Mini-Quilt!

Last week I made a commitment to Amy that I would finish this project.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it, what with the three month old twins and all.  But it turns out that all I had to do was step away from the computer and just work on it whenever I had a few minutes.  And I finished it with a couple of days to spare!  Wahoo!  To see what other people finished last week, check out the link:

And here's what I did last week:

I made a mini!

I'm thinking of trying the quilt-as-you-go method for quilting my Fandango quilt, since it is going to be another huge one.  However, I've never done it before so I decided to make a mini quilt to test my skills.  It was also a good chance for me to try a couple different quilting styles to see which one I liked best.  So I made mini "out of the box" blocks to practice on, using some fabric from my stash. 
I knew I wanted to quilt straight lines in all the neutral fabric, but everything else was anyone's guess.  These are the designs I tried:

Feathers and pebbles.  I really wanted these to work, but I think it is just too busy.

This one has wavy lines in the border box.  Then for the solid box I just traced around the design on the fabric.  I think I like this one the best.

Loops, meandering, and swirls.  

All straight lines.  Too poofy.

Here is the back.  I think it looks kinda cool.   Even though the four sections don't meet too well in the middle.  Oh well.  One can't be too picky.  I think I like the "wonky" look.

I bound it in this green because I just so happened to have a whole bunch of it already cut and folded.  I've been practicing my machine binding.  Check out my corners!

I found several tutorials for the quilt-as-you-go method.  Two of them were for attaching one block at a time - here and here.  One was for attaching larger sections - here.  And then I found this tutorial after I had already started - genius!  I'll definitely keep this in mind for next time.
I decided to try the first technique and attached each block one at a time, then attaching the rows.  One tutorial suggests putting the overlapping piece on the front, the other suggests putting it on the back.  I tried mine with the overlapping piece on the front, so I could stitch it down by machine and not have the front look funny.  Now that I look at it, I think I will put the overlap on the back next time and try stitching it down by hand to avoid the "strip of fabric sewn on top of everything else" look.  I don't know though.  I'm not too good with hand stitching.  It takes forever.  I think I might also try making my sashing strips just a tad wider, to cut down on bulk. 

The final product is 16 x 16 inches
Fabric is "Pumpkins Gone Wild" by Sandy Gervais - I THINK.  (This fabric was part of a giveaway I won a long time ago.  Who knew I had Sandy Gervais fabric in my stash all this time?!)

Now that this is finished, I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it.  What does one do with mini-quilts?

Diaper Pouches

I pinned THIS tutorial on Pinterest a few weeks ago.  Up until now we have been keeping those little 20 packs of diapers in our diaper bag (we got a bunch as a gift).  Now that the little packages are all gone and it only makes sense to buy diapers in BULK when you have twins, I needed something to keep a few diapers in.   I had JUST enough fabric left over from the crib bedding to make this:

It's stuffed clear full - we go through lots of diapers!

Right around the time I was thinking about making this, I found out that two of my friends from work were having a joint baby shower.  I'm still too scared to take two infants with me to Wal-Mart, so I knew my best bet was to make their gifts at home.  Luckily, I made my own diaper pouch first, so I was able to make a few adjustments on the pouches for my friends (specifically the strap).

One of them is having a girl:

And the other is having a boy.  I know that she has decorated her nursery in green and black, which inspired the colors for this pouch:

ALL of the fabric was from my stash (YESSS!).  I didn't have any fusible fleece, so I just used regular batting, but the lining is a stiffer burlap fabric left over from THIS bag.  And I didn't even have to do any shopping!  I finished three pouches in about two days of working off and on between feedings and stuff.  I hope they work out okay!

I can't help but link up with Kati - check out the awesome giveaway she is hosting this month!

Work in Progress: Fandango Quilt

The boys have given me a few days of good naps lately, so I have been sewing again!   Yay!   They seem to each take at least one long nap every day and if I'm lucky they will be at the same time.  ;)  Here's to hoping they can keep it up!

I finished making the blocks for the Fandango quilt I am making for my in-laws. 

This is what I started with (I cut these out back in, what - July?):

It's been fun to watch the blocks grow.  They went through a couple of phases.  You know.  Like kids.  They go through phases.  And they grow.  Okay.  Moving on.

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

And phase 3.  These are the final blocks:

They are huge!  16 inches square.  The finished quilt will have 20 of these.  Now I just need to sew them together with sashing and figure out how to quilt it.  I pretty much have no idea how to quilt it.  Any suggestions?

