Another Hands 2 Help top done

Last Saturday I was checking my quilting committment calander and discovered that I am wofully behind on my promise of 2 quilts for the Hands 2 Help Challenge for 2013.  I have one top finished and several ideas started but no second quilt top finished.

I came across the pattern Simply Woven by Jessica Kelly over at the Moda Bakeshop.  I fell in love with it at first sight. Very scrappy and made primarily of 2 1/2 inch strips, my favorite size of fabric to work with.

Have you ever fallen head over heals for a quilt and found out that you really hated making the blocks. I spent last Sunday evening cutting the strips from my scrap box from the last 6 - 9 months. Plenty of 2 1/2 inch tidbits. Monday night I started to make blocks, the finished block is a 12 1/2 inch square.

I sew in the evening after working all day to relax. I am one of those people who loves to chain piece. When I started these blocks I thought they would be a great Chain piecing project.  Not So Much.  You sew a little, you iron a little, you cut a little and start again to get the woven effect.

2 nights this week I went to my sewing room and put things away because I just couldn't work on the blocks. No sewing at all.  At least I did accomplish some movement on the other 3 nights.  So today (I'm writnig this late Saturday night) I buckled down because I am approaching a dead line.  I finished the 20 blocks I needed and but them together. 

I really do like the outcome as much as I hoped I would. I'm holding off posting this until tomorrow in hopes of getting a decent picture.  The quilt is a wonderful scrap buster.

             (I waited and I guess raining is better than dark, but you can see how happy a quilt it is.)

 All of the fabric with color is as I mentioned scrap from the last few months projects.  I did cut the white from my stash.

I would  recommend this quilt to others. It really was easy to do, just not what I like to do. A personal preference.

Now that I have the 2 tops done I will  need to get my act together and get them both quilted. I think I have 2 weeks which would not be bad with the exception of a trip tossed in to chew up a few days.  I do love a challenge.

Have a great week.

 

It's for the Birds

This is a very fun hop.  The postings so far have been terrific and I have no doubt that the ones to follow will be just as wonderful and creative.

When this Hop was first posted I knew exactly what I was going to make.  I had made my sister and my niece quilts with birds on them several years back and I swore that when I got some time I would make one for me.  A perfect opportunity.  We all know about the best laid plans.

In the mean time I participated in the “It’s All About Me” hop in late February.  I was one of the extremely lucky winners of the Amy Bradley patterns and fabrics.  Well one of the patterns is “Meet The Tweets”.  Definitely love at first sight.  Here are a couple of the little guys.

If you have never used an Amy Bradley pattern, you must.  I have done fusible appliqué before but her step by baby step walk through and tips and wonderful pattern pieces made the whole process speedy and seamless. I managed to whip up this top in under a week and I work full time.

Wed night I pulled fabric from the stash and I traced all the pieces onto fusible and ironed them onto their fabric.  Thur night I cut them all out and stacked them on their background squares ready to be put together.  Friday night and on and off Saturday I ironed the pieces to the background and did the detail stitching.  Sunday I put the blocks together and viola, the top was done.  Good thing because on Wednesday I left on a trip and I needed Monday and Tuesday night to pack.

The only place I deviated from the instructions was the eyes.  The eyes  were supposed to be tiny little buttons.  Since my quilt will be going to a 5 month old I thought that was a bad idea.  My dilemma was how I was going to get that beady eyed look.   I ended up using  little paper lifesavers, you know the kind you used as a kid in a loose leaf book so the pages didn’t pull out.   I stuck them to the face, really mashing them into the fabric the best I could and then filled in the hole with a black pigma pen. I gave it a few minutes to dry and then removed the life saver.  My fear was that, that much ink would run, but as you can see, it didn’t.

I have done just very basic quilting in the ditch so far. I plan on going back and doing some echo quilting  around the boys in the very near future, as soon as I have some free time and can decide if I can do it by machine vs. by hand.

Isn't this just the perfect backing for the guys.

Now I want to thank Madame Samm and Mary for the great jobs they have done in setting up and running this wonderful hop.  I also want to thank Amy Bradley for the wonderful pattern.

You now need to fly off and visit all of the other contributors for today.  For your continued convienence I have them listed below

 

 

Wednesday, May 8

 

http://sunshinequilting.blogspot.com

http://feltfree-p.blogspot.no

http://busyascanbe.blogspot.com

http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com

http://buzzingandbumbling.blogspot.com

http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com

http://ecoughlindesigns.blogspot.com

http://mywhittleadventures.blogspot.com

http://SewMuch2Luv.blogspot.com

www.natilittlethings.blogspot.com

http://justletmequilt.blogspot.com

http://ncweekendquilter.blogspot.com

http://Selinaquilts.blogspot.com  (me)

http://saneandcrazy.blogspot.com

http://abis-scrapsoflife.blogspot.com

http://roseprairiequilts.blogspot.com

http://marlarockscrafts.blogspot.com

It's a Tweet Week

Having a fun week prepping for the It's For The Birds blog hop that is starting May 7.

