Patriotic Table Runner - Done!

This year I am trying to give the gift of handmade for Christmas. I already posted about the Happy Birthday banners that I gave most of my siblings. (I already gave it to them and some of their kids opened it - so it will not be a surprise!) Today I have a table runner that I am giving to my military neighbors. I have shared the top before, but now it is all done and fabulous!!

I have been practicing my free motion quilting - in hopes that someday I will have saved enough to buy a long arm! Here is is:

I made up the pattern off of something I saw on Pinterest. I didn't get my measurements quite right, but it still looks great I think! Here is a close of up one of the smaller stars. I did kind of a echoing star pattern on them.

I did the figure 8 motion on the stripes and kind of a wave pattern on the cream border.

On the back it looks a little crazy! But when will you see the back!?

Here is one of the two big navy squares. This is where the echoing star pattern looks really good. I started this and had to unpick half of it before I figured it out - not the funnest thing I did!

And then the pinwheel. I did a zig-zag kind of thing in the navy and then pebbles in the white and red parts. I really like the pebbles. They look great, but take a little while!!

And then one last view of this beautiful quilt before I wrap it all up to give to my neighbors!

Off to do some more sewing and crafting before the kids are on their Thanksgiving break!

Enjoy!

Modern Peas & Carrots Pattern

I've got a pattern for you! I hope that this is clear and you can understand it. I tried to take more pictures to show some ideas that might not be clear.

And I have this for sale in my Etsy shop for those of you who might just want to buy the finished product.

All right here goes!!

Fabric requirements:
misc orange: three inch strips (need twelve 3" x 8.5")
Blue: 3/4 yard
Green 3/4 yard
cream 3/4 yard

Cutting:
1. Cut all orange pieces into 3" x 8.5"

2. Cut the blue into one 11" strip. From that cut three pieces 8.75" Then cut three more pieces 3.75"
Cut a 3" strip and sub cut it into three pieces 3.25" (you will have leftovers)

3. Cut the rest of the blue into one 14" strip. From that cut three pieces 6.25" Then cut three more pieces 3.25"
Cut a 3" strip and sub cut it into three 6.25" pieces.

4. Repeat the same cutting in steps 2 & 3 with the green fabric.

5. Cut the cream fabric into three 3.25" strips. From that sub cut it into nine 3.25" x 11" rectangles.
Cut four more 3.25" strips of fabric. These will be for the outside borders.

Okay, now we are ready to start putting this quilt together!

For starters we are going to take six of our orange pieces and match them up with three blue 3" x 6.25" and three blue 3" x 3.25" pieces.

Then do the same with your green pieces. (same size as the blue ones). You should have two piles with six in each pile that look something like this: (yes I need to iron!)

One is a 3" x 6.25" blue or green and a 3" x 8.5" orange piece and then other pile is a 3" x 3.25" blue or green. After you sew them together iron towards the orange.

Next you are going to take your 3.25" x 11" strip of blue and of green. You will have six total. You are going to sew this piece to your orange and blue (or green) piece that you just sewed that is now 11" long. (or the piece with the shortest green or blue piece sewn to the orange. Iron seams towards the orange.

After that you will take you 3.25" x 14" strips of blue and of green. You will also have six of these. Sew then to the rest of your orange and blue or green pieces. These ones will be 14" long.

It will look something like this before you sew it together: (this is the 11" piece) When I sewed this together I did not sew my long piece to the same side all the times. I alternated it so that I would have two like this and one with the blue on top. Trust me on this, it will work. Or just scroll down and see more pictures to see if that will help you out. Seeing it all laid out may help with this concept.

Next you are going to take your large pieces of blue and green. There will be three of each color in each pile. Make six total of each size. One pile is the 8.75" x 11" and the other pile is 6.25" x 14".

You will match these up to the pieces that you have already sewn that are 11" and 14". Here in the picture is my match with the 11" piece.

Sew the pieces together to form 6 blocks one size and 6 blocks the other size. Iron the seams to the orange side.

Now you will have 12 blocks total. Three green ones that look like this:

Three blue ones that look like this:

Three more greens that look like this:

And three more blues that look like this:

Next I took and trimmed all of my squares so that they were all 11" x 14". I have learned the hard way that this makes for a nicer looking quilt - and it sews together to much better!

