Simple Dish Towel Apron

I thought I'd share a few pictures of a recent quick project.I love turning something ordinary into something extraordinary! What started as a dish towel and a 1/2 yard of coordinating fabric turned into this cute and simple apron.I basically cut a triangle out of each side of the top (measuring in 4" and down 10"), then made my own double-fold binding. Honestly, you could make it even quicker and easier if you only 'bound' the arm cut-outs (since they are the only raw edges), but I liked the look of sewing the coordinating fabric around the whole perimeter. I added a quick applique with her initial, and voila!A friend of mine recently moved into a new home (new to her!) and did a full kitchen make-over. This was her little 'kitchen-warming' gift!

The cutest Pachyderm around!

I've made a whole herd of these cuties over the past two months.
Lots of color combinations.Lots of fiber fill.
Lots of smiles!

I found the original pattern and tutorial here, on the Riley Blake Designs Blog. I instantly fell in love. Of course, in my haste to make so many and get them in the mail as gifts I managed to only get a picture of one of them.

Not all of them came with a story, but I was 'on one' the day 'Punja' found her new home. She was made for an adorable neighbor of mine who saw the first elephant I made and had the guts to ask me to make one for her too. The elephant was left on the doorstep of her house with this note attached about her 'journey' to Abbey's house. It was fun. Abbey loves her elephant and takes it to school in her backpack almost every day to school!

Chenille

One of my favorite projects of 2011? I'd say yes. This was definitely in the top 10!

A very good friend of mine had a baby girl, and I knew I wanted to make her something special. I wanted to do something different than I've ever done, so that I could learn a new technique. I came across a great tutorial on Pinterest (here) for making 'Heirloom Cheenille Baby Blankets.' It was just the 'cool & unique' that I was looking for!Whew! It was a labor of love, but the outcome was fabulous. I honestly can't wait to make another! I was prepared, yet still shocked at how much thread it took to sew so many lines. This quilt took me as long to make (actually even a little longer) than most of my pieced infant quilts.
Once all finished and given it's first wash and dry, the texture of this blanket is DELICIOUS! No other word can describe it's yumminess!Making one of these quilts is not difficult, just time consuming. If you can sew somewhat of a straight line, than whipping one up is easy as pie. I'd give it a 'Beginner Sewer' rating, as long as said beginner can be patient and avoid going cross-eyed from sewing line after line!

Projects...

I'm not sure if anyone even takes a look at my humble little blog any more. It's been slightly neglected as of late. Sometimes blogging overwhelms me. I LOVE looking at peoples blogs, I LOVE getting ideas from others blogs, there are some blogging ladies that I hold on a serious pedestal. I just don't think I've ever been 'that' blog for anyone else. Oh well, it's almost the beginning of a new year, and I have MANY projects on the horizon. (Which is part of my problem. There is so much I want to do, and so much I have done lately - that I don't often enough slow down to document the process.) I'm attempting to do better. Maybe I can inspire one or two of you!

As mentioned, I've been a busy little bee in the last few months. There have been multiple 'custom name quilts' a few baby blankets for friends, a whole herd of elephant softies (pictures coming soon!), and a slew of other holiday gifts. I managed to get a bunch of them out the door without taking pictures (bummer), but others I can show!

My neighbor, dear friend, and AWESOME photographer (check out her blog/website here), asked me to make some Hanukkah shirts for her four cuties to wear on the first day of Hanukkah this year. Other than giving me the shirts to use, she pretty much told me to use my own imagination and 'go for it'! It was a bit of a challenge, because before I knew Stacy and her family I didn't know the first thing about Hanukkah, but I've been able to learn over the past few years and came up with some totally adorable tops for her totally adorable tots! (Sorry for the cheesy words...the real me is coming out here!)Kind of fun eh? What is most important is that she loved them and her KIDS really loved them! Thanks for the challenge Stacy! (And thanks for the photo, because this is one project that I forgot to take pictures of before they left the door!)

Happy New Years Eve! I hope 2011 has been great, and I hope that 2012 is even better!

Zoe Quilt

A friend commissioned me to make this quilt for her new beautiful niece. She chose the color pallet (brown, green, cream, and coral.) It's one I haven't necessarily worked with, but I LOVE it, and see myself using it again for sure.
It is quilted with an all-over meandering stitch (stippled).
I hope that it gets lots of love and use at it's new home!

My little Incredibles

Fun costumes to make! Even more fun to watch my boys play in them and believe they really are Super-Heros. Happy Halloween!

Summer Vacation project!

Hey! It's been a little while since I've checked in. Not because I haven't thought about it often, but because I've been on vacation...like all summer! I'm not home quite yet, but will be in just a few days.

