Learn as you go

I am still trying to figure out how to make a proper set of coasters. They should be a quick project for me, but I keep stumbling on the finished edge. Binding such a small object has proven to be much more frustrating than it is worth, with the binding taking me longer then all the rest of the project. On my last set that I made, I attemped something a little different. Let me show you from the beginning:

I reached deep into my scrap bin and pulled out some coordinating scraps. I put them together with as little rhyme or reason as possible. I was trying my hand at improv piecing.....

After the scraps were together, I made the quilt sandwich and traced some appropriate sized circles for the finished size of the coasters.

I quilted in those circles, then cut them out. See? Almost done.....

Then a tightly zigzagged the edges to finish them. I could have done it even tighter. If you have a serger and know how to use it, it would be very handy in this last step (I have a serger, but the tension never seems to be right; it intimidates me). Et voila, a set of mug rugs.

I would love to have a beautifully binded edge... but am thinking that may be beyond my realm, and I hope this could be good enough. Thoughts?

Grade school math...

Usually quilting doesn't hurt my head. The measurements are super easy for me to figure out - since I piece everything with a 1/4" seam, I have to add 1/2" length and width to each piece's finished size. Easy peasey. That is, until I decided to try out half square triangles.



I know I learned how do do this all in grade something or other - sine, cosine, and hypotenuse (I had to look up that last one to remember it.... sad, I know). Can I recall any of it now? Nooooo. I was also too lazy to look up the directions for these quilting blocks..... :-)

But this quilt is only planned to be a baby quilt, so I started with 5" squares, and I figure I'll end up with somewhere in the vicinity of 4" squares after I've made them into the half square triangles. Good enough for me.

There they are. I supposed I could go measure them right now, before even posting this. But I'm not going to. Isn't the suspense just killing you? What size are they actually? Oooooooo.....

In other news - my little girl had to go to a double birthday party and I whipped up these - aprons for both little girls. Pretty cute and speedy!

I'm not going to make aprons for you, though - nope. If you want cute aprons for your kid (or yourself!), you must go here. Check out Lemonade Handmade - best.... aprons..... ever. (That's right Christine, I heard you referred someone to me... you rock!!)

That's all for now! More soon.....

Rugs for mugs...

I didn't want to post this picture earlier... and it still may even be too soon.... but this is the "little something" that Lindsay won in the recent giveaway (along with all my reject fabric). I had been wanting to make some mug rugs, and this was the perfect excuse to whip some up.

Truthfully.... I don't know if they were worth it. If Lindsay hadn't already been a real life friend, I might not have sent them to her. Granted I was trying to hurry while making them, but I don't feel like they are a true representation of my sewing/quilting abilities. Obviously, I put one of the nicer looking ones on top of the pile, but take my word for it - some of them are a little wonky. Perhaps it's because I'm not used to working in a smaller scale.

Isn't that a cute box behind them? We recently turned our playroom/sewing room into an office/sewing room (not sure whether I should be happy or sad that my kids are of the age that we don't need a room dedicated to toys anymore) and I made a few purchases to beautify my sewing area. It still could use a lot more, but I first need to sell more quilts... hint, hint.... ;)

The Christmas Post....

I hope that you were all wondering about Christmas at our house.... if not, you're about to find out anyways!

I don't think that I overdo the Christmas decorating - there are very few seasonal knick-knacks spread out around my house, mostly because I can't stand the clutter. However, we do have six trees.... but it's not as bad as it sounds. Each of our kids "need" one in their room, so they each have a small tree. Then, there is one for the family room that holds all of our family decorations - the ones we have collected through the years. Lastly, there is the living room tree (aka my tree) - the nicely decorated one that matches the living room. Not too bad, right?

Here's a shot my son took of he living room tree.....


The kids decided to perform an impromptu Christmas pageant for Nathan and I, complete with intermissions and costume changes (the former was to have time for the latter - there were many, many intermissions). Here is Gabriel speaking to Mary. We must work on presenting properly towards the audience.

And one of the wisemen with his "treasure". I'm not sure if that's gold, frankincense, or myrrh.

I've been busy, busy, busy with the quilting lately - and I'd like to show you it... but most of it I can't. There were many custom orders that are meant as gifts for Christmas and I don't want to wreck anyone's surprise. I will show you this quick little pillow that I whipped together out of scraps from a basically identical pillow I made back in October.

It's leaning against the family room tree, and you can see some of the assortment of ornaments we've collected/made over the years.

Every year we give the kids a new ornament for their collection. Last year I decided to make their ornaments, and used these cute embroidery patterns from Wee Wonderfuls.

I color coordinated all the embroidered bedding with the kids' actual bedding, and made each character have the same hair color as the kid it was intended for, so each child new immediately which one was theirs. Then I backed them with a fabric from their quilts that I had made and attached a ribbon. So cute, and a great memory to have.

Here is a complete view of the family room tree. It looks so much more magical in real life! My favorite thing is to read in the evening with the glow of the tree's lights on my pages. Sigh.... If only there were more time for that.

We are quickly approaching my children's Christmas program at their school and I found that my two girls were lacking appropriate footwear.

Aren't these ones sweet? These are for the three year old. I love the little rosette on top.

And heels for the eight year old. Sniff, sniff..... I'm not entirely sure they'll fit, hence the tag still attached. Update: They didn't fit. They were replaced with entirely impractical silver "Hannah Montana" heels with fake diamonds on the top and open toes.

Well, that's all the Christmas goodness I have to show you for now. I called this "The Christmas Post", as if this would be the only one. That's quite laughable, since I tend to enjoy this season just a tiny bit, and will most likely not be able to keep from sprinkling the season's goodness into everything between now and New Year's. Please don't be mad...

Merry Christmas!!

