Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My Baby Zigzag quilt is done!!!

Hi everyone,

I have another finish to share.

I'm really excited about this one.

It's my Zigzag baby quilt.

The triangles were all cut with the Accuquilt GO! cutter and the 3 inch finished HST die.
I machine pieced and hand quilted this quilt.
I quilted it with perle cotton.
Finished size is 36 inches square.


I love how the hand quilting turned out.
The big stitches really pop.
And the quilt remains nice and soft.


I backed the quilt in the cutest flannel by Northcott called Forest Friends.

I really love this quilt.
It was a lot of fun to make.

It will make a nice gift for my Brother and his Wife's new baby,
due to be born very soon.

Hugs


Friday, February 17, 2012

More Needle cases, a winner, and mail!!!!

Hi everyone!

I have a day off again.
Yeah!!!!

I made three more needle cases this morning.
I used 5 inch hexagon flower blocks to make these.
When I need a little hand sewing project to relax,
I often sew little hexagon flowers out of scraps.
So, I decided to use these for needle cases.
I used the same directions as my tutorial found here.
I just used hexagons instead.
These will be donated.

I also received some wonderful mail yesterday.
These were both wins from the Quilting Blogger's Giveaway Day.

The first is a beautiful piece of hand dyed fabric from Laura Krasinski.
She is a fibre artist.
Isn't the fabric gorgeous!!!!
Thank you so much Laura!!

Then, I got some sweet handmade buttons,
I love them.
Thank you so much!!!!


It's beautiful out today.
It's like a spring day.
Look at what I saw peeking through the ground this morning.
It's February 17th. 
There should be at least a foot of snow on the ground,
and be -20 degrees Celsius.
But, we have no snow.
And it's +4 degrees celsius.
So strange!!!
I know you probably don't here this often,
but I miss winter.
We haven't really had a winter this year.
We are missing out on all the fun winter activities to do.
Like build snowmen and forts.
Go sliding, skating outside....
It's just been wet and muddy and dirty.

Well, enough about that.
You are still waiting to here who won my giveaway!!
It's comment #37.
37 
Jan said...
How cute is that, and you make it so simple! Thanks much!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A finished Bapron

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.
I spent the day with my daughter.
Her school went on a ski trip today.
She is terrified of heights and didn't want to go. 
So, we had a Mother/Daughter day.

It was a very nice day.
She made me pancakes for breakfast.
And I must say, they were very good.

We visited the local quilt shops.
I hadn't done that in a while.
I was good though.
All I bought was 1/2 metre of Kona white to finish the zigzag baby quilt.

Then, after we both had an afternoon nap,
I made a Bapron.
I love this pattern.
I used pre-made bias tape to make it.
It's much easier to use then the ones I tried to make.
I pieced the 1 inch finished hst's using these papers.
This was the first time I used these and I loved it.
Perfect for these tiny hst's.

I used Kona solids that I won from Contemporary Cloth  Store.
And a soft terry cloth for the back.
I plan to make a couple of these for my brother and his wife.
They are expecting a boy in March.
These bibs a great for a 6 month old and older baby.
I will also make a few smaller ones for a newborn.

Well, that's all for tonight.

Hugs



Day 2 - GO! Ahead and Show Some Love Blog Hop


Here is the line up!!!

February 13th
Ariane (Ariane Quilts)

    February 14th




      February 15th
      Lisa Marie (Scraps of Life)
      Marilyn (North Hills Quilters)


      February 16th
      Marjorie (Marjorie's Busy Corner)


      February 17th
      Sharon (Crazee Corners)
      Jacque (Lilypad Quilting)


      February 18th

      GO! and visit Connie and Linda for some wonderful tutorials.

      I have more inspiration using the block I shared yesterday.

      This time, I used a 7.5 inch background square,
      and the 3 inch circle on the circle die to make the block. 
      Iron fusible web to the back of 3.5 inch squares.
      Lay them on your circle die, using the middle 3 inch circle as shown in the photo below.

      Once your circles are cut with the GO! Cutter,
      take them to your cutting mat and cut them in half as shown below.


      Make your blocks the same way as I showed yesterday.
      Make3 blocks for a small table runner.
      Sew them together.
      Add a border. (I used 2.5 inches wide strips)
      And Voila.....


      Cute eh!!!
      Can you imagine this block used to make a scrappy quilt, or a baby quilt?
      Change the colours, use all solids to make it more modern.
      The possibilities are endless.

      Don't forget my little giveaway from yesterdays post.

      Hugs

      Monday, February 13, 2012

      GO! Ahead and Show Some Love Blog Hop ***Giveaway CLOSED****

      The Blog hop starts today, and Marjorie and I are the first ones up.
      Don't forget to visit all the others blogs this week too!

      Here is the line up!!!

