Pure Boy Quilt

 I finished this quilt over the weekend. It will be for my cousin's baby boy, due in August. It was really easy to put together for two reasons. 1. It was made using a jelly roll, so not as much measuring and cutting. 2. It's a baby quilt... so much smaller! :) I actually love this design and hope to do some more similar quilts in this way. 

I used the Pure fabric collection by Sweetwater. I've had the jelly roll in my stash for a while. I love the blues and browns, and the cute little words. And argyle! 

*Side note: See those little hands? They belong to my son... my little helper! I figured he could handle holding up a small quilt. :)

So, I guess the blocks are essentially a rail fence design, although I didn't line them up all perfect in a zig zag or other design. I was a bit more random with them, because it's funner that way. ;) Yes, I said "funner". Anyways, to make 5 blocks, I took 4 jelly roll strips (approximately 2.5"x 42" each), sewed them together, pressed, then cut them into 8" squares. Easy peasy. Repeat 6 times to get 30 blocks. I had leftover strips to use for the binding, and little 2" squares to use for the pieced backing along with some matching baby blue. This could easily be done in a day, if you don't have anything else to do. For me it took maybe a week. Lol! Yeah, I was busy. 

I also made some more baby boy tie onesies. One of them is some more fabric from the Pure collection, another is an 80s video game look-alike (not to be mentioned... ahem, copyright), and of course, my favorite sock monkey fabric in a velcro bowtie. :)

Hope your week is great! 

Pure Boy Quilt

Taking a breath!

Well, December certainly was a busy month! Now I need a good long break from the hustle and bustle. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families. Sorry I haven't posted recently. I haven't had time for much since before Halloween! I made handmade gifts for all the adults in my family, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures of all of them. I always forget that part. Here are some of the things I did get pics of...

I made "scarves for my sisters", using my precious leftovers of Anna Maria Horner flannels and voiles from my giant log cabin quilt. These went to my sister, my two step-sisters, and my two sisters-in-law. 

I made remote caddy pillows for 3 of my brothers-in-law. Just pillows with pockets, handy for remotes, iPhones, or snacks. ;) Sorry, no pics. 

I finished this crossword quilt for my brother-in-law, who was requesting a quilt. Really, my sister was requesting a quilt for him, since he kept stealing the one I made for her. :) For the "answers" I used his name, and names of his family, as well as some other things. I embroidered all of the letters, and I also embroidered a couple of pharmacy related items (mortar and pestle, and pill bottle), since he's a pharmacist. I used a couple of charm packs of Kona Cotton in the Silent Film palette, as well as some white and red. Some of my favorite colors together. 

I used some Kona Cotton in Ash for the back, as well as some leftovers of charm squares from the front. 

Here's a close-up of the pill bottle. 

I also made a bike lunch bag for my step-dad, and some heart quilted coasters and hot pads for my mom. Again, no pics of these. Don't know what I was thinking... 

The hubs surprised me with an old Singer sewing machine. I think it's from the 1920's or something. Supposedly, it runs, but I haven't tried it yet. Right now, it's just a gorgeous decoration for my dining sewing room. :) We also just celebrated our 10th Anniversary this month! Told ya it was busy... 

Of course, I've also been busy keeping the kids occupied. I love when my son is out of school! I usually get an extra half hour to sleep in, and we get lots more time to play. We had to make some cookies for Santa, and my son had his heart set on gingerbread cookies. It was my first time making them, and they turned out pretty good. Really soft too! Of course, we loaded them up with sugar so Santa could go into a diabetic coma! 

Here's the recipe I used, in case you want to try it:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup molasses

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1 large egg, beaten

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups flour, plus extra for dusting

Preheat oven to 325F. 

Place brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, and ginger in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.

Stir in butter gradually, stirring well between additions to combine. Add egg, vanilla, and salt to sugar mixtrure, stirring to combine. Pour into a large bowl and add flour gradually, stirring to combine.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until dough comes together and is no longer sticky, adding flour by the tablespoon if necessary.

Roll out half the dough on a floured work surface to 1/8-inch thick. Cut dough into desired shapes. Place on prepared baking sheet and bake until edges are slightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating. 

*Note: I halved the recipe, and I made my cookies a little thicker, probably closer to 1/4" thick. They were great! 

Hope you all have a wonderfully Happy New Year! Wow... 2014! Time flies!

Taking a breath!

More Quilts, and other projects

I finished another quilt yesterday, and I've also been working on some other little projects. 

Getting ready for Thanksgiving! :) Are you?

