Project Quilting- Challenge 4- Barn Quilts

Ahhh, Barn Quilts…. You probably saw on Saturday my weekend whims post was about some really cool Barn Quilts that I had found. today is about the Barn Quilt I made… Ok, I didn’t actually make a barn Quilt, but a quilt inspired by a Barn Quilt.

I’m not a very traditional quilter and as I was looking at all the Barn Quilt photos online I was drawn to the fact that the overall majority of them are based on very traditional quilt patterns. I thought to myself that maybe this week, I wouldn’t think outside the box so much, but experiment with a traditional pattern. Then I remembered this book that my husband brought home from a yard sale one day after I started my quilting obsession. It was sweet and I kept it, but at the same time wondered why… I’m never going to make one of these quilts…. Well, I’m glad I did keep it!

I found this circle pattern that I love. Each week I keep telling myself I’m going to make a quick and easy mini quilt. And for some reason this pattern seemed to be the way to a  quick and easy  one this week. UM. No. Not quite sure why I thought that… Once I got into and realized I again, hadn’t made it easy on myself and was lamenting this with my husband. He even agreed and was like, ‘uh, yeah, it didn’t look easy to me!’ hmmmmm…..

So I’ve got my pattern picked out. now to choose the fabrics…. Again, I have this issue of always making things more complicated! I decided to make the middle pieces a ombre selection of fabrics, which meant dying my own fabric…

I pieced it all together and, yep, doing the circle pieces was harder than I thought… The very last piece I did was the middle, appliqued circle. First off I did it in red…. I liked it, but there was something still not setting well with the red… Then my husband agreed. We couldn’t put our finger on it, but there was just something about the red that we weren’t loving!

So I changed the middle circle to the green and, wahla, I love it!

This is the first Project Quilting quilt that I have done anything sepcial to the back. I guess I’ve been seeing these as more of wall hangings and haven’t put thought into the backs, but this one I wanted to do a little bit more to the back (again, can’t make it easy). I used the rest of the ombre scraps on the back. The back is completely done from scraps of the front background color and ombre scraps.  Again, at first I wasn’t loving it, but then once I cut all the threads and cleaned it up a bit, I like it!

Shared with these Link Parties!

Weekend Whims- Barn Quilts

Have you ever heard of Barn Quilts??? I had never even heard of them until last Sunday when I found out that this week’s Project Quilting challenge theme was Barn Quilts. So of course, I started looking all over the internet, making plans for one for our garage and basically thinking about them all the time! They are really beautiful!

From what I have found out is that they are a super old art form that began as a decorative piece on barns, but soon became a way finding method between farms and towns. They were primarily a Northeast barn thing that psread to the Midwest. It seems that this decorative piece missed the South and seeing as how I grew up in the south, I missed it. I’m curious though… Are they there and I’ve just never noticed? I didn’t see any online, but I’m going to keep an out next time I’m home! Anyway, I digress… eventually the Barn Quilts gave way to advertisements….

photo by Two Sprints

Like the See Rock City barns that I did grow up with!!

The Barn Quilts are now making a comeback and with them Barn Quilt Trails and tourist maps!

Some of my favorites…

1. This is one that is actually painted directly on the barn. Photo by SKnights Art Photography.

2. Not only do I love these two barn quilts by Fisher Folk Art , I alos love the picture by Barn Quilt Memories.

3. How cool is this airplane one at the Grimes Municipal Airport in Urbana, Ohio??? If my son was into airplanes, I would have made this one for this weeks challenge for sure. I might still have to give it a try!

4. Another lovely pattern, The Carpenter’s Wheel, at Cooper’s Farm, photographed by Blue Ridge Blog.

5 and 6. Two great Barn Quilts on US 60 west of Morehead, Ky, photographed by David McLane.

7. I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it on Kim’s blog! It’s outside of Elleroy, IL, and photographed by wantadog.

8. I think this last one is the same pattern as #7, a Shining Star by Prairie Patchwork, but I loved it too….

 

I’m sure most everyone else already knew about these awesome quilts????? Do you have one? I want one!!

Bleaching and Dyeing Fabric- Quilting Progress Post

It’s been an interesting day of fabric today…. Did you see this post about bleaching fabric at The Modern Quilting Guild blog?? It totally inspired me and I wanted to try what she had done, which was to bleach her fabrics to make ‘coordinating’ fabrics out of the same pieces! It turned out great.

Then we got the new challenge for this week for Project Quilting Week 4. Barn Quilts! Which I’ve never heard of before….. So I started looking and all the Barn quilts are solids… So I found a design that I want to try, and to make it work the way I want, I wanted a series of blues that go from dark to light…. See where I’m going…

I had the blue I wanted, so I cut the pieces and was going to try to bleaching process! I was soooo excited. I found some inspiration and was going to be able to use it all in the same week. How productive of me!!!

