Quilt or Stitch? How about both?

Grey fabric & Hand Quilting

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have seen so many quilts with gray fabric as the neutral, and I love it! I found several lovely grey fabrics while shopping at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe.

Mmmm... now to pair them with my stash and make a gorgeous quilt.

Another wonderful thing to do is hand quilting, using Perl 8 thread. I picked up several colors of blue and green. I plan on hand quilting my Single Girl quilt using these threads. It's going to be delicious.

Wish me luck ;)

Stella Blue Friday

2012-01-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

Only one more border to go...

Last week, I had to miss my Portland Quilt Guild meeting, which made me so sad. I had a nasty head cold I was just getting over, and thought it’d be rude to share it with my friends. So, instead of attending the meeting, I sewed. I worked on Stella Blue again!

Since I added a 1” border around the top, I had to change the flying geese border a bit. After some fudging, and making the corner block a bit different, I made it all work. I think it looks okay, but I am not taking it out!

So, now all that is left is the big blue 5” border. I will hopefully get that on this week.

In other fun news, I was reading Ladies Home Journal, February 2012, and came across an article about the Modern Quilt Guild, and how quilting is fun and hip, haha! I loved seeing the article, how cute is Latifah??

A Quilt for Stacy

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Stacy is due to have a baby at the end of February, and her friend and I hosted a baby shower for her on Saturday. She is having a girl *yay!!* and we are all really excited for her.

I decided to make her a bright and happy baby quilt. I had fun going through my stash to find the perfect fabric. I used a pattern from the magazine Quilt Sampler, Summer 2011. To make a baby quilt, I just used less blocks. I really liked this pattern, it went together easily and looks nice too.

I used an aqua dot flannel for the backing, and bound it with more dots, one can never have too many polk-a-dots!

The sea is calling me...

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

I started a new quilt! I know, bug surprise huh?? When I went to the Sisters Quilt Show in July of last year with all of my girlfriends, we stopped at The Stitchin' Post in Sisters and went shopping. I walked out with this lovely stack of shot cottons and cross weaves for a quilt from the book City Quilts. This quilt reminds me of the sea, the colors are so soothing.

I finally started cutting into them, and I am in love.

I have never made a quilt out of all solids before, so this is a lot of fun!

Stella Blue Friday

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am glad to hear some of you are interested in how the glue works for sewing curved seams! I’ll be putting a post together for that soon, so be on the lookout okay?

Stella Blue has been on my table all week, and she is becoming quite pretty. First of all, I had a successful shopping trip to Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe last Saturday. They still had some Rural Jardin fabric, but I kind of wanted something different for the borders. I knew that Etchings by Moda would match quite well, and knew they had that line in too. I totally scored! One of the ladies who works there helped me choose my border fabrics. She convinced me to go with a skinny RED border first. Remember, I was thinking blue? Well, she was right (along with some of you who left comments)… red just looked great. I then chose a nice aqua blue for the large 5” border I’ll put on the outside. And the red with the beautiful script on it will be the binding.

I sewed on my first 1” red border, and so far so good right? I am working on sewing the flying geese border now.

I would say it was a successful sewing week! Hopefully I can get another border or two sewn on this week.

The pattern for this quilt is called Stella Blue, by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, fabrics used are Rural Jardin by Moda and Etchings by Moda. Dianne over at Suburban Stitcher is also making this quilt, so be sure and stop by her blog to say hello!

Tackling scary sewing projects

2012-01-15T08:00:00.000-08:00

In my quest to be a better quilter, I started the Single Girl quilt last spring. There were a bunch of people doing a sew along, and I figured I'd jump in because I loved the pattern, and I'd have lots of help and ideas with curved seams.

I started off full steam ahead, got lots of piecing done, and then slammed into a wall when it came time to actually sew the curved pieces together. I didn't like all of the pinning, holy cow! I got poked like crazy... and I didn't like how it would never lay flat for me.

I put the project away, and pulled out a whole lot of other ones to distract me from the scary curved seams. A few months went by and I attended a Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting where one of the 10 minute tutorials was about glue basting a curved seam, so that way you don't have to use pins. I left the meeting excited about the idea, and bought the glue... and still the project sat.

Finally 2012 rolls around, I am bound and determined to finish my pile of WIP quilts, and come across the Single Girl quilt. I pick up where I left off, curved seams. I start using the glue, just like I was taught, and guess what... it worked. Like, it worked so well, I made a whole bunch of them!!

And so, I will continue the Single Girl quilt because I busted down that wall! Woohoo!! Let's keep up the motivation shall we?? Please??? :) What quilting projects have you stalled out on, and what did you do to leap over the hurdle and continue on?

Stella Blue Friday

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have been really sporadic in working on Stella Blue. This quilt is pretty tedious as far as piecing goes, so I have taken my time on it, and made sure I have done it right. Usually I just breeze through instructions and throw a quilt top together, but not on this one!

I have pieced most of the top together this week. The top still needs a border that consists of flying geese. Thankfully they are all sewn, but I have some plans.

First of all, I’d love to have the quilt on my bed, and it will need to be a bit bigger to look right. I am thinking I’ll do a really skinny border between the quilt top and flying geese border.

At first I had a really strong red there, but decided I didn’t like it. I am trying to keep this quilt “quiet”. Red really can take over a color scheme. So, I am leaning towards one of the darker blues now.

So, a skinny 1” blue border, the flying geese border, and then a 5” border. I don’t know what fabric to pick for the big 5” border. I am going to use the dark red for the binding, that will be a good pop of color. I am making a trip out to Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe on Saturday to decide. They have a lot to choose from.

The fabrics I’ve used to make this quilt are called Rural Jardin by The French General for Moda. I love them, they are so soft and calming. And there is aqua! I can’t stop buying aqua things lately…

Please be sure to visit Dianne’s blog: Suburban Stitcher. She is making an amazing Stella Blue as well! Our fabrics are so different, it’s giving them each a great look! I love the comparison don’t you?

Heather the Elf is retired until next October

2012-01-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Remember that tote bag I made over the summer? The tutorial is by Noodlehead, and it is such a great bag, I use it all of the time. I liked it so much, I made 8 more! I thought they’d be perfect gifts.

I have had some home dec weight fabrics in my stash for quite awhile (5 years??) and it was begging to be used. It takes a ½ yard for the outside body and a ½ yard for the inside, so it is a great stash buster. I think it’d look great in those big floral prints!

And another fun thing I made are keychain clips. My BFF Becky made one for me and I love it! I decided everybody I know needed one too. I found the clips at Joann. They sell them by the handbag hardware. They even had them in several colors. I used this amazing tutorial. You guys should all go make them, they are great!

I've cleaned my sewing table off, organized my fabric, and have a game plan for this month. It feels good to start some new projects! What are you working on right now?

Mother In Law's Quilt

2011-12-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

When my mother in law Cherie came to visit in August, she brought along her quilt top. She had taken a big leap in quilting and decided to do a Block of the Month that her local quilt shop hosted. The blocks were all made and designed around Jamestown history.

She would call me and ask me questions about the directions on some of the blocks, most of them were made using plastic templates. It was such a challenge, but she did it! I am so proud of her. The quilt is A.MA.ZING!

After she completed the top, she was too nervous to cut the three large border fabrics. So, I cut them for her. And then I sewed them on for her too. The quilt is enormous.

My friend Barbara quilted it on her long arm. There was no way this king sized quilt would fit on my dinky domestic machine. Barbara did a beautiful job!

I finished the quilt off with black binding. I usually hand sew my bindings down, but didn’t have the energy or time to do it, so I used my sewing machine to finish it. I felt like I was cheating! Isn’t that funny?

Isn’t it so beautiful?? I told her she has to make one for me now out of blue and green fabrics. She laughed at me! Haha!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you for another year of inspiration, friendship and encouragement! Have a very Merry Christmas!

xoxo,
Heather & Family

P.S. Picture taken in the Redwood Forest in California on Thanksgiving Weekend.

More Totes!

2011-12-21T17:24:00.000-08:00

There were three cute girls having birthdays in December. Barbara and I have been making scripture totes for them. These are the Young Women I work with at church, ages 12-18. They bags are a hit too, I am glad to see them being used.

First off is this lovely bag. She loves big florals. The outside of the bag is fabric by Sandi Henderson, I’ve had in my stash for quite awhile. The lining is from the fabric line It’s A Hoot!

The second bag is for a girl who loves BRIGHT happy colors. I think this fits the bill. And I can’t remember who designed the fabric…

Okay, the third bag is for a 8 year old, Jessie helped me pick the fabric. Of course she’d choose owls! I think it’s so cute!

So, Happy Birthday girls! If you would like to make one of these bags, I’ve made a TUTORIAL. Enjoy!

PMQG Swap: Gifts Received from Ale!

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

At the PMQG meeting the bag of fabric I brought was stuffed full of Neptune fabric. There are a lot of Neptune lovers out there, when the fabric line came out in 2009 I had bought quite a bit of it because it was my favorite colors, and ocean themed! How could I not love it?

Ale did an amazing job, she said she flickr stalked me, & blog stalked me! She makes me laugh :) When I opened her package, I almost started crying. She did such a great job. And when Jen saw it, she said, “You nailed her Ale!”

She did nail me! First let’s drool all over this table runner shall we? It has linen, and hand quilting, and pinwheels! It’s so pretty, it hurts my eyes.

Then she didn’t stop there, she made me a pillow too! I know right? I am the luckiest girl ever. The pillow has all of the beautiful things the table runner does.

And on the back, look at the back…. She free motion quilted “Take me to the Sea”

Look at me, I just fainted.

Okay, so thank you Ale, I love what you made for me. Now it’s time to break out the rest of my Neptune fabric and make a quilt out of it, to match my gifts!

PMQG Swap: Wonky Stars Pillow

2011-12-12T15:49:00.001-08:00

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild held its December meeting last night. It was really great! In October we all brought a sandwich baggy full of fabric. We then put the bags all together and we each drew one out. The idea is to take it home and make something out of it. You then bring it back to the December meeting and give it to the owner of the fabric. You are allowed to add one fabric to it. There were so many beautiful things made. Quilts, tablerunners, bags, pillows, wall hangings, it was fantastic!
I grabbed a bag full of Heather Ross scraps. I love Heather Ross fabrics, they are adorable! I knew that I wanted to make a pillow, and I’ve seen several “wonky star” pillows on Flickr that I loved, so I used them an inspiration for this project.
I was so excited about this project, I had it finished a week after I brought it home. I heard a lot of people at the meeting last night saying they had just finished theirs that day! Haha! I can’t do that, I get sooo stressed out.

The pillow is 20” x 20” and I quilted it with straight lines. I made this pillow for Lara. It’s funny because I had chosen Lara’s bag of fabric last year! I made her a Schnibbles quilt out of bright colored batiks. You can see it HERE.
I am now done with all of my Christmas gift making, you can find me relaxing and enjoying the next week now!

Mom's Present

2011-12-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

I was sewing like a mad woman on Friday afternoon, trying to get my mother’s Christmas present completed. After I got done stipple quilting her present, I decided to clean out the bobbin case. I’ve done this a gazillion times… after I put it back together it wasn’t working right. First the needle wouldn’t pick up the bobbin thread, then the stitches were really tight, then the thread cutter couldn’t grab the thread. I took it to the sewing machine E.R. the next morning and they told me that the timing was off on it, so they’d have to keep it, and it’d take two weeks!

Luckily, I have a backup machine, the old school Kenmore is dusted off and back in use. I am so glad I kept that machine. I must admit, it’s like getting on a bicycle I haven’t ridden in 10 years and trying to figure it out all over again…

So, onto my mom’s lovely present. Carrie Nelson over at Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company designed a really sweet pillow, you can find it HERE. I wanted to make one so bad, but knew I wouldn’t have time to do it in “my” colors. So, I decided to make my mom one, and I’ll make one for myself another time.

Instead of making mine into a pillow, I made it into a small table topper. It’ll fit her end table by her easy chair perfectly!

The fabric I used is by Moda called Simple Abundance. I’ve made several other projects from this fabric, a table runner, pillows & a quilt. I bought a fat quarter bundle of it. Just so you know, if you ever buy a fat quarter bundle of a fabric line, you’ll get a lot of use from it!!

I backed it in a matching green from my stash, and stipple quilted it using a tan thread.

Merry Christmas to my mom!

He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch

2011-12-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

My dad has always had a thing for The Grinch. He would read it to us, sing the song randomly, and be a goof about it. I even bought a tie for him at one point which he wore regularly :) When I saw The Grinch fabric at the quilt shop I had to get some to make him a gift! I ended up making a table runner for their coffee table, that way they can enjoy Mr. Grinch for the month.

I had fun free motion quilting this one around the blocks.

There are still quite a few panels left which need to be turned into a couple of pillows, that will have to wait for next year! I am so Grinchy like that. Do you guys love The Grinch?

Christmas Table Runner

2011-12-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

While visiting my family over the summer, my sister gave me a pile of Christmas fabrics she'd been collecting for awhile. She was just about to have a baby, and knew she wouldn't have time to make something with the fabric. There were two charm packs of this Christmas Fabric. I decided to make a table runner out of one of them.

The block is a snowball block, and there are 30 of them. It was really simple to make, and I like the pattern it creates, a kind of honeycomb.

I made a Schnibbles quilt out of this fabric in 2009, called Winter White. You can see it HERE.

I did swirly free motion quilting on it. It was mailed off to her early so she could use it this month on her table. Love you Nikki!!

Pillows and Fabric!

2011-12-02T22:00:00.000-08:00

My mother in law made the most beautiful quilt. When she came to visit over the summer she brought it with her, along with all of the scraps from making it. It is currently being quilted by my friend Barbara on her long arm. When I was thinking of what to get her for Christmas, it dawned on me to use her scraps to make some throw pillows for her bed, so they’ll match her quilt! I know, I am so smart huh? Pfffttt…

I stayed up late for a few nights making them...

I have always wanted to try to make a “braid” block, so here is my attempt doing that. I used the instructions from my book, Jelly Roll Quilts.

And I did a general trip around the world and quilted it using a cross hatch. Easy peasy.

These were really fun to put together. Both pillows cover a 16” x 16” pillow form. I need to take the time to learn how to add piping to my pillows, I am sure it can’t be that difficult. Maybe next time. There will be a next time :)

In other quilty goodness, I ordered some fabric from Heather Ross’s studio sale a few months ago. I received my order last night! I wanted some of her fabric from Far Far Away II. I love what I was sent, it’s on a linen type fabric that is really soft.

And the week of Thanksgiving our good friends Nate & Julie came to visit us from Utah. They stayed for about 3 days, and we had so much fun catching up with them. They were like a breath of fresh air. Julie is a quilter as well, and she brought me a huge stack of fat quarters as a gift! Holy cow! Julie you rock :) Now to find the perfect pattern…

I have a lot more to share, if I can find more time to blog, I will! I hope you are all doing great, enjoy the weekend!

Quilt #3 from Grandma's clothes

2011-11-15T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I can say that I accomplished quite a big project now, and I am so glad that it is finished! I am proud of myself for sticking with it. I learned a lot from it. Quilt #3 from granny’s clothes is officially complete!

I wanted a pattern that didn’t use a lot of triangles, after the last one with pinwheels, I decided trying to get stretchy fabrics to lay down nicely after being cut at 45 degree angles wasn’t worth the anguish of doing again. I found another pattern from the book, Quilts, Quilts & More Quilts! to use.

I came across this pattern of a quilt made with bowtie blocks, bingo! Once again, I laid out my fabrics in light and dark piles, and then paired them up, it seemed to work, you can actually see the pattern on the quilt!

The backing of the quilt is a soft tan flannel, again from Connecting Threads. I like their flannels! I quilted it using a tan thread, and bound it in dark blue.

I was surprised at how well these quilts went through my machine when I was free motion quilting them. I thought they might bunch up (because of stretchiness) or break a needle. I pin baste my quilts, and I tried while basting to pin pretty close at least 4” apart. It worked well. The quilts all were quilted with no issues or puckers.

My advice to you for making a quilt out of clothing is to find a pattern that isn’t too intricate, but can show off your fabrics. These are memory quilts after all. Also, keep in mind some fabrics made from clothing (like the ones in these quilts) don’t like to be ironed, and are incredibly stretchy. You have to be patient and careful with piecing them. I would even recommend using stabilizer, and a lot of pins!

Here are the posts for Quilt #1 and Quilt #2.

Santa's Helper

2011-11-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

The weather has been really amazing here this past week. It’s a bit chilly, but sunny and bright outside. The leaves look amazing in all of their fall colors. It’s so inspiring! All too soon they’ll be gone and it will be raining and gray outside, I am trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

Christmas is on my mind, or at least making things for Christmas gifts is on my mind. I’ve been chipping away at my little list for my friends and family. I plan on giving as many handmade gifts as I can, because I enjoy it so much! Usually they enjoy them too :) I’ve been making tote bags, wristlet key chains, table runners, pot holders. All to be revealed after Christmas of course! Too many of my friends and family read my blog! Here is the fabric I am using though, because we all love seeing fabric right?

I’ve had this home dec weight fabric in my stash for years, and it’s high time I used it!

He’s a mean one Mr. Grinch, a family favorite! I love the bright colors of this Dr. Seuss fabric.

Scraps and ribbons for some lovely projects are always fun to use.

A swap for the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. Look at the lovely fabrics I get to play with! Heather Ross is always welcome at my house :)

The final commissioned quilt, is being quilted!

I’ve been a busy momma, it has been a fun few weeks.

Quilt #2 from Grandma's Clothes

2011-11-04T12:32:00.001-07:00

I finished the second quilt made of granny clothes! I am pretty happy with how this one turned out. I was asked by a friend to make three quilts out of her mother’s clothing for her children. It’s been quite a project, but a very worthwhile one.

I found the inspiration for the quilt in an old magazine. I really liked the pattern, and the play on lights and darks.

After I got everything cut out, and the blocks sewn, I took it downstairs and laid them all out on the living room floor. My family was watching TV, so they were soon helping me arrange all of the blocks. The first layout I had in mind I really did not like, and then I was freaking out that is looked so terrible, and I was going to have to make another quilt. Mark took over and rearranged the blocks to make them look so much better. Thank you Mark! It was nice to have somebody else’s perspective.

I stipple quilted it using white thread, and put a green flannel on the back so it’ll be nice and warm. I bought the flannel from Connecting Threads, it is really soft and has a nice weight to it. This is a lap sized quilt, and is long enough to tuck your feet under. Perfect size!

You can see the first quilt I made out of granny clothes HERE. I am working on the third and final quilt for my customer using these clothes. The top is done, it just need to be basted and quilted.

The Purple Monster Quilt

2011-10-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

When I was commissioned to make the three quilts from a friend, another friend caught wind of it. He asked me if I’d make him a quilt for his wife for Christmas too. His only request was that it had purple in it. I was more than happy to oblige. I needed some fresh and new fabrics to work with in between working with the clothing quilts.

I dug out the pattern I had used for my orange and aqua baby quilt last year. I decided to make a bigger version of it, this time using purple and blue.

I found most of the purples at The Stitchin’ Post. Me and my family had taken a drive out there in June. The dark purple separating the blocks is a Moda crossweave, the warp and the weft of the fabric is a different color, giving it a shimmery effect. It’s so pretty. There is several fabrics from the Tula Pink line called Parisville. I love that fabric. I love anything Tula Pink designs actually…

The blues were all from my stash. I knew his wife loved dogs, so I added in a print from the Sherbert Pips line, those puppies are so cute!

This is a huge quilt, I didn’t intend for it to be quite this big, but I was having too much fun with the fabrics. I backed it with flannel, and bound it with a Parisville print.

I am selling some of my cross stitching patterns, go HERE and let me know if there is anything you are interested in!

Making quilts from Grandma's clothes

2011-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

My blog has been pretty boring lately, there are many excuses, or should I say reasons why. First off, my family life is incredibly full right now, which has been so much fun. The kids are involved in all sorts of things, and school started, which means homework has to be done. Sports need practicing, and weekends are packed.

I have been sewing, a lot actually, but just haven’t shared what I am working on. I wasn’t sure if anybody wanted to know about it. I was commissioned to make 3 quilts this summer, to have them done by Christmas. The quilts are made from the clothing of this woman’s mother. She is giving the three quilts to her (grown) children. Basically, a memory quilt. She gave me two bins full of clothing, she had already taken the clothing apart, which was nice, so I had usable pieces right away.

I’ve been slowly, but surely getting these quilts made. First off, I knew it would be a challenge. When somebody says “fabric from my mom’s clothes” I hear “polyester, slippery fabric, pastels” And my assumption was correct. There are some crazy fabrics! I was at first very overwhelmed by the total randomness of the fabrics, they were all so different, and I couldn’t wrap my head around them AT. ALL. I finally spread them all out on the floor and separated them into a “light” category and “dark” category. That helped.

I then started searching through my quilt books and magazines trying to find patterns that emphasized the light/dark methods, using simple shapes. I was also looking for something that looked traditional. After I found several patterns I liked, I emailed them to my “customer” and told her I’d like to do variations of these patterns. She was happy with them, so I took off.

The book Quilts, Quilts & More Quilts came to my rescue!

My first quilt was a trip around the world pattern. I have tried, in every quilt, to use as many of the fabrics as possible. I grouped the fabrics light vs. dark, and then found a light and dark that somewhat matched. I use “match” very loosely here. If a fabric had green, I would find another that had a green, even if it was a green that didn’t match the other, it was just green. Haha! It was killing my color theory, more like torturing it! :) It was agonizing I tell you.

Okay, so after matching my fabrics, I started cutting strips. And when you work with fabric from clothes, there is no strip piecing, no making it faster and easier, you cut one strip at a time and sew it to another. Again agonizing!

Finally I had it all pieced together. I backed this quilt with a lovely flannel, and bound it with a neutral tan. I did simple line quilting on it to hold it all together. I really like how it turned out. My 9 year old, Jessie, told me “that isn’t my favorite quilt you’ve made Mom” I am rather happy with it, using all of those crazy fabrics was quite a challenge.

The second quilt top is complete, I am currently basting it. The third quilt is in the stage of piecing the blocks together to make a top. I’m going to get these knocked out by Christmas for sure!

It has been hard to work on these when I have so many other pretty projects on my plate right now, but it feels good to actually be paid to make a quilt for somebody, let alone 3 of them!

Table Runner for Mom

2011-10-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

My mom's birthday is coming up next week, and I've been itching to make her this table runner. I made pillows for her a few months ago, and she loved them. She asked if I could make a few more things.... nothing like a birthday to get going right??

I used fabric from the Simple Abundance line by Moda, which I love, and is remnants of a fat quarter bundle I've had. The yellow is from my stash, and the backing fabric is also.

My daughter insisted we take a picture of her hedgehog family on the table runner. We found these at a local toy store, they are called Calico Critters, could you just die, they are so sweet!

I may have bought them for me, and not her...

Stella Blue Friday

2011-09-23T14:31:00.001-07:00

Welcome back to Stella Blue Friday! It has been awhile since I’ve updated about this quilt. Dianne and I both put it on hold for the summer, but we both seemed to read each other’s minds and have pulled it out again to work on.

I have been working on the small stars, there are 49 of them and I diligently sewed away last week until they were all done. It helped that last Friday evening my two friends Colleen and Victory came over and sewed with me. I love sewing night! Colleen stayed until midnight, it was great.

After the stars were done, I assembled a few of the smaller blocks.

Now, I have a lot of big blocks to make, this quilt is going to be so awesome! The fabric I am using is called Rural Jardin by French General. I got a fat quarter bundle of this fabric (and still have tons left over). Be sure and visit Dianne's blog to check her progress too!

I'll leave you with a photo I took of Mount St. Helens when we went boating with our neighbors. Isn't it great? I love living here.

Scripture Tote Tutorial

2011-09-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've had some people ask me to put together a tutorial on the scripture totes I've been making, so here you go! The bag holds a set of scriptures in it perfectly. I started making the bags for presents for the girls at church, and they loved them. They are really cute little bags.

Materials Needed:

Outside of Bag Body: 2 pieces 9-1/4" x 12-1/2"

Inside of Bag Body: 2 pieces 9-1/4" x 12-1/2"

Fusible Batting: 2 pieces 8-3/4" x 12"

Pocket: 1 piece 12-1/2" x 12-1/2"

Pocket Decorating Stripe: 1 piece 2-1/2" x 12-1/2"

Nylon Webbing for Handles: 2 pieces 12" Long

Iron fusible batting to the wrong side of your two pieces of the Outside Bag Body.

Take your pocket fabric 12-1/2" x 12-1/2"

And iron it in half.

Take your pocket decorating strip, and iron each long end 1/4" down on the backside so you won't have it fraying.

Measure about 1" down from top of pocket (where the fold is) and pin strip in place.

Sew close to edge on the top of pocket fabric, and close to the edges of the strip, use matching thread.

{optional} quilt the outside bag body pieces, I just did it randomly, I think it looks nice and adds more dimension to the bag.

Lay pocket on top of one of the outside bag body pieces (laying right side up).

Lay second outside bag body piece on top of them and make sure right sides are together.

Pin along the sides and bottom, leave the top open. Sew with a 1/4" seam along the three edges, remove pins.

Next we are going to make the bag so it will sit flat on the bottom. You squish down the corner (check the inside of the bag and make sure the seams line up) and pin.

Draw a line 2" down from the corner as shown. Sew on line. Back stitch when you start and stop to lock the seam into place.

Sew both corners as you can see here.

Cut off corners 1/4" from seam.

Make bag lining, take the two pieces of the inside of bag lining and lay them right sides together, pin along sides and bottom. Sew down one side, turn and go about 4" on the bottom. Cut your thread and leave a 4" opening, start your thread again and sew along the bottom and back up the other side, see picture above for the opening.

We are going to make the inside of the bag like we did the outside, so squish the corners, measure 2" from the tip and cut sew along the line, cut the corners away.

Your bag lining will look like this.

Next we are going to add the handles. Pin your handles 3" from each end of the bag (as shown) I like to have my handle ends stick up above the fabric about 1/4" that helps it from fraying or falling off. Make sure handles are not twisted. I will then take it to my sewing machine and baste the handles down.

Next you flip your outside bag body so it is right side out (you are getting close!) Slip the inside bag body over it and pin in place (see how the right sides are facing together?). I like starting on the end seams, making sure they are lined up and pin it into place. Make sure the handles fall in between the two. Sew a 1/2" seam all of the way around.

Flip lining over and sew the opening closed in the lining. Arrange the lining inside the bag and iron around the edges so it lays flat. Sew a seam along the top of the bag close to the edge, and back stitch at the handles, ensuring those handles won't fall off. And you are done! Enjoy your cute bag.

Bags and more bags

2011-09-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

We have been making more bags. This summer wasn’t really designated to quilting, but to bags! After I made the Summer tote from the Noodlehead tutorial, my daughter wanted to make one. I then decided to have her friend Grace make one with us as well.

The girls did all of the cutting and most of the sewing, I helped with the finishing of it, but I was proud of them for working so hard! I think it made them realize how much work sewing really is, it took us a couple of days to make the bag and that helped to break up the time.

Jessie’s bag uses fabric from the Max & Whiskers line by Moda. She picked that fabric out on her own, and Grace used fabric she had already, I love the lizards! So, here are two happy and proud girls.

In other news, I made another scripture tote. I love how this one turned out. I plan on doing a tutorial for these bags sometime soon.

Labor day weekend is here! Can you believe it? There is a lot going on. My kids start school on Tuesday, we are having mixed emotions of excitement and anxiety. Also my husband and I have been married for 12 years this weekend, so we are going on an excursion to the Columbia River Gorge. We are excited to celebrate, 12 years isn’t too shabby is it? :) I wish you all a happy and fun weekend!!

A baby quilt for my sister.

2011-08-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

My sister Nikki is having a baby boy! She is due to have him in the next few weeks, we are all so excited for her and her family. When we visited Colorado at the beginning of August, she was ready to have him then. Isn’t the last month of pregnancy the hardest?

She asked me to make him a quilt for the crib. When I asked what colors, she said blues and greens. Woohoo! I love blue and green, and have plenty of it in my stash. I picked the pattern Rain or Shine from the book by Elizabeth called The Practical Guide to Patchwork. I made it smaller than the pattern since it was for a crib.

I put a lovely soft flannel on the back, and bound it in bubbles.

The colors are so vibrant and I even had a wonderful comment from my husband along the lines of “that is one of my favorites you have made!” Wow, thanks Mark. Can you believe he gave me such a nice compliment? I think he has been studying the Husbands Quilter Comment Card I have him haha!!

I also made her a minky quilt, we made one for her daughter Lilyanne and they loved it. So I had to oblige her by making another one. I love this stuff, it’s just a mess to work with, you have to vacuum and dust after you make one, it makes so much fuzz.

Yay for babies!!

Projects on my mind

2011-08-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

My wheels have been spinning lately, I have a lot of ideas and inspirations, however, no motivation! This week I’ve been trying to get back into it, but I think the warm weather is making me lazy :)

I have lots of plans for quilts, I thought I’d share, because all I have been doing lately is petting these stacks of fabric and doing nothing with them. Hopefully writing about it will get me going!

While I was at the Sisters Quilt Show we did quite a bit of shopping. The Stitchin’ Post is such a nice quilt shop! I finally picked up the book City Quilts by Cherri House while I was there. I’ve been wanting it for such a long time. The book showcases quilt patterns using solid fabric. Since I was buying it, and the shop had such a nice variety of the beautiful Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, I picked enough out to make a quilt. Shot cottons are great, they are two-toned, the warp and the weft of the fabrics are two different colors giving it a very nice effect to the eye. (that sounds fancy huh? Haha!) Here is the pattern I will use: City Green

And the fabric, in blues and greens, and a nice black shot cotton for the sashing. I am drooling just looking at the fabric! It’s going to be so pretty.

While visiting my family in Colorado my sister pulled out a stack of Christmas prints she’s been collecting for awhile. I took them from her to make some tablerunners. I plan on giving them to her of course, unless I like them too much. I want to make several star blocks and put some sashing between them to make runners.

When I was at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe with Barbara we were both standing in the Fig Tree corner of the store staring at the most beautiful displays. That is what happens when you are at Hollyhill, your jaw is open and you walk around mooning over the fabrics and displays. After we managed to get our wits about us, I picked up a fat quarter bundle of Strawberry Fields and asked her if she wanted to split it with me. We also picked a pattern, Salt Water Taffy, and when we got home we split the bundle up. This fabric is great, the aqua and gray are what got me. We found the polkadot fabric at Hollyhill too, it is from the Breakfast at Tiffany’s fabric line. It’ll be used for the border and binding.

And of course there are the quilts I have started, and want to finish. My beautiful Stella Blue that Dianne and I started. I have put off working on it this summer. I want to pull it out again. I love this quilt so far!

My Single Girl quilt. I have a lot done on it, I have however hit a roadblock in regards to sewing curves. I need to get over my trepidation and just GO FOR IT! I am such a chicken *bok bok*

The Warm and Cool Quilt along, all of my half square triangles are ready to go. I need to figure out a pattern to lay them out in that I like and sew it together.

What are you working on, or what would you like to be working on! Let's motivate each other :)

Skirt night!

2011-08-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Jenn and I made skirts on Sunday! We've both been wanting to give it a try for quite some time, and finally got together to do it. She had some beautiful green flower fabric, and I had some Tula Pink fabric that I bought just for a skirt. We set to work. With me knowing how to do a zipper, and her knowing about the warp and weft of fabric so it would hang right, we managed to each make beautiful skirts.

*how do you pose? I am such a bad "poser"*

Thanks Jenn for a fun night! Look at this cute skirt!!

* I stood on my kitchen chair to take this photo, haha!*

At church I am now working with Young Women, ages 12-18. It's been so much fun so far. For their birthdays I am making them Scripture Totes. I just kind of winged it using ideas from the multiple bags I've made before. The girls really liked them yay!!

Sewing Space

2011-07-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

There are many of my friends who have a room in their home dedicated as their Sewing Room. They have a big table, a cork board for inspirations, a shelf to hold their stuff, and a design wall. All of you who have that space are so lucky! My house is smallish, so there isn’t a room for my sewing. I have to share. The past 9 years I have been sewing on my kitchen table. We have a really big kitchen table, but it’s our table you know? It was hard to share, and with the amount of things we need to use that table for: meals, homework, school projects etc. my sewing was always in the way, and I was so stubborn and refused to put it away because I can’t get my sewing done if I have to constantly be putting away and setting up.

This past year Mark and I have been trying to figure out what to do about it. I wanted it in our bedroom, he didn’t. I wanted a new table by our desk in the kitchen area, he didn’t. And we went round and round. He had no solutions to our dilemma. So, I brought up again moving it to our bedroom. In our smallish house, the master bedroom is HUGE. He finally relented, and I bought a folding plastic table at Costco for $50.00. And that, my friends, is the best $50 I’ve spent! I am set up right under the windows for maximum light, and I can keep up with my kids when they are out in the front yard playing in the culdesac. My kids aren’t sure if they like my new spot yet :P I’m always looking over their shoulders now, I find this really fun. They find it annoying.

I can leave my stuff out! I can make a big mess and who cares? I get a nice breeze through the window! It’s wonderful! My fabric won’t get crumbs on it! My kitchen table actually looks like a kitchen table now!

I have yet to figure out a design wall, I may not get one still, and for now that is okay. I can live with that. I am just so happy to have a little corner in our house just for my sewing.

The 2011 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

2011-07-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

We hit the quilt show on Saturday morning early, the weather was perfect all day, we were so happy to be there. I had a quilt on display this year with the Portland Modern Quilt Guild exhibit. It was really fun to see our quilts hanging, and so many people excited about them.
Over 1,300 quilts were on display, I have a lot of photos in my PHOTO GALLERY so feel free to go and take a look at many more of them.

Charissa and I liked the mermaid quilt.

Colleen, Me, Jenn and Barbara

While I was at the PMQG exhibit, Jean Wells stopped by to visit. She is the owner of the Stitchin' Post and quilter extraordinaire. It was fun to get to meet her. In this photo is: Jean Wells, Monica Solorio-Snow, Elizabeth Hartman and Me. (I am a huge fangirl of all of these peeps, so I was stoked!!!)

Miss Jill with her fabulous quilt that won the Project Modern Challenge!

The Mad Hatter, this group of quilters all read Alice in Wonderland and made a quilt interpretation, then they dressed up. I'd like to note that the Mad Hatter is my Accountant, isn't that hilarious??!?

We had a fabulous time, if you haven't attended this quilt show, I highly recommend it!

Project Night

2011-07-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

By Friday night all of us had arrived in Sunriver for the weekend. We had our Gift Exchange, and Jenn made yummy chili, and we got right to work on our projects.

Petra was working on a gorgeous pattern by Chasing Cottons, her fabrics were so pretty. It made me want to make one of those quilts.

Jenn was working on her Oregon Porch Moss quilt, love it! She told me she is almost done with it now.

I worked on the Warm Cool Quilt Along, all of my half square triangles are trimmed and ready to go! I have to find time to lay it all out in a pattern, have to choose a pattern...

Charissa was cross stitching, Jen was making a Hexagon "Z" for her cute son Zeke, Colleen was making a flip flop summer wall hanging & Jill was binding a quilt.

Barbara was working on an activity book for her grand daughter. We tried to go to bed semi-early because of the quilt show the next day :)

Shopping until we were dropping

2011-07-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

I had a plan to leave at 9:00 am from my house on Thursday morning, so we could get to Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe when it opened, that way we could spend plenty of time in there before continuing on our way to Sisters. Jenn and Charissa rode with me, and Barbara and Colleen followed us. Hollyhill was kind enough to open the "modern & children" section of their store for us, we were in there forever! We all got a lot of goodies and spent a lot of time wishing we could buy everything there. Brian and Jan are AMAZING at making the displays in their shop, it's pretty great.

After a few hours in Hollyhill we drove up to Sisters and stopped at The Stichin' Post. I had stopped in there a few weeks back when me and family drove through, but it was so fun to go with my girlfriends. We again spent a few hours in the store looking at everything, there was a lot to see and take in. I bought a large stack of Kaffe Fasset shot cottons to make a quilt out of (more on that later).

Jenn and I happy to be at the Stitchin' Post (I stole this pic from her)

(Me in the back, Barbara, Colleen and Charissa, pic again stolen from Jenn)

We managed to somehow cram our purchases into my car and continue on our way to Sunriver.

We unloaded our stuff, and set up camp for the night. We did a show and tell of what we bought and what we are going to do with it (half of what we bought, we bought "because it's cute, and I couldn't live without it" you know the drill) It was fun!

The next morning we woke up and wandered out to Bend, our first stop was QuiltWorks. They had quilts hanging from the rafters and a great art quilt display upstairs. I have to say their staff was so friendly and helpful, I was impressed, plus everything was 10% off and they had a good sale rack.

Look at these fat quarters, it's enough to make me drool!

After that we went to Sew Many Quilts, again a lot of samples, and it was a big shop. We stayed in there for awhile and most of us walked out with a big pile of fabric. By this time I was shopped out, so I was an "enabler" and encouraged a lot of fabric purchases :)

Charissa and Jenn ready to go home and sew.

I couldn't get Colleen out of the Fig Tree corner.

When we got back to the house, I ate a Dove chocolate and the message inside reads "You are Exactly Where you are Supposed to Be." AMEN!!

To be continued...

Gifts for Friends

2011-07-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

There were 9 of us planning to go to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show this past weekend, and only 8 of us made it. The weekend full of friends, sewing, food and quilts was very fun, and we were all wiped out by the end of it.

We planned a gift exchange, all of us make 8 gifts to give to each other. It was fun coming up with a plan on what to make. Here is what I came up with. Each pouch had a turquoise bracelet in them, they are my favorite bracelets to wear.

All of us at the house were: Colleen, Barbara, Charissa, Jenn, Jen, Jill & Petra. We first opened Jenn's gifts, she made us all beautiful bags, we were all pretty excited by them as you can tell.

Jill and Petra with their gifts.

Jen with her bag.

Colleen loved it!

My stack of gifts after we were all done, it was so fun.

This bag is SO Barbara.

I love my mermaids :)

Jenn and Charissa buried in treasure.

I have a lot more to share about our 4 day weekend, so look forward to more posts!

Summer Sewing with Jessie

2011-07-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

Jessie has been taking a sewing class again with my friend Barbara. This time around they made aprons, she had to break it in helping me make pasta salad! Look at how cute it is, she did such a great job.
I am teaching Jessie and her friend to sew a bit this summer too, and plan on having them make this bag. They've already cut their fabrics and we plan to start sewing this week. I made one yesterday to make sure it'd be doable for them, and I think it'll be fine. I used it today going boating, and it held a lot and looks cute too.

I used the Madras Tote tutorial from Noodlehead. Go try it out.

Have a wonderful 4th of July! Can't wait for Monday, it's going to be a fun day.

Weekend Pillow sewing

2011-06-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to make pillows for my parents for a long time. I've had the pillow forms for months and months sitting in my bedroom. I finally sat down to make them on Saturday evening. I based them loosely off of the pillows Kristyne at Pretty by Hand has made. She makes such pretty things! As I've watched her make all of those pillows I couldn't wait to make some too.

Here was my progress on Saturday evening, I was able to sew both of the tops together, and do a cross hatch quilting on the checkerboard one.

I woke up Sunday morning to sunshine streaming through my windows. It was beautiful! I finished them both up by 9:00 a.m.

The fabric I used is called Simple Abundance by Moda. I recently made a quilt from this fabric. I still have quite a bit left from the fat quarter bundle, and I plan to make table runners that match the pillows for my parents. The backing on the pillows are fabrics I've had in my stash forever. It's time they were used up! These are big pillows 20" x 20". It used up quite a bit of fabric. I enjoy making useful things like them, it's very rewarding!

In which I ramble…

2011-06-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

My husband has been dragging me all over Oregon these past few weeks, he has got a traveling bug! As if he doesn’t travel enough, he’s been to Argentina, Amsterdam, and Puerto Rico in the past month and a half. I may be forgetting a trip in there somewhere. My husband, he travels for work.

Anyways, last Saturday we “took a drive” to central Oregon. We drove through Sisters, and had lunch, and I wandered into the Stitchin’ Post. I love that quilt shop. I found some fabric. *disclaimer: I am doing 4 commissioned quilts and needed fabric for them!* I may have bought a yard for me :) Most of these purples were bought there. One of the quilts I am commissioned to make must include purples, okay! Look at them, mmmm….

I was able to cross stitch in the car, because this “drive” we took was 4 hours one way. Here is my progress! I have enjoyed stitching again, it’s so nice.

We arrived at our destination, Fort Rock. A big rock monolith, half moon crater, thing, in the middle of nowhere. We proceeded to hike all of the way around it, and in it and up it, it was really cool. If you are ever in the area *snort*, or have a crazy cool husband like mine, you should go and check it out. We got home at 11:30 p.m.

After all of this driving around, I worked on my Stella Blue quilt on and off through the week, which means I am now done trimming flying geese.

On Tuesday, the longest day of the year, we decided we needed to spend the evening at the beach. We watched the sunset on Indian Beach, look at how gorgeous it was!! We got home at midnight.

By this time I am stumbling tired, like I can’t keep my eyes open or form a full sentence. Oh, and my part time job has been really busy, meaning, I have to come in at 7:00 am, instead of 8:30 am.

Let’s see, what else… I am currently piecing my top for the Block of the Month class I’ve been teaching, here it is so far. I need to add some sort of cool border. I have to think about it. I had my final quilting class last night. I “retired” after a few years of teaching my friends every month. It’ll be nice to have a break. I was asked what I plan to do in my retirement… that is hilarious.

So, this is me this week, a rambling, stumbling, trying to think clearly MESS. Hey, at least I am still having fun right? :) I will work on a “good” post for you guys in the next few days.

Warm Cool Quilt Along

2011-06-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

Have any of you been to Jeni’s blog, In Color Order? She, for one, has a fabric stash that will make you drool, and two takes the best photos of her fabrics, making you want to start sewing right after you get done reading her posts. She is starting a quilt along that uses half square triangles (simple!). You choose warm and cool colors from your stash (pretty!) and make a really nice quilt. I don’t do a lot of quilt alongs, simply because I can’t keep up with them. This one however, seems straightforward, so I feel braver joining in.

I was browsing blogs last night trying to relax (I held Cub Scout Pack Meeting at my house a few hours before), and came across her instructions of how to choose your colors, I was sucked right in. I then headed up to my bedroom where I keep my fabric and found lots to choose from, and pulled out these stacks.

Warm Colors

Cool Colors

There was a lot of everything, I think my stash works well for me, and I am so glad it does! I have a lot of cool colors because my favorites are blue and green. However, I have a lot of red and pink too. And orange, who knew?? I plan on making the twin size quilt, because I don’t make small quilts :)

What do you think, would you like to join in too? It will be a very colorful quilt along, perfect for starting off our summer!

Stella Blue Friday

2011-06-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for the kind comments left on my last post for the quilt I finished. You are all so encouraging! It makes me happy that you all have taken the time to leave a nice comment. This blog has been such a fun thing for me to do, and a great way to meet fellow quilters and stitchers.

Cutting, ironing, sewing, ironing, sewing, trimming… etc. This is the repetitive nature of making 196 tiny flying geese.

I made a test block this week to make sure all of the pieces I am making are fitting together. So far so good!

Dianne and I are using the same color of fabrics, however her blues are much darker, our quilts are going to look so different, but both will be beautiful! Go visit Dianne today and see her progress.

Stepping Stones Quilt Finished!

2011-06-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

This pattern looks a lot like stepping stones to me, so that is why I named it. I've been trying to give my quilts a name recently, even if it is the name the pattern designer picked :) Do you name your quilts?? As you can see, I've been on a roll lately with quilt finishes, this is the last one for awhile. I have been pushing myself to get this one done. The end of the school year is this week, and it's a gift for Jessie's (other) teacher.

The pattern is from the book Fat Quarter Five, by Heather Mulder Peterson.

I used the fabric line Simple Abundance by Moda. I had a fat quarter bundle of it, and it was begging to be used for this quilt. I still have a lot of the fabric leftover, and I have lots of plans for it next.

The thread I used to quilt it was lightly variegated, it is a cream color with tan variegations. I am really happy with it, it was hard to choose a thread color because of the light and dark fabrics used in this quilt. I did straight line quilting, which made a grid on the back, I love that.

In an effort to "use it up" I have had these flannel pieces in my fabric stash for awhile, they are remnants from other quilt backs, and I decided to piece them together and use them on this quilt, the colors all match the top. I don't know that I like this back much, but I am happy that I used the fabric :)

In Portland the sun was refusing to come out, and finally this weekend it did! We were really enjoying being outside. On Saturday our neighbors took us on their boat. The Columbia River that runs through Portland is huge, and a lot of huge ships go up and down it delivering goods. Look at this oil tanker, it was slightly overwhelming to be riding in a tiny ski boat next to this monster.

We drove to the Columbia River Gorge and took in the view. Breathtaking right?

And on our way back stopped at Multnomah Falls. A great weekend! Now onto this week, hopefully I can survive.

Riding The Wave Quilt Done!

2011-05-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun weekend, it was amazing how much we were able to fit into the 3 days we had off! We were able to leave town in the early afternoon and drive the 4 hours down south to Coos Bay, Oregon. Coos Bay is on the coast, and has a huge Sand Dune state park. Our friends invited us to come and stay with them for the long weekend. They had rented a house right on the dunes so you could ride your 4 Wheelers or Dirt bikes to them. We had a wonderful time!

While we were there, I was able to finish a quilt. I got the binding sewn on before we left, so I could hand stitch it down on the drive. I got half of it done on the drive down and the rest done on Saturday in between riding 4 Wheelers. I am happy to show this quilt to you, I have been working on it for a long time and am glad it’s done to use now. The mermaid fabric is by Heather Ross, called Mendocino. I bought it when it came out a few years ago, and still love it as much as when I bought it!

The pattern is called New Wave by Elizabeth Hartman, at Oh Frannson! It took awhile to piece the top, because as you can see, it’s pretty huge. I quilted it doing a stipple pattern using aqua thread, and put a soft blue flannel on the back.

I had Charissa take pictures for me at the house there. Wouldn’t that be a nice yard to use for pictures year round?? Too bad it’s so far away :)

Garden Trellis Quilt Done!

2011-05-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

I finished up the Garden Trellis quilt this week, and I am so pleased with it! I used a Martinique Jelly Roll, designed by 3 Sisters. I love pretty much every fabric line that 3 Sisters designs, they always seem to match my house :)

I've been drooling over my Jelly Roll Quilts book for a few years now, and finally made a quilt from it! The pattern is called Garden Trellis. It went together easily, the hardest part was most of the fabrics in this collection are lighter toned, so I had to be careful how I placed the strips so that it didn't blend together.

This quilt is going to be given to Jessie's teacher Mrs. McCullum. I am making another quilt right now for her other teacher Mrs. Petrick. I hope I can get the second one done in a few weeks! The backing is pieced, I need to baste, quilt and bind it though... hmmm...

I found the backing on clearance at Craft Warehouse for$4/yard SCORE! It matches really well, I am happy about that, and it's my fave color, AQUA. Mmmm.

After taking photos of this quilt, I am realizing it really matches my beachy decor. Oh no.

I may have to keep it! (yeah right)

Stella Blue Friday

2011-05-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

Dianne and I have made some progress, awesome! I was able to get all of the flying geese done for the large part of the stars in the quilt. There are 88 of them altogether.

I laid them out a little bit, and so far so good! Trimming all of these blocks down is my least favorite part of this so far, it's rather tedious. I find myself calling my sister or mom while I am trimming so I can take my mind off of the monotany.

Next up the teeny tiny flying geese! There are close to 200 of them, so far I am getting my squares cut down to triangles so I can start sewing them together. This quilt is going to be so pretty.

Look at Dianne's blog Suburban Stitcher to see her progress!

Ragged Squares Baby Quilt

2011-05-10T15:58:00.001-07:00

In my effort to use up the stash this year, I decided to make a baby girl quilt for my soon to be born niece! I have had a lot of this fabric for quite some time. I googled: baby rag quilt patterns and up popped a tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts! I love her quilts and her blog, so I happily cut my fabric up and made this quilt. It was quick and easy.

The tutorial can be found here: How to Make A Ragged Squares Quilt

It's a good sized baby quilt, kind of big, so it can be used for growing up years. I love this size.

I love the scruffily edges it creates, I washed and dried it, then cut off all the excess fuzz and strings.

