Working with Minky

I found this HUGE cut of football fabric for an amazing price at a yard sale awhile ago and decided I wanted to make a car seat canopy with some of it. 

I've seen lots of cute car seat canopies made with minky, so I decided to give it a shot.  
What do you think?

Sewing the minky wasn't too horrible - it was cutting it to size that gave me a headache.  And the fact that you can't iron it.  That's all I'm going to say.

Once it was all sewn up, I thought it was going to look horrible - the two layers didn't seem quite the same size at first.  But when I put it on the car seat, it draped quite nicely.  Yay! 

I couldn't just settle for a plain canopy, so I made things interesting for myself and added a little strip across the front.

And I made it reversible, because - well, why not? 

Anyway.  It's up for sale in my Etsy shop.  One thing down, on to the next.  I can't wait to share my next project with you!  I just need to bind and photograph it.  :)  Here's a shot of my initial fabric pull:

I joined a bee!

So I debated joining an online quilting bee for a LONG time.  Then, when we moved to our new house in July, I decided it was time to take the plunge.  I put myself on the waiting list for do. Good Stitches.  This bee appeals to me the most because participants make blocks from their own stash - no going out and buying fabric, cutting it all up, and mailing the parts to bee mates so that they can sew it all up and send it all back.  This way seems a lot more economical to me.  :)  Plus, the quilts go to charity!  Bonus! 
Anyway, I was finally accepted into a new circle in the group called Humility.  We're going to be making quilts to donate to a Native American reservation in South Dakota.  I'm so excited - my month is May, so I've got some time to think about what blocks to request...
In the meantime, here are my blocks for November.  We were asked to make wonky stars and wonky log cabin blocks in fun, cheery colors.

More Oven Mitts

I made my mom some new oven mitts to replace her old ones that were approximately 100 years old.  They were a quick, easy project.  Happy Birthday Mom!

Kyler's Growth Chart

Remember Connor's BYU Growth Chart?

Well, Connor is going to have a new cousin soon, and his grandma was awesome enough to commission growth charts for both of them.  :)

I finished Kyler's growth chart the morning before I delivered it, and it was very hard to get good pictures of it, but here you go:

His mom asked for blue, green, and gray.  My stash is sorely lacking in those areas (especially gray), so I got to go shopping!  I think the color scheme Kyler's mom chose is awesome.  These are the fabrics I came home with (I supplemented this stack with some from my stash).  There's a little bit of Michael Miller in there, some Reunion, some Scoot, and a couple other line I can't remember at the moment.... See the little elephants?  I was so excited to find those - Kyler's nursery theme revolves around elephants.

This was a fun growth chart to make. 

But, like I said - so hard to photograph.

Kyler's mom wanted his full name on his growth chart, so I took all my pictures before adding the last two names (for privacy reasons).  You'll have to trust me when I tell you that it turned out even cuter than this.  But then I had to take a couple more right as I finished and I think they turned out a little better, so I have blurred his middle and last name out in these photos.  I wanted you to see how I attempted to make it so the binding marked every 12 inches on the chart (like a real ruler).  It's not perfect, but I think it works okay. 

What do you think?  This was fun to make, I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  :)

P.S... These growth charts are available in my shop.

Happy Halloween - I crocheted!

Happy Halloween!

This year, I got it into my head the the boys (now almost 2) NEEDED to dress up as little minions for Halloween.  You should see them when they run around - they bob up and down just like real minions - they even TALK like them.  :)

For some reason, I'm kind of opposed to buying premade costumes.  Growing up, we always made them ourselves, the best we could.  I guess I just feel like homemade is more authentic.  Maybe I'll change my mind next year...

Anyway, I set about trying to find yellow hats and yellow shirts - I tell you, it is IMPOSSIBLE!  Sure, I found yellow shirts, and maybe even a few hats - for adults.  My kids are still in size 18 months.  Sigh.

SO.  I did some more digging and found THIS tutorial from Chucksforchancho.  It was AWESOME!  So detailed - Monica was so generous to share this tutorial with us.  The only problem was this - I didn't know how to crochet!!  I think I've done it before - 12 of 13 years ago my Mom taught me a few basics, but it never stuck.  SO.  I borrowed a crochet hook from Mom and proceeded to do lots of reading and youtube watching.  And I learned how to crochet.  THIS website (Maybe Matilda) was a LIFESAVER.  Excellent tutorials and lots of extra links for videos and stuff.

And look, it worked!  I spent about one evening learning how to crochet, then two more evenings (I won't tell you how many hours...) making these hats and I still can't believe how well they turned out!  They are far from perfect, but way better than I expected them to be!

I ended up making them different sizes - the first one seemed a tad small, so I made the second one one size up.  They both still fit pretty well, luckily.  And I tried adding a mouth, but just couldn't get it to look right, so I left it off.

I'm not much of an overall person, but I found these two online, barely worn for only $3.  SCORE!

And, to top it all off - I even ended up dying a couple of onesies because of the atrocious lack of yellow clothing available for 18 month olds.  Go me!

Group hug!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Baby Chevrons

Welcome new friends and old followers!

This is my entry for the "Baby Quilts" category in Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.
Check out the other baby quilts HERE.
Check out the whole festival (it's awesome, set aside a huge chunk of time) here:

Would you believe it, this is the ONLY quilt I have completed since the last festival!  (Well, if you don't count my BYU quilted growth chart...)  First we moved (so much cleaning and packing...) and then I decided to open an Etsy shop and I've been busy making smaller things for that.  Oh, and a few birthday gifts, like my totally awesome Harry Potter and Dr. Who Pillows. 

Luckily, a friend of mine is having a baby girl soon!  Yay!  An excuse to make a quilt!  I LOVE it when that happens.  Unfortunately, I learned to quilt after most of my friends started having babies, so I haven't had nearly as many opportunities as I would like to make baby quilts.  So this one was special.  Baby quilts are so satisfying to make because they come together so quickly and they are such a wonderful, personal gift to give.  Now I just need my sisters to start having babies...  Someday.

Anyway.  For those of you who are visiting for the first time, here it is!

If you squint a little, you can sort of see the ombre pattern running left to right.

The quilting on this one was originally inspired by Christa's Charming Chevrons quilt.

I tried something new (for me) with this quilt.  I don't know about you - but I REALLY love the clean crisp look of a quilt that has not been washed yet.  I know there are lots of people who like the soft crinkliness of a freshly washed quilt, but I feel like my quilts lose a little bit when they get like that.  Maybe it's the "old fashioned" look?  I don't know.  I like things crisp and clean.  So with this quilt, I prewashed my batting and my flannel backing (but not my fabric - I used a charm pack, that would have been a disaster - maybe part of the problem?), in hopes that the flannel and batting would shrink BEFORE I washed the whole quilt together.  But when I pulled the freshly washed quilt out of the dryer, it was still pretty crinkly to me.  Maybe it was just my quilting choices.

 Not horrible, this quilt is still super adorable, but it just looks a little different.  What about you?  Do you like the clean, crisp look?  Or do you like the soft, crinkly look?  What can I do to avoid the crinkly?  Ah well.  I still love this quilt.

Quilt stats:

Started: August 5, 2013

Finished: August 18, 2013

Fabrics:  Amelia and Favorites by Me and My Sisters; Kona Steel and Bison

Finished size: 31 x 25 (post washing)

Recipient:  MM baby girl due in November

NOW.  Go and check out all the other fabulous quilts in the festival!
Thanks for stopping by!  You're awesome.

P.S.  Wanna win a new sewing machine?  Check out the giveaway Amy is hosting.  Why do I need a new machine?  Well, mine is getting old and I don't think it's going to last forever.  I bought it used and it has seen a lot of use since then.  It might be time to upgrade.  :)

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Why, Hello!

Welcome new people!  Welcome back old friends!

Last year I felt bad that I never thought to share these little minis as part of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  So I'm sharing them now, even though I made them almost a year ago.  Because they are still one of my most favorite projects EVER.

This is my entry in the "Wall Hanging Quilts" category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Check out the other wall hanging quilts HERE.
Check out the whole festival (it's amazing, people) here:

Actually, this is a set of 13 wall hangings.  Those of you who have been here before have probably seen them already.  They were SO much fun to make.  I made these for my sister who lives on her own and is always looking for new, cute things to decorate her house with.  She has always been a sunny person to me.  She's always happy, she loves yellow, and her favorite thing to say is "Why, hello!"  (in various accents, of course).  So when I discovered April Mae's "Hello Sun" block of the month quilt along I just HAD to play along (she has now made these into patterns - you can buy them HERE).  Instead of making one big quilt, I made 12 minis - so that my sister could switch them out each month.  Then I designed the extra wall hanging for her to keep up all year long and tie everything together.  Here they are!

First, the big one that I designed:


All of the minis together:


And some close-ups of each wall hanging:

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:


I love these because each month is different, yet they all follow the same theme.  I even made another set for myself.  :)


Beginning Nov. 1st, you can vote for your favorite quilts in each category!

Thanks for visiting!  Now go check out all the other entries.