Little houses for a little girl

I worked on this quilt for a very long time. It was meant for my nephew's little girl when she was born in June 2012. I finished this fall and she finally got it at Christmas... Only a year and a half later...

 

I had these panels and I thought they would be great for a little girl. I used coordinating fabric to put them together.

I used my mom's long-arm to do some free-motion quilting. I had a lot of fun doing different designs in the sky and houses.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, I took them quickly before wrapping up the quilt.

Apparently Zoe is very happy with her quilt.

 

O Come All Ye Faithful

After a wonderful Christmas with my family yesterday, it felt good to get spend some time in my studio today.

Last week I bought some embroidery designs from Embroidery Library. My birthday is at the end of the month and Embroidery Library gives a discount to use at any time during your birthday month. I used mine last week. One of the designs I bought was this cute little Christmas Redwork.

Instead of stabilizer, I used a fusible batting on the back of my fabric and then embroidered the design. Today I chose a border fabric and used the quilt as you go method to make a mini quilt out of it.

 

It finishes at 10" x 10.5". I am so pleased with the outcome. It was a great quick little project.

My favourite part is the little nativity scene.

I bought 2 other little Christmas Redwork designs and am looking forward to using them too...

This one looks great on my little stand.

I hope you are all enjoying some time with loved ones this Holiday season!

I am hoping to be back soon with a post on more Christmas gifts and another with a finished quilt!

 

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TGIFF - A Christmas gift

I haven't posted anything for TGIFF for a while so I thought I would take advantage of the fact that one of the teachers' Christmas gifts is done and share it with you.

My 6 year old's grade one class has a mascot. He is a Schnauzer called Pitou (a stuffed animal). My daughter just loves this dog. I remembered that one of the blocks in my A Tisket A Tasket quilt was a basket of apples with a dog. I found the pattern and enlarged it a little. I came up with this:

I think it is perfect! I had fun picking fabrics and threads for this one. My favourite is the variegated thread I used for the basket.

I echo quilted around it to fill in the background a bit.

I still have to make a label. My daughter said she would help me with that and we had to write on it that it's Pitou on the quilt. She is such a cutie!

 

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WIP Wednesday - 12/4/2013

I have been working on some Christmas gifts.

My daughter is going to a Christmas party with her group from gymnastics. They are doing a gift exchange, so she has to bring a gift for a girl age 8-9. I am making a pillow for her to bring. Today I worked on the embroidery for the pillow.

I picked some cute floral fabrics with pink and purple backgrounds for borders, and a turquoise and white zebra print minky for the back. My daughter is really happy with it. I am sure the recipient will be pleased!

I am also making some little mini quilts for the teachers. This one just needs to be appliqued/quilted.

I like to do the appliqué stitches and quilting at the same time.

I am ready to pick the fabric for the other teacher's gift. Here is the pattern I chose:

I am looking forward to working on these little snowmen!

I am linking up to WIP Wednsday at The Needle and Thread Network.

 

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Colour My World Challenge Quilt

It is finally done!!  I am so excited to share this finish with you!

Some of you will remember me making these blocks back in 2012 when M-R from Quilt Matters had her Colour My World Challenge.  Every month, we were challenged to work with a specific colour.  I chose to make stars using only the colour from that specific month.  I had so much fun making these blocks. 

In January 2013, I was talking with my mom about how I was going to put the blocks together into a quilt.  She suggested using a solid to frame each block.  I loved the idea.  Once the blocks were framed, I simply laid them out in the order I made them and then sewed them together.  I had to move a couple around because I didn't want the white one on the outside edge of the quilt.

My mom worked her magic once again and quilted it for me back in October.  I think she had just as much fun quilting each block as I did when I pieced them!  Every block is different.  I think we make a great team, my mom and I.  

Here are some close-up photos of some of my favourite blocks:

I finally finished putting the binding on last week and this morning was great weather to get some photos outside.

 Here is a photo of the label I made with my embroidery machine.  It isn't sewn on yet but I wanted to share it with you.

I am so pleased with my quilt!  Thank you M-R for putting the challenge out there, it was so much fun!!

Pillowcases, binding and a cupcake!

Last week I spent my time doing some machine appliqué.

My daughter turns 8 this week and so we had her first ever sleepover on Saturday night. I bought some pillowcases in the girls' favourite colours and appliqued their names on them.

They had a great time and everyone loved their pillowcases!

I also went to my LQS earlier in the week and bought this fabric to bind my Colour My World Challenge quilt.

I started hand stitching the binding down yesterday and I hope to have it done by the end of the week. I can't wait to share that finish with you!

Yesterday, I also worked on a cupcake for my friend.

I have 2 more to make for her. She will be making placemats for her grandchildren with them.

This week I am hoping to make some lanyards and finish the top of my BOM. What will you be working on?

 

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BOM-Catching up

I don't know why I am having so much trouble finding time to blog lately. I think it is because I am having trouble with BlogLovin and haven't been able to keep up with my blog reading either. I usually get inspired by reading other blogs and since I have been having trouble doing that, I seem to also have been having trouble getting around to posting my recent works here.

