A Couple of Quilted Hot Pads and some Bee Blocks

Last week I got to go to a bridal shower for my cousin.  Now that I have learned to make things, I love going to bridal/baby showers.  I love having the excuse to work on a fun, small project.  I couldn't decide between oven mitts and hot pads, so I compromised and made these hot pads with pockets.  I love how they turned out, even though they took quite a bit longer than I planned..

I did some research and found out that the bride's wedding colors are going to be mint green and silver (how gorgeous is that going to be, BTW?).  I immediately thought of this Lizzy house Pearl Bracelets print and since I didn't have anything remotely close to "mint green" in my stash, I went shopping!  I was super excited to find this Lotta Jansdotter Bella print that matched so well. 

The binding is from my stash - it's a little more mint blue, but I think it works.  And as luck would have it, the bride told me that these are her favorite colors, AND she loves polka dots!  I KNEW the Lizzy House print was the best choice.

I decided that I hated the original print I had used for the lining of the hot pads, so in the end I added the green/gray prints to the inside - that's why they aren't quilted like everything else.  Trust me, it looks TONS better!

I quilted one hot pad with pebbles and the other hot pad with echoes around the letter W (for their last name) and the big flower.

I didn't have quite enough fabric for binding, so I got to include a little pop of lighter gray in the corners and I like how modern it looks.  I stitched it down by hand because I really wanted it to look nice.  OUCHIE!  My fingers were sore after stitching through all of those thick layers!

I even remembered to add a loop for hanging!  Go me!

In other news, I have finished all of February's bee blocks!  Brittney asked for Ribbon Star Blocks in warm and cool colors.  Here are my two blocks:

I decided that I didn't like my original warm block.  I used some fabric from my stash for the background and I think it was a cotton/poly blend because it didn't sew very well and got SUPER wrinkly when I ironed it.  Sheesh.  No more cheap fabric for me!

Anyway, I felt bad for sending her a crappy block, so I made a new one - this one entirely from scraps.  Even the center is leftover from my Hello Sun blocks.   I like this one TONS better!

Also, I've been going to a new guild in my area.  I'm so excited that the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild has been formed!  It is SO much closer and more convenient for me to attend than some of the other modern quilt guilds I have considered.  I love it, even though I am obviously the youngest one there and there aren't a ton of ladies in my age range.  :p  It's all good though, we still have something in common and that's that we love to make quilts.  We have started a BOM for 2014 and here are my first two blocks.  The flower was done using needle turn applique - a completely new technique for me.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I might do it again, but I do love the ease and quickness of raw edge applique!  ;)  I'm using a couple of charm packs of Joel Dewberry's True Colors line that I won HERE.  It was an awesome win and I'm excited to work with the colors. 

The End.


Linking up:

ALYOF: After the Storm progress

Okay, so this is going to be a boring post (particularly for those who are tired of hearing about my After the Storm quilt), sorry about that.  But I've got to share with you that I finished piecing the LAST block for my After the Storm quilt!  Now all that's left is to sew the borders up, baste, and quilt!  Oh, and bind (obviously).  The end is in sight - no more paper piecing on this bad baby.  So far I have paper pieced 381 units.  Holy cow, that sounds like a lot.  Thank heavens for chain piecing.  :)

 

Anyway.  My ALYOF goal for February was to finish all of these blocks, and I did!  I've even started putting the borders together.  (!!!)

Before

After

To keep this thing moving along, my goal for March is to have all of the 9 sections quilted (since it's going to be king sized, I'm using a sort of quilt-as-you-go method).  (Hopefully that counts as only one goal.)  It's a lofty goal, but I'm going to do my best to reach it.
 In case you are new here, you can get a glimpse of what the quilt will look like HERE.

My February goal setting post is HERE.  My entry was #63.

In other news, I've been making bee blocks and bridal shower gifts (more on those later) and I'm working on a few new quiet books for my shop.  I'm almost done with those too, so hopefully I can share them (and finally LIST them) soon!  Oh, and I've been happily plugging away on my Quilty Stitches Sampler Along, I'm on block three now.  :)

Linking up with Lee:

And Shanna/Melissa:

Stitching Along

Have you heard of the Quilty Stitches Sampler-Along happening at Little Miss Shabby?  Every two weeks, Corey introduces a new quilt block inspired crosstitch pattern to us.  They are SO cute (and tiny)!  She has introduced two blocks so far, but there is plenty of time to jump in!  Crosstitching was my first love and it just so happened that the timing for this stitch-along was PERFECT for me and I have been wanting to stitch a sampler for awhile.  YAY! 

