Friday, May 31, 2013

Baby Boy Jungle Quilt

What do you all think of this baby boy quilt?  Would you believe it is made from the same square as the pinwheel quilts seen here and here!  The tutorial for the magic square cutting and construction is shown here
If you look real close you can see the basic square used to make all three quilts.
Made from charms and layer cake cuts, this quilt goes together quickly and I loooove the colors for a boy.
Diana

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Beachy Birthday Cards For The Twins

The twins turn 11 today!  Such sweet, beautiful, fun and smart girls.   They also love the outdoors, especially the water, so I made them cards that reflected their personalities.
The diecuts are done on my cricut using Life is a Beach.  They on mounted on glitter paper cardstock.  (I don't think you can see the glitter paper very well)  The girls are mirror opposite identical twins so each card has a few elements that reflect that. 
Just like their daddy, they are always wearing flip flops.  I hope they like these and have a great birthday today!  Love you both! 
"Grandma"
Diana

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Packaging Handmade Jewelry

My granddaughter Abby and I picked up some jewelry for her mother at a local craft fair this past weekend.  The pieces were made from vintage bits and were beautiful BUT the vendor just tossed the necklace and ring in a paper bag......no tissue paper or nothing!  That didn't feel very special.  And we could hardly just hand over the bag to my daughter and say "here's your gift."
So Abby and I went into the craft closet and started crafting!  We took a page from an old book and glued it to some cardstock.   We inked the edges and punch holes for the necklace to drape from.  We cut a slot for the ring to slide into.  Doesn't it look impressive?  We thought so.
Next we attacked the paper bag.  More book pages, some craft paper ran through the crimper, a vintage bird image and more ink and we were done.  Much nicer and now the presentation looks as good as the jewelry!
Diana

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Black Raspberry Cupcakes

Granddaughter Abby's second cupcake for Memorial day weekend.
Yellow cake, butter cream frosting and black raspberry filling.  Simple and elegant.
Diana

Monday, May 27, 2013

Harry Potter Golden Snitch Cupcakes

A weekend with a granddaughter can be so much fun.  Especially when she is a "crafty kind of girl."
One of the projects we threw ourselves into was cupcake making!  And since she is a huge Harry Potter fan, she choose to make her version of some Golden Snitch cupcakes she had found on the net.  This required fonderific fondant that we dyed golden yellow and aqua blue.  Lots of silver lusterdust was used as was Wilton golden spray.  The cupcakes were simple yellow cake with white butter cream frosting and black raspberry filling.  Awesome (my granddaughter's most used word, followed closely by "the best").
Pretty.
Boxed up, these special cupcakes are headed for her Knitting Club at school.  Yup, I said Knitting Club.  I told you she was crafty.
Diana

Thursday, May 23, 2013

One Step Closer to My Dream

Do you have a dream of owning a cute vintage trailer.  Something to decorate real girly and show off at the campgrounds?  ME TOO!!!!!!  I have been looking for a canned ham for a while but no luck!  I even tried to get a neighbor down the road to sell me his but he said no.  He needed it for ........brace yourself........storage!  I left my number if he ever comes to his senses and wants to buy a storage shed instead.
So, to hold me over, I bought a miniture kit and am playing with it until a real one is in my driveway.  Plus my granddaughters might enjoy it too.
Mind you it is not decorated yet.  It took days to put together and paint.  I laminated a "vinyl" floor in a pink and white checkerboard.  A couple buys on ebay got me the sink, stove, and dishdrainer.  I made the booth and bed.  
Too cute!