The backing fabric I've had for awhile too, I think it is SOOO cute. I love princesses and castles though, I can't help it, I'm so girly like that. As you can see from the picture below I didn't have quite enough of it, so I had to add a strip of yellow fabric. I even pieced the batting from scraps! I plan to put a label on it as soon as I find out what her name will be. I am happy with this pattern and plan on making some more in my future for more babies.

Stella Blue Friday

2011-05-05T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, Happy Friday!!

Dianne at Suburban Stitcher and I have been working on our Stella Blue quilts. I’ve been chipping away at a stack of Flying Geese all week. There are lots to make as I’ve talked about before. I like this part of the quilt making process, because it’s somewhat mindless. You can just sit down and start chain piecing these triangles to your heart’s content, and when you get bored, pick up something else for awhile.

These geese are all of the border geese.

I've started cutting the large star geese now.

I am using Rural Jardin fabric by Moda for this quilt. It is a fat quarter bundle, and I love that I am using so many different fabrics, it’s giving me the scrappy look that I like so much. I am also using Best Press, a spray starch on this quilt. I’ve never used spray starch, and lately I keep hearing about how much nicer it makes your fabric to work with. Since this requires a lot of triangles (bias cuts) I thought this is a perfect time to try it. So far, it’s been great.

Trying to get back in the groove

2011-05-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

I needed a little pick me up, the quilts I am making right now are big and require lots of thought. My brain has been shut down these past few weeks. So, I pulled out a coin purse pattern I've had, and decided to give it a go.

The pattern is called Cash & Carry by Atkinson Designs. I thought they were cute, and I like finding new ways to make little bags. My favorite was the one that held the cards on the outside pockets, so this is the one I tried first.

I made a few mistakes, and realized half way through that I should have been using a walking foot.. but I plan to make several more soon! I got my practice one in now :D

Playing Catchup!

2011-04-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

I have been MIA for quite sometime now. I feel like April was a blur it flew by so fast for us. We were out of town all of last week for a fun and much needed family vacation. Do you have friends where their whole family is friends with your whole family? We are lucky enough to have a family that we love to be with and are lucky enough to call our friends. The Jarvis family invited us to go to Mexico with them and stay in their vacation home with them. The rain here in Portland has been endless and we were all wanting some sun! The house is near Puerto Vallarta, we swam in the ocean, played in the sand and just rested. It was heaven!

We got home to me being sick with allergies... Yuck! I am just feeling normal again *love Claritin*. I also had my bithday this past week. My family is so sweet and got me gifts for the new deck in the backyard.

So it is needless to say that I haven't sewn for two and a half weeks!!! I miss it and finally started up again today.
Dianne at Suburban Stitcher has been working hard on her Stella Blue quilt. I started in on making some flying geese. There are a lot of them and we are going to be pros by the end of this quilt! I am using the fit to be geese ruler to make them. The ruler does make perfect geese!I have three quilts to baste quilt and bind by June. I hope to start working on them this coming week. I can't wait to start quilting them.
Here is to a productive week! Have a good weekend everyone!

One more thing, I am selling a lot of cross stitch charts at a great price, go and check it out!

Inspiring Friends

2011-04-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

We had quilt class at church a few weeks back, and I took some photos of what my friends are making, because they make some awesome stuff, and more people need to see their hard work. They inspire me to keep trying new things, and to keep sharing what I love.

Karen has been working on this quilt for a few years, I was with her on multiple shopping trips when she was collecting all of those blue fabrics. The pattern is American Pie by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company (I made the same quilt in Red and White) I love it with blue too, now I may have to make it again LOL!

Karin loves to make her own patterns, these fabrics are Bliss fat quarters, she cut them wonky and sewed them back together. I love it!

Karen is getting hooked on cross stitching, and is making this adorable bib for her nephew.

Victory has had fun putting this quilt together, it's very scrappy and gorgeous. Wait until you see the pinwheel quilt she is making right now, it's going to be awesome.

Closeup.

Victory brought a design wall with her to the class, so we could hang our blocks up and check them out. These are Karen's blocks, in black and white.

These are my blocks in orange and aqua, it's been fun so far.

The blocks I taught in class are these two, teaching how to cut and sew quarter square triangles two different ways.... fun!

Cross Stitch Charts for Sale!!

2011-04-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

All charts listed will have notes whether they were used, or not! They come from a smoke free home and have been taken care of! Shipping will be determined upon sale, and will be very inexpensive. Please email me: oregonsurfers@gmail.com if you are interested, or leave a comment.

Little House Needleworks:

Faith Kit: with 5 Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

America $3.50

Never Used

Garden Pleasures $3.50

Gently Used

Apples with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Blessed are the Peacemakers with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Pineapples with Crescent Colour Threads $10.00

Never Used

Colonial Homes $3.50

Never Used

Quilt Time Sampler SOLD!

Never Used

Starlight Sampler $3.50

Never Used

The Bookshelf $3.50

Never Used

Lizzie Kate

#F21 February Flipit with Charm $3.50

Never Used

Country Cottage Needleworks

Forest Snowfall $3.50

never used

JBW Designs

French Country Apple SOLD

gently used

Heart in Hand

Star Spangles Summer Chart $1.00

Never Used

Shepherd's Bush

ABC Complete Kit: Threads and Linen $8.00

Never Used

Bee Scissor Fob Kit: Scissors, Threads, Linen etc. $20.00

Never Used

Chanukah Chart $1.00

Never Used

My Garden Chart with Remaining Silk Threads $3.00

I stitched this kit, only threads leftover remain, which is enough to stitch again

Long May She Wave Needleroll: Complete Kit $9.00

Never Used

Americana Needleroll: Complete Kit $9.00

Never Used

Waxing Moon Designs

Apple Harvest: No Buttons $3.00

Bent Creek

Educated $1.00

Never Used

Mill Hill

Holiday Weathervanes: Gingerbread House Kit $5.00

Never Used

Mr. Snowflake Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

Star Snow Charmer: Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

The Victoria Sampler

Satin Hearts: Complete Kit $5.00

Mistletoe: Complete Kit $5.00

Never Used

Please email me at: oregonsurfers@gmail.com, or leave a comment if you are interested in purchase these kits, shipping will be very inexpensive!! Thank you for looking!!

Stella Blue Friday

2011-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Stella Blue construction has begun! I am starting with the many flying geese, there are three different versions of them, so I starched and ironed my fabric (for the first time!) and am getting the squares and all cut out.

I had to try out the "Fit to Be Geese" Ruler too, it does work nicely! Carrie has a tutorial of how to use the ruler. I had to sit down and re-figure the pattern to cut the flying geese out, because using the ruler requires different sizes of squares.

While cutting out strips to cut into squares, I took some photos of how I speed up the process, I am sure it's nothing new to many of you, but I found it helpful. I learned it while making a pattern by Eleanor Burns.

First you cut your strips, then lay them evenly out on your cutting mat.

Lay down your ruler and cut off the selvages. Line up your ruler to the size of square needed and cut through all of the strips. Repeat until the strips are used up.

And Viola! A nice stack of squares that were made quick!

Today is my son Curren's birthday, I can't believe he is 10 years old!! Tomorrow is my daughter Jessie's birthday, she is 9! Life is sure going fast, but we are having a lot of fun :)

Weekend Warrior

2011-04-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I got a lot done due to having all day Saturday to MYSELF. What?! How do the stars align so this happens? My husband went to some car swap meet thing downtown and took the kids with him! Thank you Mark, you rock.

In between loads of laundry I sewed, went to lunch, sewed, etc. Mostly I just sewed! I started a quilt a few weeks ago using the fat quarter bundle I've had forever by Bonnie and Camille called Simple Abundance. It's so beautiful! I chose the pattern from the book Fat Quarter Five by Heather Mulder Peterson, because the patterns are obviously fat quarter friendly :) I have lots of white yardage too, so no need to buy anything.

The pattern is called Gypsy Girl. You like my design wall? I lay it out in my living room then go up on the landing and look down at it, it works okay if the kids aren't running around too much. This quilt was fun to make, and came together easily. I still have the border to add, but it'll get there. This quilt is going to a teacher...

AND I got another quilt top together from the book Jelly Roll Quilts. The pattern is Garden Trellis. I used the Jelly roll Martinique by 3 Sisters. Oh man, when I laid it out on the couch, it just matched my house so perfectly (except the pink).... and I am in love with this fabric. This still needs borders as well.

I just had to share, I was so excited to have a productive sewing weekend.

Stella Blue Quilt Along

2011-04-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have been sewing, but life is getting busy for me right now, so I haven’t been able to post a lot lately. Dianne over at Suburban Stitcher and I have been chatting.

We both have the pattern from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company called Stella Blue.

We both have the fabric.

We both have the Fit to be Geese ruler to make the bazillion Flying Geese blocks.

So, we are doing a quilt along!

I’ve been eye balling this pattern for a few years now, and have always wanted to make this quilt. The fabrics I am using are Rural Jardin (a fat quarter pack) by French General for Moda. I love love love this fabric. It’s antique looking, elegant, and so beautiful. I typically don’t like florals on fabrics, but these floral prints speak to me. Obviously, as FQ bundles don’t come cheap. So, every Friday Dianne and I are going to post our progress on this quilt.

And this fabric was purchased last year while on one of my buying sprees. I am so excited to use it, this quilt is going to be awesome!

Also happening these next few weeks… we are building a deck off of the back of our house, Curren has the Pinewood Derby next week, Curren and Jessie’s birthdays are next week, it just never ends does it? Life is great :D

Quilting Notions to make life easier

2011-03-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting. It is always fun to go, and now that I've been several times, I am making some friends, and I enjoy that! I get so nervous when I first meet people, it's silly really. But everyone is so nice and chatty, you forget to be shy right away.

Jen taught us how to make zipper pouches, I've made some, but her tutorial taught me even more, thanks! And the meeting also had everyone share their favorite tools and notions. Oh man, that was great. I love hearing tips and tricks!

Here is what I shared. Jenn over at Quiddity Quilts showed me this, and I use this tool ALL of the time. It is made by Scotch, and it cuts wrapping paper. That in and of itself is very nice. BUT after you've sewn a long chain piece, with lots of thread to cut inbetween, you have to cut them apart right? The cutter is so easy you just slide your thread into the razor and it cuts it right in half, it works like a charm. I've seen these at Joann's, or Target. I am sure you can find them about anywhere.

Then I shared the Kwik Klip. I pin baste my quilts, and closing all of the safety pins can hurt your fingertips. I found this at Joann's as well. The tool has notches on the end of it, so it grabs the safety pin and you push it closed, it is so much faster and nicer to your hands.

Last, my friend Colleen told me about this next tool, she learned it at a class she took. Most of our husbands have an electric razor. On the razor is a pop up trimmer, for a beard or mustache. Well, if you have sewn a long seam incorrectly, and need to unpick that long seam using a seam ripper, it can take forever. You use the trimmer on that razor! You pick apart the first few seams, and then take the trimmer and open the fabric, cut the seams, it just zips right apart, it's so much faster, and you can't really hurt your fabric unless you press ridiculously hard. Just make sure you pick the threads out of the razor before putting it back or you get some weird looks from your man! LOL!

Let me know if you try any of these out! They have made my life much easier. What are your fave tools you can't live without??

Happy Art

2011-03-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Back in December we went to Utah before Christmas to visit out friends. In order to stay sane I was reading my blogs on Mark’s IPhone during the 12 hour drive. I ran across a post from Lizzy House saying she was having a studio sale. It turns out she lives in Salt Lake, about 10 minutes from where we were staying. When we finally got there, I took Jessie over to her studio to check it out. Lizzy was very sweet, and had some really nice art, fabrics and ribbons for sale. I walked out with a print she had made and a quilt pattern. I finally framed the print last week, and had to share it with you, I think it’s adorable, and I love the color. I found some scrapbooking paper that I liked and put that as the background to the print.

While blog hopping I found a fantastic artist. Katie Daisy make the most beautiful paintings, the colors are so happy. That’s the only word that comes to mind when I see her art HAPPY. I bought this print. Her etsy store is: thewheatfield.

Then I went to Craft Warehouse and found a standard frame, and had them mat it so it’d fit in the frame. I chose the turquoise mat, I know it’s dark, but I think it lets the colors in the painting shine. I walk in my house and see it hanging on the wall and smile.

Nothing like new art to freshen up the house.

Lazy weekend

2011-03-14T11:46:00.001-07:00

What a weekend! The weather was pretty miserable, so we spent a lot of it running errands and lounging around. I thought it would never stop raining last night, sheesh! You have got to love Oregon… or not LOL!

So, due to the weather I’ve been lazy and slothful. Gray cloudy rainy days tend to do that to a person. I did have some friends over on Friday night to sew, and that was fun. I made slow and steady progress on my Single Girl Quilt. Many of the people doing the Quilt along are flying! I am not however, and I’m okay with that. I have two “test” blocks I’ve done now with the curved piecing. I just pin it like crazy and that seems to work okay.

Another thing I did all weekend long was watch Downton Abbey on Netflix. It is a pretty good show, I think the acting is awesome, and I kept laughing out loud in some parts. It is along the lines of a Jane Austen movie with the intrigue and characters. Kind of slow and subtle, I like it. Has anyone else been watching that show? It is put out by PBS.

This week is the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting! Is it just me, or did a month just fly by and I didn’t even realize it??

Rectangle Squared Quilt Finished

2011-03-08T17:25:00.001-08:00

The pretty Rectangle Squared quilt is all done. It is going to a new home this summer. How lovely are these colors?? I really do enjoy this quilt, it's very happy. While I was in Montana in October, I stopped at a quilt shop in somebody's home called 4 Winds Quilting. She had some gorgeous bright fabrics. I fell in love with the Amy Butler print you see on the border, it is from the Love collection. I like the dark purples, and the flower print on it has many different colors to match to. I then went through my stash and pulled out lots of lime greens and purples to go with the Love fabric. By the way how do you like my cute quilt models?? Adorable kids! I like that my kids and my neighbor kids are unfazed with my quilting, they are all involved in it, whether it is ironing, helping me choose colors, or just watching me. I have an audience all of the time LOL!I stipple quilted the quilt using a lime green thread on front and back. On the border I used a dark purple thread so it'd blend in better. The pattern is called Rectangle Squared and can be found at Film in the Fridge.
I am trying so hard to use up my stash and not buy a lot of new fabric this year. The back of this quilt shows that. I had about 2 yards of that green flannel in my stash, the purples on the sides were used in the Trip Around the World quilt you see on my side bar. I've had them forever!
It looks good in my living room right?? I may have to make another quilt using these colors. See that painting on the wall? I just hung it this week, and it is soooo pretty. More on that print to come soon.

Re-Arranging

2011-03-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

I sew on my kitchen table, aka "the sewing center" my husband is less than thrilled my machine is set up here 365 days a year, I will take it down if we have company, but only if they aren't family haha! Our house isn't very big, we don't have an extra room. So, this is how we have to live with it. Plus I like having the big table to spread my quilts and blocks on while I work. This does mean I have to clean it up every day, or stack it and put it on my sewing machine.

My fabric storage is all in rubbermaid bins, in my bedroom closet, and under our bed. We have an unused entertainment center sitting in our bedroom. When we got one of those big tv's we had to get a different entertainment center, and we just drug this up to our room for temporary storage. It's been there for over a year now, I pulled everything out of it, as in VHS tapes, boxes of photos, albums, random knick knacks, and threw most of that away. Not the photos :P

Anyways, I then pulled out the bins of fabric from my closet and re-organized them. I was able to get one huge bin out of my closet and one bin out from under my bed. They are now dwelling in my "sewing center" no longer called the entertainment center. I love it!

In my quest to continue using my stash in 2011, I pulled out the super cute fabric I bought last year. My sister in law is having a girl this summer (yay!!!). So, this will be the backing fabric, and I pulled out pinks, yellows and greens from my stash to make the top.

I am using the tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts called the Ragged Squares Quilt. Easy, cute and not too big. I cut out the squares this past week, and plan on whipping this together soon. Gotta use that stash!

Holiday Happy, a few months late...

2011-03-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

Back in September Randi over at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics was having a giveaway, and I won! Woohoo! So, I started making the quilt pattern and fabric that she sent me, and finally I have finished the quilt top. I am in love the red and aqua color combination along with everybody else. It's so clean and fresh.

The pattern is called Skipping Squares by Cluck Cluck Sew. Great pattern, it used up those 10 fat quarters so well, and the quilt went together quickly, that is whenever I would sit down to work on it. The fabric is called Holiday Happy designed by Miss Monica over at the Happy Zombie. *hi Monica!!*

I have some Bliss flannel for the backing fabric. I hope to get it quilted in the next month or so. We shall see. It will be a nice looking quilt when it's done!

Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt DONE

2011-03-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

This little quilt was really fun to make, I finished stipple quilting it and binding it over the weekend. All of it was from my stash, and it really isn't a big quilt at all, like a crib size. So, all of you should go out and make one.

There were 4 blocks leftover which I pieced into the backing. I've had that big piece of green solid in my stash forever, so I figured now was a good time to finally use it.

I stipple quilted it using a cream colored thread, it really stands out on the back, but blends in well on the front.

I used the tutorial from Oh Fransson! called Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt.

February days...

2011-02-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting last week was so much fun. Barbara and I rode together, it’s so nice to have somebody to drive with! We saw a lot of gorgeous quilts, learned all about color, and had a good tutorial using glue basting, which I am going to try soon with my Single Girl Quilt. It is always great to go to these meetings, so those of you who live in the Portland area should really come to them!

In other news, Jessie and I are working on an “I-Spy” quilt for her little cousin. I bought a package of 6” novelty squares from The Center Diamond in Cannon Beach about 3 years ago, and they have just been sitting in my stash waiting patiently. Jessie laid out the squares by herself, and pieced and ironed everything, look at her go! I am going to quilt it for her, she said she wants it to have the squiggly quilting with rainbow thread on top. How cute is she? So, we basted it the other day, here she is hard at work.

I started working on a new quilt, I always like having a dozen things going on at once to be creatively happy. So, I pulled out my Martinique Jelly Roll and started the pattern Garden Trellis in the Jelly Roll Quilts book. It’s the first time I am actually using this book, I’ve been drooling over the patterns for a long time now.

Martinique is an amazing fabric line, the colors are gorgeous. There are aquas, pinks, reds and a nice gray color. It was fun putting this together. I am halfway done getting the blocks sewn together.

It is supposed to snow today, you know Portland, it just rains most of the time, so snow would be fun.

Mermaids Riding the Wave

2011-02-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

I've been hoarding fabric, nothing new really. The Mendocino Mermaids that Heather Ross designed are one of my all time fave fabrics. The colors are my favorite, it is ocean themed, and hello cute little girls? This quilt was started back in June of 2010. It took awhile to cut out, and then I didn't really get any further. This past month I finished the top up. It's really big, just the way I like a quilt!

The pattern is called New Wave by Elizabeth Hartman. The pattern had instructions written for all quilt sizes, which was great. I chose the twin size. I had enough fabric to do a king haha! I kept it smaller :)

I bought some really nice flannel at Fabric Depot for the backing, it's washed and ready to be basted now. I can't wait to get this quilted. And this quilt is staying at home with me!

We drove out to Sauvie Island again today to see birds and let the dog run and play. Mark took this picture of us, I loved it. Look at how big my kids are getting!

Beach Mat

2011-02-16T21:56:00.000-08:00

The Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting is tomorrow night. I am so excited to go! They asked everyone to bring a "mug rug" to the meeting. A smallish placemat is what it is. To put your mug of coffee or hot cocoa and a treat on. There are some adorable ones floating around on Flickr.

My first thought was a "mini" picture. Then of course my thoughts drifted to the beach. That is where my mind is a lot, at the beach. We love it there. So naturally I thought of surfing, my husband the addict. He loves surfing. Anyways, surfing made me think of Heather Ross, and the AWESOME surfboard she put her artwork on. I want one so bad to hang in my bedroom. As if I'd use it for surfing!

The beach hut has it's very own Mermaid surfboard! Ha, see I got my surfboard after all. Awesome right?? There you have it, my very first beach mat. Sorry, can't call it a mug rug, it's made for the beach.

You all want this board don't you?? I know I do.

Single Girl Quilt

2011-02-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

I've had the pattern to make the Single Girl quilt for over a year now. I've seen several made, and they are all just beautiful. Jenn showed me the one she started, and I loved it.

There is a group starting up to do a quilt along, and they'll have pictures and help for all of us who don't know how to sew a curved seam *raises hand* This should be perfect for me.

I pulled the fabrics I want to use, all from my stash. And of course they'll be blue and green. My favorite combination. It should be lots of fun.

My husband insisted we go on a drive this morning to get out of the house. We all kind of drug our feet, but once we got to Sauvie Island, we were all wide eyed and loving it. There were birds everywhere. My new camera with the zoom lens caught this big bald eagle in a tall tree, look at how pretty he is! I love it here.

These horses were pretty too, they scared that huge flock of geese up into the air. It was a perfect morning to go for a drive. Thanks Mark :)

Nine Patch Lattice Quilt Top

2011-02-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has left such nice comments about the Hexagon Quilt on my last post. You are all so nice! I love that you can appreciate the work that goes into a quilt and how beautiful they are. Your comments make me want to go out and try more things, you all inspire me, so thank you. Blogging is sure fun isn’t it?

So, I am a month into - Stashpact11 - buying no fabric. *shock! gasp!* That’s pretty good I think. For one thing I’ve been pretty busy, so the quilting time has been cut back a bit, which makes me not want to buy anything anyway. When we get a few months into the year will be when it gets hard! Usually after I finish things I tell myself I deserve more fabric… pshaw! I do not!

I had pulled several greens, tans and orange fabrics from my stash last month. I wanted to make a smaller quilt with them for a boy. So, I remembered the tutorial on Oh Fransson! I have loved this quilt, and the wonky blocks, they are so cute. I’ve never made a wonky block in my life, so this was pretty fun to do. Her tutorial makes it very easy. And you really don’t use much fabric. So, I still have a large pile of leftovers :)

I wanted a nice tan solid for the background blocks on this quilt, I was worried I wouldn't have any. I didn’t want to buy fabric… Why do I worry? Of course I had some, not like I remembered or anything :)

The backing will have to be pieced, I have 4 blocks leftover I can use, and a solid green I found. The binding will be orange :) This is a quick and fun quilt to make, go give it a shot.

Next up?? The New Wave quilt I started forever ago using those sweet mermaids…

Hexagon Quilt Finished

2011-01-30T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well here she is, after almost a year of working on. The hexagon quilt is officially done and ready for use! I kept the quilting straightforward and simple. I outlined the star and the inside pattern of the block. I used a turquoise print for the binding, my favorite color.

I got creative with the back, I only had 3 yards of the flower and bird print. So... using the leftover triangles from the blocks, I pieced them into long rows and added them. I had the pink in my stash and it was just the right color, so I added a strip of that to the bottom.

This is for sure the hardest quilt I've pieced, but all of that hard work and unpicking of seams and re-ironing was worth it. It's such a pretty quilt. The fabric I used is called Plume. Tula Pink designed it for Moda. It was a jelly roll, with white background fabric. Julie at Jaybird Quilts had a quiltalong for it. I really encourage you to make one!

I'm all over the place

2011-01-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

After a quilting power session on Sunday morning I was able to finish the quilting for the Hexagon quilt. It turned out nice, and I am getting ready to bind it now. I was asked how I quilt this? I have a Baby Lock Quilters Choice sewing machine, it has a table on it. I do all of my free motion quilting on it. This can be done on any machine, you really need an extension table though. Since I quilted this quilt with straight lines, I used a 90/14 needle and a walking foot. I lengthened my stitches just a bit, and off I went! It requires a lot of patience, and a lot of breaks. I can usually quilt 15-20 minutes at a time, then I have to get up and walk around. So, if you all want to give it a go, you should :)

This week I am teaching quilt class at church. I’ve been teaching a block of the month to whomever is interested. It has been a lot of fun. This month we are learning the leaf block. I am using all aquas and oranges for my blocks. It’ll be fun to see everybody’s come together.

I started cutting up the stack of fabrics I had put together that are green, orange and brown. I am using the tutorial from Oh Fransson! called Crazy Nine Patch Lattice Quilt. It's super fun! Elizabeth is brilliant.

So many projects...

