Lots of finishes!

I have been busy, busy, busy finishing lots of works in progress!

A baby quilt for a soon-to-be-arriving little girl. This one uses various scraps & fat quarters from my stash.

A lap quilt for donation to a fundraiser raffle. This is mostly Lario fabric from a layer cake.

A star made with my scraps, plus some grey from Connecting Threads.  I have since finished this top but didn't get a picture. It's hanging up on the wall in our bonus room right now.

I don't think I posted this one before, it's hanging on our front door now that lovely Fall weather has arrived. Fabric is from Connecting Threads.

Thanks for looking!
Susan

Hopscotch Play Mat

I made a really easy hopscotch play mat for our play room, using 10" layer cake squares and appliqued numbers. This went together really quick!

Lots of fun to make and the kids love it already!

Susan

Channel Quilting

I last posted about finishing my grey and yellow sampler quilt top, and now it is finally quilted and bound! Yippee!

I decided to channel quilt it with grey thread, and I have to say doing this about killed me!

I quilted the channels about an inch apart and it took forever. Plus my walking foot was thunking and skipping stitches so I had to use a regular foot, and go very slowly and stop to readjust a lot so that the fabric wouldn't bunch.



Sorry the picture is sideways, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to flip it with blogger!!

I am very happy to have this one finished! I think I'm about ready to take a break from bigger projects and work on some small things for a change.

Susan

Grey and Yellow Sampler Quilt

I finally pieced together all my sampler blocks, with black sashing. 

I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I'm thinking of quilting it with close-set vertical channels. I just have to decide on a thread color!

Susan

1930s Reproduction Quilt

I fell in love with a quilt made in 1930 that I found on the Quilt Index. I ordered some 1930s reproduction fabric, a white layer cake, and set out to create my own version!

I've been calling this baby Quilt-zilla because it is ENORMOUS. The top is finished and it's large enough for the king size bed we will be (someday) upgrading to! I have no hope of quilting this on my home machine, so it will definitely be getting sent out for quilting.

At the moment, I'm sick of looking at it and have it folded up and put away. I don't want to see another strip set for a looong time!

Susan

Rail Fence quilt

I strip pieced this Rail Fence quilt top using a Mill Book jelly roll and matching yardage for the border, and to fill in some blank spots when I ran out of fence blocks! I think I also put in a couple squares upside down.

Fortunately, this quilt is for my daughter who is thrilled to bits to have her very own (mostly) purple & pink quilt for her bed!

Susan

2 baby scrap quilt tops

I finished up 2 crib sized quilt tops this week from my scraps. These will be donated, once I have a chance to quilt & bind them.

The first one is made up of all the blue charms and scraps I've ended up with. It seems like every line has a bit if blue, and with 2 girls and nothing blue in our house I just don't ever seem to use that color when sewing! So I saved up all the odds and ends, cut them with tumbler templates in 2 sizes from Missouri Star Quilt Co, and put them all together:

Next up, I had a lot of Half and Quarter square triangles leftover from my daughter's strip pieced quilt, so I matched up all the odds & ends again, as best I could, for this scrappy crib quilt:

It's so nice that no fabric goes to waste!!

Susan

Two Small Quilted Projects

I finished up 2 small projects this week.  First, a scarf made with the Tea House charm pack, and backed with light green flannel, made using this Moda tutorial.

Second, I made a "flat" butterfly for my daughter. I absolutely love the new "Flats" line of fabric & cut out dolls, but I just can't commit to that much cutting, fusible fleece & velcro!! So instead a made a flat butterfly with 2 layers of fabric, batting, some quilting and zigzag stitch!!

While it's fun making quilts, I do love the quick satisfaction of a small project.

- Susan

Two quilts finished

I finished up TWO quilts this weekend, that was quite an accomplishment for me!

First I quilted and bound the strippy top that I have posted before.

Here it is all done. The binding is actually purple, not blue as it looks in the picture. This quilt has found a home on my daughter's twin bed!

 

And a close-up of my questionable binding job:

I also quilted and bound a very easy layer cake quilt, it's just squares and rectangles. I love the bright colors in this one. It is a throw-size and is on my couch!





















And another questionable binding job!





















Still, as I have been told, sometimes DONE is better than PERFECT! :)

--Susan

Panel Quilt

I had an awesome piece of fabric that I couldn't stand to cut up, so I made it the center panel in a very easy quilt:

This went together really fast, and is a large toddler quilt similar to my scrap quilt

Binding is slightly less of a mess than last time, so that's good!

This little quilt has been adopted by my younger daughter. Now I need to make the kids some quilts that actually fit their beds!

- Susan

Another scrap quilt

I saw this scrap quilt in Quilty magazine and wanted to make something similar with all the random bit & pieces I had laying around:


source

This is supposed to be an easy beginner quilt, but it was really hard for me because there were SO MANY seams to keep track of. Keeping everything pressed and flat, and sewing over SO MANY seams was really a challenge. Did I mention that there were SO MANY seams?? :)

Here's how my version turned out:

pieced quilt top

finished & bound quilt

as usual, my binding is a mess!

This is a large toddler size quilt and I'm happy to report that my non-toddler daughter is sleeping with it and dragging it around the house for lots of snuggling. So overall it's a success!

Susan

Pieced scrap quilt

This quilt top is made from lots of scraps that I bought at The Scrap Exchange thrift store. I actually bought the fabric on ebay but the store is only about 30 minutes from me. So I was able to go and pick it up rather than pay the $24 (!!!!) in shipping.

