A Corner Of My Own

This is mine. All mine. My very own. And l love it. All 16 square feet of it. This is the first space that's all mine since we moved back in September. I didn't know how much I missed my own space until I got this desk. I haven't had much of a chance to actually sit and do something here yet. But I did decorate it and I found some things in storage to work on soon. Awwww yes!

 On one wall I have my finished Firefly cross stitch piece.  I love it.  And, the frame I found in storage works perfectly.  Below that is the box that my dad made for me.  It holds most of my sewing goodies.  On the other wall is the girls handprints from many years ago, a pin board/embroidery hoop, and my large quilting hoop.  This thing is so pretty.  I've been wanting to decorate with this since we moved it.  I finally figured out what to do with it.  I decided that it would be a work in progress hoop.  I found some lovely natural linen.  I will add embroidery, cross stitch, and found thingies onto it as time goes by.  I used some transfers from the book Little Stitching.  I love her designs. I have since finished two embroideries.  It's charming and it looks nice on the wall.

I see many many nights and days ahead of fun projects in this area.

Lovely Jelly Rolls

These are sooo inspiring.  More of my packages from the other week were these Jelly Rolls.  The two on the left I'll be taking my folks when I go next week.  I'm going to make a simple Jelly Roll quilt top while I'm there. (I'm hoping anyways....)  I'm not sure yet what to do with the other.  I was suposed to receive a charm pack of that line and instead I got the jelly roll.  I asked her if she wanted me to ship it back and she told me that if I could use it, then we could call it even.  Wow!!!  I'll have to pay that forward somehow.

On the left is Simply Color by V & Co. for Moda.  The top is the ombre co-ordinates to the prints in the bottom one.

The one on the right is Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda.  It's a yummy collection.

Kona Color Card In The House!

I finally broke down and bought the Kona Color Card.  And, immediately after the postman delivered it, I started matching up solids to the Flea Market Fancy Legacy fabrics for my king size quilt I'm planning.  I must have spent 3 days trying to find color matches online with very little success.  I did find these.  But, they were with the original prints and not all the colors were matched up.  Plus, Kona has more colors now!  I took photos and edited them and got them on my Flickr.  It's been raining and my pictures were quite bad. My hubby came home and laughed at me.  He pulled out the scanner and said "Why didn't you just use this?"  He helped me scan all the color matches. Such a great hubby.... he must love me or something.  The colors are showing really true in most of the images.  Gotta love that!  If you want to see all the color matches they are here.  I'll be adding more collections when I'm working on stuff.

Here are a few of my favorites.  I ordered these and more and I can't wait to get them!

 I really love sage here.

I love both the chartreuse and the lime.  I ordered both!

Papaya... oh how I love thee...

Finished Lizzy House Quilt!

I got around to quilting my Lizzy House quilt last week.  Boy, did I have a time of it!  I decided to try some big swirly circles....yeah... my machine has a medium size arm and it was still tough.  By the time I was on my last row of swirly circles I was just getting it down.  My circles were about half the size as they were when I started, but at least the looked ok.  After a washing it puffed up beautifully and hopefully no-one will notice my less than par quilting job.  Overall I love love love this quilt.  It's so colorful and happy.

Swoon... A Pillow For My Mom

I haven't blogged in forever!  I've got so much to catch up on.  I thought I would start first with this pillow that I made for my mom for her birthday back in April.  Isn't it gorgeous!  I finally broke down and purchased the Swoon pattern.  This is a smaller version of the quilt block from this tutorial.  It made a great 18" pillow cover.  I used some lovely reds and whites.   My mom's colors.  I quilted it by going around those star points.  You can kind of see it in on of the photos.  She was very pleased with it and so am I.  I can't wait to make a whole quilt with Swoon!

Lizzy House Quilt Top & Pillow

I absolutely adore Lizzy House Fabrics.  My favorites by far are the 1001 Peeps and the Castle Peeps.  I hunted and hunted for a good scrappy lot of these prints until I finally found a set of 50 13X8" prints on Etsy!  The set also included some of her wonderful Outfoxed prints.  When they arrived I just sat and looked at them and organized them and looked at them some more.  I was a bit timid about starting a quilt.  I wanted to use up every last scrap of this yummy stuff.  And, I did!!!

