I'm Back!

We got a new machine, and I'm back in the game!

Since Friday I've been working on a pinwheel quilt for myself, and one for my son. I have nearly finished the top for a quilt for a friend's baby, and I've made the tops for a few mug rugs. I've certainly been busy!



This was originally going to be a mug rug, but I fell in love with the fabrics, the pattern, and the quilting. So instead of doing a bunch of mug rugs, this is now the first piece in my quilt-as-you-go quilt for myself. My son's is green and blue pinwheels.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have for you right now, as my camera's batteries are nearly dead. I promise there will be more photos soon!

Pictures of my Busy Day

As promised, I have found the time to take pictures of all that I did yesterday.

These green squares are roughly 3 1/2" x 3 1/2". As yet I'm not really sure what to do with them. I'm thinking of surrounding each one with denim squares (repurposed from old jeans of course) and making a quilt. Another idea is to take 4 of them and make a larger square and turn them into coasters or trivets with denim on the back. (I really like repurposing denim)

The finished squares all started out like the one at the bottom. You take two like that one and sew them rigt sides together on all four sides. Then you cut them apart from corner to opposite corner (diagonally) both ways and when you unfold them you have 4 squares made up of triangles. It's much faster than piecing the triangles to begin with.

You may remember when I posted about finding some old quilt blocks that I had hand stitched. I found more of the purple and polka dot fabric, already cut into squares, and I machine sewed them together to make more blocks. Also in that find were blocks of horses. I took the ones that had their heads and put them into the blocks. Right now it is only a long strip but I hope to find more of these fabrics in my mother's stash (which is where I originally got them from several years ago) and convince her to part with them so that I can at least make another row of 2 above the horses. I'll have to find other purple and black & white fabrics for the rest of the quilt.

This is my favorite project right now. It is going to be a ticker tape quilt for my son. I only have one row done and with only one row it does look pretty silly. The fabrics laid over it randomly are the other fabrics I am going to use on this quilt. They are all scraps from either myself or my mother. Mostly from my mother as she does much more quilting than I do.

Birds, Elephants and the 100 Day Cough or The Picture Obese Post

I've been sick the past few days (I'm thinking its the 100 day cough the CDC has been talking about) but fortunately I've been able to do most of the things I normally do, just with soem caughing and a bit of diziness and light-headedness.





Last night I finished this:

I used the same pattern as for my son's elephant . I know the button eyes are a little wonky but I think it just gives her a bit more character.

I used a new way of closing the stuffing hole. I think it looks a lot better than whip-stitching/overcast stitch.

And today I whipped this up:

The first two were mock-ups. They actually didn't turn out too terrible. The first one was too small and the second one had a massive head so I just used the head from the first pattern and the rest from the second to make the third birdie, which came out just right.

You can see the differences in head size better here.

I did some stitching on the first one to make the tail look like it had feathers. It didn't turn out quite like I had wanted it to, but I think it's fairly cute anyhow.

No fancy tail stitching for the end product. The tail looked too cute to stitch over.

Since this is going to a baby, I had to do the toilet paper tube test. (We didn't have any empty rolls, so just bear with me)

And again, this time tail down. She doesn't squish into the tube without quite a bit of effort, so I give it my Crafty Mom seal of approval for babies.

After finishing the bird and having a lot of time left, I decided to make a bag to match it.

It's a drawstring bag. My very first! I've determined that I love drawstrings and will make many more bags like this in the future.

All cinched up.

Bird and bag together. As you can see, they were made from the same material so that they match perfectly.

The elephant was made from fabric my mom had, and the birds and bag were made from my stash.

More Alphabet Magnet Goodness

I got more letters finished, and they all have magnets on them. As it turns out the magnet tape I got is nowhere near strong enough to hold them up from the inside, so the magnets are stuck to the outside. If I do any to sell I will need to get stronger magnets.

These are all the letters (and numbers) that I have finished so far. The blue letters (except for two 'e's, and the 'd') were done on the machine. (and are also upcycled from a woman's button-down shirt) There aren't very many of them because I discovered it was much more work than it was worth to try to manuever the tiny pieces of fabric on the machine. So now I use a quilting hoop and quilt many letters at a time, then just cut them out.

Alphabet magnets are so much fun. I need to hurry up and finish the whole alphabet.

Stash Find

I have never admitted this before, but I will now. I am a hoarder. I went into my stuff way up the crawlspace above the garage and found so many things I had forgotten about. Namely: my buttons. This is what I was actually searching for, but I had forgotten just how many I have.

My entire button stash, organized by color. Because in addition to being a hoarder I am also OCD.

Sunshine yellow

Sea blue

These are actually red, but for some reason my camera makes them look pink.

Green, my absolute favorite color. I intend to use two of these as eyes for an elephant stuffed animal I am working on for my son. (And I will post that project once it is finished)

Classic white.

As it turns out, our crawlspace is very hazardous. The "floor" of it is not safe to walk on, as it is only a single layer of drywall. I had to walk on the joists and hope I didn't fall. There are also nails sticking out from both the floor and ceiling, and splinters everywhere. Luckily there were no rats or mice. And thankfully I made it out alive!