Friendship quilt

I have to confess…I don’t have a new finish to share this month.  I instead spent this month getting ready for Christmas.  But, I did want to share a previous quilt that I finished.

I was lucky enough to find my personality doppelganger.  Unfortunately, her husband’s job took their family to Illinois.  It was also the year that she turned 40.  I love the colors that I chose for this quilt.  I really enjoy making quilts for other people.  (Although, my husband would look around our house and beg to differ.)  I love spending that time thinking about how much they will enjoy the quilt.

I pieced the back and added a signature block.  I will fully admit that I did machine stitch the block on the back.  I cheated.  I know.  I was getting pressed for time and quite frankly didn’t want to piece it into the back.  The block is the friendship star which I felt was very much appropriate for this quilt.

 

 The other fun part that I added was in the binding.  The little piece is from Flea Market Fancy.  It is my favorite fabric from that line.  I wanted to add a little bit of me in the quilt that I made for her. 

simply color pillow

My biggest project for 2014 will also be my biggest project to date! The largest quilt I've made is for my son's twin bed, but I'm going to tackle a quilt for our king size bed. I'm going to do a simple lattice with jelly roll strips, but more on that later!

I had 8 strips leftover from my jelly roll, and they were all ombre solid colors, so I decided to make a couple decorative pillows for our bed. It's very simple - just squares and stipple quilting. I made button-hole closures on the back (not pictured).

Now I just need to work up some motivation for a king-size quilt. Wish me luck!

Flea Market Fancy ticker tape mini quilt

I was so excited to have finished my Flea Market Fancy quilt that I thought I would make another quilt that has been on my list for some time…a ticker tape quilt.  I figured I would toe touch it and make a mini quilt first.  What a fun quilt to make.  I will absolutely be making a lap size ticker tape quilt in the future.

I used scraps and I even have started to save the selvedge of fabrics.  I was excited to use a scrap of selvedge that had the line listed, it is my favorite part of this quilt.

Here is my small collection of minis so far.  I am getting more and more excited about getting my sewing room finished.  I have such a hard time not being able to immediately put them on the wall.

master bedroom curtains

It seems this is the year to make curtains - for the living room, my bathroom, the baby's room....even a shower curtain.  I didn't want my bedroom to feel left out so I made these.  Simple and easy.  I used grommets because they are easy to attach and hang.

 

Here is a better view of the print.

Flea Market Fancy

I finally finished my Flea Market Fancy quilt.  I fell in love with this fabric line a couple years after it was made.  Since I was unable to purchase any at my local quilt store I hit Etsy and Ebay.  I gladly scooped up other quilter’s scraps.  Once I had some from each of the beautiful color ways I went to work on designing a pattern.  Sounds easy and the finished quilt top looks easy enough.  But, it was more brain work than it looks.  I was working with scraps and I had to make sure I picked a size that would maximize each piece and leave little to waste. 

This top took me several weeks to piece.  Then, sadly, it sat and sat while I struggled to choose the perfect backing.  Finally, I decided no other design would compliment this line.  I went with solids.  I chose an aqua for the back and a grass green/gray for the binding.  I also had two lonely squares left from piecing the top, so I added them to the back.

The gray piece was actually an “accidental, on purpose” that I add quite frequently.  I measured out how much of the binding I would need and pieced it.  When I was stitching it on the back side I noticed I was short several inches.  I grabbed some gray binding that I already had and voila.  Now, as soon as I finished with the binding and was standing up to admire my most beautiful quilt.  I noticed a lone piece of green binding that had fallen under my chair.  I like the interest that the gray adds so in the end it worked out great.

For the quilting I did an all over stipple.  That is my favorite way to finish a piece and as this was my favorite line I was sold. 

I am so excited at the progress I am making in filling our basement quilt cupboard.

Funny side note, Denyse Schmidt did a re-release of the Flea Market Fancy.  I did save my pennies and purchased 2 yards of each color way.  I have yet to cut into them.  I am hoping once my sewing room is all finished and I have them out I will be inspired to use them and not just hoard them.

stuffed elephant

After I made this contoured changing pad cover (see post from June 2013), I had the idea to make a stuffed animal with the leftover fabric. 

 

I traced out a pattern for an elephant, and sewed the right sides together (attaching the ears first, of course) until I reached the lower half.  I then sewed on the belly and inside of the legs in a different fabric. 

I also made a stuffed hippo with the leftover fabric from the blue changing pad cover, but it's not quite finished yet.  Plus, I like the elephant better! 

 

Another mini and a mug rug

I made another mini quilt for my sewing room walls.  I wanted to make a mini that had the feel of my husband and my initials carved in a tree.  I was planning on just getting a solid brown.  Well, a friend of mine was in the process of moving and gave me a giant basket of her craft room goodies.  Included was this almost 2 yards piece of wood grain fabric.

