2011 Crafted Goodies

Hard to believe another year has flown by.

I've been working on a few baby gifts and really wish I could show you how cute they are... but we'll just have to wait till the little bundles of joy arrive. ♥

I still have a few WIPs that I need to get back into:

Farmer's Wife

Pineapple Surprise

2011 Scrappy

My Traveling Quilt

Derek's Army Quilt

But per doctor's orders I'm to take it easy for a little while.  So I'm contenting myself to mostly hand sewing, which is relaxing and therapeutic, but very s l o w.

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy 2012

Gifts for a great friend

It's hard posting photos this time of year because pretty much everything is a Christmas present.

But since my bff already opened her gifts, I figured I could go ahead and show you what I made for her and her two adorable kids.

Quilt # 42 - table runner featuring

Chicken Little

A running theme between us is that "Tomorrow is a new day" from the movie Chicken Little.

We both have lupus and are making the best of how to survive with a chronic illness.  She's had quite a journey with this disease and continues to inspire those of us around her. ♥

I saw this fabric on eBay and just had to make something out of it for her.

We are always sharing *spoons*, see this article to read about a very interesting way of looking at living with a chronic illness.

and since their last name is "Green" I couldn't resist making some John Deere Green pillow cases for her kids.  Too cute!

Wish I could show the rest of what I'm working on... but it'll just have to wait.

 Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

~ ♥ ~

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

Andy Rooney

~ ♥ ~

Finished Quilts and a little indulgence...

As I started this week, I had a stack of quilts that needed binding.

So I got all my supplies ready and popped in a few DVDs

What do you have beside you when you sit down to sew?  I love Jolly Ranchers!

CRISS CROSS QUILT - FINISHED!

Quilt #40

52" x 62"

Isn't she beautiful?!?!!?

Oh I did NOT want to mail this one out!

You can make one too, the pattern I used was from Moda Bake Shop.  Click HERE

CHRISTMAS QUILT - FINISHED!

Quilt #41

55" x 55"

Oh I LOVE this one too!

I hope Gma Knaup loves it as well.

And a little indulgence...

So while folding laundry the other day, I came across one of my socks...

... and thought... that might make a cool looking quilt.  I've never sewn a quilt that used that much black in it.

So I took advantage of Cyber Monday and indulged a little bit... bought this beautiful Robert Kaufman Kona Solids jelly roll.

Oh this is going to be so cool!

Then I was all in the shopping mode, so I headed down to Joann Fabrics and scored some leftover Black Friday deals:

rescued this pretty little stack from the "Remnant Bin - 50%"

Saw these... I'm not going to comment...

let's just say I had to text my BFF because they made me giggle.

Does anyone use these? 

SWEET! 

All the recipes have 4 ingredients or less and are easily to make!

YESSSSS!

Ahhhh, my stash is growing!

And just for fun, I mounted my thread holder onto the wall!

~* ♥ *~

"When life gives you scraps, make a quilt."

Author Unknown

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You Know You've...

... been bitten by the Quilting Bug when you look down your street

and of course think how lucky you are to see such natural beauty. 

Then immediately think --- WOW those colors would be GREAT in a quilt!  Wonder if I have time before Christmas to whip something up.

the answer to that is NO, not with what we've got going on around our house!

Now for my sewing updates ---

CHRISTMAS QUILT - ready for binding!!!

I chose an all over squiggle pattern for free motion quilting.  I honestly do not enjoy free motion quilting.  I wish I did.  I think a few factors play in to why I don't:

1.  I'm using a small sewing machine to quilt a 55"x55" quilt

2.  the surface of my quilting table only goes about 12" behind my machine, so I'm constantly fighting friction and gravity when my quilt hangs over the edges

3.  I suffer from arthritis and my hands just aren't as strong as they need to work a free motion design - I do much better with straight lines or stitch in the ditch.  I use gloves and drop the feed dogs... but it's still a battle between me, weight, friction, gravity, and the sewing gods.

4.  I'm definitely left brained... I like the symmetric, predictable, straight line paths made by stitching in the ditch...

HOWEVER, it is MUCH MUCH MUCH quicker to free motion quilt an all over random squiggle, then stitch in the ditch. 

Hope to have hand-sewn the binding down on this one by the end of Turkey week.

CRISS CROSS QUILT - also ready for the binding to be hand sewn down.

I L O V E  this quilt so much!  I really don't want to give it to my aunt... but alas, I've already made a promise.  I just love the colors, the pattern, every thing.  And I stitched in the ditch on this one.

BEAN BAG - finished!

YAY!  I think it turned out pretty funky and cool... perfect for my funky and cool little cousin!

I use this super easy pattern found on this page.

Of course my munchkin had to do some quality assurance testing on it...

Pounce test... check

Wiggle test... check

Comfy test... check

Yep, she says it's good to go!

TRAVELING QUILT - one more block done

This thing is going to take me forever!  But I do find the hand-sewing relaxing... plus it's nice to have a project where I don't have to stand at the ironing board pressing seams.

Although I think I've found a solution for that

My little helper... helping along!

