Happy Birthday Layla

My friend's little girl turns 1 today.  We had originally planned to visit today as they headed to the beach, but with me on crutches and their families going with them it would be a bit of a production.  So to celebrate with Layla in my own way I sent her a couple onesies that I stitched a little something on.

Two little cupcakes for a little cupcake.  

One with a cherry on top and...

the other with rainbow sprinkles.  (My favorite!)

I sent them earlier this week and she got them on Thursday.  Her Daddy, my very good friend, called to thank me.  He said that they are Layla approved.

Works in Progress

So while I am off the sewing machine for a bit I have decided that I should must make a list of all my work in progresses.  I have been a busy bee lately, making up some little quilts for my sister's colleagues and making sure things were finished and cleaned up before my surgery.  So while cleaning up I found I have a lot of projects going on...

Hawaiian Quilt - same as last time I mentioned it.  I need to get some white on white hibiscus for the backing and maybe a nice piece of yellow.  I have decided I will hand quilt this with a design out of my Hawaiian quilt square book like it is just one giant square.

Matthew's Space Quilt - a large pile of fabrics.  I need to figure out the design on this, but I like the idea of having circles in it.

I-Spy Quilt - Still collecting fabrics for this.  I can't wait to get it done for my nephews, it will be great for them to watch movies under.

Retro Quilt - Well I did a little work on this and it has been upgraded from a small bin to an under the bed box, wohoo!  I have all my fabrics in there with it so I won't accidentally use them on something else.  I am planning on this being full/queen, but we will see when I can't stand working with the 2.5' squares anymore.

Hexagon Quilt - Well as I lay on the couch with my polar care cooler I keep stitching up my hexagons.  I am going to go across the quilt fading from one color to another.  I would love for this to be bed sized, but we will see because it will take forever!

Mom's Pillow Shams - Still in the piecing stage.  I have one top almost done and the second one is all ready to be but together.  All the hst's are sewn together and trimmed just waiting.  

Mom's Polka-dot Quilt - All fabrics stacked on my shelf in a pile waiting to start.  She wants all hst's.  They will be larger then the shams because 4" is too small for me to make a queen size quilt with.  I am thinking a finished size of 5" will be good.  

Mom's Hand stitched Pillows - Hand-stitching done, pieces cut and ready to be sewn when I am better.  Need to make the piping for the edge.  (I think she wants a plain accent pillow too, but she will have to wait on that)

I recently ordered some charm packs of Peak Hour by Riley Blake and I have an idea for those.  I also ordered some Lucy's Crab Shack charm packs by Moda.  Oh my goodness do I love this!  I am going to make the patchwork chevron quilt with it.  I am sad because I only ordered 2 packs though, so I will have to hit my LQS when I can to see if they have any of this line or something fun to match it.  I am thinking a light orange or light blue for the solids.  I also picked up a yard of a camping print from Dear Stella that may go with the crab shack in the quilt.  

I also sent off today a fun little package for  my one friend's little girl.  Layla will be one on the 30th so I did a little hand stitching and sent it to her.  I will have a post soon about my hand stitching that I have been doing while laid up.  

I also finished up a fun quilt for my sister that I need to write about last Wednesday.  Can't wait to share that fun one with you.  It has primary colors and solids.  I am starting to like solids more.  

My LQS is moving :(  but having a sale :).  And the best part of the move is... they will be closer to me!!!!  :D  Instead of an 8 minute drive it will be more like a 4 minute drive, haha.  I don't know if that is good or bad.  I am going through withdrawal, though, I haven't been in a week.  Hoping to convince someone to take me this weekend, there is a fabric I want to make a wedding gift for a friend and I don't want it to be gone, it has been in the sale room.  And since I had my right knee fixed, there is no driving until cleared by the doctor and that is still at least a week away.  

Well that is the end of my super long post.  Not so many pictures, but at least I have written out a list of things to do.  I am off to make some more hexies.  

Stacked Coin Baby Quilt 2

After I finished the stacked coin baby quilt for my sister (here) I realized I had just enough scraps left to make one more.  I really liked how quickly it went together and how there were no seams to match up so I whipped up another one.

I had a few less purple pieces, but it is just as cute as the first.  

I backed it with a pink with white stars that I found in my LQS sale room... $5 a yard!

It has warm and white batting and is free motion quilted with variegated pink thread.
This quilt measures about 29'x39', perfect for a little baby girl.

I decided to list this on in my Etsy shop.

I am linking up to Linky Party Tuesday at Quilting by the River and to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

So this is my current view...

Yup, yesterday I had my second knee surgery for this injury I got back in September 2011.  Amazingly I am feeling so mush better than I did at this point after the first surgery in October.  (Lets say that the anesthesia that time and I did not get along at all!)

I have learned that I need to stay off the computer when I am taking my quarter of a painkiller (yup I am a total lightweight).  I ordered myself some fabric today.  I ordered 2 Peak Hour charm packs from Poppy Seed Fabrics.  I also ordered myself some Lucy's Crab Shack charm packs from Intrepid Thread and a yard of Dear Stella Campground, too.

I have also been doing some more hexagon work.  I sewed only about 10 today, my little box is starting to get full.  Luckily, I have been stockpiling some projects that I get to post about while I recover.  I miss sitting at my machine already.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.  I am thankful to have my Dad.

Dad on his boat

As children, my sisters and I always said, "Dad can fix anything".  And we still say that today.  Today we spent time changing the windshield wipers on my car and earlier in the week he was fixing the license plate on the font of my car, too.  Even my nephews say, "Grandpa can fix it, just needs a screwdriver".  

Dad and my nephew talking tools as
they put together his cooler.

Today was a great Father's Day spent with my entire family.  I don't think we could have asked for anything better.  We are very lucky to have such a loving father (and Grandfather!) who is, according to the 6 year old, "as handsome as a cheetah".  

Little Girl Room

So a friend of mine sent me a picture of her girls in their Easter dresses and asked me if I could make her a duvet cover and curtains based on the dresses.  Of course I said yes and jumped at the challenge.  Ok, maybe not jumped because jumping and I are not friends at the moment, but I did say yes.  I headed to one of my favorite fabric stores and found the fabrics.  The dresses were green, pink, and brown gingham.  I found the exact colors and got started.

The first thing I made was the duvet cover.

The dress had strips of white with little bows, which I mimicked with white kona cotton.  Every single seam in this was done as a french seam so that there would not be any fraying when thrown in the washer.

As I didn't have a good bed to showcase this on I figured draping it over the couch worked.  I backed the duvet with a twin size sheet, putting snaps along the bottom edge to make it easy to open and take off of the comforter that she will be covering.  

Along with the duvet I made a valance and set of curtain panels.  

The panels had all three colors separated by the white and the valance was just the green with a white stripe.  I love how the curtains look.  I was back and forth about putting the white on the valance and I am so glad I did, I think it looks super cute.  These are also all lined, but this time I used the serger to save some time.  I wish I had a better picture of them, but I guess I will have to wait until I get some sent to me.  

I sent these off a couple weeks ago and the little girl, almost 2 years old, loves her new room decor.  I can't wait to see some pictures of it all set up :)

I am linking up to Ellison Lane's Summer Sewing Contest (this one is in the home decor section).  

Little zipper pouch.

One of my recent scrap bag fills from my LQS included a good pile of pretty pastel batik "strings" ranging from about .75" to 2" by 45".  I couldn't help it, the colors were so great together so I sat and sewed them on to some sew in interfacing, making them in to one piece of fabric. And there my fabric sheet sat until I heard it calling that it wanted to be a zipper pouch.

I used the little pieces I had left from trimming the front to make a strip on the back.  The back is a purple batik from my stash.  

I lined it with a neutral also from the scrap bag and made a little pocket on the inside with two sections.  

This little pouch is perfect for my hexies!  I carry it everywhere :)  The pockets hold my finished ones until I have a chance to put them in my super organized hexagon box.  

I am linking up to Ellison Lane's Summer Sewing Contest! 

Wohoo for summer sewing.  I will be doing more hand sewing over the next couple weeks so lets see how far I can get with my hexies.  

Puddle Quilt Finished!

Wohoo! I finished puddle quilt.  I stalled a little on this once I finished the top, but I quilted it up and here it is.

I started this quilt back in the beginning of May, just after I finished Cindy's Quilt.  I was nervous working with all solids, it was out of my comfort zone, but, I am very happy with how it turned out.  I did straight line quilting, echoing the triangle sections.  The solids are a variety of Kona cottons and Bela solids.  The back is Tweedy by P&B Textiles.  And I used Warm and Natural cotton batting.

Puddle Quilt measures about 66"x66".  The pattern is Curious Nature by David Butler, the same one I used for Cindy's Quilt.

This quilt will be the perfect snuggly quilt.  I have not decided what I will do with it yet, it may become a wedding gift for one of my kayaking friends.  It fits for our sport :)

And my little helper was here again.  She behaved and did not walk across my quilts as I was photographing them this morning.  

Ok... just one more in front of the hydrangea.  

I am linking up to Ellison Lane Quilts Summer Sewing Contest.  There are so many amazing projects linked up!  

I am also linking up to UFO Challenge June 2012 at Local Honey Crafts.

I am also linking up to Linky  Party Tuesday at Quilting by the river.  I love her link up every week!

Taking some time...

Hi All!  I know I have been quiet this week, but I really have been busy.  I have two finishes, well almost finishes, that I will have done hopefully by tonight.  Last week I can show you what I did one day...

I got to spend some time with my Dad on his boat out in the Barnegat Bay.  That is Barnegat Light, known as "old Barney".

Sunday this week was the "Sweet 16" party at my LQS, Quilting Possibilities.  They had an auction where they auctioned off 16 items.  Your "money" was the total you had spent in the months of April and May.  I had a nice total, haha, but there were people with much more that I had.  It was fun and I came home with 75 fat quarters.

Jim as the auctioneer.  

My haul!

Some are cottons and some are flannels.  Some I really like and some I am not so fond of, but all will be used eventually or shared with my friends.

It is always a good time at my LQS!

Fabrics fabrics everywhere...

As I am sitting at the dining room table trimming some half square triangles (which I feel like I have been doing for days!) I look up and just had to laugh and the fabricy mess that is here.  This is not my normal sewing space.  Everything is usually done upstairs in a bedroom where my machine is, but sometimes it is nice to be able to just spread out.

This is my view from where I am sitting.  I only have about 10 HST's left to trim, hooray!

A view from higher up.  I didn't mention in the photo that my hand stitching for the two pillows are under the baby quilt I am taking to my sister's house.  

The fabrics for Mom's pillow shams are Michael Miller's Going Coastal Sea Star in light blue (the navy is there too, but was only auditioned).  Also, By the Sea by Marcus Fabrics (the navy with the shells) and the white is a white on white nautical called Ramblings by P&B textiles.  Also auditioned is Starfish by Stella Design and a light version of By the Sea.  Starfish by Stella will be one of the hand-stitched pillows and the navy By The Sea will be the other.  

And just for fun here is a pic of most of what came out of my scrap bag...

By the time I took this picture I already cut up the pink and purple and pulled out the white for the baby quilt.  But there is still so much there!

And to give you an idea of how much is there for $5, that fun blue wavey (Surfin' Monkeys by Benartex) is just short of 2 yards in pieces ranging from 9"x11" to 9"x45".  Can't beat that!  

A Simple Baby Quilt

My oldest sister let me know about a month ago that she wanted me to make a baby quilt for her to give someone.  I of course said sure, not a problem.  She originally said she needed it for July, but she really meant June.  She asked me about it this weekend, oops.  Luckily I had already cut out pieces for it so I just had to sit down and do some sewing.

I did the quilt in a stacked coin style, cutting each piece 2.5" by 5" for the coins and the sashings are 3" wide.

The binding is a simple purple with little squiggles in it.   I think it frames the quilt nicely.  

The backing is a pink with a light pattern that reminds me of free motion quilting that I picked up at JoAnn's on Sunday (my LQS was closed already).  

The batting is Warm and White, it gives the little quilt a nice feel.  I did a free motion loopy squiggle on it.  Not too close together though, I wanted it to stay nice and soft for the baby.  

The finished quilt measures 33" x40".  It was super simple to make and to be honest, one of the best things is the fabric for the top came almost entirely out of a bag of "you pick" scraps I got at my LQS.  $5 gets you a gallon zip top bag to fill, it must close, and it is all yours.  My bag was seriously over 5 lbs :)  

 Oh and I had this little helper under my feet when I was trying to get photos between the rain.  She is my neighbor's cat Spooky who spends her days in my backyard.  The is the most friendly, person loving cat ever.  She was nipping at my ankles because I wasn't petting her.

I am linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and to Linky Party Tuesday at Quilting by the River.  There are great projects at both!