Bird Tree Hop

Time to dust off the blog with a fun blog hop celebrating my favorite animal! 

I planned on making something with the selected fabric  by Tracey Lizotte for Elizabeth Studio, and she’s got other lines featuring hummingbirds and owls that are just gorgeous too, but it didn’t happen with being sick with one thing after another since Christmas and pregnant with baby #4.  Someday I will cut into those beautiful panels and make a quilt my kids will fight over!  But until then, I want to share with you a few “bird” themed projects I’ve finished or have in the hopper.

Has your winter been as brutal and cold as mine?  Earlier this month we had a “warm” spell of 50 degree days and I made this table topper to celebrate.  My kids love to set the table with linens and various “treasures” they’ve collected at thrift stores, so this topper has been in heavy rotation lately.

The bird fabric is a new line called Milk Sugar Flower by Elea Lutz for Penny Rose Fabrics.  As soon as I saw those cute little retro inspired birds, I knew I had to make something from them! 

Paired with linen, these fabrics look perfect for heralding in spring.  (Is it coming anytime soon???)

The back has the same bird print in cream.

Once I finished up that project, it was time to make a spring-themed mug rug for a swap.

This wonky star features retro bluebirds that I picked up from my friend’s online shop Donna’s Lavender Nest.   Donna stocks some really cute 30’s inspired retro fabrics and a whole bunch of pretty florals.

And I’m a staunch believer that no mug rug swap would be complete without coordinating mug, so this sweet pink mug with owls galore accompanied the mug rug to its destination out west.

That’s it for finished projects…I still have two bird themed quilts in various stages of completion.

This large purple owl is part of an improv quilt that will be for my 4 year old daughter, Veronica.  She wanted a quilt that would “talk” to her at night since her sister Esther has the Mooshka quilt that talks, so we picked Cori Dantini’s Good Company fabric.

There are plenty of little birds and woodland creatures (foxes, hedgehogs, squirrels) to keep her company at night once this baby arrives and she has to sleep in her own bed.  This quilt will take a few days to quilt up because it’s quite large and I’m trying every kind of fmq design I feel brave enough to attempt.  It’s a quilt that will be loved no matter now it looks, and the improv sections provide the perfect backdrop for practicing different stitch designs.

The last project I’ve got going is this Charley Harper quilt for my cousin’s baby, due to arrive March 17 but he has not made his grand entrance yet.  I finished quilting it up today and it’s ready for binding.  I don’t want to show too much of the quilt because I plan to give it to her this weekend and want it to be a little bit of a surprise!

Thanks for visiting my stop on the hop and make sure you visit all the other hoppers and see their creative bird-themed projects!  I’ve been so inspired and amazed by the creativity and productivity of the participants of this hop!

Freemotion By The River

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Tea Time Creations

Baa's Amazing Adventures!

Selina Quilts

Ramblings of a Quilter

Busy Bee Quilts

Quilted Delights

Grandmamas Stories

Super Mom - No Cape!

A huge thank you to Mdm Samm for making this hop possible and Lana Dunkerley, our super, wonderful, invaluable cheerleader for this hop!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wild & Free Pillows {a finished project}

My oldest daughter was lucky enough to have a student teacher for the first part of the school year.  What better way to say thank you than matching pillows for her teachers?

I used the new line of fabric Wild & Free by Maureen Cracknell (+ a few scraps).  I always thought the arrows would be my favorite print from the line, but once I saw it in person, Sun Tracks was clearly my fave!  I bought extra after getting my preordered fat quarter bundle, and used it for the backs of these pillows.

I also quilted each pillow differently.  For one I did cross-hatching, simply for the reason that the spool of thread on my machine was nearly out and I thought maybe I could eke out an entire quilted pillow from it (I couldn’t). 

There is just something about straight lines that makes my heart swoon when I see them on pillows! 

Quilting always seems to show up better on the back.

Then I quilted the other with a free motion pattern so they were the same but still different.  Also I was a bit tired from all the straight lines.  FMQ is so fast!

The quilting pattern blends in a lot of with all the different fabrics on the front.

The teachers liked the pillows and I got a message from one later that night informing me her 16 year old daughter already claimed it for her bedroom. 

I promised that this would be the end of pillows for a while, but I was wrong.  I already started another with the leftovers from this project and some scraps that have already overtaken my sewing room and are threatening to take over my house…

Have a wonderful weekend!  Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Fall Fabric Flower Wreath {a tutorial}

During a trip to Ocean City, Maryland this summer, I saw a beautiful burlap seashell wreath at one of the shops on the boardwalk and figured I could save at least half of the $44 pricetag if I made my own.  So I purchased a few seashells, starfish, and sand dollars, and when we got home I picked up a wire wreath form and some burlap at my local craft store.  And everything sat on the baker’s rack in the kitchen for months.  It’s well past seashell season, so I thought I could use some of the materials to make an appropriate fall-themed wreath instead.  Turns out I think I like this version even better than a seashell wreath!

