let it go...

A few weeks ago, I gave away my epic quilt top. Yes, that's right. I sent it to a friend.

I had so many emotions wrapped up in this quilt. I didn't know if I loved....or even liked it, for that matter. A few different times I put it on my bed, just to see if I could convince myself that I loved it. I wasn't feeling it! Granted, it was just a quilt top, so the quilting could have helped it. Washing and drying probably would have helped, as well. I couldn't decide what to back it with and it was nagging at me. For some reason, I was quite unsettled about it all. It was really strange! So, one day, I called a friend and asked her if she wanted it. She said, "wouldn't say no", and I sent it off the very next day. At first I felt a little bit weird about it, but I'm so relieved that it went to a good home. She already has plans for it! I've had a few weeks to think about it, and I'm super happy with my decision. After all.....It's all just fabric, right?

(There's a reason why I have this hanging in my sewing room! Some days I need the reminder.) I still have plenty of scraps from making the quilt top, which I have plans for....but more on that later.

As for my new bed quilt, I have a plan for that as well!

This is a twin sized string quilt, but I've been using it as a second layer on my bed. I love the way it looks in my room, so I'm going to make a larger version of it. I'm super excited about my new plan. After all, you can't go wrong with scrappy! :) And....

...it just so happens that my string basket is literally overflowing. Perfect timing!

 

Have you ever passed along a project that you were stuck on (or had a hang up with)? Did you feel relief? Or did you later change your mind? If you have had a similar experience, I'd love to hear about it!

throw pillow mania

It seems like I've been working on making pillows forever, but in reality, I managed to complete my goal of making 11 throw pillows for gifts in less than a month. Yippee! I really don't know why I thought this was a good idea in the first place, but it was an exercise in perseverance, if nothing else! Ha!

I can't believe that this is my first scrap vortex pillow. It's pretty fun! This is scrap project #139.

Simple and sweet patchwork never gets old! This is scrap project #140.

Another half-rectangle pillow, which is scrap project # 141.

And a fraternal twin to the previous pillow. It's not exactly the same, but I had to look carefully to make sure that I didn't post the same photo twice. :) This is scrap project #142!

You can see the previous pillows here, here, and here.

I already gave one pillow cover away, but here are the remaining 10. They look pretty dandy together! I'm actually excited to send them off to their new homes!

One of the great things about this project was that I was able to use up a lot of scrap batting....the pile shrunk considerably! I also discovered that I could use my leftover scraps of fusible interfacing (cut into 1" widths) and fused the batting pieces together, side by side. It's like a triple scrap elimination. I'll take that any day of the week!

I am quite pleased with how they turned out! But boy, that's a whole lot of pillows...even for me! :)

 

Happy Monday to you!

May is for makers // baby bibs

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I've joined in the May is for Makers campaign. For each of the 5 weeks in May, the idea is to purchase a pattern from an independent pattern designer and work on that pattern throughout the week. I thought that was a great idea/challenge, so I joined in. It's definitely going to take some intention and follow through, but I'm excited about it, too! (This was started by Lindsay of LRstitched and you can read her post about it here.)

My first pattern purchase is The Best Bib, by JCasa. I've seen this cute bib pop up on the internet countless times over the years. Since I know a LOT of people having babies these days, I thought this was a great place to start! The shape of this bib is the cutest ever.

For some reason, I wasn't feeling scrappy when I made these (I don't know what's up with that, but I am concerned about it, hahaha!), so I kept it simple and made the bibs out of just two fabrics each.

This was my first attempt, following the pattern exactly as it was written. (That's super hard for me! Haha!!) It turned out pretty well! It's nice when you have cute fabric that does most of the work.

This is my second bib. I LOVE this fabric! I have a lot of it, so it wasn't too hard to cut into. (Yay!) For this version, I made the ties a little narrower (2 1/4"), a few inches longer, and I cut the tie pieces on the bias.

The pattern calls for a straight cut of fabric for the tie piece, but I found it was a little tricky to attach, even with the gentle curve of the neck line.

This one, with the fabric cut on the bias, was much easier to attach around the neckline. I did a little glue basting to keep the layers on the back in place while I stitched them down, which was super helpful. I love this fabric combination so much! Thankfully, I am not tempted to keep it, since I have no need for baby bibs at this time. :)

Now, I only have about 12 more to make.....

Are you joining in the May is for Makers challenge? If you are, I'd love to hear about it!

It's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

tell me a story pillow

It's been "all pillows, all the time" over here lately.....but I'm slowly making progress toward my goal of making 11 pillows as gifts. I finished this sweet pillow this morning and I absolutely LOVE it! The pattern is called "Tell Me a Story" from the book Intentional Piecing, by Amy Friend.  These blocks were super fun to put together! It was a great reason to use some of my extensive collection of novelty fabric.