Here is my first block, Swoon:

I raided my embroidery floss stash (which, apparently isn't as neat as some of the lovely ones shared in the Flickr group), and pulled out some blues, purples, greens, and oranges.  Some of these are only small pieces because they are leftover from kits, but I think I'll probably have enough.  I'm excited to make something bright and cheery!

I'm a little bit behind because I somehow got it into my head that I needed to stitch all of my sashing FIRST, so that I could have an outline for placing my "blocks."  And it took FOREVER.  Ah well.  I'm using a scrap piece of Aida and I wanted to make sure it was big enough for all of the blocks.  Unfortunately, as I sat down to write this post, I realized that the stitch-along is only going to have 16 blocks and I somehow managed to make 24 spots in my layout!  Geez.  I think I'll go through and take out the bottom two rows so that I have 18.  Then I'll either make up two more or repeat two of my favorites.  

My Aida fabric looks white, but it's actually a cream color. 

You should check out the Flickr group!  There are some fun color combinations happening over there.  I'm really liking the ones with the dark backgrounds and the ones with the backgrounds left unstitched.  But NO, I am NOT going to unpick all of that white stitching and start over...

In other crosstitchy news, I don't think I've ever shared this with you!

 

I made this for my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas.  It's about a year and a half late, but oh well.  I tried to match the colors to their wedding colors - lime green and silver.  I love this cute pattern.

 Also, I blogged about this Christmas scene already, but I wanted to show it to you one more time.  You can read more about it and see more pictures of it HERE.

ALYOF: Snail Trail Blocks finished!

I finished all of the snail trail blocks for my Storm at Sea quilt!  Whew!  I didn't realize at first that there were going to be 56 blocks - all of them basically the SAME.  It did get a little monotonous (20 pieces per block, paper pieced - about 25 minutes per block), but I plugged away and finished them all!

Of course, there was a little snag along the way.  One night I decided to lay them all out with what I've got so far to see how they looked.  It's a good thing I did, because I discovered that half of the blocks I had made so far were WRONG!  The snails were pointing the wrong way.  That was a gut wrenching realization, for sure.  Luckily I caught it when I did and only had to unpick and resew about 14 blocks.  I could have just left them, but I've worked so hard on this quilt, I want it to turn out right.  So about a week's worth of TV watching with the hubby and the seam ripper, then another several days of nap time and they were all fixed.  I'm ready to move on!

Finally ready to resew

Big pile of unpicked pieces.

After putting the boys to bed the other night, I got everything out and laid it out in the living room.  This quilt is going to be SO BIG!  Seriously.  Huge.  I wanted it to be big enough to be a functional bed quilt (one that could actually be tucked in), and I think it might be big enough.  It better be.  ;)  I'm so excited to see my plans all coming together the way I envisioned them!

The only thing left is to fill in those gaps with diamond blocks, make a back, and quilt it.  I've been taking Ann Peterson's Craftsy course on quilting big quilts and I'm so excited to get started!  This has been an awesome class.  I bought it while it was on sale and I'm so glad I did!

SO.  In order to keep the ball rolling, my February ALOF goal will be to finish piecing all of the filler diamond blocks.  If the top gets assembled, that will be a definite bonus.  :)

January's goal setting post can be found HERE.

p.s. I'm still debating new names for this quilt.  I can't just call it "The Storm at Sea Quilt."  That's too boring.  I like the idea of something referring to a rainbow.  Right now I'm leaning towards "After the Storm."  What do you think?  Do you have a better idea for me?

Linking up!

Finish Along Q1 Goal

Even though I have seen posts about the Finish Along happening this year at The Littlest Thistle, I resisted jumping in myself.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe because I'm already participating in Shanna and Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes, which works better for me because the goals are much smaller.

Either way, I realized that the deadline for Quarter 1 of the Finish Along just happens to fall right around the time of my self imposed deadline for my Storm at Sea quilt, so I might as well link up, right?  Here we go!

