Wordless Wednesday

Pinterest Project

Tonight I worked on a cool little Pinterest project that I have had my eye on for awhile. It took very minimal pieces of fabric and will be super useful! I hate having to bring a bag with me everywhere when really all I want is water :)

I used the tutorial listed below for the bag part of the project but used webbing for the handle since I had it on hand. 

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/05/water-bottle-sling.html

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop - Round 2

This weekend I took a bus trip to complete the SW section of the Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. For a complete list of the SW section shops please visit here. The bus that I was on was full of really great ladies that were ever so friendly. I didn't have a 'buddy' on the trip but there were a few of us that got paired up once we were on the road. I had the chance to meet ladies from both Sioux Falls and Crooks which was awesome :)

Since I was on the road I didn't have sewing time so here are a few shopping haul pictures!
  

Here are all of the fabrics that I picked up on my travels.

Patterns and books - ahoy!

A few of my other purchases didn't make it into the pictures since they will become gifts but you will see them sooner than later. 
Happy sewing!

Angela S.

Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop - Round 1

Hello all!

This weekend I made it to 3 of the shops that are participating in the Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop.This was my first visit to both the Calico Hutch in Hayward and Quilting by the Hearth in Lonsdale. I also stopped in at Prairie Quilting Quilt Shop in Windom while we were on the road. 

As a first timer to the Calico Hutch I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have to tell you - that store is HUGE! I don't think I have been in a bigger shop. They had tons of fabric, with plenty of samples to go around as well as a large selection of wool-stuffs if you are into that sort of thing. The shop is also really easy to find and has a nice front porch that looks very welcoming. Lately I have been a sucker for flannel but this shop got me with their kits instead. They had kits for all types of things and plenty of variety in each kit type. I ended up getting 3 kits and 2 patterns :) The kits are for a mini-table runner, a gender neutral baby quilt and a garbage bag for in the car. I bought the Amy Butler pattern to go with my Tula Pink Nightshade fabric and the Bevels pattern for some of the panels that I have.

Our next stop was Quilting by the Hearth. I don't have my purchase from them pictured but I bought the 2013 Quilt MN t-shirt from them. They had a large selection of fabric but nothing that i HAD to take home with me. The gals there were super nice and ready to visit with anyone. This shop is an old house turned store and I wish they would have used that theme a little bit more. I have been in other shops like this and they put all the kitchen samples up in the kitchen and then decorate the home just like you would if you lived there - oh well. 

The last stop of the trip was Prairie Quilting. I have been to this store a few times now and really like the set-up. They have LOTS of flannel and I couldn't resist finishing up a few bolts for them. A co-worker gifted me some 'sock monkey' fabric a few months ago so this flannel will go into that project. I also bought 2 fat quarters in order to get a free pattern for an origami type bag.

Next weekend I will be going to 10 shops including Prairie Quilting :) I can't wait to show you the haul from the weekend! Sometimes I have to remind myself and buying in the summer just means that I will have more quilting to do this winter when I am stuck inside all the time!

Have a great rest of the week!

Angela S. 

Wordless Wednesday

Wedding Quilt - Stash Stars by Atkinson Designs

Hello all!

I finally get to show off the awesome wedding quilt that I finished up last week!

The pattern is Stash Stars from Atkinson Designs and I bought the kit from Heirloom Creations. The backing is something that one of the girls there helped me put together. The first time I saw the quilt I wasn't really sold but since the wedding colors were 'rainbow' I knew it would be fitting. And, of course, by the time I finished up my sewing I wanted to keep it for myself :)

 As you can see this quilt does not have a binding...I decided to quilt-as-you-go the top to the batting. Once that part was complete I sewed right side of the backing and right side of the top together and flipped them right side out :) I did a bit of quilting to attach the two pieces together but not much.

 I hope the newlyweds enjoy the quilt as much as I do!

Angela S. 

