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

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

Another Baby "I Spy" Quilt

So, I finished another quilt this week... just in time to enter it into the Blogger's Quilt Festival contest! If you haven't already, check out Amy's blog by clicking on the link above. Check out all the beautiful quilts! :)

As you know, I love making baby stuff... and I especially love making quilts, so I decided to make another baby quilt, with a favorite "I Spy" theme. 

They are so fun and simple to make, and a great way to use up scraps! 

Oh yeah, and kids love playing "I Spy". 

My son still uses his, and now my daughter is getting good at "spying". ;)

I did a mix of solid colors and different children's fabrics... some favorite characters too!

 I tried to keep it somewhat gender-neutral. 

I quilted with my usual meandering stipple, but didn't want to quilt over the "spy" fabric, so I just quilted the borders and sashing. I also added some "tags" by putting pieces of folded ribbon along the edges as I was sewing on the binding. I used a scrap piece of alphabet fabric for the binding.

I also kept the back simple again. I had this good size piece of flannel fabric with safari animals on it. It will be nice and snuggly for babies. I plan on listing this in my Etsy shop soon! :)

Hope you're having a great week!

 Happy Halloween!

Another Baby "I Spy" Quilt

New Baby!

Hello all! I've been away for awhile. Busy with this: 

Our baby girl, Anna Mei was born on August 30th at 1:24pm, weighing 7lbs, 1oz. I know I'm probably biased, but she is so beautiful! :) We are so in love! I feel like my family is finally complete, and I feel so blessed to have been given the sweetest boy and the sweetest girl! My husband has been so wonderful, helping to take care of all of us! My recovery will be a long and painful one, but totally worth it! I am so completely happy! No amount of pain can stop that! Big brother was unsure of his little sister at first. He said he was scared because her eyes were closed. LOL! But, he warmed up to her fast, and now he is in love like all the rest of us! He is so sweet with her and is a big helper too! I just LOVE my kids! :)

Needless to say, I won't be around very much over the next couple of weeks. We'll be busy getting to know our new baby girl, and having fun as a family of four. I plan on posting more when I get back to my sewing machine. As of now, I'm just waiting for these other "stitches" to heal enough for me to get back to some normal activities. 

Hope you all are having a great week! 

New Baby!

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!

Wall-E Birthday Party

Yesterday was my son's 3rd birthday! He has been majorly into Wall-E these last few months, so we decided to do a Wall-E themed party for him. When I looked in stores and online for Wall-E party supplies, I didn't have very much luck. It looks like most stores are discontinuing their Wall-E supplies. Fortunately, I was able to find some plates, napkins, and party favors at Birthday Mania. I ordered them in September, just in case they ran out before his birthday. They were all marked down too! Bonus! :)

I always like to make something a little special for the kids, and also plan a couple of activities. I found some cute printable Wall-E and Eve masks at this website, as well as some printable coloring pages for the kids.

For another activity, I had the kids create their own robots. I wrapped mini cereal boxes in aluminum foil, then had the kids use pipe cleaners for the arms and legs. They could use bottle caps for the eyes, or use some of these cute eyeball stickers (or both). I also had lots of extra stickers and markers (Sharpies are best for the foil) they could use for more buttons or just for decoration. They had a blast! :)

I also made a mini felt robot for each of the kids. I'm thinking of adding these new creations to my Etsy shop. ;)

Of course, I had to have something special for the birthday boy to wear. So, I made him a robot tie shirt, with a number 3 on the back. :)

He looked super cute, if I do say so myself!

My awesome sister helped me with this cake. I'm thinking she needs to hurry up and open her own bakery! It was chocolate cake with a banana pudding filling. We used graham cracker crumbs for the dirt and Tootsie Rolls for the rocks and blocks of trash. And, of course, my son's Wall-E and Eve toys were the perfect cake decorations!

Overall, I think it was a success, and a super fun day at the park! :)

Wall-E Birthday Party

First Completed Quilt of the Year!

Ta Da! Well, here's the finished project. Hopefully my first quilt of many (at least 12) this year! ;) As I had said in my post earlier, this is an "I Spy" quilt for my son. After finishing the quilt top, I was so excited to finish the complete quilt that I pretty much finished the rest in half a day. I am still not a pro when it comes to the actual "quilting" part of it, but I am experimenting and am hopefully getting better with each quilt. I did simple stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, as well as a few wavy lines throughout.

I didn't want to cover up the "I Spy" squares with a bunch of quilting patterns, in case it would confuse my son. ;) So, I just did alternating wavy stitches along some of the green and blue sashing.

I was very happy with the back of the quilt, too! I was glad that I had a bunch of the blue and green fabric left over from the front of the quilt. So, I decided to incorporate some of that on the back as well. I used cotton batting and did a simple wrap-around binding with the back fabric piece.

My son was so excited to start finding different animals and objects! I love watching him point his little finger to all the blocks! I am so happy he loves it! The quilt is now keeping him warm at night, as well as keeping him busy with a quiet activity (at least for a little while) during the day! :)

First Completed Quilt of the Year!

Quilt #1 progress...

Hello, everyone! As you may remember at the beginning of this year, I mentioned that I had a new goal... to make a quilt a month in 2010. Well, here is quilt top #1. I should be finishing the actual quilting in the next couple of days. Just in time for my personal deadline.

This quilt is an "I Spy" quilt for my son. It has 48 blocks, with 47 different "I Spy" squares. I collected a bunch of different fabrics for the "I Spy" squares, and will probably end up having enough to make another "I Spy" quilt! I tried to get a bunch of things that I know my son would be able to recognize and also things that he loves, such as cars, balls, animals, shapes, and of course, "Wubbzy"! ;) I used blues and greens in between the squares. I saved the last corner square for my tag.

I will update with more pictures once I complete the quilt.

Now its time to work on my quilt sandwich... :)

Quilt #1 progress...