My one goal is for this quarter is to finish my Storm at Sea quilt.  It's a big goal - this quilt is going to be HUGE (about 120 x 108) when it's finished.  But I'm gonna finish it!  I've been working on it forever and now it's being moved from the back burner to the very top of the list.

Here are just a few photos of my progress so far:

Original Fabric Pull

One of the first blocks

Finished center section

Wrinkly outer borders

Oakshott Triangles ready for piecing

Snail Trail blocks for inner "border"

Large solid remnants for backing

The layout plan!  Minus outer borders

But here's the thing.  I'm tired of calling this just my "Storm at Sea" quilt.  I feel like this quilt needs a name of it's own.  What do you think?  Does anyone have any amazing suggestions?  The pattern for the center section is called "Storm at Sea" and the border section around it is made up of "Snail Trail" blocks.  But this is a VERY non-traditional interpretation of the Storm at Sea pattern...


And just in case I happen to stray off course and work on my Twin toddler quilts, I'm including them in this post.  I'm planning on making a Broken Herringbone quilt with the green stack and a Jungle Path quilt with the blue one.  

Linking up:

Cruiser Blvd: The Beginnings of Two Toddler Quilts

Well, it's almost time.  At some point in the next several months (hopefully not too soon) my boys will be ready to graduate from the crib and move to toddler beds.  This means they will need new quilts for their brand new beds!  Yay! 

 I spent some time during our Christmas break looking for ideas.  I decided it was time to try making something with a Jelly roll so I pinned tons of jelly roll quilts on my Pinterest board.  Then I picked 7 or 8 and mocked up generic versions in Excel and let the Hubby pick two.  Sometimes he complains that I ask for his advice but never actually use it (this doesn't ever happen to you, does it?), so I am sticking to the ones he chose - and I'm super excited about it!  He picked Jungle Path and Broken Herringbone:

THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO.  CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO VISIT MODA BAKE SHOP

THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO.  CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO VISIT MOLLI SPARKLES

And then I got to pick out fabric!  I decided I wanted to make two quilts using different patterns, but the same fabric line.  Matching, but not matching, you know?  That's the way we do it around here with our twins.  :)  Once again, I found 6 or 7 lines that I liked and left it up to Hubby to choose.  He chose Cruiser Blvd by Sheri McCulley for Riley Blake, which is perfect!  The Hubby is a transportation engineer, so he loves all the road signs and stuff.

And the best part is, I found this FULL FQ bundle on clearance at Fabric Fly Shop.  Since I would have needed three jelly rolls to have enough fabric for both quilts, and this bundle cost about the same as one jelly roll (don't hate me...), I jumped on it.  So I'll be making two jelly roll quilts with fat quarters.  It's all good.

I was SO excited to get this package in the mail!  (I have never bought an entire line of fabric before.  Usually I buy only what I need for a specific project.)  When it arrived, I didn't even wait to open it and spread it all out on my kitchen table to admire it.  :)  And then I put it all back together and took some nice pictures of it...

 

I've decided to do one mostly green quilt and one mostly blue quilt.  As of right now, these are my fabric groupings.  The green one will be Broken Herringbone and the blue one will be Jungle Path.  I'm going to use the little hexies and the stripes for binding (the two yellow prints are leftovers). 

What do you think?  I'm still a little unsure.  Is the pop of red in the green stack too much?  Should I switch it for one of the yellows?

On another note, the other day when I was working on bee blocks, one of my boys came in to "play" with me.  We'd been struggling quite a bit with nap time and I kept ending up with two toddlers taking naps at DIFFERENT times (NO FUN).  So one day while Jaxson was napping, I brought Bronx in to sew with me.  I sat him on my lap and chain pieced a bunch of blocks while he watched.  Then while I was ironing them, he went through one of my fabric drawers and brought over a pile of fabric to "sew" (don't worry - I took the needle out as soon as I realized what he was doing and of course the machine was turned off).  At first he put a piece of fabric up on the extension table and waited for something to happen.  It was so cute.  When the fabric refused to move by itself, he reached up and started pushing it through like I did (hence the big pile of fabric on the other side).  He would also wiggle the presser foot with his fingers because he knew it was supposed to go up and down while the fabric moved through.  I think he's a cute kid.  Boots in the house and all.

Linking up: