Sewing fun

I finally have had a little time in my sewing room, and I was able to make this block.  Snail's trail block is one of my favorite blocks, I just wish I would have paid more attention in math class! the math for them throws me for a loop!  But I think I have the math down for a 12.5" block.

And of course I can't do any sewing without my little helper :)

Absent

I'm so annoyed!! I thought I had posted this a week ago!

 

Things have been SO crazy busy here!  At the beginning of the month I went to a lake cabin with my husbands family.  Then I went to Nashville with my husband.  Now I have two girls with me, both family friends.  So I haven't had a lot of alone time, or time to sew! 

But the last thing I made was with this lovely fabric! I can't wait to show you the finished project!

Heart blocks

I love how these turned out!! Now comes the time for the hard blocks! (I just used 2.5" blocks for these ;) )

Heart blocks

I decided to use all of my 2.5" blocks to make two heart blocks.  I love how they turned out!

I think I really like how the orange turned out!

Heart Blocks

Here is my next heart block, I actually found this here.  I decided to add orange, I think blue & orange are a good color combo.

Here are my two blocks together so far :)

Rag tee shirt quilt

Here are the stages of my rag quilt.

Cutting squares

My first round done

I loved it! But I realized I messed up on the math! I still had blocks to add, that HAD to be added to the side.  So cue some seam ripping.

All done sewing!! This was after ripping out the side row, then add the side row, and a row to the bottom.

Snip snip snip! Took two movies to get it all done!

All cut!!!

All done!!! after being washed!! I love, love love it!! I would definitely do another one like this.

Tote bag swap

 I found a secret tote bag swap and of course I had to sign up!!

 My partner asked for brights, I think the first is more bright than the second, but I love both of them!

They both have lining and can be reversed :)

 It's actually a fairly easy pattern.  I found it a few years ago, HERE, I definitely need to make it a little longer, I might make the handles a little thinner.

Finished stockings

I made some stockings last year, and I had another friend that was interested, so I made her some.

I did these differently, I used 2.5" squares.  Since I made my Jacobs ladder quilt last fall I have had a lot of 2.5" squares, So I chose to do 2.5" squares for this (not as much cutting!)  I am just SO in love with these! now I just need to make some for my husband & me.

Heart blocks

 

When I go through my stash I have found I have a lot of blues.  So I have decided I am going to use them to make some heart blocks.  And since I don't have a lot of white, I am going use black as the background.

 

This block was foundation pieced, I just made some strips as I worked on other string projects.  Then I sewed some sqaures on to the top and bottom.  I used the left overs to make some HSTs, I was enough to get a little pinwheel out of the top (I didn't take a picture of it).

Three color hour glass block

I am starting a quilt that called for hourglass blocks, which I quite enjoy, they are like half square triangles :) But I needed a specfic hourglass block, I needed the colors to go in the correct spot.  But I couldn't find a good tutorial online, so I thought as I was making them (I think I need like 80 of them total for the quilt I am working on) I would make a tutorial.

 

Start with two HST (half square triangles).  You can make them however you like, I personally take two squares and draw a line between them and sew on both sides of it.  (If you are doing your HST that way you need to start with a square that is 1.5" bigger than your FINISHED size you want.  If you are not, your HST needs to be 7/8" bigger than your finished size.

 

You put the two HSTs together, I pinned it, and then opened it, just to make sure my colors were correct.  For my greens to be opposite I needed to put them opposite each other when I sewed them.

 

 

If you have them in the correct spot, then I put them together "locking" the two seams, then draw a line from corner to corner, perpendicular to seams.

 

 

Then sew a 1/4" on both sides of the line.  I usually have a long chain of these.

 

 

Then cut them apart on the line

 

 

Once it's ironed you have a beautiful hour glass block, with your colors where you want, and you don't have to mess with triangles!



Log cabin

I finished the log cabin top!!!

I'm so excited. But I'm not sure if I'm done done with it. Because right now it would fit on a twin size bed with no hang over or anything. I auditioned a few layouts, but this is on the one I liked, of course the funny thing is, it's the same as the log cabin quilt I made myself!! how crazy is that! (pictures here)

I don't normally make my quilts as bed quilts, more lap quilts. So I'm trying to decide if I add a border (small white, large black) or just leave it as is. Any suggestions?

Tee shirt quilt

I think I started this about four years ago. And I'm 80% done!!

