Finally! Some finished projects!

Can you believe that I actually finished some projects this week?! I can hardly believe it myself! Here's to [hopefully] many more finishes in the coming weeks.

An old friend asked if I'd make some stockings for her family for Christmas this year. Her decorations are lime, turquoise, pink, and purple. Since she needed one more color so there'd be enough stockings for each member of her family, we chose gray to go with the rest of the colors. I raided my stash and pulled together several prints for my friend to choose from and this is what she picked.



I used the same pattern here as I did with my own Christmas stockings last year, which you can find on Fabricworm's blog here.



For the hanging loops, I pulled out some grosgrain ribbon that I had on hand. I also used Kona white for the lining and the cuffs.

My friend was in town for Thanksgiving so I was able to give these to her last week. I'm excited for her to share pictures of the stockings hanging up with the rest of her decorations.

The second project I managed to finish this week is a quilt for the Festival of Trees, the proceeds from which benefit a local children's hospital here in Utah. Primary Children's has played an important role in my life as my son's club foot was treated there as well as his recent surgery. My sweet nephew, who passed away several years ago, was also treated there for his medulloblastoma. The festival is a really great cause and I was happy to help in some way.

The fabric for this queen-size quilt was donated. Since there wasn't much variety, I opted to enlarge the Surfside pattern from Thimble Blossoms, which I think works well with only two fabrics. I used a dark brown king flat sheet for the backing. This quilt was a beast to quilt on my domestic machine, so I was really glad when I finally finished it on Saturday.

While I was happy to finish these two projects this week, I still have more to finish before Christmas, including five quilts (why do I do this to myself?). I have a few other things I'd like to make for my kids for Christmas, like these cloth doll diapers, fabric crowns, and monster rice bags, so I hope I can be as productive as possible.

Linking up to:

A few random sewing projects, part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I've really been enjoying working on some smaller projects that offer instant gratification when I finish them in one sitting. Perhaps this is because I've started so many big quilt projects that are in various stages of completion. Here's a hodge podge rundown of some of the projects I've been working on lately.

First up are a few drawstring bags using Jeni's tutorial. With three kids five and younger, it's a constant challenge to stay organized out our house. I made a few of these bags to help in our toy-organizing effort. These really are so quick to whip up, especially if you use ribbon as the drawstring. I plan to make many more of these in the near future.



I also sewed up a quick skirt for my daughter using the Crafy Chloe unicorn fabric by Heather Ross that is available at Hancock's. My daughter is pretty much obsessed with wearing skirts on a daily basis. I figured rather than buying more skirts since so many if hers have gotten too small (she's growing like a weed), I'd just make some.



This one isn't lined, but it's also meant to be a play-day skirt. I've since made another skirt just like this one using some DS Quilts and Lizzy House fabric that she can wear to church. I wanted it to be lined, but didn't want to "waste" good fabric on the lining, so I made it reversible instead. I still have to take pictures of that one, but I'll show you what I'm talking about when I do.



Now, I don't know about all you ladies, but when it comes to "that time of the month," I usually just carry tampons and such loosely in my purse. I remember in jr. high and high school being so embarrassed when I needed to use the restroom and tried so hard to be discreet. I decided it was time to have a cute little pouch I could house those supplies in and stick in my purse, making it easier to just grab the pouch rather than stick a tampon in my pocket and head for the bathroom. While I was at it, I made a few more for my nieces so they can feel a little less self-conscious too.



Last month, Jessica (Euphoria on Flickr) invited my to participate in a charity sewing event, Bibs for Babies, that she was organizing. The Operation Shower non-profit group gives baby showers to military families, helping to raise spirits despite deployment. She asked for everyone participating to make two baby bibs that she can donate to the cause, hoping to collect 100 bibs. This was a first for me, and while there's definitely room for improvement, it was nice to use some materials I had on-hand as well as contribute to good cause.



Well, that's the rundown for now. Check back Saturday for a few more projects I have in the works.

Quilt Story's Block Party

I've decided to enter two quilt blocks I've made into Quilt Story's Block Party.

The first is my entry in the Traditional category - my cathedral windows block. You can read more about this block here.



I loved making this block. It was the first time I attempted something that was way out of my comfort zone, but it ended up being a lot easier to tackle than I'd anticipated. It was just time-consuming. I used Heather's tutorials (parts 1 and 2) from House of A La Mode. This was also the first time I made a project completely out of solids. I guess for that reason, I could have entered this block in the Modern category too.

The second is my entry in the Modern category - a modified hourglass block (in its unpressed state no less).



If you'd like to read about how I constructed this block, you can click here for the details.

Now, head on over to Quilt Story to check out the other entries. There are so many great blocks - I've added several of them to my to-try-someday list.

Quilt Hope In

A couple weeks ago, I read about a sweet baby girl who was orphaned in Haiti. The image of her laying in the orphanage with tears streaming down her face was heartbreaking. I've thought of that image often over the last few weeks and it still pulls at my heart strings. Tracey read about the same little girl and decided to take action. She started up Quilt Hope In, which is an Etsy store that will donate 100% of sales to benefit women and children in Haiti through Heartline Ministries. Isn't that wonderful?! And the best part is, you can get involved too. You can make a quilt or other handmade item to donate to the Etsy shop. Head on over to get more details and to make a difference.


While you're at it, check out Tracey's blog right now for a chance to win an AccuQuilt Go! cutter.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I was looking back over the quilts I've made this year and realized that there's only one that I really really love, but I entered it in the quilt festival last time. So, inside of looking for a quilt I really loved, I instead tried to find a quilt I was proud of having made, and it's this charity quilt.


My brother-in-law asked me a few months ago if I'd be willing to make and donate a quilt for a silent auction his neighborhood was putting together to raise money for a boy with cerebral palsy. Since I only started quilting in January, I haven't had many opportunities for charity projects and thought this would be a great way to give back. After all, my family has been the recipient of some wonderfully charitable people over the years.

I set out to find a design that would work well with the jellyroll I planned to use. I ended up finding three designs that I liked and worked to fuse them together.


I wanted the back to be pieced so there would be more versatility to the quilt, thinking maybe someone would want to bid on it more if they could almost get two quilts out of one. So I sketched out the back...


and was able to break out of my "single fabric collection shell" a little bit by adding some fabrics from my stash that coordinated nicely - a good exercise for me.


I liked how some of the cuts came together to make a design I hadn't anticipated.


And I worked hard to improve my skills, carefully quilting and binding the quilt, forcing myself to take more care since I wanted it to be of good enough quality that someone would want to bid on it.

All in all, I'm really proud of this quilt. Not because I love the design, but mostly because I tried harder to do a better job to make a product that someone would want to own.

Finished Charity Quilt

First off, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who have left comments about this quilt (through its many phases), and the Rocket Me to the Moon quilt. I've meant to reply to all your comments, but life has been pretty hectic for me and I won't be able to respond. But I do want all of you to know that I appreciate your kind words...they are great motivation for me.

I finished the charity quilt last week in time for the auction, but they ended up pushing the auction back a week. That was nice because then I had something to take to show and tell at our monthly quilt guild meeting.


I did all-over swirls for the quilting. I'm trying to work on moving the quilt at a consistent speed and I think I'm improving a bit. At least my stitch-length is starting to look more even.



I cut 3" strips for the binding this time. I also took greater care to make sure my lines were as straight as possible. I do my bindings backwards than most of you, I'm sure, but I think this works for me. The mitered corners turned out quite nicely.


This was a fun project to work on, but I'm glad it's done. The other day I made a list of everything I'd like to quilt and the list was over 30 items long. I prioritized the top ten that I'd like to have done before Christmas. As this quilt was on the list, I'm happy to cross it off and move on to the next one.


I have a few days off work this week so I'll be attaching the binding to my Rocket Me to the Moon quilt and it will be ready for my son's bed. That'll shorten my list to eight to-dos by December.

Charity Quilt Back

I finished piecing the back of the charity quilt on Tuesday and got the quilt basted last night. I normally wouldn't do so much piecing, but I didn't have enough yardage for a solid backing and wanted to try to pull some fabric from my stash. The only extra fabric I bought for the project was the blue swirls yardage for the borders on the top (with leftovers for the back) and the multi-squares that I used on the back.


Since I knew I didn't have enough yardage for a solid back, I started sketching out a design, using some of the leftover triangles from the quilt top. I've realized that I use a scant 1/4 inch seam. That's definitely something to keep in mind when I sketch designs out in the future.


I pulled this orange from my stash, which was leftover from a pillow project earlier in the year. The two shades of orange work well with the oranges in the Frolic line. After piecing this together, it looked like a cute little table runner. I don't use them at my house, but it gave me even more ideas for Christmas presents (like I need more ideas...I already have too many ideas for projects than time to get them made before Christmas).


Here's my little helper trying to hold up part of the backing. (He's starting all-day preschool on Monday and I'm going to be making him a cute little lunch sack and matching reusable sandwich/snack bags - more on that to come.)

The brown is a Kona cotton (I can't remember the exact color) that I bought months ago to go with the jellyroll sampler quilt. Since I didn't end up making the full 12 blocks in the quilt-along, I had plenty of brown fabric to spare. It matched the Frolic line pretty well, but also reminded me of a pair of polyester pants my grandma used to wear.

There's a thin strip between the bottom blue and brown strips. It was a leftover jellyroll strip that I didn't use for the top so I cut it in half lengthwise to add a little separation between the blue and brown.


Do you remember my label debate? After much thought, I decided to go with handwritten labels for a couple reasons. One, it's easier to personalize the quilt because I can write the name of the quilt and who the quilt is for. And two, I think it will be neat to preserve a bit of me in my handwriting. As an added bonus, it will be good to practice my hand-drafting skills that I haven't really used since my interior design college days.


I hope to start the quilting tonight. If I plan this right, I'll be able to finish up the quilt by the first of next week and hand it off to my brother-in-law for the auction.

Linking up:

Charity Quilt Top

A couple weeks back, my brother-in-law asked if I'd be willing to make a quilt to donate for a silent auction. There's a little boy in his neighborhood with Cerebral Palsy. The whole neighborhood has banded together to raise money for this little boy and his family. At various times in my life, my family has been the recipient of such kindness and I wanted an opportunity to pay it forward.

I bought a Frolic jellyroll a few months back without a specific idea of what to make with it. After the call from my brother-in-law, I set out on trying to figure out what sort of design to use for this charity quilt with the jellyroll. At our July quilt guild meeting, one of the girls brought a string quilt. I loved the look, but I'm totally intimidated by paper-piecing. Then I saw this pattern, which just so happened to use the Frolic line. After searching a bit more for inspiration, I read through Cluck Cluck Sew's easy double hourglass tutorial and knew I could find a way to fuse all these looks together. Here's what I came up with:

Note: The photos link to flickr so they're cut off a little on the right side.


I constructed each block using CCS's directions for the double hourglass blocks, but I made mine using three jellyroll strips.

I started by separating the jellyroll strips into sets of three, making sure to create contrast in the pattern and color, but also making sure the strips went well together. Then I took out my trusty ruler and cut each strip at 45 degree angles, alternating the direction of my ruler.



I was able to get five triangles from each jellyroll strip set. I paired four of them together as shown below. I reserved the leftover triangle for later use. Sewing the triangles into a block was tricky because of the cut being on the bias. When you sew something this way, you have to make sure not to stretch the fabric or else your block will bubble.



The 42 jellyroll strips gave me 16 12" blocks, 13 of them looked symmetrical like the one above, and other three were comprised of the leftover triangles, making them look a bit more scrappy.



Each strip set had a bit more leftover so I cut a few smaller triangles and paired them together like so.



I had enough smaller triangles for six 8" blocks, but I only used four blocks as the corner posts at the ends of the borders.



The quilt top measures about 60 inches square, a good size lap quilt. I need to pick up the backing material still and my deadline is swiftly approaching (September 15) so I best get crackin'. Hopefully the quilting and binding will go fast and I can hand this quilt off for the silent auction ASAP.

Linking up:

Block 8

I was five blocks behind in Moose Quilt's Jelly Roll Quilt-Along (she's posted all the blocks and the finishing instructions so I'm WAY behind). As part of my sewing time last night, I worked on block 8. (I'm such a lazy presser. This block would look better had I taken the time to press it, but oh well.)


I'm getting sick of the Odyssea line. I really like certain prints in the collection, but not all of them. I'm also not doing a very good job of choosing the fabrics for each block. This is the third one that I haven't cared for because of my fabric choices (not enough contrast with the center nine patch). I also think that my dislike for the fabric made me fall behind and I'm only moderately compelled to finish the rest of the blocks.


My brother-in-law asked me to make a quilt to auction off for a boy in his neighborhood with cerebral palsy. When this quilt is finished I may donate it along with the other one (more on that to come) since I'm just not loving it.