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.

Shhhhh...It's a secret

I finished a small quilt wall hanging for my son-in-law this week, and since I'm pretty positive he doesn't read my blog (may not even know there is a blog) I feel okay showing it off here.  I am pretty pleased with this.  It is meant to hang on the back of his office door, since all the walls are taken up with books. (He is a PhD candidate)

 It started a couple of years ago when my daughter saw a bookshelf quilt on someone's blog and said "This is so cool, you should make one for M" and I said "mmm hmm".  Then, about 6 months ago I saw this stitching pattern on Urban Stitches web site.  Don't remember how I got to that, but anyway I thought "that is so cool and the perfect thing for the Literature Dr. to be.

 In case you can't tell, it is lines from Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven, in the shape of...yes, a raven.  So I spent months trying to get this thing stitched to be the top of the quilty book shelf.

 And then came the books.  Three shelves of them.  Made from a Basic Grey jelly roll which was perfect for books.

 A little Ruby Star typewriter on the bottom shelf...I think I outdid myself on that one.  Perfection!

 And the book titles?  All selvedges from my scraps.  I had such fun choosing the titles of the books.

 And now it is done so one more checked off the ol' Christmas to do list.  YeeHaw!!!!

 One more quick one...V's new quilt made from Out to Sea fabrics.  I love this line and knew it needed to be a boy quilt.

With the map as the focal point.  Now I just have to quilt it in time.  And I have to design J's quilt for the cool airplane fabrics I bought.  See a theme here?

Have a great rest of your week.

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.