So here I go. I got the bleach and water set up, plopped in the fabric and waited… and waited…. and waited… Nothing. Waited some more, nothing… Thinking back to the post on bleaching, she did say some fabrics didn’t change much… Then I started looking at my bottle of bleach while I was WAITING… Maybe it had something to tell me… Some secret to bleaching fabric that I had missed. Then I noticed it said to sanitize use Regular Bleach…

Regular bleach?? Who knew? I was under the impression that bleach was bleach. Little did I know that there was regular bleach and another kind of bleach. What that other bleach really is, I have no idea….. So off to the store I went to get REGULAR bleach…..

Once again… bleach and water ready! Fabric in… And I waited… This time my son was waiting with me… So we waited and waited some more…. again, NOTHING. My son said, ‘Mom, you said the fabric was going to change. When’s it’s going to change???’ hmmmmm, good question…. We even tried the fabric in straight up bleach. No water. Nothing. Everytime I’ve ever gotten bleach on fabric, nice big white spot, right away. Now I want to bleach fabric and nothing…

So, third times a charm right… But not with bleach. I changed to going the other way. The good ole staple, RIT dye! Now I have navy blue fingernails and a nice variety of shades of blue (some are kinda purple, but that’s ok) fabric for my Barn Quilt Mini Quilt!

Bobbin Blooms Winner!!!

And we have a winner for the Bobbin Blooms!!!

Drumroll please…..

And the winner is…..

Chosen using Random.org

 Congratulations Melissa! I’ll be contacting you soon for your address. I hope you enjoy them, they are really cool!!!

And a big Thank You to Suzann for sharing a set of her awesome Bobbin Blooms!

And thank you to all the readers and everyone who signed up to win!!

 

The Magnetic Bookmark, again….

This might look familiar to some of you… The magnetic bookmark is actually a tutorial I did to share with my pal Jenny at The Southern Institute. Today I am reposting it here on my blog as well.

And….  Oh, my!! I’m so excited! I was just looking over at The Long Thread for something and ended up re-reading her post on the Top 100 Tutorials of 2011… And my bookmark made the cut! I’m so honored! I love The Long Thread! Wow! I don’t know how I missed it the first time I read the list. But I was just looking and noticed she listed a magnetic bookmark so I went to look closer and noticed that she was linking to Jenny’s blog and I knew it was my tutorial!! ahhh… LOVE IT!

Today I wanted to share my tutorial on a magnetic bookmark. I saw something similar and in good Feelin’ Crafty fashion, I said, ‘I can make that.’ So here it goes!

Step 1: Materials:Scrap Fabric Sew-In Magnets (or any magnets will work really, but I like the sew-in ones) Scissors and/or Rotary Cutter Thread

Step 2:Make the front and/or back. For mine, I did a patchwork side and a one piece side. So Step 2 is to set up the patchwork side. Lay it out and sew it together. So if you want to do the patchwork piece, this step is for you. If not, it’s kinda like the choose your own adventure books (remember those as a kid??) move on to Step 3.

Step 3:Cut the front and back sides to both be 2.5” by 6”.

Step 4:Sew pieces together, right sides together, leaving about a 1” hole.

Step 5:Trim the corners and pull the ends through.

Step 6: Now that it’s right side out, iron the seams flat.

Step 7: Insert the magnet. I try to keep it on one side of the stitch allowance so that it fits down at the bottom just right. Also, don’t forget to make sure that you have your magnets facing right before you sew it closed! You don’t want the magnets to repel each other, because that won’t help you save that special page you were reading.

Step 8:Topstitch. Another tip… The magnets liked to attach themselves to my sewing machine and not let the ‘teeth’ pull the fabric through. So I try to remember to hold the magnet up a little bit as it gets close to the metal teeth on my machine. So, if you are using the sew-in magnets, the magnet will be sewn in while you are topstitching. If you have a regular round craft magnet, you’ll want to also topstitch just above the magnet to keep it in place.

Step 9: Wahlah! You’re done! Turn off the sewing machine and pick up a book. You will no longer have to try to remember where you left off!

Has anyone else made one of these bookmarks?? A group of local moms in my neighborhood have formed a book club, so I’m frantically trying to actually finish one of the books on time! But even if I don’t finish the book, I always know where I am since I have my handy bookmark!

Shared with these link parties!

Weekend Whims- Boy’s T-shirts

I’ve been thinking a LOT about boy’s t-shirts! I’ve saved some old pj’s to re-do a shirt… But I’m getting closer to actually making the t-shirts!!

In the meantime, here are some that I’ve been thinking about that are already made by someone else…

1. I’m sure most everyone has seen this one, it’s ALL OVER the internet. because it’s adorable… The 90 minute shirt by Dana Made It.

2. Another popular one is the Ringer Shirt by Crafterhours.

3. Love the Baseball Style Tee (and the applique) by Make It and Love It.

4. I’m seriously thinking of purchasing the Flashback Tee Pattern from Made by Rae, and I don’t buy many patterns….

5. I was lucky enough to win a copy of Sewing For Boys on the blog tour! And in that book are some really awesome patterns. There’s a pair of pants I’ve also been meaning to make, but since we’re talking shirts here…. There’s a raglan tee pattern in the book that sounds like it’s really easy! This cool one is made by Noodlehead.

ok, I have to get on this project!!

