Amalie's Armfuls

Dolls Clothes Extravaganza

2011-12-12T21:32:00.000-08:00

So it has been months, but that is also the way this blog works. I blog during the summer and during my Christmas break and work seriously hard at 3 jobs the rest of the year. I still sew and craft, but I don't take the time to post my work. I only get to work on sewing stuff after I finish house chores, which means it is usually 10pm before I get started and I need to be to bed by 11pm.

So, todays post is pretty much in request from several family members who would like to see what I have been working on. ya, I wasn't very smart and lost a few sets of clothes that I had made this month, but here is most of my work. For my husbands niece this Christmas I decided to make her doll some clothes. However, her doll is a 21" doll which means that I have to make all patterns bigger. I practiced on Madalynn's doll first, gave a few outfits away and came up with the beginning of a great journey.

Ok, so Maya had a coat like this last Christmas and I have been wanting to make a doll coat like hers all year. So here it is. I made it from a light canvas fabric that holds form really well and it fits all of Madalynn's dolls. I actually made three of these coats. One was large enough it fit my best friends daughter. It was really fun.
I wanted to make one outfit for Christmas where Maya could wear the same outfit as her doll. So I bought some fun pre-made knit fabric that only requires sewing a gather seam, sewing on the elastic and a seam down the side. A skirt like this takes max 15 mins. I end up making a matching one for Madalynn and her doll too. I love the waist band fabric and it was so cheap too. I couldn't believe it.Here is the outfit all together with a white shirt I made as a generic shirt to go with all outfits.
This outfit was made from old used levi's on the pants and scraps around the house. I love how it turned out.
This was also made from old used levi's on the pants and scraps from one of Madalynn's infant blankets. I still love that fabric and wish that I had bought more to make Madalynn a top as well or a skirt.
Flair jeans!!! Seriously I think that they are so cute. I love the waist band even though it was really hard to sew on. Actual levi is so thick! It was a great use of some old jeans.
While I was on a jean kick I made the following skirt.
I also made several other pairs of jeans but I can't find them now. I guess I will post those later.

So, I guess her doll needed some skinny pants. Seriously, they were not supposed to be this form fitting. My sewing machine finally went to the repair shop last week. It had finally hit its last days. So I borrowed my sister-in-laws amazing sewing machine, however, it took me an entire outfit to figure out the settings and needle positions and didn't want to unpick the seams that were too tight. Laziness I know, so where I started sewing seams, I just stuck with it. I think that they turned out super cute besides that fact and I am going to have to look for more stripe fabric.
The white shirt was made from old large scraps from quilts I have made. I love finding uses for scraps. I hord them like nothing else and am really happy I did..most of the time.I have made several peasant tops like this one from all my old knit tee shirts that I simply can't fit in anymore, however I don't know where I put them the week before I left on vacation for Thanksgiving they all disappeared. However, I am going to make several more this week so I will have to post those soon.
Well, that concludes the show and tell for today. I have an extra special dress that I am making right now for the doll, but I can't post it until after Christmas because I am hoping to make one for Maya as well and I don't want her mom too see (sorry Tiff if you read this. I just thought there should be one surprise for both of you in her Christmas present.) Maybe this week I will find the pictures of the doll shoes I made last Christmas. They were super awesome. Ok enough for now I am off to bed. Maybe I will get to posting all my projects I have been working on for the past four months. It has been a great four months.

Thanks for reading.

Can't live without it- part 12

2011-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Since starting to sew, each time that I have moved I have realized more and more how much I need one of these. A broom. yes, a broom.

Right now my sewing area is the kitchen table right in the middle of the walkway from our only outside door. Whenever i have to put my projects on the floor to add edges, place pieces in the right place, baste batting and backings to my projects I have to sweep first. Every night after finishing sewing I have to sweep. When I have had sewing rooms where I had carpet on the floor, I have always put down a computer mat for my chair and have had to clean that up. I know that if I was in a carpeted area I probably would have taken a picture of my vacuum. Cleaning up is an inevitable part of sewing and therefore I have to put it on my list of things I can't live without.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- Part 11

2011-08-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so I know that it has been at least a week. But, here I am again. I know that this is the most random sewing tool ever! However, I can't possibly work in my sewing area without it. A lint brush.
I clean projects, my mat, my chair, my clothes, my ironing board, my shelves..etc etc with it. I was reading a forum the other day on Quilter's Club of America about the different things that various people use. They had some great ideas that is for certain. I love this brush because you can clean it easily by pulling off a layer at a time. They have replacement ends which is great. They come in various sizes so you can travel with one or just have one sitting in your craft area.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Christmas and Halloween Countdown

2011-08-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

One day my mom gave me a bunch of her old fabric. With the batch of fabric came a pattern book from Nancy Halverson. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I had to make my dream quilt, the Twelve Days of Christmas. It is on my list of dream quilts to make. I have been collecting fabric for it for a few years now. However, this post is not about my dream quilt. But, I have to share one more story, sorry. I served a mission for the LDS church in Uruguay several years ago. While I was there I bought a few gifts to bring home for my family from Uruguay. I brought home a little wood engine that I thought would match her decorations in the kitchen. It was a changeable calendar in Spanish. She actually put it out and would change the date on the engine. I was happily surprised. I tried to take a picture of it the last time I was at my mom's house and she has put it away. I will have to post a picture later.

So, in the same pattern book she gave me there was a Christmas countdown. It was kind of the same idea as the engine, but something that would be put out only at holidays. Since my mom loves Christmas I thought that it would be a great to make a set of the countdown Christmas numbers. So I probably spent a year working on this project. Other's got in the way and in the end I didn't even finish before giving it to my mom. Terrible huh. I have not finished the block that stays up the whole month and says Countdown To... I will have to get that done this year.

Then again...when I first gave it to my mom it was missing the 6 and it took me all of Oct. last year to get the 6 to her. Ah, some projects just take forever.

The last story I promise to share in this post it the following. Looking at this project really makes me sad. I started working on this while I was pregnant. At the time I would take all of my sewing stuff to my grandma's on Sat's while Russ was at work and work on my sewing projects. I started cutting out the numbers while i was at the farmer's market that summer selling baby blankets. When I think of working on this project I think of my grandma. I got out their old card table to sew on and sat there next to my grandma's arm chair sewing. I miss her terribly. I miss taking by all the projects that I am working on and showing them to her. I could go on and on about the things that I miss, but I won't.

Here is a picture of the holder my husband made with his welder and spray painted gold.
He used hot glue for the feet. I now need him to make me one. :)

Here are some of the Christmas numbers.

Here is the Halloween side.

When I made this set, I made a matching set for me. I however, have not finished sewing all the layers together on mine. Maybe I will finish it for Halloween this year.

Hope that you enjoyed.

4th of July pillows

2011-08-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

I had a few blocks left over from my English paper piecing quilt. I have had them sitting on my table for a few weeks. Every time I see them I think about ways that I can use them. I have seen many different pieced pillows online when I have goggled English Paper Piecing.

So I decided to attach the blocks to a white background, added borders and sewed them to a back. As I was sewing the front I was realizing what a great quilt it would make with just the front of these pillows sewed together as blocks. I may need to do that with some fabric in the future.

After deciding to do pillows I realized I would need pillow forms. ya, they are not the cheapest things in the world. I got them on sale which was nice. However, that is when I realized that I was going to make sham and be able to change out the pillow covers along with my other seasonal decorations. It is a great use of small pieces of fabric that I don't know what to do with and don't want to store. So here they are. (The small one in the front is just stuffed an permanent.)Here is the back.Hope that you enjoyed!

Summer Picnic

2011-08-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here is my newest excitement.

Yep, can you guess how many pieces are in this quilt? A whopping 467. ya, I know. Why on earth would I spend hours putting that many tiny pieces together. Most of the squares and pieces are like 2 1/2 inches in size. Sometimes it just doesn't matter how much work something is, I just get going and have to get it done. I will admit..it did take longer then I expected the other day to cut the pieces and sort the fabric and sew it.

I have to write about the pattern though. Oh my goodness!!! I hate patterns that tell you you need more fabric then you really need. I cut up the fabric that I had used for my mom's quilt at Christmas into the amount of charm squares the pattern called for and had at least 7 un-used ones and the strips I made for the borders- ya I had enough left over I could have not cut 5 of them. On top of that, I had to trim all the pieces before sewing them together....alllllll of them. Every strip that it called for was a least 5 inches to long and so I have tons of pieces left over that I could have just saved in bigger pieces to use for another project. I mean, i do love the pattern and did finish a project that I LOVE LOVE LOVE, but I was just a little bit frustrating.

The pattern was called Picnic or Schinibbles (I actually can't tell which title it is) by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.

This is just the top and I will have to finish quilting it, but I couldn't wait to post it. I want to put it up this month so I will have to finish it this week. Cool huh! I really wish that I could bind it will red fabric. However, I already have binding made from the yellow in the quilt left over from making my mom's quilt. So, hopefully you understand that complicated sentence.

Ok, hope that you enjoyed. I am off to finish a few projects and play with my little girl.

Yo-Yo Coverlet

2011-07-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

While I was sitting surfing on the internet (the worst thing in the world for me to do) I found a tutorial on purl-bee for this wall hanging. Hm, I think that it would make a really cute blanket for the end of my bed, or a great scrappy quilt. I am going to have to make this I think. It would be a great take to work type quilt.

Now to figure out what fabric I am going to use....

Can't Live Without it- part 10

2011-07-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today I am surprised to find that I am posting about something that I already posted about...again. However, it is the newest addition to my house and seriously I have missed having one of these for a while.

YEP, here is my new ironing board. I love it. I bought one that was a little wider this time. I love that it is almost the same height as the counter so that I can actually push it onto the counter as I sew. So, cool. yep, i know that this is probably so far from everyone else's excitement in life. However, for me to be able to iron a whole section in on sweep and not have to bend over on my table top one and then only get to do one side then adjust to the other side...etc. is wonderful!!!
That's all for today. Hope that you enjoyed.

My 1st purple quilt

2011-07-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

I have been collecting purple fabric forever. It has always been in the back of my mind to find a pattern that I really liked for it. So, it did take me by surprise when i was frantically looking for a pattern the other day and I re-found this pattern that I had bought. Yep, I am still in love with it. (I did change and add an extra flower on the large flower applique and I like it a lot better with the buttons that I chose.)That is when I realized that all I needed to be able to make this quilt was a lighter fabric with sparce print. yep, I went over to my favorite quilting store and asked them to help me find a white fabric with a small sparce purple print and this was the only one that they had in stock. The pattern called for 1 5/8 yd of fabric and that was EXACTLY what they had left on the bolt. (which of course meant that I got it off 10% for finishing the bolt.) Then I went to Abby's house for a sewing day and after a while of trying to decided what purple fabrics I was going to use, here is what I chose and how the top turned out.
It took me forever to decide on the inner border fabric. I had all sorts of shades and hues of fabrics, but I think that the light purple helps draw away from the darker colors in the middle and get ready for the really pretty border. So the reason that I finally decided to start working on this quilt is kind of interesting. I was looking at my blog stats the other day. My most viewed post is my post on Back Porch Bouquet fabric. I thought that was interesting because it has been a while since that line of fabric has been in the stores and yet I still have at least one search for that on my blog a day. So, I was looking at the pattern and had remembered the purple pattern I posted and went and looked at it. It is simply too modern for me.

I am waiting for a new book to arrive. I finally ordered 501 Quilting Motifs. I really hope that it is all that the reviews say it is. When I get it this week I will certainly have to do my own review. It is supposed to have great diagrams and instructions on some different quilting designs. I am waiting to decide how to quilt this quilt so I can try something new and interesting. We will see how it goes.

I have been making quilts and wall hangings to put up on my ladder that I can change out monthly. I am going to be making a hexagon purple quilt here in a little bit. So I am deciding the month that I would put purple up in. I have though about maybe Sept or April or May. April usually has Easter so I think I would put up spring colors then. I will put up fall colors in Nov and so I am not sure yet what to do with Sept. Back to school colors? That would just be weird. Fun random quilts, that might be likely. Ah...I just love creating things and so it won't really matter, but it is fun to think about.

Hope that you enjoyed my new project.

4th of July Stripes, Stars and Stiples

2011-07-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well, while I have not posted in a good week or so, it does not mean that I have not been working on finishing projects. When it got to be July and I didn't have anything to put up as decorations I decided that this was the summer to do something about it. I have been collecting 4th of July fabric for almost 5 years now and I have quite the little stash. I was hoping that by working on all these projects i might reduce my stash....and sadly, the small quilts that I have been making require almost no fabric and so my stash still feels about the same size. However, I love love love what I now have.

So, as a side note, I know that none of my projects really match together, but I really like that. I really like that everyone of them is varying shades, hues and colors. They all tie together because of their theme, but I don't have too many of the same thing.

All of these projects, except the first one, I made from scratch with no pattern to follow. Certainly they are not hard to figure out and you will see that on the last two, but they were fun regardless. I decided that I would post pictures in order of my work and a final picture of their resting place. Unfortuately I can't show you the whole picture because my favorite picture of George Washington kneeling down next to a horse praying, fell off the ledge the other day and I still need to replace the frame. Russ felt really bad when he knocked it over, but it happens. It was an accident.

So, here is the count down. I think I will start with my most recent and go to my very first, which I have posted before.

1. The table runner. I cut my fabric in 13in wide sections and then cut them at various points to make varying sized strips. As I was cutting the strips I had my calculator out and just added up the widths until I got to 59inches, the length of my piano table runners. I sewed them together, added a few white stars for a cute applique, quilted it and bound it. Yep, super easy and only a couple hours of work. Here are a couple pictures to show the finished product and finished resting place.2. This is my 4th of July coin quilt. I simply decided on a size for each one of my coins (6 inches by 4 inches) and sewed them together. Then I measured the length of the rows, cut white stripes equal widths to go between the rows and on the top and bottom. I love the bright reds and blues in this quilt. I looked at a lot of finished coin quilts online before I decided that I was just going to quilt it with stiples in the colored sections and leave the rest just plain. It took me a long time to decide whether I wanted to do a border quilting in the white, but I decided against it. I guess I can always go add that later if I want and redo the binding. Maybe next year...hm.3. Here are the rest in their final resting spot. I have my quilting ladder that Russ made me in the corner behind his recliner so Madalynn can't play with it. We live in a basement right now where they left the edge of the concrete foundation as a ledge in the rooms. It is great. I don't have to hang any of my picture up and can move them wherever I want to in the room. So, it is a great place to place my little quilts. Behind the picture is my flag, below it is my connecting threads kit wall hanging I made a couple years ago. Then I had to place my most intricate on on the top of the ladder...it was only fitting. And then below my coins quilt, you can see my levi quilt. I had it sitting on the couch arm, but Madalynn started throwing it all over and I decided to leave it on the ladder this year and teach her not to play with it next year.So, there we are for this year. I have to admit I have one more project to add to the bunch before I put it all away in August, but it is not a quilt. I still had some blocks left from the English paper piecing project and I am going to sew them together and make a small pillow with them. I think that will be a great addition to my other decorations and the most common use of English paper piecing I have seen out there.

Hope that you enjoyed. Wait until my next post. I can't believe how my current purple quilt is turning out. Ah....

Can't Live Without it- part 9

2011-07-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a few days. Life simply gets busy and fun. Wait until you see my next project post. I finally got pictures of a project that I worked on for a couple years. I am just waiting for one more picture to be emailed to me and I can post it :)

So this is going to be a quick post. I have posted this toy before, but I thought that I would post it again in this series. Seriously I could not live without it. When making binding I really like to have it pressed like the double fold binding you can buy at the store. Ironing each side of the fabric takes forever, esp. when you are making small binding for children's clothes or doll clothes. So I bought these to help:

They are called bias tape makers. All you do is put the fabric through the tool and iron. As you iron you pull the fabric through. It sometimes get a little stuck at the seams of your binding, but it takes like maybe 3 minutes to iron a binding for a large quilt. Here is what it looks like when it is done.I have done everything from thick canvas home decor fabric to levi's to thin cotton fabric in this tool. While the heavier fabrics take slightly more time they work just fine. If you are going to be making your own binding this is the greatest way to go: it is cheaper than buying it, it takes very little time and the tool is very cheap for a onetime cost. Here is a link to search of the bias tape makers on JoAnn's website. I waited and bought mine on a notions sale when everything was 30% off. I use a clover bias tape maker, but I know that their are several brands online to choose from.

