Pan Pads

I got a new set of pans for Christmas.  SUPER nice pans.  8 of them.  Restaurant quality, Titanium, nonstick on both sides.  Expensive.  These pans will last the rest of my life.  They are that nice.

My mother-in-law has these pans too.  She has a set of hot pads that she uses specifically for keeping in-between the pans when she stacks them.  So they won't scrape each other.  Kind of genius.  The hubby decided we needed some too.  He asked me to make some.

Wahoo!  The hubby actually ASKED me to sew something!  He loves it when I sew "useful" things.  It's been nice working on these the past few days (weeks), because he wants me to finish as soon as possible (so we can actually open our new pans) and gives me plenty of time and space to work.  :)

I'm calling them "pan pads" and I made 5.  I thought it would be a fun chance to try out a couple blocks I've been eyeing lately.  Especially since probably no one will see them.  *Even though* probably no one will see them.  It's probably silly that I went through so much work to make something no one will see, but hey.  I had fun with them and now I know which blocks I don't like and how much I really like paper piecing (with freezer paper, of course - I'm still not converted to the regular method).  :)

I also got to try out my new WALKING FOOT!  Wahoo again!  My awesome mom finally broke down and bought me a super nice walking foot that will fit my Bernina (and I'm super grateful.  I know those things are expensive).  THANKS MOM!  I used it for all of the machine quilting, and the binding as well.  It worked out great!  I'm excited to try using it on something bigger.

The bindings were all sewn on completely by machine.  I felt like I needed more practice with this technique.  I'm getting there (and the walking foot seems to help a lot), but it's not perfect yet...

Here are my pan pads!  The awesome thing was, they are all made entirely from my small scraps drawer!  I used every LAST BIT of white that I had.  Good times.

This one is my favorite.  Circle of Geese paper piecing pattern found HERE.  Simple outline quilting that looks cool on the back.

Chevrons.  This one was a quickie.   Paper piecing templates HERE.  Outline quilting that took about a minute and a half to do. :)

DON'T LOOK TOO CLOSELY AT THE NEXT ONE!!!  I've been dying to try this block for so long.  However, the tutorial I found was for a 12 inch block and I wanted mine to be smaller.  Long story short - lots of tiny pieces + a bunch of them cut 1/4 inch to small + attempting to use them anyway rather than cut new pieces (or go to the store for more white fabric) + rushing through the final steps and choosing not to square up each piece before assembling the block = DISASTER.   It looks a little better now that it is quilted.  I went for a super tight spiral in hopes that it would help hide the imperfections in this block.  It turned out okay.  The hubby admitted that it's "not my best work," but I suppose I will keep it.

Snail Trail block tutorial found HERE.  Amazingly, this one is NOT paper pieced!  It was also really quick!  I'm thinking of incorporating this block into the borders on my Storm at Sea quilt.

 Starburst pattern found HERE.  The middle seam ended up SO bulky, though.  I wonder how I could have avoided that?

I probably should have used white instead of brown for the snail trail block.  Then it would have matched better.  But that's okay.  Remember how no one is going to see these anyway?

For the backs, I chose 5 larger pieces from my stash and used the stack and slash method to make 5 matching blocks.  Hubby says they look like fronts.  I guess my pan pads get to be double sided then.  Especially the one with the spiral quilting - it's my favorite one. 

Now we can finally bust out those new pans and finally have something yummy to eat! 

2012

Holy cow, 2012 was a great year for sewing!  Once I finished the school year and retired from teaching, my sewing time skyrocketed (I think I was the kind of teacher who spent WAY too much of my free time doing school stuff.  I really loved it, but retiring was really refreshing for me).  I made two queen size quilts, three baby quilts, 25 wall hangings (almost), two table runners, a sewing machine cover, two growth charts, a bunch of towels, and more!  Check it out:

 

2012 was also a great year for winning giveaways.  I have been incredibly lucky and won some amazing stuff.  I don't think I would be able to fund my quilting obsession at this point in my life without the extra padding (alright - more than just "padding") in my stash.  I should probably document my winnings too, since I'm pretty sure I haven't blogged about most of these (other than giving credit to the contributer in my final posts).

Here they are (I borrowed all of these pictures from the blogs I won them from - their pictures are better than mine, especially now that half of these are sewn into quilts):

1. From http://www.fromthebluechair.com and Pink Castle Fabrics, 2. From http://www.pileofabric.com and C&T Publishing, 3. From http://www.redpepperquilts.com and Robert Kaufman Fabrics, 4. From http://www.redpepperquilts.com and Robert Kaufman Fabrics, 5. From http://lilysquilts.blogspot.co.uk and Oakshott Cottons, 6. From http://happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com and Burgundy Buttons

I used some of the sketch fabrics to make my Sunburst quilt, and I used those leftovers in my Rummy Royal mat, as well as a whole bunch of other things - they were great for my Hello Sun Wall Hangings.  I still have a bunch of pink and red (and blue) FQs left.  Just hoping someone I know will have a baby girl someday. ;)

I based my Rummy Royal mat design on one of the patterns from "We Love Color" and I'm still dying to make that quilt on the cover.  Maybe I will break out that Oakshott Colorbox.  It's the only bundle I've been afraid to use so far.  It's such nice fabric I feel like it needs a really perfect project.

Most of the Kona Solids bundle has gone into my Storm at Sea quilt.  It has been really fun fabric to work with.

I haven't made anything from the Modern Patchwork book yet, but I would love to make the Roller Rink quilt someday.

A lot of the Give Thanks fabric went into making my mom's fall table runner and towels.  There is still a lot left - maybe next October or so I will make something for myself!

Whew!  What a fantastic year!  I hope 2013 turns out just as great!  How was your year?

A Holiday Table Runner and a Few Towels

GAH!  This post is SO wordy!  But I'm keeping it, for my own personal documentation purposes.  If you want it, here's the short version:  I made a double sided table runner with four matching towels.  Plus a few more towels and a couple of pillowcases.  Phew!
 
My mom has been hinting for quite awhile now that she would like some table runners for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  I finally took the bait and made her a little something for Christmas this year.  She LOVED it.  I love how she really appreciates all the work that went into it because she knows what it takes to do each little step.
I got a little creative and made the runner double sided.  One side is for Christmas:

and the other side is for fall:

I quilted each side separately on its own piece of fusible fleece.  That way I could quilt each side differently without having the different quilting styles showing on the opposite side.  Then I fused the two pieces of fleece together.  Clever, eh?  Well, I think it worked okay.  It took quite a bit of pressing to get the heat from my iron to make it all the way through the layers to the middle of the runner where the fusible part was.  I really like using fleece for a table runner, though.  It's nice and stiff.  At least, that's how I think a runner should be...
It's a little small, because I was using leftover fleece and didn't think it would be good to go to the store just for a few more inches of the stuff. ;)

I used this Holiday Lane pattern as inspiration for the Christmas side.

I quilted each house differently (one with "bricks," one with "logs," and one with "stones" - can you tell?) and used a blanket stitch to stitch down the applique (except for the doors - I think it looks a little like lights or snow, don't you think?).  I'm really loving this applique method lately.  As long as I have plenty of Heat N Bond!  I planned to quilt the sky with pebbles (like THIS pillow that I LOVE), but I didn't have any blue thread, wasn't willing to make a late night run to the store for some, and when I used white thread it totally overwhelmed the design on the fabric.  So I went for simple wavy lines with a few snowflakes thrown in.

For the fall side, I mostly used the Give Thanks Layer Cake that I won in THIS giveaway (thanks Melissa and Leah).  I just printed a few pumpkins from google images and copied them for the applique.  I ran out of regular Heat N Bond, and had to use my Ultra Heat N Bond, which is supposedly "No Sew."  I decided to risk it and sew my pieces down anyway.  I think we are okay - I just had to wipe the gum off my needle after each piece. ;)

The middle section was just little bit of improv piecing.
I got lucky with the binding.  It just so happens that I had a big piece of already prepared binding left over from another project that was just the right size for my runner!   And it was black, so I didn't have to worry about attempting to match both sides.  I wanted the binding to be extra durable, so I machine stitched it down on both sides.  I used about a million clips in an effort to keep everything even on both sides.