      February 13th
      Ariane (Ariane's Crafts)
      February 14th
      Connie (Quilting by the River)
      Linda (Living 4 Quilting)
      February 15th
      Lisa Marie (Scraps of Life)
      Marilyn (North Hills Quilters)
      February 16th
      Alicia (Heirloom Quilting)
      Marjorie (Marjorie's Busy Corner)
      February 17th
      Sharon (Crazee Corners)
      Jacque (Lilypad Quilting)



      February 18th
      Stacey (Driving Miss Stacey)
      Tracey (The Peony Teacup)
      Paulette (Sweet P Quilting and Creations)

      I've prepared this for a few weeks now.
      I wanted to use Accuquilt GO! dies that a lot of you might already have.
      You will need the circle die,
      and the 5 inch square die.

      I'm going to show you a very simple block that can be made with any of the circles on the circle die.
      It's the half-circle pinwheel appliqued block.

      This block can be used to make many different items.

      Let's start!!!


      Take your red and white/cream scraps out.

      Instruction for the 5 inch unfinished block.

      1) You will need to cut 2, 2.5 inch squares of the same red fabric.
      You can also use the value die to cut the 2.5 inch red blocks.
       Iron fusible web on the back of the two red squares.
      You can see in the image that I have 2 pairs of red squares.

      2) Once you have ironed the fusible web to the red squares,
      align your red squares over the smallest 2 inch circle on the circle die.
      Cover the die with your cutting mat and crank the die through the machine.

      3) You will have some nice perfectly cut circles.

      4) Now take these circles to your cutting board and cut them in half.

      Next Step......


      1) Cut your 5 inch background squares using the 5 inch square die.
      2) Bring a cut square to your ironing board.
      You will iron you square in half with wrong sides together.

      3) Then, fold in half again and iron without going over your first ironed crease.

      4) When you open up your square, you should have the creases showing like in image #4.

      Next.....

      You will then take your half circles, remove the paper backing from them and lay them out on you block using the creases as guides.
      Your blocks should look like the ones above.
      Iron the half circles to your background fabric.
      Then take these blocks to your sewing machine and zig-zag stitch all around the edges.
      You can also use a button hole stitch or some other decorative stitch.

      Now....what to make with these blocks.
      A simple needle case would be so handy.





      1) Sew your pinwheel block to another plain 5 inch background square.
      Iron the seam open

      2) You should now have a piece 9.5 X 5 inches.

      3) For the inside of your needle case you need to cut a main piece 9.5 X 5 inches in background fabric,
      Then a red piece of fabric for the pockets 9.5 X 6.5 inches.
      You will iron the red fabric in half to form the pocket.

      4) Lay the red pocket fabric over the background fabric and stitch a pocket line in the centre, then one 2 inches from the centre. Then baste stitch 1/8 th inch around the outer edge of the pocket.



      5) Lay your inside piece over a piece of batting. 
      The batting should be just a bit bigger then you inner piece.
      Cut a 3 inch piece of ribbon and baste stitch it to the centre of the left side.

      6) Lay the outer piece right sides together over the inside piece.
      Pin in place.

      7) Sew a 1/4 inch seam all around the edge of your fabric.
      Leave about a 2 inch opening to allow for turning.
      Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and ending stitches.

      8)Trim your batting off and clip the corners.



      9) Turn you needle case through the opening.

      10) Iron your needle case and the opening to prepare for top stitching.

      11) Top stitch using a scant 1/8 inch seam.

      12) Cut an 4 X 8 inch piece of felt.
       Center the felt on the inside of the needle case.
      Pin in place.
      Flip over the needle case,
       and using the seam between the outer blocks stitch down the centre seam to secure the felt.

      13) Add a matching button to the back.


      You are now done!!!!!


      I hope you like this tutorial.
      If you have any questions, please let me know.

      I'll have more ideas for this block in the next few days.
      So please keep coming back.

      Now, if you have made it this far down, you are in luck.
      I'm giving away the above needle case to one lucky person.


      Just leave a comment for a chance to win!!!


      The giveaway winner will be announced on Friday!!


      Winner is....


      Jan said...
      How cute is that, and you make it so simple! Thanks much!


      Hugs




      Thursday, February 9, 2012

      A zigzag quilt in progress....

      Hi everyone!

      I hope you are all well.
      I've been working on a new project.
      I'm making a zigzag baby quilt for a baby shower gift.
      Of coarse I've waited until the last minute to make this quilt.
      Sometimes, I work better under pressure.
      That's my story anyways. LOL!!!!
      This quilt is for a baby boy.
      I picked all the fabric from my stash.
      I was glad to have enough variety to make a controlled scrappy quilt.
      I have 3 rows done and hope to get 3 more done soon.
      I need to buy more white fabric.
      I used up all the solid white that I have.

      Hugs

      Saturday, February 4, 2012

      I finished my Picnic Schnibbles Quilt!!!

      I finally got my Picnic Schnibbles quilt done.
      I've had the top done since Nov. 30, 2009.
      I can't believe it sat unfinished for so long.
      It's a beautiful quilt.
      I'm really happy with it.
      Here it is.

      And here is the back.


      I machine quilted this quilt myself on my Kenmore sewing machine that is 30 years old.
      The binding is also done by machine.
      I stitched it on to the back first, then machine stitched it to the front.

      I'm very happy with the results.
      It really made my day to finally get this done.

      Hugs