Chevron Rocket Quilt

I've been wanting to make a chevron quilt for awhile now. Once we found out that baby #3 is a boy, I was able to pick out some fabrics (Launch by Lesley Grainger Designs) and make it!

I think the main reason I wanted to make one was to do the echo quilting. So quick and easy!



I'll be linking up here.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...

Super Sewist!



Okay, not quite. But I am pretty happy with myself.

A few weeks ago some friends asked me to make a Superman blanket for their son. Not only do I love making things for people I know, but I thought it would be a pretty cool challenge. I haven't worked with minky much, AND they asked for a logo with his name on it:

It turned out well! And it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I designed the logo with my Silhouette, but then I just traced it onto paper since it was too big to cut. The front is red and blue minky. The logo is all cotton. I bound it with red satin. And the backing is a really fun cotton Superman comic print:

I hope they like it!

I'll be linking up here.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy's Creative Side is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival and it is inspiring and amazing to look at all the quilts that people have submitted! Over 600 quilts have been submitted and they are beautiful!

I chose to enter Kiki's Quilt because it was the first one that I submitted and I came up with the pattern myself!

I originally took a quilting class last March so that I could turn my daughter's baby clothes into a quilt. In the end, I chose to buy these beautiful Hunky Dory prints, but maybe some day I'll try a clothes-quilt still!

This quilt really means a lot to me because it was the first that I made for a specific person in mind and, of course, it reminds me of Kiki's baby-hood. Furthermore, it helped me learn a lot more about quilting. I didn't make too many mistakes on this quilt (besides those corner blocks!), and I was so proud that I designed and measured everything myself! (You can find a tutorial for the blocks here.) I realized that quilting wasn't as intimidating as I once thought, and I've been doing it ever since!

I just finished McKinley's big girl bed quilt, so it's a little bittersweet that I have to fold this one up and put it away. But I'm sure we'll get it out many times, and maybe she can even use it for her own baby some day.

I can't believe my little baby is growing up!

 

Definitely click on over and check out all the submissions!

{I'm Blushing} Quilt Finished!

Finished! I made a couple of very bad mistakes in the process of making this quilt, but I'm choosing to ignore them and enjoy my finished product.

I had about 2 yards of fabric leftover, which was not enough for the backing, so I just sewed it to some white fabric to make it bigger. It turned out a little crooked, but it's the back, so who cares, right?

I'm going to work on making a sham to match now. I've never made a quilted sham before, so wish me luck!

{I'm Blushing} Quilt Top

Kiki's been in a big girl bed for nearly 2 months now, however, I somewhat lost my motivation on this quilt part-way though. But now, I'm ready to finish it! All I have left is to baste, quilt and bind!



The pattern is "I'm Blushing" by Natalia Bonner for Moda Bake Shop. I love it! However, I used Holly Holderman for Lakehouse fabrics.

Teacher Appreciation {Quilted Wall-Hanging}

Teacher Appreciation week is coming up in May (AND the end of school--it has flown by!), so I figured it was the perfect time to make something handmade for my son's teacher. I've really wanted to make a quilt for her before Finn even started school, but I decided to pace myself and my patience paid off!

I've had the idea for this floating around in my head for awhile. I knew I wanted something with this sort of layout and size, but when I saw this at Moda Bake Shop, it sort of inspired me to get moving on putting this together. I didn't use their pattern at all, but it obviously has its similarities.

I especially love the back and binding. The rainbow colors worked well together. I hope she likes displaying it in her classroom.



I will be linking up to these great parties!

Anthro-Inspired Bedding

Remember this?

Well, I have donated, consigned and thrown out, and now my room is looking much better! In fact, I have finished my Anthro-Inspired Bedding (tutorial from KoJo Designs).

What do you think?

I made some faux "shams" to go a long with it. They turned out alright. You just have to flip them over to actually sleep on them!

And we weren't really sure what to do with this chair yet, so we added a sitting area--something I've always wanted in my bedroom (you know, for mommy time-outs).

I will be linking up at these great parties!

Frankly My Dear...

I DO give a damn. Have you seen the new Gone With the Wind fabric (and here, and here)? How cool is that? And the above quilt! What I wouldn't give for a bundle to make that with! I still usually rate GWTW as my favorite movie, even though I rarely watch it anymore. But when I was a pre-teen I could spend days watching it over and over, dreaming about how wonderful it must be to be Scarlett and wear all those wonderfully huge hoop dresses. Ahhh... Anyway, I just wanted to share.
 

Baby Shower!

I will be linking up this post with Tea Rose Home's Wednesday link party!

My friends and I hosted a Pumpkin-themed baby shower for my dear friend today. I really thought I took more pics, but I didn't! Here's what I got:
The name frame that I made. I found this on another blog originally. You put the name on top, a picture of the baby in the middle and the name's meaning on bottom. So cute! A delicious pumpkin cake that my friend made. It tasted as good as it looks!

Yummy pumpkin scones, dip and bagels:

And here is the quilt I made for baby Judah. It's from a pattern from Melissa of the Polka Dot Chair. She is amazing! I really love this quilt!

Mini-quilts

I am sharing this post in Tea Rose Home's Wednesday link party.

I have been loving mini-quilts and table runners lately. They are quick to make and dress up a table or wall fabulously. Above is my newest, which I made for my coffee table. We recently painted, so I wanted to bring out a little more of the new wall colors. The pattern came from ModaBakeShop and it measures around 25" x 25". I love it!
Closer-up:

Princess Kiki

In prep for my next big birthday party, I've finally finished Kiki's wall hanging. There really is no feeling like finishing a project!

No More Stitch in the Ditch

Since I started quilting, I've been a bit intimidated by free-motion quilting. But I decided to give it a shot today and it turned out great! This is a pot holder, but hopefully I can work myself up to something a bit bigger: All I did was lower my feed dogs and strap on a special quilting foot. I'll probably buy a stencil to use next time since I overlapped a couple of times. This is awesome!

Zippy Potato Pouch Tutorial

I am submitting this post to Tea Rose Home's Wednesday Link Party. I love it! Check it out!

Do you love baked potatoes? Except that you have plan about an hour in advance if you want to eat one? Or you have to wrap it up in yucky saran wrap and risk getting cancer to make it in the microwave? Okay, maybe nobody else thinks like that, but I sure do. I've seen quilted potato pouches at craft fairs, and of course thought, "I can make that!" Therefore, I present my Zippy Potato Pouch to you. Just pop in a clean potato, microwave and you have a quick, yummy, healthy lunch!And here is how I made it:

You will need:

-2 fat quarters, or roughly 1/4 yard of main fabric, and an 1/8 yard of contrasting fabric (for binding), all 100% cotton
-9" x 17" 100% cotton batting
-Cotton thread in a neutral color (mine matches my binding fabric, since I am topstitching on it)
(I'm really pushing the cotton because I'm afraid if any polyester or other synthetic fiber is used, it may catch fire in the microwave)

Here's my fabric choices:
First, cut your main fabric into 2 8" x 16" rectangles:

Sandwich your batting in between your 2 rectangles. It's good for your batting to peek out a little since it may scrunch up a little during quilting. Make sure both of your main fabric rectangles are facing out:

Since this is so tiny, and it will be touching food, I did not use basting spray before quilting. I just carefully pinned around the edges, trying to line up the rectangles on either side of the batting:

Before quilting, choose one of the 8" edges to taper. Make a mark on both sides about 1 1/2" down:

Then cut of the corner at a 45 degree angle:

Do this to both sides so that they taper:

Next, quilt however you desire. It doesn't have to be fancy, I just drew lines with a water-soluble pen about every 3 1/2 inches at 45 degree angles:

Then I sewed along my lines. When you are done, be sure to cut off the excess batting:

Next, cut three 2 1/4" strips from your binding fabric:

To make binding strips, you must lay out one piece, right side up. Then run another strip lengthwise over the corner, right side down. Pin in place:

Draw a line from corner to corner (another 45 degree angle) Sew along this line and when you fold up the strip, it will be one long piece. Sew together all 3 strips so that they are one long strip:

Cut one 8 1/2" strip from your long binding piece. This will be for one edge of your pouch. The rest of the binding will go all around the edges. To make double-fold binding, iron the strips in half first(ugh, I really need to make this):

Unfold, and fold in each edge to meet the middle. Iron so that they stay:

Then fold in half again and press. Do this to the 8 1/2" strip and the long binding strip:

Take your 8 1/2"strip and pin over the 8" edge (the non-tapered one) of your pouch. Sandwich the pouch material between the strip. Sew in place and trim the excess binding when done:

Fold the pouch so that the finished edge meets the point where the pouch begins to taper:

Pin the long binding strip all around the edges. When you get to the end, fold the raw edge under a bit so that it doesn't show:

Sew all around. I used the left side of my sewing foot as a guide, lining it up with the binding edge. Turn the corners carefully:

That's it! Your done!

You can cook 1-2 potatoes at a time, about 3-5 mins per potato, depending on size. Just make sure to tuck the tapered edge into the pouch first.