Week 8: A little wall decor

Wow! I've actually kept this up for two whole months now! Woo hoo!

This weeks project I've actually had in the works for quite a while! I got the main part done months ago, but it was lacking something. After some awesome advice from you all (thank you!!!) I went and got a little strip of brown to add an extra narrow border. It was JUST the right touch. I love it.

My camera skills are limited, at best, and the colors look really washed out in these pictures.

The plan is to hang it the long way (as pictured above) in the dining room to the right of the windows facing the driveway. For Ben's birthday last year I made a framed wall hanging of guitar bodies out of fabric that hangs on the other side. I think they'll complement each other nicely. Now to decide HOW to hang it! Plus I still actually have to finish staining that window, and put up the rest of the trim. Oy!

The pattern used was "Disappearing Nine Patch" and it went together really quick since I started with a charm pack of Fandango by Kate Spain. I love, love, love precuts. You get a great variety of coordinating fabrics, all cut and ready to go. Plus, Kate Spain is my favorite. For real.

I really love the backing fabric. Too bad it will be up against the wall! The size of this would actually be perfect for a Toddler bed, so maybe someday it will actually get seen. It just seemed wrong to put a boring back on it.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to get it up on the wall.

Happy, happy!

I have a few more projects still in the works. I'd really like to get some "baby sewing" done soon, too. I know this little sweetie doesn't need much, but I'd really still like to get some things together that are just for this little one.

My other adventure for this week has been my new business adventure! A few weeks ago I held a Thirty-One gifts home party for Ben's cousin Angie, and I just fell in love with their products. I'm totally hooked and all my consultant related goodies arrived yesterday. More on that to come. :)

And just a reminder of my goal. I'm hoping to reach 25 followers by week 10. I went from 6 followers to 12 just last week (thanks so much!!!) so keep it up! There will be a giveaway of something I've made when we get to 25. C'mon!

Week 7: Birthday parties galore!

This weekend we had the good fortune to celebrate the birthdays of two sweet little ladies. Quinn's friend "J" just turned 6, and Nolan's little lady friend "R" is now 3. Both of their parties took place this weekend, so I got to whip up some birthday presents.

Now for Nolan's friend, I immediately knew what I wanted to make. Her family has chickens and both my boys loved feeding them when they were invited over for a playdate last summer. Hence, the chicken pillow.

I found the pattern here.

I made the "comb" differently so it would flop around, which I thought was fun.

Overall, it's 18" square. I loved the red and white polka dots.

It has an envelope style back, so the cover will slip off easily if it needs to be washed.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

For Quinn's friend, the week got away from me and I ended up waiting until the last minute (hate that!)

I had made these pinwheel blocks about a year ago and forgot about them. I decided to put make her a little quilt that she could use for her dolls, or whatever she wanted.

Ugh, can't figure out how to rotate this. Can you see the flaw? My pinwheels aren't all going in the right direction! Ahhh!

I didn't have enough blocks to make a square so I added a ninth block with her initial.

It has a layer of batting and a fleece back.

Not how I usually do it, but it worked.

I have gotten quite a bit done on this long weekend. My wall hanging has been basted and quilted, and I'm about a third of the way through the hand binding.

I've got a wedding present finished and ready to get out. Hopefully I can post on that soon.

Tomorrow I should be able to stop at the fabric store and search for the perfect back for the purple & white quilt.

I also need to get more batting since I'm nearly out and will definitely need more soon.

Tomorrow will be busy. We're hoping to get in a hospital tour, visit to the fabric store, meet up with Ben's cousin, and I have an appointment with my midwife. Quinn's coming along and is looking forward to hearing the baby's heartbeat. I can't wait to see his sweet face when he hears it for the first time.

Week 6: 100th Day of School!

Project of the Week: Week 6!

Quinn has been getting very interested in my sewing. He comments on fabric, tells me how beautiful things are, and asks a ton of questions. When I asked him what he wanted to collect 100 of for the 100th day of school, he just said "money". Since this was NOT exciting to me, I kind of dropped it and told my mom how not amused I was at the thought of 100 pennies. In her infinite wisdom, she realized what I hadn't. He just didn't have any other ideas. When we started brainstorming, he was suddenly interested in doing all kinds of things. But, to my delight, he stopped me when I mentioned 100 pieces of fabric.

"Oh yeah, I want to do that. Let's do fabric." Love that sweet boy.

About 10 years ago, my mom and I were at a quilt show in Cape Cod and I bought a set of 9 fabric squares, all bug themed. I set them aside, and pretty much forgot about them! Quinn liked the bugs idea so I used the rotary cutter to cut each block into 9 smaller blocks, 1.75" square. We found some other fabrics to throw in too, and quickly had 100 pieces of fabric compiled.

Then I took a 22" x 22" square of solid white and used a quilting marker (disappears when you spray water on it!) to draw a grid of 2"x2" squares for Quinn to place his fabric into.

I pinned the back and batting to the top before we started so it'd be all ready to "quilt" when he was done placing his squares.

He was very methodical. He started in one corner and worked his way around the outside edges, making sure he didn't put two of the same fabrics next to each other.

He was pretty adorable. I know, I'm biased.

It was just the right size to tape down to his play table.

At this point, I put one straight pin through the center of each block so I wouldn't disturb his pattern when I moved it.

For "quilting", I just sewed on top of the squares of fabric, long straight lines that caught each side of each square until each block had been sewn down. It was pretty quick, but there sure were a lot of lines!

 I had some green glittery fabric left over from a banner I was asked to make at church many years ago, and I used that to make some quick binding.

He was so sweet when he woke up and saw it with the binding finished. "Oh mom, it's perfect!" I'm keeping him. Forever.

My beautiful boy with his 100 Days of School project. Thanks for letting me make it with you, Quinn!

I've also been working on little girl birthday presents for upcoming parties. So far I've got one down, one to go. I am most of the way finished with a wedding gift, and have a bunch of machine quilting that needs to be done. I'll get there eventually. The baby does NOT like when I lean over the table or the ironing board, and with all the ironing, cutting, pinning I have to do, baby has not been amused. I may have to figure out a way to either make the table taller or postpone some of my projects until after baby is here.

This week is a short one, as we have Friday off from school. I'm looking forward to a four day weekend with my boys, and hoping that it can be a productive one around the house. Especially since Friday marked the 31 week mark for this pregnancy. We're getting closer every day!

Project of the Week! Week 5!!!

Every year during Super Bowl weekend, my local (and favorite) fabric shop has a big, huge sale. Last year at this time, I headed over to Material Rewards and bought a slew of beautiful threads. Yesterday, I finished up my last project using these very fabrics. That did, of course, mean that I had to head back over for the Super Bowl sale THIS weekend and get my hands on some new beauties. 16 yards of beautiful fabric to be more precise. I have lots of things in mind and can't wait to get cutting into my pile.

This week, I finished up another baby quilt. This is for a yet-to-be-born baby, so I won't give any specifics. It's very, very simple. I just used width-of-fabric strips in some coordinating colors and did very simple straight line quilting on either side of each seam.

I feel like it's really gender neutral, even with the little flowers on the binding.

The back is a white and blue check pattern in flannel.



I especially wanted to use a combination of blues and oranges together. It's really plain, but I do like how it turned out.

Final dimensions: 41"x47"

Both of the boys are really interested in my sewing, both the cutting process and the actual sewing machine. Quinn wanted to help me cut out my next project... umm, no.

 He's using paper scissors and some scrap fabric.

He was one happy camper. I really can't wait until I can teach him how to sew. 

My work-in-progress list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter.

1. Quilt/bind/hang the wall hanging for the dining room.

2. Quilt/bind the "Buttercup" baby quilt.

3. Quilt/bind the "Brown" baby quilt.

4. Finish the top for the purple/white quilt.

I have all 72 blocks done... now to put them together. I'm pretty excited about this one.

Plus I have about 4 non-quilting little projects I'd like to tackle. We'll see. This week should be pretty busy so it probably won't be as productive as some. I'd rather spend time enjoying the kiddoes and Ben anyway. :)

Off to fold some laundry! Hope everyone is enjoying the Superbowl. I sent Ben off to watch it with his sister. She's much nicer than I am anyway, AND she made chicken wing dip. It was a no-brainer. :)

2012 - Project of the week - Week 2!!!

So two weeks of 2012 down, and two projects conquered! It feels fabulous to be using up some of my stash, and I'm honestly realizing I didn't have as much fabric as I thought I did. Still... I have plenty, I know, but it's not going to be as hard as I thought it would be to work through some of my faves.

I am, of course, already eyeing what fabric I might just have to buy next. The Moda Bliss line by Bonnie & Camille is seriously speaking to me. Seriously. But I must refrain... for now.