The quilting is freehand wood grain.  I used the fabric as my guide.  I was very pleased with how it came out!  The sewing machine was a gift from a different friend a couple days later.  I am always so touched at how thoughtful my friends are.

The mug rug I made a couple days later as a birthday present.  I love how it turned out in a smaller size as well.

ruffled curtains

I wanted to use a lightweight fabric for the curtains in my bathroom and I found the perfect tutorial for ruffled curtains made from muslin.  I went with white to contrast the wall color.  I'm going to add LED Flameless Candles to the candlesticks, so I don't accidently catch the ruffles on fire.  Safety First! 

We have privacy glass windows so these are only for decoration.  But if we ever move, it's nice to know they would provide some privacy, if needed.  While they were fairly simple to make, it was definitely time consuming to make the ruffles!  So I'm glad I only did 4 per panel.  I find I have hours and hours of free time in the future, it would be nice to have an ombre ruffled curtain.  Or maybe I'll just save my pennies and buy this one. 

Goldfish-a-swimin'

This quilt was made for a friend’s 40^th birthday!  I had such a great time piecing this quilt.  He picked out all the fabrics (actually bought them as well).  I love the color scheme of this quilt. 

He planned to use this quilt in his basement so it is backed with flannel.  Flannel is a bit tricky for backing as it does seem to have a bit more stretch.  Because of that I pieced the back more than needed to give me anchors. 

The entire top is free stitched.  I ditched and stippled the center of each square freehand.  Then, I outlined each square and stippled the white/goldfish fabric.  I freehand ditched the border and stippled it, with matching thread.  Then, I went back to each square and with my handy dandy chalk pen I marked two lines for straight stitching, that I also did freehand.

Did I mention that I love to quilt freehand?!  I find that it is so much more enjoyable as it gives me complete control of everything including stitch length.

counting turtles (instead of sheep)

 

Finishing the quilt for my son's bed was a big accomplishment because his feet have been sticking out the bottom of his blanket for some time now.  He now has a twin-size bedspread complete with matching sheets.  As I stated in an earlier post, I used a flat sheet for the back of the quilt, as well as some piecing on the front to coordinate.  When my younger son gets old enough to move from his crib, they will be sharing a room.  So I recently bought fabric to make him the same size and pattern quilt for that transition. 

 

This is a close-up picture to show the fabric and details of the quilting. 

 

I had to post this picture to show how little thread was left - I barely finished!

Stippling on a quilt

I wanted to show how I stipple.  Drop your feed dogs and put you stitch length to zero.  I actually didn’t realize until after I had my husband do the video that I was stippling white thread on white fabric and it is really hard to see.  Towards the end of the movie you can see the stipple work in the shadowy part of the white square.

 

I absolutely love the look stippling adds to a washed quilt.  When I first learned how to quilt I knew I wanted to master stippling.  I was told to think puzzle pieces when I am quilting.  I actually find it more helpful to think of coral.  I also find that when I shut my mind off and just go, it turns out much nicer.  The goal with stippling is to have all curved lines that don’t cross each other.  Should you cross you lines, congratulations, you have mastered meandering.  Meandering is also a free stitch, meaning you control the direction, which allows for lines to cross themselves.

There are several books and methods on learning to stipple.  I am a jump right in kinda gal.  But, one of my sewing friends has used tissue paper with her stippling design drawn on and then pinned to the quilt and she follows her lines.  A word of caution, should the thread be white don’t use a pencil.  The pencil will stain your thread.  Another friend uses a chalk pen and draws right on the quilt top and follows that.  You can also purchased pre-printed papers with a stippling design on it.  Which ever method works best for you is fine. 

christmas in july

 

Christmas is a favorite holiday in our house and my husband starts counting down December 26^th!  But we don’t officially start counting down until the 1^st.  In addition to candies, coins, stickers, etc., I include an activity in each pocket.  The activities vary from making paper snowflakes to driving around to look at Christmas lights. You can find the tutorial here. 

  

Family wall hanging

I wanted to make a fun wall hanging for the entry way.  I immediately loved this pattern when I found it.  I let each of the girls pick their dress and I surprised my husband with the Ohio State nod. 

 It was very fun to make this appliqué piece.  I did simple stippling for the background of each main block and then an ‘x’ in each of the small blocks.

 A funny side note ~ the star hanger is not set to hang level.  That absolutely drives my type A nuts!  My awesome husband gave me a ball magnet that is hidden from view, but adds just enough weight to make it hang straight.

changing pad cover and crib sheet

Because I’m posting this while out of town, I’m going to keep it short and sweet.  These are the changing pad cover and crib sheets I made for my youngest.  Most of the things I've made for his room are gray, because you can't find that color (yet) in baby things.

The tutorials are here and here.