miss Montana's Summer 2012!

Flower Headbands

 Meet my friend Hannah. She's brilliant. She's beautiful. And she was kind enough to take a break from studying to model for me.

These headbands are 100% cotton, machine washable and dryable. $8 each. These are the perfect gift for a college budget. [Anyone have a roommate's birthday coming up?] 

Make a bad hair day bearable. 

Choose a color to match any outfit

Pink and Teal 

Position the Flower wherever you like and tie the ends behind your head. 

Red and Pink on Stripes

 To purchase, visit my etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/82985906/color-flower-headband

Oh the Frustration of Sewing.

You see, some people love sewing for the relaxation that it brings, while some hate it becasue it can be so tedious. Some love the quiet humming of a sewing machine, while others find themselves with the most extreme migraine after listening to it for just a few minutes.

I fall somewhere in between those lines. I guess it is what some people call a love-hate relationship. On the last quilt i made, i was definitely feeling HATE.

What? I hate sewing? Well let me explain. I was finishing up the front of TW's quilt. As in it was 9:00pm and all i had to do was put the back on and i was done. NOT so fast. You see as i was laying down the front of the quilt on my living room floor so i could upload a picture on to facebook, something about it just wasn't right. It took me a few minutes to realize that i had sewn the ENTIRE front of his quilt with FLOWER fabric that was intended for a girl friend of mine's quilt. It was a nightmare.

I sat down on my couch and began seam ripping. Each little stitch had to come out. Three hours later i was back to square one.  By now its midnight, and i am just beginning a quilt i thought i would have finished a couple hours before.

I am finally almost done with the front (around you know, 3:30am) and what happens? The needle on my machine breaks in half. Despite the inconvenience, i don't stress out right away because i know i have several other back ups. I go rummaging in my supplies kit and find the package of spare machine needles. It is EMPTY. *sigh* At this point i am beyond frustrated.

Luckily, my mother has this disease called compulsive sewing machine buying. I swear we have at least ten in our house. Each one of my sisters has one and I own two. So I get down one of my mother's machines, thread the machine with my last spool of black thread, and get ready to work. I open the bobbin case and there is no bobbin in that machine. Now because this happens to be one of my mom's, I have NO IDEA where she keeps her notions. Plan B has offically failed.

The three machines i used on Friday night. The two on the floor are mine. Both Singers. 

There is only one thing left to do. 'Old Faithful' is what i call her. She is nine million pounds and I keep her on the very top shelf in my closet. Because she is nine hundred years old and so heavy, I usually do not use her unless its an emergency. However at 4:00am, an unfinished project IS an emergency.

After coming close to breaking my back lifting this thing off the top shelf while standing on the bottom shelf of my closet ( a very dangerous maneuver might I add), I set up the old girl and get to sewing. She works like a charm.

My girl 'Old Faithful'

Old Faithful was a gift to me from my aunt when i was in 3rd Grade. My very first sewing machine. Oh the torture i put her through. The endless stitching on paper (to practice straight lines of course!), pressing the pedal down so hard that the needle was going so fast I could practically see smoke coming out of her.    But despite her age, she is still my favorite machine. I have decided to tote her with me to college this year even though I will need a football team to carry her into my dorm room.

Needless to say it was around 6:00am when i finished TW's quilt. A LONG night indeed. But TW loved his blanket so it was well worth the all-nighter of frustration!

Oh Trenton.

TW has been a friend of mine for quite some time now. We have been dirtbike riding together since i was in fourth grade. He is another over achiever type person like Linny and Jessie. Below are some pictures of his quilt. What is special about his are the added patches. It was the first time i did them on a blanket so it was a bit of a learning experience, but patches are now available for a $4 additional charge.

Before the patches

After the patches

Focus patch

'On a Scale' patch

The gold helmet is added on as well. He had me put the logo from each year of high school football

And on the back... his last name.

Overall i think this is one of the best i have done so far. If you are interested in getting your own quilt, view this post. Have a great day!

So you want a T-Shirt Quilt

Whether you are just interested in getting more information or you are dead set on having one, here is a little information to understand the process of getting your very own T-shirt quilt.

Step 1: Let me know that you want one! Contact me via facebook, email me (missmontanas@yahoo.com), or any other method that suits you.

Step 2: Decide how many squares you want on your quilt. Click here to scroll through old blog posts to see different quilts that i have made. Then start picking out your shirts! Sweatshirts, and jerseys work too! (Pretty much anything that can be cut into a 14x14 inch square can be used).

Step 3: We will set up a time to go to JoAnns to pick out the fabric you want for your blanket. At this time you will also give me your shirts along with a design layout of the order you want your t-shirts. If you are ordering from out of the area, I will have you ship your shirts to me, and I will help you pick out fabric you like online.

Step 4: I will make your quilt! When I am done you can come pick it up and make your payment. Depending on the time of year and number of current orders, the speed at which i will finish will vary. If you are ordering for out of the area, I will ship it to you and you can pay for your quilt via my etsy page (secured through PAYPAL). Shipping and Handling charges will be added to your total.

Step 6: ENJOY!

Pricing: $9 per t-shirt square.

if you would like additional 'patches' sewn on, they are $4 each. View this post to see what i mean!