Weekend = End of Week

Made it to the end of the week and I did make forward progress on some things. I love it when I can see the progress at the end of the week. Weekends I usually only do some hand work in between all the chores and errands.

 Remember these balls of fabric "yarn" from the other day? Well I have to say that those crocheted up pretty fast. Even I was surprised how fast.

And they made this cute little semi-oval rug for my honey to land his feet on in the mornings. It will really matter next winter.

I hand stitched the binding on this little sweetie one afternoon. I didn't get a picture after the clips were off, but trust me, it's cute and is hanging up already.

 Then I whipped up this little set for Miss N. Thimbleanna had a cute dress on her blog for FinallyAGirl and when I saw the pigs I squealed and rushed to get some. Anna has an Etsy shop and sells this sweet piggie fabric. I had the perfect pink buttons too.

 And of course it needed shorts to go with the top. I only bought a yard of the pig fabric, so I looked through my stash and found the perfect pink, just by chance. I appliqued the little pig on the back of the waistband on the outside to show where the back is, and I love how cute it looks.

So here is the whole outfit. The top is the Geranium Dress from Made By Rae. The pattern offers a shorter look for a cut top. I cannot wait to see this on her. Going to try and mail it out this next week.
Have a great weekend. Talk to you soon.

So Many Irons in the Fire

Do you limit the number of projects you have going at any one time? Or do you let yourself go and flutter from project to project as the spirit moves you? I like to flutter. Sometimes I feel like hand work, sometimes I feel like machine work. For me it keeps it interesting to have many projects to choose from. Usually when I complete several and am down to one, I start adding more into the mix again. Here's some of what I have going on right now:

 These are my balls of cloth "yarn" to crochet into a small oval rug. I made one for my side of the bed in reds and pinks and now I am going to make one for my hubby for his side of the bed. They are quick and easy and a great way to use up string scraps. Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts has the tutorial for how to crochet or knit these up.

 I just finished another mini quilt using a pack of mini charms and all I have to do is stitch down the binding. This little sweetie is 12" x 14".

 On the larger project size, there is my Kingfisher Stitch Along quilt made with lots of EPP hexies and appliqued onto diamonds. I still have to make My three borders, one of which includes some EPP triangles, which I am almost half way through making.

And because I love a challenge, and I have had this book for a few years now, I am joining in the 100 Blocks, 100 Days 2018 challenge. I have a plan and I hope to keep up and put this beautiful book to good use.

I also have some fabric that is destined to become clothes for Miss N. I haven't started on that yet. Soon. Have a lovely week. Talk to you soon.

New Makes

I do sometimes make other stuff, besides quilts. I like to share them too. I have now made enough different kinds of bags and pouches that I feel like I have the basics down. That said, I decided when I needed a specific bag for a specific use, I decided to make it up on my own, using the knowledge I gained from using patterns others had written. I noticed a big improvement from the last time I tried this.

And this bag was the result of all that. I knew how to make the base of the bag, and quilt it. I knew how to make the lining and insert it. I knew that I had to attach the handles before adding the lining and sewing the two sides together. I struggled a little with putting the flap on, but only because of the bulk of the whole thing. That is the one thing that keeps me from making too many bags. The bulk is so hard to sew. But I am very pleased with how this one turned out.

In an effort to tame all my 1" strings finally, I made the balls of cloth "yarn" and crocheted this little baby. It's a little misshapen. I was going for oval, but still I love it. I got the directions at Crazy Mom Quilts. Amanda Jean knits and crochets these great rag rugs. I have done two previous rugs, which are holding up quite well. Those were rectangles. This was my first attempt at an oval. I just needed a small one on my side of the bed. I started with red, then low volume, mostly white and cream, then all the pink I had. I have decided I like separating the colors like that, instead of doing a mish mash of colors. Blues and greys and black and white will be my next one for my husband's side of the bed. That should use up almost all my strips! Yay!

The last thing I am working on is the Kingfisher Stitch Along quilt. I have the hexie flowers done and they are appliqued onto the diamonds. The next step will be to attach the rows to one another and then the borders. I have gone quite quickly so far, but the process will be slowing down now. I am letting the quilt talk to me about what it needs for border fabric.

One of the borders has EPP triangles on it. I still need to make those, but until the border is figured out, I don't know what fabric or fabrics to use for them. As I said, I am letting the quilt lead me at this point. This has been a very enjoyable process so far, since I never thought I would ever want to learn EPP.
Talk to you soon.