After that I placed all of my squares in this pattern. I wanted to make sure that my orange ones were not meeting up with other orange ones. You can copy mine or lay yours out in whatever design suits your tastes.

After you have this layout figured out, you take the first three pieces of each row and sew a cream rectangle onto the right side of it. Press to the colored fabric.

Once you have your cream sewn on you will sew your rows together. Make sure that you press each seam when you are done!

After that you will sew your outside borders on using the 3.25" strips of cream fabric that you still have left.

Press and then quilt! And your finished product should look something like this:

Thanks for bearing with me! I hope that this works out for you and please if you have any questions I would love to hear from you.

Enjoy!

Modern Peas & Carrots

Here is my latest quilt. I really love this one! I will be listing it in my Etsy shop today if you want to make it yours!! I will also have the pattern available by the end of the week - hopefully!! ;)

I am calling this Modern Peas & Carrots.

The fabric comes from the line Peas & Carrots that is a couple of years old. And a few other pieces I used to add to the orange variety! Which really gives the quilt that extra pop! In those orange areas I did these figure 8 sort of things when I quilted it.

I alternated using blue and green blocks, which I really loved! When I quilted it I did a swirl design (you might have seen upclose versions on Instagram). I became very good at those swirls!

I used Kona cotton in cream for the sashing. I quilted it with triple bubbles. Not sure how I feel about them, but they work well for the space they are in.

For the binding I looked for what seemed like forever to find something and everything I bought on line just was not right (now I have quite the stash of different kinds of orange!). But then the other day I was at JoAnn's and found the prefect one!

For the back I used some long measuring tape prints from the line on either side with the cream in the middle. I have never done something besides plain on the back of a quilt and I have to say I love it! My husband even commented on it, that he had not seen me do something like this before and he liked it too!

All folded with a back view.

Here it is all folded waiting to go to its new owner!

And just one more view of it because it is so pretty, and because my husband was so nice to hold it up for my on his lunch break in the wind while I tried to get a good picture!!

Again I hope to have the pattern for you by the end of the week, but if you want you can get this quilt here.

Enjoy!

Give Thanks Banner

For some reason I do not decorate very much for fall. I am not sure why, but this year I tried to do something! I am loving pennant banners at the moment and thought a simple fall one would be great!

I decided to have it say GIVE THANKS. Don't mind the lack of curtains, my kids bent the rod and so they are down until we get it fixed - hopefully soon!

I finished cutting out the pennants with my die cut machine and the letters with my cricut a while ago, but then  I reached a road block as I was looking for the prefect ribbon to use to sew it together. I never found anything that I liked, until I was either on pinterest or looking through a magazine and saw one sewn together with twine. I knew that would be prefect for this. I sewed it on with a zig zag stitch, easy peasy!

I used some canvas for the pennants and then a rust color for my letters. (the rust was leftover from a quilt back)

I actually used a cartridge to cut these letters instead of my SCAL. I like the easy to read letters for my banners.

The only thing I am still trying to decide is if I should add something to it. Maybe in between the words, or at either end. I saw one that had leaves on it, but not sure if I would like that. I am open to ideas or if I should just leave it as is.

There you have it my only fall decoration, well I did fill up my apothecary jar (I am down to one now cause we broke one in the last move) with some kisses wrapped in fall colors, but that is it. But Christmas will be here soon and my lack of decoration will change!

Enjoy!

Charming Flowers

It has been a week here! But I am finally getting some stuff done and getting caught up on my 'seamstress' job. Mainly I just help others out with altering their clothes - whatever helps pay the bills! I finally got to do some sewing for me today! If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen it. I have been piecing my pokemon quilt for my boy.

But today I have a quilt that I finished a while ago, and yesterday as I was getting it out I realized that I never shared it on here.

This was one of the first quilts that I ever made, and it was so easy. The pattern is Charming Flowers from Moose on the Porch quilts. It was super easy and I loved it. I still love this quilt so much.

It was originally for my daughter, but she did not love it as much as I did. So we ended up going with my Lissy's Flowers quilt for her room. But then last night she was complaining about her bedding and how she was getting bigger and whatnot, so I pulled out this quilt and told her I would trade her this quilt for two of her little blankets that were on her bed. You should have seen her face! Beyond excitement!

