Tayla's Quilt...

The horse fabrics are leftovers from the wedding album I made for my niece's wedding 5 years ago. She has since had a baby, and I found the leftover fabrics again. I thought it'd be neat to make a quilt for the baby out of her parents' wedding album fabrics!

The quilt measures 49" x 52" - a good size for a toddler to haul around.

The back is made from a scrap of coordinating horse fabric with the blue and brown sewn on to extend it's length and width.

Stashbusting:

3 -1/2 yards of leftover fabrics

1 spool of thread

Sewing small projects...

 

Working on some small projects by request. My daughter wanted some pretties for her kitchen, in various colors and patterns so she could change things around when she felt like it.  She bought two fat quarter bundles (5 fabrics) and this is what I came up with.

 

The Southwest fabrics. A variation of the 10 minute tablerunner. Bowl cozies and potholders, too!

This green and pink bundle is to match her Jadeite and LaCrueset pieces. I sewed the squares in the tablerunner together, not realizing that I got 3 rows backwards! I had to take most of it apart and re-do the sewing. GRRRR! I had the brilliant idea to make round potholders...forgetting that I abhor curves. Yeah, those potholders got taken apart, too. At least the bowl cozies went together fast. 

Stashbusting:

1 partial spool of pink thread

1 full spool of white thread

1/2 yard of navy backing fabric

1/2 yard of green batik

1-1/2 yards of leftover batting

One down, one to go...

I'm making two of these for a friend's grand-nieces.  She gave me the bear panels, the rest is fabric from my scrap box. The backs on each quilt are flannel for snuggly-ness.

 

 

Stashbusting:

2 yards of various scrap fabrics

1 spool of thread

From Chef's apron to more...

So I made my sister a chef's apron a few year ago, and she asked me to cut it down to a half-apron.  I did so, then I used the leftover fabric to make her a microwave bowl cozy, and a small table runner.  To make the table runner more absorbent, I used an old microfiber towel as batting. 

 

The "new" apron, a microwave bowl cozy and a tablerunner.

Stashbusting:

1 yard of assorted scrap fabrics

1 microfiber towel as batting.

Sewing small things again...

The new, black and red kitchen set for my daughter. 

2 embellished towels, 2 microwave bowl cozies, and 2 potholders.  

Old Project, finally finished...

Back when I first started getting serious about learning to quilt, I took a class to learn to make this specific quilt.  That was about 20 years ago. The quilt is from a Trudi Hughes quilt book.

Although I finished taking the class, I never finished the quilt because there were several flaws in my sewing, and it made the quilt wonky. It was also supposed to have an additional border to make it twin-size. The additional border was to be made up of 9 patches that matched the center of the hearts (so that's what that extra fabric was for!!).  

I had hand-quilted the entire middle when I discovered that it was supposed to have this extra border and that the back was all crooked. Being an inexperienced quilter at the time, I had no idea what to do, so I put it away to finish later.  

We then moved a couple times and the quilt ended up in storage.  The extra fabric for it ended up in different boxes. At one point, due to mice getting into our stored stuff, several boxes were thrown away due to the nasty mess they made. The extra fabric was part of that garbage. So now I had a dilemma...how to finish the quilt.  So I took the easy way out.  I put it back in a box and forgot it. 

Well, in my current quest to finish everything on my project list...this one came up. I decided to just finish it as is.  The entire center is hand-quilted around the hearts, the blocks and the first border. So, bind it, and stitch down the outer borders and call 'er done!  

As you can see by the sides, I ate up some of the blue flowered border by folding the wonky back over the front to make the border. 

It took me about half an hour to finish this quilt of Damocles that has been hanging over my head for 20 years!  LOL

Project-busting:

1 quilt - DONE!

Using Up Christmas Fabric...

I opened one of my wirebasket drawers and found quite a bit of Christmas fabric.  I have wanted to try the Disappearing Nine-Patch technique for a while, and decided this would be a good project.  Basically, you make a 9-patch square - any size (I used 6 inch patches) and then cut it right down the middle, both ways.  And then you simply turn 2 of the blocks inward and the chain effect happens. 

 

 

Christmas Disappearing Nine-Patch. Note that I also did random patches - I tried to keep the reds and greens mixed up.

 

 Not quilted yet as I've not found a satisfactory backing fabric.

 

Stashbusting:

 

2 yards of various fabrics.

Half a spool of thread

I've been gone for a while...

We've been especially busy since the last time I posted in November.  We went to Germany for 2 weeks, came home and had Christmas with the family, and then we left home to spend a few months helping one of the kids pack up and move to a new place.  We helped declutter, packed, moved, and unpacked everything!  It was fun to be there, but now I'm back home and have my own hobbies and and a whole list of things to do!

 

Today I decided to spend an hour sewing each day to get rid of this stash!  So...I looked at what fabric I had, and then found Renae Allen's 10 minute tablerunner tutorial:  http://www.rgadesignquilts.blogspot.com/p/patterns-projects.html. There are two tutorials - one is a pdf you can download, the other is a video tutorial. 

 

I also made Penny Pennington's coasters out of the leftover fabrics.  http://www.equilters.com/library/projectshare/coasterspatt.html

 

 

You want to know how old some of this fabric is?  I bought the Christmas green background fabric and the middle tablerunner's poinsettia fabric when I worked at a fabric store...in 1997. Seventeen years ago!!! YIKES! I'm pretty sure I bought the pansy fabric in the same timeframe.

 

I think I will buy some white kitchen towels and will sew the leftover fabrics on them to match.  I'm hoping to sell these tablerunner sets at the next Swap & Shop down the road.

 

 

Stashbusting:

 

3 2/3 yards of fabric

Miscellaneous pieces of batting



 

More Gifts...

More gifts for other occasions besides Christmas.

 

Soon-to-be-born niece, Vivienne will receive this flannel quilt, which I made yesterday and today using my own tutorial.

A rice bag, a cover for the rice bag and a handkerchief (for me). I used one of my sewing machine's decorative stitches on the hankie, although you can't really see it. 

StashBusting:
 

Approximately 3 yards flannel
1 yard leftover batting from another project
5" by 18" piece of fabric leftover from another project
10 inches of handkerchief fabric given to me by Grandma

An Autumn Quilt...

My daughter wanted an Autumn quilt made of batiks.  She chose five batiks and sent the fabric to me, to do with as I wished. (Oh, goody! :))

I perused my books and the Internet and finally found a block I liked.  http://www.quilterscache.com/N/NoName2Block.html.  However, when I put the test blocks together, I felt they blended too well. 

Well, this won't work...although the photo is clear, the colors close up were simply too much alike.  The block is dull and has no zing.

 

Wow, the black made it pop!  I sent it to her and she approved.  This is still the No Name Block, just separated by 2 1/2 inch black sashings. 

 

 I had cut the center of the block orange fabric into 4 1/2 inch squares, anticipating many blocks.  However, the other fabrics only made a total of 9 blocks, each 20 inches square.  What to do with the orange blocks??? Why, make them into prairie points!  And put them somewhere on the quilt...like down the sides of each middle block!  A "quilt inspector" cat approved my choice and acted as a weight while I was trying to sew...so I turned off the machine and let her have the quilt for the evening. 
 

 

The finished quilt.  I had to add the dark gold fabric sashings, too.  My daughter wanted a twin size and I wanted it to match, without taking away from the blocks.   

As I was putting the back together, I realized I didn't have enough fabric.  So, the piecing began...I used nearly every scrap of leftover fabric, and still had to add 2 fat quarters, which were not batiks, from my stash. They had every color of the quilt in them, though, so it worked out.  

 

A closeup of one of the center blocks - I bought leaf buttons and sewed them to the prairie points, and then sewed the points down, too.  I domestic machine pieced and domestic machine quilted - Xs in the blocks, and stitch-in-the-ditch for the rest of it. 

The label still needs to be attached, but essentially, this quilt is done!

Stashbusting (not including the 5 batiks my daughter sent as they weren't part of my stash):

5 partly used spools of gold thread

1 yard of gold fabric

2 fat quarters

Yes, it's been a while.  However, I did make a quilt in the past few months. 

 

My niece and grand-niece came to visit, so I bought a used toddler bed for the grand-niece, who is 2 years old.  I then made a quilt for her.  She likes Hello Kitty! so I bought some fabric with the famous kitty on it. 

 

I wanted it to be a row quilt, so it's sort of improvised. All the rows are 5 inches wide.  I made two rows of pinwheels, 2 rows of 5 inch blocks, 2 rows of stripped blocks, 2 rows of Hello Kitty! fabric, and then WOW fabrics between each row.  On the row at the top (Hello Kitty) I put a pink and white lace ruffle between the HK fabric and the WOW fabric. 

 

The matching pillow case was WOW fabric measured to fit a travel pillow, with a Hello Kitty! border and more lace. 

 

 

 

And then, I went to my computer and into Microsoft Word, chose the Edwardian Script font, spelled out her name, blew it up to 300 (it came out on 2 pages it was so large), stuck it under the SECOND row of WOW fabric and lightly sketched her name with a #2 pencil onto the top of the fabric.  Then I hand-embroidered her name in a light blue, thin crochet thread, using a straightline stitch.

 

 

I used batting, and backed it with a pretty flannel print. The binding is more of the HK fabric. About a foot of the quilt is tucked under so you can't see the other rows. 

 

 

She knew the bed was for her...here is Cheyenne, sleeping under her new quilt.

 

 

 

StashBusting: 

About 1 yard of various fabrics

A piece of batting left over from another project

1/2 spool of white thread

 

New fabrics:

1 fat quarter bundle of 5 fabrics (the pinks)

1 yard HK fabric

1 yard flannel 

1 spool of new thread

Long Absence Is Over...

After holidays, visitors, remodeling, and then sickness, I am finally back to quilting and blogging about my quilts. 

I started a quilt many moons ago, experimenting with a fabric I liked.  Had no idea who to give it to, but I figured it'd find a home eventually. 

So, I put a back, some batting and the quilt top together, and then "birthed" it.  Sewed all around the edges while it was wrong sides together, left a small hole and turned it right side out.  Then I set it aside.  Unfortunately, I set it on the bed...and the dog loved it.  He came in and laid on it with muddy paws after he'd been for a swim in the neighbor's pond. 

Well, I washed it.  And because it wasn't quilted, the batting shredded, and the quilt back, which was 100% cotton muslin, shrank.  Even though I washed both it and the quilt fabrics BEFORE i made the quilt. 

I put it aside for a while, knowing I'd have to remove every stitch. A special birthday is coming up, and I realized this quilt would be perfect for the birthday girl!

So, I took every stitch out...and today, I will be putting it back together as a quilt with a new back.  I'll post photos when I am done.