I don't know about any of you, but I have a hard time going anywhere for any length of time without taking a project to work on. I came across this "Yoyo along" and knew it would be the perfect 'take a long' portable project for the next few months.I've made what feels like a ton of these little babies over the past month! It's a great scrap buster project. The crazy thing is that I'm like just over a tenth of the way to 1000 yoyo's. This is one of those projects that I see as a marathon, rather than a sprint! It may take a year to get all the yoyo's sewn, but who cares! I'm just loving the process.If you've never made a yoyo, they are so cute and fun to make. Go get yourself one of the handydandy yoyo makers and give it a go! This will be a great fall-time project too, very portable to take along to all those little league soccer practices and games!

Birthday Shirt

A friend recently contacted me and asked if I could make a shirt for her daughter's birthday this week. She's turning 6 and asked her mom if she could get a new '6' shirt for her big day. The only direction I was given was that she would be pairing the top with a tutu skirt in either orange, dark pink, or light pink.
I was pretty pumped when I found some material I had on hand with ALL THREE COLORS! Perfect! She can wear it with whichever skirt her little heart desires. I think it turned out pretty cute, and my friend LOVED it, which was most important!

The '6' is appliqued to the shirt then top-stitched for durability. I added the cute little bows on the sleeves for a little pop. (I tied the bows and then stitched them on using the button stitch on my machine...they are on there nice and snug and are totally washable.)

new quilt start

What I've been up to yesterday and today...I got a bee up my bonnet yesterday to start a new quilt. I'm using this tutorial from Elizabeth Hartman as my inspiration, but taking it to a direction all my own! If it turns out even partially like I see in my mind, I think it's going to be pretty cool.This is my first attempt at a 'artsy fartsy' / improvisational / abstract quilt. I'm actually really excited. (I came to terms a while back that I am as much of a crafty nerd as my awesome husband is a computer nerd. I get oddly WAY excited over random new projects.)

I've given myself a deadline of the end of the month for this quilt, so hopefully I'll have a finished product to share in a couple of weeks!

Car Seat Tents

I've been a busy little bee lately. Sewing like crazy! Not a whole lot of exciting stuff to show off here though, I've just mainly been working on filling up my little shop.
Today's finished projects... Car Seat Tents.I never really found a tutorial for these that I liked, so I made my own. I'm happy to share my dimensions and directions if anyone is interested. Just leave me a comment!

Happy Friday Y'all!

a quick selvage project

Okay, so two of my favorite quilting trends right now are selvages and 'wonky quilts'. I decided to put the two together and came up with this...It's just a hot pad, sorry if I got you excited! I constructed it just like a log cabin block, except I used scrap selvages and uneven angles. It turned out pretty fun. I made it for my mom's friend who has generously been saving her selvages for me, as a little thank you.

My interest (obsession) in selvages started last year when I came across this post on the Moda Bake Shop Blog; it kept growing when I started following the Selvage Blog. I actually have a selvage quilt in progress, you can check it out here! I'd say I owe my 'wonky' obsession to Elizabeth Hartman from the Oh! Fransson blog. I love her work. She's a quilt rockstar as far as I am concerned!

If you want to jump on the selvage train, check out the selvage blog I mentioned above. I suggest starting with a small project, like a hot pad!

ruffled edge 'quilt'

I had to put the word quit in quotations in the title, because this isn't a 'true' quilt to me, with batting and lots of quilted stitches! But no matter what we call it, it's pretty cute and sassy if you ask me!
My friend bought this material months ago, when she was just a wee bit pregnant with her third child. Back in the fall I even helped her cut out the squares and gave her a sewing lesson. Fast forward a few months. She approached me the last week in December and asked if I could just sew it for her. She ran out of time and energy. With very little guidance from her, other than she wanted a 'random' pattern and the ruffley satin edge, I came up with the quilt above.
She also didn't want batting in between the top and back minky-dot material, so really this is just a larger, glorified receiving blanket. I kept the 'quilting' very minimal and only stitched in the ditch along a few of the seams (to keep the top and back from shifting.)
I'm not going to lie. This quilt was a little bit of a challenge for me. It combined two of my least favorite types of material to sew with...Satin and Minky Dot. I'm not saying I don't LOVE both of them for their luxurious textures, they are just a pain to work with. I think I conquered them both this time though and produced a dang cute quilt.

It was a different experience sewing a quilt with material that I didn't personally choose. I probably wouldn't have put the color combination together that Jen did, but it looks great. Props to her for 'seeing' what she wanted. - I have one more quilt to do just like it. She is going to use them for her daughter's beds as soon as the 4 year old and the new baby start to share a room. I learned a few things from working with the satin and minky dot material on the first quilt, so the second should be a little easier.

First finished quilt of 2011!

Okay, so I confess that I started the quilt the last week of December, but I can still call it the first quilt of 2011, right? Afterall, it wasn't completed until just last night.

I'm not sure what to call this quilt. I was thinking 'Spots & Dots' or maybe 'Spottydots'! What ever the name, It ranks up in the top three quilts I have ever made. I think it is something about the combination of colors and the simplicity of the pattern that draw me in.
When trying to decide how to quilt this, I played with a couple different ideas from just stitching in the ditch to stippling the white space or possibly quilting in circles. Then, for some reason I decided to do something that I've never tried and straight line quilted the whole thing. I am really loving the outcome. This is one of those cases that the quilting adds a TON of personality to the quilt.

The quilt measures about 38"x38". The perfect little size for a baby. I can't wait to deliver it to it's new home!

*The fabric used is Make Life... by Moda.

A step too far?

A friend of mine asked me to make a scripture tote for her tween daughter (for Christmas). She didn't give me too much direction, just that she wanted her to have something fun. Translated in my mind meant 'sassy and blingy!' I'm a little worried that I took it just one step too far though...I'm on the fence about the blinged out handle.
I didn't have a pattern to follow, so what you see is just some crazy concoction that I worked out in my mind.
When I dropped the tote off to my friend a few days ago, I was a little worried. Hoping that she would like it. Success! She loved it (or at least didn't want to hurt my feelings!) And said that if her daughter wasn't enthralled with it, than she would keep it for herself.Changes for next time, if there is a next time...
*The ruffle needs to be skinnier, not so wide.
*The stiff craft-bond interfacing was tough to work with, use regular interfacing next time and the craft bond on JUST the bottom.
*To bling the handle or not to bling the handle? That is the question!

New Wave Quilt

When I saw this quilt back in March, I knew I just had to make it for somebody special. Lucky for me, my sister-in-law announced on Mother's Day that she was pregnant. Fast forward seven months, and here it is...
My take on Elizabeth Hartman's New Wave Quilt. I am happy with the outcome. It was dicey there for a while though. I was in love with all the prints, but had a tough time deciding whether to sash it with yellow or white. As you can see, I decided on yellow. I didn't love it at first, but after it was quilted and bound, I think it was a success.One of my new favorite things to do is piece a small portion of the back of a quilt, to give it a little character of it's own. I used scraps left from the front of the quilt to piece the back. The crazy thing with this back is that it can almost stand on it's own as a front...It's like two totally separate quilts in one. (Which I haven't decided is good or bad, there probably should be a little more continuity, but what's done is done!)
As you can see, I stitched in the ditch along the sashing lines with one line down the middle of the solid yellow, and then I did a pretty tight stipple through the hour-glass shapes. All in all, a success!Sweet Baby Ella was born just a few days before Thanksgiving. I didn't have the quilt finished and sent off quite in time for her arrival, but it found it's way there this week. Hopefully it can provide lots of years of warmth and love for my sweet new niece!

Place Mats

My good friend and neighbor asked me to make her a set of personalized place mats. She had a few simple requests, like brown for the main color, and the names in a color based on gender, but other than that she gave me artistic license! Here's what I came up with...There was six to do, and they actually took a little longer than I expected. Although, since I was being paid to make them (well, actually trading) I wanted them to look as professional as humanly possible.They are backed with fun prints, so just in case they don't want the name side up (or if it's just a little dirty ;) they can flip them over and still have a nice looking place mat. I used home decor material for the mats.This makes me excited to make some mats for my family now!

Matching diaper changing clutch

Sheesh! I didn't mean for there to be such a delay between postings, but life happens, please forgive me. On the flip side, I guess I was just having too much fun over the Thanksgiving holiday to even get online! This diaper/wipe/changing pad clutch was a companion piece to the quilt from the previous quilt post. I made it with left-over scraps from the quilt, and a few extra scraps from my stash. It's kind of crazy, but cute, and because it matches the quilt, it's extra adorable!I love the design of this little clutch. It fits nicely inside a diaper bag, and when you have a diaper to change, all you have to take with you to the bathroom is the clutch, vs. the whole diaper bag. There is a pocket for the changing pad, and another pocket for travel wipes and a couple diapers.
I'm pretty sure that these plush covered travel wipes cases are my new favorite baby gift. They are quick to whip up, and so adorable. It's way more fun to get wipes out of something so cute rather than a plastic bag! Because I know the mommy this one is for, and because I haven't gotten do do a lot of girly accessories lately I had to girlify it a little extra with the sweet little ribbon bow. A fun touch.