Finally. A quilt for my husband

My husband has been feeling neglected in the quilt department.  He was whining that he didn't have one.  I wanted to make him one for Christmas but the same song and dance.  I ran out of time.  His birthday is in April so I pushed his quilt back until then.

It's so hard picking fabrics for a man.  Everything is just too girly sometimes.  I wanted something quick with little cutting and piecing together.  I picked up a Bali Pop of batiks blue and decided on a quick rail fence block.  Strip piecing.  Good to go.  I still want to make a black/white/gray check quilt like Anna's.  It was in the running for my husband for this birthday but I changed my mind.  Good thing is that there are plenty of Christmases, birthdays and other gift-giving occasions in my future for him.

This is where I am with this quilt so far.  Don't look at it too closely because there is one area in the quilt with the same block... multiple times.  I must have been sleeping when I was laying it out and didn't notice.

It's too short.  It's a 8x9 layout and it's just right for me but will be too short for my husband.  I'm thinking borders.  My other option is to get another Bali Pop and make 2 more rows but I don't know if I want to spent $40.00 for a few more rows.  I can always use the rest of the Bali Pop as a scrappy binding.

Decisions, decisions.

Enjoy your day!
Jen  :)

Birthday Gift

It's me again and so soon.  Are you surprised?!

In between working on the blocks for the memory quilt for my Grandmother, I've been working on a birthday gift for a friend of mine.  I take a weekly ceramics class and August is a busy month for birthdays there.  My teacher, my good friend and her mom - all August birthdays.  And our class is small.  Only 5 students.  We do one big August celebration.  No need to have cake 3x in one month.

My teacher has a round table and has been asking for placemats to fit her table correctly.  I bought this book by Gudrun Erla for another project (the super tote on the cover - I haven't made it yet) and in the book? Curved placemats!

I bought some Fig Tree fabric and some coordinating ones and got to work.

The fabric right in the middle is what I used for the backing.  Quilting as you go is a wonderful concept.  These were quick to sew up.  Just need to take a pressing to them, box them up and wrap.  Good to go.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Birthday Gift

My BFF is celebrating a milestone birthday next month.  We normally don't exchange gifts but I thought it would be fun to make her something in celebration.  She mentioned that she could use a beach bag.  Oh I can handle that.  I made one for myself a few years ago.

She wanted it squish-able since they are going on vacation in a couple of months and can stick it in the luggage and it won't take up any room.  I made the strip bag from the Fast & Furious Quilting As You Go book by Gudrun Erla.  It's a lickety split bag to make.  I used a Sakura Park jelly roll and some Riley Blake tone on tone dots for the lining.  My BFF loves cherry blossoms so the fabric choice is fitting.  Maybe a bit "too pretty" for the beach or pool-side but I think she will love it.

It needs to be boxed up and wrapped and put into the mail.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Slowly, finding my way back

Sewing and blogging have taken a big backseat over here.  Work has been crazy busy and lots of drama (no need to go into that) but I've been slowly finding my way back to my happy place.

Back in early August, I started a birthday present for a friend but I hated how it came out so it ended up in Punkie's fabric bin.  Now, my friend's birthday has come and gone... in August and I feel terrible that I haven't made any time to work on something else for her.

I dug out my Strawberry Fields layer cake and a new pattern that I bought ages ago and started over.  Here's what I ended up with and you know?  I love it and want to make one for myself but in a more yellow/gray colorway from the layer cake.

The pattern is called Candy Cane Candy Dish* but I don't know the maker off the top of my head.  I will check if anyone is interested.  I had some issues with the pinwheels.  They are supposed to alternate dark to light diagonally and the printed diagram versus the picture on the cover were making me batty.  They didn't match.  I ripped and re-sewed those little pinwheels twice and I still got it wrong in spots.  I should have re-done the center pinwheel too.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

*edited: got a correction (thanks Carol!).  the pattern name is Candy Dish by This and That Patterns.

I have a few other projects that I've started cutting and I have resurrected Swoon.  Remember Swoon?  Well turns out, I only have 1 more block to cut and finish.  But I totally mixed up my FQs and I have no idea what I had decided on.  I spent some time this morning going back through my finished blocks and my FQs and figuring out my last block combination.

That's all here for now.  I hope to not stay away from my sewing machine for so long nor my blog.  I've been missing you guys.  Please come back to visit!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Birdie Stitches and Super Josh

June Birdie Stitches is done and only 3 months behind.  Not bad.  I may just finish this quilt after all!  Terry had modified the June block and shared her idea on her blog.  While I liked the original June block, I left it looked out of place in the grand scheme of things if you were to lay out the blocks in month order.  If it was in the center of the quilt, I think it would have worked.  I'm kicking the idea around of still making the original June block but using it on the back.

ANY-way.  I liked Terry's change and I followed her lead.

Onto Super Josh.  My cousin's little boy is turning 3 next Saturday and she asked me if I would make him a cape.  Well, OF COURSE!  Punk is my model and now I need to make HER one.  My very talented brother took the original Superman logo and substituted the "S" for a "J".  Now it's SUPER JOSH!  Yes, yes.  I KNOW the logo on the cape is supposed to be yellow with a black outline but I didn't like it!  It looked so boring.  So I used the colors from the logo on Superman's chest instead.  Much better.

