Baby birdhouse mini quilt

Tues morning I headed to the fabric store to find some fabrics to go along with this pattern that I had found in easy Quilts pg. 70, Summer 2011 edition and left open to make...back in 2011.  I saw this magazine when I was frantically cleaning out my storage room after a mouse infestation we had over the holidays.  Somehow, I luckily avoided my fabric getting caught in the mix of the mouse disaster.  They didn't nest in it, they didn't shew it or poop or pee on it...even though they ran around next to it.  But yuck, after I finally killed the 7th one, we have been mouse free and a clean house again.  I think they may have come in a box of mason jars from my cousins garage on their farm that I had stored in our storage room for a bit.  Apparently this week was the week to make it after all this time.  I am soooo glad that I went to look for this magazine this weekend because I finally found all the other patterns I have been searching for that I would like to finish and make. 

I was all packed up for an 1+ drive out to my best friends house to sew.  Her birthday is this weekend and I thought it would be fun to sew something up for her and spend time together.  I sent her picture after picture as I was in the fabric store looking for the right combination of fabrics and this is what we decided on. 

We sat at her kitchen table and cut up all the applique pieces and got them ironed on.  I made the pattern 148% bigger than the original, so it came out to 12" by 28" final quilt top. 

The flower on the top of the bird house I thought was a dragonfly the whole time, but it turns out it is just a flower.  Haha.  I find that to be funny.  It had taken me too long to pick out fabric that I had to leave to head home before we got the quilt quilted and bound.  So I came home yesterday and got it all finished.  I think that it turned out super great and can't wait to see it to her with her family for her birthday party. 

I especially love the knot in the wood in the birdhouse stand.  The wood fabric was a find at the quilt store as I was standing waiting for the lady at the cut counter to finish cutting other fabric. 

When I was first putting the border fabric on the quilt, I was thinking that it just didn't match, but it really just give it such a whimsical brightness that is soooo much fun!!  

This was such a fun quilt sew and I am super glad that I had the time to make it on the week of her birthday.  Hope that you enjoyed!!

My best friends quilt

There was that one time that I had my best friend pick out fabric of her choice, a quilt pattern she loved and then it got put on the top of my sewing shelf in my storage room and didn't move for 4 years.  Ya, that all started in 2012 after she saw my Summer Picnic quilt.  My Summer Picnic quilt was the first quilt I really ever did that I made a lot of HST and the first quilt I had ever learned how to square the pieces off to make everything line up.  I wasn't quite ready to do that again.  At the time it seemed so tedious!!!  (Granted, the amount of time I had to sew was limited since I had a newborn infant and a 2yr old, was working 3 jobs, and was worn out all the time.)  How funny that 4 years later, one of my favorite things to do it make quilts with lots of little pieces and square them off. 

In Jan 2016 I decided it was the year to finally get the quilt done.  It had been a couple years since my best friend and I had had a good amount of time to get together.  My schedule was always just so busy with work.  I told her I had got the fabric out, cut it up and got it ready, but I really needed help sewing the pieces up.  If she sewed them, then I could square them off.  The time went so fast when we did it that way.  It was amazing.  I felt bad because it was her birthday present that year and I was asking her to help me make it, but it turned out so cute!!  I really wish that I had had double the amount of fabric to make me one, but I love mine with the 1920's replica prints.  She has a house decorated with super fun sunflowers and country themed wood.  So, it really matches her home and that's what matters. 

Someday I will get to making my Moda Frivol #8 and I will have another fun, small quilt like this that really brightens any room with the warm colors and the awesome solid white background.

Hope you enjoyed!! 

Quilted Place-mat weakness!!!

Guys, I was pulling out some placemats to use for a game night at our house tonight with some neighbors.  I totally have a weakness for holiday and seasonal items.  But as my life has gone on, I have really tried to limit them to sewn items in my house.  How often to you use place-mats?  For nice dinners right?  On occasion maybe a nice Sunday dinner as a family, or a at home date night with a spouse.  However, as rare as I use them, I just LOVE having them.

When I was putting my Halloween place-mats away, I thought of the perfect drawer to put them in my kitchen.  Without a doubt, if my husband opens that drawer and sees them there, he will probably have a comment to make.  Not a bad comment, but a comment nevertheless.  He is completely supportive of my work as a musician, my quilt hobby, my house decorations, but he can't seem to understand my place-mat fetish.  He doesn't understand my want to have lots of colored dishes.  Plain white really are practical and useful at anytime, but this is my much cheaper passion for having fun place settings when we have friends over...(which honestly, we do party quite a bit and have dinners and board game nights with friends several times a month so we aren't completely without moments to use them.)

I made Valentines place-mats back in 2014.  I pieced together left over fabric from my daughters infant quilt and made the most ENORMOUS napkins.  Haha!!  They are sooooo big when I put them in my lap that I laugh everytime we use them.  Oh, and what was I thinking making them white!!!  But I still use them because they are just so pretty.

I made Spring place-mats back in 2015.  I was in the fabric clearance section at JoAnn's waiting for my number to be called at the cut counter and saw the fabric.  I knew immediately that it was the perfect fabric for something fun.  They didn't have enough of the pink fabric to make a full setting of 8 napkins.  So, when I was at another JoAnn's location later that week, I checked to see if by happen chance they would also have the fabric on sale.  Sure enough!!!  Ah!!!  I found the perfect amount to complete my set.  Score!!

When we got married, someone gifted us a nice set of black everyday placemats.  I found this cute little tea kettle print fabric in the remnant bin at JoAnn's and made a set of four of these napkins.  They are just fun and playful.

I bought this place-mat pattern 2 weeks ago on eBay to make some Santa placemats for next Christmas for me and my husbands aunt who collects Santas.  I am super excited.  Then I will need a fun summer one....or a set of nice fall ones....maybe then I will be satisfied.  Maybe.

Hope you enjoyed.

My 1st purple quilt

I have been collecting purple fabric forever. It has always been in the back of my mind to find a pattern that I really liked for it. So, it did take me by surprise when i was frantically looking for a pattern the other day and I re-found this pattern that I had bought. Yep, I am still in love with it. (I did change and add an extra flower on the large flower applique and I like it a lot better with the buttons that I chose.)That is when I realized that all I needed to be able to make this quilt was a lighter fabric with sparce print. yep, I went over to my favorite quilting store and asked them to help me find a white fabric with a small sparce purple print and this was the only one that they had in stock. The pattern called for 1 5/8 yd of fabric and that was EXACTLY what they had left on the bolt. (which of course meant that I got it off 10% for finishing the bolt.) Then I went to Abby's house for a sewing day and after a while of trying to decided what purple fabrics I was going to use, here is what I chose and how the top turned out.
It took me forever to decide on the inner border fabric. I had all sorts of shades and hues of fabrics, but I think that the light purple helps draw away from the darker colors in the middle and get ready for the really pretty border. So the reason that I finally decided to start working on this quilt is kind of interesting. I was looking at my blog stats the other day. My most viewed post is my post on Back Porch Bouquet fabric. I thought that was interesting because it has been a while since that line of fabric has been in the stores and yet I still have at least one search for that on my blog a day. So, I was looking at the pattern and had remembered the purple pattern I posted and went and looked at it. It is simply too modern for me.

I am waiting for a new book to arrive. I finally ordered 501 Quilting Motifs. I really hope that it is all that the reviews say it is. When I get it this week I will certainly have to do my own review. It is supposed to have great diagrams and instructions on some different quilting designs. I am waiting to decide how to quilt this quilt so I can try something new and interesting. We will see how it goes.

I have been making quilts and wall hangings to put up on my ladder that I can change out monthly. I am going to be making a hexagon purple quilt here in a little bit. So I am deciding the month that I would put purple up in. I have though about maybe Sept or April or May. April usually has Easter so I think I would put up spring colors then. I will put up fall colors in Nov and so I am not sure yet what to do with Sept. Back to school colors? That would just be weird. Fun random quilts, that might be likely. Ah...I just love creating things and so it won't really matter, but it is fun to think about.

Hope that you enjoyed my new project.

Mini Wall Quilts

I love cutting and piecing fabric together. I know that most people don't...but there is something really exciting about it to me. I love the different fabrics coming together and how they all turn out in the end. However, making large quilts is expensive...and where do you put a lot of quilts? I decided that I would make a mini-quilt for each one of the months of the year. That way I could make a quilt for each of the seasons and holidays. I could learn how to machine quilt on my own machine with small quilts and I could have something that I can change out on the wall that isn't too large. Well, I have finished the following mini-quilts. I am really excited about it.

This is a mini-quilt from Crazy Old Ladies patterns. It is one of their seasonal skinnies. Very easy and quick to make. Requires a lot less material than the pattern calls for.
The following is my wall hanging for spring. I got this as a kit from Connecting Threads. I like a lot of their fabrics and their kits. I bought tons of their thread to work on each of my projects and I really like it. Their thread is wonderful.
This is also a kit from Connecting Threads. I have been looking for a 4th of July wall hanging. I really like this one, but I eventually want to make one with bright reds and blues.
This is a pattern from a couple years ago. Sandy Gervais who creates fabric lines for moda fabrics created this line. I love almost all of her fabrics. They just speak to me. I love this Halloween wall hanging. I found the following link to the pattern...it was made from a line called Pumpkins Gone Wild...and I think that the pattern was called Crazy Jack.
This is my Christmas wall hanging...it will match the Christmas quilt and I am going to get quilted for this Christmas. I am really excited that I am finally going to finish it. I still need to take pictures and post the Christmas quilt I made for my mom last year.
Many posts ago, I took pictures of the progress of this welcome sign. It is now finished. It took a very long time to stitch around all the applique on the entire thing. I used threads that would match the edges and make them all blend in. I used a blanket stitch around each part and I think that it turned out well.
This is not the best picture of the stitching. However, it does show the work that I put into it. I really like how it turned out.
I am working on the following projects that I started at the cabin last week. This first one my mom really liked when we went to the Quilting Store at Gardner Village. I don't particularly care for bow-tie patterns, but I really like how this one turned out. I really think that the top turned out really well. Now I just need to put the back on, the final stitching on the top and the backing and binding.
This is the new quilt that I am making to put in our living room for using while watching TV and movies. I still want to applique a few white stars onto it. I am going to tie this quilt. I think that it is going to turn out nice.
Russ made me the following quilt ladder last summer to put my quilts on as I made them. In the next couple weeks I am going to have my first quilt on there, my fall quilt. I am really excited. I just finished the backing and am going to take it to a long-arm quilter this week.
This is the decorative edge that he put on it. I love it
Well, there is the progress that I made before I made my daughter's quilt for her crib. I am very proud to say that I finished all of these and that they are no longer just tops. Check back soon as I am going to finish my next project in the next couple days.

New Spring Wall Hanging

So, this was my Sunday afternoon project. It took about 2 hours to cut, sew, iron and applique. It would have taken slightly less time if I hadn't had to unpick a seam that slipped while I was sewing. It is just the top. I got tired of working on it, and so I will put the back on tomorrow and quilt it a little. The pattern and material are from Connecting Threads. It is a kit called Mama's Daisy Wall Hanging. It was on sale a couple weeks ago and I bought it. It was soooooooo cute and I loved the material. If it hadn't been for the material I probably wouldn't have bought it. Enjoy!

New Patterns

Well, so much for not spending anything. I got my connecting threads catalog out of the mail yesterday. I have been wanting to make some wall hangings for every month and season, and well, they had one for spring and the fourth of july. Those are two that I have been looking for something cute. I also needed to order some 505. This is great stuff. I learned about it from one of my piano students. It is a spray that helps baste your layers together when you are quilting on your own machine. I am sooooo excited to try it.

Here is what I am going to make for the spring.

And here is what I am going to make for the Fourth of July. It is sooooooo cute. So, I also finished a couple projects that I have posted in the past. I am going to take some pictures and hopefully when I get home from work tonight i will be able to post them. One of them in the pink and brown box front that I made back in Dec. for a Christmas present. I am going to sew on the buttons today while I am working. And then a couple new baby blankets for my etsy shop. I am so excited. Hope that you enjoy!