So give it a try the next time that you need a binding. Just follow the instructions included in the packaging for cutting widths for the heaviness of your fabrics and off you go.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Serendipitous Snowman Wall Hanging

2011-07-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

Around Christmas last year I was in Gracie Lou's a quilt store in Salem, Utah. They had the most awesome Christmas quilt patterns. It was a bit hard to shop and really look at everything because I didn't have my stoller and so my 7 month old was trying to crawl around and cried a lot. However, the pattern I made my sister's purse out of was at the store. I had been looking for that pattern for a while. Then I found this pattern. And it is 5 feet tall, it is so fun.
I had been looking for a cute Jan quilt pattern for a while. I think that in Dec you can decorate with Santas and that in Jan you can decorate with Snowmen. I had not previously been able to find something that I really liked. So, Abby's birthday is in Feb and I knew that we needed to make it. So I looked through all my fabric and found everything that I needed except the orange for the nose. (Which who keeps that bright a plain orange fabric lying around. Well, apparently not me.)

Ya, the pattern is killer. It is call Serendipitous Snowman by Geralyn Powers and put out by Thanksfully Sew. The shear amount of parts and little parts just to cut first out of the pattern, second out of the fabric, third out of the steam a seam 2 i used....took FOREVER!!!! Ya, Abby finally got it in May nearly four months after her birthday and I started it in Dec. After cutting out several parts, I just couldn't keep working on it. I got so burned out. And of course if I don't finish projects during my breaks then they don't get done until the next break. It is just how my crafting life goes.

I used left over blue flannel for the background, muslin for the body, scrap fabric for the rest and red flannel for the binding. Ok ok. I am looking at the pattern right now for the first time in months and I forgot to attach the buttons!!!! Oh my goodness. I am still not finished!!! Ugh. Oh well, I am posting the pictures that I took today. Of course this is one of those projects I gave away and then had to go back and take pictures. Ya, I need to just take pictures first. It is so much easier.

And her a few pictures close up of the various parts.Here is a picture of the backing.Hope that you enjoyed.

Christmas Cheer

2011-07-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well, as I was going through my old blog posts I never took a picture of this quilt finished. I gave this to my mom for Christmas two years ago and it now sits on the piano in her "Christmas piano room." Literally if you have ever been in my mom's house there is not a question of whether my mom likes Christmas or not. She has such a love for Christmas and for really deep Christmas colors. This is how it turned out and I thought that I would share a finished picture.

Here is a look at the back.

Hope that you enjoy.
Amalie

Can't live without it- part 8

2011-07-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

So anyone that sews will tell you that the following item is a necessity in a sewing room.

Yep, I love my iron. When i first got married I was using my husbands extremely small iron that I had to fill up with water like every half hour. It smelled and it never turned off without being unplugged. I can't tell you the number of times that I went home to unplug it when I left the house. On top of that, I had my parents old ironing board that didn't stand up straight. How annoying. So, at a sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond one day I bought a small travel ironing board for $2. I am all about nice but as cheap as I can find and that was the perfect price. I thought that maybe I could just use a small table top ironing board for a while and it would work and I wouldn't have to replace my ironing board.

Oh, I was soooooooooooo wrong. It is just toooooo small. It is great when I am piecing something small and just don't want to get up to iron. However, for my big quilts, it sucks. So one day I just broke down and went to Walmart to buy a new iron and ironing board.

I decided that if I was spending money on an iron that I would buy something reasonable but with the features I wanted. I wanted something that I could press the steam button to get some extra steam, a good sprayer so I didn't need a spray bottle with me anymore, an iron that had the safety feature of turning itself off, and a retractable cord. So this is what I chose. I don't remember spending more than $30 for it, but I don't remember the exact price. Everyone just needs a good iron that can either steam or iron dry...and if you are going to take it anywhere with you, a retractable cord is soooooo nice.

I now take my iron everywhere with me. I really can't handle using a basic regular iron anymore without my extra steam press. And seriously why would you own an iron without an automatic shut off. So much safer, you don't have to remember to turn off the iron everytime you run out of the room and it doesn't sit there completely hot the entire time that you are sewing.

Now I have to quickly tell you why I no longer have a large ironing board and am waiting to buy a new one. The day I bought my iron I bought an awesome ironing board and then posted about it. I was sooooo excited to have one that didn't rock everytime i touched it. Well, somewhere in our last move the latch that helps it collapse fell out! Russ who is very handy with fixing things, could not get it to go down again. So, much to my mother's frustration it is sitting out on our patio holding all my wood for my wood crafts. I really can't wait until I can reasonably afford a new one. I am going to buy a nice cover for this one too, one that can withstand really high temperatures so it doesn't warp the board when I am ironing for a while, or burn. The cover on my table top board smell each time that I iron. I hate that.
Well, hope that you enjoyed my ramblings.
Amalie

Can't live without it- part 7

2011-07-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

So, at this point I have now posted a weeks worth of posts in my Can't live without it series. I know that to some of you it may seem like the things that I am posting are pretty random. I mean, why am I not posting pictures of things like my sewing machine and basic things like that. I actually will be getting a post like that later this week. Every day when I decide what I want to write about it is the thing that I am the most grateful for that day. Most of the things that I am posting are things that save me time while I am trying to find those few spare moments to sew and craft.

If you haven't noticed by now, I am an obsessed crafter. I wrote down the list of projects that I want to finish in August while I am not working one of my jobs. The list was full of over 50 things I want to get done. Yikes! I think, well how am I going to be a mom, a wife, housekeeper, good employee and employer and still manage everything that I want to do on the side. It is because I have a lists of things that help me do what I want in either a short amount of time or quicker than I would have got it done without it.

Today's post is on: my thread.

Thread is probably the most basic part of sewing. For me for quick and on-the-go sewing it is a necessity to have a small stash. While I was sewing blanket for the farmers market two summers ago I decided that I would invest in buying a large quantity of colors so that I could match all the colors of fabric I was sewing on. At first I would buy the small spools of colored thread at JoAnn's. However, those small spools cost about $1.50 for 125 yards. I would go through my thread so fast. Then I decided to buy the white serger spools for $1.99 for my bobbin thread. That was nice. I didn't go through white thread nearly as fast.

But then the problem came...I bought about 5 spools of white thread one day and with every spool of thread it started unraveling as I would sew and break. I thought maybe my tension was off and I adjusted that. Then I though something was wrong with my bobbin casing, but nothing was wrong. After three spools of thread...I had had it!! I was re-threading my thread on my machine almost every five minutes as it would break. If it had been one spool that would have been ok I think. But three spools was rediculous. I know that I probably got a bad batch of thread, but I was determined to find something else that fit my needs better.

That was when I got my connecting threads catalogue. I knew that I had seen thread in there before so I thought I would check out the price and shipping to see if it was worth it to have it shipped and still not cost me more than going somewhere in person. Well, i was totally in luck. They were having a 30% off sale (which they are having right now too by the way). Each spool was around $1.80 and there were 1200 yards of thread on a spool not just 125 yards. Just by the shear amount of thread that I was going to get per spool I knew that it would be worth it. I read some reviews online and decided that I would just take a stab at it, invest in the thread and get what I wanted. I ordered each of their color sets and a set of 5 white spools. (Around 50 spools). Totally worth it. Two years later I still have not bought any thread. I have almost finish the white spools, but seriously with the amount of sewing I was going before I would go through a spool almost every week. Now with my white spools I go through like one every other month.

The best part of connecting threads is if you order $50 worth it is free shipping. So, you are paying slightly more than a spool at your local fabric store, for almost 9 1/2% more thread and not paying shipping if you are ordering in a larger quantity. All of the cotton is grown in the USA too for the thread. So, you are supporting American farmers (if you live in the USA and care too know about that). ya, I was hooked.

The biggest problem with my thread has been: figuring out how to store it.

Originally I stored it in the box it came in.

Then on this rack on my table (which then moved to the dresser, the couch the floor and simply all over). Eventually when I own my own home with a permanent craft area I am going to use this again for my most common threads to have close easy access. I bought this at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon so I couldn't tell you how much a spent on it at the time.

Then I put it all in a drawer in this storage container.

Then I put it all in my tool box because I needed it on the go.

Then I finally recently invested in this container my by ArtBin. While I can't use every spot in the container because the spools are too large I finally have a container of good quality with great clips to keep it closed. I love it. I can take it on the go and it is really so nice. I like that it is clear too so I can see each of the colors inside without having to open the lid.
Here is Madalynn the day that I got it, sitting on it. She thought it was her new seat and loved it of course :)
So in short, I really can't tell you enough how much I can't live without my thread. I know that I can start any project at anytime of the day or night and I have what I need to finish the project without having to run to the store. I joined Quilter's Club of America a couple years ago and in the forums several ladies have asked other quilters what thread they use. Most have said that they have switched to this thread and have never had any problems with it and they love it. I will say that i do have other kinds of thread like: invisible thread and elastic thread and such, but for basic sewing, piecing a quilting I used this.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- part 6

2011-07-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Organization is key to my crafting obsession. While I may not be "organized" in the sense of everything put in order, clean or even having a craft space in one area of my house, I know where everything is. One of the hardest parts about organization is the fact that we have moved 4 times this last year and a half. I will be forever grateful to my best-friend Abby who came by my house the first time I moved and helped me pack up my fabric. Much to Russ's irritation I went and bought some moving boxes for my craft stuff. We had plenty of boxes, but I told him that I wanted all my fabric in matching boxes that were different from everything else so they were easy to separate. Abby folded each and every piece of fabric to fit in the boxes and then we labeled them. I still know where everything is because we labeled each box so specifically.

Over time I have bought clear boxes to put everything in. It just makes it easier to find things. Right now I have craft stuff in my daughter's closet, the coat closet, the kitchen, on our storage racks in the kitchen, in a filing cabinet, piled on the filing cabinet, on top of the deep freezer (that is my ironing board), stashed in a corner behind our deep freezer, on my old ironing board on our patio, in my car (the projects that I take to work) and last but not least in our storage unit. I can honestly say I am impressed everytime I think about what I want and I know just where it all is. When we first moved into this place in Feb I had everything packed into Madalynn's closet. Lol, it lasted in that closet I think two weeks before it got strewn across the house. I am grateful for a husband who seems to be ok with things spreading themselves out. It is insane.

So, last year I was carrying around this box.

It was my tool box and small supply box. It is a Christmas decorations storage box. I love the tray. It fit all of my scissors and little stuff great. However, I started to not be able to handle the fact that the lid would pop off because it didn't lock into place and I only had most of my tools in the top because they would not all fit. So I would just carry around what I needed for just that specific project and nothing else. So I started looking for a new tool box.

I bought the following tool box at home depot. It was on clearance at the time and only cost $6. I thought that that was a great price for a tool box. When I was looking for this box I decided that I needed something with:
1. A tray
2. Locking lid with a place for an actual lock so I could keep my daughter out.
3. Area's that were separate for my notions and my projects and preferably removable.
4. Sturdy but not too big or heavy

I love this tool box.
I have all my bobbins in a removable container on the top that I can either simply open or remove. While it does not have specific slots for bobbins, I just tape the ends of my bobbins so the thread does not unravel and it works great.
I have another removable container for all the other notions that I use for projects and simply never know when I am going to need them.

I have a small opening for my needles, chap stick, and other small square items.I love my tray. I have all my necessities on this tray.And...the space inside the tool box is just perfect..big but not too big that I can't fit it on the front seat of my car for on-the-go crafting or too heavy when it is full that I can't pick it up.

As part of my post I thought I would make a list of the items that I keep in my tool box. I do pull them out to use, but every night when I am finished working I try to take 5 minutes and put everything back where it goes. Here is my tool box at a glance:

Scissors: my two pair of nice ones, a pair of paper ones, rag quilt scissors, rotary cutter and replacement blades
all my bobbins,
all my sewing machine feet,
pencil, pen, fabric marking pen, chap stick pad of paper,
all my needles (hand stitching, machine needles),
my two small acrylic square rulers, hemming ruler,
my 505, my quilting gloves,
two boxes of pins, my magnetic pin holder,
white thread, elastic thread, invisible thread,
my sewing machine oil and other cleaning supplies,
my clover binding makers, magnetic snaps for making purses,
thread wax, seam ripper, measuring tape,
my gypsy (cricut designing tool) and it's power/charging cord,
projects that I am finishing,
lint brush, safety pins,
click and stick scrapbook adhesive, scotch tape,
crochet hook
bandades (for when i cut myself with my scissors :( or poke myself with a needle)
elastic, steam a seam 2
a lighter and fray check for finishing items
paint brushes and sponges
various keys (to things that I am not going to mention :) haha)
and magnets.

The only item that I wish fit in my tool box that doesn't is my acrylic cutter ruler. It would be nice if it fit, but it is ok that it doesn't.

Now, I know that everyone has their own style and way of organizing things. I probably wouldnt' have a tool box if I didn't craft on-the-go. However, most of my craft days during the summer are spent at a friends house, my in-laws cabin or simply moving rooms in my house to be with my daughter and watching her, but crafting at the same time. I would suggest to all that are looking for a tool box...don't buy the ones in the crafting stores. They are just sooooo expensive. While it is true that is the only place you can buy ones that are 12" by 12" and there are some great sales on those, find a hardware store to buy your toolboxes.

I bought these at Harbor Freight for $4.50.I have two of these and use them for my buttons and scrapbooking brads, eyelets and other small items. After buying this tool box I saw the exact same one a year later at Archiver's for almost $20. Sure the ones at Archiver's put out by Creative Options are a cute green and purple, they were exactly the same in size and function. Just do your research on what you think is the best for what you need to store and then go and buy. Check Craigslist, KSL or whatever your local online used market is first. It pays off to be patient and find what you want.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- part 5

2011-07-07T15:10:00.001-07:00

Every quilter needs an acrylic ruler. They vary in size and dimension, but inevitably you will buy one. Welll...maybe not. My mom used a angle arm used for construction or a yard stick. They work, they are cheap, but I simply can't live without my ruler.

So I am going to list things that people use with their rulers to cut and measure fabric and then I am going to post my seriously amazing ruler. Once you have a ruler you will want a rotary cutter. Scissors work fine, but man a rotary cutter just saves soooooooooooo much time. Many people buy one of those hand grips to keep the ruler in place so it doesn't slip on the ruler. Many people buy several sized rulers for various projects. I can honestly say that I do have two other rulers besides this one but this is I think the best size for having just one if you want just one.

Here is my Fiskars 6 1/2" by 24" cutter/ruler
The things that I like about my ruler are
1. It has a rotary cutter attached.
2. It used the same size blade as most rotary cutters
3. The edge with the cutter attached is heavy, unbending and easy to grab
4. The size.

Because of the heavy and easy to grab side I would never need a hand grabbing attachment. It makes it so it won't bend. I have seen people brake their acrylic rulers just because it bent too much. I don't have to carry around my rotary cutter with me, just my ruler which is really nice.

ya, I simply can't live without it. I bought it at Walmart in the craft section. I have not seen it anywhere else..ie JoAnn's, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Robert's Arts and Crafts... I looked every where for one when i was looking for it. My friend introduced me to hers about 4 years ago and I knew that that was the ruler for me. The first few times that I used it, there was a sticky pad on the bottom part of the cutting side that is no longer sticky but made it even more firm at the time. After doing a quick internet search I couldn't find it anywhere. Hm..when I find a link to somewhere you can buy it, I will post a link.

Besides this ruler I also have two other acrylic rulers- a 6 1/2" square and a 2 1/2" square. I bought those because I make a lot of small block things and it is nice to just have a square esp. the smallest one. I am currently considering buying a circle acrylic set for my newest projects and that would be more of a template ruler than an everyday functioning ruler.

Well hope that you enjoyed my ramblings on one of my favorite tools.

Stars and levi's and the sensation of being done

2011-07-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

So each time I have moved in the last year I have determined that I would finish those UFO's that I created at the last home or the previous homes. Last August I made this quilt and posted picture of the unfinished top. I made it on a weekend away at my in-laws cabin. I used used-levi's, some plaid fabric I had in a bag and white fabric for the applique stars.
For a pattern..hm.. I just sort of made it up as I went along. I had the fabric, I created an idea and went with it. I am sure that I got some inspiration somewhere for the appliqued stars and put it in the recesses of my brain. It took me forever to finish this quilt because of those stars. I kept wanting to get it done, but I was either out of white fabric, didn't want to take the time to find the right star shape, or didn't want to take the time that it takes to stitch on the applique.Well, I sort of cheated, but not really. I didn't want to do a blanket stitch or a zigzag stitch on the edge of the stars. I decided just to do a basic outline in the middle of the star and leave the edges exposed. Raw edge applique is pretty common these days and I really think that it will add character to the quilt as the edges fray.
Now for the biggest part of this quilt...it is the biggest quilt that I have quilted on my own machine. I was terrified!!!! Not only was it big, but levi is incredibly heavy and very hard to handle because of the weight. I broke a few needles, got mad at the thread when the quilt would slip and the thread would brake. But, it got done. It is not the most perfect quilting job by any means, but I think for a first time on such a large project it is pretty decent. I knew that it would take a while because of the size, bulk and heaviness, but it took me almost 5-6 hours to quilt it. It was worth it to save money from having a longarm quilter do it, but it is time consuming.

