Bunnies, Bunnies!! Friday Finish

So, I saw this on line tutorial for making a bunnies bowling set and thought it would be so cute to make for my youngest grandson for Easter. This project has been a thorn in my side since I started it. I am very glad it's done, but I am not completely happy with how it turned out. Let's take a look, shall we?

 All my bunnies do not have faces yet. I decided to make them from my scraps of Briar Rose, since the colors are so very springy.

 Problem number one, after all that work, even with the rice bags in the bottoms, they don't stand up well. Oh, pooh!

 Here they are standing, for a brief moment. The instructions said to stuff them and then fill the bottom with rice. I ended up making little rice pillows to insert, as putting the rice in loose was a giant mess that involved the vacuum cleaner and rice all over my sewing room.

 The instructions said to buy a wooden ball. What?!? I google cloth balls and tried to make one and stuff it. Looks more like a pin cushion.

 Oh, well, the little one is a boy and more likely to throw, rather than roll it. I laughed when I saw the shape this one came out as.

 I made each bunny in two fabrics, and the inside of the ears is the fabric on the back of the bunny.

 After the first one, when I struggled to get the ears turned right side out, I began pinking the edges for a ruffled look. So much easier with the little ends of the ears. And as you can see, none of the ears are on straight, no matter how hard I tried.

 This is the first one and the only one with ears made according to the pattern. But, by the time you put the stabilizer inside so they stand up, they are too stiff to turn easily.

 See, all the ears are different. They are kind of cute, but the directions were a bit sketchy, I thought. I am not an inexperienced sewist. I have been doing this for more than 40 years and if I struggled, how is it for newbies?

Oh well, Easter will come and go and these will get forgotten and I guess they are kind of cute. Happy Friday y'all. Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Friday.

Sewjo Saturday #4, the One I Almost Missed

My work schedule changed today so I almost missed this week. It has been a crazy busy week and not nearly as much sewing as I would like, but I did make a bit of forward progress. Here's what I have;

 I began sewing the Rocket Age quilt pieces together. Not many yet, but enough to see that this is going to be a great quilt for V.

 I can't tell you how much I love these prints by Riley Blake. So cool and so retro. Great colors too.

And the other project is a set of bunny bowling pins and ball(still to be made) for B for Easter. I made them out of some Heather Ross Briar Rose scraps. Hopefully they are not too girly. Gotta run, but see you tomorrow for Sunday Stash. Linking up with Kim for Sewjo Saturday.

A Late Friday Finish

Well, it's only a little after 8 pm so it still counts as a Friday finish, right? I wanted to post sooner, but an 8 hour work day, followed by laying tile, picking up the grandson and dropping him and Mr. GQ at the Carolina basketball game has slowed me down some.  Any way, here is my Friday Finish...and I am sorry for all the pictures, but I couldn't leave any out.

                         Here is Briar Rose, getting ready to apply the binding....

                  Here is Briar Rose, lounging in a chair on the back deck in the afternoon...

                   Here is Briar Rose lying on the deck as the sun sinks slowly...

                                 A close up with a few late afternoon shadows...

 Here is Briar Rose with her little sister, Briar Rose 2, both freshly crinkled from the dryer...

 Here is the Back of Briar Rose...backed with Daisy Chain by Amy Butler and Summersault by Erin McMorris for Free Spirit. The whole quilt is quilted with wavy lines in an on point grid that follows the blocks.

                               Here are both of the Briar Roses rolled up...

                                          A close up of the binding...

                    A close up of the cuteness that is Briar Rose 2...she is so petite!

And I love those Nanny Bees!  See you soon.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.

Plugging Along

Still plugging along on getting all those 12 quilt tops quilted. Got two more pin basted on Sunday; the Spools quilt top and the Heather Ross Briar Rose quilt top.  I started quilting Briar Rose on Monday.

 I am quilting it with wavy lines on the stitching lines and then adding three more wavy lines in both directions across each square. The lines will form a wavy line grid pattern about 1 1/2 inches apart. It's looking pretty cool so far.

 Got up to take a break for lunch and when I came back, this is what I found on the table...

"What? It's a warm spot, so what?" O'Malley had found a spot which I gently evicted him from. I prefer if he waits until the quilting is done, lest he find himself sewn to a quilt.

