Quilt - finished

How is it February?  I think I missed the entire month of January.  And I just realized that I never posted a picture of my finished quilt.  What a cliff-hanger. 

Here it is!  My brother and his wife were staying down the street at my parent's house the week of Christmas.  So we had to go hide in the back yard on Christmas eve to snap a few pictures of the quilt.  It was cold.  And I forgot to get a picture of the back. 

(and there is my foot and fingertips)

I've never done a sampler quilt before. It was a lot of fun mixing and matching.  And towards the end it was super mathematical/patterny.  I loved it.  I did a lot of figuring out how to use a bunch of scraps up and how to make sure all the blocks were balanced and had a bit of each color. It was a super fun experiment, but also exhausting.  I don't think I'll be making a quilt again in just a month for a while.   But it was fun to quilt again. I miss just sewing for fun.   

(oh look, there is my arm)

I ended up wrapping the seat covers in the old peach crate.  Did I tell you all about my cool peach crates? I bought a bunch from a farm that my siblings used to work for and I have all sorts of cool ideas for how to use them. They are really neat. 

And here is my little brother and his lovely wife opening their quilt. I'm kind of in love with this quilt.  Which is a good thing since I used up almost all of my favorite cream dot fabric on it.  The rest of the fabrics that I used are interesting, but I would have never picked any of them off the bolt.  Some of them are down-right ugly.  But that is the great thing about quilting - together they all look incredible.  

(my parents ordered the quilt on the wall off of eBay - I didn't make it)

Mending Pajamas

The majority of sewing I do these days is like this.

The feet had holes in both of the toes and that bothered Meems. I chopped off the feet and quickly sewed some bias tape around the legs. Good as new!

Deconstructed quilt

I borrowed this quilting book from the library and the intro page has a picture of this quilt. Great! Right? 

Then I flip through the entire book and can't find it. It isn't included in the book. What?!? 

I google her name and find her blog and see that the quilt is in her shop for $10. I like it, but not that much. Plus, it seems pretty easy to deconstruct. So, doodled it  up on the back of this receipt. Do you like my algebra to figure out the block and boarder size? Heh. 

Maybe I will try to make it soon... There are a few other designs in her book that seem a bit easier and faster. I am itching to quilt again. 

A long quilt

Our garage door was letting in so much cold air.  

Why you ask? 

Just because there is A CAT DOOR cut in the bottom of it.

And because there is a gap all the way around it (see picture below).

And because there is a two inch gap at the top. 

So, our solution, when we first moved in, was to tape some cardboard over the cat door.
That isn't really going to stop any of the cold air.

We don't really have the money to buy an new door right now, but this thing was making the fireplace room and kitchen so cold.

Enter the long and skinny quilt!
These sheets have been sitting around my sewing room since 2009, when I found them on Christmas clearance. They have been waiting to be a back to a flannel quilt or two.

I chopped up the bottom sheets (the one with the elastic) and pieced them together to be about the door size.  It took me about a week to piece the flannel together, quilt it, and sew the binding on. It isn't perfectly square, but it is warm.

Jared made me the quilt hanger from two pieces of spare wood.

Hooded towels

I made two hooded towels for Christmas for my nieces. As an aside, it is especially hard to find fun colors for girl towels in stores. Where are all the purples and pinks? And who is buying salmon/peach still? There are plenty of greys, blues, and odd shades of greens. 

I tried to give my USPS man a break, but I was thwarted by a limited selection in stores and ended up buying these online with free shipping! But I tried. I tried to buy them in stores! 

My model wasn't very corporative.

Advent Tree Update

I only have four more to make. I've been sewing one or two each night while Jared reads to me. It has been a fun little project. 

Best of all it is a great way to talk to the kids each night about the actual reason we celebrate Christmas. There is a Bible verse and suggestion verse from a Christmas carol each night. 

I'll post the book title when I post a picture of all of the ornaments on the tree. 

Christmas Tree Wall Hanging Project

I'm working on this fun wall hanging for Christmas. The pattern called for sticky Velcro, but I thought snaps would last longer.  Each day there is a reading to do and ornament that goes on the tree.  I have 4/24 ornaments sewn. I'll post pictures when I finish. 

Sewing Room Progress

Guys, I've been living out of boxes in my fabric room for quite a while now. But look, it is coming together!!! It is starting to look way more cozy and inviting to sew in. I might actually get some projects knocked off the in-progress list. 

I spent a few hours today sorting fabric into bins by collections and types. There is still more to go through, but it is getting closer and I am happy. 

For a project I'm about to start. 

Additional 1930s fabrics. The rest are on the bookshelf on the right on bolts. 

What color should I paint my sewing room? Bright white? Yellow? We have done a bunch of blue and some green in the house already. I'm not sure what color to paint in here, but these tan walls desperately need updating and cheering up. What is a good sewing room color? 

Pillowcases (and random thoughts on painting)

For their third birthdays we let the kids pick out fabric for pillowcases. It is highly entertaining. There are so many ugly fabrics that kids are drawn too. 

Warren did pretty well. 

1.  fire trucks (I had some flame fabric in a pile of scraps that someone gave me - it made a perfect cuff). Why was this firetruck fabric $12.99 a yard at Hobby Lobby (it is a cheap fabric). I don't even pay that much for nice fabric. 

2. Minions. Everything minions. They have never even seen the movies. But Aunt Hope hooked them on them and we can't stop. It is the only "themed" items I will agree to buy. I forgot to add the extra fabric to this one and now it is a bit short. I might go back and add something, but it requires pre washing a piece and then sewing it on. And I'm not sure I am that bothered that it is a bit too short. 

This is how we haul in the groceries. 

I get to teach one of the beginning classes for ESL tonight. I'm avoiding working on my lesson. I already made a huge pot of sausage and gravy for a church breakfast this week. Now I keep staring at one of the walls in my room and thinking about painting it. Do you think I could get it done before Jared came home?

This is my inspiration. The room doesn't get enough light to paint all the walls dark blue. But I loved the colonial blue in my old room and I have enough leftover for one wall (from the schoolroom).  Recently, I've been dreaming about an accent wall. Hmmmmm. 

 

Scrappy Quilt

This is a quilt that I finished several years ago. But I just found this in my draft folder. Weird. It is the first quilt that I tried something different on the quilting. So, to that end, it holds a special place in my heart. 

Here are close ups of the blocks so that you can see the quilting.  I outlined the blocks and doodled all sorts of different things inside each one. It was really fun and it turned out well. That doesn't always happen. 

I really like circles for boarders, but it doesn't fit on so many quilts and runners. I loved the way it turned out in balance to the lines here. 

And this star is my favorite part! I love the echo quilting. 

I should be brave and try new things like this more often. It takes forever, but looks way cooler. 

Here is the back. 

Here is baby Martin helping me pin it together before I quilted it. 

Sweet Mr. Baby. 

And here is a picture of Mr. Baby to remind you how goofy looking he was. 

haha. 

Look at that hair. 

He was a happy baby. 

Hello, old kitchen! I miss your cheery walls and perfect working space.  

Joint Quilt

My mother-in-law have always wanted to work on a quit together. 

There was a baby shower coming up at church and so we finally did it!

She gave me this box stuffed with her middle square and all the fabrics that matched it. How fun!

I picked out the boarders. She gave me free reign with what I got to do. 

I was also working on a second quilt at the same time.  

Hopefully, that quilt will be featured next week. It is in my top five quilts ever. :) 

This is after I added the boarders. 

I gave it back to her and she quilted it. 

And then I put the binding on. 

I hope we get to team up on some more quilts in the future. 

Pointless

Years ago, I started a quilt and I made a huge mistake.  I knew the points of all the triangles would be cut off when I sewed it together.  So, for FIVE YEARS it sat in a basket of unfinished projects in my sewing room.  It moved across town to our new house in that basket. 

And then I needed a quick baby quilt a few weeks ago. So, I finished this quilt. 

I was missing one of the blocks and I didn't like the way another looked. 

They wanted to pose by it like they made it. 

Also, sometime Martin smiles like that for pictures and it reminds me of kid pictures of me. That is weird. 

(Here is a photo I found on facebook of the blocks that I made in 2012). 

I didn't actually sew them into blocks until 2015. 

Another project finished out of the to-do basket. :) 

I just finished a quilt jointly with my mother-in-law. I will post pictures of that next.  And I am almost finished another one (that is turning out to be one of my favorite quilts ever! I can't wait to post pictures). 

P.S. The title is sort of a joke.  I told Jared that if I were to sell this as a pattern, I would call it "Pointless" because all the points get cut off.  ha ha ha. 

About to start a new quilt

A small peak into the beginning of a quilt. 

It isn't just cut fabric and start sewing. Rarely do I follow a pattern and if I do follow a pattern I usually make modifications to use the fabric more efficiently. 

Which one?

Which one?

Which one?

The left one is my favorite, but the finished size is too small. I guess I could add thicker boarders. 

Doll and Dress

(Side note: Those wood floors!! Love love love - also, wood floors in a sewing room are the best! It is so much easier to sweep up threads.)

I have been wanting to make this dress and doll for a while. It suddenly dawned on me that I have a niece and I could make her them. Plus, she is about to be a big sister and I thought she might like her own "baby". 

This is a fabric that I have been hoarding for a while. I love it. It is one of my favorites. 

The dress is lined. I adore it. And it makes me want to make labels for gthfaith. That would be so cute on clothes and stuff animals. I've thought about it for years, but never actually done it. 

This is the first attempt at her eyes. I didn't like them. Also, I could never get the nose right. So, she remained noseless. 

The flower is attached by a snap. I made a hat that snaps and plan to make several other things as accessories for her in the future. 

Here are the eyes I settled on. Still not perfect. But I wanted to give her to my niece before her new baby brother or sister comes. 

Firsts and painting update (I added more pictures)

Two things happened for the first time in our new house. 

1. We baked a yeast bread (I know, how have I gone three months without baking bread!?!). Because it was so good, we made another two loaves the next day. :) Another batch might be in works right now. We love homemade bread. 

2. I sewed something!!!!! 

(I was running late for the shower and quickly snapped this picture - the baby is a boy, but I don't like to make covers too boyish or girlish because then they can't be reused for other babies. I tried to match the color scheme of the registry items. The handles and light blue are leftover from Michelle's quilt.)

I had not realized how much I missed sewing until I unpacked my machine and started. Hello, old friend!! Hello, fabric scissors! Hello, cutting board. *happy sigh*

The sewing room is still a disaster because I'm keeping all my fabric, patterns, and thread in boxes into I get the baseboard moulding installed. Maybe next week... It took a while to find everything, but once I was started it felt so good to be back to sewing. I even pulled out two patterns to start today. 

My mom took care of the older boys for a few hours so I could finish some baby shower gifts. 

This is the inside of the car seat cover. It is a fabric I bought for Martin when I was pregnant with him. I loved it so much and made a few things out of it (bibs and curtains for his room) and saved the rest for something neat...but now he is too old for it. Better to use it then just let it sit around gathering dust (I realized when we moved that I have way too much fabric and just need to use it up and stop hoarding it). It seemed like such a great fabric to be interesting to a baby.

 I used my snap tool for the handles. :) Yay, snap tool!! 

And matching bibs and a burp cloth.

Update on painting the fireplace room

I finished cutting in three times. I did two cutting in while Jared watched a movie that I wasn't interested in. I just have to roll the top coat, maybe twice. The paneling is showing through, more then I thought, as the paint dries. 

And I had some leftover primer and painted the laundry room doors ... And the bathroom door... And the counter edge...and a couple cupboard doors (as a prototype). 😬 Hope Jared doesn't mind. I got a little carried away painting things last night... 

White>>wood paneling 

Keeping it real with all the junk on the counters. :) The paint brightens the kitchen so much!! See where I started painting the cabinets? Yay. 

A little before. 

Notice I painted that nasty counter edge where the trim had fallen off and it was brown in some spots (and on the other side, which you can't see, some of the trim was still on, it was so patchy. I hit it with white paint and made it all uniform.

A tree skirt for GC

For as long as I have known her, my mother-in-law has mentioned wanting a tree skirt. Since I never know what to buy her I decided to make her one this year.  She mentioned it again about two weeks ago and I thought, "wait, I know how to quilt! What a perfect present. I'll make a tree skirt." Then I thought, "oh no, it is almost December. They'll get their tree soon." 

But it just so happened that they were going to visit Jared's sister for a week and wouldn't get back until this week and then get their tree. Most of my spare time for the past two weeks has been used to work on this. 

At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but as so often happens with quilts, by the end I was in love with it!! Each step of the quilting process adds a little something to the quilt. It is a fun hobby. 

Oh, and this happened to be the pattern my MIL had been saving to make herself someday. I didn't know that. I just knew that she had given me the pattern a few years ago. I used a bunch of her old fabric scraps to make the trees, stars, and binding. 

Of course, when I tried to take a picture both boys wanted to sit in the circle. 

Or stand. 

Here is the fabric cut for the trees. It was a lot of little pieces. Cutting them all out took about two hours. The only reason I know this is because Jared was watching  a college football game and I finished by halftime. :) 

Here are the blocks made. We tried putting the red centered stars in the front, but it made it too red. It seemed more balanced with the green centered stars. 

For quilting: I outlined the stars three times to look like they were shining. I outlined the trees once. And I tried swirl quilting for the first time because I thought it would look like snow. 

I worked on the quilting for about a week off and on. The outlining took the longest.   I did the swirls in two evening stretches. 

Jared and I debated the size of the hole for a while. We finally decided on 9" because his parents have a real tree. I couldn't find anything that was a 9" circle around my house. Then I remembered I owned a compass (of course, I'm an engineer!). 

It took me a while to work up the courage to slice the seam and hole. I was sure I would mess up and ruin the whole thing. 

Jared made the scrappy binding for the quilt while I finished quilting it. He also cut out the stars. They weren't on the original pattern, but I thought the trees needed something. I appliquéd them on. 

The binding took about two days to sew on. 

Some closer pictures of the quilting. 

Closer picture of the stars. (Little feet in every picture). 

Two Sets of little feet in this picture. What fun to spin in the middle. 

And here is the back. I sent Jared to the store for either a flannel or something Christmasy.  He brought this back because he knows I love polka dots and his mom loves red. The back ended up being 45" by 45" and a piece of fabric is 40-42". So, I pieced a long strip on the back. I could have cut a little square to fill in the corner, but I made a little four block. I don't like boring backings to quilts. I didn't have time to design something special, but the four patch gives it a little personality. :) 

I washed it before I gave it to her and I used six Shout color catchers. They were pink when I removed them. 

Edit:

The tree skirt is called Starry Forest and is found on Sew Mama Sew. The blogger app won't let me put in links :( 

But I took a screenshot to show you what I changed. 

1. I made my center all white. 

2. I added stars to the trees. 

3. I used various scraps in the trees instead of just two patterns. 

4. I made normal stars that were out of  5-1/2" squares instead of wonky stars. 

5. I used scrappy binding. 

6. I didn't include ties. I didn't see the point. 

7. I angled the corners. Jared's suggestion. It almost gave me a heart attack having to trim off the corners. Once again, I thought for sure I would mess it up.