So, I had to post of picture of me actually quilting it. It is a big moment in my quilting experiences and thus needed to have a picture moment. (I think that Russ thought I was weird when I asked him to take a picture.)
Here is a close up of some of the stars and how I quilted around them.
After starting I realized that I probably would have liked it a little better if the thread color had been a little bit darker. I can't really see too much of the quilting on the front unless I look close, so I took a picture of the back to show you what it looks like. Because of the fluffiness of the fleece the pattern shows up well.For the binding I decided to use some levi fabric. I cut up a pair of my brothers old pants and used the back of the pant legs. I thought that for sure it would not be enough fabric, but wow!!! men's levi's have A LOT of fabric. I probably made enough binding for two of these quilts and I only cut 6 strips out of the pants. (And my brother is not terribly tall either). The biggest problem with sewing on the binding was the thickness of the backing.
I decided that I wanted to have fleece on the back side of this quilt. I thought that after I pull it down as a July decoration in my family room I would put it as a quilt that could be used to watch a movie. So, I wanted something soft and warm. Little did I know that the fleece would be terribly thick to sew a binding onto. Between the weight of the levi and the thickness of the fleece, it was all I could do to keep the quilt in my hands as I worked. My hands were totally cramped up when I was finished sewing on the binding.

Well, hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- part 4

2011-07-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

One day in the mail I received a promotional video for a club that sent out quilting videos every month. I watched the video and liked it, but I don't have time to spend on a club like that anymore. That is when I really learned about English paper piecing. It was a great video and the had a segment that inspired me to make my English Paper piecing 4th of July quilt. English paper piecing is sooooo easy! Anyways, so as I was watching her she used this thread wax thing to make her thread easier to use.

I immediately went over to the computer to research the exact wax line that she mentioned and couldn't find it anywhere online. However, on JoAnn's website I found this beeswax thread waxer. I researched beeswax a little bit more and lots of blogs had mentioned it in their English Paper Piecing posts. So $3.50 later I had the following!
I can't live without it now! I wax all my thread whenever I am just sewing on a button, or whip stitching a binding, or esp. on cross stitch or English paper piecing. The thread just slides through whatever you are trying to sew wish such ease! If you have ever got one of those annoying knots in your thread while you are trying to hand sew something you know that you can get frustrated really easily trying to get it out. I started using my beeswax back in Feb and since then I think that I have had one, only one knot in my thread and that was because it got tangled up while my daughter was grabbing my project. It is a time saver and stress reliever. I keep it in my purse with me for while I am working at work and am considering buying two more just to have one permanently in my tool box and one on my work table at all times. Buying the one at JoAnn's, they have refills that are cheaper than the original purchase with the case and that makes it even cheaper for further use.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- part 3

2011-07-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today I am posting about the only addition that I have added to my sewing maching....but the most money saving addition I could have made. I have a little bit older basic Bernina machine. When I first started quilting and realized how much money it costs to have a long arm quilter work on my quilts I started asking friends about how they quilted their quilts and researching on the internet how to quilt on my own machine. (I think that it was around that time that I started making small wall hangings because i knew that I could sew those myself at home and that I would be able to quilt them myself too, even if I had to do it by hand.)

If you are going to do any of your own quilting you really need a darning foot. Here is a picture of my machine. I did not think that my basic machine would be able to quilt..but sure enough it can. Sorry for some reason I could not get a non-blurry picture and after about fifty tries this the best I could do today.
Different view

My foot cost about $40. It was about twice the cost of a foot for newer and more expensive model machines, but totally worth the one time cost. I have probably saved myself in the last month alone around $200 of what I would have paid a long arm quilter to quilt for me.

I did a lot of research about how to quilt on your own machine..on the internet, reading books from the library, asking workers in various quilting stores and just trying things out on my own machine. Seriously it is one of the easiest things in the world to do on my own machine. The only thing that would make it better is if I had a table where my machine sat down inside the table or if I had a long extension on my arm to keep the quilt a little flatter. Right now I am using game boxes placed around my machine, but eventually my husband says he can make me an arm extension...maybe that is what I will ask for for my 30th birthday this year...hm...

Well to close up i thought that I would add a couple link to posts I found on machine quilting. You can youtube machine quilting and get some great videos too. It is awesome.

Crazy Mom Quilts.
The free motion quilting project blog.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Summertime Ecstasy!

2011-07-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

So here it is!This is my new table runner for my piano. I needed something bright and fun for summer. I made it from a line of fabric called Riviera printed by Connecting Threads. It was printed in 2008...yep that is how long I have been looking for the perfect project to use it for. I had a 40% of coupon at the time and decided to buy something fun. I bought a fat quarter sampler of the line of fabric and it was perfect. I only used parts of half the fat quarters for this table runner and still have some left over for something else fun...MY Whimsical Quilt. Yippy!~

I came across a table runner on Sandy Gervais blog about a month ago and knew that it was perfect for this fabric. I am so glad that the picture on her blog was named the name of the pattern..sassy blooms. Here is a picture of the version I found on her blog.

While looking for a picture of the original pattern and sassy blooms I found the following link!!! It is the pattern for free digitally. Click here. The link take you too the pattern of this table runner using Sandy Gervais fabric. (Which by the way she is probably my most favorite fabric designer. I still have yet to find one of her lines of fabric that I don't like.)

The pattern is found in Easy Quilts from Fons and Porter Summer 2008 issue. I am a member of QCA (Quilters Club of America) and I get all the back issue back to..Summer 2008...digitally. I can't believe that the digital copies go back to the exact issue that I needed. It was awesome. Here is a picture of the original sassy blooms pattern I found. This is the pattern I used to make my table runner.I changed the pattern slightly and added flowers from my quilt pattern by Crazy Old Ladies called In Bloom. I liked the flowers better this way first of all and second of all I thought it would be nice to have something that kind of matched a little in my summer decor. At first when I cut out the light pink flowers I thought that they didn't really match. They are the same print as the red I used around the edges yes, but it is so different from all the bright colors of the table runner. Well, I am glad that I did. I think that they help it calm down just a little. I added mismatching buttons to the centers of the flowers and I love that I did that. The binding is also pieced with two different fabrics since when I bought the line of fabric I just bought a fat quarter sampler and therefore didn't have tons of every piece of fabric.

I also added one more section so I have four flowers instead of the original three so that it found fit my piano width. It turned out to be finished size: 14 1/2" by 58". I finally figured out how to lower my dog feed on my machine and so this is the first time that I have used my darning foot with everything in place. I decided to quilt it I would do more than a stitch in the ditch. I was trying to do a stipling pattern and failed entirely and end up with loops throughout and such. Oh well. I did learn that I needed to be confident in pushing the fabric along to where I wanted it so that it would create straighter lines and such. I am glad that I decided to try quilting out of the norm. The more practice I get at quilting my own things the better I will get at it.

Well, here are some more pictures.

Here is a little of the back so you can see the backing.

Here it is in its final resting spot. Haha, my plant is sooo droppy in the background and the vase with flowers needs new flowers. I have been cutting flowers at my grandparents home and bringing home grown flowers home every week. I love them so much.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Can't live without it- part 2

2011-07-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I was sewing and thinking about the project I was making. While I was trying to sew and still be in the same room with my daughter yesterday, I moved my sewing machine to the living room on our card table. Of course I missed the space of using our kitchen table where everything can be laid out and also the stability of the kitchen table. The sewing machine would vibrate the card table and so Madalynn thought that she could also shake the table. My machine almost fell over on me. Then she was fascinated with the foot pedal and I had to turn of the machine for almost an hour while she played with it. Ah...I love my little curious 14 month old daughter. She is a lot of fun.

When Russ got home I was just ready to lay out my project and sew the whole top together. So, I moved back into the kitchen and got started. As I was thinking about the whole process from cutting to sewing to finishing the top I realized that I really can't live without my cutting mat. It is a full size table mat. When I was using my cutting mat that is small enough to travel with I was not ever as perfect with my cuts as I am when I can just lay the whole thing out on a big mat to cut. When i am going to friends houses or my in-laws cabin I only ever take projects that are already cut or only use small portions of fabric so I can handle using my small mat.

Unfortunately when I first bought it two and half years ago it was on a folding table just a little too small for it and so it has a couple breaks. It also incurred some damage in our many moves, but really it is heaven. I can't wait until someday when I have a permanent craft room that I can attach it to a table that is the perfect size and never have to move it again. When I was cutting used jeans for a project I could lay the entire pair of jeans on the table and just walk around the table to work on it. On a small cutting mat you constantly have to be moving an shifting everything to get it placed to measure and cut.

I put all my projects on it. I use a lint brush to clean it every day. It is my guide for everything that I measure because it is a ruler just handy and out in the house. I bought it at JoAnn's for like $15 dollars on a sale. I think that it is usually around $70. So, if you are in the need for a big mat, just wait until around Thanksgiving or Christmas. It was on sale then and it was cheaper than the omingrid or friskars cutting mats. Here is a picture. It is cluttered with my current three projects but I don't think that removing everything to take a picture would show the justice of its use. The mat is 58" by 33".Hope that you enjoyed.

I like big bows blog

2011-07-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, check it out. This blog posted a link to my bow maker. She has some super awesome stuff on her blog. Here is the post with my blog in it! If you like making bows you will like this blog. It is very handy with some great links on it.

Can't live without it- part 1

2011-07-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to start my "Can't live without it" tool posts. I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the stuff that I cart around with me in my tool box as I take my stuff to sew at friends homes or on trips.

There is no particular order to these posts. Crafting stuff is like a toy to me. I get so excited when I get new things. Out of all the things in my tool box this last week, besides scissors and thread and such, I used these the most.

Today's post is the following:Can you believe what those are for? I bought them at Home Depot. To quilt on your own machine it is so helpful to have gloves with grip. My hands never cramp up from trying to hold onto a big quilt to push it through the machine. I have so much more control over where my hands are moving. You can buy these at fabric or crafting stores. Fons and Porter brand has differing sized gloves that I have seen in most stores but they run about $3 a pair (which seriously is not that bad). But compared to $1 that I spent at Home Depot it is too expensive. I buy all my tool boxes and any tool I can at a hardware store because they mark up everything sooooo expensive in fabric and crafting stores for the SAME THING!

Well I hope that these posts are short and sweet. Hope that you enjoyed.

4th of July excitement--finished

2011-07-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well not a day too early I finished this quilt. Two 4th of July quilts down and one to go before Mon. It won't happen of course but I will at least finish the other quilt to put up for the month of July. So, if you remember my previous post I had pieces together my tumbling blocks. The whole middle section is done by English paper piecing. I whip stitched it onto the dark blue backing and then added a 3 inch border. Here is the finished product. I love love love it! I think that is the best part of any project is liking it yourself. (Oh and by the way the blue and red socks was completely unplanned in the picture.)Madalynn was posing by the quilt and I had to add a picture.
So here is the backing. I just chose some patriotic fabric I had in my stash. When I went in to show Russ the finished quilt he said nicely that he liked it and then he saw the back. He said wow! and then, "that is really loud fabric. I don't think that it really matches." And then he said, "that is not dress fabric." He was worried that I would make a dress out of the fabric for Madalynn. Of course not I told him. It is loud. I used this fabric for the blocks on the front and it works in small sections. It is fabric like this, that i like, that is truly the reason that I chose to do English paper piecing. Can you imagine much of this print in a full quilt? It really is loud, but I had tons of it in my stash and I think that it makes a great backing fabric.Well, I hope that you enjoyed.

Finished! Toomuchery quilt

2011-06-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

So i was impatient and found some backing fabric last night for my quilt and quilted it last night with a quick and easy stitch in the ditch. I didn't think that anything more complicated would help enhance this quilt. I sewed the binding on today while I was at work. For the backing I just found some fabric that doesn't necessarily match but something I didn't mind where it went. I actually think it turned out pretty nice. I know that it doesn't look like much more than the quilt did as a top, but it feels sooo much nicer with batting and a binding.
While I was waiting for my friend to come home, I was playing in my friends backyard with Madalynn and she decided that the quilt was a blanket and was playing with it. I just couldn't help but add a picture of the fun that she had with the quilt.Hope that you enjoyed!

Toomuchery quilt

2011-06-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

While I was at the store the other day buying safety pins to help me sew the back on my levi/fourth of July quilt and I was looking for a few green fabrics for my whimsical garden quilt. I have scraps for the whole quilt, but I have never really bought green fabrics and there is going to need to be some green for the stems of the flowers.

While I was looking for green fabric I saw something that I could not pass up. The following quilt was made from a panel fabric with added borders. The fabric line is printed by P&B Textiles and is called Toomuchery by Helen Dardik and Lilla Rogers studio. The whole line is awesome!
The whole quilt top took 30 minutes from cutting, sewing on the borders to ironing the finished product. I can't wait until Friday when i have the day off and I can take the time to get everything out of Madalynn's closet and find fabric for the back. Then I will sew it and bind it and it will be a great addition to my living room. I think that it will look great next to my whimsical quilt next summer. Ya, I am pretty much in love with it.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Homemade do it yourself bow maker

2011-06-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

After doing some research a while ago on the internet and watching all sorts of bow making ideas with forks, bowdabra's and such, I saw an idea that made me excited. It seemed that people had done all sorts of things to get the width that they needed for a bow. I had my husband use his tools, some scraps from house projects and this is what he made. I love it! The only difference i would make is that we did it really fast late one night and the holes are not exactly straight up and down. As you will see that doesn't matter, but it would be nice.

Supplies needed:
Some kind of board I used a 2 by 4
Two dowels
Drill

Draw a straight line down the middle of the board. Measure two dots 2 inches away from each other. Then depending on how many bow sizes you would like to make you draw dots 1/2 in away from the original dots. These will make 2in, 2 1/2in, 3in bows etc. I have made holes for up to a 4in bow. Choose a drill bit the size of your dowel width and drill in the holes. This is what my board looks like

To make the bow you need the following supplies:
Ribbon for the bow (see the bottom of the post for lengths needed for each size bow)
Small 1/8in wide ribbon to tie
4 1/2 inches 3/8in grosgrain ribbon
Scissors
Lighter
Glue gun
Hair clip- alligator clip, or barrette

Here is a video demonstration making a 2 inch bow:

This is a video of me attaching a bow to the alligator clip. I unfortunately called my glue gun a heat gun during the video. Sorry, but know that I am using a glue gun.

Lengths of ribbon needed for each size bow:
2" bow: 11 1/2" ribbon
2 1/2" bow: 16 1/2" ribbon
3 " bow: 21 1/2" ribbon
3 1/2" bow: 26 1/2" ribbon
4" bow: 31 1/2" ribbon
just add five inches to each length for 1/2" size of bow.

Hope that you enjoyed.

My whimsical garden

2011-06-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

So, I have seen this pattern at the Quilting Cottage in American Fork for a while. I haven't really liked it before. Mostly, I just knew that the whole quilt was applique and would take a while. Well, the last time I went in there, I couldn't resist and I bought the pattern. I spent 3 hours yesterday copying the pattern and cutting out the pattern for the applique on the blocks and only finished cutting out 9 blocks of the pattern. So, hence...a long project. However, I am stocked!!! I am going to use scraps from all my bright colored quilts. I think that I have decided that I am going to use a white background for the blocks and the borders are going to be orange and I haven't decided on a second color. I think I will see how the blocks turn out first before deciding on a second color. As I work on each block I will post the finished products. I searched the internet for pictures of finished quilts last night and could only find a handful. Here is the picture from Pieces o-Cake website (the ladies that designed it).

Can you see this hanging on my wall come next summer (for even if I finish the top I don't think that I will finish the whole quit this summer) Well, here we go on a long project.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Drawstring Bags

2011-06-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

So, Friday night I was at dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. She is in charge of a girls camp for the young women in her ward (church group). They had ordered some mesh bags for mess kits. However, the lady that ordered them didn't measure the kits that they had bought and the mesh bags were way too small. My sister-in-law was worried about getting new ones since yesterday was all taken up with my grandma's funeral. (yes, I have not been sewing much for over a week since my grandma started getting really bad a week and a half ago and then passed away from her cancer. It has been a very emotional week.)

So I suggested she come over and look at my canvas fabrics and I could whip some up in a few hours...which I did. 16 later here they are:

I know that they were not very perfect and they had lots of mistakes, but they will work. Since they needed to be done when they leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning they didn't need to be really extra perfect. I think that the fabric is really cute and will be really fun so their camp week.
Hope that you enjoyed.

The internal debate

2011-06-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

As a crafter I think that often times people start projects and don't finish a project before they move onto other projects. Sometimes I don't finish because I simply loose interest, sometimes I don't have all the supplies to finish and need to get to the store, and sometimes I just don't know exactly how I want to finish it.

The last few weeks while I have had quite a bit of home-time I have found the extra time and energy to finish bunches of projects. I am determined to finish two more before I move onto my new projects and I am simply stuck. I am in one of those stages of not knowing exactly what I want to do with a project. I am working really hard to decide. Remember this quilt?I finally cut out some stars to applique in various places through the quilt, I just can't decide how to place them, because I can't decide whether I want to try and quilt it on my sewing machine or just tie it. I really want to decide this today or tomorrow night because Russ is out of town and if I am going to tie it right now would be the perfect time to set up my frame to tie it. Russ doesn't mind if I set projects up in the house, but he doesn't like them up too long. Since this is my last free week until August I would need to finish it this weekend or not work on it until August.

With the stars, I have not ironed these on so I can move them. If I tie it I will put them in close sections all over. If I quilt it I want to have space to sew a couple stars around the individual stars for some added dimension. Therefore, the stars would not be so close together. Or the last idea that I have for quilting around the stars is to only quilt star shapes around the circumference of a larger area of stars and not around each individual star. I don't know if that makes sense...but it does to me.

What does you think? If I tie it, I will be using dark navy yarn (in fact the same yarn I used on the levi quilt I posted a couple weeks ago.) Should I quilt it? Ah....the decisions. The idea of how to make it came together so much better than the finishing the project, but I MUST finish. This is my goal.

Hope that you enjoyed.

Shayla's Table Runner

2011-06-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

So, as part of my posting recently I have been needing to post pictures of all my projects since I didn't post them this last year. As I was thinking about all my projects, I remembered this table runner and alas I found that I never took a picture of it. So, Shayla was so great and pulled it out for me and let me take a picture yesterday.

This table runner was made from a fat quarter packet I picked up at JoAnn's. They have this little section called fabric central and they have a pattern and then some precut fat quarters, charm packets or jelly rolls that you can use to make the pattern. I love the colors of this table runner so much.
To quilt it, I just did a stitch in the ditch design since it was pretty easy and quick and holds the layers nicely together.

Hope you enjoy.

The vote--4th of July quilt

2011-05-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

So, Russ rarely has an opinion on my craft projects. When I ask for his opinion he just says that he had none. Well, he does on this project and so I am going to ask my friends and family what they think. I have made the following Rag Flag Quilt. There are only 42 blue squares and so I could not make 50 stars if I wanted. I think that the flag looks fine with every other square having a star. It is a small quilt and I think that it would look too crowded with too many stars, however, Russ thinks that every square needs a star. So here it is with only half of the stars and you can imagine what it would look like with all stars I think. So, what do you think? All stars or half stars.

done, done and done day

2011-05-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Almost every Sat. I get to just be home with my daughter. Russ works on Sat. at the post office which is officially his only guaranteed day of work, so he only misses it on the rarest of occasions. Well, Madalynn is pretty independent so I usually work a lot around the house and get some projects done. Because of my light work load this week and last, I don't have a lot to do. I stayed up late last night to clean the house so that I would not feel guilty about spending most of my day working crafts. Well, I finished some projects that have been in the works since last Christmas that during the semester I simply don't have time to get done.

Well, this is totally shameful. This is my Christmas present to my mom..last Christmas. I got the top done before Christmas, but just put the batting on today, quilted and finished putting on the binding. I quilted it with my darning foot, which I really need more practice with and I need Russ to make me an arm extension so that I can actually get the quilt up on the arm without any problems. I found the pattern for this quilt at Pine Needles at Gardner Village in Midvale, UT.

The pattern is called Charlotte and is put out by Me and My Sister Designs (one of my favorite couple designers. You should see their new hop scotch patterns. You can sign up to receive their emails when new things come by clicking on their blog.)

My mom and I were shopping in the shops one day and she saw this quilt. It was the first time I had ever been in a quilting store where my mom really liked a quilt. So, I went and to find the pattern. After a lot of searching they found it. It was a single sheet of paper. Well, I knew that I would need to get the same fabric line and so I kept my eye out for it to possibly go on sale. Well, it did. At the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, UT they had a sale on the whole line during their shop hop. I bought a fat quarter bundle like 40% off for the whole line. I don't know the exact line anymore, but it is the 1930's reproduction type fabric. I was ecstatic. I didn't tell my mom and got the whole top done..before I had to call her and tell her I was making it. She is very specific about what she likes, so I had to call and find out how she wanted it quilted and what fabric she wanted for the binding. So, I took it with me over Christmas Break to Vegas last Dec. and only got the binding ready and never finished sewing it. So, yesterday I realized that I was done with a lot of my projects and I saw it sitting on my "projects in the works" shelf. She is coming down tomorrow to go to the cemetery by our apartment so I thought that it would be a great time to get it done. So, here is the long process done.Here is a look at the quilting from the back. I chose a light yellow thread that would show up a bit but not take away from the quilt. I used my darning foot to quilt this. It a little scary trying this quilting thing. However, it turned out ok. The hardest part for me is finding a speed to move to create a steady stitch. Madalynn needed my attention like every five minutes and so it was crazy hard to keep it the same. I tried at least. I also like to move fast in everything that I do..so it is really tricky to stay slow and steady to just keep moving through. Also, I have never been a good drawer and this is basically like drawing, but with a machine.

Here is a close up.

And another look.

Russ' Nana asked for some pictures of Madalynn almost a year ago and she is going to be in town this week for his other cousins high-school graduation....so we finally!!! printed out some pictures. She wanted a frames with multiple pictures, so this is what I bought. I pulled out my gypsy, cricut and vinyl this morning and designed a saying and got it on the frame. I am happy that is done and ready to go. I am grateful that Russ let me buy a gypsy. I really could not do what I like to with my cricut without it. The ability to design letters together is probably my favorite part. My second favorite part is that I can see all the images on the cartridges on my screen rather than having to look through the manuals. That third, the fact that I don't have to carry around my cartridges when I take my machine somewhere for a craft day. Ah...sigh. It is one my new tools that I just could not live without.
Speaking about tools that I can't live without...I am compiling a list of my craft room necessities. I am going to write a whole post on my necessities. I have recently discovered that I can't quilt without gloves with sticky bottoms. They are the best things in the world. It is such a small thing and only cost like $2 at Home Depot, but very necessary.

Hope that you enjoy.

Memory Quilts

2011-05-28T07:25:00.001-07:00

Wow, my last post was my hundredth post. I can't believe that I have written that much on this blog. I hope that my ramblings are not too much, but it is nice to keep track of what I am up to. Having noticed that I have posted that many times made me think about the memories that I have since starting this post. It is interesting.

As I have read different blogs online and talked with various people on etsy, twitter, quilter's club of america, facebook and similar sights I have learned that there are all sorts of memory quilts. There are the type where you use photos and old clothes. There are the types that you spend so much time on that they become a part of you over the years and it is somewhat bittersweet when you finish the quilt. For me, I think that a memory quilt can be anything with which I can associate any strong memories. The following quilt made me think about this when I went to bed last night and I was putting the blanket back on the bed so I could stay warm.

This tie quilt was probably the first thing that I made when Russ and I first got married. In fact I also made Russ a dark green and black one, but I simply don't know where that is. I think that it must be in a box out in our storage unit because I could not find it in the boxes here at our apartment. I remember going to the fabric store in Las Vegas with my in-laws and Russ. We had just been to a sporting goods store that was going out of business to see if they were selling the racks that the store used to hang things on. I remember sitting on the floor at my in-laws tieing it for a whole day on their newly tiled floor. It was one of the only three Christmas's that we actually have spent in Vegas. It has been hard to visit for holidays since Russ got on at the post office because his co-worker always takes the day before and after a holiday off and he is the sub that has to work for her. I remember my hand cramping because I was trying to finish them that day so I would not have to bring them home to work on them. I remember my brother-in-law asking me for the first and certainly not the last time why I would spend so much time working on a project like that. I told him that it makes me happy and it is fun and relaxing. That is why I do any craft.(By the way for anyone that does not know how to make this kind of quilt you simply line up a front and a back. I made this out of fleece. Then you cut slits in the side fabric and you make a square knot. It is super easy and fun and only requires fabric and scissors.)

Now I use it on my bed as a second layer under the comforter to keep me warm. Russ could sleep with a sheet on almost all year long and no other layers, and yet it is nearly summer and I am still sleeping under multiple layers. Until we got new quilts and blankets in the living room, I would always get it out to stay warm while I read a book or watched a movie.

When we were first married, before I let Russ put a TV in our bedroom, he would fall asleep on the couch a lot watching TV and I would go and put his blanket on him in the middle of the night and turn off the TV. After that I let him put a TV in our bedroom, but he can watch for no longer than 45 minutes and the timer on the TV must be on so it turns off after we are asleep. He is so much better about it now that he rarely uses the TV in the bedroom and always gets to bed after watching a show.

It may seem crazy that such a quilt seems to important to me, but it is important. I have the worst memory ever. Unless I write something down, I don't remember a lot of memories. So, to have a memory about making it, and where it has been since is nice. Off course it shows me that my fascination with butterflies is not just a passing whimsy now since 4 years ago I was already fascinated with them.Well, hope that you enjoyed my ramblings. Until next time.

The outcome of my frustration with my daughter

2011-05-25T21:08:00.001-07:00

Every morning this week, Madalynn has been getting up earlier and earlier. When she woke up at 6 this morning I had had it. I mean, I understood that she has been teething and has been grumpy beyond all understanding this last week. However, no matter how early I went to bed I have only been getting less and less sleep, which means that at 6 in the morning when your daughter is screaming bloody murder in the other room and waking the neighbors upstairs up too, I am not very happy.

So, after I went and got her and gave her a bottle, she fell back asleep...but I couldn't. I realized that the sun was already lighting up her room really light. I made a valence to match her crib quilt and stuff, but I got two curtain rods at the time.

When I was making her crib quilt I bought this material. After putting everything together I decided that it just didn't fit the other prints in the quilt. I have really really been trying to come up with a use for it for a while. Well, my anger got me thinking of what I could do to make curtains and around 8 I went and found the fabric, my backing fabric and my measuring tape. Ya, needless to say, 2 hours later I had these new pull curtains ready to put up over her window. I had to go to Lowe's and buy a double curtain bracket to put up both rods and window coverings. After Madalynn woke up from her nap I was able to use my little drill and attach everything. Yep, it is a great use of the fabric and I can't wait until tomorrow morning and it stays dark in her room. Yay!!

Hairbows

2011-05-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

So I have never been a person that really likes to take the time to do my hair. Anyone that knows me can tell you that I mostly wear my hair up in a pony tail. Well, I bought a few hair bows for my daughter when she was really little and decided that I would make some after she could put them in her hair and I saw what I really liked in her hair. Well, to start this post, I thought that I would show everyone a few pictures of her first hair-do day. It was really fun. (Even though she would not smile for any of the pictures). I am sad that she destroyed one of these flowers. They were foam flowers and soooooo cute.
Since then I have learned that two tiny pigtail are the easiest to put in her hair. So, I bought a package of hair clips at Sally's a year ago and in an attempt to make Madalynn some hair bows, I realized that most of my flowers were too large. I end of making myself tons of bows instead. Then I took an old picture from and put batting and come off-white corduroy that I had in a box and some pretty calm generic colored ribbon and made myself a memory board for my bathroom. I actually wear things in my hair a little more often now because it is all right there in plain sight when I am getting ready in the morning.

Last week, I got to the point where I was tired of not having any white, red or black bows to put in my daughters hair. So I went to Hobby Lobby here in American Fork and bought a ton of hair clips..soooo many that it hopefully will take a while to use them all. I spent a night cooking my ribbon into corker ribbon and getting ready to make her some new bows. (You just wind ribbon on a poll and make sure it stays tight, cook at 275 degrees for 25 minutes and you have cooked ribbon :) Ya, I made so many the next day that i had to take off the ribbons I previously had on her bow hanger and add two more. I am happy that I finally bought some black and white flowers that I can use to make some plain hair accessories for her. I can't wait to get out my stuff again next week and get working on some more. I am impressed that she has only destroyed a few hair bows pulling on them. I just have to be consistent at doing her hair and she will get used to it.The orange corker bows you see were my first attempt at that type of ribbon and I love how it turned out.
Well, hope that you have enjoyed. Making things for my daughter is certainly one of my favorite things to do.

Madalynn's room completely finished

2011-05-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

So remember the pictures that I posted a while ago of Madalynn's room, well all the unfinished parts are finished, new projects added and while she is in her third bedroom in her 12 1/2 months of life, she has always adjusted well to our moves.

When Russ first put the shelf up he told me that part of the back had torn out and that one of the screws was not in a stud in the wall. He told me that I should not put any weight on it besides what I was planning on decorating with. Well, unfortunately when I was adding the large butterflies one night I put my hand on the shelf, in a moment of complete forgetfulness. The shelf fell of the wall. The hanging letters all fell to one side putting the weight off balanced. I managed to catch the left picture between my arm and the shelf, the glass flower vase between my head and my shoulder and all the rest in my left hand. I yelled so loud for Russ to come help me, that Madalynn who had walked in just then started screaming. Russ thought that she had been hurt and was checking her as I am telling him to grab the picture that is falling and I can't hold anymore. If it had fallen it would have fallen on the edge of her bed and probably broken all over. It was really funny. So, here it is..all finished!!! If you want a closer look just click on the picture.

I finished the letters and hung them up on the shelf Russ made for her. I painted them pink and then used embossing powder, acrylic stamps, a heat gun and brown chalk to decorate them. I first chalked around the edges. Then I added all of the white and brown patterns. I then took the same stamp and turned it around and around and added clear embossing to the rest. I really like how it looks like the wood had its own printed design all over. I love the feel of the design popping out. You can't see it really well in the picures, sorry.
When I had Madalynn, my brother and sister-in-law brought flowers to the hospital. They were in that vase. I have kept the vase in the hope I would find some use for it and sure enough, I thought it would look great with some flowers I found in my craft box. It was really fun to put together.
One night when I came home from work, Russ had been to the craft store without me and bought the pink azalea flowers. I quickly added them to the shelf and I was super thrilled.
I have always loved butterflies and for some reason this is the year of butterflies. Every store has butterfly decorations, butterfly baby clothes.... Well, I decided to add them to the shelf. I think the reason that I like butterflies so much is that they are such magical creatures. They are a part of nature but they flit in and out and they are just so beautiful with their varying varieties. It is kind of like rainbows. They are so beautiful and very rare. So, without doing any princess themes or stuff like that, I found a theme to add that is easy and fun to change around. I found a bright orange paper that I was going to use to decorate the front of her doll cabinet and I decided that I would take some of Russ' scrap wood and make a peg hanger with it. We have been so blessed with Madalynn to have all sorts of people give us clothes for her. She has an abundance of jackets and sweaters and they don't fit well in her drawer so i thought it would be nice to hang them up.I also bought a fun butterfly hanger at Rod Works to add to the theme of the room.
Last but not least, I added one more pillow to her rocking chair. I bought this pillow at a yard sale last summer. It used to see a brown swede. I learned how to make my own cording and I sewed it into the pillow. The fabric is the same as the lamp shade and the toy box cushion to tie that fabric into the room. I love how it turned out.
Well, hope that you enjoyed the progress. I am excited that it is finished.

Fall and Christmas--officially finished

2011-05-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, I finally finished my fall and christmas quilts. I am super excited. I had the tops done for over a year before I got them quilted and then it took several more months for me to take the time to sew on the binding. It is awesome. Well here they are. The only complaint that I have is that I forgot to put on my paper not to quilt on the applique on the Christmas quilt and she quilted on it. Yuck! But that was my fault for forgetting to write it down. From now on I am going to quilt my own things with my darning foot, so I won't have this problem anymore.

Here is the quilt. If you look back about 10 or so posts I have a wall hanging with ornaments that matches the quilt. I am excited to put them up together this year. I have only been wanting to get this quilt finished for almost 2 years now.
Madalynn's was helping me take pictures first thing this morning. She was really smiling when I push the button to take the picture, but my camera takes forever to take a shot so this is what I got. It is a really funny picture.
Afterwards she really wanted to help me put the quilt away.
Here is my fall quilt. I made it from a pattern called Chatterbox.
Madalynn thought that the quilt was a great play mat and I let her play on it for a while this morning.
Here is the back. It has the same border as the front. I just thought that that would be fun to have them kind of match...that and I didn't want to cut the inside fabric anymore.
Hope that you enjoyed!

