Lullaby- A Baby Quilt

I wanted to make a baby quilt for my co-worker, so I snooped around for her nursery style and colors. She showed me her picks that were mostly green and grey. I remembered I had a bag of left over scraps in this color scheme, so I pulled them out!

My ‘starter’ set, I’ll call it, didn’t have the darker green that she was using. I added in a dark green and it just fell a little flat for me. I took those out and added in a more greeny green and it worked.

You can see the process I took. I started with most of the original scrap bag, but to get to the baby quilt size I wanted, I had to keep adding to it. I kept with the same colors and shapes, mostly HST. Eventually, I got it where I needed it. When I do improv, often I have to figure out how to piece the different sized blocks. On my phone, I draw out how to group the blocks to piece them together.

I ended up at about 32×34 inches and I really enjoy the balance of the different blocks and colors!

Usually, I piece the back of my quilts. This time I was really excited about using the Charley Harper Bookends fabric, so I did a whole cloth back.

The cutest little baby was born in December, and I finished the quilt in January. A little late getting to her, but it was well received, and I love sharing my quilts with others!

Gifted Pot Holders

Pot holders are always a fun gift! I mean, if you eat, you cook and at some point you are going to need to pull something out of the oven, right? Everyone will need one at some point. And some people will use them more often than others and may even need a fresh set every now and then. Right? A gift for everyone!

Quite a while back the magazine Quilt Now had a little freebie book called 8 Quick Makes, Big Book of Pretty Patchwork included with one of their issues. It had some fun projects in it, including this pot holder project. The project is from Zakka Style by Rashida Coleman-Hale. Unfortunately, the magazine is gone, and you can’t get the project there, btu you can still get the book!

I used one layer of regular quilt batting and one layer of insulated batting and did a little QAYG action. What are is your favorite way to layer pot holders?

I loved this chicken fabric! Using the same fabric, I made two different tops!

And I made two different backs. One with the back fabric just folded over, the other with binding!

Have you ever given pot holders as gifts??? I’ve never made this style for me and I should! I need to gift some new ones to myself because the last ones I made for us are getting a bit tired.

Holiday Embroidery Gifts

I started making these fun Christmas Tree embroidery hoops last Christmas and loved them. I gave away the ones I made last year, but started making more to share with co-workers this year. I also decided to break it up a little bit with some snowflakes.

With my ankle surgery this fall, I haven’t been as mobile this holiday season to do a lot of sewing and quilting, but I’m really enjoying the slow stitching with embroidery.

The snowflakes!

Last year I made my co-workers drawstring bags with cookies inside. When I saw this snowflake in Issue 19 of Love Embroidery Magazine by Hello Hooray, I decided that I would to the same thing this year, but with an embroidered bag. Later I decided to not do the bag and cookies, but to mix in some snowflakes with the trees.

The first one I made I stuck with the colors from the magazine, because I love them!

The next one, I went with a more monotone color scheme. I really liked this one too.

And the last one, I went way off! I love how the variegated thread worked with this design!

I’m hooked on these snowflakes, too! They are a quick make and totally cute!

Next up, the Bitty Brush Trees! The Bitty Brush Tree pattern is by tinkerellen and is so cute and so easy to do while you are watching holiday baking shows on TV! Like I mentioned, I started making these last holiday season and planned on working on them all year, but didn’t. I did pick them back up again this year.

The fun thing about this pattern is all the things you can do with the trees! On Cheri’s (tinkerellen) IG page she has a SAL where she added the cute little letter beads on her trees. I’ve had fun adding different beads to the tree as ornaments. But every now and then, just a plain tree is lovely too!

I finished each of these hoops with a felt back sewn down with a blanket stitch.

The trees make a great ornament or wall hanging for friends, neighbors or co-workers. They are also a great relaxation tool for after a long day at work!

Happy Holidays!!!

SMQG Needle Case Holiday Exchange

A needle case project! This is the perfect storm of a project! Every year at our SMQG Holiday party there is a gift exchange. It’s always different. Sometimes everyone makes the same thing using whatever pattern they want, others we all make the same thing using the same pattern (like our 1 hour basket exchange) and then sometimes we make totally random things. This time the only rule was to make a needle case and to wrap it. Sometimes we play the white elephant game, sometimes we are given a specific member to sew for, but this time we played Left Right Center. I had never played it before, but it was hilarious! The game went along with a story about Santa and his elves losing the list. Every time the story says left, you pass to the left, etc.

I had been eyeing Stitchy Pie pattern from Charm About You. I have this problem of saying to myself, I can make that… But then I feel guilty knowing the right thing to do is to support the maker and buy their pattern and make the thing rather than just stealing the idea. Right? I’ve been needing a needle case, so I finally bought the pattern to make myself a needle case so I could stop leaving needles in the sides of every project bag have!

Right about the same time I purchased the pattern, Fabricworm posted that they had my favorite Charley Harper fabric (I had previously only seen it in vinyl) and I had to buy it!!! This would be perfect for my needlecase!

Then the guild announced the swap. I knew I was in!

I started by embroidering the Cardinal. It was the only animal I embroidered. When I got the fabric, I knew I wanted to embellish the fabric with embroidery. I didn’t use an interfacing, but I did need end up adding a fusible interfacing per the pattern.

Before cutting the pattern, I made sure the cardinal fit just right in one of the folds of the needle case.

And the inside. This pattern does call for Fusible Fleece, so it makes the needle case a little bit thicker than I anticipated. but I like it!

And this is the needle case that I received. OK, there were probably 30 or so people participating in the swap. Of all those gifts, I get a needle case with the same design idea. They both fold over into kind of a triangle shape and then open flat into a circle shape. I was so excited, obviously! I loved the stitchy pie pattern that open and folds flat just like this one!

I’d say this exchange was a success! I hope the person who got mine, enjoys it! I know I will enjoy the one I received! And I really love the one I made and will have to make one for myself to keep in another on the go project bag!

Log Cabin Play

Log Cabin Play! One of my all time favorite quilts!

Back in 2021, I took a zoom class with Cheryl Arkison via our Seattle Modern Quilting Guild. The class was called Traditional Variations. The class was to take some familiar or traditional blocks to shake them up! We ‘played’ with improvisation, scale, and color to create fun and funky takes on the traditional block.

I obviously chose the log cabin block and pulled pink, yellow, red and orange scraps from my scrap bins and set to work! I tried to make each block different. Every one of them was a log cabin, but each one was slightly different. Each one did have white between the color pieces, that was my one real rule.

Once I had all the blocks I needed, I started piecing them together. The problem I had was that I had no idea how to quilt it! I knew I wanted to focus on the log cabin, but how??? I couldn’t quite figure it out, but I knew who could! I decided to send it to my friend, Dionne, to quilt it for me. This was my first quilt I ever sent out to someone else to quilt! I knew it was in good hands!

Together we decided to only quilt the white fabric. We agreed on three things, pop the log cabins, only quilt the white fabric and no feathers! Those were the only guidelines I left with Dionne!

And WOW! With Dionne’s help, this quilt turned out fantastic!

Look how cool the quilting is. Each area is quilted a little bit different, just like each log cabin is slightly different, too! My very favorite part of the quilt is this piece of the 4 quarter log cabins. When I pieced the quilt, I looked at pulling the quarter cabins apart, but I decided I really liked them left together!

Remember how I said the top was all from my scrap bags? Well, I then raided my stash for the back. I gathered up small pieces of yardage I had that fit the color scheme to make one really big log cabin!

I love how cheery the back is!

I started this before I knew that there would be a log cabin challenge at Quilt Con 2023. I was honored that this quilt was selected to show in that challenge exhibit!

And a shout out to the mural artist for the mural that served as a perfect backdrop for this quilt, Craig Cundiff.

The Hocus Pocus Quilt

I’ll say it right out. I’m apparently not the best photographer on crutches! Both of the these Halloween quilts have deserved better photos, but it is what it is!

Isn’t this a cute one! It is the Hocus Pocus Quilt by Corinne Sovey. I love the graphic nature of her patterns! I also made her Santa’s Helpers quilt.

One thing I really like about her patterns is that the blocks use different techniques. Most of the blocks are tradition HST and cut pieces of fabric sewn together. Others are paper pieced, like the broom and the witch’s boots. And the monster eyeball and cat had some hand applique.

I did do one little cheat… The pattern calls for piecing the striped blocks. I just happened to still have this striped fabric from way back when I made a quilt only out of the striped fabric, the Row by Row QAYG quilt in 2016.

On both of her quilts, there has been one block that I just decided to do my own way! On this one it was the Star block. The pattern has a english paper piecing method for the star, but I decided to make it a foundation paper pieced block. You can still download the block here.

ok… I love the back! I really love the back….

I had a bunch of triangular pieces and squares from the striped fabric on the front, so I started sewing those together with other solid scraps. Rather than squaring them off, I started sewing them together just how they turned out. I filled in the little angle pieces with green fabric and added a panel form one of my Halloween panels I have stashed not knowing what to do with! ha!

And if you hadn’t noticed yet, I had it quilted with bats! Can you see how cute they are??? I had Jana Royal quilt it and am super happy with how it turned out! I asked to just have straight lines, but then figured if I’m handing it over to someone, why don’t I get something fun that I could never do on my own???

This was a fun one and I’m really excited that I got it done in time to cuddle up watching silly Halloween movies! And maybe waiting for some trick or treaters! Happy Halloween!

Mini Series Mini Halloween Quilt

I made all these blocks last fall and was able to finish the quilt prior to Halloween this year! Giucy Guice and Alison Glass had a sew along to make their mini series paper piecing mini blocks and I decided to play along. I tried to play along on past sew alongs, but never succeeded in finishing all the blocks. This time I did and I even made some more than once!

I was inspired by a fabric pull I saw on Fabricbubb’s website. I love the fabric pull! A very bright Halloween pull to me.

The first two blocks we worked on were the Log Cabin Block and the Triangle Cabin block.

The Triangle Cabin block I didn’t use in the quilt, but in the Halloween Banner Garland I shared last week.

When I first started out, I knew I wanted the blocks to be Halloweeny, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them. I knew pretty soon it was going to be a quilt! For the Log Cabin block, I decided to add in some other spooky elements! I started playing with the Spooky FPP Patterns by @spunstraw.

The next two blocks were the Courthouse Steps and Diamond Sidestep blocks.

I added the cat from the spooky FPP patterns to the Courthouse Steps block. I like showing the block itself with the candy for scale! These are tiny piecing patterns! Did I mention that?? Very tiny! But the blocks are made so that you can have tiny blocks or make them larger. I made this larger so I could add the cat in the middle!

Then I made the Diamond Sidestep block. When I made it all I could picture was an eye, in particular a cat eye! Warning, you may never see this block as not a cat eye again if you continue to read!

So I made two of these blocks!

Then sketched out the cat to go with these eyes!

The cat fits in the quilt just right if you ask me!

Next up were the Pineapple and Hexagon Steps blocks.

The Pineapple block plus the witches hat spooky block!

And the Hexagon Step block. This is one of only two blocks that I added in black into the halloween rainbow of fabric and I like it!

Next up Triangle Geese and Bloom blocks.

The Triangle Geese block also looked like an eye to me! So I made two to make another eyeball!

The Bloom block is probably one of my favorite of the series!

Next up was the Stretched Geese and Criss Cross blocks.

I added the ghost to the middle of the Criss Cross block!

And lastly, we made the Curved Cabin and Rainbow blocks.

I really did love the Curved Cabin block, but it got a little wonky when I quilted the quilt! I do love the little skulls in the corners. they fit perfectly!

At this point you can probably imagine what I thought about this Rainbow block! Yep, another eye ball! This one is a Cyclops Eye, though! But again, to get the eyeball, you need to make the block twice…. And there seemed to be an extra million pieces in this block!

Then came the paper removal… Luckily, it didn’t take as long as I had anticipated that it would.

For all the piecing on the front, a solid back seemed just fine for this mini quilt! I love this fabric and I’ve been holding on to it for some time. the colors were perfect and the piece I had left was almost just the right size! I think I’m down to scraps only left of this fabric.

The label picture! 🙂

I got a little over the top on this sew along. I made duplicates of 4 of the 12 blocks. I think if I do this sew along again, I’m sticking to one of each! 🙂

We’re enjoying having this one hanging in the dining room for the holiday!

Halloween Cross-Stitch Pillow- Finally Complete!

Having two weeks off from work and stuck at home gave me time to catch up on all sorts of Halloween projects! This was one of them. I started this way back in 2020 (possibly even 2019, but I think it was 2020). This pattern is called Trick or Treat Costume Club by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

If I’m going to make my cross-stitch project into a pillow or something, I love doing the project on cotton fabric rather than using Aida. And to do this, I use Pellon Sticky Grid and Tear. I end up stitching more from the back than the front. I just looked at the directions on this again this week and the directions say not to leave on the fabric for more than a couple of hours…. Oops… How about a couple of years??? Who does cross stitch in a couple of hours??? Not me!

