A Hot Week

I started the week knowing I had a baby quilt that I needed to get finished. Baby was due any day.  I volunteered to make this quilt 6 months ago.  I actually started it and made all of the blocks weeks ago. Every night this week I sat down to do something productive with it and got lost doing some other  small project.  I'm blaming the heat for the total lack of focus.

I did a little of this, these are 2 inch unfinished 9 patches, more about them in a future post.

  

And a little of that, self stripping knit wash clothes that I started while on vacation earlier this month.

 Well baby came on Monday, I found out on Thursday.  That was the motivation I apparently needed.  Thursday night I put the front  together. Since the blocks were already done  it took less than 2 hours to finish.

Friday night I put the back together.

 This too was a speedy job. Saturday between errands and eating ( a very important part of our Saturday) I sandwiched and quilted it with a wiggly grid.  Got up this morning and did the binding.

Called  that pretty close didn't I.  That's all I had left of the red thread when i finished attaching the binding.

While the quilt was in the wash I was feeling giddy that it was finished and made a cutie pie stuffed bear to go with it.

There is a back story to this quilt.  When I volunteered to make it my niece, friend of the mom, didn't care what I did so long as it wasn't baby ish. Her husband asked if I could do something reflecting the new dad's love of the New York Rangers Hockey Team, he didn't care how much or how little.  Sounded like a plan to me. First problem was that we couldn't find any yardage for the team anywhere. My niece and her husband did find a pair of mens PJ bottoms with Ranger logos in a knit fabric.  Not ideal but heck, it worked.

As you can see from all of the pictures I pretty much treated the front and back as separate quilts. His and hers.

Really happy with how it all turned out.  I still have a little of the Rangers fabric left and a little of the green left, I'm thinking maybe a bib or two before I turn it over to the new owner.

My Modern Quilt and More Bowl Buddies

In between my last several projects I attempted my first “Modern” quilt.   Several months ago I first saw this quilt that I wanted to make. I had a big problem starting the quilt because I never wrote down where I saw it.  I knew it was in a new book.  Name? I knew it was done by someone I kinda sorta follow, who?

 

 

 

I did ask around but I couldn’t describe it well enough to get a hit. It was just a fuzzy memory. About 3 weeks ago I tripped over a title that sounded familiar and lo and behold it was it.  The quilt is “SCATTERED” by Allison Harris at Cluck Cluck Sew, and is found in the book Modern Quilts From The Blogging Universe.    So sad, I can’t remember how you are supposed to type the title of a book,  sorry all you English majors out there.

 

Anyway, here is my Scattered. I used a charm pack and threw out the band on the pack so I cannot give credit for it.

 

 

I used the left over charms on the back to give me that little extra I needed on the width.

 

I sent the quilt to Sarah at Sweet Potato Quilts to quilt it for me.  She did her usual stellar job.  She sent it directly to the address I was using for my Florida vacation and I was able to do the binding while on the trip.

 

 

Please excuse the pictures.  My original intent was to bring it home and take pictures with my camera.  At the last minute, 6:00AM Wednesday, I decided I wanted to leave the quilt in Florida, so I took pictures with my cell phone.  I’m not quite as steady at that hour of the morning as the cell phone would like me to be.  I also missed taking a close up of the loopy quilting that went so well with the triangles.

 

 

 

All in all I am thrilled with the results and the ease of construction.  I see several more of this pattern emerging from my sewing room.

 

Another of the projects I've fit in is another set of Bowl Buddies.  Couldn't post these before vacation because my friend J always checks my blog just before we get together because she knows I will have made her something.

 

 

These are such fun to make. Just had to make her a set.

 

              I gave them to her last Thursday and she was surprised so I can now post the pictures.

 

 

 

 

Stamp on It Blog Hop - My Turn

From day one I knew what I wanted my stamp to reflect about me.  Well about me and Tink, after all I am Tink’s mom.  She is pretty much the center of our life whether we want her to be or not.  She is that type of gal, a very A personality.

I mentioned this hop to a local artist, Andrew Cifelli, and told him what I was planning.  A stamp with Miss Tink’s picture  in the center, a title and Postage stuff at the edge.  He offered to do an ink and watercolor of Miss Tink working from this picture.  

My biggest issue was what I wanted to do with my idea to best  showcase this stamp and Andrew’s work. Not a quilt or a wall hanging. 

I started with a tee shirt and found it very disappointing.

Since I waited until the last minute to take the pictures we are fighting the elements. It is very rainy and humid here today.  I walked outside to a better light than indoors and the camera fogged up.  We had to wait for everything to equalize.

Then a mug rug, 

better but still not what I want.

Then I remembered that a while back I saw a tutorial somewhere to make a Mouse Pad.  I googled it and came up with several ideas on how to do that.   This seemed to be a perfect venue for what I envisioned.