 This is a first for me... I'm linking up!  I want to be better at recording my progress (it's usually pretty slow, so I may not be able to link up every week), rather than just all my finished projects.  So I'm jumping on the WIP Wednesday bandwagon!  Yay!  I'm the kind of person that likes to see a project all the way to completion before starting a new one (for the most part - mostly it's my husband who encourages this habit).  So I don't really have any other WIPs or stats to report.  I did work on a quickie project this week, though.  I don't have pictures loaded up yet, but I'll post about that soon.

Check out all of the other WIPs at Freshly Pieced. 

Improvising

A couple of weeks ago, we set up a second crib for the boys.  They were starting to bump into each other in the one crib they were sharing.  I really like the new crib, but I felt like it was missing something.  I decided it at least needed a bumper.  The bumper I made for the first crib was an old hand-me-down that I covered with cute Ann Kelle fabric.  Unfortunately, I didn't think it would be economical to buy a brand new bumper for the new crib, just to cover it up with more fabric.  But I wanted it to kind of match.
SO.  I improvised.  I had a little bit of fabric left over from the first bumper, but not enough.  So I cut about 6 inches off the crib skirt I made for the first crib (it was a little too long anyway), and paired it with a solid fabric that I bought once to bring my fabric total just high enough to get free shipping. :)  It turned out that I had JUST enough fabric for a new bumper - with almost no leftovers!

I just made the bumper the same way I would make a quilt - using some extra batting I had on hand.  I quilted it with a meandering stitch, hoping to keep it stiff enough to stand up, and I even outlined some of the cars and planes, but you can't really see it in any of the pictures.
The ties were leftover from the cute diaper bears my friend made for one of my baby showers.
All in all, the whole thing cost NOTHING to make!  Wahoo!

Then I decided to remake the crib skirt I had on the first crib.  See - I was originally too cheap (or perhaps, lazy) to make the crib skirt with a center panel the way most bed skirts are made.  I just sort of taped it down and hoped it would stay.  Well, it sort of worked, but it was pretty ghetto.
Unfortunately, I didn't want to go out and buy a big piece of fabric that no one would ever see, and I surely didn't want to waste any of my stash on it.  But then, as I was cleaning my bathroom one day, I had a revelation.  A standard bath towel is about the same size as a crib mattress!  And we have TONS of old towels just taking up space under our sink right now.  Perfect!  So I sewed the crib skirt pieces to an old, ugly towel.  I didn't even have to trim the towel or anything.  It's not perfect, but it definitely works. 

And here they are!  The cribs don't match, but at least the bedding does!  Kind of.  I don't think the babies will care.   In fact, I think they really like the helicopters.  They pretty much stared at them the whole time I wrote this post.  :)

Insert Clever Title Here

I'm a little embarrassed - everyone else finished posting their Christmas stuff months ago.  Maybe I should just consider myself 10 months early instead of 2 months late.
I have been able to get in little snippets of sewing time during those rare moments when both boys are sleeping at the same time and the dishes/laundry are all done.
Here are their finished stockings!

A couple notes for myself to remember next time:
-Quilting the pieces before cutting out the stocking shape is a good idea - just make sure to quilt far enough past the outside edges of the stocking shape.
-Make the cuffs a little wider so they have room to fold over.
-DON'T FORGET THE HOOK NEXT TIME!  Sheesh!  You'd think I'd figure that one out the third time.

December 2011

Hello blog!  Have you been feeling neglected lately?  Well, I have a pretty good excuse.  I didn't really make anything in December.  I was a little distracted by these two:

Jaxson and Bronx were born on December 5th and we are all doing very well.  As much as I hate to admit it, progress in the sewing end is going to be slow for awhile.  I am working on fitting in a little bit of "me" time every day, but I'm still figuring it all out.  Having twins is a lot of work.

I did, however, finish up a few things before they arrived.  Did you notice the little hats?  I made them myself.  Well, not the hats - those are from Target.  But I DID embroider the names on them.  We were afraid we wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them.  Turns out they are NOT identical and we have been able to tell them apart easily from the very beginning.

My original plan was to sew the names on by machine, using a satin stitch.  However, my machine is very difficult when it comes to sewing stitches that are in any way close together so I eventually gave up and did the satin stitches by hand.  It was something for me to work on while I was "resting" on the couch during those last few weeks of pregnancy.

I also made these for their stockings.

Obviously, I still need to make the stockings, but these will be the front cuffs.  I made stockings for the Hubby and me way back when - they have crosstitched cuffs as well. 

I designed them myself!

 Aren't they cute?

Wish me luck as I figure out how to incorporate two newborns in with the rest of my life!

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