Tis The Season

I am so excited about Christmas!  I have always enjoyed everything about this holiday.  I am going home today to spend some time with my family until New Year's.  I have been told this will be the best Christmas ever, so we will see. 

I made this First Aid kit similar to some I had seen online for one present.

Filled with some essentials: Wet Wipes, BandAids, Neosporin, Advil

I can't get it to turn the right way!

I also made a cover for my mother-in-law's mixer from this tutorial.  I hope it fits!  Her kitchen is green and I had some extra green Ruby.

I hate bias tape.  I decided to make it for this project and the tutorial suggested covering the seams in it on the sides.  I knew better than to think that would look good when I was finished so I just added a little piece inside the seam that I sewed right sides together.  I did put the bias tape at the bottom which was not too hard.  I hope she likes it! 

I am still working on the Ruby Lattice quilt.  I got it back from the machine quilter's (first time using them) and it looks great!  Now I just need to square it up and put on the binding.  The end is soooo close!  Finishing it up means that baby will be here before we know it.  I can't wait to hold her.  I know she is going to be precious! 

Merry Christmas!  

New Projects

I have started many new projects and even a whole new hobby (bad news for the bank account!) 

I have made several simple knit and fleece baby blankets and also more make-up bags using the same tutorial.

I finished up the quilt top (except for cutting off the excess triangles on the edges) of the Chopsticks quilt.  Since it has no recipient right now, I have decided to move on to another quilt.

This quilt is for a co-worker of P's.  She is expecting a baby girl in February.  I fell in love with the Ruby line as soon as I saw it in quilts.  We chose the Lattice Baby Quilt design from Moda Bake Shop for this quilt.  Here are the squares laid out so far.  There are so many mini polka dot prints that it was hard to find a good arrangement.  I just keep reminding myself that there will be (cream) sashing in between.  :)

Here are some other things I have picked up had delivered recently.  Two charm packs of Terrain and a set of fat quarters of Little Apples.  The Little Apples set is my Christmas present so I can't cut into it just yet. 

My new hobby is crochet.  Another blogger posted a link to information about Crochet School taught in videos by Craftyminx.  I have really enjoyed logging on each night to see if there is something new to do.  I also know how to knit, but I keep forgetting how to purl.  I also never finished many projects (except some dish cloths and I am almost through with my scarf.)  Crochet was hard the first time I tried it (before knitting), but now makes a lot more sense.  It is easier since there is just one hook for the entire project and only several basic stitiches when combined in different ways yeild different designs.  I plan to try to crochet some baby blankets just to test it out.

I loved the format of the class because she taught one stitch at a time.  We then completed about 4 rows of each type and they built on each other to form this neat little swatch that I can use as a reference later. 

I also croched three granny squares as a part of a lesson, but I somehow lost two along the way.  :( 

I learned how to crochet in the round and made this little swatch. 

We are now working on reading crochet patterns so that we can make many different things.  She made a pattern from some wrist warmers.  Here is my start.  I don't know what I will do with the finished project, but since I lost the other granny squares I need something for the next lesson. 

I also learned painfully that my tension is very tight.  I had to crochet the gague swatch for this pattern abotu four times!  I had to go up 3 hook sizes!!!  I will be sure to remember this next time to save myself the time and effort. 



Off to Michael's to use my coupon and get some yarn for more projects.  :) 

Catching Up

I have not blogged in over a month!  Wow!  In the past month, I have finished two quilts.  One for my dad and one for a friend who was getting married. 

This is the quilt I made for my Dad.  I planned it to match his living room. 

The other quilt, I forgot to take a finished picture of.  :( 

Since I finished these two a few weeks ago, I haven't really done a lot.  I have still been busy with the start of school, Open House, and just getting back in the swing of things. 

This weekend, I decided to start something new.  I bought the Chopsticks pattern a while back as well as the fabric to make it.  I chose to use Fresh Flowers by Deb Strain.  My LQS also had some fabric that coordinated well with it from one of her earlier lines (the yellow). 

I got confused at the cutting table and was missing a fabric.  I chose another blue and not the red.  I planned for the other blue fabric to be in the quilt, but after it was washed, it was a bit too short.  I also realized that I didn't want two blue prints although I loved them both.  I went back and got the red which I think will add a lot to the quilt.  I will just try not to place the red and blue flowers side by side too often. 

I just finished sewing up two of the blocks.  Here is what they look like so far:

  I love this quilt already!  Only 22 more blocks to go.  :) 

Long Time No Blog!

Wow!  It has been a while since I have posted.  Since my last post, we have attended a wedding (P's best friend's wedding to be exact), enjoyed time with family, and started back to school. 

I can not say enough about my class this year.  I am so excited to really get into it in the next few weeks.  They have been wonderful with only a few small conflicts.  :)  They are all precious and sooooo sweet. 