I love the subtle colors! Just so light and airy!

Here is an upclose of one of the flowers. When I quilted this I left the center of the flowers unquilted. Everywhere else I did an all over pattern. My intention was to place a little puff of something in the center, but I have yet to get to it or to find the perfect something to put there - and it has been almost 4 years!

And another view of the flowers.

To surprise my daughter I made her bed up yesterday afternoon so that when she came home from school her bed looked so nice and welcoming!

I love how it goes so well with her antique wood bed. In the photo above you can see the bright pink sheets peeking out, might need to get some new ones soon!

And yesterday was the perfect overcast day for taking photos of my quilt! Except for the slight wind that never seems to stop here!

I am so happy that this quilt is getting the love I had planned for it!

Doesn't her bed look so much more grown-up now? She says she needs a pillowcase that matches her quilt now! Good thing I still have some fabric left that I have been hanging onto! But my cream flower pillow goes perfect with her bedding too!

Enjoy!

Traveling Stash Winner!!

I have a box full of all kinds of goodies waiting to go out to  . . .

Cheryl in Friendsville!!

I'll be sending you an email later today to get your info!!

Pokemon Quilt

I got some fabric in the mail today! And that is always a good thing right?!  I got this bundle of fabric:

I am doing something big here. I am not a huge fan of Pokemon, and my kids know this. I have one boy who absolutely loves pokemon and has wanted me to make him a pokemon quilt for the longest time! I just kept putting him off. But as I have been making quilts for my other kids he keeps trying to come up with ideas for his quilt - when really I just know that he wants a pokemon quilt.

This year for christmas he will get his wish - he will get a pokemon quilt.I found this fabric on ebay, and am fussy cutting the characters to use as blocks on their own, and then will try to use any leftovers on the back.

The colored fabric will be used as small blocks around the fussy cut characters.

Now I just need to find time to work on this without him knowing about it, and having my 4 yr old keep it a secret!!

Don't forget to enter the chance to win the traveling stash here!!

Enjoy!

Free Motion Quilting

I finished my first quilt that I did free motion quilting that was not a stipple pattern! I tried out swirls and some new loops and I am pretty happy with the results! I will have more pictures later this week, but I just had to share this with you today I was so excited about it!!

I ordered this book and I have loved it! It gave me confidence to try something new on my latest quilt. And I have to say it turned out wonderful! But I do miss the ease of quilting on a frame. Makes me more determined to save more for my long arm!

If you are thinking about getting this book, I highly encourage you to do so. It will help you take your quilting to the next level. And she explains everything very well and the illustrations are fabulous!

I just finished sewing the binding on this quilt and I hope to have the pattern up for you on Friday! so be sure and check back for it!!

AND do forget to go and comment on my other post for a chance to win the traveling stash!

Enjoy!

Traveling Stash!!

Last week I received an awesome email, I won the traveling stash!! Are you not familiar with the traveling stash? It is a box filled to the brim with all sorts of fabric goodies and you pick from it and then add items from your stash to it and send it on to the next person! There is a paper in there with everywhere this package has been and the dates they have had it. This box has gone all over the place and it has been going around for almost 2 years!

I was so excited when the box came - and then my daughter was even more excited when I told her what it was and that she could pick on piece of fabric from the box! She could not wait to open it!

When I opened it I found all of this goodness!! Let me tell you it was so fun going through all of this stuff!

I picked out a few things that I thought I would use, here is what I picked out. Then after the fact I added the 100 blocks book to my pile. ;) My daughter picked the blue fabric in the background!

Then me and my daughter neatly packed the box back up and added these items from my stash! She thought it would be fun to include a flower clip in the box because maybe the next person would have a daughter who would like one! I thought that was sweet of her!

Do you want a chance to win this awesome box filled to the brim with all sorts of fabric goodies? All you have to do is leave me a comment here and I will pick a winner on Saturday Nov 9th! (Only US entries on this please, sorry about this).

And I would love it if you would follow me on facebook, instagram, flickr or my blog! Just click on the buttons in the top right!

In other news I am working on another quilt pattern. I almost have the quilt done, so now I just have to transfer my notes into pattern form!