Apron

I joined a swap last month.  I can't remember when the "due date" is for this one, but I have my items ready for the mail.  One project I made is a half apron I just winged.
I have seen some really great aprons on Etsy that I tried to incorporate into this one.  I like a couple of different fabrics, ties that go all the way around so it can be tied in the front, and a look that says it is well constructed and durable.  Here’s what I came up with:

My partner likes pink and brown, so I chose a pink floral for the front of the apron, brown pockets, and a brighter pink waistband and tie.

And I backed it with some nice dark denim that I bought when I first learned how to sew in the hopes that I would sew myself a nice pair of jeans.  I am not making that up.  It is time to use that denim for something else:)
Here are a few photos of me modeling it and taking photos at the same time!

 
I hope she likes it!

It started with this…

A t-shirt from Walmart for $2.  Unfortunately all the short sleeved boys' shirts had pockets.  A little seam ripping and Voila! a perfect canvas.  I added some Dr. Seuss fabric, a little Heat n Bond Lite, and some red zig zag stitching:

I think the birthday boy enjoyed wearing it at his party!

ps.  No, it's not Christmas.  The birthday boy's grandmother happens to keep a fully decorated Christmas tree in her basement for emergencies:)

Good news and bad news…

The good news is:
-our cars (which we cannot fit in the garage) were undamaged
-the hummingbirds are all out eating from the feeders this morning

-the power amazingly only went out for about an hour last night
The bad news:
-there is one huge tree across our front yard
-four trees on our back deck
-and one on our house


Bea said “our backyard doesn’t look like our backyard anymore.”  Glad the storm is over and hope everyone was safe!

Rainy Days Quilt Finished!

I finished up the quilt a couple of days ago, and my daughter Bea has been sleeping under this masterpiece at night.  It is not perfect, of course, but it is probably my best work to date.  The binding went on without a hitch (thank you, Jane W.) and I used a zig-zag stitch to affix it to the front of the quilt (thank you, Plaid Scottie). 

The backing is really my favorite part of the quilt. I was actually able to align the pieced vertical row with the center strip from the front of the quilt. It looks amazing! I put a mod log cabin around the label. I can't believe it turned out so pretty. This is the second pieced back I've done. It is incredible how much my skills have improved since I started quilting about two years ago.

It's quilted with light gray thread. I always have problems when I use different top and bobbin colors, so I went with gray on both sides. I did stippling and, although not perfect, it looks acceptable, and made with love.

Today was my oldest daughter's first day of kindergarten.  She enjoyed it immensely, but I feel like I've been run over by a truck--emotionally and physically--and maybe am coming down with something.  Kind of like back in college when I crammed for exams, then came home for break and spent the first couple days on the sofa recovering.  Good thing a hurricane is one its way.  Now I have an excuse to just lay around and not do anything:)

An Auspicious Start to Kindergarten and Sugar Creek Surprise!

So, yesterday, as we were walking out the door to head to my daughter's kindergarten orientation, an earthquake shook our house!  We were walking through the garage and I heard the bricks and mortar in our chimney crunching as various lawn implements that were hanging from hooks in the garage started swaying.  Whoa!!!  What is even more amazing is that the epicenter was in Mineral, VA.  Who has ever heard of that place?  Me!  My parents live in that very zip code on Lake Anna.  They've owned a lake house there since I was in high school and formally retired there several years ago.  Everyone is okay (there is a nuclear power plant on the lake), but it sure was an interesting chain of events--is the universe telling us that the world is going to be rocked by my super-wonderful daughter? 

Here she is checking out her new classroom.

And, in a stroke of luck, we happened to be dining out Sunday night next to Joanns, and lookie what I found:

I am kind of curious to see how people review these fabrics.  The lady who cut the fabric had to remove two sections that had pulls in the weave and I thought overall it was less soft, thick, and satiny compared to the first line of fabric.  But that's just me...

