Finished in 2011 No. 4

I have finished another quilt. I'm almost too embarrassed to post about this one, though, because it has been sitting around unfinished for so long. This quilt top has been finished for what I am guessing has been nine years. My first year in graduate school my friend, Heather, and I, along with the other women in her family made 'crazy quilts.' We each brought a yard of fabric that we liked (my contribution was the light blue fabric with lady bugs and flowers) and we combined them all to make crazy quilts. And even though I had the backing I never got around to finishing mine. Until now.

I used left-over batting from our headboard project and simply sewed the front, back & batting together (the first time I did with the batting on the outside - I was very thankful for my seam ripper when I figured that one out). Then I finished it by tying it with blue embroidery thread. I originally tried yarn but it was too difficult to pull through - I have no idea how folks tie quilts with yarn, I'm open to suggestions, though! I think I may need to go back and tie off in a few more places but I'd like to find some red embroidery thread first.

Normally I am not a fan of polyester binding and tying quilts but in order to get this one finished something had to be done. I'm glad I've finished this one, not just because it was sitting around for so long but also because Allison loves it. Go figure!

One other little note, when working on this quilt my friend, Natalie, happened to be over. She took one look at the quilt and then looked at me and asked 'So, do you think your style has changed?' Yes, Natalie, yes it has!

The Toddler Bob

Allison was long over due for another hair cut this weekend. Her hair is very fine (like mine) and so far fairly thin as well. And Mark and I are not particularly gifted in 'doing hair' (yes, Mark 'fixes' Allison's hair more days than I do!). I took Allison to our local 'Great Clips' and we had a great experience and it only cost me $10 (not including the tip). I know some folks out there think it is crazy to pay money to get a child's hair cut - but trust me - if I can't even 'fix' her hair there is no way I could cut it! And I love how cute the little 'toddler bob' turned out.

Pillow Love

I finished making the decorative pillows for our master bedroom last week. In general, I like how they turned out, although the felt on the front pillow is a bit bluer than the other two pillows. I guess that is what I get for using stuff I have around the house to make pillows.

Sewing covers for decorative or throw pillows is quite easy. I begin with a pillow form (the big striped pillow above uses a 16"x16" pillow form - bought at JoAnne's with a 50% off coupon). I cut the front piece to be 1/2" bigger in length and width than the pillow form (in this case 16 1/2" x 16 1/2". Next I cut two pieces for the back, each 1/2" bigger in width and 3 1/2" bigger in height. I then fold the two back pieces in half, wrong sides together. I then pin the raw edges of the back pieces to the right side of the front, the folds overlapping in the center. I sew all the way around the pillow cover with a 1/4" seam. I turn the pillow cover right side out and am left with two overlapping flaps in the back. I'm not sure if those directions make sense....I don't have the patience for writing tutorials!

I generally apply my decorations to the front before sewing the cover together, although on occasion I have done it afterwards. I'll provide a little info about the embellishments I selected for each of the individual pillows below.

I used frayed rolled rosettes to make this pillow using a tutorial from Made by Mama Monster. The fabric I used? It was left-over from the sheet set I bought to get a flat sheet to cover our box spring (Ross Dress for less has great cheap sheet sets if you don't actually have to sleep on the sheets!). The sheet fabric frayed nicely!

I used white felt and followed another Made by Mama Monster tutorial to make these hydrangea flowers. I think I cut 30+ out and sewed them with a simple cross stitch in the center to a felt circle. Once they were all attached I sewed the felt circle onto the pillow cover front using a blanket stitch. The fabric for this cover was made using the same Ross Dress For Less sheet set used to make the rolled rosettes.

This pillow cover was made using the left-over linen fabric from our headboard project. I used a decorative leaf stitch on my sewing machine to apply three rows of vines in a basic green thread color. It then stitched rolled felt roses onto the vines.

And that wraps up my decorative pillow creations for the time being. Although I do have an Alaskan friend who mentioned awhile back she could use some pillows for her couch....I'm going to see what sort of scraps I can scrounge up to meet that 'need'.....

The Finished in 2011 Club - No. 2

I spent this last weekend with my dear friend Leslie. We had planned a skiing adventure but the weather and snow conditions were less than cooperative. So we did what we usually do when we get together - sew away! Leslie is working on a fantastic Amy Butler pattern 'Weekender Bag.' And I finished up this quilt. This is my first quilt made using Moda charm packs. I bought them because I absolutely fell in love with this fabric. It is so bright and cheerful, the pictures don't really do it justice. I finished quilting it this weekend and put the binding on. And I've spent my Sunday afternoon reading / rest time under it. Something about it just makes me smile. I tried something new on this one, too. Rather than buying extra fabric for the backing I used some leftover binding and border fabric to piece the back. I actually like how it turned out. The main brown fabric on the back is my favorite from the entire line, I think. I didn't really have a purpose for this quilt when I bought the fabric, and I still don't have a plan for it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be using it plenty!

The Finished in 2011 Club

I'm starting a new club. It is a club of quilts. I'm hoping it will have a lot of members! I've been making several quilts a year for several years now. But each year I start more quilts than I finish. I have ended up with quite the backlog. So my goal for 2011? Finish more quilts than I start. We'll see how it goes. This is the first quilt finished in 2011. It was given to a friend of mine at her baby shower last weekend. It helps to have a deadline. This particular friend of mine has a jungle themed nursery and this is her third baby - so I kept the jungle theme but went a bit modern and outside the box with this one. I think I like it! And notice the binding made of different fabrics? That is due to my 'no scraps left behind policy' - why buy fabric for binding unless you need to?!

The Little Red Chair That Could Take II

Back in July of 2008 I had an all time favorite post, it was this one, about a little red chair we had while my niece, Ella was visiting. Well, Ella is back in full force and the little red chair has a new partner. We tried to capture another 'Little Red Chair at the Beach' picture this year and it was an ADVENTURE to say the least.....I've included the out takes so you can enjoy them as much as we did.

We think Ella is getting ready for the picture here....But then she turns around and takes off!

Then Ella learned how to tip her chair over!

And she was off & running again.

At one point in time Allison actually stood up, pointed her finger and started talking her gibberish. We have no idea what she was saying but we're pretty sure she was telling her silly cousin to sit down & behave!

Allison cooperating.

And finally, our two girls!
I haven't done any photo-editing on these yet, I'm hoping I can get rid of the stickers on the back but we shall see! Back to enjoying time with the family!

Our Little Biker Babe

Summer seems to have finally arrived here! We celebrated by going for a bike ride on Saturday. I'm very thankful we decided to hire someone to clean our house - it makes it much easier to get out and do these things guilt free.....now if only we could out-source the grocery shopping so Mark doesn't have to make a late night dash to WinCo on Monday nights =). We rode all the way out to Philomath and when we got there we realized we were just a few blocks away from our friend, Cara Lynn's house. So we dropped in for a quick little visit - she hadn't seen Allison in months so it was quite the treat. We're hoping to make it out to visit on our bikes more often!