Quilt Envy

When recently showing off the car seat quilt at work to coworkers, it was greeted with quilt envy from a recent new mom. "What a clever idea! He's always kicking off his blanket!" Well, I heard only one thing, "Can I have one please?" EASY!

I set to work! The coworker even picked out a pattern from a smattering I pulled up at work and showed her. Color was her only request. Something bright and cheerful. I kind of followed that rule. I found "Summersville" quilt line from Moda and fell in love! Little cars, the alphabet, perfect for a little growing boy, especially for one in the car.

I text the fabric to his mom and got the go ahead! Apparently, I was itching to quilt. Fabric purchased Friday afternoon 2:00 pm. Fabric cut Friday evening. Piecing begins.

Saturday morning, piecing finished. Saturday afternoon, quilting begins.

I chose another new free motion pattern called River Rock. It's super organic in nature and allows for "mess-up's" to look intentional. Warning: this pattern will EAT thread. Glad I had a 500 m roll on hand.

I love the look! Saturday evening, quilting finished. A quick break for dinner was in order.

The large white border I quilted with a straight line to offset all of the circles. There was so much empty space on this quilt it needed a lot of quilting to show it off. I had a blast filling in every inch.

Neti helped trim the edges and prep for binding.

Warning! Gratuitous cat photos.

Saturday night, midnight, I put the finishing touches on the quilt, which included the name tag for the little guy receiving this awesomely colorful, crazily quilted, squishy quilt.

I LOVE how it turned out. The alphabet print is a new favorite. I have a pinch left over so I'll end up working it in to something, I'm sure. It was a LONG day and a half quilting but I'm getting faster and faster. Plus, I finially made a quilt that I could baste on my kitchen floor! No apartment lobby necessary! Hurrah! I've got fabric at home for (another) baby quilt. I also have fabric coming for a king size Swoon quilt! Can't wait!

Happy Crafting!



A Sneak Sweater Peak

A sneak peak at the sweater for Baby Cousin. It's a lot of progress! But... in the grand scheme of things, is it really? The pattern at first was daunting and the picture doesn't show it very well. After that great eyelet yoke there there is a leaf pattern below it. I have since got a great "mental pause" system going that has made it mistake free. It's looking great! 



I am totally in love with the yarn. I went way overboard on the pink for Baby Cousin. I just found out that Baby K&K is a girl! I'm not really feeling the pink anymore, though, due to my previous binge. I may go purple or yellow. Maybe green. Plus, that little baby's mama isn't what you'd call a fainting lady. I've seen her pin full grown men to the wall before (she works in the penal system). That's going to be one tough baby!

I also just bought gobs of fabric for an enlarged Swoon Quilt. I've been dying to make one of these and finally just broke down and purchased fabric. So excited!! Since that purchase I am now on a spending hiatus. I have plenty of projects to finish and get started. No more fabric! For awhile anyways.

Happy Crafting!

"Filing" Away Some Tools

The Problem: A lot of tools, a little space, and some fancy metal files (not the paper kind) that were hard to tuck away.

The Solution: A fancy carrying bag made by yours-truly to "file" away the tools (haha, bad pun).

I set to work by asking the hubby to gather all of his files and hand them over. He had zero input on what it should look like or how handy it should be, so I went with my gut and started drafting. I started by laying out the files in a pattern I felt was pleasing to the eye; which to my eye, is height order.

I then measured them to see how big of pockets I would need, on average, to make them all fit. I also measured how far down I would want the pockets to rise up (which created a need for a separate pocket for those teeni-tiny files), how far down I wanted the flap to cover the top, and how many extra pockets to add in case of future file purchases.

The hubby did ask that the fabric be durable, so I went with a really sturdy linen that I had random scraps of. I also had to throw in some scraps of robots because I will not be blamed for making a boring item! 100% Scrap-made! Yahoo!

Neti helped test the durability of the fabric as I pieced it.

I must have gotten carried away in putting it together because I have no piecing photos! All of a sudden, it was just done.

(Inside, flap open)

 

(Outside, flap open)

 

Rolled up tight


I then called the hubby over to fill the bag with his goodies. I think it turned out awesome! (Sidenote: You may notice that the strings to tie it shut are on the same side of the bag, whereas in a previous picture there was one on either side. That was a mistake on my part, which I quickly fixed, the hubby none the wiser. Below is correct.)

He loves it! That's one happy hubby and that's one happy tool bag. He immediately started taking pictures and sending them to his buddies, bragging about his cool file holder that no one else had.



The hubby was also mortified that the files made it dirty. I told him to get over it. Tools are dirty and it's washable.

More baby quilts soon to come. My dear friends K&K are pregnant with a girl- their first! They live just on the other side of the mountains and I need to visit... and bring a quilt. I have the pattern all picked out, now I have to find the fabric. Also, Baby Cousin was born on Saturday night! How exciting! I have decided to hold on to the gifts until they make it back to the USA. I hope to meet Baby Cousin in August or September and present her with her gifts. Update on that sweater coming soon!

Happy Crafting!

Baby FM- Kickin' It

I almost forgot! Baby FM's mom is back at work and is loading us with adorable pictures. He's 3.5 months old now! I feel like I just got newborn pictures. You've gotta admit, what a cutie! And apparently he is loving his quilt! So glad it's getting used. Just wanted to share the baby love. It's so rewarding seeing things you've made with so much love get used and appreciated. No better feeling.

Happy Crafting!

To Grandmother's House We Go!

Two weeks ago I was able to spend a full week at what I like to call Home Home. This is my parents' home in Illinois, therefore it's not my home anymore, but it's my home home aka original home. You can never really stop calling it home, no matter how long you've been gone. It was a week away from the computer and anything with a screen (minus the TV and occassionaly some house hunting with the parents on Dad's IPad). But of course, this meant saying goodbye to the cat.

While at Home Home I got to sneak away while the parents were at work and spend a major amount of time with Grandma!! YAY! Pretty much the best week ever. She has an epic sewing room, which I now realize I probably should have gotten pictures of. Ironically, we have the exact same sewing machine! She pulled out a loner for me during my time there so we could sew together. It's older but just as fancy-pants and I had no issues using it. Well, I take that back. Neither Grandma or I could figure out how to wind the bobbin.

Here was our set-up. Perfect for chatting and sewing together. Grandma is on the left there but refused to have her picture taken.

The project of the week was the stroller/car seat baby quilt for Baby Cousin. She is due at the end of this month. I'm also working on that sweater for her, which is slow going so no updates yet. I think I'm going to wait for the Cousin's to come back to America before handing over the gifts, which will be about 2 months after the baby is born. It's probably going to take me that long to get that sweater knit.

I used a Moda Charm Pack from "Walk in the Woods" by Aneela Hoey which have little girls in red capes out on adventures! Knowing her parents, this will be an adventure having little girl, so it was only appropriate. 

The plan all starting coming together with the layout, which I loved! The pattern is so simple yet looks kinda hard. Those are the best kind. I laid everything out on the floor like I do at home. I think Grandma thought I was little weird on my hands and knees down there, but I'm just much more comfortable on the ground.

 

The quilting then began. At this point I had somehow convinced Grandma to let me switch to her machine for the quilting aspect of it. I did a lot of free motion quilting with the BSR and wasn't about to even try it on the older Bernina. Since we have the same machine it was like being home. I was super comfortable. Plus, the quilt is so small it didn't take long to get all the quilting finished.

During our frequent breaks for snacks and naps and dinner out on the town, I mentioned a couple long term projects I had in mind but was keeping to myself (and Grandma). She said, "oh yes, I think you'd mentioned that one before. I've saved all my selvage for you". And how! Look at that bag of selvege! (Thanks, Grandma!) 

And yes, I did get that in my tiny suitcase for the way back home. I finished the binding while watching a movie with the family and tadah! Finished! Don't you love the ties?! That will be helpful in securing this little quilt to the stroller or carseat. Genius! (not my genius, I copied)

My time at Home Home flew by rapidly but I was so glad to get back to the roots. It's nice being home now, but only because it's time to start the next project (and I'll admit, I missed the hubby, who complained about me being gone mostly because he was terrorized by the cat for a whole week).

As for the next project, I have a few up in the air. I'm thinking about getting some muslin to start some selvege blocks now that I have a massive quantity of them. I still have this one to quilt as well as some coworker envy over the stroller/carseat quilt above as she's just had a baby. I'm looking forward to this weekend already!

Happy Crafting!