Finishes in 2011

I orginally wanted to post this collage on Dec 31, but I decided to go out of town on the spur of the moment so my blogging schedule got a little out of whack, so here it is a few days late. 

 A year of finishes for 2011.

These are all the projects I made from start to finish.  7 of these were part of the Le Petite Challenge that ran from the fall of 2010 to the fall of 2011.   2 of my quilts won ribbons this year- a first for me and  I was super excited about that.

I am impressed with myself for accomplishing so much in 2011 and I plan to be just as productive for 2012.  I even have a jump start.  I just need to add the binding on the Diamond Star quilt that I quilted at Thanksgiving and I will have one finish in the bag.

=^..^=

Merry Christmas



I made a couple other goodies this year for others.  The first I want to show off are these cute little candy sleighs.  I made some for my nieces and nephews and school teachers.  I saw these on the blog Ellyn's Place and just had to make some of my own.  They have a great tutorial there.  You can see it here.

Next I put together a circle Table Topper for my friend in TN. 



I had fun making this one.  It was my first ever circle quilt.  It is small 26 inches wide.  I used the the free pattern from Phillips Fiber Art.  It also came on the back of my mini ten degree ruler I bought last month.  You can get the pattern here.

 I gave my sister and her hubby a basket of goodies that came with all the tools needed to make cake pops.  I also made her this spiffy apron to go with it so she could make them in festive style.  The apron pattern is a McCalls Pattern.  Working on the top neckline reminded me why I prefer making quilts instead of clothes, but I persevered and it turned out great.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

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Friendship Star Table Runner

I first saw this pattern on Sew We Quilt.  It was by guest blogger Shell May of The Raspberry Rabbits.  I book marked the post because I wanted to make it.  Time passed and I figured it would probably never get made becuase I just have too many other projects.  But then Shell reposted the tutorial on her blog the other day and I thought, I really like this and I am going to make this now.  So I picked out some Christmasy fabrics and got started.  It went together pretty fast and I was finishing up the hand stitching on the binding Friday morning.  I will have to wait a couple months before I can put it out though.  Right now my Halloween Table Runner is on my coffee table.  But Christmas will be here in a blink of an eye for sure!

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Table Setting Finished

The table topper was done this Saturday, and the 4 place mats got finished this morning.

I am one day behind my schedule.  I wanted to have these in the mail yesterday, but we had a bad storm come through and the power kept flickering, so I turned off my sewing machine.  It is plugged into a spiffy power supply, but since the machine costs more than I can afford to replace right now, I decided to not risk it getting fried and turned it off.

But with priority mail, these should still arrive in TN in plenty of time.

These will be going on a white table, and will look way better on that than my wrinkly blue table cloth.

I have an iron, but since I have no plans of quilting the table cloth, it gets to stay wrinkled.  

Besides, with 4 kids and one husband, the table cloth wont stay clean long and will end up back in the wash in a day or too.   

=^..^=

Mini Tree Quilted and Bound

I finished the quilting and bound up my mini tree quilt today.
Just in time to pack it up with the other Christmas decorations.

At least it will be something new for next season along with all the other Christmas decorations I got on sale the couple of days after Christmas.  Once a whole year has gone by I usually have forgotten what I bought and carefully packed away.  So each year it is like opening little surprises when I get out the decorations.

Finished Fall Table Runner

Here are photos of the table runner I was working on.  It was a gift for my Mom.  I gave it to her on the Monday before Thanksgiving. I usually have my boys hide behind my quilts and hold them up.  But there really is no hiding behind this table runner.  

Close up of the back.

Sitting on my Mom's table.

Framed Hexagon Swap

IFQ has a new swap, the Framed Hexagon Swap.
This is the first one I made to swap.

I am debating on how many I want to collect.

Halloween Postcard Holder

I got tired of my postcards falling off the fireplace mantle from only a little breeze of someone walking by, so I came up with a festive postcard holder to hold them.  It is similar to the other one I made, but this time I used plastic for the corners instead of fabric.  I was going to try another method I have seen on other blogs and use a whole 4 x 6 piece of plastic instead of corners and slide the whole card in and out, but the glare on the plastic was too much, so I just used the corners.

