Progress!

With a friend’s baby due pretty much any day now, it was time to finally get in gear and start making something out of the fabric I bought months ago.

So today, I sat down, decided on a pattern, cut out the fabric, and finished the top!

After this part was finished, I realized it was just a bit too small. I added some coordinating strips to two sides, and it was the right size and looked more tied together.

The quilt will be kind of a wonky size – 35 inches by 43 inches. But hopefully just big enough to snuggle up with a sweet little baby boy. The quilt is made up of 6.25 inch squares cut from 3 patterned fabrics and 3 solid fabrics, so finished four-square blocks are about 11.5 inches by 11.5 inches. They are sewn for a diagonal pattern with the solid colors. I designed it to be super simple to balance out the busyness of the transportation fabrics. Colors were chosen to coordinate with the anchors in one of the pattern pieces. The pattern with little boats says “Little Sailor.” Too sweet.

Now, it’s a race to finish this quilt before we leave for vacation next weekend. The baby is due while we are gone!

A browse around Etsy

On a much happier note …

I absolutely love wedding ring quilts and other wedding themed quilts. A quick scroll through some Etsy finds:

From MickeyBQuilts Etsy shop

From JunqueInTheTrunque's Etsy shop

Table runner from LazyMamaDesigns

From SusanEllisonArt's Etsy shop

SerenStitches Quilt from Etsy. While not a wedding ring quilt, look at that beautiful quilting!

This is why I normally avoid Target …

Because I always find something adorable I just have to have. Check out my new sewing lamp:

Let there be light!

Back from the (nearly) dead

Sorry for the recent lack in posts, blog friends. I spent a week ago Sunday through today pretty much lying on the couch, trying not to die from some sort of respiratory virus. Sewing was far from my mind as I concentrated on breathing and regulating body temperature.

But … I’m back! Just not quite up to my usual crafty/cooking self yet (thank God for boxed pasta). So until then, some beautiful quilt inspiration from Etsy:

By Ragadoos on Etsy

Tiny Trends Quilts

Warm n' Fuzzies

A magnificent stash

I attempted to organize my fabric stash the other day, with little success. I really need a dedicated piece of furniture that I can store it in, instead of just rubbermaid containers.

The alarming part about organizing the fabric was realizing just how much I have happened to collect in the 8 or so months I have been sewing – not even including what I’ve used in actual projects.

Matt, if you’re reading this – now is the time to look away. 🙂

In 8 months, the remaining stash not including ones sewn into quilts or other projects, is:

136 fat quarters (34 yards of fabric)

42 pieces of fabric from 1/2 yard – 3 yards of fabric, general

40 pieces of kid fabric, from 1/2 yard – 3 yards of fabric

Plus, two drawers full of felt and felt scraps, and one drawer full of fabric scraps.

Approximate total yards of entire collection: 120 yards

Oooof. Better lay off on going fabric shopping until I’ve made many more projects.

The amazing part? It all fits here.

How do you keep your fabric stashes under control?

Another owl – sensing a theme?

Oh, the powers of social media. I made a stuffed owl for my baby cousin, and her mom posted an adorable pic of the sweet baby and the owl. One of her friends saw my owl, and requested one herself! So fun, and so amazing that someone in Missouri can make something for someone in Iowa and someone in North Carolina sees the post and orders one. Small world. 🙂 I really hope she loves him – I think he turned out really cute!

Reversible table runner how to

Finished project

I have been anxious to make a tablerunner for our coffee table, which may or may not have some paint splatters on it. *Ahem*

I made a very simple one that is a great use of fat quarters in your stash – I used 5 fat quarters for the front, the remnants of those 5 fat quarters and scraps from my stash for the back.

Here, a step by step guide.

1. Choose 5 fat quarters that have a complementary theme. Iron fabric.

2. From each fat quarter, cut 3 4-inch by 18-inch strips.

3. Lay strips by color side by side. Grab one strip from each pile. This is your first set. For the next set, start with the second pile in and grab five, making the first strip be your last. For your third set, pick the strip from the third pile to start your pile. So your piles will be in this order: 1,2,3,4,5; 2,3,4,5,1; 3,4,5,1,2.

4. Sew the five strips in your new piles together. Spread seams open, iron flat. You should have three sets when you are done, measuring about 18X18 inches after seam allowances.

5. Cut 4 inch wide strips from fabric (in the direction that will make 4X4 inch blocks of 5 colors, all sewn together). You should be able to cut 4 from each of the 3 panels, leaving 12 strips and small scraps of fabric at the end.

Cut strips will look like this.

6. Pick a pattern to make with these strips. For our table runner, I did 1,2,3,2,1,2,3,2,1. This left me with three strips leftover, which I used on the back. More on this later.

Sew strips together. Open seams, press flat.

7. From leftover fat quarters, create border. For the skinny edges, I cut 2 strips that are 4 inches by 18 inches, 1 each from 2 of the remaining fat quarters. This made the long side 39 inches long, so I cut 13.5 inch X 4 inch strips from the 3 remaining fat quarters, 2 from each colors. I staggered the colors for the edge so that the same fabrics weren’t right across from each other. Sew on sides, open seams, press flat.

Your top is done!

8. Make your backing. For the back, I pieced leftover strips and leftover scraps of fabric until I created a top that measured the same size. For a less time consuming alternative, you can just do one solid fabric backing. If you choose to piece as you go, then you have a reversible table runner.

Randomly pieced backing

9. Place right sides together of both front and back, pin together. Sew around all 4 sides, leaving three inches unsewn in order to turn right side out.

10. Fold in edges of remaining three inches, sew shut either by hand or machine. Sew around the runner 1/2 inch in from the edge to finish. And you’re done!

Finished backing

With table decorations

Reversible back with table decorations

My quilting hero

… is my Aunt Carol, or technically, my husband’s Aunt Carol. She is an incredible quilter, and can whip out even complicated patterns in an afternoon. She works for a fabric store, and has previously been a professional sewer.

She’s also insanely generous, and has provided me with quilting books, quilting magazines, and the beautiful Bernina I have. She also made us this beautiful quilt for our wedding gift.

I would guess that a lot of quilters have someone who turned them on to the hobby. Who was your inspiration?

Baby blanket – trials and tribulations

I wrote earlier about finding the perfect fabric for a coworker’s coming baby. Here are the fruits of the effort:

The perfect fabric

 

The backing

 

The blanked turned out pretty cute, but not exactly as planned. I thought this would be the perfect project to try some machine quilting on, since it was small. However, the flannel fabrics kept sticking to the all cotton batting, making it almost impossible to lay the layers completely flat. So, I ended up tying the quilt to finish it.

On the plus side, the flannels are super soft and it should make a very comfortable blanket for a newborn. 🙂 Readers – does anyone have suggestions to offer for layering batting and flannel fabrics and keeping everything smooth?

First attempt at machine quilting: Um, it’s done?

I decided to attempt machine quilting on a small project first – good call. I still like the block, and I still hung it up because it looks OK from a distance. 🙂

Lessons learned: Didn’t pin in enough places first. Didn’t iron flat enough. Didn’t leave enough fabric from the backing to do a neat binding – instead it is sloppy and stretched.

Oh well. Several more attempts and I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

Do not look too closely, and ignore the scuff marks on the walls 🙂