I made this quilt using 2 charm packs in white, and 1 layer cake in Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker for Moda Fabrics. The blocks were pretty easy to put together, and actually, I've had the quilt top done for awhile. But, I had to move my sewing table dining room table for my son's birthday party, so I had to take a short break from sewing. Anyways, I just took two 5" squares, lined them up on opposite corners of a 10" square, and sewed in diagonals, as if I were making half-square-triangles, but in this case, it made elongated hexagons, as my son pointed out. It's so funny. I hadn't even noticed that they were hexagons, but he looked at them, immediately said, "Mama, aren't those hexagons?" "Why, yes. Yes, they are hexagons!" He knows hexagons are my fave. I love that kid! :)

I love the colors in this collection....  I think I say that about almost every quilt I make. It is all about the colors, isn't it? ;) I also love this fabric, because they look like pretty little quilt blocks... flying geese, stars, and flower gardens. So cute! I did my usual all-over meandering stipple. I must be afraid to try new quilting designs or something. :/  I used the Spectrum Flower Garden print for the back, and I had some pretty blue fabric in my stash for the binding. I think it's Kona Cotton in Blueberry, but I can't remember. I was running short on the blue binding, so I finished it off in a lime green Circles by Riley Blake. I think it looks kinda neat with a little pop of color on the binding. The quilt is a nice size. Approximately 54" x 63". Great for a toddler bed, twin bed, or a large throw for the sofa. This quilt will be up in my Etsy shop soon. 

I've also been working on some other things. We will be getting our family pictures done this weekend, and I made a little dress for my daughter. I used some of my favorite Anna Maria Horner fabric, and this pattern, which I absolutely love. It is so versatile and pretty easy, especially for someone like me, who prefers making quilts to dresses any day. My son will be wearing AMH too. I ordered a tie for him off of her website. So cute! :)

I will probably be finishing up this quilt today. I'm sewing up the binding right now. Since Fall is my favorite season, I decided I need to have a Fall Quilt. I've had this fabric forever! It was a jelly roll of Saltbox Harvest by Deb Strain, that I finally decided to put to use. I thought a spiderweb quilt for fall would be kinda fun, so I gave it a try. More about it next post. ;)

I've also made some cute little fabric pumpkins using some pretty AMH scraps. They are pretty easy and fun to make. Here is a great tutorial. I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year, so I've gotta have some cute decorations around the house. One of the pumpkins ended up too long, so I made it into a butternut squash... kind of. Lol.

 And what Thanksgiving would be complete without a Lego fall scene. My son put this set decoration together. He sure loves his Legos! :)

Some good news came to me yesterday... someone bought a fat quarter of my fabric on Spoonflower! I feel like a celebrity! I know I'm no Anna Maria, but I feel pretty darn special anyway! ;)

Hope you're having a great week! 

More Quilts, and other projects

A Party and a Quilt

Sorry I've been away for a while... These last couple of weeks have been busy with lots of family birthday parties... including my son's 6th birthday! He decided on a Lego themed party. There are SO many ideas on Pinterest. Here are a couple of my favorite things that I made on my own.

I recycled some saved up Kiwi Crate boxes and made them into Lego brick party favor boxes. I had a couple of small shoe boxes that I recycled as well. By the way, my son and I love Kiwi Crate! He looks forward to all their fun projects every month! :)

I made a Lego brick bunting using primary colored cardstock, a circle punch, and 3-D foam stickers to make the studs. 

I also made a few large Lego bricks using some cardboard boxes and wrapping paper, as well as a Lego Minifigure photo prop. We also had many Lego activites, such as drawing minifigures, building the tallest tower, building and racing cars, making Lego bracelets, guess how many Lego candies, and a Lego pinata. Of course, we also had Lego cake. :) My son had a great time! 

Now back to quilting... ;) I finished this quilt today. A simple patchwork baby quilt using 2 charm packs of Posy by Aneela Hoey. I love the colors and the cute little pictures in this fabric collection! 

I did my usual meandering stipple all over for the machine quilting. 

I kept the back simple and used Kona Cotton in pink. I also used up the last 4 charm squares to make a little hexagon patchwork applique design, which I hand-sewed on the back of the quilt. 

I decided on a purple gingham for the binding. I love gingham! The quilt measures approximately 35" by 45". A good crib sized baby quilt! By the way, this one is up for sale in my shop as well. :)

Up next, Thanksgiving! My favorite!

What are you working on this week? 

A Party and a Quilt

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

I found this idea online, and thought it was perfect for us! We are always looking for great ideas that will save us some money, and this is by far one of the least expensive ways to install some bookshelves in a child's room! I think it cost us a total of $8 total! I definitely scored some brownie points with the hubby for being so frugal! :) Here's the tutorial we followed. And here's how ours turned out: 

My husband also recently painted our son's "Big Boy Room", and installed a new fan. We opted for a modern looking grey for the walls. I think it pairs nicely with the blue furniture in his room. I'll try to get some pics of the entire room soon. Still need to add some prints and decorations on the walls. I'm thinking we'll also add some more bookshelves as our son gets a little taller. ;) 

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

Going in Circles Quilt finished!

Well, I've finished the 4th and final quilt for my son... at least until he's older and decides he's into something besides robots, bugs, or transportation. ;)

Here's his "Going in Circles" quilt. I used Ann Kelle's super cute fabric collection, Ready, Set, Go!, along with some other fabrics I had on hand. I had seen this circle-in-a-square pattern in a magazine a while back, and I knew that I wanted to do it someday. I felt this fabric collection was perfect for it! The Easy Circle Cut ruler really made cutting circles much easier! 

I had to wash this right after I finished it, because I love the way the edges of the circles fray in the wash. It looks so cozy and soft! :) I did minimal quilting on this quilt, since I wanted it to stay a little softer. I just did some straight lines 1/4" along the horizontal seams. 

The only part I'm not super happy about is the back. I obviously still have a problem lining up my backs correctly with my fronts. :/  I used some Riley Blake Cheery Circles in green, along with a few leftover blocks to continue the circle theme from the front.

For the binding, I used Ann Kelle's Remix in Bermuda. The colors matched perfectly, and I love the stripes! 

My son is excited to have another quilt to swap out when he's feeling in the mood for a new theme! ;)

Going in Circles Quilt finished!

Very Busy Bugs Quilt Finished!

 I finished my son's Eric Carle quilt yesterday!

 I've decided to call it the "Very Busy Bugs" Quilt. :)

Using the panel, and some fat quarters from the Very Series collection, I made alternating modified large log cabin blocks. The "middle" square is a half-square triangle. My first time using triangles... but probably not my last. I really want to be brave and try a quilt using half-square triangles... someday. 

For the back, I used some leftovers from the collection in a strip between some Kona white. 

I was able to quilt this in half a day, and bind it in a day. I used the Eric Carle dots for the binding, which I love! It was nice to be able to put my swollen feet up and do some hand sewing yesterday. After I took these pics, I added "2011" hand stitched on the back. I'm excited to have this quilt in my son's room, along with all his Eric Carle books. We also have some posters that I'd like to frame and hang on the walls, after they're painted (hubby's job), as well as Eric Carle stuffed animals from Kohl's Cares collections. I'm excited to get everything done and post some pics of my son's new room!

I'm waiting on fabric for some other quilts, but in the meantime, I will be cutting fabric for future quilts... or working on either the baby's room or my son's big boy room some more. :)

Very Busy Bugs Quilt Finished!

Robot Quilt Finished!

Yesterday, I finished my son's robot quilt! 

It actually took me about half a day to quilt it, which means, either my fancy machine is super awesome, or I'm getting faster at quilting. Maybe both? I did my usual meandering stipple all over. I wasn't very excited about this quilt, since it is such a simple patchwork design, as well as a little bit busy, but I think the binding makes it look better. 

I used a bunch of robot fabrics from Kokka and Alexander Henry, as well as some grey solid. Since I felt there wasn't enough red in the quilt, I used some Riley Blake circles in red for the binding. 

I used more solid grey on the back of the quilt with an added block using robot scraps. 

I also added a bit of hand-stitching... just the year, so we remember when it was completed. :)

I also finished basting the Eric Carle quilt, so I should be finishing that one up soon too. Yay! I love getting things done! 

Robot Quilt Finished!

Busy... and Works In Progress...

So... here's what I've been working on this week...

I have finished three quilt tops for my son. I figure, instead of going with a theme for his "Big Boy" room, we will just swap things around every once in a while. Here is the Eric Carle quilt top that I finished for him using The Very Series collection of fabrics. One thing I tried different in this quilt... do you see my triangles? ;) I have a whopping two half-square triangles in this quilt. I am getting braver... 

Patchwork robot quilt. I'm not super excited about this one. I think it's a little too busy, and maybe I should have used more solids mixed with the robot fabrics. My son loves it, so I guess that's all that matters, right?

I'm calling this one "Going In Circles". I used the super cute Ready, Set, Go! fabric collection by Ann Kelle, mixed with some orange, yellow and white fabrics that I had on hand. I've been wanting to try one of these circle quilts for a while, and I think this fabric is perfect for it! I think I'm most excited about finishing this one up. :)

I actually made curtains for my sister's nursery using this fabric (It's a Jungle Out There, by Hoffman fabrics), and since I had leftovers, I thought I'd use them to make this nursing pillow cover. Here is some good info on how to make curtains (super easy), and here is a good tutorial for a nursing pillow cover. 

I also made some PJs and a matching burp cloth for my nephew-to-be. Found this cute flannel fabric in the selvedge section at Joann's. Can you tell what my huge mistake was on the pants? 

Duh... I cut the fabric upside-down! Oops! :/

I also made some car seat coolers for my nieces at my mom's request. I have one niece who loves giraffes, and one niece who loves horses. So, I chose fabric that suited them. :) Now to load them with ice packs!

That's it, for now. I will be working on quilt backs this week, and I hope to start quilting on at least one quilt. My son requested the robot quilt to be finished first. Not sure how much I can get done before baby #2 arrives, but I'm gonna do the best I can! :)

Busy... and Works In Progress...