Family finishes!!

Well everyone, I am finally finished making all the quilts for my nieces. I finished the last two this past Tuesday. I washed them last night, and have one boxed and wrapped. This means I can give out the three quilts that are in my house! 

I am only able to post two of them as the third I'm not posting until after the gift has been given. 

These two quilts belong to my youngest brother's daughters. They both like the same colors with the exception of the older one liking black also. I know they aren't anything fancy, but I am hoping that they will love them just the same. I wasn't able to come up with any names that suited these quilts, so I made the labels pretty basic. And one of them started to fray a little bit after it got washed. So bummed about that! 

Here is the older sister's quilt. I wasn't sure how to quilt it, it stumped me quite a bit. But then I decided to follow the green and black and go down the center of those. But then there was a big gap of no quilting between, so I decided to shadow the purple. I must say, I still need practice with my quilting! You can definitely tell I'm a beginner. 

 As you can see by the label, I didn't place it very well. You can't really tell it's from me =( 

I didn't do any special piecing on the back as I have with previous quilts. The simple reason is that on the front of the quilt, they already share 2 fabrics. A pink, and a blue. But I did include the sister's fabric in their labels. And the binding is the same fabric.

I thought the quilt was a little small, so I found this border fabric that pulls together most of the colors that are in the body of the quilt. And I just love the purple binding. Who doesn't love hearts and vines?

I chose a butterfly fabric for the back since it also contained most of the colors from the front. Hoping she loves the blanket, but we will see.

And here is her younger sister's quilt. The pattern I used is from Kelly at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com. I have used many of her patterns for my quilt as most are straight forward and easy for a beginner like me to follow. I absolutely LOVE the browns in this quilt. It wasn't a color that she likes, but I think it pulls the other colors together.

I also chose a plain backer for this one, same reason as her sister's. But I found this flower fabric and love it!

This label turned out a bit better as you can read everything. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed my year of quilting this year. They have been scattered out, but I am only in my first year of quilting. Actually I just had my anniversary last month I think! I'm into my second year! Yay!!

 

I will be sure to post the special green and gray quilt after Christmas once it has been received. I hope everyone loves it as much as I do. My next project....a quilt for a friend's child...then another special quilt, but in different colors! 

 

~Happy Quilting!~

 

Gray and Green update!

I know it has been some time since I have posted. I have been busy with school, work, parenting and trying to get this quilt finished before Christmas. I am 100% finished with the blocks! Finished with the backer, and even have the binding ready to go!

I now have the quilt COMPLETE!!! I just need to take it to a Laundromat that has the oversize machines as it will NOT fit in mine!

I know I haven't provided much information on the quilt thus far, and this won't provide a whole lot more until it has been given to the recipient. But hopefully you will understand once you are able to see the completed project. It is a very special project for a very special person and I don't want to risk the off chance that she may come across it somewhere before I am able to give it to her on Christmas Eve.

Pictures to come......

I really want to give it to her now.....but I know that waiting and giving it to her the night I planned with all our family there will be even better!

First thing I will give her is a box of tissues. And unfortunately all 3 boxes that I purchased to put this in are too small! I am going to have to put it in a gift bag. BUT...I'm folding the quilt up so that she will see the label first. I did this a little different than most quilts I have seen as I wanted it to be truly unique. I put the label in the center of the backer! And I absolutely love how it turned out. I used extra fabric from the front to provide a background for the label, and the border is scraps from all 3 of her daughter's quilts!

Oh I can't wait!!!!

~Happy quilting everyone!~



All Squared up..and more!

Well I finally did it. Last week while I was on vacation I was on a sewing craze. Not only did I finish my daughter's 2" block, but I finished the quilt that I was working on as well. I was so anxious to get it completed I could hardly put it down....I had to move my sewing machine as my work space is very cramped! I didn't want it to take forever getting it completed.

This is my daughter's block...I put a tab on the back in the event that she wants to hang it. It looks too big to me, but oh well...it's there if she wants to use it. And in case you can't tell...she loves GREEN!!

I don't have a nice fence or deck that I can take pictures on, but today was such a nice day that I went outside and took some pictures and with the cooperation of the wind I was able to get some nice ones. Please enjoy...I know I do.

I decided to call this one 'All Squared Up' since there are so many squares in the quilt. There are 16 blocks, and in each block there are 64 - 2" squares. That's a total of 1024 of the 2" squares! Let me just say that there was a lot of chain piecing going on in this one! Without it I don't think I would have made it through! 

If you have been following my blog at all you will notice the stripes that are across the back of the quilt are from my daughter's quilt. Once I had the top of this one completed I decided that this one would be for me. A little greedy....yes, but I have made and given away 5, and am in the process of making 2 more so I wanted to keep one for myself before I finish the others.

