Finished Bento Box Quilt - Feels Good!

Isn't it just a great feeling to be all the way finished with a quilt?  This quilt has been such a huge undertaking that getting to the finish line has been a little strange.
I actually finished last night, and today I didn't know what to do with myself!  I may or may not have watched several episodes of Gilmore Girls (I won't tell you how many I watched in a row - but it was somewhere between 3 and 5).
Finally I trooped outside with this gigantic (and HEAVY) quilt.  It hasn't been very sunny today - but as soon as I realized the weather was getting WORSE, I decided it's now or never.

So here is my finished Bento Box Quilt.  For a minute there I thought it had gotten a lot smaller after quilting.  Then I put it on my bed for perspective.  Nope.  Still huge.  93" x 106".

I went with an overall meandering quilt pattern - because it's fast, it's easy, and very forgiving.

There are still tons of puckers.  Here is my worst one.  I figure it won't look so bad after we wash it... :)

I decided to just fold the back over to the front to create binding - once again, it's fast, easy, and somewhat forgiving.  I'm not sure I like it though.  I don't really like the white - it makes the whole thing look a little unfinished.  And because of the back, we get the scrappy look on the sides.  I hope my sister likes the scrappy binding look!

And here's the back (which almost looks like a second front to me...).  It started to get pretty windy at this point.  The red thread really stands out on the white fabric.  Next time I'm not going to worry about getting cute swirly white fabric, cuz you can't see the swirls anyway, now that it is quilted.

Overall, I think everything turned out pretty well.  It looks really good if you stand back and look at the whole picture.

I still think my next quilt will NOT be a king size, though.

Quilt Stats:

Started: Julyish 2011

Finished: November 2011

Fabrics:  All from Joanns, with the exception of the scrap fabrics used for the double wedding rings

Finished Size: 93" x 106"

Recipient:  Younger sister K - for her wedding to J - December 2011

Wedding Rings Quilt Back

I am making progress on my sister's wedding quilt!  My original plan was to have a plain white back with the wedding rings and initials in the middle.  Turns out I grossly underestimated how much fabric I had.
When I went to the store, they were all out of the white swirly fabric I wanted, so I was left with a dilemma.  I knew I needed a few more yards of fabric to cover the back.  I am not very good at making these kinds of decisions, so I just bought three fat eight bundles and sewed them together.  Then I supplemented the rest of the quilt back with everything I had left over from the quilt top.  If I had been thinking clearly, I would have saved some for the binding.  Oops.  I think I might end up doing the "fold over the back and sew it to the front" binding method.  We'll see.

I took this outside, since it is so HUGE and I could never get a good picture of it inside my house.  Turns out that taking outside doesn't make it any less huge.  This is about 2/3rds of the quilt.  But you get the gist:

I have been hard at work quilting this bad baby on my home machine.  Quilting the middle has been pretty difficult, but I am managing - it just takes a bit of wrestling.  And a willingness to accept that there WILL be puckers in this quilt.  I have already discovered some pretty nasty ones on the back.  But I'm kind of on a deadline right now - gotta get this done before the babies come!  Luckily, the quilt is for my sister and I don't think she will care about a few wrinkles.  I usually quilt with rubber gloves on, but with this one, I have to take one of the gloves off so I can feel whether or not I am quilting wrinkles into the back.  Makes it a little harder to move around, but I think it's helping.
Oh yeah - and I tried spray basting for the first time!  I just bought the stuff they had at JoAnns, and it seems to be working pretty well - other than maybe it is part of the whole "wrinkle" problem.  But I think it will be worth it in the end.  I wasn't about to crawl around on the floor to put a thousand pins in a king size quilt while almost 8 months pregnant!

My goal is to finish this by the end of the week!  And then the babies can come.  Wish me luck!

November Placemats

We got a new table!  Well, kinda.  We bought an old table at a yard sale for super cheap, spent weeks and weeks sanding it whenever we had free time, and gave it several coats of finish.  I am kicking myself for not taking any "before" pictures.  Oh well.  Now we have a really nice looking, sturdy oak table in our kitchen.  Much better than the last table we had - and the best part is that it came with six chairs that are NOT falling apart.  They will be our project next summer...
However, having a newer, bigger table means that our tablecloths don't really fit anymore.  The first time we sat down to eat at it, the hubby asked where the placemats were and we could only find one.  Oops.
So I decided to take a short break from the king quilt I am working on to make placemats.  I am totally okay with the fact that all our old ones have disappeared.  :)  These placemats took all of two evenings to put together!

 Since it was, like, November 1st when I started pulling fabrics for these, I tried to pick a lot of "November-ish" (but not necessarily "Thanksgiving") fabrics from my stash.  I was going for brown/green/orange.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of orange.  This is what I came up with.

I used this special batting I got from Madame Samm when I won this giveaway.  I threw away the paper, so I have no idea what kind of batting it is, or what it is supposed to be for.  It is definitely not like normal quilt batting.  It is thick and stiff.  I figured it would work pretty well for placemats.  It didn't give me any trouble.

I quilted with straight lines, because I have learned that they are less bumpy and less likely to cause spilling when I put my cup on top of them. :)
For the back, I had JUST enough of this "Pumpkins Gone Wild" fabric to fit one placemat.  The hubby hates this fabric, but I kinda like it for some reason.  To each his own.  When I figured out that the placemat was about the size of a fat quarter, I set out to find a peice of fabric that was - in MY opinion, the ugliest I had.  I came up with this brown print.  And now it is all used up!

I still need to get better at machine binding, though.  I REALLY want to be good at it because it is so much faster!  I guess I should practice some more.
And there you have it!  I have every intention to make a new set of placemats for each month now.  Someday, hopefully.  They are great stash busters!

Crib Bedding

I finally got around to using my "Ready, Set, Go" fabric to make some crib bedding.

I had an old plastic bumper already, so I just made a cover to go over it.  Then I used the leftover fabric to make a little crib skirt.

I didn't really know what I was doing, but I love the fabrics so much, that it looks pretty good to me!

 Also, I couldn't help but sneak in this picture (sorry it's such a bad one - I didn't think to go outside, it's getting cold here!).  These are the "diaper bears" that were made by a friend for my last baby shower.  Aren't they adorable!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Pal's Bookcase Quilt

Hi!  Welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere.  As part of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival this fall, I wanted to show you an older quilt.  Unfortunately, I don't have very many finishes from the past 6 months because I am pregnant with twins and life has been a little crazy.  However, the doctor just put me on modified home bedrest, so I should have 3 to 6 weeks left to finish as many sewing projects as I can before the boys get here!  Yay!

Last year, I made this quilt for my sister.  She has a name, but I just call her Pal.  She LOVES to read and has TONS of books.  I'm kind of jealous of her book collection.  And her bookcase quilt.

My original inspiration for this quilt came from here. 

I wanted to make the books nice and thick, partly to make my job easier, and partly because my sister has so many THICK books!  I'm sometimes amazed at how fast she can read through them all.

Did you notice my little mistake?  Yep.  There are two floating books on the top shelf.  My bad.  

I tried my hand at straight line quilting (okay - wonky straight line quilting - but I think I like it) for the background.  I couldn't decide what to do with the rest, so I just meandered.  Quilting with different color thread in the bobbin is too scary for me, so the quilting shows up really well on the back!

I'm not sure what I intended Pal to use this quilt for, since she is so tall and the quilt isn't quite long enough to fit over her feet (sorry pal).  But it turns out that she decided to hang it on the wall in her apartment!  It looks AWESOME there.  Someday I want to make one of these for myself.

Now, if you haven't heard of Amy's Quilt Festival, and you have a LOT of time on your hands, go check out the rest of the entries!  (The link is at the top of my sidebar.)  There are some pretty awesome ones.  And at the time of my writing this, there are only 472 quilts.  Isn't the quilt blog world amazing?

Double Wedding Rings!

So, when I first asked my sister what kind of quilt she wanted for her wedding, she showed some interest in the double wedding ring quilt pattern.  I decided not to attempt a whole wedding ring quilt - it just seemed too far out of my league.  But I did try making two rings and I am going to stick them on the back of her quilt.  I think they turned out alright.  I could maybe do more of these someday, but I definitely could use a lot of practice.  Here are some of my thoughts (for my own personal future reference) on double wedding rings:

-I used Kaelin's Quilt-along.  Love her blog, by the way.  Just a couple of things I came across that worked better for me:  I wish I had cut AROUND the arc templates, sewn my pieces on, and then cut the arcs on the line once I had sewn the fabric.  It seemed easier to cut through fabric when it was attached to paper, plus it could have saved a lot of time in cutting out the templates.  It was also easier for me to pin my arcs to the melons by starting in the center and moving out, rather than pinning the edges and then filling in the blanks.  But that was just me.  Other than those two things, Kaelin's instructions were TOTALLY AWESOME.
-This pattern requires a lot of hand cutting.  It really didn't take me too long, but it could have been a LOT of work to do a whole quilt.
-There was also quite a bit of sorting through fabric and cutting scraps into the right sizes.  A little bit of work, but a GREAT use of scraps!  That's part of the reason I think I might actually attempt this again.
-Piecing the arcs was my favorite part.  Sewing the arcs onto the melons?  Not so much.  I never really got the hang of it (as you can probably tell from the puffiness).  I think part of the reason the melons were so hard was because of my cheap white fabric, though.
-If I had known better, I probably would have just skipped the melons and white centers and just appliqued the whole thing onto my background fabric.  I had to applique it onto the background fabric anyway and I could have saved some effort and some fabric.
-My sewing machine is really picky when it comes to applique.  I should spend some time figuring out why I can't get a good satin stitch.

SO.  It was fun to make this little sample.  It would be a TON of work to make more blocks, but maybe someday I will try and brave it.

Car Seat Covers

I made these little car seat covers for my boys (who should be here in about 1 1/2 months.  GAH!).  I used some 1001 Peeps fabric I got using a gift card I won from Randi.  I used this tutorial from Make it Do.  It was a nice, quick project.  And I love how they turned out!  We are totally ready for our winter babies now.  Well, at least we are ready to transport them from the hospital to our house.  That's something, right?

Here is the front:

And the back.

I didn't want to spend a lot, so I just used plain black and white for the linings.

Aren't they cute?  Twinner car seats!

Some Finishes! Curtains and a Bento Box quilt top

It has been a really long time since I last posted.  I blame that on the facts that school has started, I am six months pregnant, and when I'm not too tired I tend to spend my free time sewing!  Or shopping for baby stuff.

But, I do have a couple of recent finishes.  My sister has been wanting new curtains in her bedroom for awhile now.  So I made her some.  They took a bit longer than I expected them to, partly because I wanted to add a little something to them to make them more interesting.  I decided to add a strip of pinwheel blocks.  Because I like pinwheels.  I choose yellow, blue, and green colors and I think they add a nice splash of color that match my sister's personality.  It was SO hard to get a good picture of the slinky forest green fabric I used for the curtains.  I think she will love the curtains.  Here they are hanging on my entertainment center...

My other big finish is the wedding quilt I am making for my OTHER sister.  She's getting married in December - right around the time my babies are due, so I'm feeling the pressure to finish.  Well, I now have a finished quilt top!  And it is HUGE!!!!  Wait till you see what it looks like on our big Queen sized bed!  I wanted it to be big, since the purple and green quilt that has taken residence on our bed is not long enough to tuck in and is constantly getting all twisted up and won't stay put - especially with the tossing and turning of a pregnant woman!
Anyway - here is the quilt top right before I sewed all the blocks together and before I added the border.

This picture is NOT true to color, but it shows a close up of the blocks!

And then I added a border.  I can only get part of the quilt in a picture, so here you go:

At least it will be big enough for her and her 6 1/2 foot fiance!  Now for the back...

Lucky!

I have been super lucky lately!  I think I might have to stop entering giveaways for awhile.  I never thought that I would ever in my life win something from Sew We Quilt!  (They are doing a Wantobe Quilter Campaign right now with giveaways every DAY!)  I mean, come on - they have thousands of followers!  Nevertheless - I won something!  Something BIG, too (I had to pay the shipping - and it was a big package, but I'm sure it will be worth it).  

Here is Madame Samm's picture.  It is way better than mine:

I won the cutting mat, three rulers (which I DESPERATELY needed - mine has TONS of little nicks in it - plus I have always wanted a square ruler!!), the cutter, and a bunch of fabric.

And THEN I got the package in the mail, with a whole bunch of EXTRA stuff!  YAY!

The extra stuff I got was some fancy batting for craft projects, some thread, a quilt book ("More 90 Minute Quilts"), a wooden purse handle set, a mini quilt pattern, fabric glue, and a calendar!

Here is the fabric I won - each piece is a half yard cut, so a total of 4 yards!  Hubby looked at it and said it would make a really cool African skirt.  I think I will save it (for after the babies come) and do just that with it!

I also got some matching floss to go with it!

Here is my new cutter, and the fabric glue I am excited to try out.

The rulers!

I think I will be making ALL of my blocks 6 inch blocks from NOW ON! :)

I was so pleased to see this little pattern in there!  Madame Samm must really do her research!  I saw this pattern a few weeks before on the blog and thought it might be cute for my little boys' room.  So I left a comment.  Madame Samm must have seen it.  Isn't she sweet to send it to me? 

About two days later, I won ANOTHER giveaway!  This one was from Sha at Craizee Corners.  Her blog is a recent find and I really like it because she has the same sense of style (especially for fabric) as me.  I won TWO charm packs from Me and My Sisters Designs!  I was super stoked because I am a HUGE fan of Me and My Sisters.  I got a "Me and My Sisters Favorites" charm pack, and an "Amelia" charm pack.  I was so excited, I had to open it up and sort through everything before I thought to take a picture (late at night - hence the bad lighting...).  This is the two packs combined:

And all sorted by color:

A few of my favorites - the swirls,

The white pebble looking flowers,

The big flowers, and the paisley print.

I think I'm going to use them to make another puff quilt.  After I finish making baby boy items, of course.


A few weeks ago I won a gift certificate from Randi at I Have to Say....  Hers is one of the first blogs I started following back when I discovered quilt blogs.  She has a quilt-along tutorial button on her sidebar that I used a lot when I was first learning how to do things.
I decided to use her gift certificate to buy this 1001 Peeps fabric.  I think I am going to use it to make car seat covers for the boys:

And then there is this fabric.  I didn't win it, I had to buy it.  But I found it for a really good price and convinced Hubby to let me have it. :)  It's going to become bumper pads for our cribs.  I better get busy!