Quilting Feathers.... Sort of

I have read online that one way to get better at doing freehand machine quilted feathers is to practice drawing them on paper. Well, I did just that, but I think I got a little carried away.  Can you still see the feathers I started out with in this doodle?

It started out as an all black and white image, but my son told me to add some red to it, so I did.  I don't usually doodle in color, but here is the results.

A place for my knitting needles

I spent most of this week working on a new knitting needle case. I have lots of needles but I don't really use them all.  I got a good deal on eBay a few years ago for a whole pile of knitting needles. For a couple of dollars I got the few sizes I wanted and a lot of sizes that I didn't need. But being the pack rat that I am, I decided to keep the ones I didn't need with the thought that I may need them for some future project.

As I was cleaning out my room the other day I decided it was time for them to have a good home.  For years they all have been sitting jumbled together in a drawer in my night stand, and I always end up looking through the whole pile just to find the size I need. So that very day, I went to the internet looking for a good pattern. I came across quite a few, but this one from Alexandra's blog was my favorite so I printed out her tutorial and got to work.  I could have made this case from a pile of fat quarters, but since I didn't have a pile of fat quarters, I had to cut the pieces from my yardage.  While I was cutting my large strips, I realized I only needed half the strip I cut, so instead of having lots of leftover strip peices in various sizes, I decided to make two cases at one time. 

I did alter that pattern a bit by sewing more lines on the first pocket row.  I did this so I could add my crochet hooks to the roll.  The pattern said these wider pockets were good for holding circular needles, but I don't have any of those and didn't want to make another smaller roll just for my crochet hooks.  So for the one I am going to keep, I have one inch pockets on the bottom right instead of two four inch pickets.  I also altered the pattern by adding some decor bond behind each of the pockets and a layer of fusible fleece to the outside fabric.  The main reason I did this was because I didn't want the case to be flimsy and feel individual needles while I carried the roll around in my hands.  I was worried at first that all that extra layers might make it too stiff to roll, but it turned out great.  I love it!!

Orange Spider Web

I have had a change of pace from quilting and have picked up my crochet hook.  What started me in this direction was the other night when I was looking for a small quick spider web crochet pattern to put on my web postcards for Fabricards.  Instead, I came across this pattern.  Years ago I had printed out this same pattern with all the intention of creating this spider web. But for some reason I never made it.  So that very night I went to my closet and grabbed my orange cotton thread and my size 7 hook and got to work.  Three days later I finished it.  It spent another couple days on my blocking board trying to get it to stay in web shape.  Today I gave it one last spritz with the iron and took the pins out and everything stayed right where it was suppose to stay.  YAHOO!!  I now have myself an orange festive spiderweb doily to decorate my house this fall season.  Right now it is all by itself on the lazy susan on my kitchen table.  But next week I will get out the rest of my fall decorations and it will be lonely no longer. 

Indian Summer Mini Quilt

Here is my version of the "Indian Summer"  mini quilt swap for my Fabricards group.

 When I think of "Indian Summer"  I always think of changing leaves near a nice lake.  So I paper pieced some log cabins using fall colors and surrounded them by some blue fabric.  I had some left over fusible fleece just the right size for this quilt so I used it as the batting.  It sure gives it a different feel from the cotton batting I regularly use.  This quilt will head on it's way to Deborah in Florida tomorrow.  Hope she likes my interpretation of this theme.  :)

Tam's Pumpkin Patch Lap Quilt

This is my newest finish.  The block I used came from The Quilter's Cache.  It is called Tam's Patch.  This quilt has been sitting for awhile just waiting for me to finish the binding.  I didn't want another Halloween to pass without it being ready to use so I sat down last night and sewed down the three remaining edges.



















For the quilting, I put the feed dogs down on my machine and just went to town.  I did some fancy swirls in the light colored blocks and did some close stippling in the black fabric.  The border also has some loopy swirls going up and down.











My Jack-O-Lantern fabric wasn't quite wide enough to fit the whole backing, so I added some black starry strips on each side to make the backing big enough.












I really love this quilt, but have decided to post it in my Etsy Shop in hopes that it can raise some money to help fund my quilting and fabric postcard addiction.  ;)   Fall is coming and those are my favorite types of postcards to make and recieve.   So you will most likely be seeing lots of fall postcards popping up on the blog soon.

Another Girly Rag Quilt

Another finished quilt.  I finished clipping all the seams last night but I didn't get it washed and frayed till this morning and since this is a rag quilt you can't really declare it finished until it has the ragged look.  This one is for another little baby that is due in the next couple weeks.  These quilts sure are soft and snugly. It makes me want to have a big one for myself.  :)

Crazy Cat

Have you ever known a cat to pass up a pile of quilts to sleep on? I thought for sure as soon as I placed this pile of unfinished quilts on my bookcase it would become the new cat bed. But I guess they weren't quite soft enough for my cat, Jasper. Here he is sleeping on top of a row of hard books instead. Crazy Cat.

Sweet Slice

This is my version of the Sweet Slice pincushion pattern. My son said he wasn't tempted to eat it, since it is a chocolate cake. So I suppose that leaves more for me right? :)

The pattern called for crushed walnut shells for the stuffing, but I don't have any stores near me that carry that, so I had to stuff it with polyfil. I really would like to try that crushed walnut. I think it might sit better on the table and not be so wobbly. I will have to wait for my next trip to the "big city" and hopefully I can find it there. For now, polyfil will have to do.

Design Wall Monday

Quite a few blogs I read post what is on their design wall on Monday's. So I thought I would jump on the bandwagon and show what is on mine. This quilt is what I made out of the 388 half-square triangles I squared up in July. I still have quite a few of the blue and yellow ones, but I plan to use those as part of the back of this quilt.

My design wall in this photo is really just a big flannel board. But it works for this small quilt. It currently measures 18x22 inches. I am debating what kind of border or borders to add to it. Should I add small ones and keep it a doll sized quilt? Or make them a bit bigger to make it a quilt big enough for a new baby? Decisions, Decisions... But first I need to make some cake, some fabric cake that is. I'll keep you posted.

Another Bow Tucks - But Smaller

My daughter was invited to another Birthday party. This one is an overnight party down at the beach. She is very excited to go. But we didn't have a present, and when I kept asking her what she wanted to get her friend she said she didn't know. I suggested last night that she make her friend a necklace with her beading materials. She didn't seem excited about that. She did like my Bow Tucks bag though and kept telling me she wanted one like it but smaller, so this morning when we still didn't have a present, I asked her if she wanted me to make her friend one. She smiled and said yes but wanted to know if I could put her friend's initial on it. I told her that would be easy and I got to work. I also told her to start making her friend a necklace in case I didn't get the bag done in time.


I started at 9am this morning and spent the first 30 minutes trying to figure out how to make my regular pattern into a smaller size version. There is a mini bow tucks pattern, but I didn't have time to order that and wait a week for it to arrive, so I had to come up with the dimensions on my own.




By 1:20pm I had the bag finished, photographed, and wrapped. Her friend came to pick her up at 2pm so I had finished just in time to relax a bit before they got here.

For this version, I tried a contrasting pocket for the front. I'm not sure I like it. It is the same color as the center of the flowers on the top fabric, but it just seems to stick out way more than I wanted it to. I am also not liking the green. It is the same color as the tiny leaves, but it seems too bright now that it is all together.

My daughter says it is great though and she loves it. I sure hope her friend likes it too. I had my daughter model the bag for my camera. Her and her friend both have the same first name. So this bag could actually be for her too. :)

Bow Tucks Bag

This is my newest creation. I saw this bag last October at my guilds "Make it, Bake it, Sew it, Grow it Auction". It was a fun activity where we all bring something we have either made, sewn, grown, or baked and we have our own little auction to raise money for our guild. Up for auction was this purse, but in different fabrics. I bid, but unfortunately I didn't win. It went for more than my budget would allow at the time. But I asked the person who donated it what pattern it was and she told me it was the Bow Tucks Tote pattern. Well I got a hold of the pattern in February and finally just had the chance to make it. The fabrics I chose are some of my favorites in my whole stash. I have been looking at them for months not wanting to cut into them because they are so pretty, but now that I cut into them I realize I can carry my favorite fabrics around with me where ever I go. :) I really like this bag and it was the first time I used fusible fleece for a bag, and I must say I love it! If possible I plan to use fusible fleece in all my future bags.

I still need a button for this bag though. I don't have one in my button collection that fits the bag. You can see in the photo the button loop but no button to hook onto. So I am on a hunt for the perfect button....

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Here is a photo of the inside of the bag per request. For the sturdy part at the bottom, I cut up my old cutting mat and covered it with matching fabric. I hated to throw out the old mat when I bought a new replacement for it, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. It turns out cutting it into bottoms for bags is the perfect way to salvage it.

Heat Wave

It sure has been a hot summer. Makes us want to stay in all the time. I am fine with that because that is where my sewing machine is. :) Fabricards had a postcard swap with the theme of "Heat" in honor of the heat waves some of the members were having. As soon as I saw that swap I immediately thought of an egg frying on a sidewalk. So I signed up and made this post card. The bottom of the card looked empty so I added the text "Heat Wave" in yellow. The letters turned out OK, but I do believe I need to work on my freehand letters a little more.

Squaring Up 388 Times

I spent some time over the past week squaring up 388 1 1/2 inch half square triangles. They are scraps left over from a quilt top I made years ago. They have been in the sewing closet for over six years and I figured it was about time I turned them into something. So I got out an old flannel board and started laying them out and soon realized they were all different sizes, and not a one of them was square. I knew if I didn't square them up, the design I wanted to make would turn out horribly wrong. So I resigned myself to trimming them all to a 1 1/2 inch square no matter how long it took. I loaded Xena Warrior Princess Season 2 on the computer (which is right next to my cutting area) and got to work. By the end of Season 2 and partway into Season three, I finally finished. :)

Above is the leftovers next to all my half square triangles. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all these new leftovers. To the garbage I suppose... but, how small is too small for the scrap bin? Wouldn't they look nice in a clear Christmas bulb Ornament. Maybe I'll save them after all. Hopefully not another 6 years though.

Scrappy Lil' Doll Quilt

I decided to play along with Tracy's Scrappy Lil' Doll Quilt Challenge. The rules were easy enough:

~Quilt measures no more than 20" on any side.
~Must be a newly made quilt-not one you previously made.
~Must be made entirely from your scrapbag.

It may not be "scrappy" looking, but I did use my scraps to make it. I finished the binding on this little blue and white quilt yesterday. The pinwheels were made from the leftover blue and white scraps I had after making sashing for another quilt. It measures 11 x 13.

Foundation Piecing PC Swap

Here is another postcard I made for Fabricards. This one was for the Foundation Paper Piecing Swap. The original pattern was a square but I took the advice Janet gave me awhile ago and stretched it to fit a 4 x 6 postcard and I must say it turned out great! :)

It is fun using up my tiny scraps for projects like this. Makes me feel good that I didn't throw them away. Not that I would throw them out to begin with. It is always hard for me to throw fabric away, no matter how small it is.