Visit your local Quilt Shop Day

Well according to someone somewhere today is officially...

I, of course, did my duty and went to visit my girls at my local shop, Quilting Possibilities.  The girls there have been calling me their "Friday Girl"  since I usually stop in on Friday's after physical therapy.  (But honestly... I have been known to stop in up to three times a week)

So I stopped in and showed the girls my Caroline mini quilt and then picked up a couple pieces of fabric.  You think I would go and not buy something... never.  I am making a variation of this Valentine Mini Quilt that is on Canoe Ridge Creations and I have almost no solid fabrics in my stash.  So I grabbed some kona cotton in pink and red started it today.  Maybe I will get it together by tomorrow.

Project Quilting

I have been doing a lot of reading lately (because I have a lot of time) and came across a really fun blog, Kim's Crafty Apple. On her blog she does a fun friendly competition called Project Quilting.  I have decided to join in.  This week is Challenge 2 - Making Music.  You have to pick a song and use that as your inspiration for your quilt.  It can be any size or shape.  Well as I read this the first songs that popped into my head were Caroline and Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show.  I decided to go with Caroline.  


...Oh Caroline
(Round) Caroline
Heartbroken hard times, they never got us down
Walkin' the same line through every single southern town
Hand in hand your arm 'round mine
Oh Caroline

Oh Caroline
(Round) Caroline
I seen it all change, watch it change some more
Seen hard times standin' right outside your door
Tell me gal what's on your mind
Oh Caroline


... You'l do just fine, Caroline


So this song has special meaning... it is a song that always takes me to the river when I hear it.  Every time we paddle we play this song at the put it so clearly my quilt would be based on the river in some fashion.  And the phrase in the chorus "heartbroken hard times... never got us down" really has a strong meaning right now since I am currently unable to paddle.  (a knee injury and then surgery has taken a toll on me and has kept me off the water since September).

I dug through my stash and came across some amazing batiks. Perfect colors for my modern abstract mini quilt.  

I am calling this quilt Caroline.  It is an abstract of the river, the mountain and the sky (setting sun).  To get more specific, that "mountain" is dimple rock on the Lower Yough which I have had a love/hate relationship with for the last few years.  

The back is just the purple batik that I used for the "mountain" and it is bound with the same material.  Lots of quilting.

Each section is pieced with sections of the batik.  It really shows off all the different colors that are in the fabrics.  

The river section really shows all of the colors.  I love the water color effect in the fabric.  I zig-zaged over all of the edges of the pieces.  

I love the join of the sky, mountain, and river.  This mini quilt takes me to the river and to where I really wish I was as I am typing this.  

I really hope that sometime in the next couple months I can get back onto the river.  

And I thank a close friend, Jared, for playing this song EVERY time we boat.  I actually love it... even it it makes everyone we boat with call me Caroline. :)

Some little projects...

Sorry for the poor quality, it's a cell phone
pic.  I forgot to take the finished pic... oops. 

So this week I finished up a couple little projects.  I made the shapes to match Juliet's quilt.  Her mobile will match now.  I am super excited to give it to them.  The quilt is actually a surprise to them :)


I also started my first quilt as your go project this week.  I decided to start it off as a pillow.  Since I had all my valentine fabrics out I figured that it was perfect timing for a valentine project.  I found a piece of batting in the craft room and started on my new project. I started with a square of red with a heart and expanded.  I worked until I felt I was done (bored, haha).

I then added a backing with my serger and then made an envelope style closure.  I love how it turned out and how quilty (hmm... is that a word?) it looks.  It was actually a fairly easy method and will use it again sometime.  

And last weekend was my best friend's boyfriend's birthday.  He was nice enough to invite me to his birthday celebration, which after the Christmas card I sent him I was a little surprised (think card + glue + entire tube of glitter).  He took it in good stride, told me he opened it outside.  He made the mistake of telling me he HATES glitter.  Well I LOVE glitter (and so does his girlfriend, my friend).  Glitter makes everything better.  So I figured that I should give him something that he loves which is Johnny Walker black label... but with a twist.  I decided to glitterfy (yes that is my word) his gift.  

I know, I know... another cell phone pic.  

I laughed the entire time making these.  His girlfriend loved them and he didn't want to touch them, haha.  Hey, it was the most original gift at his party.

And now I am trying to decide on what to work on.  My major quilt in progress, the retro quilt, hasn't gotten much farther.  Another is my Hawaiian quilt (pictured below).   I also have projects for another friend that is due in March (so crazy excited for this Em!) but those won't be posted about until later because I don't want to ruin that surprise.  And I have some projects in waiting... a Halloween quilt is on my shelf waiting to be started and an idea for a modern quilt is brewing from a chart at physical therapy (so funny I know).  Oh and I found a dress that I started 6 years ago in my closet so that is a must finish project... the fabric is super cute.  

I am just trying to decide how to finish it...  I really wish I had more of this fabric to do a border then a stacked border of all the colors then another sashing around that.  But it was a charm pack gift from my mom from one of their trips to Hawaii and I can't seem to find it online... so I am thinking that a yellow border then maybe the purple border fabric (not sure about that though because it is a different print than the rest), then the pink border then the green binding... I am not sure though... ugh! But I do know I will be backing it with a white on white hibiscus print that I need to order and hand quilting it with a design out of my Hawaiian quilt book.  I love that all of the fabrics have come from Hawaii, even the border, and that bot my Mom and I contributed to it.


Oh well... off to play with my fabric collection some more :)

Mini quilt for April

I was so excited today when a friend of mine said she would be coming to visit to go out to lunch.  I haven't seen her in what feels like forever since I have been kinda home bound since a knee surgery in October.

So since I was so happy she was making the hour drive to see me I decided to make her something super cute and fun and quick.  And what is better than a mini quilt?




I began by dumping out a box of my stash and digging through to find some small pieces that I could use.





 I decided to make it similar to a string quilt.  I grabbed some fabrics and said to myself that no matter what I was just going to grab and sew and not worry about what fabrics were places next to each other (this was so hard for me!). But as luck would have it, it looked pretty awesome when I pressed it.

I then trimmed it to square it up and dug through my scraps and came up with some pieces to make the sashing.  At first I wasn't planning on making one, but decided that it needed it to frame out the fun block.



I didn't put too much thought into the backing and in hindsight I would change what I used, but I chose to piece together some scraps.  I then used a scrap of warm and natural for the batting. I pin basted it and went to quickly do some quilting on it.

 I stitched in the ditch around the inside of the border and then randomly across the center following the seams of the fabrics.  I then stitched one presser foot width from the seam of the border on the cream fabric.  I feel that it really framed out the fun center.

Then I grabbed a strip of fabric that I had in my scrap box.  I tend to cut leftover fabrics down to 2.5 inch strips so they are ready when I do my strippy scrap quilt that I will one day make, which makes the perfect size for binding.  I grabbed a really fun purple piece and made up my binding.  I quickly machine stitched it on the back, folding it over and machine stitched it to the front.

Over all this was a super simple fun project that took about an hour to complete.  The finished size is 10.5" by 8" which makes a good large mug rug or trivet.  I love how the random sewing of the fabrics came out and the colors are so me.  (Which I guess is good cause they are out of my scrap box!)  Next time, I will think about the backing a little bit more, but I am happy with how it turned out.  I may need to make myself one now.

A quilt for Juliet part 2

So after I posted the first blog about Juliet's quilt I machine quilted the quilt and made the binding and then got lazy for a few days.  The quilt and binding sat on my craft desk staring at me until I finally got into gear and finished it.  It really didn't take long at all since I decided to machine bind it.  Knowing how much it will be used I felt that it was ok to be a slacker this time.

I quilted it by doing a straight stitch just next to the seems.  I was good at staying straight until my mind started to wander.  Oops.

I used one of the darker pinks for the binding.  It turned out super cute and I am in love with it.

After I started the quilt I was asked if I could make some shapes for the mobile that they already have from their first child.  They are just replacing the boy shapes with girl ones.  Since I still have plenty of fabric left over I said no problem.  So I will be making a star, sun, crescent moon, cloud, and of course a heart.  

I am linking up to Fabric Tuesday at A quilt Story with this finished quilt.

Bloggers Choice Fat Quarter Bundle

So one of the blogs I like to read, Quokka Quilts is doing a fat quarter bundle giveaway from the Fat Quarter Shop.  So I went over and looked through a huge selection of fabrics and I love all the colors they have and came up with this bundle.  I love the colors that are in it and how the all match but are just a little different.

What I have here going across the rows are

1. BellaSolids-9900-144-200 Moda

2. Modernology Raspberry Mod Vines-MO-3810-200

3. Dazzle Magenta VIne-5419-E-200 Andover Fabrics

4. Dazzle Sky Blue Circles -5417-B-200 Andover Fabrcs

5. CrazyDaisy Turquoise-4642-84-200 Benartex Fabrics

6. Bespoken Turquoise Sequins -BE-6109-200 Pat Bravo

7. BellaSolids Ruby Ice-9900-169-200 Moda

8. Pinfeathers-4544-62-200 Carina Gardner

9. Ruby Cotton Aqua Sublime Yardage 55035-12 Moda
10. YardSale Multi Summer Paisley-49-MULTI-200 Dear Stella Fabrics

11. BellaSolids Pink -9900-27-200 Moda

12. OohLaLa Sherbert Cercel De Fleurs-DC5203-SHER-D-200 Michae; Miller

13. Mimosa Orange Pop Ditsy-15-ORANGE-200 Dear Stella

14. Terrain Bloom Leaves-27097-21-200 Moda

15. UrbanZoologie- Pink Staggered Owls 10348-10-200

I am super excited to see the results of the giveaway!  And excited that I have found a store with so many fun pattern fabrics to choose from.

A quilt for Juliet

A friend of mine and his wife are expecting their second child in February.  I figured it would be nice to make them something little for her.  When I asked what colors they were going to use I was told "pink with hearts".  And my first thought was "ugh, I am not sure I have anything in my stash that will work."  So I went digging, and I do mean digging since part of my stash is packed in bins.  To my surprise (and yes I was surprised with what I found) I found a nice pile of valentine fabrics... pink with hearts.

I decided I wanted to make it a simple quilt, so it wouldn't take too much time and I loved the look of many strip like quilts I have seen lately ( like this one from A Quilt Story).  So I went to work cutting strips of the fabrics.  I cut 2 - 2.5" strips of 6 of the fabrics.  And 6 - 2.5" inch strips of the last one (these are for my sashings).  I then cut each of the strips of the  6 main colors in half (making 24 strips).  I laid them out, sewing 6 strips together lengthwise at a time.  I did this 3 times, leaving the last 6 strips alone.

I trimmed up the strips and measured them to see what length I had to play with for strips I wanted to cut.  I then decided on what I wanted for the widths of my strips in my quilt and went with cutting 2 - 3" strips, 2 - 4.5" strips and the last piece left was just about 6 inches.  I did this to the 3 sets of pre-sewn strips and then to the individual strips too.

I left some strips apart because I wanted to give more of a random look to the strips and didn't want them to be perfectly matching.  I laid out the strips and began to put together my strips.


Once they were all together I pressed them and sewed them together with the sashings.  I love the look of this quilt.  It came together quickly, except for the hour I spent changing the thread in my serger.  (Ugh!)



And it is not overly pink as I thought it would be.  Now onto the quilting and the binding.

Happy New Year

So this is a little out of order, but here is to a happy healthy 2012.  So overall 2011 wasn't too bad of a year.  Started out strong with a lot of running, a few first descents on some rivers, made it past dimple rock right side up and in one piece (wohoo!), and had some awesome times (and trips) with friends!  I can admit it could have ended better (ugh knee!), but here is to 2012 and bouncing back better than ever!

I started the year out right from a Jersey Girl point of view... with my toes in the sand (and the cold water!)

Retro Quilt

So I have decided that I needed to make myself a new quilt.  I haven't made myself a quilt in years, but tend to make at least 1 (if not more) for other people every year.  This will be a busy year with friends getting married and having babies so I need to get it started now.

I have been going through my stash lately.  I have been collecting and creating my stash for over a decade now (wow I feel old!).  I worked at a fabric and craft store and that is when it all started.  I collected some retro feeling fabrics and saved them all this time.  Upon a recent trip to my fabric store I found some more that matched my small collection so I picked up a couple yards and decided to get going on my quilt.

I have 9 different fabrics that I will be using.  I started slicing  up my fabric.  I am cutting 2.5 inch squares of all the fabrics.  But leaving some strips anywhere from 6 to 18 inches.

There is no pattern and as I lay out the squares I have some random strips scattered in.

I just lay out sections and then sew the sections into blocks that I can put together at a later date.

I want this to be a queen size (or at least full) quilt.  This is going to take a lot of squares and a lot of sewing.  I will keep updating on my progress as I go along.  I already have a back log of projects that I want to do so hopefully this won't get put away for anything else.

Quilts of last year (2011)

So this past year I kept myself very busy, for at least the last few months.  I was out of work and limited to my movement around town so it was a year of hand sewn Christmas gifts.  Prior to that I made a couple gifts for a friend.  They had a little girl, born June 30.
I knitted her a small, stroller sized blanket and made her a small crib sized quilt.

I also did some knitting of hats.  One for me and one for my nephew.  During that time of lots of knitting, I made my own double pointed needles with a dowel stick.  I cut the dowel into 5 short pieces and then sharpened the ends with a pencil sharpener.  A quick sanding with some super fine sand paper and I had cheap great knitting needles.  The pink hat has a ribbed brim with a seed stitch crown.  The hat for my nephew I casted on 63 stitches to knit on the round.  I then knit 6 and purled 2 to make the swirl up the hat.  He is 6 and told me that this is the best hat because there is no tag so you an wear it any way you want.

Once I was able to do a little more, I began to do some sewing.  My first project was a quilt for my other nephew.  He turned 2 this year so I wanted to make him a quilt for his big boy bed.  I had super cute duck patterned flannel so I based the quilt on that.  Lots of work and quilting later I had this super cute quilt for the little guy.  It is just a simple patchwork quilt.  The back has a little special touch, too.  He loved it so much he had to lay on it in the box.

I then came across in my stash so pieces of a quilt that I had cut and cut began to piece (I would guess) at least 6 or 8 years ago.  It was a Christmas quilt so I pulled together all the pieces that I had for the quilt and began to lay it out.  I found just enough to make the main part of the top and had to go to the local fabric store (Quilting Possibilities) to hopefully find some matching fabrics for the borders.  I knew that I had bought enough fabric when I started it years ago, but had no idea what happened to it until I started unpacking Christmas decorations.  Oops, it was made into different Christmas crafts.  It was ok, though, because they had great fabrics that matched.  I was very happy that I still had a piece large enough (almost) for the back.
The center blocks are a 9 patch where each square is 3 inches, then bordered by a check pattern.  The top and bottom are small 4 patch blocks where each square ends up being 1.25 inches.  The back even has a sashing on it (it was just inches too small so I really lucked out).  I zig-zag stitched around the blocks and the borders.  This was for my Mom.

I then saw some super cute clutch purses and decided to try and make a couple for my sister.  They were super simple and super cute.  They too only just over a quarter of a yard of fabric to make and maybe just over an hour.  I love that I have so many things in my stash that I don't even need to go out to buy zippers.

For my Dad, I decided to make him a kindle case since he bought himself a kindle but never bought a case.  I made it out of a canvas that I had laying around.  I used fuse-able fleece on the inside to give some cushion to the screen and kindle.  The clasp is a cute sailor button with an elastic that loops around the button.

I then realized that I needed to make something for my other sister because she couldn't be left out of the whole homemade Christmas gifts.  Thinking about what I could make her and looking at pictures I realized that she always wears the same vegetable apron so I decided to make her a new one.  This apron is a reversible one based on the one she already has.  It is made out of a decorator canvas (that I originally used on a book-bag).  Each side has pockets, just opposite in colors.

So after I made all of these things I decided I needed to make something for a friend.  She had been super supportive with the rough time so I pulled out all the scraps I had left form the Christmas quilt and came up with this table runner.  And after it was seen by my Mom, she wanted one too (since she had no idea of her gift) so I made her one too.  My friend loved it, she was so surprised that I took the time to make her something.

And the last project of 2011 were 2 super simple quick mug rugs for my friend as a hostess gift for new years.  Literally 10 min each and done.  I just pulled what I could out of my scrap box and came up with this. I loved the colors!