I found a pattern in a magazine and used it as a base for my big blocks (some changes were required) then I made up my own borders.  It's about 60" x 50"  It'll be a nice comfy size when I'm done.  I used some flannel that I have on hand for the backing.  Now I just need to layer and quilt it up!

Just look at those yummy fabrics.... drool...... Above is the blocks about to be assembled.  Below is the finished quilt top.  Notice those HST's in the corners of the border.... I've come to learn that I need a LOT more practice matching up points.

With the tiny scraps I had left I made a pillow.  In both the quilt and pillow I used some of the selvages in the seams.  I'm really happy with them both. And, the pillow has already seen cuddle time.

Solstice Star Series - Block Along

Monday night I happened upon this blog post over on Fresh Lemons Quilt Blog.  What a pretty blog!  And, those star blocks are to die for!  Tuesday morning I started on the three blocks that were from previous weeks and was able to get them all finished.  This morning I refreshed the page and found that week 4's block was posted.  During Cael's nap I was able to finish that one.

Week One Block

 Week Two Block

I'm using all batiks with white as my background color.  I wanted to do a rainbow of colors on each star.  But, I was really surprised to find a total lack of yellows and oranges in my stash.  (the fabric show next month will be the prefect place to fix this problem!)  So, for those colors I'm fussy cutting some of my multicolored batiks.  So far I'm really happy with these.  I'm thinking it'll be a small quilt.  Goodness knows I don't want anything to difficult to quilt on my machine.  I am planning on adding some stars from her Summer Sampler as well.

Week Three Block

Week Four Block

1930's Dresden Quilt

I saw this blog post at the beginning of the month and I immediately knew I'd found the perfect pattern for my 1930's reproduction print fabrics.  I've had these fabrics for a good 3 years now just waiting for inspiration to strike.  I purchased the Dresden ruler and began the work of cutting it all out.  I have to say that I was really excited to be working on this quilt.  I swear, it just put itself together.  I spent all my free time during Cael's naps and evenings after the kids went to bed for over a week.

I'm making the quilt bigger than the one in the Scrappy Plate Club.  I'm making it a queen by using 20 blocks and adding more borders to the outside.  Picture above shows over 600 4" plates cut out.  I did end up cutting out another 100 or so for the border.

 Finished plate above. I removed the dark red floral one.  It really stood out and looked funny to me.

 Finished Dresden block.  I purchased some Kona cotton in a vintage blue color for the centers and borders. And, the background fabric is a great white with red dot.   I used the blanket stitch on my machine to applique the plate down using red, green, and yellow embroidery thread.

Here's two nice views of the quilt top minus the final two borders.  It was so big that I couldn't get it all in the photo.  I used each of the fabrics for the little blocks between the sashing. 

Finished quilt top on my king size bed.  I can't believe how big the queen actually is. In the top picture I have it placed on the bed the right way.  I really love the red inner border.  In the bottom picture it's pictured with the long sides going over the sides of my bed. (wrong way that it would go on a queen)

Here are some bonus pics of the bottom corners and scrappy border.  I'm trying to use up as much of my fabrics as I can.  So, I used the Dresden ruler to cut out more blades and I sewed them up to make a scrappy border.  I really love how it looks.  The blue dot on the outside border is the same fabric that will be used on the backing.

I've had a lot of fun with this quilt. Now, I'm working on the backing.  I cut out 8" Dresden plates with the remainder of my fabrics.  I'm going to make an L shape with them on the backing.  I may have to add another fabric to the backing too as I'm not sure I have enough of the blue dot fabric.  Pics of the backing will come in the next blog post about the quilt.

The Year Of Quilts - Starting With Dr. Seuss!!!

