"So This Is Love..."

I've decided that is going to be the name of Wally's quilt. :) Cue Disney song:

Here it is all layed out. Ready to be sewn together, then sashed. I do need to hit up Joann's (the one in Naperville) since I don't have enough Kona Ash to sash it! I am a bit worried about it not being long enough? I may have to add a nice border around the whole thing so it covers Wally's feet! I guess I hadn't thought of that. lol.

After laying it all out I took the chance to play with some of those scraps! These little guys may end up as a little doll quilt for my wall? I'm using the Joann's quilter's solid -- close to Kona med. grey. I think Kona Coal would be the best grey solid for this... or maybe the ash will be once it's all together. either way I love these colors. :) Finally some AMH purples!

Christmas projects list updated.

Here's my list to do (as posted about a week or so ago):

• Finish the top of Katee's Quilt.
• piece the backing, quilt, prepare binding, and attach binding (ready to be hand sewn at thanksgiving).

• Buy fabric for the backing of Gia's baby quilt. 
• quilt, prep binding, etc. Decide what hand embroidery to do.

• Start / finish / decide what I'm sending for the mug rug swap (Send date: Nov 22-29)
• Quilt, embroider, and finish two swap pillows for the Pillow Talk Swap (one for partner and one for me). (Send date: Dec. 15) --not sent yet though!
• Make pillow cases to match Katee and Rosemarie's quilts.
• Design quilt labels for Katee and Rosemarie's quilts.
• Buy fabric/start sewing quilt for Wally. (He wants me to make him one for Christmas... lofty goals I think! lol Part way pieced, need to buy a couple more yards of kona ash.
• Make another ruffle dress for Allie for Christmas.
• Make a pillow out of mod bento's from swap for a Christmas gift
  
  I've also gotten a couple other things finished.
  • One purse/wallet/clutch  for a Christmas present. (another is nearly finished... and will be once I'm done being frustrated with it! lol
  • One zip pouch for a Christmas present.
  • One pillowcase for another Christmas present.

So this is love....

 Yep, you're seeing correctly. I actually cut into my AMH Innocent Crush FQ's! All for my hubby! Ok so maybe it's not completely self giving... it's also because I so badly want to sew with this fabric, but I want it to stay in my house. :) So this will become a Color Block Quilt using the tutorial from Stitched in Color (now go over to her flickr group and ooh and ahh over all the color bricks!). I'm still not 100% sure that this is the best use of this fabric, but hey, DH is really excited (and it gets me out of shopping for a birthday and Christmas!), and it gives me the freedom to play with some of the scraps too! Another perk? I edited the FQ stack I'd bought, reserving the lighter purples/pinks so I can add them to my AMH stash and maybe even use some with those lighter Tula Pink fabrics. :) Possibly another quilt right there for me! :)
Oh and tomorrow's Fabric Tuesday, go on over and play along!

**EDIT**
I've already sewn these all together - one more step and I'll be forced to go buy more grey at the fabric store. Oh darn! :) This sure is a gift that keeps giving! :)

Delightful colors yes?

WOW!

I just made a Gathered Clutch from the tutorial by noodlhead. I decided to cut fabric for two of them, one for my mom, and one for my MIL. I am ok when it comes to sewing in zippers. I am pretty decent at most other sewing. Why did it take me almost three hours... maybe more... to assemble them? (ok to assemble one and partially assemble the other). I just don't get how to get those ends of the zipper looking so neat and tidy. It doesn't work so well for me. I can't ever figure out am I supposed to sew all the way to the edge here, or almost to the edge there, are those tabs supposed to be tucked under while I sew the body of the bag together? lol. The zipper itself was a breeze (ok almost a breeze), but those silly ends / sewing the body together just kicked my butt! I decided to set the second one aside (with just that last step to go) until tomorrow. lol. I'm not sure if my mediocre finished product is worth all the effort. I like the boxed pouches much better because when I was done sewing them I felt like the end product was worth the time taken to sew it. :) That's of course aided by the fact that while sewing the boxed pouches I didn't get frustrated nearly as often. lol. In theory I should be able to figure out how to neaten my sewing around those ends of the zipper. I hope! :)

PS - I used some of the new Tula Pink fabric for the pouch(s) - it sure is beautiful fabric!!

Creativity helps cure the blahs.

As you could probably tell from my post yesterday, I've been a bit blah. 

Today I fixed it (at least temporarily) by finishing my Pillow Talk {Swap} pillows! Finished that's right! I quilted one with a free motion stipple, I'm not entirely sure I'm in love with the way the stipple distracts from the stars, but I do LOVE the texture it lends. So for the second one I did a strait line quilt just at the edge of each square border. I may need to hand stitch a stitch or so in the middle to keep it perfect (batting is ok for quilting up to 10" apart, this area is 13" ... I think). I like both so much!!!

I decided to add interfacing to the back sides of the back pieces, mostly to cover the seam allowances from the piecing I did back there. It added a bit more sturdiness and durability to it. I'm very very pleased with the pink / yellow pattern-y stripe for that little bound edge!

I finished a quilt today...

but it doesn't come close to canceling out the rest of the crappy day. I'm not sure about you, but not being pregnant sucks. I'm going to get that out there right now. And on top of that trying to get pregnant for a year and a half sucks even more. And on top of that having one's landlord revoke use of the laundry facilities (for an unknown reason, by way of note on our doorstep - wuss!) sucks even more.

Now I have to go talk to the landlord tomorrow. Who knows what the issue is, but it's surely not easy getting laundry done as is - with a curious two year old - and a basement that has power tools laying around (the basement where the laundry is). It's certainly not going to be easier to have to PAY for laundry, AND leave the house for hours at a time to do it! Ack! Makes me wish we still had a lease.

Maybe the sun will be out tomorrow so I can show you the finished quilt.

Fabric Tuesday!!!

 Some of you may recognise some blocks from this quilt -- since you made them! That's right, Rosemarie's Cancer Killing Quilt and Katee's matching one are very nearly finished!!! I was on a major time crunch to finish Katee's (it was just a strip of blocks and an idea a week ago), since she and I will be working on hand stitching the bindings down on these two this week at Thanksgiving! All I need to do before we leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow is sew on that binding to Katee's quilt! I hadn't been worying too much about getting Katee's done too, but then my mom (who watches Katee while her parents are away with Rosemarie for her treatments) mentioned that Katee's really excited to see her quilt! I couldn't let that sweet 10 year old down!

Stopping in for the first time and don't understand what I'm talking about? Here's the first post and all the others. The short end of the story is that my four year old niece has cancer. She's been battling for three years and it makes me crazy that there's nothing I can do to make it better. We've rallied the forces and people from all over the world (I think like 6 countries... though I'd have to go back and count) have sent me pink and purple quilt blocks to make her and her older sister (Katee) quilts (since of course you can't make something for one sister and not the other). This project has warmed my soul in ways I can't describe. You all are amazing!

 Here are those raw edges, soon to be covered over with binding! It looks great doesn't it? The bindings (and back of Katee's quilt) are very scrappy. I used up almost all of everything that people had so very generously sent along with the blocks. These quilts are going to make AWESOME Christmas gifts! :)

Don't forget to head over to Quiltstory to see all the other goodies linked up for fabric Tuesday!

Pouches...

I need to make more of these. Here are some tutorials gathered up from other people!

Gathered Clutch from Noodlehead
Little Zippered Pouch also from Noodlehead
Fully Lined Zippered Box Pouch from It's a Pretty Modern Life (I made two of these a couple weeks ago and LOVE it. My sis requested another, bigger one for all her toiletries.)
Zippered Dopp Kit by the Purl Bee (this might just be the size the sister is looking for, but I don't think it'd be as sturdy or as cool as the box pouch. It's all a matter of whether or not I want to try to enlarge measurements for a tutorial. It probably wouldn't be too hard right?)

Oh and napkins. I need to make a set of these for a wedding gift!

Mitered Cloth Napkins by Heather Bailey

Dreaming...

of sewing with this sweet fabric.

Yep. I have that very fat quarter stack I just can't decide what type of quilt I want to make with it. I'd really like to use lots of Kona Ash with it, and probably some Kona Coal. I've contemplated using a single irish chain like this one

 

Only in a larger size (as this was a large doll quilt). 

Here are some other options.

Right now I'm really leaning toward either # 5, 6, or 12. Why does having a great selection of coordinating fabrics that I love make me so petrified to cut them? I want to play with the fabric, but I really want to use it for a full sized quilt, not broken up into a million little projects. I'm afraid if I use it for any little projects I'll not have enough to make a quilt from it. I'm cheep - it was a big thing for me to buy myself this fabric in the first place! 

 Either way, I have to finish quilting Katee's quilt first... (which means I have to finish piecing the back!). And I need to get that done by thanksgiving. I also need (want) to finish assembling my pillow talk swap pillow(s). But I really can't keep this fabric out of my mind! :)

A little home decorating.

 

Here's a sweet display in front of my cutting table in the sewing room. A pic of the baby, some finger painting, an unfinished little quilt top, and some ric-rac garland!

 Today, a need to clean/organize the house turned into an opportunity to hang some quilts for decoration! Above is a pic of my the gorgeous DQS9 quilt that I received - now hanging on my sewing room wall.

 

Here is a little display in Allie's room. I plan to add a couple little girlie doll quilts here too, once I make them. The word cloud is from www.wordle.com (you have to download a tool that will take a screen shot of your wordle, then print it in color. The frame is a vinyl decal I got for $2 at Target, I'm kicking myself for not buying the other pack of them!

Finally here's a quilt I've been wanting to post about. No, I didn't make it. This was made for DH when he was born, by a friend of his grandmother. I believe it was machine pieced and definitely hand quilted (impeccably!). It has spent it's first 27 years in a box in a closet (maybe in the attic?). So the dilemma is, is it worse to hang it and risk a bit of damage over the years, or to hide it away in a closet for the rest of it's existence? I think it's too beautiful to hide. It was never ever used since my mother-in-law was afraid to mess it up. I think the first time my husband ever recalled seeing it was when I pulled it out of the closet!

Two Christmas presents done!

Today I finished the quilted Mod Bento Block pillow for a Christmas gift! I'm not sure if the person who will recieve this reads my blog regularly. So I'm not going to mention who it's for. :) Hehe... I like how it turned out, even though I had a couple problems with the assembly. One of which was running out of that generic yellow thread that I quilted it with (which came in a bin from my grandma)! I ended up finishing the rest of it with the bobbin, then adding a bit more quilting with brown on the one edge. I don't think it looks bad... but that was very frustrating. 

Another thing, when doing free motion quilting, always be sure to pull your bobbin thread up after replacing the bobbin. I somehow forgot this, and ended up punching several holes through my feed dog cover! Now that's a powerful machine! I'll have to take some pictures of it tomorrow. It looks like it got into a shoot-out!

Then after completing this I decided to move on to the next present. I don't think my brother reads this at all, so I think I'm safe to tell you all that I made him a "transformer's" pillowcase. Several months ago my brother went to a toga party, and bought several yards of cheep transformer's fabric to wear as a toga... after the party he passed the fabric to me knowing that I sew. lol. Well he's getting more than just the pillowcase, but I think he'll like it anyway. :)

As always, linking up to Fabric Tuesday on Quiltstory

More mug rugs!

I've been quite uninspired about my mug rug progress. I finally just broke down and made one that I thought would be just ok. Well it turns out I love it! :) Mug Rug Swap 2 is halfway through and I have one done that I've labeled and everything. So at the very least, my partner will be getting this mug rug! 

 I might just send this one too... I'm not the fondest of it, but I think my partner would appreciate the Christmas shopping fabric. :) We'll see.

Also, soon I'll have some more to show you of my progress on the Pillow Talk Swap pillow. It's looking amazing! I am so very glad that I've been making two of them, so I can keep one for myself! :)

Quilt Along and Fabric Giveaway!

Head on over to Me? A Mom? and check it out. I'm thinking of making one of the Urban Lattice Quilts in Kona Coal with various Anna Maria Horner prints for my husband. :) I'm really looking forward to this. :)

There's a flickr group for the quilt along too. Find it here.

Obsessive Quilting Mode

Bag of potatoes: $2, Bucket: $1 = hours of fun!

That's what I'm in. Checking flickr like crazy for all the great ideas/inspiration I get there, and sewing into the night. I've finished the most time consuming part of my pillow for the pillow talk swap (plus a clone of it for myself). But now I need to buckle down and stop being so flighty. I have some serious sewing to get moving on before Christmas gets too close!

Here's my list to do:

• Finish the top of Katee's Quilt.
• piece the backing, quilt, prepare binding, and attach binding (ready to be hand sewn at thanksgiving).

• Buy fabric for the backing of Gia's baby quilt. 
• quilt, prep binding, etc. Decide what hand embroidery to do.

• Start / finish / decide what I'm sending for the mug rug swap (Send date: Nov 22-29)
• Quilt, embroider, and finish two swap pillows for the Pillow Talk Swap (one for partner and one for me). (Send date: Dec. 15)
• Make pillow cases to match Katee and Rosemarie's quilts.
• Design quilt labels for Katee and Rosemarie's quilts.
• Buy fabric/start sewing quilt for Wally. (He wants me to make him one for Christmas... lofty goals I think! lol.
• Make another ruffle dress for Allie for Christmas.
• Make a pillow out of mod bento's from swap for a Christmas gift.

Time to go get working so I can start crossing things off this list!!!

The Pillow Talk {Swap}

Sunday night I recieved my partner info for the Pillow Talk Swap. The swap mamas surely did a great job at matching us up since I think I've got quite a lot in common with my partner. Our tastes are very similar and I think she'll really like what I've got planned for her pillow. 

I usually don't jump right in and get started on day one of a swap, but last night this idea really stuck with me. I decided to stop by the local quilt shop (Quiltology) and pick up the supporting role fabrics (light yellows). I've really been itching to make a monochromatic quilt with lots of grey + one color so I'm going to do just that. Here's my idea:

Fabrics: some fat quarters of yellows, (the two on the right are Hope Valley) Kona Ash, and Kona Coal. 

The design here is one I've wanted to try ever since seeing it here on flickr. Here's the tutorial. Now here's the real shocker. I finished the block! lol I couldn't help myself! I did cut enough pieces for two pillows (one to keep for myself). I've got all the star points sewn together for the second one too! Oh let me tell you, I really did squeal right out loud as I ironed that last seam open. This block is really a work of art! I'm so excited about it!!! In the morning I'll take a picture of it and maybe let you count how many eensie pieces there are in that block - here's a hint, the block finishes at 10.5" and the centers of those stars are about 1" each! Did I ever mention that I loooove tiny piecing. (Ok so I don't always love sewing them together, but I love the finished product!)

Not to worry though, I've got lots more to do on this before it's done! I'm not sure if I'll be stippling it as originally planned though, there are a ton of bulky seams there. We'll see! :)

Oh yeah, and I'm linking up at Quiltstory for Fabric Tuesday!

Mug Rugs Again!

I've joined the second round of the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. We have recently received our partners, and I'm all ready to get creating! The only thing is, I have a house guest sleeping in my sewing room! lol. Well we did manage to get to the Joann's (superstore) this week so I did pick out some cute Christmas-y fabric, including one of some sweet shoppers. I also (finally) have my hands on a couple yards of Kona Ash. It's been a long time coming for that! :) 

While I await the use of my sewing machine, I've been making some sketches of ideas for my partner's mug rug. I'm probably going to do one Christmas themed one and one regular one. We'll see... obviously last round I had a million in the works so I don't think sending two would be too much work!

And finally I'm starting to sew that binding down on Rosemarie's Quilt! I'm only going to do about half of the binding, then I'll bring it to Thanksgiving for my niece (Rosemarie's older sister Katee) to help me, she's awesome at sewing binding down! I figured it might be a nice sentiment for Katee to have a hand in this project as well. I'm making a bit of progress on Katee's quilt too - hopefully that will be nearly finished by thanksgiving too! Oh - and notice the raw edge up there, I stole this idea of writing prayers in the edges. I'm not sure who originally did it, or where I saw it... I'm pretty sure it was on the "Trudy's Arse Kicking Quilt" flickr group. It's a wonderful idea anyhow. I wrote this little prayer in the binding next to the block I made. Rosemarie will know she's not only wrapped in love with this quilt, but wrapped in prayer too!

Look what I just made!!

If you're my sister stop reading this.

Last night when I had gotten done sewing my Internet was being funny. I was so excited about these bags that I really wanted to write this post right then and there! Well I had to go to bed on a sewing high without sharing it with the Internet world.

We're back and running this morning - sort of. lol. Pretty slow and probably virused or something (hopefully not).

Here are the awesome cool bags I made.

I found the tutorial here.The only thing I had even a bit of trouble with was not understanding why to not stitch past that 1/4" marking in step two. In retrospect I'm thinking I could have left a whole half an inch unsewn there! Otherwise they were challenging but not specifically hard. I really like them. And for the record, it's the first time I've really used interfacing as directed (on all pattern pieces). It really does give the stability I was looking for! (duh)

I see more of these in my future (especially since the two of them only used 1 fat quarter and a bit of a coordinating thrifted sheet!