And then, since a table runner wasn't quite enough, I made a couple sets of matching towels to go with it.  I'm kind of obsessed with towels lately.  They are really cheap and really easy to embellish.  I made a few for a wedding gift a few months ago and they were really fun.

I did have some issues with the Christmas towels.  I REALLY didn't want to have to sew down every single one of those tiny roof appliques (the snow), so I used my "no-sew" Heat N Bond, assuming that the fabric would fuse like it is supposed to and wouldn't require sewing.  However, I must have done something wrong (note to self:  I think I held my iron down too long when I fused the paper to the fabric in the first step and melted all the stuff that is supposed to fuse fabric to fabric in the second step).  When I got up to check on them Christmas Eve morning, most of the little pieces were peeling off!  So I did a little bit of quick Christmas Eve morning sewing - just enough to make sure none of the pieces actually fell off.  :)

The fall towels came out great.

I even made a set of towels for my college age sister-in-law.  Next time I think I will just do circles, rather than flowers with 10 petals.  Eek!

I used verigiated thread, so that I wouldn't have to switch thread colors for each piece.  I kind of like it.

Although, next time I will use more solids and no more of this "prints on top of prints" business.

Korina loved them, thankfully.

Oh yeah - one more thing.  I made a couple pillowcases for my music loving sister and her fishing loving husband to go on their super long pillows that nobody seems to make pillowcases to fit.  :)  I mostly referred to THIS tutorial and THIS tutorial (the tube is amazing) and made them long enough to fit a "King" size pillow.  I think they turned out really nice and the recipients were super grateful. :)  And amazingly, the fabric all came from my stash.  Score!

And now I am excited to jump into my post-Christmas sewing adventures!
How was your Christmas?

Why, Hello!

I've been DYING to share these with you!
I discovered April Mae's Hello Sun Quilt Along back in October and decided it fit perfectly with the block of the month I was looking for.  So I made a couple for myself.  Then it came time to start thinking of Christmas gifts and I was in charge of finding something for my sister.  She requested something to decorate her apartment with and it still took me a week or two to realize I could make her these darling sun blocks.  My sister loves yellow and these blocks just seemed to fit her personality perfectly!  So I got to work right away.  I posted a sneak peak of the block backs awhile ago, but other than that I have been waiting kind of impatiently to finally post the finish products.
Here they are!

This is one of A's favorite things to say:

The whole set all together.  I had a really hard time giving these away!  I just wanted to keep them for myself!


January

February
I kind of love this text print!

March

April
I used fleece for the cloud.  I wish I had thought of it earlier.  I would have done the same for March...

May

June
I'm a little surprised, but I think this one is my favorite.

July
I like how the frayed edges look like waves in the water.

August

September

October

November

December

To make these mini quilts, I fused the background fabric onto fusible fleece (very carefully), then iron appliqued the pieces down.  Then I did the embroidery, basted a back to each one, and stitched the pieces down.  I used April's easy method for stitching the pieces down - I love how forgiving it is, and how CUTE it looks!  Perfect for these designs!  Then I sewed the borders on "quilt as you go" style and bound each mini quilt by hand (usually while watching a show with the hubby) - I think they look a lot nicer bound by hand. 

I added little hanging tabs on the back of each mini quilt.   
I think the backs look kind of cool with the images reversed. 

The backs are all made from scraps of yellows.  I didn't have very many pieces that were big enough for backings, so I pieced 12 log cabin blocks.  The mini quilts measure about 10 inches square.

For the big one, I added two layers of batting to the sun and letters (Trapunto style), to make them puff out.

And there you have it!  I made a set for myself, but they aren't mini quilts because I had already fused heavy interfacing onto all 12 of my background pieces, making it too stiff to quilt.  So mine will look very similar, only they will be going in a frame, rather than being bound and hung.

Quilt stats:

Started: November, 2012

Finished: December 18, 2012

Fabrics: Nearly all from the stash!  Lots of scraps.

Finished size:  10 inches square

Recipient:  Sister A for Christmas