A Whale Of A Quilt

I have been working on this baby quilt for a cute little guy at our church.  Unfortunately, with church being canceled until at least next month and the stay at home order, I can't get it to him.  He is the youngest of 4 boys and really still a newborn.  I've seen pictures of him but I can't wait to meet him in person.

Diana

Dark and Moody

Today I finished a lovely lap quilt.  I started this one a number of months ago but had to put it aside while my mother was ill.  She passed about 4 weeks ago from Alzheimer.  It was a very difficult time for our family.  I finally felt like picking it back up again a few days ago and it really helped me feel creative again.  

 The fabric is kind of dark and moody but also very pretty.  I machine quilted it in an undulating wave pattern on my home machine.  

The floral, solid and text patterned fabric feels a little modern to me as does the color pallet. I am really loving the overall grey tone.

It is on the large size for a baby blanket.  More like a lap quilt.  So I am not really sure who I will gift it to yet......

Diana

Use What You Got Quilt

Three and a half years ago I made a window pane quilt which used up less than half of the fabric I had bought to make it.  That sad pile of leftover fabric has been waiting all this time to become something.  Here is how I finally decided to use up that material.

 Nothing complicated, just a quick project. 

 I even pieced the back so nothing went to waste.  Now I won't feel guilty about buying too much fabric.

On a different note, I tried a new machine quilting pattern.  Tons and tons of circles!  Took FOREVER but I like it now that it's done.

Diana

Postage Stamp Quilt

 Just finished another quilt.  Each square is 2 inches by 2 inches.  It was easier than it looks because I did strip piecing using jelly rolls!

The colors are so cheerful.

 The last picture is a little out of focus but it does give an idea of how many squares are in this quilt!

Diana

Baby Boy Quilt

Just finished a quilt for a newborn baby boy out in California.  This was an easy quilt to piece as you can see.  Went together very quickly.  I think the colors are pretty cool and neutral enough for the little guy.

 This was my first attempt at edge to edge machine quilting on my embroidery machine.  Because my biggest hoop is 5x7 it took a lot of time and 64 hoops to complete the quilting.  Love the finished look but it was soooo time consuming.

Glad to be finally finished with it and now off this quilt goes across the country to it's new owner!

Diana

Danish Modern Chair Makeover

I recently got these Gunlocke office chairs at an auction for $5.   I couldn't believe they went for so cheap!  Fast forward a few months and I finally got around to redoing them.

 Even thought the vinyl fabric was in pretty good shape I couldn't leave them in that ugly color......

 forgive the blurry photo.......but here is the chair reupholstered in a grey herringbone fabric.

This picture is a little better.  I cleaned up the wood and spent the better part of last Saturday tearing off the old fabric and putting on the new.  We are going to use these chairs in our flip for staging and then our younger daughter is getting them.  That is if I can let them go!

Diana

Cool Cats Quilt

I found the cutest cat fabric on sale about a month ago and knew my oldest granddaughter would love it.  It is from Michael Miller's Cool Cat line in aqua.  I also added a bright pink fabric at my granddaughter's request.  She is very girly and a future Cat Lady........She even helped pick out the layout.

 I like how this line mixes pretty cats and nerdy cats and pin dots!

I had some left over material so I am making her some skater shorts pajamas.  

So if you are a little nerdy AND crazy about cats AND girly......this quilt is definitely for you!

Diana

Vintage Picnic Quilt

I made myself a quilt!  I know, I've made a lot of quilts that I have shared with you on this blog.  They are usually a gift for a new baby or sick friend.  I also make them for family members.  I guess I have made a few dozen over the last few years.  But I rarely make one for myself.....

 When I started this quilt I wondered who I would give it to.  I loved the fabric and colors sooo much.  Then it occurred to me that if I like it so much there was no reason why I couldn't keep it!  More specifically, I could use it in my vintage trailer as a lap quilt.  Yippee!

 I used fabric from Moda's line Vintage Picnic and a red gingham I had in my stash.  The backing is a red and white chevron fabric.

 Machine quilted it on my domestic machine using Westalee ruler foot and shell template.

I seriously loooove how easy it was to use and how smooth the quilting looks.  Might have to do a post on the ruler foot and templates.........

 Don't you just love giant ric rac?

Here is a pic of the backing.  This quilt is so cheerful!  I can't wait to take the trailer out this summer and cuddle with this quilt while reading a good book and eating chocolate.......mmmmm.

Diana

Embroidery Buddies!