Bobbin Blooms Giveaway!!

Remember back when on Monday when I showed you my newest art quilt?? The one with the ‘tools’??? Well, one of the tools I represented in my quilt was the Bobbin Blooms!

Have you seen these??? Well, I have this friend who has been looking for the perfect way to store her spools of thread with the coordinating bobbins. We’ve been looking and looking and then I found these!! Of course I forwarded the link right away!

Then Suzann commented on my despair of what to do for the quilting challenge! Suzann’s the creator of this great little tool!! And I was reconnected with this amazing invention! And she’s also graciously giving a set of Bobbin Blooms to one of my readers! Let’s all give a big shout out to Suzann!!! YEAH!!!

Are you wondering what exactly they are??? Well, the way I describe them, is that they are a pretty little lid for your thread spools. Inside the flower is where you store your coordinating threaded bobbin. How perfect is that??

Are you ready to win and get those spools nad bobbins organized???

(all images via Bobbin Blooms)

Ready to WIN? You have FOUR ways to enter!

1) Leave any comment you’re thinking of! (one entry)

2) Subscribe to Feelin’ Crafty, either by RSS feed or email subscription! Leave one comment. (second entry)

3) Become a fan of Feelin’ Crafty on Facebook. Leave one comment. (third entry)

4) Share the Giveaway on your blog, facebook page or tweet about it. Leave one comment. (fourth entry)

That’s 3 possible entries! You must comment on this post to win. The giveaway will close on Monday, February 20th at 11:59 p.m. PST, and we’ll choose one winner using Random.org.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I’m posting a little late today, but it’s still Valentine’s Day in my part of the world. So to those of you still in Valentine’s Day, I hope you are having a great one! And if it’s already passed for you, well, I hope you had a great one!

This Valentine’s Day I participated in a valentine’s Day crafty swap, hosted by Happy Hour Projects. My partner was Liza from Happy Lizard Hill.

I mailed off a ghostie to Liza. this little guy got all wrapped up in a little box and headed off to Ohio!

Hopefully he’ll be well received by his new family!

And then I got a cute little package in the mail myself! I opened it and there was this really cool package inside. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was the present! My husband and I were both thrown off a bit. But it rattled… It sounded like something was inside… So I opened it and there it was! A lovely heart necklace!

Thank you Liza!

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Project Quilting- Challenge 3- Tool Time

Man, at first I was totally stumped on last week’s challenge! Since I’m an architect, my thoughts actually headed straight to construction tools. But that wasn’t getting me anywhere, so then I started thinking about a useful ‘tool’ to hold my kiddo’s tools, like crayons and markers and paint… But still nothing…

Then a couple of people commented on my blog about, hello, sewing tools!! Ah, ha! Yes! My first thought was to use magnets to make a working ‘tool rug’ (instead of a mug rug…) to put my pins on as I sew. But then that wasn’t really coming together either and then my husband looked at my idea and said, ‘NO.’ Sooooo….

The other thing I have been wanting to try out is the chevron pattern and of course, scissors came to mind for this piece. So that’s where I started. The red chevron represents the scissors. And, um, the chevron’s aren’t all that easy to get lined up…. Just a little side note there for ya for future projects…. My husband was a lot of help on this one, actually. He helped with composition and color, which isn’t actually a surprise to anyone that knows him. And with his help the pin idea went from being a big black (and ugly, so I found out) circle to being translated in little rectangles at the bottom.

Part of the challenge was to incorporate 4 tools into the design. So I’ve already got the pins and scissors. Then came the circle shapes for the rotary knife and the ruler along the side.

But I actually have 5 tools represented. The fifth is the Bobbin Bloom. Have you seen these??? They are really cool! I don’t actually have them, but I think they are a fantastic tool. Stayed tuned for a giveaway this week!!

I tried again with the machine stitched binding and was not impressed once again. I did it correctly this time, unlike last time. The only binding I had, in a color I liked, was a thin single fold tape. I should have stopped and just made my own binding, but it was late saturday night and it’s due Sunday morning… So I went with what I had and what I thought would be quick and easy… I’m going to give it another try with better binding and let you know how it goes. Third times a charm, right???

 

Shared with these link parties!

Bunting? Garland? Bunting? Garland? Both!

Remember yesterday how I said I had been punching A LOT??? I wasn’t kidding! I think I punched more hearts than anyone needs, including myself… But I made a garland for our Valentine tree and a little bunting for our little heart-shaped cakes.

OK, yes, here’s another Valentine’s story that goes all the way back to Christmas! Our Valentine’s day tree is, yes, you probably guessed it, a Christmas tree! I got it on super clearance after Christmas with the intention of using it for Valentine’s day. Added a few pink and white sequins, plus a hand-made heart garland and wahla, it’s a Valentine’s day decoration!

And what’s more perfect for Valentine’s Day than a mini red velvet heart-shaped cake with cream cheese icing and a cute little bunting!

The uses for paper heart shaped punches is endless!!!

 

Shared with these link parties!