This weeks project was the second little girl baby quilt for baby dedication at church in June. I used most of the same fabrics (with one addition) and the same sized simple squares. Instead of a "Trip Around the World", I turned the blocks on point and tried to place the blocks in a random pattern. I guessed at the number of blocks I would need (I know, smart) and had ONE (seriously, only one) block left over when I was done. Two narrow simple borders were added, and I just did straight line, stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. I really like how it turned out. It's not "girly", but I think definitely appropriate for a girl.

 The finished product. I think it's somewhere between 42" and 44" square. It ended up being JUST too wide to use a width of fabric for the back, grrr. But it needed the little border to set it off. The half-square triangles all around the outside edge are from the two darkest fabrics, and I think they frame it nicely.

 I finally used up the very last of my pink sanddollar fabric from my Verna quilt. Sadface. I love that fabric!

 Since I'm trying to use up fabrics, I didn't have a lot of options for the binding. I had to use whatever I had enough of! I like the brown polkadots, though, and they won't look dirty if it's well loved!

 Here you can see the other flaw in my plan to use up fabric. Being just wider than a width of fabric, I had to piece the back a little, but I only have a tiny bit of the green paisley left, soooo.... the back is pieced a little. I kind of like a pieced back (clearly, if you've ever seen my Verna quilt. Hmmm, have I ever posted that?).

The opposite corner, you know, how it's supposed to look! You can see the quilting here too. Really simple straight lines, and I outlined the borders to finish it off. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and even more pleased that I'm both using things up, and keeping up with my goals.

Martin Luther King, Jr. day is tomorrow, so no school for me or Quinn. Ben's taken the day off, and the boys are planning to do a little sledding now that we finally have some snow. Ashly's coming over to take some maternity photos, yay! Looks like it should be a lovely day.

2012 - Project of the week. Week 1!!!

I did it! I finished my first project of 2012 and it feels great!

Here's the back story, and then you can have a peek for yourself.

Every year our church does a baby dedication. When we first had Quinn, the baby dedication was always done in May on Mother's Day. Well since he was just born 5 days earlier, we decided to wait and have him dedicated the next year. A year later, Mother's Day happens to be when my brother is graduating from college and both my parents and grandma will be out of town. Soooo, we go to our pastor and ask him if it would be possible to move it to Father's Day. Since the father is supposed to be the leader of the family and God is our Father, it seemed like a logical move. Long story short, he agreed and we've had it on Father's Day ever since.

Our church's baby dedication is really more of way for the parents and other members of the church to affirm their commitment to the child - to take seriously the responsibility to teaching, loving, and guiding that child in the way that God has commanded. It's really a special, meaningful time.

And another way that it's made special is with the gift of a handmade quilt for every child dedicated. A few weeks ago I asked the woman in charge of the quilts if she could use any for this years dedication. She said she had a few quilts ready that were really more boy themed, but none for girls. Well we've had 1 boy and 2 girls born to women in our church since October so we definitely need some quilts for little ladies on hand! One of those little ladies is my own niece Lavera, so maybe she'll end up getting something made by me!

I used only fabric that I already had on hand, and in this case I already had the squares cut from back when I made my zig zag quilt. It's a very simple "Around the World" pattern, with two narrow borders. The quilting is super simple - just straight lines on a diagonal through each of the blocks. I really love how it came out. I think it's about 42" x 42", but didn't actually measure it.

Stay tuned for next weeks project! Not sure what it will be yet, but I'm really excited to make something new!

The best of intentions...

When I purchased these fabrics this Spring and decided what I was going to do with them, I fully planned to give this quilt as a gift. I used 5 fabrics that I bought to coordinate, and another three that I had leftover from other projects and I LOVE how it turned out.

As a side note, I fell off the chair, onto the table, and nearly flipped the table while I was taking this picture. Apparently my center of balance is more "off" than I'd realized. Oops!

Okay, back to the quilt.

So I want to be a generous soul. I really do. And I know this quilt would be appreciated. But...

I. Just. Love. It.

Sooooo much.

The mere possibility that this little life growing inside me MIGHT be a girl is causing me to hoard this quilt like fabric is suddenly going to be rationed and I won't be able to get any. It's silly. I know. But maybe someday I'll have a beautiful photo of a sweet little girl of my own on it. Maybe.

Of course, I should probably get started on something for a sweet baby boy. Just in case.

Tutorial used for this quilt: http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/2008/09/zig-zag-quilt-kit-tutorial.html

Kennedy's quilt

Ben's cousin had a baby (over a year ago... shhhh) and I FINALLY got around to finishing her quilt. I used this tutorial at Moda Bake Shop.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/07/his-hers-personalized-baby-quilts.html

I hope she likes it!