Baby Quilt

My friend is having a baby in December.  Being the slacker that I am I waited til the weekend of the shower to make her gift.  It's not like I had plenty of warning to get the quilt made.  I mean seriously, I knew before she was pregnant that she was trying to have a baby.  So Friday afternoon I went to the fabric store and picked out some gender nuetral fabrics in bright primary colors. 

Cut all the fabric Friday night, made and quilted the quilt Saturday, and hand sewed the binding Sunday before leaving for the shower.  I love how it turned out. 

 

 

 

It felt good to make something, haven't had the time to fire up the sewing machine since back in the spring.  Hopefully I'll be able to stick with updating the blog and doing some quilting through the winter.  When Spring comes again and it's calving season, and planting season all bets are off again.

Zig Zag Mini Quilt

Yesterday I received my April STUD (Swap til you drop) Mini Swap Quilt. It was made for me by QuiltyBee. I just LOVE it!

I joined a few of these swaps on flickr and am having a blast with them! I'm trying to figure out where/how I want to display these adorable little quilts. I can't quite decide if I want to put them all on one wall or sprinkle them throughout the house. I couldn't contain myself this month and signed up to make 4 of them. The good thing is they really don't take long to do since they have to be under 15X15 inches. I also know that May is probably the last month until school starts again that I can really spend the time doing them.

Mini Coin Quilt Swap

I miss my camera. Please please repair it quickly. My phone just isn't cutting it.

I participated in a mini Chinese coin quilt swap online. Here is the cure little mini I received from my partner. I just love it! She used blue and green, my favorite colors!

I mailed mine to her yesterday. It took me a little while to do because the first one I made I hated the quilting I did on it. I didn't know how to fix it, so I started over and made a new one with better quilting. It's not great, but better then the first one. I can't wait for my machine quilting class!

Quilt Show weekend

So we didn't go to the Lancaster Quilt show, but we did shop. I found so many pretty fabrics, tried to be good, but bought this whole pile anyway.

And we made a little bunny tabletopper/wall hanging for Easter at my Aunt's house.

Quilt Retreat

My local quilt guild had our Spring retreat. My sister and I went, and I am just so glad we did. It was a blast to get to be away with no distractions and just SEW! There were some fun little activities scattered throughout. The theme was Back at the Barnyard. We had a hat contest, the only requirement was to use the flowers provided. I won most creative with my upside down planter/chick hatching hat. I won a cute little jar lantern. There were some really creative ideas. We also played barn yard games, an egg toss, hot potato, and a cow chip tossing contest. I won the cow chip tossing contest, and won some brown (manure) colored fat quarters. I worked on a pinwheel quilt (they are doing pinwheel quilts on ORBC flickr group), and actually got the top all put together. Now I'm trying to decide if I want a border on it or not. I also made my guild name tag. After those two things were done I started a circle quilt. We actually got to know the ladies in our guild. It's a challenge to get to know people at the meetings, but this was great. There are so many wonderful ladies in our guild. (I have more pictures but am having an awful time uploading, will try to add more tomorrow) I joined a flickr online quilting bee, called The Stitchin Bee. We just started, and Kelly is up first. Kelly is making a quilt to use at the beach so she wanted it really colorful. The only requirements were to make a 12 inch block with the fabrics sent, and include the little comic piece of fabric. The only way I could think of was a string block. So now, I just need to mail it back to Kelly.

I finished my potholders for The Potholder Pass 2 swap, so I just need to mail them off to my partner. The only thing I had to go on here was a list of colors my gal likes.

In progress

I've only been able to sit down and use my new sewing machine a couple times so far. It's a bernina 230 Patchwork Edition. I've learned so far that I absolutely love it. It doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that the 440 had but I can always trade it in later on. It sews such beautiful stitches, and it sews straight without even touching the fabric. I absolutely love the bright light it has! Unlike the Sears model Janome that I had, this machine can start at the edge of the fabric and doesn't jam up. I love the needle up/down function. The machine has a lot of stitch options, but I haven't had time to play around with them yet.

I'm trying to get started on a sewing area. My house is not the biggest house, and it has no sewing space. I usually sew in the kitchen but cleaning everything up at mealtime is not that enjoyable. I plan to finish half of the attic in order to have a sewing room. Last week we went to pick up some old kitchen cabinets from one of my father-in-law's properties. I plan to paint them white and use them as the base for a sewing table. While I was in the attic cleaning I found many more UFO's. The little blocks are a thangles project that I bought at the Lancaster quilt show at least 4 years ago. They are cute, and need some attention. Hopefully I can work on them this weekend because it sounds like a good sewing weekend with all the rain that is in the forecast.

I joined a potholder swap a few days ago. I thought I had the heat safe batting at home for in them, but I must have used it all in some Christmas presents last year. I need to run to Joann's and get some this weekend. I did get them started last night. I like how the tops turned out. I just swapped the fabrics for the second one. I'm trying to decide if I want to put loops to hang them with on or not. I hope my swap partner will like them.

Monday was the start of week two for the Pinwheel Quilt along. I made block A-2, which went together pretty quickly. I can't wait for next monday to make the third block.

Pinwheel quilt along & a new toy

I made the Pinwheel Party block A-1 hosted by twiddletails. Looking forward to block A-2 on Monday!

And I got a new sewing machine. My sister and I went machine shopping on Friday.I need to go get it set up and see if I can figure it all out. It's a bernina. I bought the 230 Patchwork edition. This machine appears to have everything I need for now, there were some really neat upgrades on some of the higher end models, but I can always trade it in down the road if I decide I want something else. Right now I'm just glad to have a machine that makes such lovely stitches. I never realized how unimpressive my current machine is, until I got to try a really nice machine.

This and That

I've been in a sewing mood lately. I finished two doll quilts this week. One was a scrap quilt from Sew Mama Sew. I just stitched scraps onto a fabric sandwich and put a binding on it. The other is for a friend's daughter. The quilt is made up of fabrics left over from a larger quilt I made her. I added smaller versions of the flowers that are the same as what is on the larger quilt.

A while ago I came across Black Apple Dolls. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across them, probably browsing from blog to blog. After some more research I found that the creator Emily was on Martha Stewart and that you can get a free pattern to make the dolls for your own personal use. Since I have no little girls I figured they would make great gifts for my nieces. I dug out the scraps and got to work. First I picked fabrics that I thought would be cute for the dolls and laid them out. I decided they needed pigtails so I had to tweak the pattern a little.

I put one of the dolls together to see how it would look. I think she is cute. She's not quite complete because she needs a face. I'm also thinking of trying to make some little clothes so they can change them. They are really fairly easy to make.
I need to finish stuffing the one with the pink dress yet. I have a feeling I'll be making a few more of these. I would like to make the arms and legs a little more substantial in my next version. I feel like they are a little too skinny for my taste.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the second one complete later on. Well complete minus the face. That part scares me a little because I'm not artistic in that way.

Now I need to get out to the kitchen and make one of my husbands favorite meals. We will be having pork from the pigs we raised, and homemade saurkraut. So thankful that my Aunt Jean told me how to make the saurkraut. It's so easy, and absolutely delicious. I've used just about all I made so I really need to try to get cabbage and make another crock full before it gets warm out.

Baby Quilt Top

Last night I finished a baby quilt top. I used a Moda Love U Charm Pack for this quilt. Yesterday my sister, mom, and I went to Sauders fabric shopping. I found the pink heart print to use as a border. Then my sister found the pink stripe, and it was a perfect choice. I tried mitered corners for the first time, and they came out pretty good, not perfect, but it was a first attempt. I have a pretty yellow piece with flowers for the back. Now I just need to send it off to be quilted.

I also picked fabrics for the Pin Wheel Quilt Along that Twiddletails is hosting. The only one I'm not sure about is the background fabric. My favorite piece is the blue print on top. Now that I have the fabric I can't wait to get started. I've always loved pin wheels but haven't gotten around to doing anything with them.

No Sew Block Swap

I participated in a No Sew Quilt Block Swap hosted by Kathleen. My group did a red/white/blue theme. The blocks came in the mail this week and I dove right in to working on them, not because I didn't have lots of other things I should have been working on. Now I have to figure out what borders I'd like to add. I'm thinking about adding a few more blocks of some type to make it a bit larger. I'd ideally like it to be at least big enough to cover up with on the couch. Here are the blocks all completed:


Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get to the fabric shop. I'm in need of fabric. A baby quilt I made needs a pink border so that's on the shopping list. Also on the list is fabric for the Pin Wheel Party Quilt Along. Not to mention I need backing fabric for a quilt I'd like to send to Kathleen to be quilted.

Another Finish

Thanks to the snow we got this weekend I had time to sit down and finish the binding on one of the quilts I just got back from Kathleen.

Swaps

Recently I signed up for two swaps . The first was a new sew block exchange hosted by Kathleen. My choice was Star of Virginia for the red, white, and blue group. I finally got my fabric cut today, well almost. I decided to sew my block together to see how it looked.

I had a whole bunch of white squares left, the fabric that I ran short on. I was so mad at myself for messing up the cutting. I looked at the pattern again and realized I should have followed the directions and not just gone on memory. After a lot of time with my seam ripper I found it's actually to look like this:

So yes, I still need a little of the white fabric, but I'll hopefully have the block kits in the mail by the end of the week.

The other swap is an I Spy swap. Now that I signed up and explained it to my boys they both want an I Spy quilt so I guess I'm going to have to find another one to sign up for so I can get more blocks to work with. Here are the fabrics I purchased for this swap.

Hopefully I'll get to the post office by this weekend because I have a lot of things I need to mail out.

Tree Skirt finally finished

Last night was our quilt guild Christmas party. Everyone dressed in pajamas, had delicious food, and sang Christmas carols with quilting themed lyrics. It was really funny. We got the most adorable little favors, a Christmas tree made out of fabric, a spool of thread, and a flat head pin with a star stuck on it. I just think it's so cute!

In other exciting news, I got my quilt back from Kathleen. I was waiting on the porch when our mail lady came with it. Kathleen did a great job! I'm so happy with it. As soon as I got it out of the box I started the binding, and finished it the same day. Took a couple pictures of it. I'm always in awe of how much the quilting makes a difference. Before it's quilted it just doesn't seem to have the same presence it does once it's quilted. It just makes me want all of my quilt tops finished right now! The next task is trying to figure out which quilts I want to send next so I can get them on their way before the end of the week.

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts, but can't really post them at this time because the recipients read my blog. I don't think my mother in law does so this one is safe. I made her and overnight bag. It was one of my first attempts at machine quilting so it leaves something to be desired, but I feel like I kind of have the hang of it now, just need to practice to be able to get smooth and not so choppy. I hope after Christmas to make some fabric sandwiches and just practice. I had fun using two really different fabrics on this one.

Last year I started a tree skirt with what I thought was enough time to finish it for Christmas but it didn't work out. I had it all put together and quilted in the center but I didn't get the colored blocks quilted. Finished them up by adding a star in each one. I have to say after putting it together it was a little hard to get the scissors out and cut the opening for the tree. I was determined to finish it this year and I did. The problem is we still haven't gotten to go and buy a Christmas tree, so the little boy decided he'd fill the position for now. However you can only be a Christmas tree for so long before the tree gets tired and needs to lay down. Apparently tree skirts make a good resting blanket.

My sister told me that the littlest girl they have (a foster child a little over a year old) loves purses. I figured I would make her one for Christmas. I made it tonight. It's nothing too fancy, but at least that way if it gets ruined no big deal. It turned out cute though.

Entered a giveaway that is offering some cute items.

Experimenting

The other day I was looking on the Sew Mama Sew website and saw a tutorial for this bag listed. I thought it was pretty cute and decided to give it a whirl. Thankfully there is still plenty of cheap Moda fabric to be bought at Fabric Mart so it makes trying something new affordable in case you don't like it. However this turned out adorable!