Oliver's Quilt

 Hi, everyone! It's been almost a year since I've posted here and I miss you! I've got some catching up to do. It won't be chronological, but I hope to include all my finished projects since last August. Eek!

Let's get back in the swing of things with Oliver's quilt! My niece in California is expecting her first baby in a few weeks. She is doing the nursery in blues and gray with whales and octopi. How cute will that be?

 

I knew Preppy the Whale by Elizabeth Hartman would be the perfect pattern.  It was fun to choose a bunch of blues, but I had to throw in that one fun orange whale!

I recently purchased a ruler foot for my Bernina. I just happened to have a (never used) Leaves Galore ruler in my stash that was a perfect wave. It was thick enough for the ruler foot to run alongside with no trouble. For my first attempt at ruler work, I think it went pretty well!

 

 

The print on the back is pretty cute, but was just a little too narrow. A bit more orange to the rescue! When it came time to add the binding, I couldn't find the gray strips that I had cut out. (Don't you hate when that happens?) I dug into my bin of leftover bindings and went with scrappy navy blues. I think it probably worked better than my first choice gray.

 

I couldn't resist using the larger cut offs from the stitch and flip triangles. I'm keeping that little mug mat for myself as a souvenir!

 With a little bit of terry cloth and some leftover fabrics, I made a cute set of burp cloths from a tutorial by made everyday. 

Oliver's Quilt

47" x 50"

Started May 28, 2017

Completed June 10, 2017

Miscellaneous Crafty Catch Up

In keeping with the end of year catching up, here are some crafty projects I was working on. I'm tired just looking at it all! I honestly don't know how I did it all in two months.

I was really pleased with my craft show set up. Don't look too closely at the prices. I already know they are too low. 

The princess totes went to Abby & Olivia in Denver. The 2 mug mats were commissioned. I like that they are similar, but different. The two pillowcases were for Mollie's new pillow.

 My niece asked for collars and leashes for her girls' doll pets. Lily's dog is wearing the new collar, but Anna wanted to put hers on her new unicorn. It's a good thing I made them adjustable!

I liked the NYB postcards so much, I put them in tow blog posts! I spent one night in front of the TV making origami stars for a small Christmas tree. I need to get my paper folding fix from time to time! The brownie trees were my go-to party contribution. The candy cane bow tie is for my super cool son.

 

Twelve key fobs made from my father's ties were gifted to all of his kids and grandchildren.  Some people cried. Mission accomplished.

In addition to all the crafting and quilting, I did take a few breaks to cheer on my kids. Pete participated in the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps birthday ceremony. He's on the 45 yard line on the left, 6th from the front. (Julia and I watched the ceremony live streaming on line.)

That's Julia, number 11, playing in a rugby tournament that her team won. We also went to her Christmas concert to hear her sweet solo. She has the most beautiful singing voice, but can throw a mean tackle!

 

 There was some beautiful color in the house: birthday roses, pretty poinsettia and anniversary roses. Someone knows my favorite color!

Random Stitching

There's been a whole lotta random going on around here. I'm really enjoying these small projects.

Beth at EvaPaige Designs is collecting blocks for her new pattern. (Learn more about it here.) This is the block in all solids that I made for Beth to keep.

Three of these blocks will be swapped, and I couldn't resist making extras for myself.

Since there were stitch and flip corners on these blocks, I had a pile of tiny triangles, begging to be sewn together.  Funny story- a Girl Scout friend stopped by last week and we went through my bin of GS fabrics for her troop's t-shirt quilt. She asked me about the small pieces and wondered how small a piece would I save. I showed her this pile of triangles that I just couldn't throw away. The colors were too pretty!  The HSTs in this mug mat finished at just over 1". The whole mat is 7" X 8".

Digging around my stash, I found a bag of hourglass blocks that Julia had made. The polka dots are fun, but we really had no use for the blocks or the wallhanging they were planned for. I started playing with them and suddenly remembered that there is a local quilting bee collecting placemats for Meals on Wheels. It was fun mixing up the parts into these three designs. I quilted them on Saturday night after seeing American Sniper. I needed to spend some time in my happy place! The colorful striped binding was in my scrap binding bin.

I've been playing with these Orca Bay parts for a couple of weeks. I used almost everything I had left to make three more placemats. Making placemats is my new favorite thing to do!

We could call all this random stitching procrasti-quilting. I really need to quilt my schnitzel and boo swap piece. Maybe I'll gather the courage today. I'm hesitating because my swap partner has a long arm and does some really beautiful work. I can't compare with that on my Bernina, so I just need to let it go and do my thing.

More Random Stitching

 Does this happen to you when you clean your sewing room? I found a bunch of small projects that required some quick stitching and now they are done! Why do they sit in piles for so long?

The lovely folks at American Made Brand sent out tote bags after the 50 state blog tour. I saw that another participant had used her scraps to trim the top of the bag. When I found my tote and pile of scraps last night, I knew just what to do.

 I used the bits and pieces leftover from my license plate block to piece a strip. Again, I feel like I have more scraps now than before! How do scraps multiply?

Then I found some coaster kits leftover from a beginner quilting class last Spring. We used them to help teach 1/4" seam accuracy.

 Not long ago, I bought some bandanas from The EGA Shop. This morning before breakfast, I stitched two together into a throw pillow for Pete's bed.

I love this room! As I was editing this pic, I noticed that I put up the flag backwards. Oops.

Not bad for a few hours of random stitching!

Edited: I never posted a pic of Debbie's completed placemats. I just wanted a record of them here. My niece is renting an apartment with a lavender dining room. When she came to visit in August, she picked out some fabric from my stash. This was a two day project only because I had to run out and buy fabric for the binding. Why did it sit for over a month?

Mini Valentine

 I had some scraps left over from the Be Mine/Big Love wall hanging, so I made a mug mat for my mom. I'd like to write a full tutorial but I don't have time today, and you might want to make one right away!

 I followed Beth's mini heart tutorial at Smazoochie using her dimensions for the 4" heart. Then I made 16 HST units that are 2.5" unfinished (2" finished). Bonnie Hunter and Marianne Hatton finally convinced me to use the Easy Angle ruler for half square triangles and I love it! You should use the method that works best for you.

A dusting of powder on top of 4" of  icy snow frozen solid.

 I had fun with the straight parallel lines of quilting. I love the area where they intersect under the heart. Let's ignore the fact that I chopped off the bottom point of the heart. I told a friend this week that there is a time and a place for perfectionism. This was not the time or the place!

Mini Valentine Mug Mat

8" X 10"

2/6/14

WIP Wednesday

 I just have a few minutes to say hello. I've been sewing every day to get ready for a holiday craft show. I love these baby blankets made with flannel and minky. Please prewash your fabrics before making these. Don't ask me how I learned that lesson! I washed with Ivory Snow and they smell like babies! 

The blankie on top is for my sister who is now a grandmother! We can't wait to meet our newest family member. My sister is hosting Thanksgiving dinner which is why I am sewing today and not cooking.

I have a batch of fresh paper pieced lapel pins ready to go.

 

I love flannel infinity scarves. I wear them often through the winter. They are so cozy!

I wanted to have more quilty things on my table, so I made six mug mats to sell with matching mugs.

 

If you are in the area, I hope you'll stop by this great sale. There are almost 100 vendors! See the listing for quilts on the poster? That's me, so I guess I'd better get some actual quilts finished to sell.

Pete is excelling at boot camp. We are certainly going to miss him tomorrow, but we're so happy that he'll be home for Christmas.

Stitching Stars Prep

 We're in the final stages of preparation for Ninigret Quilters' Stitching Stars quilt show. To take a break from paperwork, I spent the long weekend stitching stars.

 I pieced together some block parts and fabric leftover from the raffle quilt to make this little top. I'm planning to raffle it off to the quilt show volunteers. Surprise, Ninnies!

 I had a few more stars and scraps to play with, so I made eleven mug mats. Most of the stars were rejected from the raffle quilt because they were too big. They were perfect for improv piecing.

Simple straight line quilting is effective on these small pieces. They are roughly 7X10".

The guild is planning to teach a beginner quilting class starting in January. We thought the show would be a great place to publicize it. A few of us are making samples, and here's mine.

I've had these music prints for years, and it was time for them to be used!

OK. My break is over. Back to quilt show prep!

Swap Roundup

Just a quick post to show you what's going out, and what has come in!

IN: The Picture Perfect Polaroid blocks arrived yesterday! Debbie went above and beyond on this one.  The swap exploded beyond her expectations. Thank you Debbie!

 

 IN: I received my Summer Scrappy Mug Rug last week from Oh Sew Liz. Isn't it sweet? I love the little extras, too.  Thanks, Liz!

 OUT: The Summer Scrappy Mug Rug that I made for Jan was shipped again! Exactly two weeks after I shipped it out to California, it arrived back in Rhode Island. I did not write out her address correctly (missed a digit in her street number), and back it came. UGH! I shipped it out again, priority with tracking this time, and she should receive it today, hopefully no worse for wear with 9000 miles logged!

OUT: Low Volume Swap charms were shipped this week.

I'm off to play with Polaroids today!

Summer Scrappy Mug Mat Swap

 My Summer Scrappy Mug Rug Swap is ready to ship.

My partner had a few spool blocks in her mosaic, so I went looking for a pattern. I found a Carol Doak design for mini spools and drafted it myself.

Partner also had some selvages in her mosaic, so I used some on the back. I wrote on some blank sections of selvages as the label.

Remember when I tore out the hot pink quilting? This time, I used some light green, purple and yellow. It's better, but I'm still not 100% happy with it.  I am not ripping it out again! It is supposed to look like the thread is coming off the spools.

It was a fun project, and I hope my partner likes it!

 

And now, because I'm addicted to swaps, I'm off to purchase some low volume fabric for this swap...

Sign ups started today and are limited to 56 participants, so head over there now if you are interested!

Modern Mug Mats on Monday

 I was a little focused on mug mats this weekend! The Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild met on Saturday afternoon, and there was a Christmas/Winter mug mat swap. I had a pile of hexies already cut out, so I pieced some together on Friday night, quilted it up on Saturday morning, and it was ready to swap at the meeting!

I love the striped binding. I used up the very last bit of that fabric. So sad! The polar bears on the back were left over from the tote bags I made for my grand nieces last Christmas.

Ryco ric rac.  Oh yeah!

 It was random drawing and I totally scored by picking this lovely mat made by Kathy.

Since the meeting was held at Ryco, we just had to shop! This pile will become a laptop sleeve for Julia.

And this pile will become throw pillows for her dorm room. We can't leave Ryco without buying more ric rac!

 On Sunday, I started working on a mug mat for the Summer Scrappy Swap. My partner had a couple of spool quilts in her mosaic, so I looked around and found a Carol Doak pattern that appealed to the mini paper-piecer in me. 

I quilted it up in hot pink thread and hated it!  It was supposed to look like the thread was coming off the pink spool and looped around the piece.  Yuck!  I tore it all out!

I'll try again with lighter colors.  First, I need to do something about all the needle holes.  I sprayed it with sizing and it's a little better, but I might need to really saturate the hole thing.  You can see a bit of the backing that I pieced from selveges, another favorite of my partner. 

Sew Modern Monday is on summer break, so visit the Flickr group instead...