WIP Wednesday

My first WIP Wednesday! Yeah!

My goal for 2012 is a quilt a month. Its a somewhat loose goal, like I won't stress too hard about it but am using it to keep productive. So far I've gotten up around 3 am and 6 am on a few days *uh I mean nights* to work on this next beauty.

So far just a bunch of HSTs on the table and ten minutes here and ten minutes there (two kids, if ya catch my drift;) and middle of the night and early mornin marathons. Just me and Downton Abbey. Happiness~*

                                                 
Thanks for stoppin in!

Warm Cool Quilt

I have loved this quilt idea from afar for too long and wanted to whip out a quilt, if that is even possible for me. It went from an idea to quilting so fast...about 3 weeks! ;) I am shooting to do a quilt a month and haven't even started February's yet. Here is the tute from one of my fave blogs, In Color Order.

It took ALOT of HST squares to trim...I think I reactivated my carpel tunnel and wished for one of these spinning rotary mats:)

But they are so lovely when done. I can't believe how much trimming my squares has improving my piecing accuracy. It is an essential step. 

Here she is on the design wall. I loved the diamond look but you can rearrange all the squares for a few other effects, such as a zig zag.

Here she is a gettin basted. I was pretty casual about basting; I didn't use millions of pins-mainly because most of my pins are in a sampler king quilt I did last year that needs quilting;)

Its a twin sized quilt (63" x 90").

I decided to use a flannel fabric to back it up and found the cutest Amy Butler print. I washed it right up (washes beautifully) and have been quilting already.

See it? I LOVE it. I'd recommend if you are using it ( and actually anytime you quilt a quilt) to roll or fold the ends in and pin so the batting doesn't shed everywhere; it really helps on the fuzz factor.

Lots more projects to come! Thanks for stoppin in:)

I Love Bags!

I spotted this at Jo-anne's and had to have it....

I have made a few bags from this book and *LOVE* it. Right now I'll show you the most complicated one I made, the Great Get Away Bag. It has lots of cute details like magnetic snaps and an adjustable strap.

I used the beautiful Joel Dewberry Home Decor Heirloom line of fabric in Home Decor weight. 

It took alot of stamina to make a bag like this; tracing and cutting the pattern pieces out of the fabrics, inner & outer, interfacing and fusible fleece let alone ironing all the interfacings and sewing! Not to mention installing the zippers, in and out, pockets and magnetic snaps! It also took awhile to gather all of the notions. I couldn't find the metal adjustable strap piece so I had to hit the thrift stores and find it on an old purse. 

But it was so worth it.

The bag is sturdy yet supple with all of the fleece lining it. It feels like an expensive bag. I have already used it on a trip and it was wonderful, very roomy and not to mention gorgeous to look at ;)

linking to 

Mini Quilt pouch

Hi Y'all! Fell off the blogoshere for awhile but lots has happened! Had another baby, entered the wonderful world of Bernina ownership and lots of sewing!

I am motivated today to say hello to join the Mini Quilt Show n' Tell over at amylouwho's blog.

This is a cute lil pouch I made using very small patchwork pieces.

It was challenging to get all the the points to line up and realized that I *needed* a straight stitch plate for my new machine...        {here she is...}

Anyways back to my mini quilt; I learned a few things about working small like this. 

Cut pieces bigger then trim down! This is much easier than getting frustrated when tiny triangle points get eaten into the machine and/ or shift when finishing the seam. My points lined up way better with this method (not perfect, better ;). 

So its a pouch. Like I said I just had a baby so I needed something quicker than a quilt to satisfy my sewing needs.

Thanks for stoppin by and I promise i'm gonna blog more! In fact I have been makin lots of cool things lately...here is a sneak peek....

Become a follower and check back by!! 

Quilt Festival time again!!

Welcome friends and quilt festival browsers to the post! Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment..I'd love to hear from you!

Here is my quilt for the festival...It is titled "Joy Ride" and was lovingly made for my father for his 60th birthday. I fell in love with this Riley Blake fabric and had to buy a bunch from the collection for this quilt. I used this tutorial from a quilt is nice for the pattern.

I hand quilted it which (took forever) was fun.

And I machine sewed the binding on due to time constraints...but felt the hand quilting made up for that.

...and just for fun, the Little Bo Peep costume I made for this year's festivities...isn't it cute:) Happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

Goings-Ons

It has been forever since I have posted because I have been busy...quilting, sewing, gardening, camping and all the other fun summer stuff! Wanted to post a few of my projects so take a look!

Finally a few better pics of this quilt; it is so pretty and felt the other pic wasn't doing it justice.

Here is the king size quilt that I have presently been hand binding for weeks on end! 

Quilting was quite a challenge...I like to press myself. It was my first free motion quilt and yes I chose a king size quilt. I only did one thin layer of batting though so it is more like a coverlet than a heavy, warm quilt. I rolled it into a log before trying the squish and smash in my tiny 6 inch or so sewing machine space. 

This finished picture isn't the greatest but hopefully you can tell that I used many different fabric lines in it and that the quilting is accomplished! Now the challenge has been not to catch the quilt top in the binding process since it is so thin of a quilt.

I also won an Oliver S Ice Cream dress pattern from Amy over at badskirt for the Ice Cream Dress Social going on this July. It was so fun! 

I did my first one in these awesome Japanese inspired prints.

And since I LOVED how the pattern turned out I cut out and assembled two more making them slightly larger than my daughter so that she could wear them for awhile.

Besides binding the king coverlet, I am working on a quilt for my dad's 60th birthday this year. He is a kid at heart so I chose Riley Blake's Wheels line. 

I will be doing a zig zag quilt and got some design ideas over here at a quilt is nice.

I think it will be cute and hoping it is not too busy because I am not using any solid prints in the zig zag design. I might need to add a border to give the eye a place to rest. We will see!

In the meantime, this is where I'll be! Hope y'all are sewing like crazy too!