Hot, Hot, Hot!

Boy, has it been hot here.  So hot in fact, that today's forecast of 96 degrees sounds good! When it gets that hot, there is nothing to do but sew in the AC.  You all know I'm right, yes?  So, what am I sewing?  Take a look:

 First up is the back to my Swoon Quilt.  I have been procrastinating a bit, so I used Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge to help me get past this.  I really do want to see this quilt finished.

I used a bunch of the fat quarters from the Reunion line, along with leftovers from the background fabric and just kept putting it together until it was big enough.  And surprise, I kinda like it.  For me, this is the hardest part of quilt making.

Here are the blocks again.  I think this will be a great quilt.  And yes, the blocks have been sashed, but the picture of that is not too great.  You can't see them very well.  Too hot to go out and take pictures.

 For the first time in 4 years I have a design wall.  I wanted to work on these blocks and see how they looked.  So I found my old flannel sheet and washed it and then just hung it up with tacks.

 I forgot how much I love having a design wall.  It makes things so much easier to see.

 I also finished my two Bee blocks for the Comfort Quilts Bee this weekend.  So I will be going to the post office this morning to get these in the mail.

I love how they turned out.  The rainbow fabric is a Hoffman Challenge fabric from about 2004 I think.  I have never known what to do with it, even though I loved it when I bought it.
Have a great Monday everyone.

Sunday Buzz

I had cut out pieces for my bee blocks about a week ago, but decided to get them done today.  I have one done and one to go.  If I can finish this up, I can go to the post office in the morning.  Here's hoping!

Have a great Sunday!

Baby Sewing

Lots of sewing going on here these days.  My latest is pants for baby B.  I have been wanting to make some for awhile now.  My first choice was the Quick Change pants from Anna Maria Horner.  But I don't have the book and after looking at it on Amazon, I decided that to buy it for that one pattern was not cost effective.  I didn't see anything else in the book that I thought I could use.

But I did have my daughter's copy of Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones and in it there is a pattern for kimono jammies.  So I used the pants pattern from that as my base.  They came out real cute and they were quick and easy to make.

 I usually crop my pictures a bit more, but I wanted you to see how small these are.  This is the 3-6 month size of the pattern.  It's so hot here, he won't need pants until the fall.  These will be perfect for October here in North Carolina.  It doesn't cool off that much until then.

 I used Michael Millers Bicycles and coordinating Dumb Dots for these.  They require a 1" elastic for the waist.  I highly recommend an easy pattern like this to start.  I am going to see if I can come up with some other cute combos from my stash.  Gotta find some boy prints.

The other thing I have been working on is the Fushion Blanket Crochet Along that Corey at Little Miss Shabby is hosting.  I love the idea and the finished blanket is so cute.  I am using a couple of charm packs of Hulabaloo by Urban Chicks for Moda that I had on hand and some Peaches and Cream cotton yarn that I won at a Stitch and Pitch giveaway at our ball park a few years back.  The crochet part is pretty easy and one square goes quickly.  We'll see if I keep up with this one.  I'd like to, but you know how that is.
Have a great Monday.

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.