I am thrilled with how the quilt top turned out, and it's the perfect size for a twin bed. I am going to check with my friendly neighborhood quilt shop about getting it long-arm quilted because I don't think I'm up for machine quilting it - and I don't even have a walking foot anyway!

Here it is laid out on a twin bed (bad picture for the colors, the above picture is better for how the colors really look)

This is only my second quilt top, and this was A LOT of work for me. I had no idea what I was doing and was just looking at online tutorials and winging it, trying various ways of strip piecing, string piecing, and cutting out the blocks. I learned SO much through a lot of trial & error!

Thanks for looking!! I hope you like it! I am completely tickled pink (and purple!) with it! :)
Susan

Mini Doll Quilt

I am a very new quilter, and I made this doll quilt to practice half square triangles. It uses charm pack squares left over from my first 2 quilting attempts of a quilted bag and a (fail) travel sewing kit.

I am so happy with how this doll quilt turned out, especially the pops of bright orange triangles in the middle. I want to try another HST quilt but this time I'll probably do a half solid/half pattern to make it a little less busy on the eyes!

But the most important thing is that my daughter loves her new dolly quilt! :)

Thanks for looking!
- Susan


Sharing this at Finish it up Up Friday! I thought I linked this up last week but apparently I failed to FINISH linking it! :D

Quilted Travel Sewing Kit

I found a gorgeous tutorial for a sewing kit, but it was kind of a FAIL for me! First, a picture:

Eek!  The binding is a total and complete FAIL. I followed the directions on what size binding, and followed the tutorial to the best of my understanding.... but obviously this isn't right. And I really couldn't even keep this giant binding on there straight, as you can see from my wonky stitching!!

After watching a Jenny Doan tutorial, I realize now what I was supposed to do, and that purchased 2 1/4 inch quilt binding is not the same as making your own binding, but honestly I am not going to rip this all up!

Here is the inside:

It's still functional as a travel sewing kit, even if it ain't pretty.  I am going to chalk this up as my beginner problems, because plenty of other folks commented on the tutorial about how great it was.

Problem exists between sewing machine and chair! :)

I made the front pieced section using the Jelly Roll Race technique I'd seen on a Jenny Doan video because I wanted to try that out with a few small strips, without the pressure of a whole jelly roll!  So as for that part of it, I'm happy with it. But as for the binding part, definitely a fail! lol

- Susan

Beginner Quilted Bag

I have completed my first-ever quilting project! This quilted bag was made from a precut Moda 2wenty Thr3e charm pack. I fell in love with this fabric and bought it while browsing at a local quilt shop, even though I don't usually sew and have zero quilting experience.

I've made some basic sewing projects in the past, mostly rectangular panels for the windows, and a couple pillows too. But this bag was a stretch!

I pieced the 5" squares with 1/4" seams (learned watching free episodes of Quilty!) Then I added the batting and a matching liner fabric, and machine quilted the panel in diagonal lines. I had trouble the first time around with my binding and had to cut it off and try again. The second time was presentable enough for me to leave it!

The handles are premade ones I found at Joann Fabric, and I attached them with tabs (it is kind of a hack job but I was too close to finishing to cut it all off and try again!)

So here it is, my first-time quilting project!

I am really proud of it and I hope you like it too!

- Susan

(shared at Crazy Mom Quilts!)

2 page spread

Here's a 2 page spread from my art journal, I think I never like the 2 pages as well as just a single page. I guess I need to work small!

- Susan

Black and White Collage

I meant for this to be all black & white with the hint of neutral in the number cards, but as you can see I accidentally bled some reddish paint from another collage onto this page. Whoops! I still love it though, mostly how those large numbers really take over the page.

Shared at Glue It Tuesday and Art Journal Every Day!
- Susan

Pure and Healthy Collage

I like this one more in person that I do in the photo, not sure why! The more I look at it, the more I think it isn't quite done yet. :)

Susan

Spring Door Hanging

I made this 3 part hanging to put on our front door in place of my tired, old, faded Spring wreath! Each panel is chipboard, and the papers are SEI Field Notes, along with some random odds & ends I found in my craft room. This really brightens up the front door!

Decoupage Spring Tray

This tray started life as a wood box that our Melissa & Doug toys came in. Rather than throw out or recycle the box, I painted white with a touch of yellow, and decoupaged it with some SEI Field Notes papers.  After seeing the tray, I think I'm going to add some little feet on the bottom to raise it up a bit off the table.

The bottles are beer bottles rescued from the recycling bin and painted, then covered with some trim I already had.

Total cost for both is ZERO as everything is from the recycling bin & on hand in my craft room.

Postcards

I absolutely love ihanna's collages, and thought about signing up for her postcard swap but chickened out at the last minute (AGAIN!) I'd hate for anyone to be disappointed getting my warped cards in the mail! I can never seem to get things to flatten all the way out when I'm done.

Anyway, here they are!

- Susan

Mini Book Tutorial

I've been following the mini book tutorial at One Lucky Day, and playing along at home!

Paula has sewn a fabric cover, but my cover is chipboard. I have done several of the pocket pages from her tutorials, and I really enjoyed those. I'll definitely be using that style of page again!

She's posted the journaling pages, and I haven't decided how I'll approach those yet. I don't usually sew on my pages, but I love the way hers look so I may give it a shot! I do have several map scraps that I'll be using for pages also.

Here are a few pictures of the cover and divider pages from my work in progress!

Thanks for looking!
Susan