Crafting with my cricut and my heat gun

2011-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

So I really love to sew but I do do a lot of crafts that don't involve my sewing machine. I really do love my cricut machine and Russ is so wonderful and let me buy a gypsy last spring and I have been doing all sorts of projects with it. My favorite part of my gypsy is that I can not take and make my own words by combining all the letters together in the designing program.

My most recent gypsy project was putting some vinyl lettering on a bunch of pictures around the house. In Madalynn's bedroom I have several different pictures and I wanted them to say why I put them up in her room. This picture is of a blooming Azalea. I thought that New Life would be appropriate. I really wanted three pictures on the shelf, one blooming, one in full bloom and one picture of a beautiful bush, but Russ told me two was sufficient. I thought that each would be a representation of the growth of a child from birth to maturity to her influence in the world and beauty that she can create.This picture had a different caption but Russ asked me to take it off and simply put Azalea. I do like it, it just wasn't exactly what I was thinking.
I put up a picture of Christ holding a child and pointing at a butterfly. The title of the picture is "Precious in His Sight." As she grows I want her to know that she is always precious and so i put the lettering on the frame. I also put up two pictures of Azalea's. That is her middle name, so it was very appropriate. You can't see the lettering too well, but I think that the shelf turned out great and I finally got this wall hanging put up. I am still working on this wall hanging. I am looking for some cute off-white buttons to sew onto the middle of each square.
I have had the following picture frame since the first month we were married almost 4 years ago. Yes...it took this long to put the picture in the frame and get it finished, but I am glad that I did. I want lots of pictures up in our house of all stages of our lives and i think that collage pictures really help me do that.
Here is the frame of Madalynn's early pictures. It really is time to get the one done of her 6 month and year old pictures.
Russ has a bunch of scrap wood out on our back patio. I have always wanted a few of those vinyl saying up in my house. I found the following saying on a tile at some Boutique that I went to and knew that I wanted this saying put up with my wedding pictures. So, I designed the saying on my gyspy and had Russ cut the board. The whole time I was not sure what color I wanted to paint it and what color I wanted the vinyl letters. All my wedding picture frames are a red color with a little black antiquing on the edges of the rope design. I wanted the saying to kind of pop out and so I thought that a white lettering would really stand out. The only problem I had was that a black background would look great but be really dull. So, I got out some of my acrylic stamps to work with on this project. I decided to use some clear embossing powder to stamp an image onto the black background that would enhance the background but not take away from the saying. I love how it turned out. I hope that you can see the glossy image on the background in the picture.
After I had finished the saying, I looked at the following picture frame. We got this picture from someone for our wedding. So I took a stamp and turned it around and around creating variations on the image and poured on the embossing powder, used my heat gun to create the image, and yay!! I love how it turned out and adds just enough to the picture frame to make it not quite so plain but not too decorative.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed. It is really nice to feel like I have finished projects and have moved onto other things to make my home feel more homey.

My summer quilt

2011-05-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

I got this quilt kit from Shayla Bott. I love it!!! Unfortunately while I was finishing some other projects it sat in my to-do box at the bottom for over a year. It is kind of sad when that happens and you want to get to a project.

One day right after we moved into our current apartment, Madalynn was sleeping and I was cleaning out all the craft stuff that I actually have at the house. I saw it in the bottom of the box. I decided that I would take a look at the pattern again and see exactly what i needed to do and gauge the time that it would take to make it. Ya, two days later I had sewed the top, appliqued on the flowers and finished stitching them. Shayla has a blanket stitch on her machine and I am so grateful that she let me borrow it to stitch on the applique. Honestly, it would take much longer without steam a seam 2. They now sell it by the yard and not just in 8 1/2 by 11 sheets. This is so wonderful. I don't have so many tiny little pieces left over anymore.

I wanted to get started on the backing and quilt it by myself with my darning foot, but I have decided that I will get to that this fall when I take it down. Right now it is on my quilt ladder adorning my family room and adding brightness to my day every time that I look at it.

This quilt used the pattern In Bloom by the Crazy Old Ladies and I don't know all the fabric lines in the quilt because I got it as a kit but I know that some of them are from Neutral Territory by Terry Atkinson and Liz Lois for Red Rooster Fabrics.

This is a picture of the flower closer up. The picture turned when it came into my post and I don't know how to turn it here, but I am not going to take the time to do it again. Sorry. I think that the flowers turned out soooo good.Hope that you enjoyed.

Curtains

2011-05-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

I think that I have never put up curtains in our previous homes mostly because we lived in really nice places that had trim around all the windows. They would have looked great with window coverings but I didn't want to have to have Russ patch anything in our first two places, and while we lived in our friends place I didn't want them to have any holes too big in their place. However, this place already had parts of previous curtain rods still attached to the walls and well, as i explained in my last post, our bedroom just needed them.

The kitchen was my first priority. Seriously the view out of the window is not my favorite. Half of it is the fence that goes around our patio and the other half is of the only section that grass does not grow in our backyard. I first found a set of curtains that I had up over some windows in a place I lived in college. However, they were not wide enough for the window. I was thinking that I would finally pick out some colors for my kitchen and decorations, but then I decided that that will be something fun I can do when we someday own a home in the future. I went through and found some light colored, small print fabric I had and whipped up these curtains in a half and hour. I was impressed with the quickness of this project.
Then I made the ones for my room, which if you want any further explanation on those curtains read my previous post.
Then I finally finally got to the curtains for my daughters room! I love them!!!!! I took the same block that I had used on the crib quilt and the crib bumper and turned each one a quarter turn and added the top fabric and here it is! I know that the picture isn't great because I took the picture while the morning light was coming in her window, but you can get the idea. Her room is almost done. Wait in a couple posts I will show off the finished shelf that Russ is fixing right now. (It fell off the wall and I caught it, it was exciting) Eventually I want to buy a curtain rod with butterflies on the end. Her bedroom theme is Azalea flower (because that is her middle name) and butterflies. I found the cutest cast-iron rod with fun butterflies but it was way way out of my current price range so I am just continuing to look to find the perfect thing.
Hope you enjoyed.

My bedroom

2011-05-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

After Russ and I bought bedroom furniture when we were first married, I got pretty excited to decorate our bedroom. Since we have moved a lot in the past few years, I never can really decorate each home in the same way, so all my other rooms change. However, while our furniture may be in different locations in the bedroom, it is always the same furniture. Russ favorite color is green and so we were going to do the room in a sage green and I decided to accent it with a dark green and some tans. The bedroom furniture is dark and has a redish hue to it, so I thought that those colors would not clash.

I made the following table runner first. It was my very first attempt at a really binding...and i hated it. I looked at it for two years with its bumps, whole between the squares where the seams didn't finish, the batting was the wrong size and didn't fit the whole thing and so it was lumpy in spots and I didn't even try to quilt it in anyway to keep the layers together. It was just too long to do without any kind of quilting. So, six months ago i started working on table runners for the top of our other dresser and the two end tables to keep the tops of the furniture nice and without scratches. That is when I decide it was time to take this table runner apart, fix all the squares (I had originally cut them without even a template), put new batting inside, run a stitch in the ditch around each square and a quilted pattern down the very middle squares of the runner and put on a new binding. ya, it was worth the time. I love it now!!!
I made three other runner that followed the exact same pattern so they would all match. here are some of the pictures. In our current house one of the end tables does not fit in the bedroom so one of the runners is just in my closet being stored. Hopefully laying it out on the floor helps you see what the shape of all the rest of the runners look like.
This is a closer view to see the stitching around each square and the center pattern on each table runner.
When we moved into our most recent place, we moved into a small and modest basement apartment. The biggest problem was the location of our bedroom window. The basement sits a little higher above ground so you can actually see outside which is nice. The downfall is that we live on a somewhat busy corner and that headlights come straight into the window all night long as people turn onto our street. On top of that, there is a street light right on our corner. After a week, I told Russ that I was going to make curtains to help block out the light. I knew that I would use the thin cotton fabric to make the curtain but I would need to find something to put on the back to keep the sunlight and headlights out of our room. I was not excited about needing to buy fabric because I have sooooo much all over that I am trying to use without ever buying new fabric. So I went and spent an afternoon out at our storage unit going through my fabric boxes and i found a bolt of dark green corduroy fabric that someone had given me. It was perfect!!! It keeps out all light both night and day and also blocks some of the heat radiating off the window in the afternoon. I could not have been more happy with the final product or how quickly I made it (just two short afternoons)
I think I posted this wall hanging ages ago, but it is my next take apart and fix project. It is nice and does work, but I am going to quilt it and put on a matching binding to match all the rest of the projects in our room.
Ah...I only have three more planned projects and I am finished with our room. I want to make a couple pillows with this fabric to off set the plain sage green ones we have and put a mini-quilt that just goes across the foot of the bed when it is made. I am still deciding whether I would like to actually piece it together like the wall hanging to tie the wall hanging design into the room or just do 5 inch squares like the table runner. Eventually Russ would like to have a wood chest at the foot of our bed I will make a cover for that too. I also want to cover the small white lamp shade with matching fabric. I am pretty excited about the progress our room is making. It does make me happy to create whatever I want with my room, rather than leaving it to a design that I would have to buy from some company. Hope that you enjoyed.

Marcus and Megan's denim quilt

2011-05-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am totally ashamed of how long it has taken me to post these pictures. My brother Marcus and his wife Megan gave me tons of their old jeans and I thought that I would make a large quilt for them for Christmas. I asked them what they wanted it to look like and their only stipulations were: something scrappy and something that showed off the fun parts of their old jeans. Megan had some great jeans that she wore in high-school. You will see them in a bit. The VERY best part of the project--haha it totally wasn't but--I found cash in the pocket of one of the jeans. A single dollar bill, but I thought that it was funny.

So I started just cutting out strips and squares and such. I already had a bunch of 5in squares cut out for making another quilt that helped sooooo much in this project. When i was sewing the quilt together and I needed and inch of fabric to fudge a seam I just pulled out a square and added some fabric.

I really chose a good time to work on the project since we were living in a house that had a huge finished basement. I went and got my grandma's quilting frame and set it up. It was really tricky since the fabric was sooooo heavy. My mom gave me the push pins that were her grandma's and my husband bought me C-clamps. Megan bought the backing and the yarn and off I went.

Yep, I love love love it. Now that I am posting these pictures I am remembering how much I want a quilt like this for our living room. (You know for those days when the house is to cold, but you don't want to turn up the heat, or for cuddling with your hubby watching a movie :)

These are the pictures that Marcus took after they took it home. I was working so hard last Christmas that I didn't take picture of anything! My bad. I am not sure what size it end up, but it was large enough to cover someone on the couch :) For your enjoyment:

The whole quilt. I tied it just as scrappy as I pieced it.
The back is blue flannel.
Pockets from various jeans was a definite must.
This is a design from the pair of Megan's jeans where I found the dollar bill. I really can't get enough of the flower design so I had to put nearly a whole leg of pants into the quilt.

I think that it looks great. Yep, I need to get working on my own now.

My sisters new purse

2011-05-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

So, I saw the pattern for this purse in the Connecting Threads catalog near the end of last year. I loved it!!! However, I just didn't want to pay the shipping and handling (I know cheap, but still). I was at Gracie Lou's in Salem Utah checking out their store one day and they had this purse on display. In a quilting store this usually means that they have the pattern. I was so excited. I had looked everywhere and had not found this pattern. I picked it up and decided that I would make a couple for Christmas. Well....I did make one for Christmas. My husbands sister-in-law got my first purse ever. I would have posted pictures then, however, I forgot to take pictures. It to foooooorever. I mean the number of parts to cut out, with the pattern, three different fabrics and the interfacing. when you are trying to watch your 6 month-old and just do that it took hours. Then after the first page of instructions they stopped using the letter of the pattern parts. I made soooo many mistakes the first time. I thought I was done when I realized that I had sewn the handles inside and across instead of one handle each side. It was insane. So, after that I put the fabric I had picked out to make more purses in the very very bottom of my to-do box. So, I was super happy when I pulled out the fabric and the pattern from my box yesterday to make the purse for Jessica's birthday party today that it took at least half the time as the first one (maybe even less!!!) I re-worked the instructions and wrote in instructions that make sense to me so I don't have to question what to do next time. It still took 1 1/2hrs of uninterrupted time to iron, cut and iron again. The pre-sewing time is intense but totally worth it. I love it!!! and i hope that she does too :)

The pattern is called The Knotted Bag by craftapple. Just click on it to view it on their site. They have some great pictures of some options for the purse. It makes two sizes. I made the smaller of the two sizes.

Here are two different pictures. The inside has a large pocket with a couple sides that are the same fabric as the bow.Hope that you enjoyed. More to come this week. I have been taking pictures of all my projects during the last year and realizing that I have really finished quite a bit of the projects that I have started. It is nice.

my work project- 4th of July excitement

2011-05-18T11:38:00.001-07:00

This is my work in progress. I have the best morning job ever. I play the piano for ballet classes. However, there can be a lot of down time between pieces that I play. The teacher sometimes spends quite a bit of time making corrections to the dancers or explaining what they would like them to do. So, in Jan this year I started researching hand sewing projects. I can't do anything like crochet or knitting at work because I have to drop my work at a seconds notice to start playing the piece and cross stitch was also out because of the time it takes me to count the stitches and try to recall where I was each time I pick up my work. I got a quilting DVD in the mail as a promo and it had a section on English Paper Piecing. It could not have been more perfect. Something small, that I could pick up and throw away in a small second and still get something done. I cut out the paper pieces on my Cricut machine and got started. I am in love with 4th of July or patriotic fabric and have been looking for a quilt pattern for a few years that I really liked. I liked the tumbling blocks. I meant for the bottoms to all be dark blue and for the red on the top of each block to be bright and pop, but like how it turned out. I like that I can have lots of busy patterns and it looks ok. I am going to finish the top with a 2 inch blue border around this section and a 4 inch bright red border on the very outside. I mostly make small quilts like this that are easy to display on the quilt ladder in my family room and on the wall. My mother suggested that I add some dark blue button on random places on the quilt. I am still debating that. I do really like the idea, but I don't want it to be too busy.

For those that don't know..each fabric was basted to a piece of paper. I then made each of the three part blocks. After the blocks were finished I sewed them all together. Yes it is a lot of hand work, but like I said, I had a lot of down time at work this spring. I started this segment in March and finished this much before school let out 3rd week in April (I did spend an 8 hour drive working on it third week in April, but really most of the work happened before that.)

The tool that I learned I cannot live without on this project is: THREAD WAX!! Oh my goodness. Why did I never learn about this before!!! The thread no longer gets in knots or gets all jumbled up. It is a serious necessity for working with a thread and needle. I bought some at JoAnn's for like $2.50. They sell beeswax. I also finally finally finally learned how to make a knot on the end of my thread very quickly. I would watch my mom do that when I was younger and could never get it. The wax on the thread made it easier for the thread to roll off the tip of my finger and therefore, I was able to finally knot thread with one hand. Ah.....sigh. It was really a great learning project.

Stay tuned. Russ is fixing the broken shelf in madalynn's room and then I am posting the final finished pictures of her room. It only took a year to finish the last couple things, but I am so excited every time that I walk into her room and see the area that I decorated. It makes me soooooo happy.

Surgical Dolls for Primary Children's Hospital

2010-10-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

For Relief Society this month, our ward is doing a soup and bread social where we are going to stuff Surgical Dolls. (For anyone that reads this and is not a member of the LDS church, Relief Society is the organization of the women of the church and we meet weekly during church to learn about spiritual truths, support and uplift each other. We also have activities so that we can get together to help each other out and the commu
nity.) They had fabric for the dolls that we could take home and bring back sewn. Then they told us that we could also make the gowns that go on the dolls. This was wonderful. I have so much fabric that I have not decided what I am going to do with and I am trying to use what I have so I don't have to move so much fabric again in Feb.

So, this week, every night after Madalynn goes to bed I have been sewing. It has been so fun. I understand that they hand out these dolls when a child goes to have surgery and they point out the parts that they are going to have surgery on and then give the doll to the child to keep. They are super super easy and the pattern had this number on it if you want to make some: 801-662-5968.

So, I took pictures. I took an half yard of the yellow fabric and made some and I was able to make 9 out of that fabric. Then I found the cute blue. I just had to make 4 of those. I decided that I would make as many as I could cut out in two hours. I learned again how much I love my serger. It is the best at making clothes. I don't make many clothes because I love quilting so much, but I am learning. My best friend abby showed me how to make a child jumper this week and when I can figure out how to use the tension correctly on my machine to use the elastic thread on the back of the jumper I will post pictures. It was nice to spend a few hours working on something that will be given to someone in need.This is a picture of the dolls that we are going to stuff on Tues at the activity. This is the easiest thing that I have ever made, so noone should be afraid of sewing something like this.

My grandma and my gift to her..

2010-09-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas I was working on finishing all my half-finished projects. You saw pictures of most of my projects during my mini-quilt post. However, I didn't take pictures of the table runners that I finished. One of the table runners I finished for my grandma. It was a rough time with my grandma...I was half-way through my pregnancy with my daughter and I was visiting my grandparents. I was taking by my finished sewing projects and when I got there I found out that she wasn't feeling really well and when my grandpa helped her to the bathroom he started yelling for help. She had passed out while she was on the toilet. It was all that I could do to keep her up as I told my grandpa to call 911. It was a very rough afternoon. Her colon was twisted twice and they found her cancer at that point. She has slowly been feeling worse and worse. It is really hard for me since they are the only grandparents I have know through my life. My moms parents died in a tragic accident when I was only 3. I lived with them off and on through the years I was in college. It was wonderful. I got to know them so well.

Well, I know that that was not a completely necessary story, but what I felt that I wanted to share. I made this table runner and gave it to her when she got home on Christmas Day from a two week stay in the hospital. It is sitting on her kitchen table that they don't use anymore and she has put all her willow tree figurines on it. I love the colors and how this turned out.

Halloween mania

2010-09-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays. The fabrics and projects are amazing. I wish that I had money to spend right now to make many fun and wonderful projects. But, alas I must window shop all the cute ideas, put them in my bookmarks and hope for a later date. I saw some of the most fun fabrics at the Quilting Cottage yesterday. The oranges and purples had spiders and webs in the print. I liked that the print was not too big. I have been looking all over the internet for the company who makes the line, but apparently I should have written it down while I was in the store. I can't find it anywhere.

I was looking through the posts from blogs I follow and Crazy Old Ladies has started selling the following pattern on their etsy shop. I think that it would be super easy to make. The applique of the numbers would take a while, but it is really fun. I have been working on a countdown myself for the last year and when I finish one more block and give my mom her present I will post what I did. It is exciting after a year and a half to be finishing the one project that I meant to give her last christmas and didn't finish because of our moving and my morning sickness with my daughter.
I found this ladies blog...ps i quilt. She has all sorts of different things on there and this free tutorial.
And you can go through and look at several free tutorials on Free Quilt Patterns.info. It has a list of free tutorials and links to them. It is a great site.

Well, I would post more of the pictures, however, my house is calling and I have a sleeping baby. I better get cleaning before she wakes up.

Amalie

cool quilt blog

2010-09-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

I just got a new computer. I love love love it. It is all mine and I don't have to worry about what I put on it. I decided to go through and change Mozilla Firefox and my settings. I downloaded a tool bar called Stumble! Wow......this was a very bad thing for me. You put in the subjects that you would like to search on the web and you click stumble. It takes you to various websites that pertain to your interests. Of course I put in sewing and quilting and Red Pepper Quilts was one of the sites that I stumbled on tonight. I love the various pictures of the quilts that she has. Are they not beautiful? Like this one...I love it!!!!!!!!!!
or this great strip quilt. I love the colors, the fabric and the scallop look on the edge.
Or this oneOh, I just think that they are fun pictures. Hopefully I can finish my million projects and then be able to sew some quilts like these.

Amalie

Mini Wall Quilts

2010-09-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

I love cutting and piecing fabric together. I know that most people don't...but there is something really exciting about it to me. I love the different fabrics coming together and how they all turn out in the end. However, making large quilts is expensive...and where do you put a lot of quilts? I decided that I would make a mini-quilt for each one of the months of the year. That way I could make a quilt for each of the seasons and holidays. I could learn how to machine quilt on my own machine with small quilts and I could have something that I can change out on the wall that isn't too large. Well, I have finished the following mini-quilts. I am really excited about it.

This is a mini-quilt from Crazy Old Ladies patterns. It is one of their seasonal skinnies. Very easy and quick to make. Requires a lot less material than the pattern calls for.
The following is my wall hanging for spring. I got this as a kit from Connecting Threads. I like a lot of their fabrics and their kits. I bought tons of their thread to work on each of my projects and I really like it. Their thread is wonderful.
This is also a kit from Connecting Threads. I have been looking for a 4th of July wall hanging. I really like this one, but I eventually want to make one with bright reds and blues.
This is a pattern from a couple years ago. Sandy Gervais who creates fabric lines for moda fabrics created this line. I love almost all of her fabrics. They just speak to me. I love this Halloween wall hanging. I found the following link to the pattern...it was made from a line called Pumpkins Gone Wild...and I think that the pattern was called Crazy Jack.
This is my Christmas wall hanging...it will match the Christmas quilt and I am going to get quilted for this Christmas. I am really excited that I am finally going to finish it. I still need to take pictures and post the Christmas quilt I made for my mom last year.
Many posts ago, I took pictures of the progress of this welcome sign. It is now finished. It took a very long time to stitch around all the applique on the entire thing. I used threads that would match the edges and make them all blend in. I used a blanket stitch around each part and I think that it turned out well.
This is not the best picture of the stitching. However, it does show the work that I put into it. I really like how it turned out.
I am working on the following projects that I started at the cabin last week. This first one my mom really liked when we went to the Quilting Store at Gardner Village. I don't particularly care for bow-tie patterns, but I really like how this one turned out. I really think that the top turned out really well. Now I just need to put the back on, the final stitching on the top and the backing and binding.
This is the new quilt that I am making to put in our living room for using while watching TV and movies. I still want to applique a few white stars onto it. I am going to tie this quilt. I think that it is going to turn out nice.
Russ made me the following quilt ladder last summer to put my quilts on as I made them. In the next couple weeks I am going to have my first quilt on there, my fall quilt. I am really excited. I just finished the backing and am going to take it to a long-arm quilter this week.
This is the decorative edge that he put on it. I love it
Well, there is the progress that I made before I made my daughter's quilt for her crib. I am very proud to say that I finished all of these and that they are no longer just tops. Check back soon as I am going to finish my next project in the next couple days.

check out this blog.

2010-09-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

One of my facebook friends sent me a link to this website. It looks very fun and interesting. You should all check it out. So you think you're crafty

My new toy!!!

2010-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

So, while the baby took an incredibly long nap the other day I did some surfing on the internet. I know that that is not the greatest use of time. I really thought that i she was going to wake up so that I could run some errands. Two and a half hours later, she finally woke up and I had discovered a new toy that I went and bought for myself for my birthday this week. I love making bindings that match the project that I am working on. Since I first learned how, I have always made my own and not used a store bought one. (well, with the exception of the binding I used on the car seat because I wanted a bright solid color and buying a pre-made one was a lot cheaper) Well, as anyone who knows me can tell you...i am a super accident prone person. So would it surprise anyone that when i use an iron I am constantly getting burned? Probably not.

When I use an iron to make my bindings I either get my fingers too close to the tip of the iron while I am holding over the side it am ironing in half, or the steam gets going and my hand just gets to close to it. I have decided since I make a living using my hands to play the piano that I need to find a different way of making bindings. Well, I saw Simplicity's Bias Take Maker Machine in Nancy's Notions catalog that i get in the mail. I went online to find out more about it. It is the most awesome machine. I watched several videos on YouTube about how to use it and how wonderful it is. However, after doing a search on the cost of the machine I decided that I might want to wait and see what else I could find. I simply am not going to spend $50-100 just for a machine.

Well, nancy of nancy's notions did a demonstration of a small Bias Tape Maker. After I saw this video I went staight to JoAnns's website and found a 1" Bias Tape Maker. The link will show you what I was looking at and it is on sale right now for 40% online. However, i decided to go look at it in the store. Dritz had one that was 1", cheaper and I bought it. It was on sale for 50% off for labor day weekend. Bonus!!!! This is going to be perfect. No more burning my fingers!!!! So I was reading some reviews online and found a blog called Craft Critique.com. Awesome!!! I will be checking this site more often for all the things that I want to know more about. I can't wait to show you all the things that I am going to make with this new gadget. I am going to be using to finish the bindings for my latest project that I really hope to finish this week.

Madalynn's Room- the almost complete version

2010-09-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ah...during Christmas break I determined that I could not work on the babies room until I had finished working on all my unfinished projects. So, I made a list of projects and went down that list one by one. They were mostly wall hangings that I needed to put backs on, sew and bind. Most everything required stitching around the applique and so I borrowed my friends sewing machine that had a blanket stitch and sewed for a straight 5 days and finished my list. It was wonderful.

During that time, I was looking for a pattern to make the babies quilt out of. I walked into the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, Ut and I saw a quilt. I drew the design on a paper and asked if I could have a ruler to measure the blocks. It was a finished quilt on the wall and there was no pattern, thank heaven, or I don't think that they would have let me measure the quilt and made me buy the pattern. It was easy to figure out, and i am proud to say that I sewed my first quilt without a pattern!!!! I knew that I could do that. So many quilt blocks are made in similar ways and i am learning more and more the more small quilts that I sew. So....here is her quilt!!

Sorry. I know that that is not the best picture, but it is going to have to do for now. I went into the babies room while she was sleeping and turned on the lights for this post. She is really out because she did not even wake up as I made quite a lot of noise. I decided that for each of my children I was going to make a crib quilt as theirs to keep when they are older. I had it machine quilted by a worker at the Quilting Cottage. Because her middle name is Azalea, I had her put huge flowers in and this is what they look like.
Oh I love them!!! They turned out so perfect. I have not finished the bumper but it is going to have the fabric from the light border on the outside and the same blocks, just a bit bigger turned on the inside. I am going to use a bumper that my husband's sister-in-law gave me and recover it. I will post pictures when I ever get to it. Hopefully soon, since she has started rolling and now sleeps in her crib.

My second project was this basket cover. I used the same fabric that I used to re-cover the car seat (which I need to post pictures of. I think that it turned out quite good.) I had bought a lot of this fabric. I have found many uses for it already. A year ago I saw this fabric on a sight on-line. It is a Michael Miller fabric. At the time I thought, "I should buy some of this fabric because I would love to use it to make a diaper bag when I have a baby." Little did I know that we would be pregnant 4 months later and a year later they are still printing the same fabric. It is awesome. I made up the dimensions for sewing and the idea from a few different covers that I saw in the stores the week that I made it. I am really excited out how it turned out.
After working on the basket, I looked at the dresser that we were going to use for her. It was originally my dresser from before we were married. When i bought it it was a light pink color. Russ painted it with wall paint from our first place because he didn't like the color. However, he didn't use primer and the paint is chipping off. I was looking at all my scrap fabric that I keep moving from house to house and decided that I needed to make something with my fabric. The following table runner to cover the dresser emerged. I really should take the whole thing off and take a good picture. I love it!!! Just look through many of the other pictures and you can see parts.
In this picture you will also see other objects that I used in her room. I wanted objects in her room that with will remind her of the things that are the most important to her in her life. I think that it is important to have a picture of Christ in her room so that she can look on him often and learn that she is loved by him. There are also three other willow tree figurines (that will eventually be on the shelf that you will see in a little bit and not on the dresser.) One is of an angel praying, so that she can remember to always pray for help and guidance. The other is of a man holding his child. I bought this for Russ and gave it to him as a present on the day that the baby was due and didn't come. The first time that I ever saw my husband hold a child, he held his first nephew like this and held him for hours and just stared at his every feature. I wanted my daughter to know that this is how I saw her father the first time holding an infant and how I knew that he would hold and care for his own daughter. The other figurine is a mother and a father holding their child. Russ gave this to me a few days after Madalynn was born for my first mother's day. Here it portrays us a family and how we want to always be--close and loving.

Russ made the following items for her bedroom. An ABC block for storage. It is really nice and has a nice divider for me to put small items on the side. It is not finished quite yet. I didn't get him a font to put the letters on before Madalynn was born, because I wanted to make sure it really was a girl first. I know, silly silly. I had only seen her being a girl 4 times before I had her, but I was still uncertain.This toy box is already full of toys thanks to Madalynn's grandparents and other gifts. I made the cushion for the seat out of some fabric that Russ' grandma gave me last April that I found in a box. I love the pattern and I am glad that I have been going through my fabric boxes to get rid of what I will never use, so that I found it. My mom provided the pillow forms when she gave me some of her old fabric last summer and I found them in a box too and used some more of the Michael Miller fabric to cover them. Sorry about the bag on the box. I didn't want to move it in fear of waking the baby up tonight. We are still working on making it child safe and finding some hydrological hinges or something to make sure that the lid does not slam down and hurt a child.

I just couldn't resist putting this picture in the post. Russ took a picture with the baby on the box right before we moved out of our last place. I hadn't finished anything yet obviously. Ah, my husbands little doll. The best story of putting together the babies room is the story of the ottoman that Russ made for me. I knew that I would need one to use the glider that I bought at a garage sale 5 years ago. The chair has the straightest back and it not very deep. So to sit in it and hold a baby would be hard. So I told him that it would be nice to make an ottoman or buy one. Well, one day while Russ was delivering mail he saw an old Glider in an irrigation ditch that had been partially burned when the farmer had burned the weeds. He went back that afternoon and got it out, took off the top of the chair, sanded down the burnt wood and painted it to cover up the other flaws. I had some upholstery fabric and part of the cushion left from making the toy seat cover and we put it on the top. I think that we did a decent job and here it is--a great big, wide ottoman finished for just the cost of the paint.

Just as I am thinking that I have been typing for 30 minutes and posting pictures----you must also be thinking is this post ever going to end...... Well, there is so much more in sight. Now that I am taking pictures and realizing just how much I have done for her room and the small details that I have made I am really in awe. I just had to run back upstairs for a couple other pictures that I missed on the first trip.

I realized that I really wanted some wall decor and a lamp for going into her room at night and not turning on the room light. Since her middle name is Azalea, I thought that it would be nice to have pictures of an Azalea in bloom to represent the birth of new life and a picture of the flower open, vivid, and beautiful to show the growth of a child and their beautiful potential in life. The buds are a photo that I bought off etsy from Nadine and Kathleen. We cut it down to put in the frame. The larger photo we actually got from Wikipedia.The lamp was a journey. I was looking for a fun and different lamp bottom. I would stop at yard sales and look in every store from DI to consignment stores to Walmart and Smith's Marketplace. I finally found it in this totally run down and dingy store that I swear has been buying everyones junk at yard sales forever. The lamp shade that came with it was horribly hideous. I should have taken a picture, but I just threw it out. We spray painted the base a pink color...then I decided that that might be a bit too bright so we rubbed it with white paint.

I bought a lamp shade eventually for super cheap and decided after seeing lots of cute lamp shades in many consignment stores around American Fork that I could add some fabric to the shade to tie it into the fabrics and theme of the room. So, I cut out the fabric, used some spray adhesive and put it on.
Here is what it looked like before we rubbed on the white paint.And here it is after the paint. Of course now that it is finished I realize my one big huge flaw.....the fabric is an off-white and the base is a white. Eventually I will have to do something about that. It looked better just plain pink to me and maybe I will just spray it again later on. Many people have given us hair bows and headbands for the baby. I have seen some letter holders for clipping on the bows and so I bought this wood letter and covered it with scrapbook paper, chalked the edges with pink chalk, had Russ drill a hole for the peg to hold the headbands and had him staple on ribbons. It will eventually be hung on the wall over a round drawer knob and I will take pictures when we finally get it up.
I wanted some cute fabric boxes to hold her diapers, wipes and soaps. I decided that I would look online and see if I could find some cheap ones to buy and found a tutorial on Sew4Home that I decided to use instead. This project required some cardboard and fabric. Since we just moved, I had plenty of cardboard boxes I could cut up. The thing that I like the most about these boxes is that they completely collapse. The bottoms come out and the side fold in. That way I can store them a lot easier than i could if they were baskets. Bonus!! I made a mistake in measuring the middle one and so it was one inch smaller than I wanted, but that happens.
The following picture is a picture of a shelf that I bought at a garage sale that has a dowel that will have a wall hanging on it that I am finishing right now and the picture of Christ on the top and the willow tree figurines. This was my first project ever spray painting. I didn't know that I could be so terrible at something. However, there were tons of runs in the paint and Russ eventually sanded it down and re-painted it. It is going to be great. The letters Russ made. I cut out letters from a font on my circut machine and we traced them onto a board. Russ bought a jigsaw and we cut them out and sanded them. We are priming them right now and eventually they are going to be spray painted the same colors as the ABC block. They will be hung with ribbons stapled on them. The ribbons will be painted as well. Russ is going to make a second, much longer shelf for the wall that the letters will hang from. On that shelf the two photos of the flowers will sit. I am really excited for this project to be finished. It is the last that I am planning for the babies room besides finishing a bumper for the crib.