Requested

So I have been sewing like a fiend here, but sometimes it doesn't feel like I get much finished. Mostly I am making hexie flowers right now for the Kingfisher Stitch Along, hosted by Stitched in Color and Tales of Cloth. But that really isn't all.

My middle daughter will occasionally call me up and ask me a question that goes something like this: "Mom, can you make____?" Sometimes it's something she's seen on pinterest, and sometimes just something she's thought about that she wondered if there was a way to do it.

The latest request was for some containers made of fabric to hold things. When she asked, I knew immediately that Dana of Made Everyday had the solution. I had seen her pattern for her hold it bins when she first released it, but I had no need for any so I admired it and moved on.

I sent my daughter the link and she declared them perfect. I then sent her photos of fabric in her box. She had shopped my stash before I moved and I put all her choices into one box. Whenever she asks for something, we check the box to see if we have some fabric that will work, before purchasing any, although we have done that too.

Here is what I made for her:

 This is a napkin holder. It actually is supposed to have a strap across the top to keep the breeze from tossing your napkins if you are outside, but since she won't be, we omitted it.

 These are two of the larger bins. Again, without the handles, per her request. She loves blue and she loves batik fabrics.

These two are from the drawer organizer collection. They are to put into a drawer, so they are shallower than the others. This collection has several sizes and shapes so you can really clean up that messy drawer.

These were all fast and fun to make and I will definitely be doing some more soon. The pattern can be found at Made Everyday if you are interested.

One other request was from my husband, for two more grocery bags. I made some a couple of years ago from a pattern by Michelle Patterns. They are just like the plastic grocery bags and I love the size of them and how easy they are to fill and carry. I have I think, six already. But we always seem to need at least one more. So today I fulfilled that request also.

I have had these fabrics in my stash for at least 3-4 years, maybe longer. I love them, but could never figure out what to do with them until now. Now I can look at my pretty fabrics every time we go to the grocery store. These bags are well constructed and the other ones I made a couple of years ago have held up very well and they wash up so easily in the machine.

So, see, I have been doing something besides hexies. Talk to you soon.

A One Man Race

Have you ever done a jelly roll race quilt? Me either. Until now. I never really wanted to, even though I have seen plenty of them.

About 3-4 years ago, I bought two Riley Blake jelly rolls. One was yellow and one was pink. Each had 24 strips, two of each fabric. There were ginghams, polka dots and chevrons in different sizes. Some with white, and some tone on tone, but I really loved them all. I never knew what to do until one day it struck me that I could do a jelly roll race with them. But then I didn't for like a year or more.
Today was the day. I felt like something new and easy. So I unwrapped them both and unrolled them.

I just laid the two stacks of strips next to the machine and began attaching first a pink and then a yellow, in the order they came in.

This is how the first pass of strips looked as it fell off the back of my sewing table. That part was fun.
I could not have ever won this race had I been in it with any competition. This took me way longer than I thought it would. But now it's done and I just have to come up with a back and get it quilted.

I love how it turned out. I'm calling it pink lemonade, which seems appropriate for early summer. Have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Kingfisher Stitch Along

I have never (until now) had a desire to EPP hexagons. I have seen it done many times on blogs over the 8 years I have been on the internet doing this blogging thing, but never once did I want to do it. Until now. Rachel from Stitched in Color has a way of making me want to be a part of these projects.  She and Jodi from Tales of Cloth are hosting this thing. I don't know why. Maybe it's because she makes it look so doable or so much fun. I'm not sure. But I have been convinced once again to join up. So here is my start at this thing.

I decided to use my Ombre Confetti Metallic for the hexies. I love the look of these.

                 So I made a bunch of them...

And then I made some more. I am not quite finished with making them, but I decided to stop and start assembling some into flowers.

The other thing I am doing is to audition some low volume fabrics for the diamonds that the hexie flowers will be appliqued to. These are a few of my ideas.

 This is my very first flower all assembled. I am trying to get the ombre color gradient to work here.

And these are my first four flowers on one of my background pieces of fabric. The centers of the flowers will all be done in the yellow ombre confetti metallic or in some yellow ombre I had on hand. There are 46 flowers to be made. So far I am really enjoying all this hand stitching. There's still time to join us if you have a mind to. Talk to you soon.