I am working with the Amy Bradley  pattern for Tweets, such fun blocks to make. Here are a couple of samples of what I'm up to for the hop.

Aren't they the cutest ? 

Another Lawn Chair & a couple of misc bits

                                                         Just a bit windy for picture taking.

I have committed to doing 2 quilts for the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt  project this year.  Today is the day we post our progress.  Both quilts need to be in the mail by June 2 so this posting helps to keep us on track and not running around like chickens that last week. For more information you can find it here http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

I finished the first top last night.  2 weeks ago I made the lawn chair quilt with the pattern from Moda Bake Shop for a friends birthday.    Here is the tutorial  http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/lawn-chair-quilts.html

It was such a fun and easy quilt to put together, no matching of points anywhere. As it was written it was a little big for this project so I just made the strips one panel shorter and the width 2 sections narrower. I then added a border to get the finished size I wanted. This one comes in at around 50 x 65.

The pattern called for using Jelly Rolls which gives you a great assortment of fabrics and no cutting.  I did that with the first one.  For this one I decided to try using one focus fabric.  I loved the assortment of butterflies.  The pattern was just small enough to work well with 2 1/2 inch strips.

Next up are pictures of the items I included with my giveaways from last month.  My giveaway was the slipper pattern I based my slippers from the Stitch me up blog hop on.  I felt that the envelope  I was using needed an additional item.  I had 3 giveaways, I made 2 spring themed zip bags

and 1 kitchen potholder set. 

Here is the tutorial I used for the mitt.  http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com/2013/04/adriannes-oven-mitt-2013-fal-tutorial.html

Until next time.

April Showers - Keep you Hopping

This is one of the most fun Hops we’ve had. It is absolutely amazing how creative we all have been on our tiny canvases.

This is the picture that popped into my mind and out of my pencil when I first heard about the hop. I even knew what colors I wanted to recreate my drawing in right from the beginning so raiding the scrap bins was easy.

This is my first rug for this hop. Isn’t she a sweetie?   I knew I had the perfect background fabric for my idea. I really think this looks like rain in the sky and on the grass.I didn't remember to reverse before tracing on the fusible web. But it really doesn't matter if she is coming or going.

My next shot was more in line with the title of the Hop, April showers bring May flowers. This one is a happy rug. I used the same background fabric and made the flowers by tracing some from the coloring sheets refered to 2 pictures down. I then got brave and did some FMQ on it. 

While many of the participants made Rugs to compliment their Mugs, I made Mugs to compliment my Rugs. ( say that 3 times fast ) I found these mugs at Michael's for $1 and $1.99, coulda used a coupon if I had one with me and reduced the cost even more. tee hee

The mugs came with coloring sheets for kids to personalize for themselves or as gifts. I just gave my sheets away to a friend who got a mug for her granddaughter to do for Mother’s day.  I understand you can never have too many coloring sheets on hand.

For the large mug I just  recreated the rug and backed it, no batting. For the small mug I used a few of the same flowers and backed it, again no batting.  They fit in the space for the coloring sheets with no problem.

I don’t know how water tight these will be but they worked really well for the photo shoot.

Well it’s time to Thank Madame Samm and Erin for the time and energy they contributed to making this another successful event. Great Job ladies.

Now please make sure you stop by all of the other contributors on today’s list,

MONDAY, APRIL 15th

Cathy @ Cate's Linens

Nicola @ Sunshine Reflections

Martina @ Sunshinequilting

Judith @ Frimart

Anita @ Anita's quilts en handwerken

Linda @ Sew Nicely

Kris @ krislovesfabric

Laura Ann @ The Fuzzy Hat Quilter

Carol @ Just let me Quilt

Selina @ Selina Quilts

Mary @ Crooked Gulley Art Quilts

Marisa @ Passion et Couture

 and if you missed any of the contributors from last week, go back and check them out,  it is so worth it.
Until next time.............

Busy start to April

I didn't realize how busy a week it's been until I looked at my pictures and realized that Easter was only 7 days ago.  Wow.

This wonderful baby quilt was a promise to my sister for a friends of her's.  She works with the mom, dad and grand ma.  Of course I committed to it months ago.  At Easter breakfast my sister reminded me that the baby was due this week.  

She was born on Thursday, quilt was started Sunday night and finished on Tuesday.  Good thing I had Tuesday off from work.

I just love this backing fabric. It was perfect.

The quilt is a baby quilt and it measured in at 38 by 45.  It was no particular pattern.

Now this quilt top is from Moda Bake Shop.

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/lawn-chair-quilts.html

 

It's called the lawn chair quilt.  It is super easy and super quick.  It is designed to be made using Jelly Rolls.  2 Rolls of white and 1 roll of prints and you get 2, 54 x 75 inch quilts.  If you want to use this pattern READ ALL the WAY to the END.  The pictures don't actually match the instructions and it is explained at the end.

 

I used a half jelly roll from joanns and I sliced my own strips.  The cost difference was too much to justify the ease of using 2 plain white Jelly Rolls.  I cut all of the white strips for 3 seperate quilts last week and started to sew some of the strip sets together last Saturday around the bunnies. Finished it up Tues. Wed. and Thur. evenings after work.

 

This is a two handed oven mitt.  I found the tutorial here.

http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com/2013/04/adriannes-oven-mitt-2013-fal-tutorial.html

 

Saw the tutorial yesterday and had all of the parts on hand so what the heck give it a shot. The mitt itself was quick and easy, very clear instructions in the tutorial.

 

Making the template was a battle with my printer that in the end had no winner.  I took all of the pieces and taped them together and it worked just fine.  This is why I tend to print templates at work on the big machine.

I made my own bias binding, not bad. I did hand stitched the back down and that took more time then all of the rest of it.

 

Obviously I can't hang it on the stove in my house. I just put it there so you could get an idea of how big it is.  It measures 7 wide by 28 long. It's really hard to see the pockets for your hands.  They are the sections without quilting. They are about 6.5 deep.

 

I have to go now and make my Mug Rugs for the upcoming hop that starts tomorrow.  See the button up there on the right, April Showers.  I'm up on the 15th.  I've had my idea since day one, just have to get it from paper to fabric.

I'm good, I have a whole week.  ;-)

Easter Bunnies and Winners

 

Happy Easter to one and all.

 

Every year since I stopped doing the Easter Egg hunt for my nieces and nephews I make something festive to stick their treat in.

 

This year I made these adorable Bunny pouches from the Sew Can She website.

 

All together I made 9 of them.  7 are in the picture above.

 

This is the assitant in the chair, she was climbing in as I was moving the bunnies out.

She is so Nosey.

 

They really came out well. they are made using 4 charms.

 

These are the 2 not included above. They were given to a friend last week.

 

this is a back shot.  The hardest part for me was the button hole for the ribbon.  I have made button holes before but could not for the life of me remember how when I needed them.  I even pulled out the book and couldn't make sense of the instructions. Oh well.  The bow covers it nicely

 

I have pulled winners for the slipper pattern for the giveaway from by Stitchin Up Hop. Notes went out this morning to Brenda of Lady Bug Dreams,  Pat of Life in the Scrapatch and the Ranchwife.

 

 

Misc Finishes

Things here are just settling down. 2 Blog hops that I really wanted to participate in, done.  Baby quilt for nephews baby's baby shower, done.  Vacation, done.  Next up is Easter.  No problem in my family, we all go out for brunch and I already have my outfit.

Got in from vacation on Thursday afternoon and found in my pile of mail the kit to make this wonderful postcard.

 

http://theraspberryrabbits.blogspot.com/2013/03/its-time-its-time-mid-month-madness-time.html

is where you will find the info about this pattern and kit. Shell at Raspberry Rabbits has come up with this pattern to share and has the kit to make it up available in her shop.

 

 

 

I sat down Thursday evening and managed to put the entire top together including all of the stitching. Friday evening I did the back which is just an inked postcard format and put the pieces to gether. My only disappointment is that stitching around the outside. Never did this type of thing before and probably should have done a practice piece but I'm so not a practice piece kind of gal.

                         Here it is on the mat so you can see the true size of the piece. 

 

This morning I took it to the post office and mailed it to a friend.  It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I so wanted to put it in an envelope.  I had a very understanding Postlady.  She was very careful with the stamps and the postmarking.   I'll know later in the week how it went. Fingers are crossed.

 

When I sandwich a quilt I use my King size bed as a staging area.  I roll out the batting, lay the top down and cut the size I need.  I was in a hurry the night I was working on getting the baby quilt quilted and left the roll on the bed and went back to the quilt room.

 

It was very quiet.  Not a peep out of the assistant.

 

She was very busy showing me how assistants use batting.  All of that chewing took place on the fold. Maximum chewing damage.  No picture of the assistant because she heard me coming and knew it was time to abandon the project. Lost the better part of 3 yards of the batting. I will salvage some small pieces but not happily.

 

I did manage to finish inspite of her. This was the last (I hope) of the snow. 

 

I was really happy with how it turned out.

 

Here is the simple back.  It so happens it matches the babies room perfectly. Dumb luck.

 

I'm not a big shower person but they did a fun if time consuming thing at this one.  They had plain onesies and bibs to decorate.  They had a pile of baby fabric scraps and fusible bond and a supply of stencils, cookie cutters and wooden shapes that we could trace onto the fusible cut out and iron onto the bibs and onesies.  Good memories.

 

This is a close up of the quilting I did.  I've seen it on several blogs of late.  It is the number 4 stitch on a Bernina, I think its for elastic maybe.  Anyway it is fun to do and very forgiving. I actually eyeballed it using the grid of the quilt as a guide line.

 

Oops this one got out of order.

 

I have picked three winners for my left over Nancy Drew fabric.  I've sent emails and will post about them once I have heard from all of them.