September 11, the day after

So I meant to post this yesterday because it would have made better sense, but I was distracted by a sick baby.

September 11 is kind of a bummer day here in the states because of the World Trade Center attack. It's also the day I had my miscarriage a couple years ago. To top it all off, my bestie cousin started chemo yesterday for ovarian cancer. She had to have a complete hysterectomy and has not yet had the opportunity to have kids. She's only 32.

I found out she was scheduled for chemo a couple weeks ago. My mom is a breast cancer survivor (20 years now - go Mom!) and I remember her talking about how cold she'd get during her chemo treatments. So, I thought my cousin could use a quilt. Not only to keep her warm, but maybe lift her spirits and remind her that she has a lot of people thinking about her and cheering her on. To remind her to have

I pulled together a bunch of fabrics and cut 12.5" squares. Simple, big patchwork. I used fabrics from Lizzy House, Riley Blake, Tula Pink, Laurie Wisbrun, Momo, American Jane, Heather Bailey, Doohikey Designs, Denyse Schmidt, Joel Dewberry, Emily Herrick, and others.

For the back, I paper pieced "hope" using the wonky alphabet pattern from Kelbysews and added a DS Quilts print from one of her Joann's lines, a Lizzy House Pearl Bracelets print, and a Joel Dewberry print from Modern Meadow.

I quilted it in meandering double loops and bound it in a plaid from Play Ball from Riley Blake.

The quilt measures about 60"x60".

Finished Twin Quilts

I meant to post about these quilts last week and totally spaced it. I guess that's what you get when you're chasing after three little kids, working full-time, and never feeling like there are enough hours in a day.

Anyway, here are my first FINISHED quilts of 2012! Took me long enough, right?

I mentioned in this WIP Wednesday post that my nephew and his wife had twin boys a couple months after I had my baby. We were so excited for them! And while I was floored at the thought of becoming a great-aunt at 29 (although, let's be honest, I've been a "great" aunt since I was 5), I was super excited for my parents to become great-grandparents and for my sister to become a grandma. The only downside is that my nephew and his little family live thousands of miles away in Chile and I won't be able to meet these little guys anytime soon.

And while I couldn't be there to help out while the babies were in the NICU or while my nephew and his wife were living away from home to be close to the hospital, I could make them quilts.

First up is Jayden's quilt. I used a couple-year-old sock monkey print from Moda for this one. I cut 10-inch squares and then stacked them together for the stack and whack method.

I added the green Heather Bailey print (Winter Road in Slate from her Nicey Jane line) for more color variety and used the leftover pieces for a scrappy binding. On the back, I used the sock monkey books fabric, which I happened to get for a steal at my LQS (like 75% off!).

Next up is Sam's quilt. This space robot fabric is from David Walker's Robots line for FreeSpirit. I had a bunch leftover from my son's quilt and decided to use it to make an offset squares quilt inspired by Jessica's Baby Blocks quilt. I added in the green and gray fabrics (I Heart Gears from Rashida Coleman Hale's I Heart line and Kona Charcoal) since I didn't have quite enough robot fabric.

I used the gear fabric for the backing and a Kona yellow for the binding (not sure the exact color).

My typical binding method is to machine stitch the binding to the back of the quilt and then sew it to the front with a nice topstitch. However, I bent my walking foot a while back and my binding has been bothering me on the last few quilt I've made. I used my typical method on Jayden's quilt, but half way through attaching the binding to the front, my walking foot totally stopped working. So I had to use my regular foot to finish. For Sam's quilt, I decided to try Kati's machine binding method, which she demoed at one of our guild meetings. Her method consists of stitching the binding to the front of the quilt, folding it over to the back, and then stitching in the ditch on the front while catching the binding on the back. I was skeptical at first, thinking that I'd have a hard time catching the fabric underneath that I couldn't see. But, after trying it on Sam's quilt, I'm pretty much sold...and I can do it easily without my walking foot.

One of my sisters is making a couple diaper bags using the scraps that I had leftover from the quilts. So, as soon as she finishes those, I hope to get these shipped to their new owners ASAP. It's almost winter in Chile and those babies need to stay warm!

Goodies for Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap Round 1

If you haven't had a chance yet, you can enter the CSN Stores giveaway by leaving a comment on this post. I'm drawing a winner tomorrow (Tuesday 1/17/11), so hurry on over.

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For the Spicing Up the Kitchen Swap, the deadline to mail the items for our partners is March 1. I started and finished mine yesterday (a month and a half before the deadline and only a few days after finding out who my partner is).

BUT, don't think I'm an over achiever or anything. The real reason I finished these up so soon is that my sewing time will drastically be reduced starting the first of March. See, I've been working from home for the past three and a half years, but come March, I have to start working in the office again. Boo. There are a lot of projects I want to work on (not to mention the other two swaps I will be in between now and April and the bee I'm in this year). So I'm trying to spend as much free time sewing as I possibly can. Thankfully, the mister is very understanding and encouraging. =)

I stalked my partner for a few days, pulled out some fabric, and started brainstorming ideas. I decided to start off with an apron. My partner likes Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey (at least I'm pretty sure she does), and I just so happened to have a fat quarter of this floral print and some of the green stripes. I half-followed this tutorial. Thanks to Traci for making one and pointing out the tutorial.



I opted to make the apron reversible, so I pulled a yellow fat quarter from my stash that matched the Nicey Jane fabric (I'm sadly lacking in the yellow department).



Next up, I made a couple of patchwork towels. I found some really soft bamboo cotton towels and added a band of various fabrics to the bottom. Simple, but cute.



I thought about stopping there (since the swap expectations stated that they didn't want us to get overwhelmed by trying to come up with too many items for the swap), but I had a few leftover pieces from the towel and put them together into a little mug rug. If my partner isn't big on mug rugs, she has a couple places in her kitchen for a little mini quilt wall hanging.

I added a little bit of stitchery because my partner said she liked that too.



So here's all the loot. I hope you like it, partner. I'm planning on sending this off tomorrow. It has quite a way to travel, so I'm hoping it makes it to its new home safely.