IGNORE THE MESS!

Again, IGNORE THE MESS!

Ellyn?  Do you see your chickens?!  LOL!!

I found this tutorial online and I'm glad I had Amelia model Josh's.  It's a little snug for her in the neck.  So I'll have to adjust when I make her "pink and purple with flowers and Super Amelia written out" cape.

I'm very excited to give Josh his cape.  I hope he loves it!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

It needs a name

It's home and I.LOVE.IT!!!  I can't wait to give it to Amelia on Sunday.  I'm talking about Amelia's bed quilt.  Sharon worked her magic again and got the quilt done and back to me before the party.   She did a BEAUTIFUL job with her quilting.  I can't wait to show it off!!!

Amelia isn't home so I quickly put it on her bed this morning and snapped a couple of pictures.  You want to see?

backing.  so pretty

quilting.  close up

Oh boy.  I'm going to say it again.  I love it!  And since I knew it was on its way, I made pillow shams to match!  I used the backing fabric (since I had a ton of it left over) and using a pattern from Heather MP's book, Shams with Style, I made two basic shams.  I did a basic checkerboard quilt pattern.  I like how they came out.

close up of sham

I can't wait to leave it on her bed permanently.  I'll have to hide it and wait until Sunday.  But now it needs a name.  I want to make a label for it but I can't think of anything clever to call it.  Any ideas out there?

Sharon - THANK YOU!  You did a wonderful job and I truly love it!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Getting that To Do list down!

Another thing off my list!  WOOHOOOO!!  You don't know how happy that makes me feel.  2 more "must do's" and then I can go back to doing things that I've set aside.

This is for my SIL for her birthday.  Okay, her birthday was a month ago and she request a bag almost a year ago but that's fine.  :)

I like how this one came together.  Came together rather quickly.  I made myself the largest size (the pattern has instructions for 6 different sizes) and I found it's way too big.  Now that I'm seeing this one; this one is better fitted for what I would use it for.  Hmmmmm, another tote bag in my future?!  LOL!

ONLY thing I would do differently is use another color for the "C" stitching.  You can't really see it.  I should have used white or a lighter blue.  I wanted to but I debated with myself and the darker blue won.

I'm excited to have only a few more things left on my list that I HAVE to do.  Then I can work on my FQS BOM blocks and Amelia's pillow shams for her quilt.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Birthday/C-Word Gifts

I will not mention the dreaded "C" word but it's fast coming upon us. I have two cousins (sisters) that both have birthdays in December (a day apart from each other) and the birthdays fall two weeks before the dreaded "C" word.

They admire the few totes that I've made for myself so I thought this year, I would make them each one as a combined birthday/C-word gifts. I'm also going to make them each a pink Yankees fleece blanket since they are both Yankees fans AND I stumbled upon the pink Yankees fleece at my local "we have everything" fabric mill store. I searched and searched for the pink fleece over the summer with the blanket idea. Come to find out, they had discontinued it. But I found it so I bought 4 yards of it. I digress... back to totes...

Kris made some very cute totes over the summer that I really liked. One is in her blog header that I totally copied but she knew in advance so it's okay ;) and another called the "Practical Bag" that she shared the pattern with me.

Here's my Cotton Blossom pinwheel charm tote for Cousin #1. I too left off the cuff from the original pattern. The tote looks MUCH better without it. I also added a magnetic snap and I forgot to do the inner pocket! Oh well. Who's gonna know?!


Next up... the awesomely purple (but you can't tell from the picture) Practical Bag for Cousin #2.

The purple fabrics that I used are awesome. They remind me of the color of grape Kool Aid.

And since I loved the pinwheel tote so much, I made one for myself! I used a Hushabye charm pack. I used the tote on an outing on Saturday and got lots of compliments on it. Again, I added a magnetic snap and forgot to add the inner pocket.


Here are all three together.

I've decided to make two more totes as gifts. From Punkie to the Grandmas. I picked Claire from Lazy Girl Designs. I figured my mom can use it as a lunch tote and my MIL can use it as a tote/purse. I bought my fabrics for it over the weekend and started cutting all the pieces out. I'm going to start those this week (I hope).

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

For Baby Josh

Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is my cousin's little boy first birthday party. Josh doesn't officially turn 1 until the 24th but I'm all for celebrating early!

I made Josh a fleece blanket and coordinating pillowcase. I hope my cousin likes it!

Sunday is also my brother and SIL's first wedding anniversary. My Punkie Pie made such a cute flower girl. She still talks about that day!

Well, I'm off. I think I'm catching a cold so I'm going to go put Punkie to bed and I'm going to head to bed myself.

Enjoy your night!

Jen :)

Done!

Just in time! I leave for Texas on the 23rd for my BFF's daughter's 1st birthday and I finished up the wall hanging. Are you ready to see???