As a late birthday present, P let me order some fabric I have been dying to get. 

Tidbits and Treasures

When I was ordering, jelly rolls were on sale, too.  I couldn't resist buying this Hullabaloo jelly roll. 

Look at that top!  I can't even unwrap it. 

Hullabaloo

I have finished quilting my dad's quilt.  Now I am working on the binding.  This is what I was doing last night.  I love to work on binding while watching my favorite shows.  I chose to bind it using the same brown from the front of the quilt.  Only a side and a half left to go!  It needs to be done by the 9th when I go back home.  I'm sure it will be done.  I calculated last night that this quilt has about 182 straight lines quilted on it.  That's a lot, but it looks great.  I will NEVER quilt lines that close together again!

Now I am working on a very special project for one of my best friends.  She has been asking for years for a blue and brown quilt.  She is getting married in two weeks, and I just started on her quilt.  She also chose blue and brown as the colors for her wedding.  I bought the paisley fabric a few years ago at a quilt show.  My grandmother said she was going to buy it if I wanted it and we ended up buying all that was left on the bolt (because they gave you a % off if you bought it all and it was already 50% off).  I knew that it was going to be used for this special friend, but I debated for a long time on what pattern I wanted to use.  I finally settled on using the Fractured Pinwheels pattern from the book 24 Hour Quilts.  Here are the strips cut into triangles and ready to be sewn back together.    

 Here are the two blocks that will make up the quilt.  I have made 5 blocks.  Only 15 more to go!

  I am loving this quilt and I know that she will love it too!

This afternoon, I will be home alone.  :)  I hope to finish some more quilt blocks as well as work on some seat belt covers to take to family when I go home.  Oh, and another collapsible market tote for my grandmother's birthday.  I love weekends!

What a fun week!

This week has been filled with fun.  A week ago, our new bedroom furniture arrived and we LOVE it!  Before, we had several pieces from different places that we put together to "make it work."  Now, we have a matching set complete with two nightstands.  :)

On Tuesday, I drove to Charleston for the day.  My aunt and cousin were there for a baseball tournament so I went to visit.  We went to the market which is always fun.  We enjoyed some great food and an afternoon of baseball. 

A few weeks ago, one of P's co-workers saw his sandwich wrap and said she wanted one.  She also requested a make up bag that was fairly small, but still large enough to carry essentials.  I found a site with links to many different tutorials and let her chose the bags she liked best.  In the end, I decided to use the tutorial for a Straight Sided Triangular Cosmetic Bag.  The tutorial is okay, but it became a little rough.  I just used what I already knew about making bags (although I am not too good with the zippers).  I made this as a test bag just to see the size. 


This fabric is from the remnants bin at Hobby Lobby

It turned out to be perfect, but I still needed to work on the zipper.  Here is the bag I made for L.  She requested cupcake fabric, and I knew the Michael Miller Cupcake Party would be perfect!  I used Michael Miller Little Hearts for the inside.  These prints work well together. 

Here is her sandwich wrap.  Again with the Cupcake Party and lined with rip-stop nylon to keep sandwiches fresh. 

This turned out cute, but this is the first on I have made from a directional print.  I am not crazy about it because it is right on the flat size, but upside down on the folded side.  It is still cute, though.

I haven't made much progress on the quilt.  I have about 3 other quilts that I need to get started on, but I want to finish this one first.  I just can't find the motivation to do it.  :( 

Only two more weeks of vacation before school starts, but I am ready!
 

Older Completed Projects

Here are some other quilts that I have made.

This baby quilt was made for a co-worker of P's who was having a baby boy.  Needless to say, this family was crazy about the Kentucky Wildcats.

This is a split nine-patch quilt that I made for my cooperating teacher during student teaching.  I gave it to her on my last day.

This is another baby quilt.  It was alsow made using the split nine patch block although it looks nothing like the quilt above.  This quilt was made using only Amy Butler fabric from several different collections.  It has no owner. 

This is a baby quilt that I designed the pattern for myself.  I used the Animal Alphabet fabric collection and a few solids.  This quilt does not have an owner.

I have made two other quilts (that I can think of right now), but I don't have any pictures of them.  They will be coming soon.  They are both very large. 

The Visitor

We will have a visitor tonight and I could not be more excited!  My mom is coming back for a visit this week and I will have her all to myself!  I hope that there is atleast one rainy day this week so that we can go to Savannah and snag some fabric.  Since my birthday is coming up, I hope to be able to buy lots of new stuff.  I also am working on cutting out the dress below (Lisette by Simplicity Passport Dress.  Right now, I am just cutting it out of muslin to test it out and since most other attempts have ended up looking like tents.  I am also hoping my mom will help me construct it and make it fit better since she used to make lots of clothes befor we came along.      

I can not wait for this visit!  :)