*DISCLAIMER*  - the iron is NOT plugged in

Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving!

~* ♥ *~

"May the colors of your life be bright and the threads in your life be very strong."

Author Unknown

~* ♥ *~ 

Scrappy Projects Update

This week I only managed to get a few projects worked on, but definitely enjoyed our mini vacation in Las Vegas!

2011 SCRAPPY QUILT

I sewed 4 blocks together thinking it would be the top row of this quilt, until I measured it... 75" long!  This is going to be one HUGE quilt.  So now my row has become my column... I'm going to make it a 3 x 4 block quilt... which *should* measure about 56" x 75" (in theory)

 TRAVELING QUILT - new project!!!!

Back story about this project.  I saw this idea of a traveling quilt on the blog, Life Under Quilts, here in this post and I just knew I was going to HAND SEW this quilt.  Basically the idea is to use these 1.5" diamond quilt pattis (plastic templates) and baste the diamond shapes together using a few backstitches, then arrange them so they become a star.  Simple.  Easy.  Goes whereever you go.

Here is a great video tutorial of how this lady stitches her diamonds/stars together.  I've only watched it about a MILLION times!



So when we decided to take a road trip to Las Vegas, I immediately dug through my stash and started cutting up diamond shapes to make on the 3.5 hr drive.  And being the left brained nerd that I am, separated them according to where they go in the color wheel.  :D

Here's a nice picture of my nerdiness.

And here is my very first star for my traveling quilt!  I'm hoping to use bright colors and keep a very fun feel to the entire quilt, however, my scraps will pretty much determine the overall color scheme.

Neatest thing about the above photo ↑ is the pin cushion.  It belonged to my Gramma Kocher.  I bet she never thought her pin cushion would make it to Las Vegas!  She died some time ago, long before I ever got interested in sewing.  But I have a feeling she's keeping an eye on things from up there.

Whilst in Vegas, I managed to finish 2 stars!!!  I wrote on them Las Vegas, Nov 2011.  Hoping to turn this into an heirloom for Emma of all the fun places we went.  I plan on taking this traveling quilt with me next fall when Brian and I go to Germany to visit my brother. It will be interesting to see where I was when I finished a block over there!  Such a FUN project!

BABY BURPIES

These are so fun and easy to make!

BEAN BAG

My cousin Kyle LOVES dinosaurs and informed me when he was out here this summer that I could make him a bean bag for Christmas!  :D  He just turned 6.  So cute!  So I hunted around and found this adorable line from Timeless Treasures and got started on a bean bag chair for him.

CRISS CROSS QUILT - on the machine being quilted.  Hope to have it finished before the week is up!

CHRISTMAS QUILT -  is next to be quilted.

Well that's all for this week!  Hope you all had a great weekend!

~ * ♥ * ~

"Every quilt tells a story."

Author Unknown

~ * ♥ * ~

2 Quilt Tops finished!

This week was very productive! 

I managed to finish 2 quilt tops AND visit with my in-laws!

CHRISTMAS QUILT:  TOP is completed, it is now basted and ready to be quilted.

55" x 55"

CRISS CROSS QUILT:  TOP is completed, it is now basted and also ready to be quilted.

51" x 61"



This week we are heading out for a mini-vacation, so I won't have much to report next week. 

But that's okay, I think it's good to take a break every now and then.  We are enjoying this time with Emma and her "gramma" and "P-paw" from Wisconsin.

~ * ♥ * ~

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.

Author Unknown

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Busy Busy Busy

FARMER'S WIFE QAL:

 

55 - Linoleum

56 - Maple Leaf

49 blocks completed
62 blocks to go

 PINEAPPLE SURPRISE QAL:

14 blocks completed
6 blocks to go

My pretty stack of Pineapple blocks!

CHRISTMAS QUILT:

another quarter of the quilt completed

HALF WAY done!!!

CRISS CROSS QUILT:

Another row added - OVER half way!

SCRAPPY 2011 QUILT:

block 1

block 2

 

Not sure how many blocks I'm going to make, each one is measuring 16.5" square... so they are quite big... guess I'll go until I run out of scraps!


RAG RUG from last week's quilt show:

I LOVE it!!!  So bright and colorful and completely made out of my scrappy strips!

It's big too!  Measures: 21.5" x 38"

WINE BOTTLE gift bag:

Found the pattern for this great gift bag on Moda Bake Shop, here.  Emma and I traveled up near San Francisco to visit a friend and we couldn't show up without a gift, so we brought our friend some local wine and cupcakes.  :D  (See other blog for photos of our trip)

While we were up there, my friend gave me the BEST present EVER!  Her mother was a quilter.  A "hand" quilter.  Well Barb had a quilt that her mother had made roughly 30 - 40 years ago and asked me if I would like to have it!  CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!?!?  I was OVER the moon!  Just look  how beautiful this quilt is: 

It fits a Queen size bed!

Did I mention this was ALL done by HAND!

Beautiful.

Simply Beautiful.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

I love it!

~ * ♥ * ~

"Grandma's quilts have love in every stitch."

Author Unknown

~ * ♥ * ~