New(to me) Fabric - Tula Pink Nightshade

My awesome Google skills have finally paid off. I have been looking for Tula Pink Nightshade fabric for awhile but didn't feel like going the Etsy or Ebay route. Somehow I managed to find this amazing fabric! Best of all....it was on sale AND because I finished off the bolt I received an additional discount. Don't expect to see me anytime soon - I will be to busy petting this fabric and going through magazines/patterns trying to figure out what to do with it.

 

 

 

 

Fresh from the mailbox

To see the entire collection and find out the story behind these three mysterious ladies you can visit Tula's website.

Speaking of her site...I can't wait to get my hands on her new fabric line. The raccoons featured on it are TOO cute! Most stores are saying that it will be in this September so I am saving my pennies up for a FQ bundle. I need another Tula purse!

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

Oink-a-Doodle-Moo Charm Quilt

Hello all! My first nephew has finally arrived so now i can show you his quilt :) 

The inspiration from this quilt came from Girls in the Garden. She has tons of lovely photos on her site - swoon!

I am in love with the Oink-a-Doodle-Moo fabric line and I'm pretty sure I should stock up on more of it. For this quilt I purchased 1 yard of the orange chicken wire fabric and a charm pack. The binding took an additional 1/4 yard but it was a very tight fit. Next time I would get 1/3 yard just to be on the safe side. The backing was an orange and blue flannel stripe that looks just awesome - I can't believe I didn't take more pictures than this before I wrapped it up. Oh well. 

As you can see, I lined up the charms that I liked and then sashed and bordered them with 5 inch strips of the chicken wire. I quilted the finished product by machine and also used the machine to attach the binding.

If you love this line too - check out the following post at the Moda Bake Shop. Soooo awesome! Three quilts from one jelly roll!! 

Have a great rest of the week!

Angela S. 

Craftsy BOM Backing

It's finally done!!

 

 This backing is made up of all of the scraps leftover from my Craftsy BOM quilt top. I bought something like 45 or so fat quarters for the project - so I promised myself no buying fabric unless absolutely necessary! With the fabric that I had left I cut the pieces into 5 inch strips, 2.5 inch strips and 10 inch blocks. I also had a few fat quarters that were still whole and some of the backing fabric left in larger pieces. 


I am loving this backing and think the back is just as awesome as the front of the quilt :) I can't wait to get this to the quilter and have it put together. I am thinking that I will have her use a large stipple pattern on the entire quilt. Since the front is a sampler I really want the blocks to speak for themselves and I think a more mellow, all-over design will help pull everything together. 

Happy quilting!

Angela S.

Seasonally Inappropriate

Hello all!
This isn't really the time to be working on a winter table runner but here it is anyway!

I would venture to guess that at least once during the process of working on this - there was snow on the ground. This has been a work in progress for some time and I finally decided it was time to be done. 
 

This runner is from the book 'fast & furious quilting-as-you-go' by Gudrun Erla. This is the third project that I have tackled in this book but I think it went really well. This particular pattern is called 'Curvaceous'. I haven't worked with fusible web much before so this was a real learning experience. I'm not saying that everything lines up quite right but I think its more than acceptable :) The optical illusion of it all really helps me out in this instance.

The fabric that I used is part of the baker's dozen of fat quarters that I received from last years Quilt MN Shop Hop. I thought that with the next shop hop coming up soon...I had better put the 2012 fabric to use! I still have 7 fat quarters to use up but I'm sure they will find a home somewhere. 

Happy quilting!

Angela S. 

Another slow week

Hello all!

I donated 4 quilt tops to Project Linus last night at Sewtopia but they were all things I have posted on here before. I am working on some July birthday gifts so those will need to stay secret for a little bit yet. I also finished up a baby gift but since baby isn't here yet I don't want to post any sneak peaks.  I have the next few days off and we are expecting rain so hopefully I can get my Craftsy BOM quilt back done. Nothing else new here :)

Donation Quilt Tops

More Donation Quilt Tops

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

No News

No sewing news to report this week. I have been working on the backing for my Craftsy BOM quilt but nothing is complete as of yet. 

I have also been going through my patterns and fabric in order to sort out things that I want to give the quilt guild for the 'community store' at the quilt show this year. I have found a few patterns that I know I won't use and I have some fabric that was gifted to me that might make it there too. It is really hard to work with fabric that you a) don't think is good quality and b) don't like the look of! Some things have just ended up in my closet and I don't think I will ever use them. Best to clear out room for things that I do like ;)

It looks like it may be a rainy weekend again so I may get to stay inside and sew. I hope you get some sewing time too!

Angela S.

Donation Quilt Tops

Hello all!


I finished up a few quilt tops this weekend. Both of these were made from blocks that were gifted to me. The blocks were all finished and just needed to be put together in some way.

 

I really like how the purple one turned out. I don't know what the block name is but it ended up really cool anyway.

I thought that the red/blue quilt needed a border so I found something that matched the inner red blocks and put that around. I think that this could pass for a Quilt of Valor so I'm going to do some checking around. If its not quite big enough yet I will get another border or two going :)

This week I am working on the backing for my Craftsy BOM top....I am piecing together my scraps and here is what I have put together so far. 

I cut my own 'layer cakes' from my scraps and this is what I came up with. This section is about 39x39 and the backing for my quilt should be about 70x70 so I have a lot of work to do. I think that this is a great start though and can't wait to finally get that quilt to a long-arm quilter!

Have a great week - Angela S.

Beginner’s Quilt-Along Quilt - Tops Finished

Hello all!

I finished up a few quilt tops this weekend and it was great!! I had completed these blocks a long time ago and needed to get something done with them. I could have just put together all 12 blocks and called it a day but I saw this as an opportunity to make two child-sized quilt tops. The blocks and sashing themselves weren't quite big enough for my liking so I added on a 5 inch border around the whole thing. 

So here are the finished tops ready for donation to Project Linus!

I am working on a few other tops from past projects so hopefully those will be done after the upcoming three day weekend. 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Angela S. 

Another bright bag

Hello all!!

I spent my time this weekend finishing up another Half Moon Bay 6-pack Bag. I previously posted about this bag pattern here. These bags are going to the same house so I wanted to make them the same but different. 

For the first bag, I used 6 fat quarters with the 2 background fabrics being the same. For this bag, I used 6 fat quarters with 2 of the block fabrics being the same. 

I'm not sure which bag I like better but I do know that the 'blocks' stand out on these background fabrics better. I had initially purchased two 6-packs of fat quarters to use for this project and thought that the solids would work awesome for young girls.

I also must have made a mistake cutting somewhere in the process but I cut this so long ago I have no idea...I just ended up making the middle of each side of the back the same color as the background and that will have to work :)

 

I don't think that either girl that is getting a bag sews - so hopefully they will appreciate them. At any rate I am going to fill them up with some handy items that new-grads need. 

This is the second time that I have made a bag with this pattern and I don't think it will be the last. If I make the bag for myself I think i will figure out how to add a zipper to the top and to at least one of the inside pockets.

I showed the bag off at Sewtopia last night and many people made comments about the nice bright colors. I think solids are really started to take off in that group :)

All for now -- Angela S.

A few Quilt of Valor blocks

Hello All!

This week I spent some time on Quilts of Valor blocks. The Sioux Falls Quilt Guilt provides a main color for the block and members provide the rest for as many blocks as they would like to make. Here is the first block. I think it looks boring all by itself....

 but when you put 4 of them together...you get this awesome pinwheel!!

I made 2 of the 'party hat' blocks and I really like how they both turned out. These blocks are 12 inches where the pinwheel blocks are 8.5 inches.

If you would like more information on Quilts of Valor you can visit them here. I love working on these blocks because if each member does just a few blocks we can have a quilt top pieced in no time!!

The guild meeting this month should be interesting since the April meeting was cancelled due to weather. I am expecting that we will have lots of giveaways and news to attend to due to the missed meeting. 