I also thought this hand dyed fabric was perfect for this project! My quilt guild has fabric swaps every now and then and around the time I was starting this project, we had one and someone brought this fabric. There were three colors and I grabbed them! This was just perfect!

I’m not sure exactly why it took quite as long as it did. Once I got into it, it seemed a bit a more detailed than some of the other projects that I have done! Or maybe it was doing it backwards with the grid on the back!

For the back of the pillow, I used this Cotton and Steel Boo fabric. The pattern comes with a bonus pattern. A cute little trick or treat character. My original intentions were to stitch that guy on more of the purple fabric and use it on the back. I was so excited to finish the front, that in the end I switched plans and used this fabric. The purple works great with the front!

I added an invisible zipper. In my stash, I didn’t have many colors, but I thought that since it was an ‘invisible’ zipper, maybe it would be ok to go with a beige zipper. Right before I started to sew it together, I thought, I’ll just check Amazon. There just happened to be a package of invisible zippers with a light purple color zipper. And man! What a perfect match!

I’ve never put a label on the side seam of a pillow before, but thought I’d try it on this one. And I like it!

I can’t explain how happy I am to be done with this one. I was almost giddy putting in the last stitches! I have a couple more Halloween projects to share in not a lot of time, but I’m going to do it anyway. I’ll be back soon!

A Halloween Banner Garland

I started this banner last year. I cut out the pieces and then stashed them with my Halloween fabric scraps stash. I almost forgot about it until I was looking for an easy project to do without actually having to move around too much (recovering from ankle surgery!).

I realized that I wanted to make this banner garland when I was participating in the Mini Series Sew Along last year. I made one Mini Series Triangle Cabin block and knew it would fit perfectly in this banner. Then I decided I needed two!

The banner garland fabrics came from this banner from the Spooky and Sweeter Line from Art Gallery Fabrics. I love this line of fabric. I have a really horrible addiction to Halloween fabric, even though I mostly sew with solids! ha! I also have a penchant for panels in the Halloween fabric lines. I got this panel not knowing what I would do with any of it. I’m really glad I did. I love the Banner garland! The link above the look book has some other fun ideas of what to do with the other pieces. This was a fabric from a couple of years ago, but I think you can still find it around! There’s a fun table runner that they made with the three pumpkins that I’m tempted to make!

Isn’t it cute! It’s super easy to make! Sew the front and back triangles together on the long sides only. Chain piecing will get it done in no time. Turn right side out and iron flat! Perfect! I made the double fold binding using 1 3/4″ fabric strips out of some Tiny Frights fabric. The colors of the eyes work perfectly with the Spooky and Sweeter Fabric!

I also made the felt ball garland! Last year this little collection of balls was on sale at Fabric Bubb. I actually got it to make a garland for Thanksgiving, because I actually made another one for Halloween last year. As I pulled this bag of felt balls out with of my Halloween fabric scrap box, I realized it they are the same color as the banner garland! Perfect!

It was a fun little project to do and it just worked out perfectly to have not made it last year. Recovering this ankle surgery and being non weightbearing on one leg, makes it hard to move around to sew and iron, etc. It also means I can’t get down my traditional Halloween decorations and decorate this year. So now I have this to put up.

Spooky Season Mini Decorations

The last thing I need is more Halloween decorations! But I just can’t help myself sometimes. I love Halloween decorations and I love quick cross stich and embroidery projects, soooo I had to! I had fun making these little 3″ decorations!

This little cat pattern came from The World of Cross Stitching, issue 321 (July 2022). The pattern designer is Durene Jones, who also has a great FB page and shares fun quick free patterns! This is the cat sith from Celtic Folklore. He’s kinda a creepy cat for sure, thought to steal the souls of the unburied dead and on Halloween would prowl dairy farms and steal the milk from cows, rendering them useless! He does make a for a good Halloween project!

This little haunted house took me a while! I do admit I have no idea where I found this little pattern! (if you know the designer, please let me know!) I love the little ghost on the front porch.

And this little embroidery project was inspired by one of my IG favorites, Mollie Johanson! She has the cutest signature style with adding little eyes and a smile to anything. It’s so cute. She made one of these and I totally copied her, but added jack o’ lantern eyes instead.

Each of these projects fit in a 3inch embroidery hoop. I embellished each hoop with corresponding colored glitter. The pumpkin was the quickest, of course. I could see a fun wall of these with all different sized shapes and sizes of embroidery hoops!

I have so many more little cross stitch projects that I would love do to! So many projects, so little time!