Greek Cross Quilt Along

I’ve seen some interesting quilt alongs in blogland, and although I’ve thought about joining, the time commitment to make something I just might not love has kept me from doing it.  But this one  looks relatively easy and since I chose to do a baby size quilt, the amount of time I will need to devote to it will be minimal.  Let’s just say it’s my trial run quilt along:)  And, I am 100% invested now that I’ve cut my fabric:
 

Now I need to decide what kind of background fabric.  I am auditioning gray, white, and aqua.  What do you think?  Here’s a close up of the two closest aqua tones.

Most of the photos on people’s blogs always look so professional and staged.  I often wonder what’s going on in the background…here’s what was happening at my house:

Don’t worry—I think Mickey would move if he was really bothered by all the manhandling. Notice the lovely coloring on my cutting mat.  Not only is there crayon on it, but someone also colored on it with permanent marker.  I guess I never have to worry about someone walking off with it when I’m teaching a class.

A “Cheeky” Request

I follow the blog Mummas Time To Create.  Its blogstress, Kat, made a “cheeky” request last week for happy, summery, log cabin blocks.  Specifically, she asked for Russian nesting dolls, birds, butterflies, teapots and no Civil War, overly pastel, or too much brown and dark color log cabin blocks measuring 15 inches or over.  Here’s what I came up with :
And a close up of the bird block:
The other block didn’t turn out so nicely since I didn’t start with a square in the middle.  Lesson learned.  It was fun to pick out scraps and see reminders of projects from the past.
So, these are off to Australia on Tuesday, along with this stash of fabrics:

And these goodies I made for her two daughters:

Hope the package gets there soon!  I wonder how long it will take to make it to Australia?

Friday Night Sew In

Well, I signed up last month, but husband/kids had other plans for my time that night.  This month, however, I got to work last night and woke up extra early to finish my Rainy Days quilt top:

I am pretty thrilled with how it came out.  I’ve constructed the back and it looks SWEET!  I made a couple extra blocks and a funky log cabin around my fabric quilt label I made at Spoonflower.  It’s all basted now and waiting to be quilted.  Maybe I’ll have a Saturday Night Sew In…

Rainy Days Quilt

A few months ago I saw a super easy looking tutorial on Quilting in the Rain’s blog for a quilt using Riley Blake’s Rainy Days and Mondays line.  I have snatched up a few prints here and there on Etsy and finally had enough to cut all the blocks yesterday morning…

And sew them together this morning…

As I was working my way through the two stacks, I realized I made a cutting error and only cut half of the gray rectangles I needed.  I guess this will be a three day project instead of two!

Jera from Quilting in the Rain used white for her quilt, but gray is all the rage right now, so I thought I’d try the gray rain splatter for a different effect.  This is going to be a fun looking quilt!

Summer Sampler

Well, I gave the Farmer’s Wife Sampler a go over the weekend and my first block did not turn out very well.  I used the rotary cutting directions, but my piecing accuracy still is not up to par.  So, I got an idea…

On one of my favorite blogs, Needle Little Balance inspired me to do a “Summer Sampler” with the quilt-a-long she participated in.  Her blocks were absolutely beautiful, but as the quilt-a-long progressed, the block difficulty increased, and I need a project that’s a bit easier.  I just decided to do my own Summer Sampler with my daughter Bea.  We went to Quilter’s Cache and picked out the 12 easiest and prettiest blocks to make.  The site rates blocks on a difficulty level of one to three pins, so we picked all one pinners.

Here are the blocks we made so far:

Hourglass 3

Pennsylvania

Friendship Star

 

Sorry about the arm/camera shadow in all the photos!  I am doing some babysitting this week and cannot turn my eye for a second during the day, so these are all 5:30am photos—before the sun comes up:)

I honestly didn’t know the names of any of the traditional blocks (except log cabin), so I am finding this a lot of fun.  Bea is helping pick out the fabrics, and she can look at the block diagram and lay out the pieces by herself, which is pretty good for 5 years old!  She has dubbed this quilt “The Colors of the Wind.”

Package from SC

Look at these pretties that arrived in a box from South Carolina this afternoon.  A big thank you to my sister-in-law Robin!!!  My Joanns has had the same exact 5 DS Quilts prints since May.  I finally broke down and bought a few fqs on Etsy, but then I got the brilliant idea to ask all my family members who live in various locales on the East Coast to check their shops for me.  And lo and behold...my sil found 15 of the prints at her Joanns!!! 