Here it is... I did no fancy quilting on it. Just followed the pattern. I really didn't want to practice my stippling on it. If I screwed it up, I would have cried. It's bad enough there are many mistakes in it already!

And the back....

And the label that I created today. I need to figure out this whole stabilizer business. I thought I was okay and the darn thing still puckered and pulled. And with all that, my image shifted and the black outlining is off a bit. But I think if I ignore it and not point it out to anybody, they will ignore it too!

I also made a little tote bag that I'm going to put three board books in. Amelia loves her different totes and bags to take with her and I think, or should I say hope, Julia will feel the same way when she gets a little older.

I had intentions of embroidering Tigger and Pooh (theme of party) onto a t-shirt for Julia too but that project was a complete failure. Again, the stabilizers! I need to take a course or at least read a REALLY good tutorial. But I will try again. I have a few embroidery projects in mind that I would like to do.

Done. I'm happy. I can relax on my vacation next week and not worry that I have work to do when I get home before I get on a plane. I'm going to take Punkie's quilt with me to New Hampshire so that I can get started on hand sewing the binding down. I machined it onto the front while she was away. Now I can focus on that AND my SIL's quilt.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Jen

I'm Sorry. I owe you a post.

Yesterday was crazy. Meetings all morning, work in between and all afternoon. Then my husband and I went out last night to the furniture store and bought a new couch and club chair recliner. VERY excited! Both pieces are in stock so Chris will be picking them up next Monday. So I totally forgot to post my update AND the winner of my little giveaway.

Here I go...

108 days smoke free
1613 cigarettes NOT smoked
12 days added to my life
$445.00 saved.
No thread purchased

And now the winner of my giveaway... I did that random number generator do-dad and it gave me #12 back. #12 is... RACHEL! Congratulations Rachel! Please email me your address and I will get your little goodies out to you. Thank you to all who commented. I will do another giveaway soon. They are fun!

Update on the Wii Active 30 day Challenge. I like it. I went strong until the weekend hit because I just wasn't home all weekend. Nor did I do any exercising yesterday because we got home late from furniture shopping. So I will be starting up again today. But I like it. I work up a nice sweat for the 20 minutes I do the routines. I'm going to forge on.

Punkie is in New Hampshire with my in-laws for the week. They left yesterday and will be home on Saturday. I slept in this morning until 7:00; it was very nice. I have a few evenings of Mama-Free duties so I plan on doing some sewing.

End of last week and over the weekend, I finished quilting the pinwheel wall hanging and I sewed the binding on - I just need hand sew the back. I did a practice run with the machine embroidery with a shirt that I bought Punkie. The design is a bit off-center and a little too low on the shirt but I don't care. She'll wear it anyway. So now I feel a little bit better about embroidering a shirt as a gift. I think with the gift, I'm going to mark the area on the shirt where I want the embroidery in pencil to be BEFORE doing anything. I have a hard time visualizing, even when the machine shows me where the design is going to go. Why do I have these ideas AFTER the fact? I guess that's why we practice.

I will post pictures soon of everything. I would just like to have them all done.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

I've Waited Long Enough

I am ready to bust open those Clementine fat quarters! I have waited long enough! 3 whole weeks! I'm ready.

I pretty much caught up with some of my more pressing projects. The little tote that I wanted to make is done. I have started quilting the pinwheel wallhanging so I should be done with the quilting in the next day or two. Binding strip is made. I just need to attach it. I still need to machine embroider the T-shirt with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger but I'm scared. I'm afraid. I'm afraid to do the machine embroidery. But I'm going to try and get over it.

So, since those projects are pretty much done, I'm going to start my SIL's Clementine quilt. I will post progress pictures soon!

Very excited!
Jen

Wow. Today really IS Tuesday!

I'm all out of sorts with the holiday weekend. All day yesterday, I thought it was Sunday and today Monday. Not true. I missed my Loser Monday post. Well, I have nothing to report on the Loser Monday front.

BUT...

73 days smoke free
1091 cigarettes NOT smoked
$300.00 saved - I need to start putting my money aside again now that my fabric shopping is done for a while.
No thread purchased. I need to get to the store though and start working on my project. July will here sooner than I want it to be!

On the sewing side of things... I started working on the End of Year Thank You gifts for Punkie's teachers. I've decided on the pedicure/pamper yourself fabric baskets. And what makes me happy is that 3 out of the 4 baskets are completely out of my fabric stash! I didn't know I had a stash big enough to accommodate. I'm putting some of my fabric to good use. :)

I'm also going to create a lap quilt for my new "sister"... sister in law to be exact. She has another SIL on her side of the family (her brother's wife) but they don't get along so I'm #1. LOL. And she got me a keychain from Las Vegas saying "#1 Sister" on it to prove it. She loved Amelia's quilt so much that I thought I would make her one for her upcoming 30th birthday. It probably won't be done for her birthday but that's what it will be for. I found the perfect fabric for her since her color request was orange and blue; orange being her favorite color. I just need to order it.

My "to do" list is growing by the second. I really need to get laid off so that I can work on my sewing projects. LOL!

Enjoy your day!
Jen