On Saturday the sun came out here in Portland. This is practically unheard of for January. Mark and I decided we had to get out and do something, so we headed to the Columbia River Gorge to do a hike. We went to Beacon Rock State Park. It is in Washington, and the hike is straight up Beacon Rock (850’), with a great view all the way up. Then you wander straight back down. It was a very fun hike. I had to stop and rest on the way up, my kids ran up the whole way, they are crazy!

After that we drove back to Vancouver, and went to Fort Vancouver. We love history and this place was fascinating and just beautiful. It helped of course that the sun was shining, and not a cloud could be seen. We had fun exploring the building and learning all about the trades that went on in the 1800’s. No money was exchanged really, the currency was beaver pelts. How cool!

My shoulders hurt

2011-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

After consulting my BFF Becky on how to quilt my Hexagon quilt, we came to the conclusion that stars should be outlined. Of course that would look good right??? When I came home and considered that even more, I realized just how much it would require moving, stopping, moving, stopping, readjusting... oh man! This is why I love free motion quilting, it's not nearly so involved. As much as I wanted to just stipple quilt this top, I did the right thing and am outlining those stars. With pink thread!

I'm almost half way done... my shoulders are killing me! Off to do some yoga, maybe that will loosen me up. I think quilting this quilt totally counts as a workout in itself. :P

Stash...

2011-01-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

I joined a Flickr group called StashPact11. They are trying hard not to buy any fabric (or yarn for those knitters out there) for the whole year. You can make your own pact, and write it down over there, and we all help each other to stick to it. It’s going to be hard, I’m not gonna lie. I love buying fabric, I am addicted to it I think (I know). So, this will be fun to talk to other people about it, and it’ll be even funner to use all that pretty fabric I’ve got in my house waiting so patiently.

So, in joining this group it has focused me looking at the fabrics I’ve got, and all of my patterns. I plan to get started on this right away. I’ve been making piles of fabric and joining them up with patterns that might look good with them… it’s soooo fun. There are stacks all over my bedroom right now!

Here is a stack I am loving right now. I want to make a baby boy quilt using these greens, browns and maybe a little orange. I can’t decide for sure on the orange, but I kind of like it. I want to do a simple square in a square pattern.

This fabric is for another red/blue/tan quilt. I made one last year and gave it to my coworker. My sister is needing one now too I think. I’ll probably do another half square triangle quilt with them, and use a different layout.

And this pretty jellyroll I want to use and make this quilt from the Jelly Roll Quilts book I am constantly drooling over.

Then there is the quilt from Elizabeth Hartman’s book I am loving. I have a lot of fabrics that would look adorable with this pattern I think…

But what about my Rural Jardin Fat Quarter bundle? Cathy is making a quilt using these fabrics, which led me to commenting on how pretty it was, which led her to commenting back that I should use mine and we could sew them together… which is leading me to wanting to start this quilt right now. *edited to add* The pattern is called Stella Blue and is by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company :)

This is too fun isn’t it? Now you go to your stash and do the same, you’ll love it!

Rectangle Squared Quilt Top

2011-01-12T15:21:00.001-08:00

I’ve been in a sewing mood lately, as in, all I want to do is be home and SEW. I dream of quilts all day long! I am in La-La Land! This week I have been working on the Rectangle Squared Quilt. The pattern is free over at Film in the Fridge. She made her quilt a bit smaller than this one, I added another row of blocks to it. You know me, I don’t like making small quilts.

I played with the layout of it for awhile…

Made a big mess on my kitchen table (yes, I sew on my kitchen table)

And last night added the final border to it, using that pretty fabric called Love by Amy Butler.

This is another quilt top that I need to get quilted up now :D Woohoo!

Re-decorating

2011-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

Mark and I went on a date last night. We wanted to get out, even though we were both really tired from the busy week we had. First we went to eat some Pad Thai, it was delicious. We both looked at each other after eating and said "now what??" We started driving towards downtown Portland, and ended up somehow clear at IKEA. So, we made the best of it! We had fun looking at all of the stuff, that place is so huge. We ended up getting some cool decorations for the kid's bedrooms. When we got home from our date we told them if they cleaned their rooms really good they'd get a gift from us, we didn't tell them what we got. Well, today we cleaned and cleaned for hours... I am exhausted! It was really great to get it all done though.

I really want to paint their bedrooms, but it seems so daunting. All of the bedrooms in our house have huge vaulted ceilings, so the walls go up forever and ever. Putting a color on a wall that big freaks me out! Jessie's room needed a new light fixture, and since she has those high ceilings she got a big one. I love this light, it's so super fun isn't it?? It's like 30" in diameter haha!

Also in Jessie's room I put up some new pictures on her wall, just because. We went to an artsy show a few months ago, and I picked up the cutest postcards from Oh My Cavalier!. Her art was so interesting and pretty. I framed three of our favorites and hung them in Jessie's room. The mirrors I bought a long time ago, and it's about time they were hung.

Curren got a new chair, it hangs from the rafter in his room. He sat in it for hours today playing his Nintendo DSi. He was in HEAVEN.

Happy house, happy kids. Life is good.

Hexagon Quilt Top

2011-01-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

You guys, I finished the hexagon quilt top! Can you believe it? I am so excited about how it turned out. It was one of the hardest quilt tops I've ever pieced, but I learned a lot and loved the process. A challenge is always good... which is why it took almost a year to complete the top :)

The quilt is a lap size, it's not too big. All of those little pointy corners were a bear to put together. I feel like an expert on them now though :) The fabric I used is called Plume designed by Tula Pink for Moda. I used a Jelly Roll and white yardage. Julie at Jaybird Quilts started it all, with the hexagon quilt along. I also used a book called Sizzlin' Sixties by Heather Mulder Peterson. There are a lot of tutorials and good tips out there, so if you want to make your own hexagon quilt, jump right in!

This is the backing I chose for the quilt, I bought about 3 yards of it, and it won't be enough, so I'll have to find some other stuff in my stash that will match it. It's so pretty isn't it? I love Tula Pink's fabric designs, they are so artsy.

Now, to figure out how to quilt it...

PMQG exchange from Jen

2011-01-05T22:45:00.000-08:00

For the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting in December I shared what I had made for my exchange partner, the Schnibbles quilt. The exchange I received was made by Jen. She is such a nice person, I was really excited that she got my bag of fabrics. She went a little crazy and made lots of fun things out of it.

She made this super great bag, it’s lime green, I love lime green! It even has a pocket on it.

Then, she made lots of little zipper pouches, and a journal cover too.

Thank you Jen for the beautiful bags and journal, they are already getting lots of use.

Scarves

2011-01-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

I've got a thing for scarves, never in my life have I worn them much. I bought a shiny silvery scarf in the fall and love wearing it! This weekend was a fun one, Charissa and I went with our families to the beach to hike, and in Cannon Beach is The Center Diamond. The had the cutest beachy fringes! The two on the top with the shells were what I picked up there, the one on the bottom I've had already. I found the silky aqua fabric on clearance at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe on Saturday.

Amy Butler's book In Stitches gave me the inspiration for the fun scarf. You'd think I could think of these things on my own, but I am not that smart :P

How fun! I love the new scarf. These would make great gifts don't you think?? I hope so, I've got lots of this fabric left over LOL!

A New Year

2011-01-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

A fresh new year is always pretty fun. I love thinking of all the things I can learn and do in the upcoming year. I accomplished many of my goals for 2010 that I had made for myself in quilting. I want to step outside of my sewing and stitching haven this year though. I’ve worked part time for a whole year now. It has been life changing for me and my family. I feel like a whole new person. I’ve been trying to find a good balance for myself, how much time to devote to certain things.

This year in sewing I want to continue making quilts from my stash. I’ve enjoyed that a lot last year. I have so many quilts in my head! I won’t list them all out, I am not going to pressure myself with deadlines right away. I will try to implement a monthly “to do” list though, this helps me stay on track. In stitching I want to continue finishing the current WIP’s that I’ve started over the past several years. There are 3 big ones to do, so I will try and finish two of them at least. I will try not to buy so much just for the sake of having it.

Last year was the year of simplifying my life, less clutter, less stuff in my house. I did pretty well I think. I want to continue with it, and make a few challenges for myself by buying less stuff this year. I.E. clothes, shoes, decorations, etc. I have enough and I am content. I need to stop buying :) Oh, I am such a consumer. I love shopping, I need to love other things more!

I want to start running. My husband is a runner. He hasn’t ran for a few months however. I found online the “Couch to 5K” program. I want to start this in January. The only problem with running here (in Portland) is the rain, it rains like crazy! I suppose I can put on a rain poncho and just go for it. I am hoping if I can start running, my husband and I can do it together. I have no interest in running long distances or for long periods of time. I want to run to be healthy and have more energy. I hike a lot, ride bikes a lot and play with my kids, but I need a more steady (and cheap) workout that isn’t inside of a gym.

There are some things I want to study more. Several things, but I’ll list a few. I want to study how to use and operate my new camera. Maybe this will require taking a class or something, or just plain studying the manual and practicing with it as much as I can. I love taking photos, and this new camera is awesome! Also I would like to study my scriptures more, and continue strengthening my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I feel so grounded and happy when I take the time to do this.

Traveling is always a priority in our home. My husband is always traveling for work, and our families all live outside of Oregon. We have to travel. This spring we are planning a family vacation, this summer another vacation to West Virginia to see Mark’s family. I hope to see my family in the late summer in Colorado. We are so bad at planning ahead for trips, we usually just get tickets a few weeks ahead and go, this year I actually want to plan it out so I don’t feel so scattered.

I am rambling on I know, but it feels good to write it all down, and even have people read it. It makes it feel real. These are all hopes and dreams, if I can accomplish even one I will be ecstatic! Here is to a hopeful and fun 2011!

Gina Queen of the Sea WIP

2011-01-01T19:34:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful day. Our friends are in town visiting, so today the men took all of the kids to the mountain to ride dirt bikes, us girls got to go shopping at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe, it was such a fun day.

I decided to put a photo up of my current stitching. I started the cross stitch "Gina Queen of the Sea" by Ink Circles in 2008. I pulled it out again during the Christmas break we've had. I decided it was the one to continue working on now. The colors are very pretty, and I love the sea theme.

Yesterday we took our friends and the kids for a hike at the beach. Ecola State Park is our most favorite beach around, and they have a good 2 mile hike there, so we braved it in the freezing cold. I am glad we did, it was beautiful.

Look at the big log, it's so huge! We could have fit several more people :)

New Couch Pillows

2010-12-30T20:32:00.000-08:00

I have been itching to make these pillows for a month now. I bought the fabric when we went up to Anacortes after Thanksgiving. I finally was able to make them. The pillow forms I bought were from IKEA for $6.99 each and are 20" x 20". I used Sew Katie Did's awesome tutorial forinstalling an invisible zipper too, awesome!

The pillows have batting and backing on both the front and the back to make them hold up better, and hopefully last longer. We shall see...

The fabric on the front is from a line called Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry, it is so beautiful.

I tried some straight stitching on it using my walking foot and aqua thread. I am in love :) The quilting took some time, but the effort was worth it.

Feeling a little Owly

2010-12-26T18:14:00.000-08:00

Last year Jessie and I made an owl. She was loving the stuffed owls in the Pottery Barn catalog. My sister came to visit and said she'd love to have one for Lilyanne. Well, okay then, don't twist my arm!

Jessie's is on the left, Lilyanne's is on the right.

Jessie once again chose fabric that looks like it belongs together. We used white minkie for the head. Merry Christmas to my niece Lilyanne :)

For the week of Christmas we drove out to Utah. We were hoping to go for Thanksgiving, but the weather wouldn't let us. We visited our families and friends. It was such a great trip! We drove home on Friday so we could spend Christmas day at our house. What a great day we had, I love my little family. I hope you all had a great Christmas as well. My husband bought me a new fancy camera, I am thrilled! I can't wait to learn all about it, and hopefully you'll be seeing some nice photos on my blog now.

McGuffy Schnibbles for Lara at the PMQG

2010-12-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

Last month at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting we were asked to bring a sandwich baggy full of fabrics. The idea was to have somebody else bring home your baggy of fabric, make something out of it and only add one fabric to it. Then they bring it to the December meeting and give it to you. The bag of fabric I received was from Lara. She stuffed in that bag 80 5” x 5” squares of batik fabrics! She had wrote on the note inside that she “loves Batiks and is not ashamed” LOL! It’s okay Lara, I love batik fabrics too, they are so pretty and colorful. You all know what I like to do with 5” squares. Make Schnibbles quilts of course! 80 squares is pretty much the perfect amount to make one, so it was meant to be.