Here is Russ working on the letters :)Here I am after using a power tool to create something for the first time in my life. It was a practice letter and it turned out ok. We learned tools are made for right handed people. When i leaned over to look at what I was doing, the fan blew saw dust in my eyes and it was blinding. It took Russ a while to try to figure out why I kept getting saw dust in my eyes, even with glasses on. I thought it was funny afterward.
For her car seat, we bought a used car seat cover off ebay, washed it and I took it apart. I sewed fabric onto the top of the pieces and put it back together. Here is the finally product.
I also made a car seat canopy. Here it is.
Her room:

The ABC box is between the dresser and her crib. And here is my little on in her crib asleep for the night :)
And here is a picture of my little one at 3 1/2 months old..and just as happy as can be. She is the reason for all this work and it has been fun. Keep tuned in...the rest of the room should be ready and up in a couple week.

My first bedding set done!!

2010-08-21T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been taking pictures of all my projects the last little while to post on my blog and start writing again....and I am up before the baby this morning, so here I am. Back in 2005 I bought the material for making a rag and levi quilt which I posted earlier on my blog. I made it a California King size for my in-laws bed at their cabin. When we moved last Nov into a new place I moved 4 boxes of levi's. I told my husband that each time we move I am going to eliminate the amount of stuff that we move and so I knew that if I was going to finish the rest of the things I had planned for the bedding I had to do it quick. So, I spent a whole week last Dec cutting up all the pants in preparation for making a bed skirt, shams and maybe a window covering. Then this week we went to my in-laws cabin for the week. I packed up my sewing machine and my projects and was determined to not leave without finishing. So here is is!!! I am super super super excited!!!!! It turned out so good.
For the bed skirt I saved a fitted sheet from our King size bed that ripped in the last couple months. I cut out the rip and made a seam. It is perfect for the fabric across the bed.

It is a very fitted bed skirt. I thought that that would look better than ruffles, pleats or a gather with extra material on the corners. I couldn't believe that it just fit, I thought that it might be to small after I got there and saw that the metal frame poked out a bit in the corner. It is snug but nice. You can't tell in the picture but it comes off the floor an inch. I like the binding I put on. I tried to use that material to tie the bedding together. It is the fabric on the edge of the quilt, bed skirt, the shams and the window covering. Thank heavens that Walmart always carries the same materials over and over again. That is where I bought that fabric and I am glad that I did. The quality of the fabric is horrible.. I could never get the fabric to cut straight on the pattern and it is super thin and the threads in the fabric snag easy, but it was a cheap a binding and that is good for me.

Here are my in-laws fixing the bedding for me to take a picture. I thought that this was an awesome picture. I pieced the shams together and then used some plaids that I bought for the quilt and didn't use for the backing. Next time I should use a pattern to figure out the measurements. The shams end up bigger than I thought that they should. However, I like them and they work. We also bought them that picture of Abraham Lincoln for Christmas four years ago and I still love it!

Well.....I have never made a window covering and I came up with how to do it by simply thinking through it. It turned out sooooo cute! I had everyones' in-put while I was sewing it and adjusted accordingly. I should have take a picture of the backing. I bought some plaid flannel black fabric a few years ago that I keep moving and couldn't believe that I bought it and I finally found a use for it. It made me super happy.

So, after finishing the bedroom...they asked if I could make one more window covering for the kitchen and here it is, with the best picture of my daughter and her grandparents that we have so far. She is only three and a half months old and she is looking so big :( But, that is how it goes. You can barely see it in the background, but that is perfect.
Keep watching, I am going to post the baby room pictures hopefully this weekend and my new quilt top I made this week!!

New Blog Design

2010-02-27T19:14:00.001-08:00

I never liked my old blog look....however, I never wanted to take the time to fix it. I like this new look a lot. I love paisley. My husband is still working on the title for me. I love it so far. He is much better at spending time working out the details that I simply don't want to take the time to do. Well, today was a long day and I didn't get to take pics because I was judging a piano festival all morning and way too exhausted after the 3 plus hours of driving to and from the festival and the many hours at the festival. That is pregnancy for you. Besides...it was super overcast........however I can't wait to take some pics. My next blog entry "the new and the old" has a great new addition for my craft room that we purchased last night. Yay!!!!! It replaced the biggest item of stress in my craft room...besides my sewing machine that is totally acting up these days. I really need to have someone look at it. I broke 4 needles last week just trying to do a backstitch on some basic cotton fabric. Horrid!!!

The new and want to do

2010-02-25T15:26:00.001-08:00

After months of no posts, I am back and I have so much to show and share. Last summer I was working at the farmer's market in Provo having fun selling the baby blankets that I had been making for my etsy shop. Well, when I went back to work at the end of August, I simply didn't have any time to work on anything. #1 I was working to much and #2 I started getting super sick and we found out on my birthday the second week in Sept that we were expecting! Our very first little girl is due end of April. We are super excited. After nearly 19 weeks of terrible morning sickness, I started feeling better and finally had a few minutes to myself, just in time for the owner's of our home that we lived in for 2 1/2 years to sell and we had literally 4 days to pack and move. It was rough. I completely wore me out. We moved into a new unit by the same owner's and thought we aren't going to be here long, so I thought that I would never start sewing again.. .. however, Christmas break approached and I was finally not sick anymore, and I unpacked my boxes. A 3 week break from work, full of work on my old projects, was what I needed. It helped start bringing some sanity back into my life.

Just 4 days before my Christmas break we found out that we were having a little girl. I was ECSTATIC!!! I have so many cute fabrics that I have been putting aside for my own use for a little girl someday. I have so many patterns of cute quilts, I had so much fun for days trying to figure out what I was going to make.

THEN......I told my husband my very very very bold goal.......I couldn't start any new projects for my little girl until all my previous projects were finished. This included all the wall hangings that were partially finished or just needed backing and bindings. My moms Christmas quilt was on the list....and I finished it just days before christmas. Well, I am going to take pics this weekend and post. I managed in 3 weeks with visitors for most of the time to finish 7 wall hangings, cut 600 blocks of levi fabric, my mom's Christmas quilt and my Christmas and fall quilts. They are awesome. Then I promptly started working on my baby's first quilt, recovering a car seat cover and so forth.

Well, I am finally to the point where I am enjoying looking a patterns again and relaxing a bit. Pregnancy has been a bit rough for me, but it has certainly motivated me to work on small tasks that I have been putting on the back burner for a long time.

So, I am posting today because I went to the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, ut (which is like 4 blocks from my house right now and my favorite local fabric store) to look at this amazing quilt. My friend bought me the quilt kit with pattern and fabric as a gift. I am sooooooo excited to make it!!!! The quilt is designed by the Crazy Old Ladies.

Then I found this book and this pattern!!! It is so cute! I have to make it right away....just a little bit different because I am not going to by the pattern and make my own appliques (yikes! I can't believe that I just said that!) You can find the book at TwoSashquilts.com. They are having a sale on the book right now while supplies last.

Well, there you have my findings of today. I have so much more to post in the coming weeks before the arrival of our little one. I have been working really hard when i am not tired and finishing so much more than I thought that I ever could....Hope that you enjoy!

wow...its been forever

2009-06-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it has officially been forever since I have written on my blog. No longer. I will be posting pics this week of some of my work and also the pics I had taken at the farmer's market yesterday when i get them. it has been really hard to get anything done since I have been working a ton. It is just enough to list things in my etsy shop and then a few comments here and there on twitter. However, I have gotten a lot done. I have officially used up two boxes worth of fabric this last week! It is awesome! Well, sorry to those who read this blog. it will be much much better the rest of the summer.

Ugh...the computer

2009-04-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, my computer hasn't been working and then life got really stressful, and while I have been keeping up with my shop (mostly because I have been having some sales!!!!! Yippy!) I have done nothing else. I can't post pics because my SC card reader isn't working, however, I was going to make a cute little spring jumper with the last fabric. However, that didn't happen. I end up cutting the fabric in 5" squares and piecing them together for another blanket. How not original. I am not happy about it, but I couldn't find my jumper pattern and wasn't going to go buy a new one. Well, I have lots to tell about my shop and the new material that I acquired, but I can't right now. Sorry. I will post again soon.

Guess how I am going to use this material

2009-04-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

So, I have been packing up my sewing room and putting fabric in boxes because my husband and I are getting ready to move. No worries, this hasn't deterred me from sewing. I just keep pulling fabric out of the boxes. That is what happens when you have no idea when and where you are going, but you have to move. So, I found this pack of fabric in the bottom of a drawer. It is one of those bundles that you just can't pass up but you have noooooo idea what you are going to use it for when you buy it. I think that I bought it last June. oops...and forgot about it. Then, it came to me. My project is going to be finished hopefully tomorrow since I don't have to teach much piano this week. (yay, for school spring break and vacations!!!!! I like having a break from teaching.) So, what are your guesses?

New types of pics

2009-04-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

So, I realized today that I write "so" at the beginning of every sentence. Sorry. I took some new types of pics for one of my blankets. In the etsy forums that is the biggest complaint or critique about my shop. So what do you think? Do you guys like them?

Goggle Analytics

2009-04-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

So, I signed up for google analytics. It is great. I tells me how many hits I have in my shop each day, where in the world they come into my shop and also what web sites they come through. I like this. Well, there was one disconcerting website that I got a referral from yesterday. There is a site called http://etsycallout.wordpress.com/ The person that writes on this blog tells of different etsy sellers and the stores they have flagged on etsy, stores that are just cons and not sending anything they sell and not refunding money, and things like this. I can't find what people clicked to come to my site, but nothing on this blog is something good. Should I be taking this as a sign that something is wrong with my shop, that I have tagged my items wrong. If so, I would hope that someone would just tell me. It makes me slightly uptight.

New Banner for my Etsy shop

2009-04-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

So, I asked my brother if he would be willing to help me make a new banner for my etsy shop. I am super excited. The word in the etsy forums is that it is "classic," "soft and subtle like the things I sell." "goes very nicely with the fabrics in your shop." I am really excited. Click here and check it out! Tell me what you think.

Sale

2009-04-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

So Etsy Supply Street Team is having a first weekend extravaganza. So, I decided to participate to bring people into my shop. Everything is 10% off with a free burper included in shipment. All alphabet blankets are not 10% but rather are $5 instead of $18. Take a look at my two new listings. A super cute blue and coral blanket and a baby boy blue blankets. Yippy. This is probably my last sewing for a couple weeks while my husband and I get ready to move. Packing---ugh...

New News and New Fabric store

2009-04-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well, if you like fabric then you need to check out this new blog that I am following. Great stuff. I love what is posted on this blog......The Fabric Bar. She has a store on etsy and the prices are reasonable. You can find the link to her etsy shop on the side bar of her blog.

Besides that....I am just running running running between my two jobs and the sewing has definitely slowed down a tiny bit. However, I have been coming home everyday during lunch and talking in the etsy forum, chat rooms and twitter. I was featured as a seller in the forums yesterday and sold a couple blankets. I was sooooooo excited. I am glad to know that my favorite creations are the blankets that sell first. That makes them someone elses favorites in my shop. I am reducing prices on a few blankets today. If you know anyone that is interested send them to Amalie's Armfuls.

I will have more pics tomorrow and check back. To jump my shop, I am going to be giving away a blanket next week. I will keep everyone informed.

The Black Hole

2009-03-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

I have always wondered how people can surf the web. I still am not that great at surfing, however, I have started following people on a few sites that do surf and there is some amazing stuff out there. Well, I consider the etsy forums and twitter the black hole. Once you go in you must literally pull yourself out, or have a husband that can do it for you. Talking and looking and talking some more. That is what you do on these sites. It is great to be talking with people that like the same things that you do.

Well, on top of that.... I did take a break today and I used my lightbox. I am learning how to photograph, so we will see what happens, but these are the new products in my shop. I am really into using my fabric right now and most of it is not for things around my house. I don't know why, but I am throughly excited about it. I think my husband thinks I have gone mad.

Well, here you are. The most beautiful teal and purple f lowers.And this light blue butterfly fabric with paisly backgr ound.
What do you all think?

New pics using lightbox

2009-03-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

So, I have been trying to best understand my camera in taking pics. I have wanted to show my product on my esty shop to its fullest. Well, last night I asked my brother for help. He sells on ebay and was a power seller for a while until he started helping his girlfriend with her shop. So, I thought that he would have some help. I showed him the pictures that I had already taken. I have to say, I was suprised with the look on his face. He was actually surprized with my pictures and said that they were pretty good. He just didn't like the background. Well I knew that I didn't like it and so I asked him about what I could do. Well, he had a light box that he said I could use. I brought it home this morning and started trying to work with it. Here are some of my new pics? What do you all think?
versus:

Blogging

2009-03-23T22:58:00.001-07:00

So, I decided that I would post something that doesn't have links. That is weird to me. Why would you just write. But, that is what I do on twitter...so why not here. Well, I am going through all of my fabric and making the things that I have been wanting to for a while. I decided that I needed to enjoy life and do the things that I really want to do. I am finishing a bunch of baby blankets that I bought the material for in November. I know, I know... it just takes a while. I really want to have fun and try and sell some of my things at a craft show. That would be something fun to work towards and give some of my sewing a purpose. So, I am going to enter a couple and see what happens. I will update you all on my success if I make it.

Well, I finished two more blankets tonight. I am really really excited. They are soooooo cute. (Well, at least I think so.) I will be putting up pictures here, in my etsy shop and on flickr tomorrow. Hope that you enjoy!

New Spring Wall Hanging

2009-03-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

So, this was my Sunday afternoon project. It took about 2 hours to cut, sew, iron and applique. It would have taken slightly less time if I hadn't had to unpick a seam that slipped while I was sewing. It is just the top. I got tired of working on it, and so I will put the back on tomorrow and quilt it a little. The pattern and material are from Connecting Threads. It is a kit called Mama's Daisy Wall Hanging. It was on sale a couple weeks ago and I bought it. It was soooooooo cute and I loved the material. If it hadn't been for the material I probably wouldn't have bought it. Enjoy!

Cute Craft

2009-03-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

So, you should all check out this link. this is to see something completely cool and crazy. It is by Junkpunkart@etsy.com.....http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21842241

Etsy Fabric and misc. supply shops.

2009-03-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the shops that i have been looking at. It has been so fun. I have been following some of them on twitter too!! By the way I really really want this purse from Antique Basket Lady, but I have to sell a couple blankets before I can justify buying a new purse. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21382254 She has some really really great purses. I love the fabrics that she uses.

Riley Bean sells some very cute ribbon! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6670018

Fabric Supplies sells some great designer fabric. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5680709

Fabric Worm....http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5973558

Fresh Squeezed Fabrics (I love the banner in this shop) http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5757671

Lanie Jane Fabrics...http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6092683

This is my least favorite material store, but that is because I just don't care for those fabrics. I think that some of you will love Anthem Fabrics. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6234072

Hope that you can enjoy some of the finds.

Sale

2009-03-19T12:12:00.001-07:00

So, as I have been following people on twitter (which by the way is totally my new past time.) Anyways, I have been looking at some great new shops. I have been making a list that I am going to add so that you can all look at some great fabric and score some great deals. Well, I started following this site today and they are having a sale this Fri and Sat. Mostly their fabric is in house in Maine, buy they do have some stuff online. It is http://www.fabricgarden.com. Everything is going to be 20% off and also, there will be some machines on sale. Enjoy!

New Fabric Site

2009-03-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for house fabrics, check out this site http://www.fabricwarehouseonline.com/fabrics-for-sale-page-3.htm.

While they don't have a huge selection, everything is $3.49 a yard. That is a swingin' deal for home fabrics.

The blankets

2009-03-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, here we go, the pictures that I have been working on this afternoon. I am a terrible photographer, so don't look with a critical eye, but they are really really cute!!!! Ah, I love putting fabrics together.

Twitter

2009-03-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

So, I signed up for twitter. www.twitter.com/amaliesarmfuls. I don't know why, because already it is addicting. But I guess when you get to start looking at other peoples shops and blogs it is fun. And reading their comments to get to know them as a person is amazing. So, I have 4 free hours this afternoon. Time for a photo shoot of the new projects... .... they are up and coming finally.

Ah.....

2009-03-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

So, you know when life just gets really really really busy. Well, I think that mine was that before, but I still was able to keep up with what I was doing. Well, my mother-in-law came in town this weekend, which was great. However, I have so many things that I was going to take pictures of to put on here and in my shop. A free weekend, well, gone. Oh, well. I am going to have to take the time tomorrow to do it. Then it is spring break at the university that I work at this week and I have a morning off. That is going to be very exciting. I have finished quite a lot the last couple weeks. Oh, and some of the baby blankets are soooooooooooooo cute!!!!! I am so excited to see what people think, since I think that I think they are cuter sometimes then they are.