I hope to remedy that from now on. Let me start by sharing with you what I have been working on for the past couple of weeks.

In my last post, you saw my finished Granny Squares top. A couple of days later, I also finished the top of my triangle quilt.

Since then I have been catching up on the BOM I am participating in with my quilt group. I think I stopped because I am using scraps for this project and it became difficult to search through my small bin. I rectified that last month by buying a huge clear plastic bin and dumping all my scraps inside. I find it much easier now to search and find the right pieces.

I started by cutting the pieces for the pieced blocks first and then went to work and pieced them all.

As I was working on these blocks, I started thinking these blocks would make a great wallhanging for my dining room. 12 blocks would be too many though so I aimed for 9. Once I finished the pieced blocks, I only needed to prep one more appliqué block. Then I worked on the layout.

Yes, I decided to bring the blocks down to the dining room and use the current wallhanging as a design wall.

This afternoon I finished doing the blanket stitch around all the appliqué. I am now headed back upstairs to cut the sashing and corner stones. I am really excited about this quilt. I am so happy I decided to make it smaller too. I have been itching to make a new quilt for that wall and this was a great way to kill 2 birds with one stone. I love it when a plan comes together!

I also want to share with you that my mom has finished quilting my Colour My World Challenge quilt!! I am so excited! I will be going out to my LQS to find the perfect binding and hopefully show it to you within the next week or so.

Has anyone else had trouble with the Bloglovin app? Does anyone have any recommendations for another reader maybe? I would really like to get back to reading about all of your projects too!

Thanks!

 

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Granny Squares - WIP Wednesday

We had a wonderful vacation in Disney World. We made some fantastic memories! But I was itching to get back to my studio and play with some fabric!

I am so happy to have finally finished the top of my Granny Squares quilt!

I am really happy with the outcome. My mom had the idea of setting the blocks this way and I had so many jelly roll strips left over, I thought this would make a great border.

Now I am trying to figure out how to quilt it.

I also wanted to share with you a few lanyards I made yesterday.

 

October 5th is World Teacher Day. My daughter's will be giving their teachers one of these lanyards as a token of appreciation for all they do for them.

I made too many quite a few lanyards. I guess I was having too much fun! Anyways, I will be listing some in my shop as well.

I am linking up to The Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wednesday.

 

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Getting ready to go

I have been having trouble keeping on top of things like blogging lately. I am blaming it on the fact that we are leaving for Disney World on Monday morning.

I thought I would share with you a few of the projects I have been working on before we leave.

My daughter is going to a birthday party later today, it's her first sleepover! She asked me to make her friend a pencil case. She picked out the fabrics and decided on the font and thread colour for the embroidery. I think it turned out pretty good. We went to Dollarama this morning and bought a few goodies to put in there.

Last weekend I worked on some of my Christmas embroidered blocks. I now only have 3 more to do and then I will be able to start planning the layout for the quilt. I am hoping to make a wallhanging for my dining room.

I have also been working on my Granny Squares. I am done the blocks and assembling the top. It will be a very nice lap quilt when all is said and done.

So I won't be sewing for the next week as we will be visiting with our friends Mickey and Minnie. But hopefully when I get back I can get back to some kind of routine and fit some blogging in there on a regular basis. I miss you guys!

 

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TGIFF - A Baby Quilt

Wow, it's been so long since I've linked up to TGIFF I hope I remember how to do it!  This week it's over at Pippa's Patch.

I am so happy to show you all this cute little baby quilt.  I put the final stitches in the binding and added the label just this morning.  Then I went and delivered it.

I pieced this quilt top and my mom quilted it.  It is a gift for our family doctor who is expecting her first baby.  

I used the Building Blocks pattern from the Moda Bake Shop, which I have a used a few times before.  I love this pattern, it is so much fun to pick fabrics for and sew these blocks.

We put a soft lilac coloured check fabric on the back.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  I hope to get more sewing done and to list more items in my Etsy shop!

Lil pouches

It was a rainy day here today so I decided to bring my sewing machine down to the dining room and do a little bit of sewing.

I saw this tutorial for Lil pouches on the Noodlehead blog last week and have been dying to give it a try. My mom bought me some zippers earlier this week so I had everything I needed to get started.

I started with one, then 2 more. I was having so much fun and it was going so smoothly...

...that I made 2 more...

And after the girls were in bed, I made 2 more. Then I ran out of zippers and fusible interfacing so I stopped.

I made these as little gifts, for the teachers or friends but I posted the photo on my Facebook page and got such a good response that I am thinking of selling some in my Etsy shop.

I opened my Etsy shop back in June thinking it would be a place to sell some of my quilts and other quilted items. I think these little pouches and others like the boxed pouch from my last post might sell as well. One thing is for sure, if I want to give it a try, I need to buy more zippers!

I will be adding a tab at the top of my blog that will direct you to my Etsy shop in the next few days.

 

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