Goodnight Moon

Finally, I took a little time to work on the quilt I am making for my great niece for Chistmas....yes, it is December 1st. Still plenty of time to finish, right?! Eekkk! 

Here is the top:

For some reason it looks very busy in the pictures. It is very bright but not as busy as it appears in these photos. At least I don't think so...

And here is the back:

Maybe I like the back better? I just pieced some fabrics I had in my stash, an extra wonky star, and a strip of goodnight moon fabric to tie it to the front theme. I like it!

 

And I have the binding made! Yea!! I can't wait to attach it to the quilt. I love the stripes ❤️

Maybe over the weekend I can get it sandwiched and start quilting. I am planning to quilt it myself on my little sewing machine. I haven't decided if I will stitch in the ditch or free motion quilt or do some wavy lines. 

I saved a bit of the goodnight moon fabric to make a dolly quilt and I also have enough of that sweet striped fabric to use for binding a doll quilt too!     

I hope that Goodnight Moon is not to young for an almost three year old, and also that it isn't too boy-ish. It would have been perfect for a little boy and I am kind of wishing I would have figured out a way to make it a little more girlie. But I like the colors and Goodnight Moon so hopefully so will my great niece. And yes, she will be getting the book to go with her quilt! 

Wonky Stars

A little bit of sewing accomplished today and 12 wonky stars to show for it! I'll be using these stars in a Goodnight Moon quilt. Maybe I will get the top pieced together tomorrow. I want to make one little moon block using a small piece of minky fabric and then I can get the top finished! Yea!!

Pillowcases and Dolls

Today I spent the day sewing. I should have taken a nap because I work tonight and I know that by one or two o'clock in the morning I am going to totally regret my decision. And I definitely will when I have been up for 24 hours by 6 in the morning. Oh well....

I was having fun sewing! My niece's birthday is this week and I wanted to make her a pillowcase. I have discovered it is easier to make several at a time so I also made Christmas pillowcases for my daughter and her roommate. Hooray for getting something done early!!

I discovered the website www.shinyhappyworld.com recently. I just love all of her stuff! I have ordered a couple of kits and patterns but thought I'd start with a free pattern for a little dolly. This dolly is designed to be a doll for another doll pattern that I have ordered! So adorable! A doll with a dolly, who can resist?! So I cut one of my pieces backwards and I didn't want to waste it so I made a second one. I still have to stuff them and sew up their backs. But aren't they sweet?!? One will probably go to my great niece for Christmas. Not sure where the other one will wind up. If she stays with me, I'll be ok with that ;) 

PS--I am super proud of my embroidered faces!!!

Make It Monday

I needed to sew today but I don't have time (or the desire) to work on a big project. I was inspired by my daughter. I worked Friday night and Saturday night. I ended up leaving work late both mornings and was exhausted so I pretty much slept all day Sunday. I didn't get to spend much time with my daughter. On one of those days while I was sleeping she got out our Tula Pink blocks. We've been working on these blocks slowly, when we just feel like it, and it has been stress free and fun! We draw a number when we've finished a block to determine which block we will work on next. Here is the block my daughter made this weekend:

I love it!! 

So today I needed to do laundry, I have to work again tonight, but I wanted something quick to sew. I made my next Tula Pink block. I like how fast these blocks work up and they come together nicely. We are just using scraps. These fabrics looked kind of fall-ish to me so I think they were a good choice for today. Here is my block:

Here is the lovely book we are using to make our blocks:

And now I can say I made something today and that makes me HAPPY!! Did you get to make anything on this Monday?

Pineapple Blossom & Guild Project

I finally settled on borders for my pineapple blossom. As you can see the wind kept blowing my top around so I finally just snapped a couple of pictures. Anyway, the top is done!! Woohoo! It will go in the pile with the rest of my tops for now. I need a break from it AND I have other projects I need to work on! 

