Red and White Pinwheels

I started these blocks a couple of  weeks ago. They were meant to be a blanket for my mother-in-law's 60th birthday. I had the idea at the last minute and was still in the middle of making the Hulk and butterfly quilts so I wrapped the squares that were finished with a promise to complete the whole blanket soon. In 3 weeks this is all I have to show for it. but they are 13" squares so they are working up quick. I'm just swamped with so many other things, but thought I'd show these off. And keep track of the progress.

Butterflies and Hulk

It seems like forever since I have posted. With starting school, moving, and two grandparents dying it's been a little crazy around here. I finally managed to squeak out a couple of finishes.

My husband just got made the ScoutMaster at church. Each year the young men and young women do a service auction and the adults at church offer up services as well. We had a bake sale so the hubby made 3 dozen of the same cake pops we made together here. Which were apparently a big hit since they were sold out by the time I made it to the bake sale table. 

Since it was an auction for the youth, I decided to make one boy themed blanket and a girl themed blanket that wasn't especially girlie. 

Both came together fairly quickly and are about twin sized blankets since I used twin sized sheets for the backings.

I L-O-V-E the colors in this one. I would probably do it again. It was made with 8 1/2 inch squares (With the sides trimmed down to about 6 inches on the side squares) with 1 1/2 inch white strips to separate and two 4 1/2 inch strips separating the 9 patch squares.

Once I got the butterfly down it went pretty quick. I'm hoping one day to get better at quilting, but since I was on such a short deadline, I went ahead and tied this. I still like the look of tied. I think it gives a certain homey-ness to them. I don't have an embroidery machine so these were done all by hand by drawing the design on the fabric and going over it with a very tight zigzag stitch. 

This came together quickly also. I did both of them in less than 5 days. I had them both tied and bound in less than 4 hours.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts. Go check it out. Amanda Jean is amazing!

P.S. I'm working on a red and cream pinwheel quilt for my mother-in-law that I can't wait to show to you all!!

Lucky # 30

This quilt marks the 30th one I have ever done!! And the fact it is going to my nephew, excites me, since this landmark quilt is staying in the family.  That's amazing to me. I'm dubbing this the filmstrip quilt and thought it was appropriate since it was a superman quilt. Filmstrip and comics seemed to go together nicely. It worked up really quick. Maybe that's what I love the most about it. It was approximately 4 1/2 hours start to finish for the quilt top. That's ironing, cutting, and sewing. The best part is the whole top was made from scraps. I call that a slam-dunk for fabric stash. My goal for 2014 is to whittle that stash down quite a bit so that it all fits on one shelf in my craft room. (Wish me luck with that, right?)

Quick little blanket

This blanket was meant to be a present for a birthday party, but like usual I procrastinated overextended myself so we went with plan B. I turned it into a doll quilt for our toy room since little items like that are lacking a little. It was made completely from scraps. I thought it was pretty cute. 

Linking up with Amanda Jean this week.

Nanananananananana!!! Batmaaaaaaaan!!! & Superman

One of my friends is getting ready to have a baby next month. Her first and it's a little boy. They are way into Nintendo and Super heros. I stumbled across this fabric at Wal-mart looking for fabric for bibs. We decided to have a mini baby shower on Saturday with the mommy-to-be and a mutual friend and myself. We were originally going to get her a stroller, but late Thursday afternoon (yep, two days before) we decided to do a blanket. 

The emblems I cut out on the LPF and it's iron on fabric from SEI. 

It was comfy. I kind of wanted to snuggle it, but I quickly finished it and went to the party.

Linking up with Finish it up Fridays

Christmas Presents Part 2

Here's the second part of the homemade Christmas presents I did this year. This blanket is for my niece Madalyn as part of my mother-in-laws eternal present to her grandkids. I had so much fun working on this and the elephants are more iron-ons like the ones done for this blanket here. I call it the Jungle Elephants quilt since the green and purple batik fabric kind of reminds me of the jungle. It was a big hit. 

 Because these ones are white, I needed to enhance the lines. I hand stitched the black thread on all four. It really made them look great. This one was made from all scraps I had left over from a blanket I did in the same color scheme for Christmas for a friend's daughter two Christmases ago. 

 I loved the purple polka dot fabric I was able to find for the back. LOVED IT!!!