In other news this week, I was able to pin down the dates for the Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. I had thought about going to a different section this year but I don't want to have to drive just to get on a bus :) It looks like I will be doing the Southwest section again which is just fine with me. I visited the shop in Sherburn a few weeks ago and they already had their quilt ready for their 'cookbook'!! It was so exciting to see it since it had JUST come back from the quilter. 

That's all for now - have a great rest of the week and enjoy the weather!

Angela S.

May Day Snow

My May Day began with looking out the window and seeing snow! 

I could not believe it...but it is South Dakota so anything goes :)

This week I have been working on a new 'Have It All' Wallet. The fasteners and I were not agreeing so I made a trip to JoAnn's and got a different type to make it work. While in JoAnn's I got distracted by all of the cool licensed fabrics. I ended up getting some Disney Cars fabric to make up some pillowcases. 

Once I got home I started doing some spring cleaning in the sewing room which was scary....and probably more than a Wednesday night project given the huge mess in there right now. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. 

My goals for the weekend are to make my quilt guild blocks, bind my curvy table runner, bind my small quilt and finish up 3-4 pillowcases. 

Happy May!

Angela S. 

No News is Good News

Hi Friends!

I am working on a few gifts this week so nothing to share as of yet :) I am also working on finishing up the blue, batiks table runner that I was working on last week. All that is left is the binding - hurrah!!

More to come next week - enjoy the nice weather!

Angela S.

Snow Day Sewing

I spent the past few weeks finishing up a few of my 'Three Times the Charm' quilts that needed attention. I finished the top for Dora back in December but I wasn't sure what I wanted to use for backing. I finally decided on a lilac minky dot fabric. It is amazing - the cat and I are both really liking this one :) I did add an extra border in order to make it large enough to be a lap quilt for me.

Dora

 I also finished up the Emma quilt that I had started during the same time as Dora. The quilt is flannel, front and back, with no batting. I bought the sashing and borders at a shop when I didn't have the original fabric along...this isn't my favorite quilt ever but I do really like the pattern. I sewed this quilt right-sides together and then flipped it right-side out in order to get myself out of binding it :)

Emma

I also made a quick self-binding baby blanket for a friend this week as well. I had bought a bag of scraps with no plan so this was perfect!

Here is the next project that I am working on...

We'll see how this table runner actually turns out. Right now its pretty questionable! I figure since it's still snowing here in SD I can work with snowflake fabric

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

Ice Day

Hi all - Sioux Falls had a major ice storm roll through this week. It was then followed by snowfall of 6-8 inches depending on where you are in town. We were only without power a few hours of Wednesday and another couple of hours on Thursday but we were thankful to have overnight power to keep us warm. I am so thankful that we do not have large trees on our property like many people in Sioux Falls. The clean-up efforts going on here are just massive.

I will have a regular post out again on Wednesday but until then here are some of the photos that I took from our ice storm. 

Angela S.

2013 Goal Update

Here are the updates from my New Year's goal list :) I have a pretty good start on some things but I really need to kick it in gear with my wheelchair/walker bags. It is so easy to get distracted by shining new fabric and new patterns!

• 13 charity pillowcases for the One Million Pillowcase Challenge - I have finished 5 pillowcases so far
• 13 toiletries bags for Heirloom Creations - zero completed to date
• 13 random sewing projects from Pinterest -three done
• 26 wheelchair/walker bags for the Good Samaritan Society -three done

• 2012 Craftsy Block of the Month quilt - top done
• Beginner's Quilt-Along quilt - top done
• 'Hometown' fabric shower curtain - completely done and hanging up!
  
• Scaredy Cats wall hanging - top done
• Paper pieced Christmas cat wall hanging - these pieces were put into my round robin group for the quilt guild.
• Continue working through the book 'Three Times the Charm' - I have finished up a few tops and I am working on getting backing fabric now.

Happy sewing!

