Applique Elephant {a finished quilt}

I needed a quilt for a friend’s baby shower, so I went to my copy of the book Quilts, Baby! for an idea.

This book has many inspirational and very original patterns in it, but I don’t recommend it to a beginner.  It’s more for an experienced quilter.

The elephant is raw-edge appliqued to the front.  After washing and drying, the edges of the elephant are softly frayed.

The background gray stars, the gray of the elephant’s body, and the pale yellow solid on the back are all Quilter’s Candy from Connecting Threads.  The brown for the eye and binding are from my stash.  And the blue plaid for the ear is from a recent trip to JoAnn’s.  It just called out to me from the fabric bolts as I was walking past.

The baby’s initials are embroidered with gray perle thread on the elephant’s neck. 

I wanted to make a matching basket for the baby’s room, using the same fabrics from the baby’s quilt.  The lining is solid yellow and the handles and bottom are linen.

I didn’t know what to put in the basket, but then I found a cute hooded towel (washcloths too) and onesies with elephants to carry on the theme and colors.

Too cute!

The finished quilt is 42” x 42”.   The batting is higher loft.

Thanks for reading!  Have a wonderful day!

Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Two Pillow Finish

This past week I’ve finished up two Christmas pillows. 

Katie of SwimBikeQuilt posted a modern Christmas tree wall-hanging/pillow on the Free Spirit blog this week.  The tutorial was easy to follow. 

It was amazing to see how the texture of the straight line quilting changed the total look of the Christmas tree.  I decided to bind the pillow after adding the envelope back.  This gray polka dot fabric is one of my favorites. 

This Ho Ho Ho pillow is straight from the book “Pretty in Patchwork Holidays” by Quilt Dad.  I am giving away a copy of the book and 16 fat quarters here, and there are a few more hours to enter the giveaway.

The fabrics are mostly Connecting Threads and a few favorites from my stash thrown in.

I used Finca Presencia Perle thread size 8 to quilt around each letter.  I didn’t have an embroidery hoop at first, but I bought one after doing two of the letters and it made the stitching a lot easier.

The Santa buttons were the perfect finishing touch!

The pattern suggests using linen for the back, but I substituted this cute bird fabric I’ve had in my stash.

So now I think our living room is sufficiently decorated for the holidays!

What have you been working on?  Any Christmas projects?  Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Baby Elephant Dance Complete!

This quilt measures about 39” square. 

The fussy cut fabric is called Kharma Baby, most of the log cabin fabric is DS Quilts and Metro Circles, and the sashing is Kona ash. I used warm and white batting and the backing is a wonderful fabric from Connecting Threads from their Quilter’s Candy collection. It is light gray with little stars all over it.

I used a zig-zag stitch to machine bind this quilt and you can see it’s getting more and more accurate on the back as I’m sewing from the front.  It’s just taken a lot of practice.  This is probably my tenth quilt I’ve completely machine bound.

Here is a peek of the next project I’m working on.  The fabrics in this one are from the Maya collection. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday!

Handmade Holiday Swap

I am participating in the Craftaholics Anonymous Handmade Holiday Gift Exchange.  I really love this blog!  I have found lots of inspiration for projects that I have made with my kids including this fall (or any season) burlap wreath and a bright Harvest banner that Bea will sew during the Thanksgiving break when she’s off from school.

We made four of the burlap wreaths—one for our door and three to share with family and friends. 

I am really excited to be participating the in the holiday handmade exchange!  My partner has a daughter, so I made her little girl a Christmas twirly skirt like the one I made in my last post.  It was good practice trying to tailor it specifically to her measurements.

 

I’ll be getting it in the mail soon so her daughter can get lots of wear out of it before Christmas!

Thank you, Tanya!!! And Little Forest Quilt Along

I received my swap package in the mail yesterday.  In it was a beautiful handbag, a box of pins which I can definitely use, and a little zipper pouch.  Everything was so lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And color coordinated!  My husband really likes the houndstooth check on the bag.  And I love the butterflies on the pouch.  Thank you, Tanya!  I loved being a part of this swap and can't wait to do another in the future.

I have joined another quilt along, too.  It's called the Little Forest Quilt Along and information for it can be found here. 

The Little Forest Quilt Along quilt is really modern looking.  There is a Little Forest Quilt Along group on Flickr and it seems like many people have chosen bright, non-green colors for their trees.  From what I gather from the pattern on the Purl Bee website, it was originally a very small wallhanging, but I am hoping to make it into a lap size quilt for the couch this winter.  But this picture here from the Little Forest Quilt Along looks much bigger than the original on the Purl Bee.   Here are the fabrics I selected.

They are from Connnecting Threads and are currently for sale right now.  Here is a close up of some of my favorites.  I love the red flowers the best.

30's reproductions are my favorite fabrics, but I don't normally like the traditional 30's style quilt patterns.  I think this will be a nice marriage between 30's inspired and modern.  Is anyone else doing the Little Forest Quilt Along?

Did I buy enough fabric? And, Bambi is Basted

 I love an online store called Connecting Threads.  I have purchased fabric and quilt kits there in the past and this time I even added some thread to my cart.  I'll let you know how it works out.  I bought both polyester and cotton thread, on spools and in cones.  I also got a layer cake and then a TON of 1/2 yards and more of fabric.  The fabric was on clearance and was only $2.48 a yard, so I got enough for backings in a few colors, too.  The box that came was HEAVY!!!  My husband saw the box, but he didn't pick it up thank goodness or he would have wondered what in the world I bought:)  I was able to get it upstairs in my sewing room without alerting him to the magnitude of my latest fabric addition.

I was also able to get my daughter's Bambi quilt basted on Friday morning before everyone woke up.  Bambi was rereleased by Disney this year and Thomas Kinkade designed a line of fabric to coincide with its release.  Now, don't tell my sister or my daughter, but Thomas Kinkade artwork makes me want to gag.  Sorry if I've offended anyone, but his style is just not to my taste.  When his fabric was available last fall, I had to buy it for Bea since Bambi is her favorite movie.  I finished up the quilt top in January and was hoping to have it as a gift for her birthday party in March, but I didn't get around to basting it until now.  I am going to get it quilted and maybe even bind it this weekend since it's raining outside like the dickens.  I don't generally allow the kids to watch tv/movies often, but it looks like a movie weekend;)  The fabric panel was designed as a book, but I just made them quilt blocks.  Now I've just got to get the sewing room and my daughters' room switched out so Bea can move into a twin sized bed and use the quilt!

For the backing I used clearance fabric from Joann's.

I went with pink and brown and plan to free motion quilt green leaves over the pink and brown.  We'll see how that goes.  I made a little practice quilt sandwich.  Recently I did some stars and they turned out great.  Here's hoping the leaves work out!

And I've been dutifully working on all the snowballs for my "Snowballs in Paradise" quilt for my bedroom.

I am hoping to post a tutorial by the end of the month for this quilt.  I've been doing a lot of creating my own patterns for the past couple of quilts I've made, and I've been thinking about getting EQ7.  I even have it in my shopping bag online:)