#300-A Friday Finish and A Giveaway

So here we are at post number 300! I almost can't believe it. That is a lot of words and pictures. I have come a long way since I started. I have learned so much from the quilting and blogging community and I want to say thank you to all of you who have inspired me.

For my Friday finish this week, I raced to finish one of the many baby quilt tops I am working on this year. I really wanted to get this top done, and I did, but there is a small mistake that will have to be ripped out and fixed. Let's take a look.

 I tried to arrange all the blocks to spread out the colors. When I make a quilt like this, I don't plan it out very much, so I just grabbed two fabrics that paired well with each other to frame the center. I always figure I can work out the block arrangement afterwards.

 See the two blocks in the top row that are blue on the outside? Those weren't supposed to be together, and I don't think they were, when I laid things out. But in my haste to finish the top, something got mixed up.  So they will be separated before I quilt this.

 So many fabrics in this one. Sweetwater's Noteworthy, Pearl Bracelets, Squared Elements, Flea Market Fancy, Malka Dubrawsky, and some other older fabrics from my stash. This was a fun fabric pull. Now, a few of my favorite blocks:

              The blue fabric here is a batik that I love, with tiny yellow and orange dots.

 One of my favorite grey stripes from Sweetwater, and I am sorry I can't remember which line.

 Navy blue Dimples surrounded by a great stripe from the Noteworthy line from Sweetwater.

                       Here is Denyse Schmidt playing nicely with Squared Elements.

I love this quilt already and I hope the new parents love it too. I don't know the gender of the baby yet, but I think this is cute enough to go either way. Now, since you have read all this way, let's talk giveaway.

 I have this pretty fat quarter bundle that I put together. These are all Kona Cottons I bought at my LQS. I wanted something bright and springy to give to you.

 I looked at lots of fabrics and chose these to hopefully appeal to a wide audience. And then, for fun I added a spool of Aurifil thread from my stash and some pretty springy zippers from Zippit.

I know you could find something fun to make with these. So, in order to be entered into the draw, since it's spring and all, in your comment please tell me what your favorite spring flower is. That's it. I will draw a winner next Friday, May 2nd. Drawing is open to any and all. I will ship internationally. Thank you again for reading about my quilting adventures here.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.
Giveaway over. Winner has been chosen.

A Charmed Project

I love Charm packs. I buy them to get a good look at all the fabrics in a line I am interested in. I buy them because they are not too expensive. And I have also swapped them. So I have lots of charms.  What do you do with all of those charms?  Well, patchwork of course. And what do you do with all that patchwork? Cushion covers!

These old cushions for my dining room chairs were really worn and ugly. I forgot to get a picture before I striped them bare. I have had them on the to do list for at least 2 years. Yesterday, I started on them with my charm squares. Here is where I am after 3 are finished:

 This is the first one, covered in Road 15 from Sweetwater. I added some poly fill to puff it up a bit. They tend to get flatter over time.

 This one is also Road 15 in another colorway. I had a whole charm pack of this to use. I used 12 charms for each cushion. The strip around the side is made from fat quarters of Reunion and Noteworthy, cut into strips and pieced.

Before you get to thinking they are all going to be the same, the next one is a bunch of text charms from a swap. I did use the last of the strips of Reunion and Noteworthy on it.  The last two are not done, but I have the charms picked out. One is some Fig Tree prints from California Girl and a couple from a newer Fig Tree line that I can't recall the name of. The other one is just an assortment of charms from another swap I did about 3 years ago, so no telling what they are. After that, I have to buy one more foam form, as I have always been lacking one. Such a slacker! Talk to you soon.

Christmas is Coming

It's just next week, as a matter of fact. So much still to do. If life was a little less chaotic, I would have more posts and more to show you. It is hard to find sewing time right now. On top of working 40 hours a week, I am babysitting one day a week after work, which cuts out any sewing time that day and one of my days off each of these last two weeks is for Christmas shopping with my hubby.  And yesterday was our Cookie Sunday for the grandsons.

 I buy ingredients when they are on sale for about 2 months ahead of time. We need to bake lots of cookies and biscotti.

And I dress the part for this one day, with my Christmas clothes and baking apron. Just waiting for my kiddos to show up.  It was a good day. The older boys got to help with many parts, and then just enjoyed being together and playing. Little B, at 18 months loved having so many grown ups to pay attention to him, and tried to keep up with the big kids.

In other news, I was able to finish my first ever holiday table runner.  I have wanted to make one, but never have gotten around to it until now.

 I had purchased two of the prints from Hip Holiday when it first came out, not knowing what I would do with it, but knowing I would make something once inspiration struck.

 I used the triangle part of my Tri-Recs tool to cut the triangles for the runner, adding a green that I had and a pale blue from the Noteworthy line. It looks grey here, sorry.

 I quilted it with a spiraling triangle in each one, using different color threads. I used dark pink on the blue, pale blue in the green and a lime green in the big print diamonds.

The back is half cars and trees and half mod trees, so it can be used both ways. This one went home with the oldest daughter. She can't have a table cloth right now, because Little B will pull it off the table.  Next year I will make one for the next daughter and one for myself. I still have lots of Christmas fabric to use up.  Have a great week and talk to you soon.