Materials:

• 18-inch wire wreath frame
• 12” (1/3 yard) burlap fabric (you can also buy a spool of burlap ribbon if you prefer)
• black jute twine
• various fall hued cotton fabric scraps
• pinking shears
• 10 assorted buttons in assorted fall colors
• DMC floss in assorted fall colors
• spool of bow ribbon
• heavy duty starch
• pinking shears
• glue gun

1.  Cut burlap fabric using scissors or rotary cutter in six 2” strips.  Wrap the wire frame with burlap, beginning on the backside.  Glue the first go-around to itself to anchor the burlap securely in place, then continue wrapping, slightly overlapping so that none of the wire shows.  Glue the last go-around to the backside.  If the strip ends on the front, just trim a little bit off so you can glue it to the back.  Continue with the next strip of burlap.  Wrap the entire wire frame.  Trim off any little “threads” of burlap that are sticking out.

2.  Tie off the jute twine at the top of your wreath.  Then wrap in an “x” design around the entire frame.  When you get back to the top, make several loops and tie securely, so you have a hanging loop.  Hot glue this loop in place.

The wreath should look like this.

3.  Now for the fun part!  Grab your fabric scraps and pick out an assortment of fall hued fabrics.  I chose mostly yellow, orange, brown, and green, but mixed in a bit of cream and black because I want this wreath to work for both fall and Halloween.  The black jute twine and cream & black fabrics give the wreath a bit of a spooky/edgy feel. 

You will need a total of 40 fabric circles, so repeated fabrics are fine!  Start by starching the heck out of your scraps.  You don’t want the flowers to look limp or wrinkly. 

Find 4 different sized circular household items (I chose the ribbon spool, a spool of washi tape, the bottom of the starch can, and the lid of the starch can.) 

Trace each size 10 times on fabric (for a total of 40 circles).  You can use a magic marker or fabric marking pen.  Just write lightly so the ink doesn’t show through the fabric.

Cut out with pinking shears.

4.  Start making your flowers by layering 4 circles together.  Pick a button and sew together through all four layers of fabric with DMC floss.  Thread that contrasts with the button color adds more interest to the flower.

5.  Make a bow with your ribbon for the bottom of the wreath.  I just totally winged it, but there are plenty of tutorials online for making wreath bows.  Glue your bow to the bottom of your wreath, then arrange your flowers around the rest of the blank space.  When you are happy with the arrangement, glue the flowers to the burlap with a dime-sized glue dab in the center of the back of each flower. 

6.  Hang wreath on front door!

What a gorgeous way to brighten up your front door for fall!

This is scrap project #4 of 52.  Have a wonderful weekend!

A little holiday sewing {a finished project}

I’m not sure what exactly motivated me to get hopping on some holiday sewing, but recently I’ve started a few fall & winter projects and have one all finished to share today!  Maybe it’s that reality has set in and I know I need lots more time to finish everything I want to, so I’m getting a head start?

More free motion quilting and even some feathers of sorts (my first ever!!!).

The fabrics are all from my stash—the quilter’s linen (not actual linen, but quilting cotton) is by Robert Kaufman.  The green polka dots is from that awesome shopping trip in Maine from earlier this year.  I thought it was Amy Butler or Kaffe Fassett, but it happens to be by Hoodie, not sure who exactly that is!  And all the low volume background prints are from my stash.

The backing is an Aunt Grace polka dot from years and years ago.  It is from one of the very first quilts I ever made—back before I even had a blog.  That was when I thought you really needed 5 1/2 yards of fabric to back a twin sized quilt.  Ha ha, how times have changed!!!  

And the binding is the same, from a box of bindings I made years and years ago before I started making my binding slightly larger (usually I cut it 2.75 inches wide).  Many of the 2.5” squares came from my scrap box.

I’m counting this as scrap project #3 of 52. 

Have you started any holiday sewing?  Do tell!

Zakka Style Shamrock Table Runner {a finished project}

Maybe it’s the warmer (finally!) weather or my love of the color green, but after making those Shamrock Pillows with the kids, I needed to sew something else green.  So, I fooled around with more applique, linen, and some hand stitching, and a Zakka Style Table Runner was born.

I used green fabric from my stash, including Jennifer Paganelli, Connecting Threads, True Colors, and a mystery green of unknown origin.

Does it look better with purple?

Or green? 

I like the simple look of the straight line stitching in natural colored thread on the applique and the gray perle thread outline on the linen.  What do you think the frog in the photo above is thinking?

I stitched only through the batting, with no backing, so the back is simply a piece of linen with edgestitching.  I went back and forth about using quilting weight cotton for the back and putting on binding, but I think the plain linen without binding is the perfect compliment to the front.

I used a 1/4” walking foot to do the edgestitching and it turned out very nice and even.  The finished size is 9.5” x 28.5”.

Originally these shamrock squares were going to be a pillow.  So I had a few squares left over.  I already gave away the finished runner, so this new one will be for our table.

These shamrocks better bring us some luck for spring weather.  Snow is in the forecast again!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Fort Worth Fabric Studio.