Some commissions through the holidays

I found more photos, yay!  My mother-in-law asked me months ago about helping help make a quilt for a Sunday school teacher at her church.  I cut some blocks and gave them to her with a pack of fabric markers.  The kids and various church members drew pictures or messages on them.  It took a few months, but she brought back a stack of little works of art with a big bag of markers.  I guess one of the other teachers added to my supplies and wanted me to have them all, I thought that was sweet.  I met MIL at the fabric store and she picked a backing, which of course I neglected to photograph.  It was a pale blue fleece with foot prints in various ginghams.  She liked it because it reminded her of the story of Jesus and his foot prints in the sand.  She picked one print with words of inspiration and bits of scripture.  I also had some some ginghams cut that matched the backing fleece.

After playing around with a few different arrangements, I came up with a design that used all the blocks the church members had colored and had to add just one.  My daughter drew the winged sacred heart in the top left corner.

An aunt of mine has had me make quite a few different things for her over the past year.  She contacted me in the fall to see if I could make some collegiate themed quilts as Christmas gifts.  At the time I wasn't sure, but it turned out that I had a decent fall break that I would be able to dedicate some time to quilting.  She wanted 2 with Clemson and one with UK.

I found fleece backings and a few different collegiate print cottons at Hancock Fabrics online.  I took them to a local fabric store to match up solids and coordinates once they arrived.

They had an array of chevrons in the perfect colors that I couldn't resist working into the design.  I had a zig zag rail fence pattern planned for the UK version, so I used the chevron for binding.

The Clemson quilts were for a brother and sister, so I added a polka dot print on one that I referred to as the feminine version.  I cut a few blocks from the fleece backing fabric to start these over-sized impromptu log cabins.

I'd been wanting to try a quilt as you go method using Jelly roll strips where you wouldn't have blocks to connect in the end.  I cut all the strips and connected them end to end, then just layered the backing and lining fabric (I didn't need a true batting, just something so the bold backing print didn't show through quilt top fabrics) and starting sewing them on one row at a time.  I liked the overall product, it probably saved quite a bit of time in the long run, but it was a little monotonous sewing a strip, moving from the machine to the ironing board to press is down, then back to the machine to sew the next strip, over and over.  I like having various different steps to break up the process so I don't get bored with it.

Overall they came out nicely.  My husband has requested a WVU version.  I think I could probably sell a lot of these if I had the time and initial investment.  I probably will make some more on commission since one or two at a time is not an overwhelming project and they are guaranteed to be sold.

I had some interference with this project.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned our cats on this blog.  We had a gray long hair named Smokey that disappeared late last summer.  We were all pretty devastated and within a few weeks were bringing home a new orange kitten from a free listing I ran across on Facebook.  This is Jax.  I had forgotten how mischievous kittens are.  And difficult to quilt or sew or manage any kind of craft that might involve a string or anything that has small parts or things that dangle.  I have to lock him in a bedroom when I'm basting quilts so he won't steal the pins.  In the photo above, I was doing the hand stitching on the binding and had got up to refill my coffee cup.  He thought he was will hidden here, but his tail gave him away sticking out the other side.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more of him as he's into everything and I try to get lots of photos when the animals are small since they grow at lightening speed.  He can be irritating and destructive, but he is so loveable and I think its safe to say this one has stolen my heart.

Where I've been...

I've not been intentionally neglecting my blog, just busy with school, cheerleading stuff and life in general.  I have still been at my sewing machine quite a bit over the past 4 months, I just haven't been very good about getting photos or making it to the blog with them.  Here's a few things I did before the holidays.

I finished the Minnie quilt my mother-in-law commissioned me to make for a member of their church.

The ruffler foot came in handy for this sort of project, but it's finicky and tedious to work with.  I may use it for larger projects, but for smaller things like ruffles for my aprons I've been sticking to my old method of cranking up tension and using the largest stitch length with a regular foot.  This has a minky back and the Minnie fabric was pretty good quality, so I didn't use any batting.  I just did some straight line quilting horizontally and traced around the Minnie head.

I finished the 2nd orange and blue chevron quilt, it looked just like the Sawyer quilt but had minky backing in Robin's egg blue instead of printed quilting cotton.  In my rush to ship it out, I neglected to get a finished product shot.

I made another baby quilt for some friends that just had a little girl.  I had an array of animal prints in pink and black and some other black, white and pink prints like texts and polka dots in my stash that came together nicely.

Red Pepper Quilts had done a similar bow tie quilt in paler pinks and B/W prints that I'd had on my mind for some time.  When I found out this friend, that LOVES animal prints, was having a girl I knew I'd be able to use a lot of things from my stash.  The photo above was just the top as I was trying to decide how to bind it.  I missed the baby shower and had a lot going on as I was trying to finish it, so I completely forgot to get a shot of the finished quilt, again.  The mom was nice enough to take an iPad photo of it displayed on the crib.

It's backed with the pink and white zebra print.  When I saw the photo I smiled at the wall color.  I knew she planned to use pink, but not almost the exact shade as some of the solids in the quilt.  It all worked so nicely that I ended up making a matching crib skirt in case she wanted to use it as a set.

I've made a lot of other projects, but am having a difficult time locating photos.  A whole slew I took of my niece modeling some little girl aprons that I wanted to list on Etsy have gone missing from my memory card as well as a few I know I took where I had my husband hold up a quilt I made for another member of his mom's church.  I need to buy extra SD cards, I probably inadvertently deleted them.  Blogger/photographer fail.

My aunt took some photos of some other things I made for Christmas and my daughter may have a few photos on her iPad.  If I can gather some more I'll try to share again soon.  Winter break is slipping by quickly.  I spent the first week and a half sick, went out of town for a few days and all of last week we did some painting and handy work for family members moving into a new place.  But my classes don't start until the 21st, so hopefully I can show up on here a time or 2 before I'm swamped again.  Thanks for looking!

TGIAHW!!

That stands for "Thank God it's a holiday weekend!" for anyone that isn't totally overwhelmed with the start of school right now and didn't get the acronym.  I'm taking a Psychology class and Anatomy & Physiology this semester.  Which means spending most of the day twice a week at the community college almost an hour away from home.  School has started back for the kids, and the cheer team is super serious this year.  That means I have lots of extra projects, fundraisers, homework, and a lot of time spent in the car.

One of the most recent bouts of crash crafting was a new book bag for Shaley.  She told me she wanted me to make her one about a week before school began.

The coral fabric with the anchors was sent to me by fabric.com as an accident.  They let you keep the mix ups and send you the correction fabric for free.  It's her favorite color and she's currently infatuated with anchors so she's been begging for me to make something for her with it since it arrived.  The Anna Maria Horner Sinister Swarm is left over from a quilt backing and has made it into so many projects now that I've lost count.  The mint fabric was given to me by my grandmother from her stash.  The other fabrics are from my stash and I even had fusible interfacing left over from the last T-shirt quilt I made.  So this was essentially a free project.  However, it was quite labor intensive.  I didn't have a pattern, she just found a bag she liked on Pinterest and I did my best to knock it off.  I was sewing the flap on at 2 am the night before the first day of school.  Really, its not completely finished because the edges of the interior seams are raw and it still does not have any type of clasp.  But it's cute, usable, and she's happy with it.  The size is perfect for her books and a snack.  Plus, I can throw it in the washer when it gets dingy.

I finished the top of the Minnie Mouse quilt.

I still need to pull all those threads through from the satin stitching around the applique and tie them.  I finally used my ruffler foot, too.  I haven't even basted it yet, so I'm no where near ready for binding, but I really wanted to try out the new foot.  It took a lot of trial, error, and frustration, but after watching some youtube videos and playing around with it, I finally got it figure out.  A project requiring a small ruffle wouldn't be worth getting it out and installing it on my machine, but for quilt edging or anything else that has a lot of ruffles, it's definitely more efficient that gathering by hand.

I've been making bows for the cheer team again.  This year their theme seems to be bling and glitz.

I've seen similar rhinestone covered bows on etsy and specialty websites for around $20.00 each.  That would definitely be way above our means.  But, my friend used a product called diamond wrap to bling up everything for her wedding reception and its much cheaper than actual rhinestones or crystals.  I found a big roll of it on ebay for 17.99.  I used about 2/3 of it making 18 bows.  They are backed with grosgrain ribbon to make the bows a little more substantial.  Even with the bands, glue and zip ties holding them together, these still ran under 3.00 each to make.  There is even enough diamond wrap leftover to bedazzle the pink bows they will wear to games through October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, too.

And last but not least, this photo may look a little familiar.

No, I'm not recycling pictures.  I got a message on my facebook page from a lady who saw Sawyer's Chevron quilt on pinterest.  She found me on facebook and asked if I could make one for her baby that's also coming soon.  Of course I said yes!  She wants it backed in minky, but other than that its exactly the same.  Luckily I hadn't thrown out my sketch, I had all the measurements I needed handy and just checked my email account for the confirmation from the first time I ordered those fabrics to make sure I got a the same colors.  I have all the blocks cut out, but I have a lot of serious studying to do and a paper to write, so I may have Shaley press the blocks and mark them for me.  It's an easy task, but time consuming.  Chain piecing them will be a cinch, then.  I'm hoping to have the top finished and ready to baste by the end of the weekend.  It's looking like I'm not going to be spending Labor Day the way it's intended.  But that's OK, if I can get all my school work done over the weekend, crafting isn't really work, it's fun!

Have a great weekend!

A few things

I have some aprons ready to ship out.  I tried new method with the straps on this one.  I made sleeves on the ruffle apron for one long strap to run through so that the neckline is adjustable without having 2 sets of ties.  I also found some cute coordinating grosgrain ribbon, so I used that as as opposed to making my own.

My mother in law asked me to make a quilt for someone she knows that's doing a Minnie Mouse nursery.  The mouse head and bow are appliqued.  The name and year will be, too.  I still need to satin stitch around them, right now they are just ironed on with Heat'n'bond.  It's going to be really cute, I have red minky for the backing and plan to do ruffles around the edge.

Cheer season has already began, my classes start Monday, and my daughter's school starts Thursday, so I have started using a planner to keep track of everything.  Shaley had one that she hadn't used, so I decided to make a cover for it.  The peace signs and such on the front really weren't my style.

I used mostly scraps, notice the black polka dot is left over from the apron at the top of the post.  But I have some newsprint texty prints that I've been dying to use, so I cut just a smidgeon of each to incorporate into it.

Of course I had to use some Anna Maria Horner.  The big floral piece on the back is leftover from my kitchen balance.  I'm using a Kindle to download my school books and I ordered an orange case so it would be easy to find in a full bag.  I like to coordinate, so I trimmed my planner in orange, too.

Shaley is begging for a book bag made from a print she loves that we actually got for free because Fabric.com sent it as a mistake.  Their customer service is the best, if they send you the wrong thing they just let you keep it.  Of course as soon as I catch up I have 3 more new projects lined up.  Hopefully the planner will keep me organized as intended and I'll be back here soon with more fun stuff.

Baby Chevron Update

I received the sweetest Facebook message last week while we were on vacation.

Got the bedding today an I am IN LOVE!! Still have to get the trees/birds 

painted on the wall behind the crib, but otherwise we are ready for Sawyer! 

Cannot thank you enough, it's perfect!

 She included some photos of the room so I could see it all together.

I know she got her grey chevron crib sheet from Target.  She even found coordinating changing pad and  rocking chair cushions. 

This is one of the cutest nurseries I've seen, I love how modern it is.  Can't wait to see it once she's put on her finishing touches.

Baby Chevron Quilt Complete

I finally finished the layette set I have been working on for a friend.  I don't have a crib to display the bumper pads and skirt, but the Mommy-to-be has promised to send me a pic once she gets it set up in the nursery.  I definitely wanted to document the quilt though.  I never get tired of chevron.

I made it a bit larger than the standard crib quilt, hopefully he will get a few good years of use out of it.  The solids are all Kona Cotton.  I backed it with Michael Miller Backyard Party in grey.  Such a perfect fabric for a little boy.

I quilted along the diagonal lines of the chevron pattern with pale aqua thread.

I used a double binding of the Kona Robin Egg and the geometric print that was used for the bumper pads, Moda Ticklish Joking Around Explosive Orange.  I love to add a little detail when I can.  I always stitch my binding down by hand, it's like added a special little TLC to each project.  The process really makes such a difference in the transformation from work in progress to finished object.

I'm excited to start my next set, another friend wants one for their upcoming baby girl.  Everyone I know that's had a baby in the past 2 years have had boys.  I'm already researching ruffles and other methods of adding frilliness.

Chevron Top Finished

I had all of the HSTs put together for the baby quilt, so after pressing them I sat down in front of the TV Monday night to trim them all to 5 1/2" square while watching Defiance and Teen Wolf.  I'm not sure why science fiction and quilting go so well together, but it works for me.

I usually like to have something playing in the background on TV while I'm sewing, especially if I'm going to be ironing a lot since I can see the living room TV from my ironing board.  I got all the blocks together in rows then pressed the seams open before sewing those together.

I keep my sketch handy while I'm putting everything together and refer to it often.  It's really easy to turn something the wrong way or get rows out of order.  I got it all put together today and pressed the seams open again between the rows.

It started to rain just as I finished up, so I hung the top right in the window for a photo.  I love how it looks like stained glass since you can easily see the seams while its back lit.  This top is 8 blocks wide by 9 tall.  That works out to roughly 40" x 45".  Next step is basting and deciding how to do the quilting.