I am teaching a quilting class (!!!) through Parks and Rec starting in September and plan to use these fabrics as my example.  I think it's a nice compromise between designer fabric and affordability, so that students can feel free to shop at Joanns or at the LQS.  Quilting can be an expensive hobby!  I also happen to follow a blog by an Australian, and DS Quilts has 10 Australian-only exclusive prints in this line.  So, we are going to be swapping some fabrics!  How exciting! 

Well, I plan to do a little sewing in the next two weeks to get items completed for two swaps I am participating in, but other than that, my sewing machine will be kind of quiet.  My oldest daughter, Beatrix, starts kindergarten...sniff...and so we are going to commemorate this big step with a vacation to Niagara Falls. 

On a roll…

With a jelly roll quilt.  This quilt has been dubbed by my five year old “Roses of Beauty.”  She picked out a jelly roll at Joann’s earlier this year.  For some reason, she equates roses and flowers with the ideal of love—I’m pretty sure because of the Disney princesses.  Anyway, we made a quilt top from the book “Jelly Roll Quilts” that is basically Chinese Coins.  I think it’s called Bars of Gold in the book.  We had made the bars in the beginning of the summer, so I just added the light pink strips and border.  She picked that out too at the LQS.  It’s a Moda Bella solid.

Here’s a close-up of the fabrics:

I pieced the strips according to the directions in the pattern, but it was difficult to figure out a way to lay out the columns without two of the same prints being next to each other. If you look close there are 2 or 3 places where two of the bars are the same next to each other in the row.  Oh well!  I also noticed that all the sample quilts in the book “Jelly Roll Quilts” have wider borders and thinner sashing than the pattern.  I just went with the 3 1/2 inch all the way around as the pattern says.  The top quilt is the pattern diagram and the bottom is the photo.  Notice the sashing and border width differences.

Two blogs I follow are having giveaways.  I have recently bought fabric from 1 Choice 4 Quilting and was very happy with my purchase.  One of the fabrics I ordered ran out before they fulfilled my order, and as a bonus they added a free “Flurry” charm pack.  How awesome is that?  Enter here.
And The Intrepid Thread (a blog that has some good tutorials) is having a giveaway here.

Another Top Done!

I am on a mission…next week Warm and White batting goes on sale at Joanns for 1/2 price and I’ve got my stackable 20% off coupon already printed and in my purse.  My mission:  to get as many quilt tops—and backs—finished as I can between now and next Monday so I can go buy batting to finish them up.  Batting takes up a lot of space and I don’t like storing it around.  My kids like to rip through it, make caves in it, jump all over it, too, so it’s really not safe to keep in the house.  With a sale like this, I want to be ready to optimize my money.
I think this is Love U (actually, maybe it’s Love Is in the Air) by Deb Strain.  I like the whimsical-ness and boldness/contrast of the colors in the prints.  This quilt top is made from the first ever charm pack I bought.  It was almost complete, and now it is!

I went into Joanns yesterday and found some cute polka dots. 

I go pretty much every Monday morning looking for those dang DS Quilt prints.  My store here has had the same 5 prints since May:(  Anyway, in my efforts to find more Picnics and Fairgrounds, I got some $4.99 polka dots straight from a fresh bolt.  I wasn’t sure about the navy blue at first, but now I wish I had gotten a little bit more so I could have enough to use as binding, too.  Guess I’ll get a little more next Monday!
Here’s a photo of the jams we have made this summer…it doesn’t include all of the different variations (strawberry-pineapple, strawberry-rhubarb, black raspberry blueberry, and triple berry), but it has all the basics:  blackberry, spiced tomato, peach, strawberry, and blueberry.

My friend Robyn, my cousin Summer, and I canned over 100 jars of peach jam on Saturday:
We used Trossbach peaches which are famous in southern Maryland for being the best.  My house smelled great, until I made fajitas for dinner last night.  Now it smells like a Mexican restaurant:)