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.

Stitch me Up - Such Fun

I like to stitch on occasion, not big stitching projects but large enough to keep my hand in the process.  Being able to stitch any project you wanted, big or small was right up my Blog Hop Alley.

I was just a bit behind in my Blog projects when I signed up so I didn't have a plan at the beginning, just faith that something would come to mind.

Faith paid off.  One day while I was bouncing around Blog land I ended up at Lynette Anderson's blog.  She is a very talented designer of stitchery from down under.  I found this great project on her sight with a pointer to a Quilt store that carried it in the states.  This is about where my brain went into overload.

I immediately made the call to a shop in Oregon by the name of Quiltz.  They had the project in 4 patterns. I ordered them all.  Sight unseen.  To be fair to myself they were on sale BUT!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I had the project in hand I wasn't sure of the goal of the Hop.  To do any stitchery or did I need to use one of the stitchery patterns supplied with the hop.  I compromised I used one of the great stitchery patterns supplied by Cyndi Hoeller from bee tree designs for the Hop and the finished project from the Lynette Andersen  pattern.

Here is the first hint of the finished project.   No it's not a hat.

Here is the second hint...........got it yet?

So what do you think? 

Aren't they great. They are a gift for my friend J in Florida.  I will be giving them to her before this is posted so for a change it will be a complete surprise.  She tends to snoop before my visits to see what she's getting.  She is one of those people who finds her hidden presents, unwraps and rewraps them on the sneak.

This is one of the most fun projects I have ever made.  The stitchery was the time consuming part in relationship to the entire project.  I did each slipper in one evening. Putting the stitchery into the project took under 3 hours.

 Since  I have 4 of these patterns I thought I could giveaway at least 1 maybe 2.  Just leave a word or 2 in your comment that you would like to be included.

It's thank you time.  Let's start with M Samm for coming up with yet another great time. To Cyndi, Debbie and M Samm for their wonderful stitchery patterns and Jane for being our great Cheer Leader.

Please take some time and visit the other wonder stitchers who are posting today.  Wonders abound.

 WEDNESDAY March 20th

Karen@That Other Blog

Susan @That Other Blog

Sowing Stitches

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts

Meadowbrook

Marla's Crafts

Gracie Oliver Arts

Humble Quilter

Cherry Blossom Quilting Studio

New Girl News

Sunshine Quilting

Patchouli Moon Studio

Lovin' Life at the End of the Dirt Road

Selina Quilts ( Me)

Nancy Drew Mystery

This turned out to be a Mystery in oh so many ways. First I purchased a considerable amount of fabric sight unseen and then I had no idea in hatties what I would do with it once I opened it up and looked at it.

From the beginning I thought I should make things book related. Don’t know where the idea came from but it wouldn’t go away. I made list after list over a couple of months, and when I compared the lists just before I started to make things and this group of projects appeared on most of the lists.

 I sat down to start and found I had a problem , I ordered a bundle of the Nancy Drew fabric and some of the pieces I didn’t want to cut up and some I just don’t like but maybe you would
                                                             (Giveaway time see below).

Book mark – Just to get my feet warm I started with an old reliable.   Two pieces of fabric between pieces of iron on laminate. The problem is you never throw out the instructions for how to use the laminate. You should see the iron. Not a pretty picture.

Nook Cover - My current form of reading is my Nook. The poor thing spends a lot of time getting shoved into places like my nap sack or my brief case or my large purse and the leather cover I got to protect it is getting a bit worn looking. This seemed like a great time to do something to save it in an oh so appropriate way.

Playaway Holder – Do you listen to books? My library has books on Tape and on CD but my most favorite audio book now comes in a Playaway. It’s on the self in a book size holder but the playaway itself is only 2 x 3 x ½. That's it sitting on the dollar bill.   You slip in a AAA battery and your own ear buds and your on your way.

 The only problem I see with it is that I believe it is digital and the buttons are on the front and are prone to being pressed in error. That causes the book to skip forward and backward or for your eardrums to explode. I tried putting it in my pocket but I apparently wear my Jeans too tight for the buttons. Well this is my solution and I love it.

 The little pouch holds the unit out of my way. I can drive, clean, eat, quilt etc. etc. I added a little clip toward the top of the strap to hold the cord for the ear buds. I can pop them out of my ears and they don’t go very far at all and they don’t get tangled.

 This would be just as perfect for and Ipod or an M3G player. I think this is one of my favorite pieces of the line. The yellow is great because I can see instantly where I lay my toys down.

Book Tote - I originally thought I would make a messenger bag for my weekly trip to the library. The problem I had was that fabrics I really liked I didn’t want to cover up or hide under the flap or chop up with a zipper. One of the pieces in the bundle was a panel of 6 book covers. Since I had no idea what to do with them since I really couldn’t cut them up I changed my messenger bag to a zippered tote. Each side a different cover.

 Zippered because I don’t want my books wet in the rain. Wide mouth because I could cram more into the bag.

 Can you see the little key fob thingy. Well that’s my Library card. No more hunting for that little baby.

 Here is a picture of the inside of the bag that I have turned inside out. No it isn’t reversible. I did the sides of the inside in different colors with the pockets done in the opposite colors.

 As I age the one thing I really need to have on hand are cheaters. I think I have at least one pair in every room of the house. Here is the holder for the pair that will live in my library tote. My cheaters are rather narrow so I generally stitch a line down the case so that I can stick a pen or pencil in there too and then I’m not rummaging through the whole bag.

While this Hop was a very long time in coming, as usual I put the doing off to the last minute and now all I want to do is sit back and have my cup of tea in the cup with the nice little Nancy Drew holder resting on the lovely little Nancy Drew mug rug while reading this very exciting Nancy Drew Mystery.

Oh, regarding the giveaway. I hope to get inspired by all of the other participants as what to make with some of the Nancy Drew fabric I acquired for this hop.  I know I will not use all of it and I would like to give some of it away. If you are interested in winning some please say that in your comment. I won’t include you if you’re not interested. I will be heading on vacation next week so I will draw a name when I return.

Now onto the really important stuff. You need to visit everyone who is participating in this hop. So many talented people you don’t want to miss any of them.

Thanks to M Samm and Carol of  Just Let Me Quilt for being there for us and cheering us on and keeping us on track. Here is a listing of the others who are posting today. Have fun and as always, be inspired.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Michelle’s Romantic Tangle

Life in the Scrapatch

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Selina Quilts

Meadowbrook

Hilltop House Creative Works

My Sister Made Me Do It

Whims and Fancies

Pieced Brain

Just Let Me Quilt