Angela S.

oliver + s: have it all wallet

This weekend I finally got to work on my 'Have It All Wallet' pattern. I had ordered the pattern off of a company through Amazon....and they were lame and didn't even ship the pattern by the time that I was supposed to have it. So I ordered this from the company directly instead :) much better move.

I started working on the wallet on Friday night by cutting out all of the pieces and making copies of the pattern pieces that I needed. Once I started sewing on Saturday afternoon it took about 2 hours to complete. 

This pattern is very different than most patterns that I use because it includes pattern pieces and does not give you the measurements for the cuts of fabric. If you are familiar with garment construction this will be old hat for you. Personally I have now measured out all pieces and written them down so that I don't need to use the pattern pieces anymore. 

Finished product!

 This wallet can organize a lot of items for you. There is a spot for a smartphone, a zippered change pocked, a place for dollar bills/checkbook register, 6 card slots and another open slot of coupons/receipts.

I love the finished product and can't wait to make a few more!

Angela S.

Half Moon Bay: 6-Pack Bag

I figured it was high time to make another bag :) I have only seen this bag made in batiks so I was a little concerned about making it in solids but I think it turned out really nicely. 

The pattern is available here. The really great thing about the bag is that it only take 6 fat quarters and some fusible fleece. The quilting on the bag is very minimal so don't let that scare you away either! I think that the quilting could be done in any fashion - I just tried going around each block the best I could. When I make this bag again I think I may just do a large free motion stipple design instead.

I would say that the hardest part of making this bag was all of the cutting!! Some of the pieces get fairly small and you have to be very certain that you are cutting the right pieces to the right length -- there is very little room for error. If you choose to make this pattern, also keep in mind that in order to have the 'background' fabric stay the same on each side of the bag you will need to have 2 fat quarters of the same fabric. The remaining 4 can be different and will end up being the pockets and blocks on the bag. 

Happy first day of spring!!

Angela S.

A Hometown Shower Curtain

BATHROOM PICTURES AHEAD

....consider yourself warned :)

I finally finished up the shower curtain that i have been working on. I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to attach the fabric to the shower curtain so that stopped me for a while. The shower curtain is a waffle weave fabric and I bought it from Target for about $15. 

This fabric was originally supposed to be made into a quilt and it did start out that way BUT I decided to tear it apart. I took out a few strategic seams and put in a few others to make it into a long strip instead of a square. This provided me a length of fabric/blocks that could go either vertically or horizontally on the curtain. I then just added a few inches of a border to the top and bottom so that I didn't have to worry about piecing those hexagons onto the curtain. 

The original pattern for this came from the book "Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts" by Pam and Nicky Lintott. This pattern is called Hexagon Hip Hop.

The fabric that I used it the Hometown line by Sweetwater for Moda. My mom and I are both in love with this line and wish that we would have bought more when it was available :( I did have some luck this weekend in the fact that a shop fairly close by still had 2 layer cakes available...and of course my nice husband drove me there in bad weather just so that I could buy both of them. He is a keeper!

Have a great rest of the week!

Angela S.

Poochie Bag - Pinterest Find

This weekend while messing around in my sewing room I got distracted by Pinterest - go figure. I saw these cute little bags that only took 3 fat quarters to finish and the pattern was from Monica of The Happy Zombie so I knew that I had to check it out. Her patterns can be found in Quilts and More Magazine on a pretty regular basis and on All People Quilt(just search for her name).

I had some 1/2 yard cuts that didn't have a home so now they have been put to use!

You can find the pattern for the bag here. If you attempt the bag my advice is to be very careful with the cutting. The bags have cute pockets on both sides, lining and you can finish the bottoms in 3 different ways. I went with the 2" MCC(Milk Carton Corners). The bags finish fairly small but the finished size will depend on how you do the corners.

When my husband saw the bag he just started laughing....its a good thing I found him otherwise I would probably be even more of a crazy cat lady! But seriously....how funny are those cats :)

This brings me to Pinterest Project #3 for the year. I think I'll run out of time before I ever run out of pins!

