one more christmas project

I am making a quilt for my 2 year old for Christmas and for some crazy reason I decided to hand quilt it.  I was a little nervous that hand quilting wasn't a good idea because of time, but I finished it up last night and just need to bind it now. 

christmas projects

I cannot believe it is already December 20th.  My kids are getting so excited and we are enjoying the break from school.  I decided to make some more pot holders this year to give away.  I really enjoy potholders.  They are such a fast project, instant results (almost).

 I decided to try my hand at paper-piecing, I'm definitely no pro, but I enjoyed it.  See look at my apple, it got chopped on the side a bit.

I'm loving the black and white binding!

I also put together some ornaments.  These are great because you can easily slip them into your christmas cards.

 

I purchased the candy cane pattern here.  I shrunk it down to make the ornament, which was a very bad idea, the pieces were so small.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Season!

a few things

I feel like I've taken a quilting/sewing hiatus lately, and I have really started to miss it.  We actually moved a month ago, and it has taken me FOREVER to get settled.  Everything is finally unpacked, and I have even started to use my machine!  

Before my machine was packed away, I finished up some Dear Jane blocks, and even realized that I like paper-piecing.  It was fun.  They are definitely not perfect, and this one in particular is totally wrong. 

I either used white when it should've been red, or vice-versa on those outside triangles, but there is NO WAY I am redoing it.

In my move, I realized I have WAY too much fabric.  It almost made me sick.  I don't know how I have accumulated so much, but I decided to start getting rid of some of it.  I hope to eventually destash some of it, but for now I sliced up some Japanese charm packs and listed them in my shop.

I also have some baby bibs that I'm trying to get listed.  I made these just before I got pregnant and sick, so they got put on the back burner.  I finally got pics taken and am slowly listing them in my shop.

sew to swap

I was lucky enough to contribute to another book, Sew to Swap, written by Chrissie Grace. What a fun project this was.

I just have to point out what a great looking book this is, yes the quilts are pretty, but the instructions and directions are beautifully illustrated (by Ariel).They are one of my favorite parts of the book.

As the title suggests, the quilts are all sewing swaps. I was able to contribute to several of them, and it's so fun to thumb through this book and see all the finished projects!

You can find the book here, use promo code SEW2SWAP for a discount!  Also, follow along with the tour!

November 20 A Little Sweetness
November 21 House of A La Mode
November 22 I’m Just a Guy Who Quilts
November 23 Little Bit Funky
November 27 In His Grace

christmas hidden stars

I finally finished up a holiday quilt, and I am so happy with it!  It turned out better than I had hoped.  I first saw this pattern in this book and loved it--but I wanted mine scrappy.

I tried to use up my christmas-y fabrics, and added in some greens, reds, and blues.  I think the mix works really well.

Here's a confession, I usually don't like my quilt backs.  I hate to buy a lot of fabric for backing, and I'm too lazy to make cool quilt backs like so many of you bloggers out there make.  So I usually piece what I have together (really sloppily), and then don't really like it.  For this quilt, I really wanted to use up those holiday prints, so I am glad I did it this way.  But it's definitely not my favorite part.

This candy-cane stripe called out to me as the binding.  It just had to be, and it's my favorite part.  I love a striped binding anyway, but red and white will always be my favorite!

We have a chance of snow in our forecast for this weekend, and even though I am thrilled that I actually finished this up before Christmas, I don't think I'm ready for winter.  I'd like to see fall stick around for a while.  Plus, I'm not ready to give up my garden tomatoes!

stacked!

I cut strips for this quilt back when I was cutting squares for my market square quilt.  I have been stuck on this quilt for a while... I had the blocks finished, but debated making it bigger.  I ended up NOT making it bigger.  I am totally okay with smaller lap size quilts.  Plus I have plenty of large lap size quilts and smaller ones are easier for the kids to fold.

I have always loved this design of quilt, but I really fell in love with this quilt, and then had to make one. I love that it looks like books stacked on top of each other

It's a pretty easy design to make, but I don't use a pattern.  I'll try to explain (without pictures), I cut strips of white and strips of color.  I then trim my colored pieces to a good size to make the "books".  I try to vary the sizes, but I don't plan this part out.  I then add white to either side and trim it to the right size.  Once I have a bunch of these strips, I sew them all together.

I used this great polka dot from JoAnn's (by Denyse Schmidt) for the back and bound it in green.  I actually debated selling this quilt, we just have so many...but there are a few things about it that make it less than perfect, so I think we'll keep it.  I like it a lot anyway, so I don't mind.

far far away

I'm on a roll finishing up quilts that have been so close to being done for a very long time, and it feels so good. 

I started this quilt a long time ago and really didn't like it much...I guess I kinda wished I'd used the fabric in a different way.  That's the main reason it took me so long to finish.

Plus, the quilt is pretty big, and main fabrics are linen/cotton blend and it's heavy.  I was really dreading the quilting process.  

But it all turned out in the end.  I really like it now, and quilting it wasn't too bad.  

I used this fun zigzag print on the back and decided to use those zigzags as my quilting guide.  

 I didn't do a great job, I'm going to call it organic as opposed to sloppy--if it weren't for that dark purple print you wouldn't even be able to tell.

I'm mildly opposed to white binding, but it just worked so well for this quilt.  I had to use it.  I think it really frames it well.