A Few Recent Makes

Once Cheyanne's Quilt was finished, I got to spend some time on a few little projects.  It always feels great to make something quick after a big project. 

First up - remember the Dresden plate mini I made for my guild swap?  Well, at our meeting one of the ladies mentioned that she had seen someone sew a giant Dresden on the side of a skirt and the idea rooted itself in my brain.  So I made myself a Dresden skirt.  Fabric is from the absolutely gorgeous Bright Sun line by Sherri and Chelsi that I won in a giveaway.  :)

We attended a wedding for our friends (the bride is from Taiwan) and I whipped up these quick "his" and "hers" towels.  I'm really hoping that says "hers" in Chinese...

My nephew turned three, and of course he needed something handmade from me.  I decided on a crayon roll.  

I even included a pocket for a mini notebook.  Now both of my twins have decided they MUST have one of their own.  

I LOVE this fun transportation fabric.

And then Emily Herrick posted about this book on Instagram and I went right out and ordered it because - CRAYONS!  Also, it's an adorable book.  :)

And here are all the bee blocks I've made that haven't made it onto the old blog yet:

For Vickey:

For Jaime:

For Vickey:

 For Kristen:

For Brittney:

For Jaime:

My First Mini!

So... Back in August, I participated in a mini quilt swap with the ladies in my guild.  It was SO FUN.  In fact, since then I have signed up for two more swaps - something I never thought I would do.

Anyway.  My partner for this particular swap said that she loves pastels.  This worried me at first, because I am SO not a pastel person!  But I found a charm pack that I liked - Windham Basic Pastels, and decided to figure out how to use it.  After stewing for awhile on what design to stitch for my partner, I came across THIS MINI QUILT one day in my blog reading and decided that's what I was going to do.

Here it is!

 

My partner happens to be a long arm quilter, so I was a little nervous about the quilting, but I love how it turned out.  The orange peels in the border are a little wonky, but I love the little row of pebbles.  :)

And here's the back.  I just pieced together what was left of the charm pack.  I did remember to add hanging sleeves, although I regretted it later because the binding was really hard to sew around all those layers in the corners.  :s

And here's the mini I received!  My partner knows I love bright, happy colors, so this is PERFECT!  Also, I love this star pattern.  :) 

Doesn't it look great on my sewing room wall?  It's so cute!

Now, onto the next mini.  I have HUGE plans!


This was Finish #7 on my Quarter 3 Finish-Along List.  Wahoo!
 

Pillows: April and May

This is just a quick post to share with you the pillows I have made in the past few months.  My goal is to have a new seasonal pillow for each month.  Here's what I came up with for April:

I knew I wanted to make something with clamshells (I'm hoping to practice a new technique each month), but I also wanted something somewhat Easter-y.  So I threw that little chick in there with all the Easter Eggs.  I'm not totally in love with it (I wish I had placed the chick a little better - he looks like he's floating), but it is what it is.  And I got to try Amber's Applique technique again, which I like. 

And May:

This poor pillow form is getting pretty smashed.  I use this pillow EVERY DAY.  I should invest in a really awesome pillow form.  Any recommendations?

 I've been feeling Dresdens lately, which is a bit of a surprise, since I used to think they were WAY too traditional for my tastes.  But it turns out they look awesome in modern fabrics.  :)  I even had just the right number of charm squares left over from a pack of Joel Dewberry's True Colors.  I like to work with fabrics all from the same line because the coordination is already done for me.  :)

I tried some cool modern quilting in the circle, but it's really hard to see the patterns.  I was going for feathers along the outside, a ring of pebbles, and more feathers mixed with swirls.  Maybe I'll get another chance to try this again someday.  I didn't use any backing fabric on this piece, and I wonder if that's part of why the quilting doesn't pop very much?

I like the back of this pillow kind of a lot.  I've been holding onto this print for a long time - I don't know what it is - does anybody else?  It's so busy I can't really use it with anything else, but it's pretty on it's own.  I just didn't have QUITE enough of it and had to supplement with the gray.  I also love the look of the edges on this pillow (it's bound like a quilt).  I'll be using this technique again.

NOW.  It's officially July and I still haven't made a pillow for June.  I suppose I could blame that on the new baby, but really it's because I waited all month for inspiration to strike and nothing did.  I guess it's time to hit Pinterest again!

The April pillow was Finish #8 from my Q2 Finish Along List.  Wahoo!  Linking Up: