In the Zone

I've been in the zone here.  Do you know the feeling?  Lots getting done, sewing-wise.  It makes me feel so happy to have that be the case.  So here is what happened in the zone the last few days...

 I put new covers on both my round pillows.  I used a combination of Bliss and Vintage Modern.

 This is the back of the two pillows.  I wanted them to go together, yet be different.

 I finished my Swoon quilt top.  All I need now is to figure out how to quilt it and to make the back.

 I pulled out my blue scrap bin to put something away, and decided to make my slab blocks for July in the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.

I knew I had a lot of blue scraps, the bin will hardly close, but wow!  Seeing some of these really takes me back a ways.  I still love them all as much as when I bought them for projects.  That's the way I used to buy fabric, just for specific projects.

And then I decided to make my blue ticker tape for the series I am doing.  You can see the others here.  I ended up making this one long and thin, because that's the size piece of white I had on hand.  I didn't want to wait to buy more, which I can't afford to right now.  Then I though, eh, why not, it is a scrap project after all.  Now I am thinking I will let the number of ticker tape pieces determine the size and shape.  Some of the colors are slim on scraps.  I think it will add interest to the group.

Hope you have a great Saturday.

Pillow Re-covery

I had a couple of round pillows in my living room.  I bought them to add interest to the room, instead of having all square pillows.  I also had a crochet book which had a cool pattern for round pillow covers.  I made them and I loved them...at first.  Then, the feathers began poking through and I loved them a little less.  Then, the yarn started stretching and I loved them a little less still.  So I finally decided to cover them in fabric.

Here is what I did:

 This is the pillow before.  You can see how stretched out of shape it is.  If you look closely, you can even see some of the feathers sticking out of it.

 Here is the pillow, after I stripped it of its yarn covering.  I then fluffed it back into shape.

 Next, I decided to use my brand new, handy dandy EZ Dresden ruler that I won from Amy Smart at Diary of a Quilter.  I have been saving some fat quarters of Bliss and I also have a layer cake of Vintage Modern, both by Bonnie and Camille.  "What are you waiting for?" it practically screamed at me.  It was right.  If I cut into it and made it into something like this, I could look at it every day.

 After I sewed the pieces together, I tried it out for size.  I then found a charm square in red pin dots to make the center circle.  Perfect.

 I decided to quilt it to give it a heavier barrier against those poking feathers.  For the backing I used an old white sheet.  I made the back the same way, put in an 18" zipper and sewed the two sides together.

  Voila! All done and a fine round pillow it is, too.  I did the back just a bit different for fun. 

Now I have one more to do, and I can't decide if I should do it the same with the Dresden, or maybe something different.  What do you think?
Have a great evening.

A Big Finish

I thought the title appropriate, given this is a queen size quilt we are talking about.  This is the quilt that began las October when my sister was here for my daughter's wedding.  We went to the local quilt shop and she picked out fabric.  Then, the search for the perfect pattern.  She found this:

 In this magazine a quilt designed by Amanda Murphy.  My sister loved it.  I thought it was almost perfect.  I got a copy of the issue from Fat Quarter Shop.  I then proceeded to change it a bit.

I didn't want to do all the tiny square in the center, so I omitted them and just did 4 bigger squares.  It was still a lot of pieces to put together.  I finally got the piecing done and sent it off to a local quilter.  I told her what I wanted and gave her some free reign also.  This is what she came up with:

on my picnic table

sew pretty

can you see the quilting?

my label

all folded

here's a bit of the quilting

The other thing my sister asked for was pillow cases.  So here they are...

folded and ready to go

have you ever wondered what 400 inches of binding looks like?  It looks like this:

ironed

and rolled up, ready to go

being attached

Sorry for so many pictures, but my sister is anxious to see this.  It will go in the mail tomorrow.
Statistics:
Pattern: Box of Chocolates by Amanda Murphy
Fabrics: assorted (sorry I didn't keep track)
Backing: Moda grey Marbles
Quilting pattern: A Rose is a Rose-Simple Pantograph
Pieced by: Charlotte Maxwell
Quilted by Suzan deSerres-Singing Stitches Quilting Studio

Hope you love it sis!
Have a great Sunday

My new bag and a Winner!

I have been wanting to make myself a new bag for quite some time.  I was waiting to find the right pattern.  I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew that I would know it if I saw it.  You know what I mean, right?  Well I was perusing my blogs one evening and I found it!

"It" is the Chelsea bag by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co.  Look at this and you will see what I mean.

 The front of the bag has a big, deep pocket that is made of a large piece of fabric that you make into a honeycomb type of design.  I know it sounds complicated, but it's not.  The directions are clear and, best of all, there are lots of illustrations.

 And in the main body of the bag, look at all this room!  This little bit of stuff filled my old bag!  And there are 3 good sized pockets inside too!

 The back of my bag shows off this Denyse Schmidt print that I love, and was wondering what to do with.  The green dot pocket fabric is from Connecting Threads and the lining is Aboriginal Dots by Kaffe Fasset.  The pocket I found in my stash.  I bought it eons ago.  Turns out the selvedge was still intact and it was Pieces From My Heart by Sandy Gervais.  When I bought that, I had no idea who she was.  Cool, huh?

One more shot from the front.  Thanks Vanessa, for such a great bag pattern.  I have a feeling I will be making more of these.

And now, since you've read all this way...the winner of my selvedge giveaway is number 3, Angie.  I will be sending her an email.  Thanks to those who entered.  It was only 4 people, but I know not everyone wants selvedges.  Now I will start saving them up again for the future.
Have a great evening.

Water bottle cozy

My sister found these water bottles at Target.  She thought they were the bees knees for travel.  You fill the bottle with water, and ice if you like it cold.  The bottle filters the water as you drink, pushing it through the filter.  Perfect for travel, since it filters the water for you.  Cheaper that buying bottled water.  Just one problem...ice makes the bottle sweat...a lot.  Our bottles on our trip were dripping everywhere.  My sis had started carrying a small towel to wipe it off frequently.

Enter me, and the solution: a quilted cozy.

 This was my first attempt.  Pretty simple and I liked the fabrics, all scraps from my stash but it didn't quite work out.

 I tried putting it together with a zipper, but as you can see, it did not form fit the shape of the bottle well.  It slid up and down, so back to the drawing board....

This time I used a spare strip left over from Baby B's Jack and Jenny quilt.  I made a sleeve at each end for elastic.  I used 1/2 inch elastic so it would have great holding power.  And it worked!  Sew I love it and now I just have to make some for all the family members in my life who now own one of these amazing bottles, thanks to my sis.  In case you are wondering, they are made by Brita and you can find them at many major stores.
Have a great Monday!

Swoon #9...finally

I finally got off my butt and sewed up Swoon number 9.  It has been sitting, all lonely in its plastic project box for a long time now.  But today, I decided to go get it done.

 So here it is in all its glory...Swoon block number nine.  I love the softness of this one.  But each block has something that I love about it.  This was a great pattern and I am very happy with my choice of fabrics.  I only hope putting it together and getting it quilted doesn't take as long.

Here are all nine blocks together.  I put them on the floor and hubby helped me arrange and rearrange until we found the best layout.  Now, on to the assembly!
Have a great day!

I feel a party coming on

I went to Target to get a couple of things the other day.  Ha! A couple of things...we know how that goes.  Found some cool stuff in the dollar spot.

          These little punched metal buckes will hold candles in some sand for stability.

                                          Ice trays, stickers for the grandson and pinwheels.

              Then there were these four cute little bowls which can be used for lots of things.

                           This is a picture of the bowls from the bottom.  So cute, right?
It's been years since I felt like really embracing a celebration of Independence day but between these cute items and the red, white and blue block blog hop I am in, I think I'm really gonna  party it up this year.  I'll probably not stay up for any fireworks though.  I have to get up at 4:30 the next day for work.  Still can't wait for this fun!
Have a great day!

Another Summer Sewing Contest Entry

If you are looking for my Giveaway, go here.

I know...3 posts in 2 days.  Crazy huh?  But I wanted to get this quilt off my to do list anyway so I thought, why not enter it in the quilt division.  Ever since I made this quilt for baby B, I have promised V I would make a big boy version for him.  I had in mind to use the same fabrics for the airplanes.

 But instead of the stacked coins strip, I wanted just paper airplanes on it.  Love the look.

                         I tried to get them going in all different directions to make it fun.

And I quilted it with an all over loopy design to get the motion look that I was trying for.

                                           A close up of one of the planes.
And the best part?  While at my LQS on another mission, and taking a reluctant V along with me, he picked out this fabric.  I had checked out already and he saw this and said "Grammie, wouldn't this make a perfect blanket?" How could I resist?

 It's Busy Town by Richard Scarry.  It has all the characters and all the charm of his books.

 V loves looking at it.  I couldn't find Lowly Worm, but V found him right off and looked at me like I was nuts for missing it.

It makes the perfect quilt back for a kids quilt.  And he was so excited to get it, I didn't even get to wash it to make it crinkly and soft.  His momma will take care of that for me.
Have a great day.

Summer Sewing Contest Entry

If you are looking for my giveaway, go here.

I wasn't sure if I could have the time to make anything for the summer sewing contest at Ellison Lane Quilts, but I sure wanted to.  Then, the planets aligned and I was able to get two things of my to do list and actually finished.  This is the first thing I made.  Boy shorts.

 I am using the same pattern I made last year for the slacks V wore in the wedding.  I just cut them shorter.  The pattern was drawn by me, but I used the instructions and the pocket pattern from Dana Made It.

 I used a light grey shad of Kona cotton and the pockets are from the Backyard Baby collection, Bug Jars in Gray.

 I fussy cut the jars to put bands around the bottom of the leg openings.  I wanted to tie it all together.

                                                  As you see, they fit the boy perfectly.

                                                    A view of the back.

And we do love our pockets.  He is all boy, this one.  I have 3 more pair of these to make in three different colors with pocket accents from my stash.  If you have never drafted your own pattern, you should try it.  Dana gives great easy instructions.