Let the decorating begin......
Diana

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Windmill Quilt From Magic Square

Same method, different arrangement.......(see previous posts).  I am calling this one a windmill!  The long blades remind me of old windmills that spotted the farmland out west. 
Quilted on my little Elna, this large lap size quilt was a little harder to handle.  I went with a simple all over swirl design.  It repeated the design on the border so it was an easy choice.
What's not to love.  Favorite color combo, nice size.......and hardly any mistakes.  On to the quilt pile it goes......maybe someday to find a new home.
Diana

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Pinwheel Baby Quilt

Here is the finished baby quilt I pieced using the tutorial from this previous post.  It went together quickly, days ago in fact, but I was too busy with outside chores to post it!  The garden needed to be tidied up and the fields were getting overgrown!  Now that I have made some headway with the yard work I can spend some time on the blog too.......
I haven't someone in mind for this baby quilt yet but it can join the pile that is rapidly growing in the sewing room.  I sometimes have a hard time letting them go.  I love them all so much.  Greedy, I know.......
The  photo is a little off on the colors.  It is much brighter in person.
I machined quilted on my regular sewing machine.  I am gaining confidence and the more I do the better they turn out.  Which is good cuz a longarm does not appear to be in my future anytime soon......  I quilted a wind like pattern with swirls and gusts (humor me) blowing across the quilt.  How else would you quilt a pinwheel baby quilt?  Check back later for another "windy" quilt. 
Diana

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Magic Square Pinwheel and More......

Today I am going to show you how to make a pinwheel square using a four patch square and the magic square cutting method shown here.   When I discovered magic square cutting it seriously changed my life!  Check out my earlier quilt, a simple half square triangle one, constucted using magic square.
You will be amazed at how quickly this square comes together.  Start out with a stack of charms in two colors.  You will need four of each color for each finished block.  Well you actually end up with two finished blocks.  More on that later.   If you are cutting your own charms, you will cut them as 5 inch squares.  You will be repeating each step twice ( or more, depending on how many blocks you will be making).





 

Sew opposite color squares together, two by two,
Press seams towards the darker fabric, in this case, the red.
Now arrange the pairs to form a four patch.
Sandwich the seams and sew the long seam on the four patch.
Press towards one side.  You now have a four patch.  Actually, you should have two four patches.
Now comes the magic.  Cut two squares of fabric 9 1/2 inch square.  You can use a layer cake but just cut it down.

Layer one four patch on a 9 1/2 inch square, right sides together. 
Sew 1/4 inch seam on outer edge on all four sides.  Think of this as a pillow construction without the hole for turning.  That's right, close this guy up!  If you are having trouble understanding, view the video link at the beginning of this post.
Here is a close up of one corner.
Now that all the edges are sewn it is time make the diagonal cuts.  Using a rotary cutter and ruler, align the ruler so the stitch lines of the four patch are centered on the edge of the ruler corner to corner and in the center.
Forgive the shadow but maybe this will be easier to see.  You will be tempted to want to line the ruler to bisect the square based on seam allowances instead of the stitch lines.  NO, NO, NO.  Since the seam allowances are ironed in different directions, they create an optical illusion.  Use the stitch lines to bisect the square.
Make the second cut and you should end up with something like this.  Repeat for each additional square you have sewn.
Open up each section and iron the seam in one direction.  Because the cuts are on the bias, you will want to be careful not to stretch the square during ironing.  
Now arrange the squares to form a pinwheel.  You will now see why you needed to make at least two magic squares.  If you are confused about what I am talking about notice that some of your pinwheel blow to the right and some blow to the left.  Aha!

Sew your pinwheels together, matching seams.  Because this is bias sewing, it is so easy to force the seams to line up!
In quilting you always iron your seams to the darker fabric.  Here is one of the exceptions to the rule.  Because of the bulk that would create in the center of the pinwheel, you will iron the final seam open.  
This will allow the seam to lay flat on the finished side.
Here is the finished block.  It has taken longer for you to read this post that to actually sew this block!
Two variations using the same pieces.
Block with blue center and red edge.
Block with red center and blue edge.  This is the combination I have chosen to make the quilt.  Well, actually two quilts, each blowing a different direction.  More on that later.  You can also use the squares to make blocks other than pinwheels.  But that is another post!   Diana