baby blanket

A quick baby blanket for my three week old niece in South Carolina.

Fell in love with this pink floral print, and I love the super soft pink minky fabric. I stuck some warm and natural cotton batting in between to add some warmth.

Did a top stitch all around to add a little something special and I even attached one of my "homemade by M" tags.

Our holidays were very good, low key and quiet, just the way I love it. 

I have lots of projects to finish

-quilt for aria.

-quilt for chase

-quilt for ryan

-christmas quilt

I was also asked to make two quilts for extended family members. The oldest likes to hunt and the younger boy enjoys 4-wheeling. Finding fabric and a theme for that one, might be difficult.

On top of that, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to make and donate my quilts to Project Linus. I already have one in the works even though the new year isn't quite here.

lounge pants

This I just had to do. Forget everything else. Matching Christmas lounge pants ? Hell yeah !

I used these instructions and found the entire process somewhat painless. I say somewhat because when I first started I somehow sewed the crotch together and it took me a good 20 minutes (and Ryan) to figure out what I did wrong.

Cute enough that I think maybe Mom and Dad might also need a pair...you know.....for Christmas morning....

ho ! ho ! ho !

I have had two stacks of fat quarter Christmas fabric that I have been itching to work with.

I know I said that I had to finish all my other projects first, but it's Christmas and we need a Christmas quilt, so all other projects got shifted around. I can do that.

I keep seeing these stacked coin quilts, so I copied one. I have been working on it for about 3 days now, only during nap time and nap time has been averaging about an hour and a half.

I hope I can get it done before Christmas is here.

I saved some of the fabric so I can piece something together for the back of the quilt. Not sure what color I am thinking for the binding, probably red.

It will be a little larger than my usual quilts, when all is said and done.

[birthday polka dots]

This one (remember this one ?) came back from the long arm quilters as well. It is a birthday gift for my niece who has already turned two.

The colors are a change for me, and so is the actual quilting. I picked this pretty flower pattern. Look closely, you see the flowers ?

So I put the binding on today, not my best job. I think I need some "binding lessons". My corners always suck even though I follow basic directions.

Now I am wrapping it up all pretty and sending it away to South Carolina.

I have some new quilt ideas but I am trying really hard to finish my other projects before I start a brand new one. I say that a lot don't I ?

The finished size of this quilt is 40"x54" and it is backed in a beige floral fabric.

after 9 long weeks....

Look what finally came back from the long arm quilters !

She was really backed up and isn't taking a new work until after the new year. 

That means the "matching" quilts I had in the works for the twins as a Christmas gift

has been pushed back until their 1st birthday's.

Once the little one was down for nap time, I started attaching the binding, this yummy pink

fabric. I finished it in under 2 hours and now it's tumbling around in the dryer.

I decided to machine sew the back of the binding, mainly because I had already "messed" up the front of the quilt (do you see it?) so I gave up on trying to have perfection.

I still really love the way it came out.

The finished size is 39"x 48" and it is backed in plain white fabric.

...after

This is the doll quilt after washing and drying. All puffy, crinkly and soft.

It came out better than I had hoped.

The good news is that I have no use what-so-ever for a doll quilt, unless G.I Joe wants to use it for an emergency shelter....

That means it's up for grabs, leave a comment if you like it and want it, and you have a sweet dolly who needs it :)

before....

I saw this ragged squares quilt tutorial at one of my favorite blogs and I knew I had to try it. I figured small scale was best to begin with, so I have my first ever doll quilt.

It is a petite 26" by 26" square.

I also used the opportunity to use quite a few of my fabric scraps, hence the crazy off the wall color scheme.

...this was before washing....

sewing and drinking...

I have been wanting to make a fabric banner for a really, really long time now.

So I am.

I am also drinking a mug of hot chocolate buried in mini marshmallows. 

That's only because the weather has finally plunged to under 60 degrees and it feels fabulous.

I am also making a batch of jumbo chocolate chip cookies.

That's my Saturday in a nutshell.

[a twin thing]

The top to Aria's quilt is done.

I started the quilt top for Chase and already have it 1/2 pieced.

I would like to get these two done and off to the quilter's in time for Christmas presents.

(That means STOP PEEKING BREEZE !)

crayon rolls

I have been looking at these crayon rolls on etsy for awhile now.

I looked around and found an easy tutorial on chocolate on my cranium blog.

So I made one for my niece in South Carolina, who is celebrating her 2nd birthday today.

Then Kegan took a look and decided he too wanted one. I knew I had all that extra expensive baseball fabric for a reason.

So I made him one, very "boyish" with the baseballs and the navy blue star fabric. Kegan specified exactly what crayons he wanted in there and the particular order.

These were really easy to make. I don't think I had the right interfacing though. According to the directions it should have ironed onto the fabric, but the interfacing I had was very heavy and thick and I had to pin it in place.

Still super easy.

Good idea for stocking stuffers, no ?

oldie but goodie

Nothing much is going on in the way of quilting. I am still waiting on the blankets that I have out at the quilters. It's been 4 weeks now and I am starting to get anxious.

This quilt is one of my very first ones, if not the first. Ryan was getting ready to donate a huge pile of button down shirts and I snagged them and cut them all up and into this quilt.

Quite a few of the shirts had special meanings. The yellow and black checkered one he wore on our second date. The light blue one with the sailboats he wore with Kegan when we had our first family photos taken.  You get the picture.

I finished this top and I kid you not, it hung in the closet for over an entire year. I had no idea how to quilt it, or bind it. NO IDEA. Finally one day I was talking to a co-worker who had just started to quilt and I told her about the top and she said she would finish it for me.

Nothing fancy. Plain blue backing and binding with a straight stitch to quilt it all. The finished size is really odd. 48" by 77". Almost big enough to fit a twin bed but not really.

It's one of my favorites. The top is so soft and worn, the shirts remind me of my husband and it's just the right size to lay with on the couch.

a "fishy" quilt...

I love the fishy blanket.

This is the front.

The polka dot side is the back. Can I just tell you how difficult is was for me to piece that strip on the back ? I really had a hard time with it for some odd reason.

It's done. I had a little snafu with the binding. There wasn't enough for me to bind the entire quilt. In the instructions that I got she suggested cutting the quilt top to a certain size, well I didn't and that left me with not enough binding.

Oops.

My sister ending up saving the day. She had some scraps from this fabric line and she was going to send them to me. Then I found the orange polka dotty material and used that, BUT my sister (whom I love like no other) is sending me the fabric anyway and I am making some matching pillowcases.

Gavin is taking a nap right now snuggled under his new fishy quilt.

aria's quilt

This "quilt" is up next. I think I finally got it the way I want it. It is for my niece, Aria. 

Remember the quilt I made for Myra ? It had all these same fabrics only in a different pattern.

I figured it would be neat for the sisters to have somewhat matching blankets.

Alissa over at handmade by Alissa is making a set of quilts for twin baby girls and she gave me the idea to make a matching blanket for Chase. Of course since he is a boy the fabrics will be different, but the pattern will be the same.

Busy, busy, busy....

liquid crack quilting

My kit came in the mail the other day, Monday I think ?

I ripped it open and started laying out the strips. I love this fabric. I love it.

I drank 64 ounces of liquid crack (ice coffee) yesterday and I managed to sew the entire top in less than 2 hours. I also burned my hand on the iron, but that's typical for me.

I love the blue, orange and white combination. I am not the only one, both Ryan and Kegan gravitated to the quilt when they got home. I am making this for Gavin, but I think he might end up sharing with Kegan.

I smile each time I see the little fish in their bag of water. I wish I could get a hold of some more of this fabric, I would love to make Gavin a matching pillowcase.

Today I plan on putting it all together, I am going to machine quilt the top, with a plain straight stitch across. I was going to leave the backing as is, but now I think I might trim a 2-3 inch section off the side of the quilt and incorporate it into the back of the quilt.

Something a smidge different.

[fabric ideas]

Nothing much is going on in the way of sewing.

I started working on these blocks last weekend but haven't touched them since then.

Still waiting for my quilts to come back from the quilter.

Still have a pile of blue blocks that need to be put together to make Ryan's quilt.

Still have piles and piles of fabric that are attached to ideas.

To top it all off I ordered this baby stripes quilt

kit from one of my favorite sellers on etsy.

Life is wicked busy right now with Gavin's developmental appointments, classes for both boys and sports stuff. I have to squeeze in "me time", which usually gets sacrificed for "sleep time".

*shrug*

[links]

My favorite craft/sewing blogs (in no particular order)

A Quilt is Nice

Handmade by Alissa
Crazy Mom Quilts
How about Orange
Angry Chicken
Old Red Barn Co.
Chara Michele

Check them out and be inspired :)

teeny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini

Another one bites the dust.

I sewed my brains out yesterday to get this one finished. I decided against machine sewing the binding. So obviously it took a little bit longer.

It's done, but it's not my favorite.

Meh.

Gavin likes it. He was helping me take the pictures.

I think I might try and sell this one.

I don't remember what the finished size was, my hand is all cramped up and I am too lazy to get up and measure it again.

The next project is something that Ryan requested.

i am a baster *ahem*

Remember this quilt ? 

I started in back in April, or maybe it was May.

When I cleaned out all my fabric and sewing stuff for the new cabinet, I found it lurking in the depths of unfinished projects.

That's not true. I did at one time start it and I messed up (as usual) so I set it aside to fix at a later time.

Months and months later.

I picked up a can of basting spray awhile ago. I hate trying to pin the three layers together, I can NEVER do it right. Then everything shifts when I am trying to sew it all together, and...well...you know what happens.

So I picked up this spray and decided to try it. I really like the results. It was a 2 person job trying to make sure all the fabric was positioned the right way and smoothed out. Good thing Ryan was home for lunch.

So it's on the machine as I type.

Had to take a break to deal with the boys and of course blog.