Another baby quilt top finish

Yesterday I was scooting around blog land, and I read Camille's post about fun sewing. She inspired me with this easy quilt top.

Link: http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/simplify/2012/07/summersville.html

I had half a jelly roll in my stash, so I used it in lieu of cutting up a layer cake. The only thing I would do instead next time is cut my strips to 10.5 so I could do edge straightening. I am not as precise as Camille evidently. But then again I could have told you that yesterday, and had I listened to the little cutting voice in my head, I would have had at least 3 more blocks. I really like how this turned out, I was super pleased to use up that stash fabric, it is a great baby quilt size, and I made it in 1 afternoon.

It's a Bling Thing

Sighh...I made it.  I put the last stitch in "It's a Bling Thing" on Thursday night at about 10 pm.  We made the drive to Indiana with the wrapped up quilt in the trunk on Friday.  Attended the beautiful ceremony on Saturday afternoon.  It is official, Amanda and Cory are married.  Many hugs and kisses their way.  It was a beautiful ceremony and I hope this beautiful quilt blesses their home. 

Fabric:  Fandango by Kate Spain of Moda Fabrics

Pattern:  "It's a Bling Thing" by Heather Mulder Peterson's Let the Good Times Roll

It feels nice to finally have something to post!  I hope you all are well.  Many hugs your way, too.

All pinned up

Well, thank you for your many, many well wishes.  I haven't tried any of the blogger suggestions as I just didn't feel like doing much this week.  Apologies again for not getting back to you...I will get back in the swing soon, just stick with me.  I finally started to feel a bit better yesterday, which was lucky because we took a family trip to the orchard and a hay ride out to pick the best pumpkin ever.

Then I came home and started working on this quilt.  Collection:  Fandango by Kate Spain; Pattern can be found in Heather Mulder Pearson's book Let the Good Times Roll book.  I had the blocks all together, so I added the borders and sewed the back.  I woke up this morning feeling even better.  Today I have been working on pinning this monster and getting caught up on laundry!  But, that is a different monster all together, isn't it?

Anyway, the wedding that this is suppose to be a gift for is the 15th of October....13 days away.  Pressure is on!  Will I finish it on time?  Stay tuned.

Saturday Sewing: A new iron board cover

Let me start by saying that today, a lot of things seemed to take longer, have more problems, etc. then they should have.  But, this stitching project went just fine, so we will just skip to that part.  This is a pattern that I used my Charming Girls Gift Certificate that I won on.  I already had the fabric.  For those of you who will want to know, it is Breakfast at Tiffany's by Fig Tree Quilts of Moda.  Big shout out to Fig Tree....love your collections. 

Anyway.  The pattern is called:  Patchwork Ironing Board Covers by Cottonway.  You can find it at Kelly's shop here for a very reasonable $6.80.  Go ahead, take a peek...I know you want to.  I have wanted to make a new cover for a replacement to my disgusting cover forever, I just never got around to it.  There are lots of nice, FREE tutorials out there in blogland, too, I just really liked the pieced look of these.  I had some Bliss, too.  I almost used it.  But, I am just not ready to stop hoarding it and start using it yet.

So, I did mine up in Breakfast at Tiffany's and I love it.  I think it is too pretty to iron on.  Hmm.  That is an entirely different problem, isn't it?

What have you been working on today?

Hooray...a finished apron, let's celebrate

So, I did actually have enough bias tape.  I know you were wondering, weren't you?  You probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, so that is why I got back on this thing to tell you....allow you some relief.  I actually finished the entire apron.  I am going to give it to my MIL tomorrow....just because. 

Now I am sure you thought I would model the apron, but let me tell you that I just ate a chocolate covered marshmallow Santa and frankly would rather die than have my hips on my blog.  That is right folks, that is how it is. 

So the scallops here one the bottom...hmm.  Scallops.  I sure think they are cute, but I hate making them.  I clipped these babies to death and they still want to roll.  What is the deal??  I wish I would have had more teal to do the binding.  Oh well.  It is what it is ....it is done, that it is what it is.

PS---I 'heart' fig tree....big shout out to Joanna and her crew.  Keep that beautiful fabric coming.  LOVE it.

Also, if you commented on either of my posts about this apron....you are now officially entered to win these 2 charm packs.  Seems I found I had extra of this line, so my mistake is your lucky day.  Leave a comment to enter....doesn't have to be anything fancy (maybe the best part of your holiday...or a link to a cute project you've seen in blogland...or your own confession to something yummy you've indulged in recently, or just a brief hello).

Some Late Night Christmas Sewing

Did you have a nice Christmas?  We surely did.  We attended a lovely Christmas Eve service at Church...just lovely.  Then we woke up to open presents on Christmas Day, much to Buddy's delight.  That Santa fellow sure treated him well. Then we were off for a bit of a drive, and a nice family dinner.

When we got home, the house was pretty quiet.  I wandered into my clean sewing room and actually felt like doing a bit of sewing.  So, at first...I was just going to read the pattern for the half apron.  Then I was just going to cut my pieces.  But, then I ended up getting quite a bit of sewing done.  I did end up altering the pattern a bit, I just was not up to learning a new applique pattern that late....but I still like it.  I am not sure I have enough material for bias tape.  If that is the case, it will not get done today and I will have to order some material.  But I have enough of it done, that I think you can see what I have been up to.

What I have been up to....

We've been keeping really busy here.  We ended up coaching soccer.  Buddy went back to school and I returned to work.  So, I am sorry I haven't been blogging much.  I have been checking in on most of you, just not always leaving comments.  I finally found the time and energy this weekend to do a bit of sewing.  I am very pleased with the finished Tulip quilt for my MIL.  It turned out fantastic, right?  My long armer did the quilting and I worked most of the day on the binding today.  I am very pleased it is done.

I hope you are all well.  Happy sewing.

Jelly Roll Quilt Along Block 6

It was one of those days where I was preoccupied with something else.  I shouldn't have tried doing a simple block because it wasn't meant to be simple for me.  Have you ever had one of those days?  Where you manage to screw up the simplest of tasks?  Three times I screwed this block up.  I ended up fixing it twice and third time, I improvised.  Good times.  I do love the colors though. 

Is anyone else worrying they might run out of fabric? 

Sound the horns- I have a project to share

I have been carefully holding onto some posts with projects to share because, as you all know, my machine is down. Therefore, projects are few and far between. My friend Carol took the Friendship Bag and made it out of 2.5 strips. She was generous enough to share the dimensions with me and tada! I used some scraps from 2 years ago with the leftovers from my NY fabric! Love it. Pink and green...make my heart sing. In general, I think I like pink all the time. Now, what do I do with it? It is pretty generous in size. I am thinking on it.

Mother and Daughter Sewing Day

I helped mom make these bags with a Cotton Blossoms Jelly Roll over the weekend. The pattern is by Bunny Hill. They turned out cute! Does anyone have any advice on an easier way to sew on those buttons with the loop on the back? They're cute, but a real headache.

Keyholes Quilt

Remember this quilt? Well, it has been sitting on my ironing board now for a few months. The other day, I took the "keyholes" and was amazed how quickly they became these 9 blocks. Today I ironed them. Do you like my new use for leftover garage sale stickers? After I took the picture, I decided to make them all facing the top correctly.

Do you ever get a 'mental sewing block'....you know, where you convince yourself that something is going to be much harder and frustrating than it actually is? I can think of a few times I did this. . .like this, or like this, this, and for some reason I had convinced myself that these blocks wouldn't come together well because you had to partially sew down one seam, then put on another rectangle and so on until you came back to the first and finished sewing it. Now, I ask you....why did I stew about this forever? IT WAS A PIECE OF CAKE! These blocks came together better than another I can think of. So, now you all know that when I set a project aside, it is because I have a mental block.

Onto other family news, we had our last soccer game of the season. Here buddy is stretching. I think there is nothing cuter than 4 year olds stretching.


Can you feel the burn? LOL
This shot is right before buddy scored. He had 5 goals on Saturday, which I thought was pretty sweet. Do you see the yellow practice pinnies? Well, Saturday's game didn't go so well because it was a constant. . .'I don't want to be yellow, I want to be white.' My poor husband had to try to please everyone (most of which needed a nap) while keeping the game going.


I am not sure what he is doing here. . .LOL.

Afterwards, they had pizza, balloons, and trophies. Buddy was thrilled to get his 'first' trophy.

Baby Cakes Quilted

Well, I finally mustered the courage to attempt free motion quilting. I watch so many of you stipple and it looks so great. Envy finally won and I gave it a go. I must say I was proud of myself. For once, I had reasonable expectations of what I wanted to accomplish. I knew it would not be perfect this first go rather a learning experience. I meandered all over this quilt and can honestly say that every cent I send to the quilter normally is worth it (but I already knew that). I survived the experience and I have a few more quilts in mind to practice on. I used bamboo batting and it was so soft. It is a definite must from now on.






I love the pieced back. I must say it was more difficult than I every guessed it would be to get the stripe straight, but I persevered. I think had I videoed the basting session, I could have won America's funniest home videos. I love it though and it was worth the extra anguish and a few choice words. LOL I also love the striped binding. I think I almost like the back more than the front, not that the front is darling.
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If you haven't already you have a few hours left to get in on Jen's 100th post giveaway. So head on over there, she has some really cute gifties up for grabs.

Baby Cakes Quilt Top- finished

Well, my mailman delivered my border fabric so I just whipped it all together lickity split! Really, it felt like it moved fast. I am giving my girlfriend her choice of the 3 baby quilts I posted about recently. It will be fun seeing which she will choose. I suspect I know which. Sorry for the dark photo again. It has been quite gloomy in these parts.

I have been working on lots of projects this weekend. I cannot share yet though as I have a surprise or two to get in the mail. It feels good to get some smaller projects done.

Baby Cakes Quilt- Start

I have been working on another baby quilt, Baby Cakes Quilt from the book Strip Happy. You can still find this Jelly Roll pattern book at Joanns, which is running a 40% off sale on all quilting books this weekend (FYI). A funny story...before Joann's started carrying it, I was looking for this book. I did a search on Barnes and Noble....you would have just laughed at all of the books that "strip happy" pulled up! Needless to say I gasped!

I enjoyed this pattern although I am not done yet. I still need to sew my blocks together. I am waiting on the rest of my Flutterby (Moda) fabric to arrive to put the borders on. This pattern was very easy! It would be great for a begginner or an advanced looking to do something fast. Besides, I just love the blocks.


So, the quilt really runs in the opposite direction. I just wanted to get a quick shot in, so you all knew I was up to something. I will post a better picture when I get the top done!

A start

This is going to be short. Here's what I am working on. . .




If you haven't already, head on over to Mid-Ohio Knitter's giveaway. Vickie is just so sweet and fun. If you haven't already, check out her tutorial on Moda Bakeshop Blog. . .congrats to Vickie for being a designer on the blog! That is so "sweet".