When I was done making the wall hanging, I had some interesting scraps left over, particularly the orange I used to punch out the "Happy Halloween".  It had fast 2 fuse on it and I hate to throw that away when I can fuse it to something else, so I did just that.  I cut it up into very small pieces, mixed it with the striped binding fabric and the black background fabric of the wall hanging and fused it all on the base of a fabric postcard.   I also took the small triangles eyes, nose, and mouth that came out of the punched out pumpkins and ironed them on as well. Then  I covered it all in black tulle, added some meandering stitching to hold it all down, and for the final touch, I placed the white ghosties on the top. 

I love it when I can use my littlest scraps and turn them into something cool.
I even have enough fused orange fabric to make another one.  

:)

Halloween Table Runner

I grabbed one of my favorite Halloween fabrics and some coordinating fabrics to go with it and put together this table runner.  The pattern comes from Karie Patch Designs and is call Served with a Twist.  I love how the 4 patches in the center aren't your traditional 4 patches, the purple fabric is all twisted up.

And just like the peppermint pincushions, I made two of these.
I kept one for myself and gave the other to my sister.  

This is my outdoor kitty Rex.
While I photographed the table runner, He wanted to play and stretch out in the newly made shade.  Even though it is Autumn, the temps are still in the 80's here in the afternoons.

Playing with Windows

    I was at one of my guildies house the other day to visit and she showed me some of her quilts, which were to die for, and one of them was a cathedral windows quilt.  It was amazing.  All hand stitched and beautiful.  Before I left, she gave me a couple bags of her left over scraps and in one of the bags were pieces of white fabric already folded for a cathedral window quilt.  I have always wanted to make one for my own, so when I found those two white squares already folded up, I decided to play around a bit.
     First, I made the small cathedral pin cushion.  It has a window on both sides.  I had to do some manipulating for the windows to show up on the top and bottom for a pincushion, but it was fun.   Then I wanted to test someone's theory on the internet about how what ever size sqaure you start out with, the finished square will end up being half that size after you are done folding.  So I started out with a 4.5 inch block in hopes that after turning a quarter inch in for seams and then doing the other folding it would turn into a 2 inch block.  Sure enough it did.  So I made 8 more and made this very small cathedral windows quilt.  Its finished size is 6 inch square.  I machine stitched the windows and it is a bit wonky, but it was good practice for when I finally start on my real big quilt sometime in the future.

A Nifty Wallet

It's birthday time again!  Well, for my daughter's friend that is.  My daughter already made her friend a handmade beaded bracelet, but we wanted to get her something else to go with it so I told my daughter I would pick something up for her at the store today while she is at school.  But as I sat this morning trying to think of what to purchase, I decided I would rather make something instead.  Unless I know specifically what someone wants in a store, I don't usually like to purchase store bought gifts.  I have always preferred to give handmade gifts when ever possible.  I can't help it, it's just what I do.   It just seems more personal to me.


This time I have made a wallet.  The pattern is a free tutorial from Sew Christine. Mine didn't turn out quite like hers though, because I screwed up the zipper hole placement.  The tutorial said mark 1 inch down from the pocket, sew, and cut.  Since the photos were close ups and didn't specify which end to cut,  I ended up measuring from the wrong end, which made my the hole for my zipper on the wrong spot on the lining.  I wasn't about to cut out another set of fabrics, so I improvised.  I moved the credit card pockets up higher and cut off 2.5 inches from the bottom of the lining and sewed it back on to the new top part of the wallet.  This positioned the coin pocket at the bottom of the wallet instead of the middle and also prevented the credit card pocket from being upside down, which was another option I could have gone with, (which I am glad I didn't).  Then I finished with the rest of the instructions.  I also used fusible fleece for the outside so I could have a quilted wallet, and I also added the name to the front. My husband says all my handcrafted gifts should have the person's name on it somewhere.

I hope she likes it!!

