I know...

I know, I missed my Wednesday post yesterday!!! No great excuse really - and now I'm visiting at my parents' house tonight, so I won't be able to post pictures of what I've been working on until tomorrow. Sorry wonderful readers!!!

In the meantime, here's a picture of a little pillow I made for my mom.   :)

Fall is here!

I love fall!!!  I'm so glad it's finally here.  I put the new table runner on the table this week.

Next step is getting the fall wreath out for the front door - and of course, a trip to the orchard and corn maze!

WIP (Work-In-Progress) Wednesday

Sorry about the lack of posts so far this week.  I wish I could say it was because I've been busy sewing - but really it's that we've been busy with the big church parking lot sale we had on Saturday and had to recover from on Sunday - and of course busy with work.  But, I still have been working on a few things...

I did finish putting the baby boy quilt top together.  I think it looks really nice - now to find a backing for it and get it quilted!  Again, I used a charm pack from Moda (Pure) and Kona in bone for the sashing.

Here's a closer look at a few of the blocks...

I also have apparently conquered my fear of zippers, since I have finished another wristlet!

And have another one in the works too - this one will coordinate with the tote bag I showed a few days ago.

I'm also working on another wristlet design - this one with pleats.  I'm waiting on my zippers to arrive from zipit from her etsy shop.  I'll let you know how they are when they arrive, but she's gotten good reviews from other purchasers.

I do have another something that is almost finished.  I love it and am sure it is something I will be making a lot of for Holidaze.  Hopefully I'll be able to show it to you all tomorrow - I'm off to finish it now!

WIP (Work-In-Progress) Wednesday

Since I am getting ready for my first craft show, I have quite a bit of sewing going on to show this Wednesday.  Here are some pictures of what I have yet to finish as of right now...

This is a wonky log cabin block that I made with some scraps from the coasters that is going to be quilted and then made into a pillow.  I think these are some really fun winter and Christmas fabrics!

I am also working on turning this fabric into a baby girl quilt.  And, so the boys don't feel left out....

this will be a baby boy quilt.  This fabric is Pure by Moda.

Braving the dreaded zipper!

I've been very busy sewing over the last two days since I decided to participate in Holidaze - and will be busy up until Nov. 20th, I'm sure!  I've gotten brave with my sewing machine and have even been sewing on high speed rather than medium.  I've been nervous about high speed ever since I read how a lady with my sewing machine model sewed through her finger!  I'm going to be very careful to avoid that still - dropping my ruler on my foot today was painful enough!

So, with all this talk about sewing, what do I have to show for it (besides a bruised foot)?  This is what....

a nice stack of coordinating coasters, two additional sets of coasters, and a tote bag.  I finished that tote bag today.  It came out very nicely - so nicely I was tempted to keep it for myself!

This style of coaster was much easier than the first style I tried.  I saw the tutorial on-line (I can't remember where now) and was amazed at how fast these went together.

Remember how I said I was getting braver - well, the above pouch has the first zipper I ever sewed!  I've been so scared to try (I don't know why, now that I've done one).  The pouch turned out pretty well.  I'm going to be making some of these for the sale too, but haven't decided if I will use this pattern or another one.

Come visit tomorrow again to see what all I am working on that wasn't finished to share today!

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

I have decided to participate in Valpo's Holidaze Arts and Crafts Show on Nov. 20 & 21 - so I will be doing a lot of sewing over the next few weeks.  It's daunting to figure out how many items I will need for the show - but I'll figure it out somehow!  I'll share what I'm working on along the way, but until I get some pictures taken of all that, I'm sharing some pictures of the last quilt I made.

This "toddler" quilt was requested by my sister-in-law for her friend's little girl who we've met a couple times.  She's a cutie and I hope she likes her birthday quilt!

This is a stacked strip quilt that I pieced from my pink fabric stash.  It measured about 41 x 53 before washing and should be good for her toddler bed.

I pieced the back with some of the same prints from the front.  It's very pink and girlie!!!

I used my walking foot for some straight line quilting in random widths.  I didn't use a guide - I just eye-balled it in widths from about a half inch to 1 1/2 inches (or there abouts).

The binding has stripes of pinks and greens and a little brown.  I added one piece of bright pink binding to give it a little personality too.  I was happy with how this one turned out!