My Etsy shop

2009-03-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

So, I have been sewing like crazy all the material that I have for blankets. I have been using some really really cute material I got on sale this week, from Moda, Michael Miller, and some other great designer fabrics. (I shouldn't have bought the fabric though. You know how money can get tight. Well, right after spending on material I got a flat tire and found out that I needed to replace two of them and the brakes and rotors on my car. UGH!!! But this is how life goes I guess.) Except for the fact that I forgot to get a yard and 1/8 and got only a yard of material, I really really like the material. I have made 3 more blankets for my etsy shop in the last two days......Pictures are forth coming.

Hm, what do you think of the material I chose?

2009-03-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

So, I have been making this project for a co-workers birthday this week. She is really struggling with a lot of things in her life right now and I really hope that she knows that I just wish all the happiness in the world for her. Well, here are all the browns that I had to choose from.This is the one that I chose. My husband Russ said that he liked it, but then again, sometimes he just throws his head my direction for a split second and says, looks great. Now how am I supposed to know what that means? I ask him because he has a great eye for color, however he doesn't always use that.
The next two are pillows for some friends. I don't care much for the lettering from this pattern. I really personally like lettering like the sweet valentine one I made. So, last summer I bought some 4 inch squares from a lady on ebay and I was going to use them to make a fun, but very random scrap quilt. I have long since decided against it, since I really only like half of the squares. Well, while I was looking for material for the outer border on the pillow, I found the squares tucked away in a bag. I was so excited! If you have been reading my blog I am trying to use fabric I have to everything I am doing. I spent a lot of time deciding on different colors and taking them in to show Russ. He was doing some stuff for work and I think that it was a great distraction I cut the squares in half OH, and here is a final picture of the sweet valentine pillow. Hope you enjoy!

Ah, why does it take me so long to find such awesome sites!!

2009-02-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I was checking out the crazy mom quilting blog, which by the way I love and you should all check out. Well, I clicked on the link to her feature quilt on Moda Bakeshop. Wow, what a great site. I can't hardly believe that I have not found this before now. I love that they show all of the instructions of each project picture by picture. I have always thought that braided rugs were cool. They have such a great tutorial on how to make one. Hm, I am actually considering making one. How cool would that be!?!

OH, and quilt hanging up in this picture that I found on Cottons 'n Wool, too too too cute!
And last but not least....You should all check out Boutique NutMeg Designs. I love her stuff. I love the colors and the quilts and just everything. It is awesome!!!

New Kind of Finished Project

2009-02-25T07:05:00.000-08:00

So, I had a ton of left over fabric from my valentines day wall hanging. (Which the pattern called for 3 times as much as you need. Usually it is a tiny bit more and it is ok with me, but when I make two of the pattern itself and then have enough scraps to make various other things, that is a little too much.) Anyways, my friend Abby had a birthday a couple weeks ago and she loves seasonal decorations so I put the pink material to use that this is what I came up with....I have had this pattern for quite a while. It is put out by Plaid Tidings Stitchery Designs by Krista Heaps and called "Sweet Valentine". I took the picture before I stuffed it because I think that that makes it look better in a picture. I don't like how she has you sew 5 extra inches of fabric together and then you don't use it all. So, I improvised and only used barely more than the cut pieces were and I saved even more fabric for one last project with the material. It is quite a bit bigger than I was thinking that it would be, but that will definitely help you see the stitches really well.

Well, i have two more pillows and a wall hanging on the way in the next couple days. Hope that you enjoy and come back to see more!!

New Material

2009-02-22T08:17:00.001-08:00

So, my friend was telling me about a sale on Hancock's of Paducah. So I got on and was just checking things out. Well, I can't resist material. I really really want to make a quilt of bright oranges, pinks and greens. (yah, I can't resist those colors in anything. I bought two pairs of bright bright pink shoes at Walmart yesterday. I am totally crazy.) So, check out the fabrics that I bought for my quilt that I will probably make this summer.They are from the Bernartex Kitty Yoshida City Blooms collection. I also ordered a charm pack. That should be fun. I am thinking of making a cute bag with the charm pack. Anyways, hope that you enjoy. Check back soon, I should be finishing a couple pillow fronts that are so cute today or tomorrow!

The finished products

2009-02-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

Here we go, pictures of the finished products. First I have some pictures of two blankets and some burpers that I plan to put on my etsy shop. This one is purple and green. I love those colors and the print is all butterflies. That is probably my greatest weakness. Any material with butterflies and I think that i must have it. Ps. Sometime I don't like blogger. I have the pictures right side up in the file that I upload the picture and no matter what I do they are still sideways. I really like this one. I love ladybugs and the green and red are a great contrast. Here is the batch of burpers with more to come.
Ok, here is the pink and brown wall hanging that I have been working on forever. This first pictures is one right after I quilted it. I know that the circles are not quite even and that is ok. It was my first attempt and I did it free hand. So, I am just excited that I tried and it wasn't awful. The second picture is one of the final product. I took it outside and it doesn't look great. I am going to have to have shayla send me a better picture so everyone can have a really good look at the final product. The pattern has buttons on each one of the white squares, but I liked it on just a few and so, that is what I did.

New Patterns

2009-02-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

Well, so much for not spending anything. I got my connecting threads catalog out of the mail yesterday. I have been wanting to make some wall hangings for every month and season, and well, they had one for spring and the fourth of july. Those are two that I have been looking for something cute. I also needed to order some 505. This is great stuff. I learned about it from one of my piano students. It is a spray that helps baste your layers together when you are quilting on your own machine. I am sooooo excited to try it.

Here is what I am going to make for the spring.

And here is what I am going to make for the Fourth of July. It is sooooooo cute. So, I also finished a couple projects that I have posted in the past. I am going to take some pictures and hopefully when I get home from work tonight i will be able to post them. One of them in the pink and brown box front that I made back in Dec. for a Christmas present. I am going to sew on the buttons today while I am working. And then a couple new baby blankets for my etsy shop. I am so excited. Hope that you enjoy!

Brown and Pink Spring Pattern

2009-02-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

So, I have been just putting my life in order since coming home from vacation and it just takes time. I cleaned my craft room, went through all the magazines that I have had in a pile. Now I am ready to start working again. So, in my Clotilde magazine I found this pattern. I have enough scraps I think from a ton of different things that I think that I might be able to do this one with what I have. This is excellent since I have determined not to buy any crafty stuff for an entire month. I have to use what I have and finish the projects that i have been posting. I have so many backs to put on different table runners and wall hangings. Oh well. That is how it goes. I also want to start working on my levi quilt. I have collected toooooo many pairs of jeans. Oops, sorry for the rambling. Here is the quilt. Hope that you enjoy.

Trip and cross stitch

2009-01-31T17:26:00.001-08:00

Well, I am working on leaving town. My husband and I are going to California!! yay, Utah is freezing right now. It is not a good time with work and finances, but my cousin is getting married and we have been wanting to go the entire three years that we have been together, so off we go. Look for the pictures of the cross stitches that I am taking with me to do while we are in the car. I am hoping to make some major improvement in the next week. I have only been working on the one for 3 years now. Yikes!

yay!!! new fabric

2009-01-27T07:08:00.001-08:00

Oh, check out this new fabric line! It is called Urban Flannel designed by Valori Wells for Free Spririt

This is just one of about 30 different designs in the line. They are so cute. Plus, they have a list of amazing free patterns that you can just download. I found this in an ad in my McCalls Quilting magazine. I think that i may just have to brake down and buy some to make some cute blankets with!!

Second, every one should go to Robert Kaufman Fabrics and check out the lines that are put out recenly by monaluna, about town and mingle. They are sooooooooooo cool.

Wow, a wall hanging and a table runner in the same weekend!

2009-01-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

So, everyone has to understand that I love to buy fabric. I always have plans for that fabric and then I don't get to working on that project before I find something else. So, I decided that I wanted to work on using a bunch of my fabric and make the things that I have been planning on. Hopefully I can get a couple more projects done before I change my mind. This table runner (which isn't finished completely obviously. Only the top) is made using Shangri-la material by 3 sisters put out my Moda Fabrics and Little Charmers II patterns by Heather Mulder Peterson put out by Ankas Treasures. I bought the charm pack last summer on Ebay. If you can find the right auction you can get charm packs at such a great price and even with shipping they are cheaper than you could buy them in a local store. It is way way easy. I think that i took me about an hour and a half if that. The longest part of the time was just picking out the fabric for each part. Then the cutting and sewing time took about 45 min. Click on it if you want to see the picture a little bit bigger. Hope that you enjoy!

Wow, this craft room...

2009-01-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

This craft room that is featured on Whipup looks like my husbands aunts craft room. Hers is all the area above their four car garage. It is awesome. This would be the most amaaaaazing space. Wish that you could get rich on simply dreaming and build the perfect space for everything you wanted.

The rest of the Welcome Sign

2009-01-24T17:26:00.001-08:00

I guess that I should have just put all of the rest of the pictures on the same post, but I didn't know that I was going to have time to finish the front today. I have to admit, that one of the fun parts of sewing is that I put in a movie and listen while I am working, and I have watched Disneys Enchanted twice today. Too fun.

So here are the pictures of the squares inside boxes that go above and below the flowers. I didn't ever really understand the instructions and couldn't really see what they look like in the picture in the pattern or online, so I decided that I would do them my own way. While the pattern on the material is not upright the way that I did it, I really like it.
Then I sewed the flower border to the square border.Finally I sewed all three rows together.
Now I just have to decided how it want to sew around the applique flowers, squares and letters. I then have to find some material to bind it. (I always forget to buy that when I buy fabric.)

So, there is a cute welcome sign that so for has taken about 2 hours between the cutting, ironing and sewing. Of course, I was looking up to watch a movie so i can't totally gauge my time. However, I really like charm packs and the variety of material that they give you and also how easy they are to use. It would have taken a lot more time to cut them all out. I will post the final product when I finish with it.

The flower borders

2009-01-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

So, these flower borders were really easy. I just traced the flowers, stem and leaves onto the Steam a seam and then ironed and cut out. Once you remove the steam a seam paper, you just iron the items to the material you want to add to. Now, I have to admit that that is very easy, I just don't like the time it takes to trace and cut. There are a lot of little different parts in this one. However, applique is not nearly as scary as it seems. It is rather easy using the steam a seam. Now I just have to figure out the stitch I am going to put around them to make them look like they are finished.
So, I am now finished with 2/3 of the front of the wall hanging. I just have to now understand the parts about the other squares. The instructions are quite confusing. Oh well. That is the fun part of the project. Figuring it out.

The start of the welcome sign

2009-01-23T17:26:00.000-08:00

So, I decided that I would post the different steps of the welcome sign that I am making, mostly so that I can watch the process of a sewing job for me and about how long it takes me. Hope that you enjoy me first blocks. I am using a charm pack called Fig and Plum put out by Moda Fabrics. The pattern is "Flower Welcome" by Bloom Creek. (By the way you should all check out the OH, Americana pattern and just look through all their patterns. There are some really fun ones.) I first took and traced the letters onto Steam a Steam 2 and then attached them to the fabric. Here is the row unsewn. I really like the colors of these materials. Now, I know that these aren't the greatest picture, but it is a work in progress. I take terrible pictures. However, you can see one picture with the whole thing and the last couple a little closer up. I will post the next parts as I finish them.

Valentines Day Wall Hangings

2009-01-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

So, Abby and I have been working on these wall hangings for a couple of weeks. The pattern is by the Crazy Old Ladies. I think that the pattern is called seasonal skinnies. They have patterns for several seasons. They are extremely simple and fun. They called for enough material to make two hearts and so I made two and gave one to Shayla. This is hers:

This one has a lighter pink border because I think that the lighter colors come out more in the heart.

The next one is a little different. I decided that I was going to try and so a little quilting on my own machine. I don't have a foot that is good for it, but I cut out some paper hearts, penned them to the background and border and sewed around them. I think that they turned out pretty cute. My husband thought that they were awesome. He really wanted me to try random hearts. Hope that you enjoy!

Riviera Table Runner

2009-01-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

So, I was looking through my Connecting Threads catalog yesterday and I found this table runner. I mostly like it because of the colors of the material, however, I like the strips too. There are these two views on their website. I am going to have to go through my bright colored materials and see what I can do with them.

The new stuff

2009-01-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

So, I was with my friend abby today working on a wall hanging for valentines day (which I am going to finish Friday and will post as soon as it is done. It is soooooooo cute!!) and I have decided that I just can't look at my own posts anymore. It just makes me want to go and buy all the fabric I find and do the projects that I see. But that is just not possible. I have to use what I have and wait to have a little more money to spend.

So, I started the card making lists and scrapbooking links in a new list on the side of the blog. I think that those lists are never ending. But, it is nice for me to be able to find the things that I look at and I will look at again.

I was at a baby shower yesterday and my aunt made the cutest baby blanket ever. I am going to have to make one with all the scraps that I have around. She took a large piece of muslin and used it as the backing of the baby blanket. Then she cut squares of cotton fabric into squares that looked like they were about 3". She then placed them on the muslin and topstiched them on. She left about a 1/4" around each square free, like a rag quilt, so that it could rag up. Because the squares are placed a little bit apart from each other, they looked like they had a white border sewn between them. She then used other fabrics and made a small binding for the edge. It was the cutest baby blanket that I have ever seen. If I can get pictures I will post them.

Hope you enjoy checking out the links.

Back Porch Bouquet!!!

2009-01-13T13:15:00.001-08:00

Oh my!!! I found this incredible quilt and fabric today. I love love love it!!! It is from Maywood Studio and the line is called Back Porch Bouquet. This is the pattern with the pink fabrics.The next one shows some of the purple fabrics in this set. I love purples and some day want to make a big quilt of all purples. I don't care for the pattern as much.This site has tons and tons of patterns and has many free patterns. You should all check it out!

First batch of cards

2009-01-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

So, here are few of my creations. Some aren't that great and some I really like. This first one is one of my favorite ones. Not a great picture of this one, but I do like the colors.
This is my second favorite.
This is my husbands favorite because he likes the colors the best.
I like the colors on this one.
This one is just plain and fun. Not a great picture. I don't do well with pictures esp. with my camera.
Different, but cool.
I love the colors on this one, esp. the flowers.
This next one is not quite finished. I think that I want to put a tag through the eyelet on the top left that attaches to a tag that says either thank you or something.
I had to make something bright colored.

New creations, new blog lists and more fun!!!

2009-01-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

So, I know that I have been doing all sorts of different things on this blog, new materials, new sites, quilts, baby blankets, wall hangings, patterns. Well, I have decided that this is just going to have to become an overall craft blog. I decided that I needed to de-junk on the craft supplies in my closet as my husband and I are looking at the need to move. So, i started making cards. I have to say that this card making think all started when my husband was telling me that he buys me things that, then I don't get around to using them for a while. (That is actually when I really started sewing too.) He bought me a Cricut Machine for my birthday and I acquired some new cartridges for Christmas. I think that I spend more time just messing around with my machine and not working on projects, but that is the fun of having a toy. Making cards is a fast way to use some supplies and yet new and innovative way of thinking for me. This is awesome. I am going to take and add some new lists of the different card sites that I have found and also scrapbooking supplies sites that I have been looking at on a regular basis.

Also, when I get around to posting new pictures, I am going to take a picture of my new serger that I bought for Christmas. This is the most awesome new toy that I have bought and I am sooooooooo excited about it.

New Blanket

2008-12-29T08:42:00.000-08:00

I just finished these blankets and I am really happy with how the green one turned out. I was a little bit nervous about how dark the brown edge is. However, it turned out great.The next one is the pink and yellow one that I am working on. The pinks are a lot of scraps of strawberry shortcake and the yellows are just a contrast color. I haven't quite figured out what color to put on the border. I think that a yellow would be too much and with a pink you have to decide the shade of pink. If I can find one that matches the darkest solid pink scrap, I think that I will use it. That pink is a contrast to the brightness of the blanket but won't be to dark and be a distraction.

Bandana Beauties

2008-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

So, you might have noticed that I am a huge huge!!! fan of bright colored fabrics. I esp. love the oranges, pinks and greens. I found this on Wish Upon a Quilt. They are having a huge sale until the end of the year. Like all material stores they are trying to get rid of their stuff to make way for the new stuff coming in Jan. The collection is called Bandana Beauties from Benartex Studio.

The other fabric collection that I found on there that I really like is called Za Za by Erin Michael. There are a few different paisley one and some matching fabrics. The red on is pictured below.

While they are sale items, the price is now $6.99 a yard. That must mean that they are pretty pricey regularly. I hope that you enjoy these two fabrics as much as me. They are just fun to look at.

Duquesa pattern.

2008-12-27T07:50:00.000-08:00

So a couple weeks ago I posted the material from the Duquesa II collection from Moda. Well, here is the pattern that I found on Blank Quilting that uses that fabric. I kind of like it.
Here is just the cutest little boy quilt you have ever seen.