And I finally framed my Heather Ross Strawberry print too. I think it's so cute! That's it for today.
Talk to you soon.

Sunday Something

I have spent most of the week making a block or two a day for the MSBHQAL so I didn't feel there was anything post worthy. Out of 30 blocks I have 25 done, 5 to go.  But I was also able to get a couple of other things done as well.

 I thought I would start with smaller and work my way up, size-wise through the 12 quilts that need quilting.  This is the smallest one. The small version of the Briar Rose quilt that I made from scraps.

 I found a small piece of starry Christmas fabric leftover from something years ago. Bound with some leftover Sunkissed swirly print.

 This one has long been a fave. I pieced this one about 5 or 6 years ago when I had an idea to turn my quilting into some sort of a business. I was going to try making baby quilts from my scraps (of which there are tons). I made 4 different quilt tops before I decided that was too much work and it wasn't what I wanted to do.

 It hung in the closet all these years. Two of the others have long been quilted and donated to charity and the third I quilted and kept. I couldn't bear to part with it in the end.

 I found a big hunk of blue in my stash for the back and the binding stripe is a Quilter's Candy from Connecting Threads.  Quilted in swirly curlycues.

I love how it turned out. It's about 42 inches almost square. Not sure yet where it will end up. So that's 2 down, 10 to go. Yay me!!  Have a great week. See you soon.

Briar Rose Scrappy Goodness

Remember when I posted my Briar Rose quilt and said I was aiming to use up every bit of it? Well, I am off to a great start. After I made the Rainbow quilt and the baby Rainbow quilt, I took all the scraps that were left up to that point and created a few blocks.  I haven't figured out what to do with them yet, but they are done. Wanna see?  Good.

 I took the small strips and separated them into three groups, based on how they looked against three pieces of fabric I picked out. Then I made a stacked coins block. This is the pink background.

 These are 25 squares for my Bee mate in Sunday Morning Quilts Bee. She is making the Up Up Away quilt in scrappy blues. I used all the small triangles left from the baby rainbow.

 This is my selvedge piece. I think I may be going to make a zippered pouch out of these. I have to look at them some more to decide.

 This is my first foray into selvedge sewing and I like it okay, but I don't think it's really me.

 Here is another color set of stacked coins. I am really loving how these look. Not sure what I am going to make from them though.

 I took this close up to show you the sweet vine and leaf pattern on the background fabric. I have had this forever and could never figure out how to use it.  I have one more set, not done yet but the background fabric is blue.

 These HSTs are all from the larger Rainbow quilt. I just fiddled with them until I decided I was happy and stitched them up.

And that brings me to this. This is the stack of what is left. Lots of pretty big chunks and two complete half yards. I have no ideas what to make with this. I am going to think on it, but I would love some suggestions of patterns to try with these. I am pretty sure I can get a good size lap quilt out of these.  So let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by. I'll let you know what I end up with.

Making It Monday

I showed pictures of my Briar Rose fabric bundle a couple of weeks ago. I know the interwebs are saturated with that fabric line right now, but I have a need to share what I am making with mine. In a first ever (for me) I am trying to find uses for all of my Briar Rose. When I am done, there will be no scraps. Here is what I am making this Monday:

                                  My bundle: the before picture.

 The first cuts for the Briar Rose Rainbow Quilt. You can get the free pattern on the Windham web site. The quilt was designed by Rae of Made by Rae. Fun and easy quilt, but oh so pretty.

                   My selvedges. Never sewed selvedges before, but I am now.

 Second cuts. My daughter was watching me assemble the first quilt and said, "You should make a smaller version. So I cut these 2 1/2 inch squares from some scraps.

 Here is the finished quilt top.  I hope to get it quilted soon. I have a lot of tops in the queue right now.

 Here is the original with 6 1/2 inch blocks (6 inches finished size) and the baby with its 2 inch finished size blocks.

 A close up of the baby so you can see the scale of the blocks. One bee just fits a block there.

And I started sewing the selvedges together. I think I am going to make a zippered pouch out of this. I still have quite a lot of the fabric left and am awaiting inspiration. Looking at the scraps is giving me some too. The shapes of the scraps help me to come up with ideas. What ideas do you have? Have you ever done this with a fabric line? I just can't stop!
Have a great week. See you soon.