16 of the tee shirts I wore in high school (well technically 14 since two are backs)

I love the back!!

Except while I was putting it together, I forgot I have two longer shirts (the design was bigger), and if I add them to the side they will make the quilt wider than taller, and I don't have enough shirts to add another row to the bottom. So I think I'm going to rip out a side row, add my big shirts and put the ones I took off on the bottom. I'm not looking forward to ripping those stitches! 

I'm hoping to have this done by the end of the month!

Selvedges winner

It's time to draw the selvedges winner!!

It was Kathy from Kathy's Quilting Blog!

congratulations! I will get the selvedges sent to you soon!

June goals

 Well here it is June, and almost time for school to be out. I plan on doing a lot of sewing. I do have some friends visiting, one who wants to sew, and my friend Christine who does sew. So I shall have plenty of time. And I'm quite excited about it!

My goals

1. Finish Christmas stockings - I have 5 to make.

2. I found an adorable Halloween table topper I want to try

3. Finish my black & white log cabin top, maybe the string top

4. Finish test lorax blocks so I can start the real one!

5. Start making some pinwheel & 16 patch blocks. (From here)

Those should be good goals. I have time to do them, and I will hopefully get some things finished!  I would really like to rent the long arm at the end of June.


Do not forget! tomorrow is your last day to enter to win some strings! (Link here)

Block swap adventure - may

My May block partner was Laurrie, she asked if I would want to swap two blocks.  Her pattern was On the Oregon Trail. 

She asked for blues on whites.

 I accidentally did the block slightly different than the directions, for the flying geese pieces, I had actually sewn the two "bricks" together, then I added the squares to make flying geese, I was worried it wouldn't fit together, but they did!!  I love how this block looks! I can add another block to my "I want to make a quilt out of this some day".  That's one of the things I love about Block Swap adventure, I am able to try out blocks I might not have tried out.  I am also able to meet some other lovely ladies!

Here are the two lovely little kitties I got from her!  I love their purply goodness!

It's never too late to join the block swap!!

Goals check in

This is kind of pointless this month, since I didn't get much done in May.  But I will keep it up to remind me what I need to do ;)

1. 56 posts.  Like I said I didn't get much done in May, only 5 posts!

2. As I said before I finished two quilts.  I am not really near finishing others, but still working on some. Plus I had a friend ask me to make her two quilt/wall hangings.  So I will definitely hit 7 this year!

3. The quilts my friend asked me to make are a new pattern to me!  Woohoo! Plus I still have my tumblers quilt to start, and I bought a new ruler to try out.  Now I just need to start the quilts :)

School is out soon, so I will be spending more time in my sewing room.  I love my routine in the summer.  I sleep in (til 8) go to the gym, then go home and sew.  I can't wait!

Festival of Strings

Back in December I quilted my first string project (that was FULLY made with fabric I had on hand).  Here is the post, but I am adding the pictures here again.

It's the string X pattern that I found on Quiltville, Bonnie Hunters website.

I love how it turned out! I didn't get as much of a pattern as I would have liked with the backgrounds, but I was proud of myself for not buying anything.  I used whatever I had.

I had fun playing with the long arm on this project. One of my favorite spots was here where I "drew" straight lines.  I did waves in all the X's.

Here I made a flower

And you can see the waves here.

I am still getting to use to the long arm, and I forgot that even if the backing is the same size is the front, it won't fit with on the long arm because of needing extra to attach it.  So I had a border I had to finish up myself.

I have been saving bindings from projects I have been making for years now, I attach them to each other once the project is done, and that was the perfect binding for this

Now I know my original post was in December, but I didn't get this bad boy bound until February of this year.  And then I was really bad and I never took pictures of it finished! but I shipped it off to a friend.  But she did take some pictures for me:

I am entering Stitched in Color's Festival of Strings 

I am linking up to let's get acquainted.

200th post

Today is my 200th post!! I am so excited!! I can't believe I have written that much! It's been 3 years since I started this blog.  Most of my posts have been in the past year.  I have recently decided that I don't care if anyone else reads this, I love going back through and seeing all that I have accomplished this year.

I decided a while ago that for my 200th post I wanted to have a giveaway.  I have been saving selvages, and I know that there are people that have used them for projects, but it has never been something that interested me.  I thought they would be a good give away item :)

Here they are! (This is not all of them!) If you would like a chance to win, please leave me a comment by Next Wednesday June 5th, telling me what you want to make with selvages!