Purple seems to be the choice color for this post, much like red was the theme for the last one. I didn't do that on purpose. Haha. This apron is for my 13 year old niece Holland. Purple is her favorite color and I couldn't ever get her to narrow down exactly what she wanted for Christmas so this is what she got. I love how it turned out. The straps and pleating are actually done in cream even though they look white in the pictures. It's so cute if I say so myself. :) And I love that Santa got me this adjustable dress form for Christmas. It was fun to use it for this project. 

I was so excited how the pleats turned out and how even I was able to make them. Hope she likes it. I haven't been able to give it to her yet. 

Linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish it up Fridays. 

Christmas Presents Part 1

This is the first part of  the Christmas presents I did this year.  The other blanket and an apron will be posted later . The crayon holder/coloring book is for my 3 year old niece. The first couple of pages are coloring pages I made of her and her siblings using photoshop. It was so easy to do. I glued the pages together and used my YourStory cutter to make a perforated cut so that she could easily tear out the pages as they were colored. The holder was made completely out of scraps and fusible interfacing I already had on-hand. 

 I added a butterfly and letters using SEI's iron-ons that I already had on-hand as well.

 I can't wait to give it to her. Hopefully it will be a great quiet project for her in church :).

This is a quilt for my newest niece Katelyn (different side of the family). She is only 10 days old. It's part of the eternal project for my mother-in-law and the tradition of giving the grandkids a blanket.

 Previous years gifts can be found here and here

This is it totally finished. I love the red and white. This was also made from scraps I had on-hand. I even had enough red for the backing. The only new thing I had to purchase was the batting. I'm deeming this the Peppermint Quilt since it reminds me of the little peppermint candies. And I am starting some quilting classes at Joann's in January so I can finally figure out how to quilt blankets on my machine. I am so excited for it!!

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Finish it up Fridays

Did someone say elephants?

If you are reading this Meagan stop right now. You have to wait until Saturday!!

Have I mentioned before there would be a lot of baby showers coming up in the next few months? I know about 18 women that are all pregnant right now. When I say about that's because I lost track after 16. I had two this week. Three I guess if you count the double baby shower on Tuesday night as two. I whipped out these onesies in an hour after work. One of them had a boy, and the other one is having a girl and is due in about 3 weeks. I love the little pink skirt. I call it the "30 minute skirt". The butterfly I had on hand from my days working at the scrapbooking store, and the bow tie I free handed. Not too shabby, huh? Thanks to my sister for the suggestion.

I guess you can call this week a huge dose of quick finishes. This blanket is for the other baby shower on Saturday. I am going to finish it tonight. The elephants I cut out on the LPF using the Animal Kingdom cartridge and dark brown iron-on sheets from SEI. I just love them. My goal for the coming year is to use all my scraps before I buy more fabric. This is one such project. The fabric isn't quite a full-on crib size. It's about 44x54" but I figure a newborn is going to be super small and it will take him a couple of years at least to grow out of it, so I'm solid. I wish I had more of the green fabric to break it up a bit, but I tied it with multi colored yarn so it will still look cute. I learned tonight that I still have a lot of learning on my machine before I try to quilt on it, so tying it will have to do. The back is solid dark brown to tie it all in together. I can't wait to give it to her.

I just love the elephants. I think they are just so cute.

Linking up to Finish it Up Fridays with Amanda Jean. I'm so glad she started doing these again. It really motivates me to finish things up.

Polka Dots and Dragonflies, and Butterflies, Oh My!

I love this blanket!. It's rare that I do a piece of work with such a strong attachment to it, but I really am having a hard time deciding who to give this quilt to, or to just finish it and hold on to it, hoping for one day to have a baby girl I can give it to since it's a crib size. I love the butterflies and the polka dots, and the pink and black and white color scheme. The best part was, it was all made out of fabric I already had. I had originally bought much of the pink and black fabric for a different quilt, but the way I had it pictured in my mind just wasn't going  to when the fabric was all laid out. Thus the idea for this one was born. The dragonflies butterflies are actually iron-ons. Some of the butterflies and all of the dragonflies came from a sheet of pre-made iron-ons from SEI and others were done using the LPF. When it is all said and done I'm hoping to make this my first stitch-in-the-ditch quilt. I generally tie my quilts, but felt that the yarn would overshadow the cuteness of this. Now that I have finally figured out how to drop the feed dogs on my machine after FIVE YEARS, quilting so go much faster. 