I chose the pattern McGuffy, from the book Schnibbles Times Two, I like the square in a square pattern, it’s clean and simple. It needed to be a simple pattern for this crazy fabric anyway. The fabric that I added to this quilt was the red, I had over a yard of it in my stash, so it worked for the border, binding and backing.

I used a red variegated thread to straight stitch on it. I was happy how it turned out. It’s very busy and bright, and very refreshing for me to make. Thanks for the fun fabric Lara! Jen had my fabric, and I will post photos of it next time, I am in love with what she made. The meeting last night was so much fun. There was lots of food, and the projects that everybody made their partners were AMAZING!! There were so many bags, placemats, journals, quilts, a growth chart, they were all awesome. If there is a Modern Quilt Guild in your area, I highly encourage you to attend, it is worth it.

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I will not be posting until after Christmas, we have the week off, and I plan on relaxing and enjoying my time with the kids. I hope you all can enjoy being with your friends and families this coming week. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement, I really have been blessed!

Love, Heather

This is the photo I sent out in our Christmas cards. It was taken last month up in the San Juan Islands at Friday Harbor, it was so beautiful there!

Wool Felt Candle Mat

2010-12-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

So, this is a new experience for me, stitching wool felt. It was easy, and fun, and FAST. I loved it! I have had some of these little Bareroots patterns for a few years, along with the wool felt. We went on a drive up to Anacortes, Washington last weekend (a 5 hour drive one way) and I was able to stitch all of it during the trip.

Look at how cute it is! I enjoyed making this little mat, and I have two other patterns I am going to try out someday. I encourage you to try these if you haven't already, it was nice not having to follow much of a pattern.

Quilt #3 from Stash

2010-11-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

Making quilts from your stash: Quilt #3

Magazines are one of my favorite things to get. They are full of inspiration, tips and ideas. I love my magazine stash! I’ve said before my favorite quilt magazine is Quilts & More. It’s published by Better Homes and Gardens. You can’t subscribe to it (darn it!), and it’s quarterly. So if I see one I just pick it up. It has lots of simple quilts and fun little projects. Check one out if you can.

This magazine is dated Spring 2008: I was searching for ideas to make a two color quilt. Then, I happened upon this photo. I love this quilt, isn’t it pretty?

My chosen colors are cream and green. I have lots of the colors in my stash and wanted to use them up. Plus the recipient of the quilt would love these colors, it matches their newly remodeled basement. I pulled out the calculator and started figuring out how many squares to cut to make a twin size quilt.

The green fabrics varied in value, lots of dark greens and light greens. I think it would have looked a little better if the greens had all been darker, but I still like how it turned out. There was no way I was buying more green!

The quilt size is: 80" x 80" So, yes it’s bigger than a twin size. I don’t ever make a small quilt… it’s hard for me! I backed the quilt in a green flannel, and put some of my leftover tan flannel stash in the center strip. I stipple quilted it using my domestic sewing machine. The thread color is tan. It's really soft and snuggly.

So, I got all 3 quilts from my stash completed in time to give as Christmas gifts, I am thrilled about that. It was a lot of work, but the people I am giving them to are worth it :)

Snapperville is Finished!

2010-11-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

Teach us, that we may feel the importance of every day, of every hour as it passes.

First of all, I'd like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hope you are able to be with the ones that you love today. We were going to drive to Utah yesterday, but the weather has been so bad we decided to just stay home and be safe. I am so thankful for my husband and kids, they are amazing, and I am very blessed to have them in my life.

While watching the movie Mamma Mia last night (have you seen it?? Super cute), I finished stitching Snapperville by Bent Creek. I added the buttons to it this morning. It is called "Snapperville" because you are supposed to add snaps to it, but I wanted buttons, so I guess I could call it "buttonville" but then that would just be silly wouldn't it?? :)

This took me several years to finish, but that is okay! I enjoyed working on it again this fall. Now to pick up another WIP that has been sitting in my bag far too long. All of you enjoy this wonderful holiday, and thank you for visiting my little blog.

Snapperville Progress

2010-11-13T13:31:00.001-08:00

I'm slowly but surely working on my cross stitch project called Snapperville by Bent Creek. You can purchase it here: The Silver Needle, you have to scroll down quite a bit to find it. Bent Creek charts are adorable, and there are so many of them to choose from! I started this project over three years ago, so I've been taking my sweet time on it.

I got another block stitched, the little town, super cute! There is one block left, it has a house and a flag in it. Almost there.

I'm sewing away on my Christmas quilt, all of the blocks are done, now I am sewing rows together. I've been in a "starting" mood lately, so many new projects can't wait to be done :) Have a nice weekend everyone!

Working, working...

2010-11-07T20:59:00.001-08:00

Lots of projects are happening...

The Hexagon Quilt using a Plume Jellyroll is coming along nicely, I got 7 rows sewn today (only 6 left)! It's so pretty.

I made all of the blocks for the Skipping Stones pattern. Holiday Happy fabric is adorable!

And a pile of fabric was pulled out to make a quilt I saw on Film in the Fridge. Rectangle Squared. Check it out! Pretty fabrics yes?

Also, two Christmas gifts were checked off of my list, I can't show them until after Christmas though... I wish I could they are so fun :) I've been a busy bee. Now, I am off to bed. Which I need to clear off, it's full of fabric! haha! I loved this weekend.

Quilt #2 from Stash

2010-11-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

Last December when the Schnibbles a month was pincushions, Carrie the designer at Miss Rosie’s Quilt Company chose me as the “winner”, and she sent me these two layer cakes.

She is super nice like that, it was the funnest package to receive! I am making three quilts from my stash for Christmas gifts this year. I already made Quilt #1. So, these two layer cakes were used to make Quilt #2. A layer cake consists of approximately 40 fabrics, and are 10 x 10 inches square.

I had the red sashing/border fabric in my stash, and I was happy it matched so well. Reds can be tricky. I did have to buy the backing, a soft red flannel. Making a coin quilt is very simple, I used the whole 10” x 10” square, so there was no waste.

I machine straight stitched using my walking foot a quarter inch from the sashing. Also, I lengthened my stitches just a little from the standard used on my machine. It helped a lot. My machine fed the quilt through much easier, and the stitching looks neater too. I’ve never done that before, and I will from now on.

The size of this quilt is: 88" x 61"

Okay, can you guys believe it is November??? Wow! We were all sick on Halloween unfortunately, my poor kids couldn’t dress up and go trick or treating, I felt so bad for them. We are finally feeling normal again, and hope to start on some Christmas gifts this month. At least I have this quilt crossed off of my list. Quilt #3 needs to be basted and quilted, then I will have them all done.

Halloween Joy Luck!

2010-10-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

The weather is changing, fall is here! It’s beautiful outside right now. I love the leaves turning a bright orange or dark red, it’s amazing. I was lucky this past weekend and was able to attend one of my very best friend’s wedding in Montana. Catherine and I go way back, to the 9^th grade. We did everything together, shared boyfriends, worked at the swimming pool as life guards, had sleepovers every weekend. I am lucky to still call her a friend, and we have been able to see each other often since graduation. I love her! Her new husband is a great guy, and I am so happy for them. This trip to Montana was really great for me because I was able not only to see Catherine, but my family as well. I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Billings, and it was fun to catch up with them.

Their kids are great, and I was kicking myself for not bringing my family with me (even though I really couldn’t). After the wedding I drove to Wyoming to see my Grandma and my other Aunt and Uncle. The drive was gorgeous and it kept just bringing back all of those memories from growing up. I got all sentimental and was just so happy!

So, this past weekend was great. In between wedding photos, checking out the flowers and attending dinners, I was able to go to a quilt shop. Of course I wouldn’t miss out on some shopping. I looked online before I left for a shop that looked good. I found Four Winds Quilting in Billings. The owner Nancy runs it out of her home, it is only open on the weekends I think, but she sells primarily online, go check her out. I happened to go on Friday morning. Her basement was full of the most awesome fabric! It was hard not to buy some of everything. Here is the stack I walked out with. Nancy says she plans on opening a store front soon, good luck! She has great taste in fabric, and she is very nice, I think I’ll be a long time customer :)

While sitting at the airports waiting for my connections, I brought my Halloween quilt with me to bind. I was stitching away when a lady walked up to me and asked if I quilted. We ended up talking for an hour about quilting and friends, and how much fun it all is. That’s great isn’t it? Here is the Joy Luck Schnibbles quilt complete.

Christina inspired me, her blog, A Few Scraps is really nice. She has all kinds of ideas for free motion quilting. Since this is such a small quilt I dove in and tried out some new quilting. I found a lime green thread and wandered back and forth with it all over the colored fabrics. Then I used white thread to make these weird spider things. The texture of the quilt is really nice. Thanks Christina!

October WIP

2010-10-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

This month I’ve been working on a cross stitch (shock!) Here is my progress on Bent Creek: Snapperville so far. It’s coming right along.

I’ve also been quilting my little Schnibbles Joy Luck. This little Halloween quilt needs to be done before Halloween. I’m trying some fancy-schmancy free motion quilting on it.

The Hexagon quilt has 3 rows completed. These triangles are a pain to work with, but the result is pretty cool don’t you think? It took me an hour to do ONE row. I got to be best friends with my seam ripper, holy moley! That’s okay though, we all have to learn sometime haha!

I have basted my second “quilt from my stash” quilt also, that is patiently waiting for me to quilt it. Sorry I don't have a pic of it right now.

And I wanted to say Thank You to Denise of “My Life in Quilts”. She chose my blog for the Sunshine Award! Awww! How nice. I’d like to pass this on to some of my other favorite blogs as of late. Here are my regular reads if you are interested.

Posie Gets Cozy, Quiddity Quilts, The Sometimes Crafter, Suburban Stitcher, Oh Fransson!, Red Pepper Quilts, The Twisted Stitcher, Happy Zombie, LaVieEnRosie

THAT quilt is finally finished.

2010-10-07T18:23:00.001-07:00

In between school starting (hello 4^th grade homework??!!!), Taekwondo (Curren earned a new belt!), Cub Scouts starting again (teaching 8 boys to make a leather wallet), house decluttering (million trips to Goodwill and counting), decorating for Fall, I’ve been able to fit some sewing in!

I decided on my layout for the Hexagon quilt I am making. I’m going with the big stars. Look at all of these triangles waiting patiently to be sewn together.

There was also a quilt finish!! I was talking to my BFF Becky today on the phone and told her I finished the blue snowflake with sparklies quilt, you know that one?? And she says “yes Heather, the one you’ve been working on all year?? The one you bought two years ago??” haha! Thanks Becky for putting it into perspective for me. Yes I finished THAT ONE.

The pattern of this quilt is called Starry Night by University Moda. It's a big quilt measuring 86" x 86". I put a light blue flannel on the back, and used a striped fabric for the binding. This is a kit, from Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe I bought two years ago.

I had it quilted, and the binding sewn on back in July. Well, I finally finished hand sewing the binding down on Sunday and Monday. I am in love with it. Mark asked what this quilt was for. I told him to put on the end of our bed during the winter. He just looked at me, you know the look… the “you are crazy woman” look. I am glad he still loves me!!

I will now go back to my crazy fun life, see you next time.

Hexagons!

2010-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

I couldn’t help it, I pulled out the hexagon quilt along project I started, and haven’t touched all summer. I paired the strips, and sewed them together on Wednesday night, and got most of them cut out. I finished cutting them on Thursday. So, now it’s all about the layout of the blocks, there are several that I like. But… I cannot decide to save my life. What do you guys think?

Since the fabric has busy prints on it, I was leaning towards this one.

This pinwheel one though?? Too cute.

I am using Heather Mulder Petersen’s book called: Sizzlin’ Sixties. It has so many great quilts cut from a 60 degree ruler! You can use Jelly Rolls to make these quilts, awesome. Julie over at Jaybird Quilts started this whole hexagon quilt along. It’s her fault! If you are wondering what fabric this is. It’s called Plume, designed my Tula Pink. It’s pretty and bright. The solid I am using is an off white. I was thinking of getting some light creamy yellow, or a light aqua, but I won’t. I need to use what I’ve got and not buy more :)

Jessie took over after I was done and made lots of designs of her own :)