Wow I now know I need to go back and add the scallop to the mug rug.  I think that's the mug rugs problem. Without the scallop it's not a stamp.

For Mouse Pad I did as fusible applique.  Did a little free motion quilting and made sleeves for the back for a place to put something that would keep it from sliding.  I used the rubber stuff they sell to keep throw rugs from slipping.  I found it at Target for a lot less than the suggested shelf liner. This mouse pad is loosely based on the tutorial where I saw the original idea. Thanks Debbie from the Quilters Table.   http://aquilterstable.blogspot.com/2013/05/wordy-mouse-pad-tutorial.html

 

Some History:

Tink is a rescue.  Her full name is really Tinker bell.  Not a very bullie name but when she came to us her name was Pixie which was even less Bullie. Us being Disney types formalized it to Tinkerbell.   She came to us about 5 years ago.  She came with her share of issues and tons of love to give.  She loves people but not other animals.  She is a snuggle bunny. And in spite of her weight and short legs has been seen up on the kitchen table, the bed, the sofa’s, lawn furniture etc. etc.  She is afraid of the dark, motor cycles and the garbage truck.  She came to us as a very aggressive dog, trying to show she was in charge, MJ wasn’t so sure that we made a good decision and he was ready to call it quits two weeks in   I, on the other hand, had promised her a “forever home” .  .  I had so many bruises at the end of the first month, my dermatologist asked if I was in an abusive relationship.  Please understand, none of the bruises were from anger.  She had been locked on a porch for the better part of the first 2 years of her life.  She just had no idea that when 90 pounds of dog runs across the room and jumps into your lap to give you kisses it will be painful to the recipient. Same with her jumping on you as you walked in the front door to acknowledge that you came back to her.  We got a trainer.  More for us then for her and after about 6 months we were a very happy family with absolutely no regrets.

I hope you like my stamp in all of its incarnations.  It is who I am and what I am proud to be, mom to a wonderful rescued animal.

Now please take a few minutes of your time and visit the other folks that have designed stamps reflective of who they  are for this very insightful hop.

Thanks to Mdmm. Samm and Thearica for all of the background coordinating and the cheering us on that you do so well.  And special thanks to Andrew for the lovely drawing of sweetness. Here is a listing of the remaining presenters.

July 1

 Sew Many Yarns

Quilt Matters

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

Patchouli Moon

The Slow Quilter

A Loose Thread

Janes Fabrics and Quilts

Selina Quilts (me)

Debby Kratovil Quilts

Dancing Thru Threads



July 2

Sew and Sow Farm 

fishkopp

Scraps of Life

Meadowbrook

Katie and Kwilts 

Em's Scrap Bag  

GrammieQ's

How ART you?

BumbleberryStitches

A Stitch in Time



July 3

More Stars in Comanche

Dachsies With Moxie

NotionNanny

 13 Woodhouse Road

Heikesquilt’

Traveling Quilter

Jackie’s Art Quilts

What About Rheema?

From This to That

Sew We Quilt

 

Mini 9 Patch Pin cushions

 

On Tuesday Amanda Jean over at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2013/06/mini-9-patch-pin-cushion-tutorial.html posted  a tutorial for these adorable little pin cushions.

 

 

She did note that they were addicting.

 

And she was correct.  The finished pin cushion is 3 1/2 inches square.  The 9 patch is 1 1/2 inch square.  Sew easy, sew quick.

 

Here they are from the back.  They are totally from the scrap bin.  The largest piece of fabric is the bottom which starts at 4 1/2 inches.  Of course you could piece that too.

 

I ran out of time before going out to dinner to finish that last one sitting to the side.  Had to take the pictures before dinner because I had to take the cushions with me for show and tell.  Left with 5 came home with 4.

I'll be back on Monday for the Stamp on it Blog Hop.  Please come back if you get a chance.

More Bowl Buddies - Hello Kitty

This is a picture heavy posting.  After making the Bowl Buddy and Trivet set I posted about in my last post

I had a special request by my sister to make a set in Hello Kitty fabric for a friend of hers who is having a house warming next week.

These are the bowls. Cute fabric.  The bowls have no in or out and can be flipped accordingly.

I made 2 Trivets, different sizes based solely on the blocks in the fabric design. 

The Trivets are reversible.

One is about 9 inches square and the other is about 9 x 11

They are very perky.

I took them to work to show my crafty friends and immediately had someone request I make her a set, same fabric, for a friend moving into her first apartment.  

I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend. Well actually it's what I'll be doing one evening this weekend.  I put this group together in under 3 hours.  They took a little longer than the original set because I needed to fussy cut a a little and I made the second trivet.