Have a happy Wednesday!

Angela S.

Greta - 3 Times the Charm

Greta from '3 Times the Charm' has finally been pieced together! The charm pack that I used is from the line Sea Salt by Moda. This isn't my normal color palette but I really like some of the patterns in here. The sashing and border are both on the tame side which I think really helps bring the focus inward.

This week I also worked on a small baby quilt. This kit was from the Fabric Bin in Aberdeen. I love the little owls and racoons that are featured on it. This includes both cuddle and cotton fabric which I think is perfect for a baby quilt. It isn't technically 'quilted' since i just sewed the front to the back and then flipped it right side out but I did tack down the center panel to avoid issues when it gets thrown in the wash. 

Have a great rest of the week! Spring is almost here!

Angela S.

Lazy Girl Candice Bag

My fabric stash got the best of me this weekend and I just had to make myself a bag :)

I received a gift card for the fabric shop in Aberdeen at Christmas time and made good use of it right away. I had originally planned to make the Professional Tote by The Creative Thimble however after going through the pattern I realized that I wasn't quite up to the task. I ended up using the Candice pattern by Lazy Girl Designs instead. 

I love patterns from Lazy Girl because they always have lots of pictures for me to follow. From cutting the fabric to throwing the bag over my shoulder it took about 6 hours...it would have been 5 however I initially made the pocket for my planner going vertically and with the zipper it didn't fit. I, of course, didn't figure that out until I had already stitched close the bottom seam. So I took that apart, did a little seam ripping, installed the new pocket stitches and went on with life - no big deal :)

The only change that I made to the pattern was to make the front and back of the bag look the same. If i had followed the pattern the backside of the bag would only be the tortoiseshell print and there would be no pocket. I thought having pockets on both sides would be great. 

 

 

I love all of the pockets! The pattern gives you great information on how to make the large pocket so that it will fit a planner, iPad, Nook or whatever you would like.  

 

The fabric that I used is from Tula Pink and the line is called Salt Water. 


 I hope you are all staying warm out there. Personally I will not be upset if I get snowed in and have to sew all weekend!!

Angela S.  

Round Robin 2013

This week I was able to complete another walker bag and a block for my guilds round robin that is starting this month. 

 This walker bag is my favorite so far. I think the dimensions are a bit better and the middle section( where the handles are attached) is reinforced with flat felled seams. I have not used these before but I think it will really help sturdy the bag up. 

The block that I created for the round robin includes 2 paper pieced cats and then 2 fabric cuts to make a type of windowpane. The round robin starts this month and there are 6 people in my group. Each month we will trade projects so by the end of the project everyone will have worked on each block/row. My piece is 16x14ish so I'm not sure if people will treat it like a row or a block - either way I am excited!

This weekend I am hoping to get a few more walker bags done and finally piece together the quilt blocks that are on my design wall. I also reallllly want to work on a new bag for myself but we'll see!

More to come!

Angela S. 

Charm Pack Lovin'

Valentine's Day is fast approaching so I thought it was about time to work on some lovey projects. I found a great Valentine's charm pack from Sandy Gervais called 'Flirt'. It has some great colors in it and has a really modern feel to it. 

Out of 1 charm pack I am making two table runners. Here is the first all done up and the second is pieced but not yet quilted. I started with the smaller one first since it will just go on an end table. I find that its helpful for me to make a 'test' run of some things. This was definitely one of those things that the second time around will work/look better :)

The pattern for the large runner is from the following video:

In addition to working on table runner I am also prepping binding for my Coffee Cats quilt. Here is a sneak preview of the quilting on it.

Mmmmm mmmm mmm. Just looking at all of those quilted coffee mugs makes me want some hot chocolate right now! The binding on the quilt is going to be the green color and I can't wait to get it all finished up. Chief must really like it as well since he has been making it HIS since I brought it home :)

Have a great week!

Angela S.