Quiting Gallery Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

Here is my quilt for the Quilting Gallery Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap.  Everyone had to make a 10" x 12" quilt using the same hand embroidery deign. The design came from the Stitching Cow website.

I wanted to offset the embroidery on the quilt, but it looked kind of blah next to all the squares, so I added some fancy green rick rack to frame it in.  Then I did some close stippling around the design to help it stand out a bit more.

It should have arrived to its new home in Illinois by now so I can post it on my blog now and not ruin any surprises.

You can see some of the other mini quilts here.

Mini Stocking

Here is one of my few holiday creations for this year: A mini stocking, just perfect to hang on the tree. I made this for a swap with Postcard Mail Art.  We don't always just swap postcards in these groups.  Every now and then we get an itching to make something else.  This time it was these mini-stockings. 

Part of the instructions for this swap was to add some "bling" so I added some sequence and beads onto my mini patchwork stocking.  This was my first time ever making a mini stocking.  I think it turned out really cute.  If I didn't have a mountain of other projects, I just might consider making enough of these to decorate my whole tree.

Journal Cover

When I saw the tutorial on the Moda Bake shop for Journal Covers I just knew I had to make one, and I had the perfect person to give it to.  One of my friends loves to draw sketches but she has been drawing them on index cards, so I decided to get her an art journal so she can keep them all in once place.  It also allows you to rip the page out if you wanted to without ruining the book, so it is perfect for her. 

The pattern called for twenty one 1.5 inch strips cut into 4.5 in lengths.  I have a bin just full of 1.5 inch strips. - that is the smallest size of fabric I save. Anything smaller than that goes into the trash bin.  Since I had that bin of precut strips, most of them are leftovers from other projects, I was able to pick out the 21 different strips in no time.  The pattern called for some plain linen for the solid top and bottom pieces, but my fabrics were so bright, I didn't feel like it would go well together, so I added a nice bright yellow for the top and bottom fabrics and boy does it make the cover pop.  I love it! 

For a final touch, I added my friends name on the front. I like being able to add that personal touch to the things I make whenever I get a chance.  It just makes the gift seem so much more personal.

I like this cover so much I do believe I need one for myself.  When the holidays are over, I can get cracking on one of these for my art journal.  :)

Matching Burp Cloths

I finished up these two burp cloths over the weekend.  They were made to match the rag quilt I made in September.  These beauties are fun to make using cloth diapers and my embroidery machine.  They are one of my favorite items to make for new babies.

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!!

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.  :)

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.

Notebook Holder

I finished the notebook holder I was working on over the weekend by following the tutorial posted on Janet's tutorial blog. I loved the step by step "how to" she did by using photos. It made making mine very easy. I always learn best with visual instructions.


I added a simple embroidered frog design on the front and now my son wants to claim the notebook holder as his own. Since it is quite simple to make them, I suppose he can have this one. After all, I am already the owner of a very special notebook holder made by Janet herself. :)

Something Other Than Postcards...

I have finally made something other than postcards. I was having so much fun making them I almost forgot there were other things out there to make. Like the last few UFO's on my list, some holiday bags, the quilt ideas I have rolling around in my head and I also want to make some of those fancy notebook holders that Jan posted instructions for on her blog. Maybe I should make a craft schedule: postcards on Monday, quilts on Tuesday, bags on Wednesday.... Nah that would stifle my creativity. :) I'll just continue to go with the flow, but make sure I take time to work on a more variety of projects.

These burp cloths I made for my Mom's friend who is having a baby next month. I used the pattern from Embroidery Library, but I unstitched the back part of the diaper and lifted the back flap before I did the embroidery. That way I could close it back up and cover the not so pretty back of the embroidery design. I also changed the edging technique. I made it more like a quilt binding instead of trying to catch the front and the back of the edging with one pass through the sewing machine. I always seem to screw that up by either missing the back all together or sewing too far from the seam and then weaving to get to close to the edge, making the back look sloppy. So I finish it on the front first, turn it to the back and attach it with an invisible hand to close it up. It takes a little longer but looks 100% better than what would come out if I did it the other way.