See You in September Blog Hop

My summer was mostly spent making memories with the family and playing in the lakes and waterfalls of South Carolina. We took several weekend trips and had one full week of camping fun.

As far as making things at the sewing machine, I spent a lot of time finishing up some UFO's, which I have been blogging about throughout the summer. I am always trying to whittle down my UFO pile but I always like to start new projects - probably why the UFO pile never gets smaller. Luckily this hop gave me incentive to start and FINISH three new projects this summer.

First on the list, I made another Ruffle tote with pockets.  The first one was made in March for the Ruffles blog hop and I made it to carry my drawing pad. When my Mom saw it, she told me if it was just a couple inches bigger it would be the perfect bag to carry her iPad around.
So I made another one this summer and made it a couple inches bigger just for her.

I also took some pictures as I made it and turned it into a pattern. It is my first attempt at making a pattern so I am offering it for free at Craftsy just for this blog hop. You can click the link at the top right on the blog or click here to go to Craftsy to get the pattern.

The bottom.

Here are both totes together.
You can see the new one is slightly taller, it is also an inch wider,
Perfect for iPads or any other tech pad.

For my next project I started out with this pile of lovelies.

This was my first time working with Riley Blake Gingham and I must say it is wonderful fabric to work with.  In the past I would avoid gingham in my projects because every other gingham I came across was flimsy, very light weight, and would cut all wonky.  Riley Blake is just the opposite.  It is soft and thick and wonderful to work with.  I will definitely be using Riley Blake's gingham the next time I need more for a project.

I turned some of that yummy goodness above into the quilt below.

I first saw this quilt block on Geta's blog. She calls it a modern dresden, but I like to call it Wagon Wheels or Steering Wheels because that is what I think of when I look at it. I've seen others call it windmills, dresden fans, and sunburst.  No matter the name, I love the block and when I first saw it, I put it on my quilt "to do" list.  It stayed there a long time though because I could never decide which fabrics to use.  During the summer I found out that gingham makes a wonderful Wagon Wheel quilt.  

When I was working on the layout of the blocks I split the quilt in two and put one of each color on the top and one on the bottom, but my son said if I move the red and yellow around every color would be opposite each other in the same way a knight moves on the chess board.  So I swapped the yellow and the red blocks and now each color can find its mate if it goes over two and down one or vise-verse.  I suppose I could also name the quilt "Knight's Movement".  So many names to choose from.

The quilt is 47 inches wide, just a few inches wider than most fabric, so I went for an easy pieced backing.

While cutting the strips for my Wagon Wheel quilt, each strip left me with two scrap dresden plates.  Just enough for one more mismatched block.  I decided to turn that into a pillow.  I finished it up with a band of dark blue gingham and stuffed it, leaving just enough room for it to squish up nice and soft when you hug it.

 My final project was a hedgehog coin purse.  When I first saw this on Craft Passion I knew I had to have one of my very own.  I think she turned out fantastic with her pink gingham quills.  

Thanks for stopping by to see my summer projects.
Be sure to check out the other hoppers today and see what they have been working on

Wednesday, September 10
Secretly Stitching
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilt n Queen
Quilted Delights (Me)
Grandmama's Stories 

To see the whole Schedule, wonderfully hosted by Shari and Mdm Samm, click here.

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