Which leads me into the next quilts that I'm working on. My final sibling has 2 daughters. The oldest one likes pink, purple, blue, green, and black. I wasn't sure how I was going to make that happen. But then I came across one of the quilt patterns from www.quiltsforkids.org and adapted that into one for her. BUT...I'm not very good at following directions and I made the blocks with 5 strips instead of 4. So my quilt turned out smaller than planned. I was trying to find more of the same 10 fabrics that I used but wasn't able to get all of them. So I did the next best thing...I found 10 more fabrics in all the same color lines! Woo hoo!! So I added 2 columns and 2 rows to come up with the following.

This is a close up of the 20 different fabrics that were used. I am loving how it turned out!

I also worked on a quilt for her sister. She also likes blue, green, pink and purple. But I found the brown fabrics and thought it pulled them all together perfectly. I got this pattern from http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/.

I have used many of Kelly's patterns and want to thank her for helping to feed my inspirations! She has been a big help to me getting my blog off the ground. So I want to thank Kelly for all she has helped me with!

I do have another quilt that I am working on that I have actually designed myself....I can't believe it either. The only problem is I didn't calculate the amount of fabric correctly and I have to go purchase about 1.5 yards total of 5 fabrics. I just bought them a week ago so they should still carry them....but that one will be a secret until it has been completed and presented to the recipient....so stay tuned for that one.....it may be a while, but keep checking back, you never know when you may see it. The one little bit of a preview I will give you is a picture of the fabrics that I am using....

I can't wait until I'm able to finish this one and share it. I'm so excited!!

~Happy Quilting!~

Update on the 2" squares

So I have all my blocks ready to make into a quilt. Since I am making this from scratch and in my head (and I'm not great at calculations) I'm not sure how big this will be once totally finished.

 

I have 16 blocks that are approximately 12.5 square. Since the 2" blocks ended up being 1.5" complete I'm thinking about adding a white sashing between them that will start out at 3.5" and finish at 2.5" just to add some size and break up the block a bit.

 

Then I have to figure out the borders. I have really only done a border on my daughter's quilt and would like to start adding those into my quilts more. So I'm thinking at least a white border starting out at 3.5". But do I want to add a second one? I'm thinking yes, and I will need to find a fabric that has the rainbow of colors in it.

 

There is the layout that I have decided on going with. I have 4 holiday blocks and 12 regular. I have more pink blocks than anything else and tried to break them up as much as possible. Was not easy, let me tell you! The pink that is to the right of the purple and above the orange and purple is a Pink Ribbon block in support of my grandmother who lost her battle with breast cancer and my mother who is winning hers. The rest are just fabrics that I like...ok that's a little stretch. The daisys were also my grandmother's favorite flower which I have adapted as one of mine...so they are also in memory of her.

 

I just need to get the motivation to add the sashing and keep going....

 

 

 

~ Happy Quilting! ~



so many 2" squares......

So I have a TON of 2" squares from when I used to make these cute little fabric bowls...which I loved to make, but haven't for a few years =(

 

 

And I was trying to figure out what to do with them....I asked around for ideas. And was given so many that I have a lot of ideas for what to do after what I have decided to begin with.

 

My daughter had some of the squares and wanted to do something with them but couldn't figure anything out. So I sat down and decided to try something. And this is what I came up with.

 

 

From there I just kept going....

 





 

Since I started I have made an additional 8 blocks....!

 

I originally thought I wanted to do 12 blocks, but I think it will end up being 16. And since I have 4 holiday blocks made I was going to put them in the 4 corners and build from there. Problem is I need to go out and purchase more fabric as my squares that I have not used from my stash are not appealing to me for this project. But I'm eager and excited to get more fabric and make the last 4 blocks!!

 

Here they are so far...

 

 

 I can't wait to be able to purchase more fabric to put them together and make the quilt. They are all about 12.5" square give or take a little.

 

I know it's not an original pattern or design, but I'm so proud of myself for not having a pattern that I'm following. This is all coming from my head.

 

And I absolutely love to chain piece! I was able to chain piece about 6 of them before sewing the rows together to make the blocks. I did have a couple places where I stitched them together wrong, but was able to fix them quickly!

 

I'm thinking about putting white sashing between them to break them up a bit and to add some brightness to the quilt. I might even add a white border....but then the next problem is the backing and the binding....but I will tackle that problem once I have all the blocks together!

 

~Happy quilting!~

 



May finish

So last month after the birthday fairy visited me I shared with you some coasters that I made. I made some a little different for my mother and unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of those before giving them to her...BUT....I also just finished some placemats for her that almost match the coasters almost identically.

 

There are 4 different fabrics in the picture and those same fabrics were used in her coasters. The only difference is the binding fabric. I couldn't find the identical fabric, so I chose something that is just as bright and in the same color hue as the one that I previously used.

 

Unfortunately I have not yet given these to her as of yet. But she will get them soon.....I did run into one problem when I finished the first one, and I'm not going back to fix it....although it is driving me crazy!

 

I stitched the binding to the front and then wrapped it around to the back. So she has 3 that look good and 1 that looks derpy as my daughter would call it.

 

So they are what they are. She knows that she is getting them and she said not to worry about them not being perfect, but it still bothers me. I have plenty of fabric to eventually make her another one to replace the derpy one....maybe after I finish my niece's quilt...

 

Until next time....

~Happy Quilting~





Feeling some kind of way....no more!!!

I was visited by the Birthday fairy over the weekend and was gifted with the Brother sewing machine that I wanted to get! I was so happy and excited to begin sewing!

So on Sunday I started working on the next nieces' quilt....but have realized that I will need to add at least 1 border (these are not sewn together, just laid out).

I asked her mother what her favorite colors are and she provided me with: black, pink, purple, blue, and green. So this is what I came up with. Unfortunately I followed the pattern wrong and sewed 5 strips together instead of just 4....so the quilt isn't very proportionate...but I will figure something out...

And last night I came across a pin on Pinterest for some coasters that I thought was absolutely adorable. I have over 111 different fabrics already cut into 2x2" squares and they were perfect for this. Unfortunately it is hard for me to give credit for the design as I can't locate the website, but it was posted by Teje Karjainen. I didn't have the colors she used, so I decided to go with some other ones.

They were done in a hurry so they are a little sloppy, but I was so excited I just couldn't stop last night and ended up finishing them. Now I want to make more, and maybe some placemats.....but do I have enough fabric to do all of that???

Oh well....I'm back to being a Happy Quilter again!

~~Happy Quilting to all of you!~~

 

 

 

Feeling some kind of way....

So I have been without a working sewing machine for about 2 weeks now and am getting increasingly frustrated. Almost to the point that I want to go out and buy one. The one that I have is an old, borrowed singer from a family friend. I need to at some point get it fixed, but I noticed that when I am finishing my binding that is when it messes up the most. I am thinking it is too thick for that machine. And I feel like if I keep using it even after I get it fixed it will continue to crash and cause problems.

That's how I feel right about now because I really don't have the money to buy a new machine or have hers fixed, but I know I really need to do both.

I know all of you out there in webland can't really help, just felt like I needed to get my dilemma out there. Get it off my chest and see what I can do about it.

IF I do get a new machine I was looking at a Brother SQ9185. There are several reviews, mostly good and a few bad. But we all know that when machines make things not all 100% of the items are in good working condition. Look at all the recalls that are placed on different items. Most notably cars and kids toys. So I would expect to see negative reviews on products.

I saw another one that I REALLY like, but sadly I can't afford another car payment. A Bernina 780. I saw a YouTube video on how to pick your new sewing machine and they were using this one. I happened to like it until I looked up the cost....$10,999....I can barely afford one for $200 I know I can't afford that!

So my dilemma continues....as I search for an inexpensive but good repair shop for my borrowed singer.....

~~Happy Quilting~~

 

Purple-urple has been completed!

Here's another finish for this year. The Purple-urple quilt for me sister's daughter has been completed! I only wish I had used the fabric that I chose for the binding for the backer instead of the binding. But she LOVES purple, so I'm sure she will love this quilt~

 

 

I tried to change the 9 patch up a bit, but I realized that I sewed them all together with the same light purple block in the middle. So they didn't vary much in the design.

 

Hopefully for the next 9 patch that I do I will remember that!

 

Let me know what you think!

 

~~Happy Quilting everyone~~



Need some suggestions.....

Ok guys and gals....a few years ago I was big into making fabric bowls and have all this fabric cut up waiting to be made into bowls. And now I'm into quilting, so I am not sure what to do here...

 

Here is a pic of my favorite bowl that I made. It is the size of a small petrie dish as it was made around it. There are watermelons, strawberries and small blue flowers and I absolutely adore it!

 

When I made my first one it was only 2 layers of fabric so it was VERY flimsy. This one has 4 layers...I think....

 

 

I absolutely loved making these bowls, just didn't follow the directions too well...I don't have a lot of patience. You need:

*modge podge *rubber gloves *1/2" craft paintbrush *protected work surface *and LOTS of 2" fabric squares in your selected color scheme.

 

 

What you do is take a bowl, any bowl, depending on the size you want your finished product to be. Cover it in saran wrap, and spray that with cooking spray. I normally have a working surface of some press and seal over some paper or cardboard so I can move it around...and so the modge podge doesn't stick the fabric to your table....

 

My patience is when you are putting the fabric on the bowl...you start on the bottom of the bowl and work your way down and onto the table to create a design you like and enough of the spikes to your liking. You are 'supposed' to wait 24 hours between layers...that is where I do not wait. I do all the layers in 1 sitting and then let it dry. You need a butter knife to get the fabric bowl off of the base, but if you try enough you will get it off. I then wait another day or 2 for the inside to dry. If you take it off before the outside is dry it may not form like you want. Then I just decorate with puff paint to add some pizzazz to the points.

 

So here is my dilemma....maybe you all can offer some suggestions for turning my bowl squares into quilting projects? I have all of this fabric and am not sure what to do with it...suggestions?