Baby Life Quilt

My dear sweet SIL is having a baby this fall and I wanted to make her a quilt - because I never got to it for her first one! When we were last visiting with them I asked her what kind of quilt she wanted.

Because she is a fellow pinterest lover it did not take her too long to figure out what she wanted: the baby life quilt that has been all over pinterest.

I was excited to make this because I loved it and have wanted to make one for a while now and she gave me the opportunity!

She picked all of the colors and I used my cricut to cut out the words. I ironed them on with heat'n'bond, but I also sewed around them because some of my other projects that I used heat'n'bond did not really stand up well in multiple washes. And with this being a baby blanket I knew that it would get washed and washed and washed some more!

The yellow does not show up really well in pictures, but it looks great in person!

And here you can see my stellar sewing around the letters -

And here it is all wrapped up and ready to go. I have actually mailed this already and she got it and loved it! Which is super important!

Now I just hope that we get to make it out there in a couple of months and get to see her and her new little boy!

Enjoy!

Star Surround Quilt Along: Cutting

 I did it, I made it through cutting all this fabric! It usually takes me forever to cut a quilt out - like I have said before it is not my favorite part of quilting.

But I wanted to stay on top of things and so I cut last night and then I cut before swimming lessons today and then more after lessons and before we went to the pool again. And I am done!

I just loved how this stack turned out - that bird is perfectly placed.

Whew! It was a lot for me, but now we can get onto funner things! Unfortunately those funner things are not so fun. I am trying to fix my sons bag before he heads off to scout camp next week - I really don't want to buy him a new one!

Enjoy!

WIP Christmas Table Runner

I set a goal for myself for this year: give 100% handmade.

I usually do about 50/50, but this year I wanted to step it up a notch and we never know about the future of Conan's job and so I am trying to save more for that just in case - or a house. ;)

I figured if I wanted to do this I need to start thinking about Christmas right now. This post could go right along with my Christmas in July Quilt I shared last week!

I am making a Christmas table runner for a sweet friend of mine. Here is what I have so far:

I am trying to decide what to do now: do I add a border and if so what color? Or just leave it as is? Decisions!

I am also cutting fabric like crazy, I am cutting out my super hero fabric and the fabric for the quilt along, and cutting the worst part of quilting in my mind - I would rather do anything else!!

Enjoy!

Quilt Along

I have taken a big step here, I have decided to participate in a quilt a long.

This is the first time that I have ever done one of these, I am a little bit nervous because I really want to keep it to their schedule because they are giving away some awesome prizes, but I hope that mine does not get in the way!

I found this quilt-a-long over at Happy Quilting. The pattern is called Star Surround, and I love it!

I was going to use some of the fabrics that they offered, but I just did not love them. And for me to stick with this project I really wanted to love the fabrics.

So I did some fabric browsing, that was fun! but I settled on these fabrics:

I got them from Southern Fabric, and I love them. very fast service and friendly. They come from the line Aviary 2 - Lilac by Joel Dewberry. I just love the rich deep purple with the green and aqua.

I am going to use the green wood print for the background - I hope that turns out well!

Enjoy!

Transformer Quilt - Finished!

I did it, I finished this Transformer quilt and made one little boy super happy!

Here are some pictures of the finished project, the quilt is on his bed because when he saw that I was sewing the binding on as he was going to bed he asked me to bring it to him when I finished it. So right after the dryer stopped I took it to his bed, and it has either been there or had him wrapped up in it somewhere in the house. It is a good thing he likes to be warm because who wraps up in a quilt in the middle of summer!?

This is the largest squares with transformer fabric, if you look really close you can see the Decepticon symbols I quilted into them, but since I did it in black it is pretty hard to see. I got this fabric at Walmart, because it is the only place I could find fabric that was transformers that I liked. I know that it probably won't last as long, but at least it will be well loved! And my boy was a little disappointed that I did not find decepticon fabric because he really likes the bad guys! hahaha!

I used minky for the back and it went a lot better then my last minky project - which was a huge relief! My boy lovingly refers to this as button fabric and specifically requested it, so I went with it. Here you can see the Decepticon symbols a little bit better.

This is the best I could get of the whole quilt. It is a simple pattern that I made up. I saw something I liked on pinterest, but wanted it a little bit different so I just got out my graph paper and made my own pattern. It turned out pretty well.

I just quilted it with straight lines because I do not have my frame anymore (soon enough I will have enough room to have a long arm) But I like how it turned out.

This is the other block I used. A different take on the 4 patch block.

Thanks for stopping by and it you are interested in this pattern let me know and I can write it up for you!

Enjoy!

Super Hero Fabric

I am not sure about all of you, but I like to think up my next project before I have even finished my last one. (or last few!)

I am almost done with my Transformer Quilt, I have sewn all of those Decepticon symbols, and I just have to bind it all together now!

Thing #5 has been asking about his quilt - when does he get a quilt from me? Just for the record he is sleeping with one right now, but according to him it is not his. And sometimes you just cannot change the mind of a three year old. And like I need an excuse to make another quilt!

I have been thinking for a while of what I could do for him that could take a while for him to grow out of, but that he would still love right now. Then a while ago I was at my local quilt shop - which for me happens to be about 25 miles away, so really it is not too local, but we take what we can out here - and I found my first fabric for this quilt. The rest of them I bought from various ebay stores and some from Fabric.com.

And these fabrics will become the Super Hero Quilt for my sweet little boy. I knew that I had picked the right fabrics when I was looking through ebay trying to pick which fabrics I wanted to use and he came up behind me and asked what the super hero fabric was for. When I told him he he gave me a big smile and ran to tell the other kids that he was getting a super hero quilt from mom.

I am still trying to decide between two different patterns, hopscotch or chopsticks. But I also could use some time to sew - maybe when school starts! Until then I have lots of WIP's!

Enjoy!

Christmas Quilt

Today I have an early Christmas in July project to share with you. A simple Christmas quilt.

This simple Christmas quilt is perfect for snuggling up with your kids and reading Christmas books, or listening to Christmas music, or just looking at the lights on the tree.

I actually made this quilt a while ago, but homeschooling took top priority for a while. I used a bunch of different fabrics that I loved together.

I backed it with cream and used a red binding. I love how that just makes the binding pop. I quilted it with a large all over loop pattern.

I love this quilt, it has me wishing for Christmas and all of the traditions and fun that comes with it. But at the same time not the snow, we had a super long winter up here by the north border and I am loving my sunshine and warmth right now!

The pattern comes from Moose on the Porch Quilts book Simply Charming Two, but I added the red square in the middle to tie my red border and binding together with it all. That book is out of print right now, but you can click on the link to see some of her other books that are very user friendly and quick, easy, beautiful quilts.

This is really a big quilt, it is roughly 72"x72". I am also selling it if you are interested please shoot me an email and I can give you more information!

Enjoy!

linking up to WIP wed at Freshly Pieced, Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, Sew Cute Tuesday at Better off Thread and those listed in my linky party page.

Transformer Quilt

Summer is in full swing here and I spend my mornings at the pool watching my 5 kids swim their hearts out, and then sometimes we are at the pool again in the afternoon.

We try to do a page or two of math or English workbook stuff, but we are lucky to get it done more than twice a week.

My sewing machine is very neglected, I have not sat down at it in a little while - I did teach my middle boy a few basic lessons lately.

But I have been working on a project - the Transformers quilt:

Truth be told I have been working on this for a long time, longer than Thing #4 likes. But today I made some progress.

I made a Decepticon symbol and started tracing it onto the large squares of the quilt. I will be eventually quilting them - when I find the time.

I am off to spend some more quality time with my family before this summer comes to a close.

Enjoy.