Another set of quilts...

I've just finished another set of quilts - two quilts for two little girls. It's a fun challenge - come up with two similiar quilts that look good together, but are different enough to not be confused for each other. In this case, they are both quite different. The same fabrics were used in both, but with completely different results.


The set also included two coordinating pillows, and a set of curtains (not shown).

I'm loving the rustic backdrops lately, but perhaps you are getting tired of seeing my trashy fence?

Both quilts were quilted with straight lines, and I love the areas where the lines intersect and make the small crosshatch in the corners.

And now, a little Christmas spirit. We have about half of the Christmas decorations up in our house so far. The kids each have a small tree in their room, and a few other things to decorate their spaces with. My son thought he needed a nativity scene, but since there wasn't an extra one, he made one....

Sweet, isn't it? I think the red ornaments are just for decoration. Notice the star on top of the stable? Baby Jesus is in the manger between the two other lego people (aka Mary and Joseph). I love this time of year!! Three weeks to go!

What I do when I'm not quilting...

Just because I'm silent does not mean that I've not been quilting. Oh my goodness gracious - have I been quilting! I promised myself that I would not overbook my November so that I could sew my own projects in December. Apparently I didn't speak firmly enough to myself. Oops. There will be pics later today of some of the quilts that I've been promising, with more to follow.

I was going to start the next order today, until my son told me he had seen someone looking in his window last night. Creepy. It could possibly have been his daddy, who leaves for work while it is still dark out - but I thought there was still a good enough reason to make sure his windows were decently covered. I had just removed the scrap of fabric covering his window in order to put a layer of that plastic wrap on to stop the stiff breeze that blows through his 40 year old windows. So, instead of re-pinning that scrap of fabric back to his window, I quickly fashioned these:

Not a super stellar job, but they will do the trick. And, I've been trying to find an excuse to show you the quilt I made for him a year ago (its there on his bed).

Soon!!!

A tale of two pillows

Last in my series of upcoming projects is this fabric stack for two throw cushions. I think this might be one of my favorite color/fabric combinations. Aren't these fabrics gorgeous together? Perhaps a quilt is in order down the road, but for now, two cushions will suffice.

That's it for the giveaway posts. Comment away on these 'til midnight of October 11, and the winner will be announced on October 12. Yay!!!

Soon...

Beautiful quilts to be

I just love walking into my sewing room on days like this. The sun is shining through the windows (very, very dirty windows....hmmmm....), and I have all these neat little idea stacks sitting on my ledge. Some quilters have a design wall... I have a design ledge. These are all the upcoming projects (actually, this isn't quite all of them). All are custom orders and will soon be on their way to a happy home. Beautiful!!!

Two Quick Projects

The next, ummmmm, two months (eek!) is packed full of stuff (a vacation and sewing projects non-stop). But I've been promising my facebook fans a giveaway soon. So today, while three out of four sweet munchkins were at school, I whipped out a giveaway goodie. Here is a sneak peek, with more to be revealed later this week. It's Christmas-y. I want all of you in a holiday mood ridiculously early with me. Okay?

This past weekend was a delicious blend of getting some random jobs done (sorting bottles and mowing lawn, thanks Nathan!!), and relaxing time spent with family. One of the random jobs that was accomplished:

another sweet custom potholder set. The color combo (mainly purple and grey) is so obvious, but I hadn't done just those two colors together in awhile. Beautiful! I think a quilt is needed in that colorway soon, but with all the Christmas orders that have come in, I may be waiting until spring before I start sewing with my own ideas. Not that I'm complaining - keep those orders coming! Sewing only my ideas gets boring to me after awhile.

That's all for now - check back later this week for the giveaway details!

Color quandry

Someday..... I will quilt more than pillows. The orders just keep coming in for these babies - and that's just fine with me! They are such a quick and fun project to throw together, and so easy to customize for the wishes of my customer. Keep it coming!!

I always worry that I'm not going to get the color right. When told that the pillows were to be robin's egg blue and robin red.... I panicked. Maybe my idea of blue and red aren't the same as someone else's. But, apparently, I got it right... again. So perhaps I will stop stressing about the finer points of color selection and go with my instinct. Seems to be working so far.

Check out the close up of the pebbled quilting on this pillow. I remembered how much I love the texture and look of this technique... then my wrist reminded me why I don't quilt it this way very often. Ouch.

These babies are off to their new home. Oh - and just in case you decide you want some for your dwelling, I need you to know that this is about as close as I come to making a matched set. I don't do symmetry (well, that's not entirely true - I do, but it's my prerogative if I choose to). Please deal with that in whatever way you see fit. As always, stop by my facebook page to place an order.

Well, then - I'm off to create some more... of something... or just to stare at my fabric and think.

Soon!

Sorry, dear....

No matter how late I wait to dig my Christmas "stuff" out, it is always too early from my husband's point of view. I think he would like to have the tree put up on December 24, and taken down on the 26th. Disgusting, I know. Actually, I think he secretly likes all the fussing about that is Christmas at our house (I guess not so secretly anymore). The decorations will stay in their boxes for at least two more months, but what was I to do with all the beautiful holiday fabric hanging around my sewing room? The poor pieces were starting to feel so neglected. Hence.....

a quick Christmas pillow. Maybe not quite as modern as my usual projects, but I think that Christmas allows for a slight hint of tradition, no? I think a couple more of these might be in order. Picture little heads resting on them after a cold evening spent sliding down the tobagganing hill. The pillows could be set around the bottom of the tree, perfect for gazing at the blinking wonder. Sigh.... Maybe my decorations won't stay in boxes for two months. Christmas in October, anyone?

If your house needs some Christmas pillows, then head over to my Facebook page and drop me a note!

Off again!!!