Bowl Buddy

Last week I was visiting Linda at   http://flourishingpalms.blogspot.com/2013/06/stitchin-and-dishin.html  where I saw her posting about Bowl Buddies.  She found a tutorial for making them here  http://www.seamshappy.com/2012/08/13/microwave-bowl-pot-holder/ .

This is my go at a Bowl Buddy.  The idea is that you put a bowl into this quilted fabric bowl and do your micro wave thing.  Once your whatever is heated you can just remove it from the micro wave without benefit of a potholder because that’s pretty much what the bowl buddy’s job is.  Not to mention that it looks great micro wave to table.

So as we all know I don’t do one of anything. I kinda thought that 2 would make a better gift.  I also thought that if I were making them as  gifts they should come with  a bowl already inside.  Friday on my way home from work, I found myself at the Crate and Barrel outlet.  

I went in with Buddy in hand and found what I think is the perfect bowl at a great price.  4 bowls for $9.95 .  Well the more I looked at the 2 bowls in their Buddy’s I thought they would look great on the table if they were joined by a Trivet.  Yes there is only 1 Trivet  but if I were making this as a real gift I would make 2.  Truth be told I ran out of time.  Only got the idea for the trivet at about 9:30 Friday night. I was meeting an old friend for breakfast on Saturday morning and I wanted to give her the set and get her feedback on receiving  them as a gift.  She is one of those blatantly honest people.  She loved them and had no problem taking them home with her.  She does want the missing Trivet.

I attached tags to the pieces because the Trivet is lined with Insul Bright which can’t be micro waved. and  Buddy who can be micro waved. 

                                               

The batting Linda and I used in the buddy is called Wrap N Zap by Pellon.  It is designed for micro wavablity.   I read somewhere along the line that it is best not to use regular cotton batting for micro wave projects because it sometimes contains impurities that can burn in a micro wave.  I don’t know if that is true or not but I decided not to risk a fire or melt down. 

 The Zap and Wrap wasn’t expensive and I got it at JoAnns with either a discount or a coupon because heaven forbid we pay full price for anything we can get at Joanns.  I know I am among the fortunate, I currently pass Joanns coming home from work and have lunch in the same shopping center at least once a week.

Anyway, I am see several of these sets in my future.  I already have a request to make a set for my sister to give as a house warming present.  Can’t wait to see how that one turns out as I’m making it using HELLO KITTY fabric.  And I will be making a more traditional set for friends of mine for their new home.

Be productive. me

Tammy Bag Blog Hop

The time has come for the big reveal, our wonderful Tammy bags and their contents.  The great pattern by Mdm Samm was a joy to follow. Lots and lots of photos for us visual types made the process mistake proof.

My biggest problem is that we were asked to take pictures of the contents of our bags to show how we intend to use them.  The first bag that I made (of course I made more than 1) is so darn cute that I really don't intend on using it. I just want to place it on a shelf and admire it.

That was the response I got from everyone I showed it to.  My sister has a shelf  full of the bags I have made for her over the years that she admires on a regular basis and she assures me that there would be a space for this one if it needs a home.  Of course I don't know what the 7 Hexies hop will be about and I may just need this bag for that.

When I gave serious thought to bag 2 I thought about contents before construction and I determined that I needed a bag to put my "socks in progress" in.  I always have a sock on the needles for when I just need mindless busy hands.

I tried out the current skein of yarn and the started sock and as you can see it just wasn't going to work out as I envisioned it.  Solution to the problem, enlarge the bag.  I can't imagine life without the magnify button on the copy machine.  1st I found a larger closure.  Then I took the original closure and blew it up on the copier till it matched in size the new one. It turned out to be 130%.  I then took the pattern and blew it up to 130%. Perfect.

Above and beyond the fact that the second bag is bigger than the first, Bag 2 is slightly different from bag 1 because miss know-it-all didn't bother to open the instructions. I just played it by ear. I did intentionally not trim the outer pockets because I didn't have a fabric I liked with the fabric I choose for the bag. I did forget to sew the seams in the pockets. 

Then, if you look at the picture of the inside you won't find pockets at all.  Found the pieces for the inside pockets on the floor under the table much later.  Not much of a mistake for my intended use.  I will probably make a matching zip pouch if I find that I really need to have the pocket inside.

See the whole skein fits just fine, I think I could fit another in if I needed too.

Here is a picture of the girls, Tammy and her big sis.

I hope you have enjoyed this stop on the hop and that you will find the time to visit all of the participants of this great event.  Thanks to Mdm Samm for her pattern and her never failing energy as the head cheerleader.

Here is a list of todays players.  June 14th ( friday)

 Bente

Jane

Wendy

Geta

Julia

Jan

Loralynn

Selina  (You are here)

Mara

Jan