WIP (Work-In-Progress) Wednesday

My goal is to do a weekly post on Wednesday of what I am currently working on - to keep myself going and so you all see that these projects don't happen overnight.  :)

Since I've been told that we only have a few more weeks of summer, I decided I needed to make a fall table runner to go with the fall centerpiece I chose recently.  Luckily, this fabric-hoarder had some pumpkin fabric that I found last year on clearance and two other coordinating fabrics in fall colors, so the project has been coming together quickly without having to buy new supplies (so far).  See....

The strips are all 12 inches long and in varying widths - from about 6 inches to 3 inches.  The table runner is about 35 inches long.

I have a lot of yardage of the brown striped/flowered fabric.  I found it on clearance and couldn't resist it.  I think it goes really well for fall.

I modeled this table runner after the one I made for Valentine's Day (which may or may not happen to still be on my table).

As you can see, this one has stripes of all the same width and I sewed it wrong sides together with some ric rac on the two ends, and then turned it right side out - and then topstitched along the edge.

With my new fall runner I am planning to do some straight line quilting and put a binding on it in a light tan fabric.  I'll post a picture when it's on the table soon!

Wedding Shower Gift

One of my friends got married last month and I decided that even though she lives in TX, I would make her a quilt for her shower present.  I knew that I got cold in air conditioning sometimes - and turns out that she does too!  So, the lapquilt works well for her.  Yeah!

I decided with this quilt to branch out from following a pattern, so I made some square-in-squares and put some sashing around them and called it a quilt.

I wish I had written down what size squares I used and the width of the sashing - but I was too busy sewing to record the details.  I need to do a better job of tracking the measurements - so I don't have to re-create them if I make a similar quilt again!

Most of the fabric came from Hobby Lobby - but a few of the squares have a piece of Alexander Henry's Starling fabric fussy cut in the middle.  I think next time I would go with a slightly smaller center square if I'm doing more Starlings because a few of the birds I cut were a bit small within the square. 

I free motion quilted loop-de-loops all over - and used Gutterman's cotton thread which made a difference in the back.  The stitches looked a lot cleaner than when I had used Gutterman's polyester thread.

I did some piecing on the back too to add some interest.

I have been using Warm & White batting since starting quilting and do love how it crinkles up after the first washing.

Another Quilt

Apparently I felt confident in my quilting abilities after finishing the quilt from my previous post - because the next quilt I sewed was very ambitious for a beginner.  But I loved the pattern and LOVED the quilt - which made sewing it much more fun.  I've discovered that I really need to love what I'm making or else it will just get put on a shelf - and remain unfinished for years.  Anyone else find that too???

Anyway, this quilt is CluckCluckSew's Raw Edge Circle tutorial found here.

This was the first quilt that I free-motion quilted.  (I did free-motion quilt one table runner as a gift prior to this - along with a lot of practice).  I put spiral circles in each circle and did loop-de-loops around the circles.  Maybe you can see that better here...

This was a birthday present for my best friend's baby boy's first birthday.  So, I used Alexander Henry's Traffic Jam on the back.  He loves those trucks and cars!

The quilt ended up being around 35x49 - perfect for his crib.  I love seeing a baby with a quilt!!!

(and yes, I made him his hat too)

Hello New Blog!

Since September is National Sewing month, I decided it was a good time to start the blog I've been thinking about for quite a while.

Over the past year I've been inspired by so many other sewers and bloggers and have been re-learning how to sew and learning lots of new sewing methods.  I've even begun quilting - which is a new and exciting love of mine!

The first quilt that I was inspired to make came from a tutorial by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson! 

The tutorial is available here.  It was a great beginner quilt pattern.  This was a Christmas present for our niece in 2009.  Since it was only the second quilt I ever made - and the first one I actually quilted (my first official quilt I sewed in college and it was tied with yarn) - I was really happy with how it came out.  I did some simple straight line quilting with my walking foot - I would have loved to free-motion quilt it but was still at the practicing stage then.  Of course there were mishaps during the sewing process - like cutting the backing fabric the wrong width and having to run to the store to buy more backing - but that's part of the fun, right??

I think our niece liked the quilt too!