Some hand stitching

This weekend I worked on some hand stitching.  I headed to my LQS for a weekend sale and dragged my mother with me.  I should know by now that taking her with me is never a good thing.  I always spend so much more when she goes.  She saw a pillow pattern that she loved with hand stitching on it so I bought the pattern and started it this weekend.

Here are the two panels.  You only need one for a pillow, but after I completed the first one on just plain white I was informed that she wanted it on the white on white nautical... ugh.  So I started again.  

Plain white 

These are the two that I completed the stitching for.  I need to go back to get the rest of the fabric for the pillows because they were out of the fabrics already.  I was told they will be back in this week.  

White on white

She also decided she wants some shams for her new bedding in the same colors that will be in these pillows.  I love how my mom loves to add to my project list.

So I am not much a fan of hand stitching, but I was surprised at how easy it is and what a difference it makes.  I think I am going to play with it a bit more.

I am linking up with Linky Party Tuesday at Quilting by the River.  

Puddle Quilt

So after I finished Cindy's quilt I decided I loved the pattern so much that I decided I just had to make another with solids.  I don't do much with solids, but I figured I would give it a try.  I cam up with this top.

Solid blues and purples, I am calling it puddle quilt.  I had picked out a back already but when I went to lay it out I had wet hands and the blue came off on my hands!  I was not a happy camper.  I washed it in synthrapol, but the color faded so much that I didn't like it anymore.  I guess that is why it was on sale for $2 a yard.  I went to my LQS and found an even better backing so I need to get it sandwiched so I can quilt it up.

I also recently won a giveaway at Ellison Lane Quilts.  I won a great jelly roll of Vintage Modern.

I am in love with the colors of this fabric.  I can't wait to break into it to make something for myself :)

For now I am working on some hand stitching.  Making up some more hexies and doing a fun pillow I will post up about later this coming week.  

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!  

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I am so excited to be able to participate in my first Bloggers Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  I am entering Cindy's quilt in to the festival.  This has to be my favorite quilt that I have made so far! (And the biggest!)  I made this for my sister as her birthday / welcome home to NJ gift.

My original post about the finished quilt is here.  

It was actually pretty windy when I was
trying to get pictures that day

My sister sent me this picture after I gave it to her.  I didn't realize exactly how big I made it.  (She had only been there a week when she sent me the pic and I just had to share it... love how it matches the room!).  I am so glad she loves it.  

Mother's Day Cloth Napkins

For Mother's Day this year I wanted to make something different for my mom and my sister.  After some thinking and googling I came up with making them sets of cloth napkins.  I wanted to have both sides be finished so I doubled the fabric, making one square larger than the other and then folding it over and making mitered corners.  

For Mom I did purple with red flowers on one side and then brown with flowers on the other.  

For Katie (my other sister) I made her solid on one side and then a brown bamboo like print on the other.

Since I had some scraps from making them I decided to make Katie a set of cocktail napkins too.

The cloth napkins are a finished size of almost 17" x 17".  I made them each sets of 8 (only 4 of Mom's are pictured since we used them for dinner Sunday).  The cocktail napkins are 5" x 5".  They are only a set of 6 because that is all the scraps I had left.  

Mom loved hers.  Katie will get hers next weekend when I see her.  

I am linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Quilting by the River.

Cindy's Quilt Finished

I finished it!

I spent time Saturday and just a little time Sunday to finish all the quilting in this.  I quilted in the seems where the triangles are joined and then from there did triangles in each of the sections that got smaller as I quilted.  I had to take over the dining room to spread the quilt out as I quilted this on my machine.

I felt like it needed a special binding so I did a scrappy binding using the little pieces that I had left over from cutting my sections.  I have a lot of binding left over, I guess I got carried away making it.  I may use it to edge some towels for her kitchen or potholders.

Before attaching my binding I serged the edges to make it easier for attaching the binding.  I like how the serger cleans up the edges.  I sewed my binding on to the front then folded it around to the back.  Yup, those are binder clips, they help hold the binding in place pretty well.  I machine stitched the binding to the back by stitching along the seem line on the front.  It catches just the edge of the binding on the back.

The front

I love this quilt!  I am almost sad that I will be giving it away.  But at least I will see it when I visit my sister.

The back

I love that the back really shows the quilting.  This pieced back was not planned, but I didn't have enough of one fabric in my stash to do the entire back with one fabric and looking at it I am happy that I didn't.

I think the scrappy binding looks just as great with the back as the front.

The center of the quilt, all roads point to home (aka NJ) :)

All colorful folded up

I absolutely love this quilt.  I picked each and every fabric for my sister and the pattern, too.  I wanted something that was not traditional.  The pattern, Curious Nature, was so easy to follow and I will definitely be using it again.  I was so nervous about all those curves, but they were not bad at all!

I added an extra piece to each section  to frame the quilt making my finished quilt about 66" x 66".  It has warm and natural batting, giving it a nice weight, all soft and snuggly.   I know I didn't use the fabrics that it called for, but I love the bright colors of this quilt. 

I can't wait to give it to my sister!  After 10 years, welcome (back) home to NJ Cindy!

I am linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Quilting By The River and to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.  Check out the great projects linked up at both.

Cheesing it up

Last week I spent a couple days at my sister's house watching my nephews.  The 2 year old is such a ham.  He saw my looking at my phone and sat in his car saying... "cheeeeeeeesssssssse", waiting for me to take a picture of him.

The next morning he came in my room and was saying, "puppy cheese".  I look up and see him with my camera.  I later saw I had a bunch of pictures of puppy cheesing :)

Not a bad picture for a 2 year old, haha.  

Cindy's Quilt Update

Friday I finished the top of Cindy's quilt.

I am super excited about this one.  

I love how it looks from the back with the light shining through.  

I have chosen a backing... so excited to finish it!

Cindy's Quilt

So today I finally started my sister's quilt.  This was meant to be her birthday present, but it is now going  to be her birthday/welcome back to NJ gift.  After picking up two more fabrics for it Monday I told myself no more and got to work deciding how the layout would be. Here are the final collection of fabrics.

I am using the pattern Curious Nature designed by David Butler.  I sat down last night and figured where all the fabrics would go in the pattern since I am not using the exact directions for the quilt pattern.

So the instructions say to enlarge the pattern pieces by 400% on a copier, well that was a bit difficult so it took multiple times copying the pieces to get the outline so I could overlap it and tape the pieces together.  Next time it might be worth a trip to staples.

Does anyone else get nervous before the first cut of fabric???

5 of my fabrics into the cutting... still some more cutting to do before I get to sewing.  I am cutting and laying it all out first in case I want to change something before I put it together.