I adore handmade quilts.  I drool over them on the Internet and sewing shows.  I oooohhhh and awwww at all the gorgeous quilting fluffy goodness.  I want to make them, I just don't.  I'm not one for perfect points, lined up seams, etc.  Quilts take a lot of time and need more attention than I can usually give.  However... I am a fabric hog.  I have a weakness for quilting cottons.  I buy them constantly.  Mostly for things like purses, toys, clothing, etc.  I have bought some fabrics specifically for making a quilts. Specifically the Dr. Seuss collection from Robert Kaufman.  I bought these at Boardwalk Quilts over a year ago.  And, have recently purchased the Grinch Fabrics too.  I've also been hoarding some vintage inspired 1930's fabrics for almost 3 years!

I decided after the new year that this year would be the year of the quilts!  It's time to actually get sewing with those yummy fabrics and make something that my family can snuggle up in.  And, first up is the Dr. Seuss Quilt.  I am sooo taken by the colors of these fabrics.  I knew this was a good one to start with because nothing about Dr. Seuss is straight.  All his books are curvy, ripply, and fun.  And, so is this quilt.  I had very little actual Dr. Seuss fabrics, so I pulled a few prints from my stash that worked as well as some Kona Cottons in co-ordinating colors. I made the pattern up as I went.  I wanted it to be warm so I used a high loft batting.  I won't do that again unless I'm tying a quilt.  It was a bain to quilt on my machine.  However, I'm very happy with it and so are the kids.  Even my oldest loves it and wants to cuddle in it.

Some closer up images.  I did scrappy squares and stuff to fill in the quilt.

For the back I used up my leftover fabrics.

Bonus picture of my son pointing at all the fun images.  He loves Cat In The Hat.  And, he loves this quilt.  It'll go on his toddler bed when he's ready for it.  Until then, it's just a throw.

My Last 3 Months

I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last post.  I got so caught up in making X-Mas gifts that I kinda lost track of things.  I thought I should honor all those long hard hours of work and post some pics of those gifts.  I'll start with the knitting.

Machine Knit Socks:  I used fingering weight and sock yarns.  Some from my stash and other bought.  I made my own pattern for these.  I basically made two sizes... women's and men's.  The women's are between 8.5" and 9.5" long and the men's are between 10" and 11" and are slightly wider.  11 Pairs total.

 

 

 Next I made a machine knit Clapotis for my daughter.  I guess it's not technically a Clapotis because it's not knit on the bias, but I used the basic pattern of drop stitches to make this.  6 stitches in use and 3 stitches "dropped"  I used a yummy self striping yarn... I'll have to look up which one.  It's very soft and comfy.  I stitched the ends together to make it a mobius.  She absolutely loves it.  Wears it all the time wrapped around her neck twice.

 

This next one is mostly sewn.  But, I did knit the "February Lady" sweater that the doll is wearing.  I made a 15" Waldorf doll for my youngest daughter.  It was certainly a challenge.  I'll post more about my Waldorf doll making later on.  For now, here is the doll and her clothing.  She loved it and sleeps with it and plays with it.  Even now, it's sitting next to me... she brought it down to play on the computer with her last night.

 Next is the Waldorf sacky doll that I made for Cael.  He liked it, but mostly wanted to play with other things.... oh well... maybe he'll enjoy it later.

 I made both girls new bags using the Joy-Nicole pattern.  Loved this pattern.  It would be more of a purse for me, but for them it's perfect to as a large purse or overnight bag.  Both bags are fully lined with pockets inside.  Alaina's bag is first up.  I just love the button I found from my stash!  Rachel's bags is all about cats.   And, they are doing yoga!!

 

 

 

 

 

 Last, but not least.  I made some boxy bags for all the recipients of the socks.  Each person got a bag with the socks in it.  No wrapping or anything....  Everyone seemed to really love them.  And, I got to use more lovely tags to help make opening the bag easier.

 

The only thing that I'm haven't pictured is the boat that we made for our son.   I'll do a separate post on that one.  Otherwise I think that's all the gifts I made....

Edit:  Totally forgot about the XMas jamies!  I made pants for all the kids and bought the shirts.  The flannel was upcycled from a flannel sheet.