This elephant is one of my favorites. I'm glad he ended up in the middle. :)

This cute (!!!) narwhal fabric was temporarily lost (in my craft room, of all places, haha!) and I started to panic a little bit. That might be telling of the state of my craft room...ahem...but that's a subject for another day. I was so happy when I found it! I only have a little bit of it, so I had to fight my inner hoarding tendencies and actually cut into it! I'm glad I did.
(The fabric is out of print, but there is still some to be found on line. It's from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line.)

I backed the pillow with my good neighbors oval print in orange. My husband told me that this doesn't look like a fabric I would use, much less design, which I thought was interesting. I love hearing his comments. :) All along, I had visions of it being used as backing fabric. It is wonderful to actually be using the fabric as I had originally intended to. I think it works so well as a backing! Yay!

The pillow measures about 20" square. I absolutely love how sweet it is!

 

I think the moral of this story is to actually use your fabric rather than to hoard it...or lose it, for that matter. (hahaha!) I need to remember that!

pretty patchwork projects

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I'm still working toward my goal to make 11-14 throw pillow for gifts. This week has been a lot less productive than last week....and that's the way it goes!

This low volume patchwork pillow measures 20" finished. It's supposed to be a gift. I was wavering between sending it off and keeping it. I had finally made my mind up to send it out into the world. Then, I put the pillow form inside and took the photo. I may have lost my resolve! It's hard to make any progress if you keep half of what you make! I LOVE it so much. It's springy and bright and cheery. And, most importantly, scrappy! It is scrap project #137.

It has a bit of fussy cutting (that seems to be the theme this week!).....

and an envelope backing. I love this coral polka dot! Polka dots are always the theme around here. :)

I made this pincushion as birthday present for my aunt who recently started quilting. (I love those cherries!!!) I gathered a few of my favorite notions to send along with it. It's so nice to be able to enable the quilting obsession in others! This is scrap project # 138.

In the interest of keeping it real....some finishes you have to fight for more than others. I have this pillow top complete, but the quilting didn't work out so well. Apparently I am going to get reacquainted with my seam ripper....and so it goes!

One more big finish...my baby girl turns 10 today! No more single digits for this household. It's so bittersweet.... (This photo is a few months old, but it captures her personality so well. Not shown, my two boys rolling their eyes as she posed. Good times, good times!)

 

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

tell me a story blocks

I have no shortage of cute novelty prints. In fact, that was one of the primary things that I realized when I did my 6 month fabric fast. I hardly touch my novelty prints. It is apparent, though, that I like to buy them! This is (most of) my current collection. Ahem!

Well, I have finally found a good use for these cuties! The pattern is the Tell Me A Story Quilt, from Amy Friend's new book Intentional Piecing. I'm not prone to fussy cutting, because I hate to waste fabric, so I'm fussy cutting responsibly. Hahaha! I am carefully planning my cuts so that I don't make Swiss cheese out of my fabric. Rather, I am producing square or rectangular scraps that can be easily used later. (Messy scraps drive me crazy!)

I love that Amy recommends in the book to make your fabric selections one block at a time. I probably would have done that anyway, but it's good to have formal permission. Ha! I don't have a ton of this background fabric on hand, but it was a strategic choice. I selected this aqua Moda Bella solid because I should have enough to make a pillow cover, but not a whole quilt. This way, I can't change my mind later on. I do not need another quilt WIP!

I'm not a huge paper piecer, but I do like to do it occasionally. I love the accurate results it produces! Plus, it's kind of fun to sew through paper. :) One thing I dislike about paper piecing is the 1/4'' flaps that remain unsewn on the edges of the block. (See photo above.)

It occurred to me yesterday, that if I sew through the seam allowance area (the gray shaded area) when I am sewing the very last seams in the block, that fixes the problem. No more flappy seams. Hurray! I would caution you, though, to make sure that you do this only on the outer-most seams. If you do so prematurely, you will have to do some stitch ripping. I also learned that yesterday. :) Now I'm wondering why I haven't tried it before! (Who knows, maybe this is paper piecing common knowledge?) Either way, it's kind of a game changer for me. I love learning new and useful things!

I've been having a lot of fun with these! Each block will finish at 6", so I only need 9 for a pillow. Sweet! (Har, har.)

dot your i's update

My dot your i's quilt has been sitting untouched for quite some time, until recently. That's ok, because this quilt is more about the process than the final result. That being said, I think I will like the final quilt quite a lot!

My boys both run track, so this has been one of the portable projects that I pack up when we head to their meets.

Each of the squircles (square circles) are appliqued onto a 4" background square. I am using Carolyn's method of needle turn applique and I enjoy it quite a lot. I like working on one small square at a time and adding it to the "done" pile. It's satisfying to see the project come along over time.

This isn't the best photo because it's a rainy, dreary day, but you can get a feel for the quilt so far. I think it needs a lot more aqua....and pinkish red! I'm aiming for a total of 396 blocks. I have 176 done, so only 220 to go! Not. too. bad.

Happy Monday to you!

a pretty pile of pillows

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This week I worked on un-selfish sewing, which seems to leave a lot of room for self-doubt. :) My goal is to make about 11-14 throw pillow covers for gifts. Nice and easy, right? Ha!

As of last evening, this is what the first 5 throw pillows looked like. There has been a lot of power sewing going on over here this morning! (And a little bit late last night, too.)

I'm very happy to have the first 5 complete! Each pillow has an envelope backing (tutorial here)
and is stuffed with pillow forms that I have made (tutorial here).

First up is a contact print pillow that uses a mini charm pack of Road 15 fabric (by Sweetwater for Moda) plus Kona snow. This is one of my favorite ways to use mini charm packs! I love the simplicity of this design and how it allows the fabric to shine.

The rest of the pillows are all from scraps! I used trimmings from my In the Middle Quilt, which uses the Tri-Recs ruler. (If you want to make half-rectangles, the ruler may be helpful to you!)
I was planning to make a quilt out of the leftovers, but I love that I was able to use the blocks to make pillow covers instead. Each of the half-rectangle blocks finish at 2" x 4".

This is scrap project #133

 #134

 #135 (look at all that purple! And I'm happy to say that I even like this one!)

and this is #136. This might be my favorite, but I'm pleased with each and every one! I hope that they are happy in their new homes.

I do love a stack of happy pillows!!!! And I'm not an over-achiever at all, right? :)

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

the winner and a pattern sale

The winner of the handful of PDF patterns is Go-Go Kim! Thank you all for your comments on procrastination. I loved (!!!) reading through each and every one. I wish I could host a retreat where we could all get together and tackle our procrastination projects together. Wouldn't that be fun? It also made me want to work on ALL of my WIPs at once. Hahaha! What a mess that would be!

Since it's TAX day here in the US, I've decided to do a pattern sale! I've marked all my PDF patterns down in my Craftsy shop...each one is 50% off! The sale price is already shown, so no need for a coupon code. This sale will run for about 24 hours only and is valid only on my patterns in my Craftsy shop (not through my big cartel site). All patterns are PDFs, no hard copies will be sent. Just to clarify. :)

I started sewing things together for my orphan block quilt. So far, so good! Thanks for all the encouragement to jump in. I'm so glad I did!

Happy Monday to you!

maine morning mitts and procrastination

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

This week has been super busy, which hasn't left much time for sewing. I'm trying to go with the flow, but sometimes that is easier than others! Last evening, desperate for a finish, I pulled out my mostly completed fingerless gloves and knit the thumbs. Knitting thumbs isn't my favorite (at all), thus the procrastination.

Even though the weather turned warm this week, (we had our first 70 degree day! hurray!) I'm a Minnesota girl, so I wouldn't be surprised if I still need these a time or two this season. It's just the way it is!

The pattern is called Maine Morning Mitts and it's available for free here. These were a stretch for me....because 1. I had to follow a pattern and 2. I had to make two objects that were close to the same size. They aren't perfect, by any means, but I am reasonably happy with the results. The mitts are so cozy! I'd definitely recommend the pattern and I will be trying them again.

 

I'd like to do a giveaway today! If you would like to win a handful of my PDF patterns, please leave me a comment in this post. In your comment, I'd love to hear about a project that you are procrastinating on and why, if you care to give the reason! It would be fun to hear all about it. :) I'll pick a winner on Monday.

Here's another one of my procrastination projects. I've decided it's time to clean up all the odds and ends around my craft room, so I'm going to make a orphan block quilt. I've been nervous to sew it up because there is no rhyme or reason, so fitting everything together might get a little dicey. I'm excited and nervous all at once. I just hope it doesn't end up looking like a hot mess. Haha! I guess we will see! :)

 

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

mini rail fence quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I've finished my Mini Rail Fence quilt, which is the 4th in my frugal gal mini quilt series. I'm having so much fun with these! I love working on a smaller scale because it means I can actually execute more of my (crazy) ideas within my lifetime. Ha!

For this mini, I started with strip pieced 2 1/2" squares. They are teeny tiny and squeal-worthy!

I even snuck in a super scrappy string....but don't worry, there is only one in the mix. :) I couldn't resist! To quilt it, I stitched in the ditch because I was afraid that any other kind of quilting would detract from the overall aesthetic.

It would make a super cute placemat, but there is no way I'm risking food spills on this baby. It was way too time consuming for that! The mini measures 12 1/2" x 16 1/2" and it's scrap project #132!

 

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