And I have a FINISH! Yea! In our guild this year we had an opportunity to participate in a project called "it's all in the bag". We were given a gallon size zip lock bag to put fabric and embellishments in. We returned the bags and they were swapped and given back out anonymously. With the bag we received we were supposed to make a wallhanging at least 24 X 24 inches using the fabrics & embellishments. We could add our own fabrics if we choose to but the idea is to make the wallhanging using the items given to us. Here is the one I made:

I was so happy to get a bag filled with bright fabrics! My bag also had lots of buttons, sequins, jewels, pearls and ribbon! Eeekkkk!!! That part scared me! My initial thought was to make a crazy quilt of sorts, but I let time slip away and doubted my embroidery skills. I had purchased a Spare Change ruler which uses 5 inch squares and 2.5 inch squares recently and wanted to try it out. I added ribbon and ricrac around each little square. The only thing on the entire quilt that I used that wasn't in the bag was that blue/torquoise ribbon. I added buttons in the centers. I didn't have enough red to go all the way around so I glued on some jewels. I opted not to use the sequins or the pearls. All the leftover fabrics and embellishments go back to the owner as well as the wallhanging. Thus wallhanging measures 27 X 27 inches. I hope my person will like it! I was pleased with it. I free motion quilted it in a meander with a torquoise thread. The only part I don't care for is the machine stitched binding. I have tried this method twice and haven't been pleased. I know others that machine stitch their bindings beautifully, so I know it can be done. Oh well... I decided not to take it out and redo it. We get to do a special show and tell at our upcoming guild meeting and find out who we made our wallhangings for and who made ours! It will be fun!

Too many choices

So I am pulling possibilities for my final border:

I don't really like any of the above choices. The brown one matches alright but it looks too harsh to me. The blue one is pretty but there is something about it I am not liking. I am not sure what?

 I am leaning towards one of these three below.

I like green. There is a lot of green in this quilt which just happened by chance. I like the shade of the first green one but I am afraid those flowers will make my border way too busy. 

I like the polka dot fabric because it looks cheery and this is a cheerful quilt. 

The solid green seems like a safe choice. There are some solid green pieces in this quilt already so it goes ok. But I am still not sure... I keep thinking that a solid border, or one that reads solid, or a dark border is going to take away from the center of the quilt. I think that is why I kind of like the sage green with the flowers. It isn't really bright or dark and it is still busy so it goes with the busy-ness of the quilt top BUT is it too much busy???. Maybe I would be better off skipping the final border and calling it done? But I think it needs a final border...

Borders

So I thought long and hard on the decision to put borders on my Pineapple Blossom....  My friends all thought borders were a good idea. Then I thought long and hard about what kind of borders I wanted. So I started with a tone on tone white 2.5 inch border. Next I decided to use some of those bonus triangles. I set mine differently than the pattern and anyone else that I've seen. Why did I set them this way? Because I wanted all of my corners to be the same. Maybe it is an OCD thing? Anyway, I opted to piece my triangle borders a bit short and then filled in the corners with more tone on tone white. It's ok...it's starting to grow on me. Now I am thinking long and hard about border number three. I don't want to purchase any fabric, since so far the entire top is made with scraps and fabrics on hand. So I am thinking it is going to be a 5 inch solid green border....maybe...I might change my mind..again!  I am tempted to make a scrappy border using random lengths of 5 inch strips instead of a solid border, but I wonder if it will be too much scrappy? On the other hand since the entire thing is scrappy will it look odd to have a solid border?? I will be glad to have this top completed because I seem to be having trouble making all these decisions!

Pineapple Blossom

Finally I have my Pineapple Blossom top together. I decided on 48 blocks and no sashing. I like it a lot! This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern which is free on her website. I also used her webbing method to put my blocks together and it worked perfectly! I think if you look on her tutorials tab on her website you will find the directions for webbing near the bottom. It took me a few minutes to understand it but once I did it was easy.  I am pleased that my seams lined up nicely. I am trying to decide if I want to put any borders on it. While I like the look of borders sometimes, I really don't like making/sewing borders!! I think I get to this point and just want to be done with it. At any rate I am glad to have the blocks together :) 

I still need to press it good! 

Done!

What does it take to get me motivated? A deadline, I guess! Quilt show for the guild I am in is coming up quickly and I decided I would put this quilt in the show. A friend let me quilt it on her long arm. She is teaching me, but I think I am a slow learner! I'm getting the hang of it though :) and I am super proud that I finished it completely myself. It seemed so much bigger when I was putting it all together, but it measures about 57X67, I believe. It will shrink some after I wash it. 

I have grown to love this little quilt! 

I often use 10 inch squares of leftover or random or I buy special fabrics to piece the backs of my quilts. Sometimes I have extra squares from my backing and I keep them all together. I was super pleased to have enough extras to piece the back of this quilt. It is like a scrap book filled with memories, because I remember each quilt that I made using each square on the back. 

And here is one with my sweet cat, Tangerine! She is a good cat and walked very carefully around my quilt but did not get on it. I am sure if I had left it out there for very long she would have gotten comfy! 

So, recently someone asked me "how long does it take you to make a quilt?" I actually get asked this question a lot! This time I answered "2 years" and they looked at me like I was crazy! Haha, but Truth is, that seems to be my going rate. I believe I started this quilt almost 2 years ago. I should have been able to finish it in 2 weeks to a month, but obviously I work on way too many things at once. I will note that it took me 5 hours to quilt it on a long arm, and that was probably the part of this quilt I spent the shortest amount of time on! Except maybe the backing, only because all of my squares were already cut out. I am so happy to have this finished! It feels good :)

Now I need to finish my challenge piece for the quilt show...time is ticking!

It's July!

It's hard to believe it is July already!

Here is what I have accomplished lately:

I made this adorable drawstring bag! And it is lined too. I made this bag to hold the pancake game that I also made :)

I love the pancakes!! They are so cute and so much fun and I learned how to make the ladder stitch. The apron is reversible.

This is the other side. I will be donating this game to my quilt guild's boutique to raise money for our guild. I hope it finds a home with someone who will have fun playing with it!

My sister and I are working on our swaps! I forgot to take pictures of hers before we swapped again, but here is mine! We are going to swap again this weekend!

My initial blocks were the sail boat and the fish blocks. My sister put them together with the vertical striped blocks and the star sun! I loved it! I added the piano key row on the left side and appliqued two seagulls! I love it!! I can't wait to see what she has done to hers. I believe the plan is to swap 3 or 4 more times? This is a lot of fun! Do you like the whale? And the striped piece makes me think of seaweed!! I love putting my scraps to good use!

At our June guild meeting we received the final step of our mystery quilt. I have my blocks pieced, and I just need to sew them all together! I just have them roughly laid out for this picture. I am afraid that by going scrappy I may have lost the design a bit, but I'll see how it looks once it has been sewn together. What I do love about the scrappiness is all of the things to see! Flowers, cats, fish, ice cream, lemons, polka dots, music notes, instruments, stamps, rainbows, and lots more!! And the fact that I used what I already had on hand. I am not sure where this quilt is destined to live yet. I have thoroughly enjoyed this mystery, and am proud that I have managed to keep up so far!

In other good news, I participated in the MidCarolina Run Shop Hop, and I won a prize!!! Woohoo! I won this blade sharpener from The Cotton Quilt! I love this place. The owners are awesome and super sweet. I was so excited to win!! And guess what?! When I got home from picking up my prize there was a message on my answering machine from We're Sew Creative saying that I won a $25 gift certificate to their shop!!! Wooohoooo!! This is a nice shop with so many patterns and lots of samples on display. They are a bit of a distance away from me so I don't get to go often. They didn't participate in the shop hop but since we were in the area I stopped by and picked up their Row by Row pattern (and lots of other goodies too!) When I checked out they told me I could put my name in a monthly drawing if I passed on a bag for my goodies. I said sure....save the earth, right?! And now I've won $25 😊 I am never this lucky!!!

July has always been a good month for me! I will be celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary on the 22nd. Hooray! Due to vacations and other commitments this month I won't be getting too much sewing done, but it's ok. Gotta enjoy summertime while I can!! Happy July!

Mystery Quilt Progress

So today I was going to work on an apron but I may get to go to a fabric store on Saturday that just might have pancake fabric!! I decided to catch up on my guild mystery quilt. I had half of last month's step to complete. I stopped working on it because my sewing machine kept eating my blocks :( and I got frustrated. Today however was a brighter day and everything seemed to come together nicely!! So nicely, that I also finished this month's step!! Hooray! I think the last step is next month. I am so excited to be staying on track with this mystery. 

Pancakes!

I have finished making 12 pancakes! 

This picture was taken before I hand stitched them closed, but they are finished now. And I learned a new skill! The ladder stitch!! It worked nicely :) Tomorrow I hope to make a little apron to go with them! These pancakes are so cute and so much fun! I love them!!

About my 15 minutes a day goal, I didn't make it one day!! I worked my 12 hour shift Monday, then had a meeting and work on Tuesday night (14+ hours) so I didn't get my 15 minutes of sewing in  yesterday. I still plan to attempt my goal, but I have to admit I was totally bummed that! Oh well! Today was a new day and I got my sewing time in, so it's all good!

Time....

Time is something I struggle with. I am not one of those who can spend every waking moment doing something productive, so I am acutely aware that I "waste" a lot of time. Also, I think I need big chunks of time to do things. In particular sewing. I like to have a day set aside just for sewing. Now that is a nice thought but the reality is I am a Mom, a wife, and I have a job. All of this means I rarely can find a day to sew. I get frustrated and irritable and down right blue, and most importantly it causes me to not sew on anything. So, I am going to try to carve out at least 15 minutes a day to sew. This will be hard for me and I know there will be days that it will take me 15 minutes just to get my machine set up, but I am going to try it and see if I can feel a bit more accomplished. Today I spent 30 minutes sewing and I got more done than I thought I would. 

My current project is from this book.

I saw a review of this book a while back. I can't remember where I read it! Sorry! Anyway I thought it sounded like a fun book. I ran across it when I was vacationing recently, and I bought it! I am working on the pancake game. So much fun! In my 30 minutes I sewed on 7 syrups and 5 butters to my pancakes. My goal for my few minutes of sewing tomorrow will be to finish sewing the butters on :) I love this book and the fun games and tons of ideas it has in it. There are several more games I want to make at some point. I don't have any little people so this game will be donated to my guild to sell to raise money for our guild during our quilt show. Maybe some little ones will have some fun with it! I'll share pictures when I get it finished. 

Some weeks are more Quilty than others

I always have good intentions of getting a lot done but most of the time that doesn't happen. If my children are out of school, or if I have to work, sewing just doesn't happen. And sometimes even when the events of a day fall just right and I think I am going to spend the day sewing I still don't get to sew. I did get a few things accomished, and most of these things did have a deadline so I am going to think positive and chalk the past week up as a success :)

I made my April block of the month for the Nine Patch Nirvana. I am combining this BOM with the rainbow scrap challenge so that's why it is purple! It's hard to tell from my picture but the center and corners are dark purple. Purple is not my favorite color but I am pleased with this block. Check out what other people are making with purple here!

My sister and I have decided to do an improv-style "round" robin with each other. I am not sure "round" is the right wording for what we plan to do, since our activity will be more improv, or free style than in the round. Our idea is inspired by The Traveling Quilts that I saw on Quilt Dad's blog. Here is a link to information about The Traveling Quilts. We decided to start off with a 12.5 block and a 6.5 block just to give us some guidance. Sometimes too much freedom can be a bit intimidating. We are tentatively planning to exchange our works once a month for about 6 months. Since it is just the two of us, we aren't going to stress too much over the rules. This is for fun!! As you can see I have chosen a ship and fish for my first pieces. I have always wanted to make a ship quilt and when I found the 12.5 block pattern here  I knew I wanted to make it. Then I found inspiration  here  for my 6.5 inch fish block. We are actually going to the beach this weekend and will be exchanging for the first time, and our 6 months of exchanging fall in the summertime, so I think this is a very appropriate theme!I hope she will like working with them too. I can't wait to see what she has made!!

My best friend's birthday is coming up. Yep, that's a deadline! I found all of these cute fruit fabrics at Joann's and thought I would make her a couple of potholders. With the extra fabric I made two more. I will probably donate the two extra to my quilt guild's boutique. Maybe someone will like them. 

I love the backs of these potholders as much as the fronts!!

My sister's birthday is also soon. Deadline #2. I found this fabulous map fabric and knew right away I wanted to make pillowcases for her. The little checkerboard pillowcase was made from the scraps. She has a small travel size pillow and I hope this will fit it! My family loves the pillowcases I make them so I know these will be appreciated and used!! I will be seeing her this weekend too. A sisters beach getaway to celebrate life! I cannot wait!!

There is something about rolled up binding that makes me smile :) I made this binding this morning for my "Laura" quilt. Pattern can be found here. I also planned to piece the backing for this quilt but in searching for more yellows in my stash I was lucky enough to find a piece of fabric that will work nicely for the backing. I cut it to size and put a label on the back. Then I found enough yellow to make the binding. Maybe in a couple of weeks I can sandwich it and get it quilted. For now, I will enjoy this happy rolled up binding :)

Happy Happy April!!