I just finished machine embroidering some sweet little blankets for two of my nursery children at church.  They are turning three next week and I thought a personalized snuggle blanket would be just the right gift from their teacher.

 I got the blankets from Country Club Embroidery Blanks face book shop.  They are very reasonably priced and they ship quickly.  The quality is very good too!  And if you purchase from her there are free embroidery designs to match the stuff toys.

 The lamb is for a little girl and the puppy for a boy.

The designs stitch up nicely too.

I have already ordered more buddies for upcoming birthdays!  Don't want to run out and disappoint one of my little ones.....

Diana

Screen Print Pillow

Tried my hand at non chemical screen printing and loved the results!

So this saying has been my mantra for a while now.  And now that the hubby has retired I am thinking my online shopping is really going to suffer......

Diana

Feed Sack Apron

Just finished a really cute apron last week.  It is made from Feed Company Sweetwater Moda Feed Sack Fabric.

 I had bought the fabric while visiting my sister in law in Idaho.  It only took one evening to sew and wasn't very hard at all even though it had curved seams.  I hate curved seam piecing.

 Lots of rick rack.  And really cute plaid fabric!

 I haven't decided if this is for me or a gift for someone else..........

Diana

Tea Towels For Christmas

Getting a few of my Christmas gifts done ahead of time!  I machine embroidered and sewed up about 11 tea towels.

 I did a few with the french utensils and a few with the rooster.  The material is bought by the yard and cut into towels.  The printed tea towel were made from fabric I got on spoonflower during the fat quarter sale a few weeks ago.

 This is definitely my favorite!  Love the pretty silverware.

So pretty......Hope everyone loves these towels as much as I do.

Diana

Santa Bag Using My Silhouette

Been spending a lot of quality time with my Silhouette lately.  Today's project is a Santa bag for a young family at our church.

 I used heat transfer flocked vinyl from Silhouette and a cutting file from Fynes Designs.  She also has directions for a bag!  However, I used my own pattern because I wanted my bag to have a round bottom.

The file took forever to cut.  I used double cut and blade set at 4 which seemed to work well for this material and file.

Using my iron worked but it was more time consuming.  I did have a 12x12 tile under the fabric to help increase the heat from the back of the design too.

  

My bag is tied with a ribbon and is stuffed with a few goodies for there family.  Can't wait to give it to them.

Diana

Wintery Deer Pillow

I have been seeing Heat Transfer Vinyl projects all over the net and finally got enough courage to try one myself.  I don't have a heat press (hint, hint, Christmas is coming!) so I had to use an iron.  Apparently you shouldn't use a sheet of glass as a base....... crack!  But other than that small problem it wasn't so hard.

 I used a Silhouette file for the deer image and pretty blue flocked vinyl.  The silhouette cut it out like butter even though it was very intricate.  Then I used my iron at the hottest setting (less than 300 degrees).  I also used a Teflon sheet between the iron and vinyl.  Less than 1 minute of heavy pressure and the vinyl was stuck.  I am not sure if this pillow would stand up to a washing machine but since it is a pillow not a pillow cover it should not ever see the inside of a washer.

Here is a closer view.  This pillow is going to my youngest daughter who uses a lot of blues and grays in her decor.  Hope she likes it.

Diana

Owl Apron

A dear friend's great grand daughter Hailey loves the apron I wear for my church assignment.  (see here)  She asked if I could sew up one for Hailey for Christmas.  Hoping to get a jump on some of my holiday projects I got right on it.

She gave me free reign on fabric choice so I chose this cute owl fabric.  I even made a pot holder from the scraps.

  The apron and pot holder will be used for her 4H cooking class.

 Love this pocket.

The back is so pretty too.  Hope she likes this as much as I do!

Diana

Another Baby Quilt Heading For China

Another of my husband's secretaries is expecting a baby!  And since this is his last trip to China (he is retiring early!!!!!) I needed to rush and make a baby quilt as quickly as possible.

 Nothing is faster than a strip quilt and it goes even quicker when you use a jelly roll to make it.  Even though it took a little more effort, I decided to round the corners and piece a section of the back.

 The muted palette of greens and browns looks so pretty and should work for a boy or girl.

I machine quilted it in simple swirls.  

The most time consuming part was figuring out why my thread kept breaking (dull needle) and hand sewing the binding.  I was about to lose my mind trying to resolve the thread issue.  Of course it is always something you should have thought of right away but somehow never do.  Thanks to my local quilt shop for giving me some support and not laughing at my duh moment! 

Hope Belinda and baby enjoy the gift!

Diana