Close up of the butterflies and dragonflies.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Prison Suits?

 This quilt was another quick finish. I received the squares a couple of weeks before but between the two baby showers and the Halloween costume there was no time for the quilt top to get done. The quilts were assembled and are being tied to donate to those who are in need during the cold Utah winter. 

I started it Friday night when my husband went to work at 10:00pm and finished right around 7:00 am the next morning. 9 hours start to finish on this baby. The squares were not perfectly square so each one of the squares had to be cut down and corrected, but despite my sewing all through the night, it worked out well and was ready to go for the 8:30 service project the next morning. I took a cat nap between 7:00 and 8:20, grabbed an orange juice and headed out to meet at the church house. The squares are 6 1/2 x 6 1/2. It's amazing how fast you can whip something out when you've got Netflix going in the background, and no interruptions. The striped areas are strips of 3"x 6 1/2 sewn together. It was surprisingly heavy and I didn't find out until later the material was donated by an organization that makes police uniforms and state prison jumpsuits. That explained a lot. But it was good and sturdy, and will keep someone nice and warm. I didn't even mind staying up late to do it since it was going for such a worthy cause.  It's the first time I've made a blanket out of polyester, and it was the talk of the meeting since such an intricate design had gone into it. If I hadn't been so gosh awful tired, I would have taken pictures of all the other ones. Maybe next time. :)

Linking up with Finish it up Fridays and Family Ever After

You'd think I would have done this by now

A couple of years ago, my husband and I decided to do something big for his parents for Christmas. We made 17 crib sized blankets for all the grandkids to be given from his parents.  Well, little did I know this would be the gift that keeps on giving from now to eternity. His mother (bless her heart) has requested they keep being made so none of the grandchildren feel left out. This was 2011. I know some of you don't like the look or feel of tied quilts, but to me they are just homey. And I am still trying to figure out the quilting feature on my sewing machine. *sigh* maybe someday.

to see previous year's quilts, click here 

I'm linking this post up to Finish it up Fridays and Family Ever After

It's Finally Done!!

Hooray! Can I get a woot! woot! This beast is finally done. It is my first attempt at a crocheted blanket. The original idea was to have it done for my sister's wedding, but that didn't happen. She got married in August of 2010! But, alas, it is finally done. After over 100 hours and 18 months, I can finally mark this off my to-do list. This was as closed to her colors as I could get. They were electric blue and pewter. No too shabby huh?

It wasn't as big as what I had pictured in my mind, but is a nice twin size quilt measuring in at 55"x71".

Linkin' up again to Finish it up Fridays over at Crazy Mom Quilts

Bella & the Hippo

My husband's cousin and his wife are expecting a baby in 6 weeks and the family had a baby shower for her last night. I did a baby book and a blanket for her. And like a spacey person I forgot to take pictures of the book, but got the blanket, so here it is. Her name is going to be Bella (based on family history, NOT after Twilight characters) and I was just so excited to give her this blanket (but at the same time loved it so much I almost hated to give it away). The cousin's sister bought the same fabric and made a carseat canopy for the baby. We did not collaborate on that. It just worked out that way. Of the 4 fabric stores in Cache Valley we go to the same one and pick out the same fabric. What are the odds? It is completely made out of fabric (with the eyes, nostrils, and flower center having been cut out from the SEI iron on transfer sheets with the LPF).

Busy December

December is always a busy month for all of us. Me especially with all my Christmas orders and getting ready for my own family's Christmas. Here are a few projects I did in December:

Super hero cape


An Apron

And this cute blanket for a good friend. This is a close-up of the fabric.

And the full-size image. (Excuse the nasty window scene in the back. This ginormous window is a bugger to sit under in the winter time, so we put plastic over it this year and I haven't gotten around to curtains to cover it up yet.) This is the biggest blanket I have done so far. 78"x90" (full)
And the highlight of Christmas morning was this beauty and her three best friends under the tree. Tee hee!!

Let's Play!

Below is a play mat I did for one of my cousins. It took me a long time, but I was so excited with how it turned out. Can you pick out the appliques that have iron-ons? There is at least one on each square but the center one.

This is the back. Nice and bright.

The next pictures are the squares for the mat.








Ta-Da!!!