denim scrappy goodness

The wonderful thing about having multiple projects going at once is that you can (almost always) find something to finish in a short time frame. We had company over for most of the holiday weekend, but I did find a few minutes to finish up this pillow cover anyway. It's made from denim and tiny scraps that I just couldn't bear to part with. I love how it turned out!!!!

I used an envelope backing, so the cover is removable and washable. Envelope backings are so easy! I like to make my own pillow forms so that they are filled to my liking. I might be a little particular about my pillows. Hahaha! The pillow cover and the pillow form are both about 24" square. This is scrap project #187!

(The backing is good neighbors fabric, which happens to be on sale! :))

I had a few leftovers after making the pillow top, so I turned them into a thread catcher! It was better than throwing the leftovers away, or finding a place to store them. This is scrap project #188!  

I do love a good two-for-one project, don't you?

Happy Monday to you!

getting cozy!

Welcome to finish it up Friday! I hope you are having a happy Thanksgiving week!

I finished another pair of socks! These were knit especially for my friend Mary. The yarn is from Lush Knit, and the colorway is called "Life on Mars?" They were delightful to knit up. This is my 19th pair of hand made socks that I have finished to date!

I don't usually post home projects here (probably because I don't do a lot of home projects anymore---hahaha!) but this one was so satisfying! Several weeks ago my husband and I went to IKEA and we purchased these shelves (Knoppang picture ledges) with the intention of organizing my spices, but life got busy and the shelves sat in the corner behind the door. Normally, my husband would be the installer, but this task has never got very high on his list. (I can't blame him!) This week I decided to install them myself. I am glad that I was successful! This was formerly dead space behind my laundry room door, but now it's a lovely spice tower. It was SO NICE to have this done before cooking Thanksgiving dinner!!!

Since we hosted Thanksgiving this year, I made sure to have plenty of projects to work on while visiting with family. (Between rounds of cooking, that is!) In progress: crochet rag rug, crochet dishcloth, Maine morning mitts, and my "dot your i's quilt" (hand quilting in progress).

 

And everything seemed extra cozy because of our beautiful snowfall this week. I spent a lot of time staring out my window!

I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a lovely and safe holiday!

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday!

compass bag

I'm not normally a bag maker, but I do love carrying a handmade bag, so once in awhile I make an exception. :) This pattern is called the Compass Bag, by the amazing and talented Anna of Noodlehead. It's a very detailed and well written pattern--I was impressed! I started the bag on Saturday, took Sunday off, and finished it on Monday.

There was a lot of cutting right off the bat, and there are a lot of steps involved in the construction, but it's broken down into bite sized pieces, which makes it much less intimidating.  It was my first time using rivets, which add a nice finish to the exterior pockets. I pulled out a lot of tools for this one! It was fun!

I love the finished details on this bag. All the hardware (not to mention the zippered pocket) make it look so polished!

The pattern has a lot of room for customization: two size options, two strap options and two exterior pocket options. This is the large size with an adjustable strap and slip pockets.

The exterior print is a Japanese fabric I picked up on clearance at Bear Patch Quilting about a year ago. The accent and interior fabric is Sketch Screen by Timeless Treasures. Hardware was purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I can see this bag getting a LOT of use!

pincushion pattern winners

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the pincushion pattern giveaway. I loved reading about your quilting friends! The winners are: Nicole, Jackie Papallo, Judi, and artsycraftsyivy. Check your email inboxes. :) Thanks to everyone for playing along!

pincushions!

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

It's been another busy week, but I have some small finishes to share today. Small, but pretty darn cute!

I made these pincushions as samples for my local quilt shop. All 4 of these designs are in my pattern Plenty of Pincushions, Volume 1. I had to make new pincushions because I couldn't bear to part with the originals. Turns out these won't be easy to part with, either, even if it is only for a time! :) These are scrap project #186!

I decided yesterday that I'm going to try to make an entire quilt out of those little sailboats (top left). It's going on my bucket list!!! Each little individual square finishes at 1". It'll probably take me a lifetime to make the quilt....or, it'll end up as a mini or pillow cover. Hahaha! But seriously, can you imagine??? It's going to be epic!

One more finish....this may only be exciting to me, but I finally have my pincushion patterns in print! (Thus the need for the shop samples.) These are only available as wholesale right now, for local quilt shops to purchase, but getting a pattern to this point takes a long time, so it's definitely worth celebrating! Woohoo!

Because I think EVERYONE needs more pincushions in their life, I'd like to do a little giveaway. This giveaway will be for you AND a friend. Each of you will win a copy of the pattern! If you would like to be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment in this post. I'd love to hear a little bit about your friend/friendship and why you chose them for the drawing. I'll pick a winner in a few days! Please, leave your email address in the comment, so I have a way of contacting you.

edited to add: the giveaway is now closed. winners have been notified via email.

Ok, now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday!

WIP Wednesday

There are never a shortage of projects to work on around here, but I guess that's a good thing. I will never be bored....like, ever again. Ha!

This is a project I've been working on in little bits over the past few weeks. It's going to be a pillow cover. I combined the strips of scraps with strips of denim. I love the contrast and how the colors pop against the dark background. The dark background is also practical for a house with kids. :)

This quilt has been basted for weeks and I'm finally starting to quilt it. This one has high texture potential. The background is Essex Linen (in Flax) and the solids are Oakshott cottons. I love the combination. The squared off stippling is out of my box (hahaha!) so I have to really concentrate when I'm quilting it. (My shoulders are pretty sore, but I know that it will be worth it!) This is a twin size, so I'll break up the quilting over a few days.

I'm making progress on hand quilting my "dot your i's" quilt, too. I'm on the last step, which is quilting just inside each of the circles. I've already quilted the entire background (I stitched in the ditch) and the binding is already done, too. I hope to make good progress on the hand quilting over the holidays. It will be soooo great to have this one complete!

 

How about you? What are you working on this week? I'd love to hear about your projects!

brushstrokes quilt complete

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I managed to finish my brushstrokes quilt this week, which means that I'm back down to 10 WIPs. Hurray! I'm trying to keep that number down, even though I want to start ALL the things, ALL the time!

Loopy quilting was an easy and quick choice for this quilt. Since I quilted my last quilt with this same pattern, it was super easy--I was still in the groove! I made the loops nice and big so there is uniform quilting throughout the entire quilt. I did mark lines (with my wonderful hera marker) half way through each line of patchwork to keep me on track. It worked like a charm!

I've been enjoying using solids on the backs of my quilts lately. There is no repeat to line up (yay!) and the quilting is very visible. I love that! For this backing I used two different bright pinks from my stash (although they are so similar to one another that you really can't tell) along with a strip of leftover fabrics from the front. Making do with what you have on hand is always satisfying. At least it is to me. :)

I finished off the quilt with a gray good neighbors print for binding.

I love how it turned out! It measures about 56" x 72" and it's my 18th quilt finish for the year! This one will be headed to A Mother's Hope program.

Now, it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday!

brushstrokes quilt top

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I managed to complete another quilt top this week! Hurray!

I selected this bundle of fabric several weeks ago as a part of my mighty lucky challenge on effective fabric selection. I will admit, it's an unlikely combination of fabrics. It's definitely out of my box. I was anxious to cut it up and sew it all back together, just to see what would happen.

Once I got into the project, I was pleased to see that all the colors and patterns worked well together. I was especially delighted with the pops of yellow in the mix. In fact, I ended up cutting additional yellow squares a few different times, because I really liked what they added.

Yesterday when I completed the quilt top, I held it up and I thought, "geez, this quilt is really long!" After some calculating, I realized that I had made the quilt 18 rows long rather than 15 rows long.  Doh! My quilt top was 12" too long!!!

To fix it, I decided to add two more columns to the quilt, one on each side. Math mishaps happen. Haha! I just had to laugh at myself!!! It's a good thing I had plenty of extra fabric to round things out. :)

Now the quilt top measures 56" x 72", which is much more proportionate! I'm looking forward to quilting this one up!

 

(Fabrics are Brushstrokes by Holly DeGroot for Cloud 9, plus an assortment of fabrics from my stash.)

 

How about you? Do you have a finish to share this week? If so, please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday!

inspired by fall

We've been having a beautiful fall in Minnesota. Most of the photos I take fail to capture even a portion of the brilliance all around me, but it doesn't keep me from trying. :)

I'm sure that it will come as no surprise that those brilliant colors inspired me to pull out some scraps to match....

I've been wanting to play with about a thousand different combinations of solids lately, but this one got first place, for obvious reasons.

This is the quilt top that came out of that pile of scraps! I wasn't planning on using a creamy background (Kona snow) in this quilt at all, but once the blocks were up on my design wall, I knew that was the perfect addition. I love this one so much, it just might make it's way into my permanent collection! The quilt top measures about 51" x 67".

 

Thanks so much for all of your kind comments on my post yesterday! I appreciate each and every one!

effective fabric selection

Happy November! It's my month for the mighty lucky quilting club! My challenge is all about effective fabric selection. (Try saying that 5 times fast!) To me, one of the best parts about quilting is playing with beautiful fabric! Wouldn't you agree?

This fabric stack is something that I pulled together for the challenge....now I'm ready to chop it up into a bunch of pieces and turn it into a quilt. This is a bit out of my normal color range, so I'm anxious to see how it comes together and how much editing will need to happen along the way. It's always an adventure!

For those of you participating in the club, I can't wait to see what you come up with for the challenge! 

A few weeks ago, Sandi and I chatted all about scraps, fabric design, blogging and my mighty lucky challenge. You can listen to the podcast here, if you care to. Sandi is lovely and I really enjoyed visiting with her. I actually listened to the podcast myself, and it was by far the most scary part of my Halloween. (It's not scary at all, I'm just extremely self-conscious. Hahaha!)

Because it's always fun to hear from you, do you love picking out fabrics or do you dread that part? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the subject!

Also, tomorrow is my 10 year blog birthday. Craziness! I'm not sure how to celebrate it, but I've been thinking about how things have changed and how it's grown into something I never would have dreamed of. I'm so thankful to you for reading!!!