Thanks, Crazy Mom

It's my vacation week this week. It's really a staycation, designed to get more sewing done and chill a bit before the retail holiday madness once again becomes my life's normal.  I hope to sew a lot and share here with you. First up, a shout out to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.  She has the cutest little thread catcher pattern on her site. I broke down and bought it because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to make one until I saw hers. Well worth it.  This thing has so many uses.

 This one sits on my cutting table. I made it using an interfacing stabilizer. It has stiff sides and stands up quite nicely. Holds lots of trimmings for its size.

 This one sits on my sewing table. It is actually the first one I made from some loved Noteworthy fabric. I made this one with batting, because at the time I had no interfacing on hand. Couldn't let that stop me! Ha! It did not stand tall and it kind of bothered me after a couple of weeks. So I emptied it and got out my No. 8 Presencia pink thread and hand quilted it in straight, vertical lines.

Now it stands straighter and I love it even more. It too, holds lots of threads and clippings for me.  I still need to make one for my ironing station. I will get there, soon I hope. Let's just say it has reduced the number of errant threads on my floor...a lot!

But wait...there is one more use for this so called 'thread' catcher.

My husband uses packets of Stevia in his morning coffee.  I have two trash cans in my kitchen. The paper packets still get left on the counter. Grrrr. Asking nicely wasn't working. Perhaps it was the sleepy morning brain not quite functioning yet.  My solution?

 I made another one in a kitchen print I had been saving for heaven knows what. I used interfacing in this one too, to get a crisp, sharp feel. It sits on the counter, next to the coffee pot and you know what?

It works! No more paper packets on the counter. Thanks honey! And thank you, Crazy Mom!

Friday Finishes

Well, yes, here I am back again today with not one, but two finishes.  I have wanted to get these done since I got this fabric:

This is Locally Grown by Andover Fabrics.  It is a cute collection of farmyard prints.  The most unusual thing to me was the use of so many different greens. There are 3 different greens in this collection.  Each is cute, but it makes it look like more than one fabric collection. Okay...moving on.

 I wanted to make a market bag for my daughter and one for me, to take to the farmer's market this spring/summer.  I had this idea in my head of how I wanted it to be.  For the first time, I was able to translate that into this.

 She loved the chickens the best, along with the chicks and eggs, so I used those.  I  wanted a flat bottom, outside pockets for phone etc. and handles that go under the bag for added strength.  I was able to do all that.

 It's big and roomy and the lining is a cherry print by Mary Englebrite.  I put a piece of heavy duty Peltex in the bottom, between the lining and the outside fabric to lend a bit of structure to the bottom of the bag.  I had it leftover from the diaper bag I made last year.

 Here you can see the chickens and the pockets from the blue chicks and eggs fabric.  The pocket piece is only on one side and is divided by the handles into 3 smaller pockets.  I don't know if you can see, but I sewed one of the chickens on the back of my label.  Too cute to not use every bit!

 The handles are made from the chicks and eggs fabric as well.  Then I used a bunch of twill ribbon I had been saving off of Moda fat quarter bundles.  I knew it would come in handy eventually.  The handles are just one big loop that goes under the bag and up the sides to make the handles.  This adds strength underneath the bag for heavy produce.  I will be making another one for me very soon.

 Next up, another wide mouth pouch, this time made with the green meadow from Locally Grown  I was originally going to make the market bag from this, but daughter wanted another pouch for knitting projects.  Seems they are handy for that. The lining is a plue from the Sweetwater Noteworthy collection.

 I made a bigger zipper end because this sheep is too cute to cut up.  Love him there on the end.

 And the cute little ring of flowers and kids? I couldn't just leave it bare...so I put her initial in it.

 I did it on my machine with my Bernina stitch regulator.  I had to put a small bit of batting behind it for stability, but it worked.

 All ready for another knitting project.  Have a great weekend!  Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it up Friday!

Making Progress

One of my goals for this year was to finish some of last years starts...before the end of this year.  I took a mini vacay from work and stayed home for 4 days.  I did not sew constantly, but I did get lots done.

 First, I got one of my two March blocks knocked out for the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.  This one is for Jeepgirl300 who requested that I do cream scraps. Others are doing grey, brown and black for this elegant quilt for her livingroom.

 Then I pieced my first block for the Retro Flowers Quilt.  Technically, it's a new project, but I bought the pattern last year so, I am counting it as last year's project.  I scrapped all the fabrics I had pulled for this one which have been in a pile in my sewing room for months and started over with a new idea.  I will share it soon.

 Then I whipped up this Open Wide Pouch from some of my Noteworthy fabric that I had picked out.

 I love how big and open these are.  Pattern can be found on Noodlehead's blog.

 The bottom is a bright crosshatch fabric that I love.  The name escapes me right now.

 Next up is this top, finally finished.  It is made with Lawn from Connecting Threads.  I am going to "quilt" it to some white flannel and use it as a summer throw.  It is so soft!

The last thing is this little beauty.  My daughter bought the fabric bundle in NY at the Purl a few years ago. She had delusions of making a quilt.  She is a wonderful and prolific knitter, and she can sew, but it is not her passion like it is for me.  She cut the fabric into 2 inch squares and put it in a zip bag...that's it.  So after about 6 months or more, I offered to sew them into something for her.  This is what I came up with. It is about 45 inches square.  There are still more 2 inch squares, but I was done! Now to get it quilted.
Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend.