A Few Things - Mini Mini, Kitchen Set, and Some Fun Quilting

I've been busy lately, believe it or not! I decided to take a few weeks off from my Etsy shop. Mostly so I could go on vacations (one to our cabin at Island Park, and another to the Virgin Islands with just the hubby), but also so that could work on some just-for-fun projects. And now I have more works-in-progress than I've ever had at one time. Haha. Ah well, they will be finished soon. Soon.
For now, I want to share a few smaller projects I made at the beginning of the sumber.
First up is my mini mini quilt. We were challenged by our local quilt guild to make tiny mini quilts to swap. The rules were that they had to be less than 10 inches square. I think mine ended up about 2.5" x 7".
Here's the sneak peak I shared on IG to show just how tiny it is:

And the whole thing.   I used a cathedral windows tutorial from Moda Bake Shop and I think I halved the measurements.

The back:

And some close-ups:

Next up is a set of hot pads and hanging kitchen towels I made for a cousin's wrong. I finished binding these in the car on the way to the reception. :)

It's always hard sewing for people who have different tastes in colors and fabric. I got a little bit of advice from the mother, so I hope these went over well!

And the last thing I wanted to show you is this little charity quilt I volunteered to quilt for the guild. The nice thing about charity quilts is that they are good for trying out new skills. 

For the pieced section, I tried out some Baptist fans: 

Then in the negative space I had lots of fun trying out some graffiti quilting:

I think I'll be using these FMQ motifs in the future!

Be back soon!

Hot Pads, a Thread Catcher, and Some Girly Bibs

Recently, I participated in a service auction with some of the women in my neighborhood. I donated a set of hot pads and a set of bibs.  In return, I ended up with an afternoon of babysitting AND a free haircut! I'm calling it a win.  Anyway, it's time for me to share what I made with you.  😊

My friend requested something with this blue/gray print for the hot pads:

I made them with hand pockets.  😏

For the quilting, I did cross-hatching, swirls, and outlining.

Oh, and I bound them by hand. These babies were THICK!

Next up, another friend requested girly bibs for her granddaughters, and since I didn't have very many in the shop, I decided to make a whole bunch and list the extras in my shop.

And lastly, another friend saw the little thread catcher/pin cushion I made WAY back when I first started sewing, and asked me to make her one for her sister-in-law.  I roughly followed THIS tutorial, because I wanted the hanging basket to be removable.

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Also, the bibs were one of my goals (#4) from this quarter's Finish Along, so I'll be linking up!

Time to Slow Down!

So.  November and December were CRAZY busy for me!  I had this big old to-do list to begin with, and then my Etsy shop sort of exploded.  Things in the shop had been pretty quiet for awhile, but once Christmas shopping season started, I had all sorts of things lined up to make for others.  Mostly stockings and Rummy mats (that's another post, I think) and one huge quiet book.  I barely managed to finish it all and now that things have slowed down I'm going to do a big old photo dump right here on the blog over the next few posts.  ;)

Oh yeah.  One more thing.  We're having a baby!  Yay!  It's another boy and he'll be here in early May.  Does anyone have any good ideas for boy names?  We are stumped, since we already used our first two ideas...
Of course, we are super excited for baby #3, but I must admit that I didn't feel too great for most of September and October, so there was a bit of a decrease in production/blogging around here for awhile.  Let me just say that the 2nd trimester has been awesome.  I LOVE not being sick all the time.  :)

Alright.  Lets get to it.  Here are all of the things I have finished since my last post in October:

First of all, my Mom had a birthday back at the end of October.  She just had back surgery and I found out that she's been taking my sister's pillow with her to church every week to sit on and decided she definitely needed her own!  She really liked the cathedral windows block I made for my Something New Sampler quilt, so I that's what I went with.
Here is the finished Cathedral Windows block:   I loved going through my scraps to choose fun warm/cool prints.

And here are a couple of crappy phone pictures taken right before I delivered the pillow:

I even used some of my hoarded Simply Color Ogee print for the envelope back.  I don't have a lot of purples, but I love this one.

(This pillow was #9 on my Finish Along list)

Next up, baby Braden!  My Sister-in-Law had a baby in November and Braden's Grandma ordered a growth chart for him to match his older brother's.  They wanted to stick to the BYU theme.  These are kind of fun to make.  :)

(This was finish #2 on my Finish Along List)

We are lucky that our new baby will have a cousin his age on BOTH sides.  My sister is due with her first baby any day now, and requested a puff quilt for her baby shower.  She's going to name the little girl Avonlea, isn't that cute?  I actually made two puff quilts with the intention to list the other in the shop.  As soon as the second one is bound, I'll get some better pictures.  :)  This puff quilt was a big hit at the baby shower - it even inspired one of my aunts to make one of her own! 

(This is finish #4 on my Finish Along List)

Of course, I snuck in a few bee blocks during all this madness.  Vickey asked for Churn Dash blocks for November.  The first few I made turned out pretty washed out because of the one really busy print I used, so I made her a few extras to make up for it.  I love the pinwheel one.  :)

Amazingly, someone ordered one of my ABC quiet books, which was awesome.  All 28 pages.  The whole thing took me 22 hours to make!  I actually went and bumped up the price for this book after making the second one because WHEW!  That was a lot of work!  I also updated some of the pages with bigger and better images, which I was happy to have a chance to do.

I even got to make a couple customized name books.  These short names were a breeze to work with and I updated the cover to add a few extra details.

I made a new M page, since Emily's book already came with a mailbox for M.  Luckily, my boys were able to tell it was a monkey and not a bear...

And lastly, I whipped up this tablecloth in those final days before Christmas.  This was a gift to my mother-in-law from all the siblings.  Our family is getting bigger and we no longer fit around a normal table, so she usually sets us up at the ping pong table.  :)  Unfortunately, she can never find a tablecloth big enough to fit the ping pong table so she always has to layer two or three tablecloths on top of each other.  Now she has one that is custom made to fit (which is totally DOES - I am SO relieved)!  AND it's double sided.  The first side is for when her friends (who don't spill) come over and is made with regular quilting cotton.

And the second side is for when we (the spillers) come over and is made from vinyl. 

(This is #8 on my Finish Along List)

And I lets not forget the quilts I made for my twins' birthday at the beginning of December.  They are waiting for a proper photo shoot so they can have their own post.  But in the meantime, here is proof that I finished them!

(These are finishes #6 and #7 on my Finish Along List)

Most of these projects were part of my Quarter 4 Finish Along list (YAY!), so I will be linking up here: