Best of 2015

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a Best of 2015 Linky Party.  There are many ways to pick your five best, and I've decided to go with my own favorites for this post.  This is my highlight reel...

1.  Honey Honey Quilt - Such beautiful fabrics by Kate Spain

2.  Mod Hexagon Quilt - Amazing design by Rashida Coleman-Hale with Cotton + Steel fabrics

3.  Flour Pouf  Great book/pattern by Anna Graham, Everyday Style with Cotton + Steel (again!)

4.  Color Wheel Star mini-quilt - Pattern by Camille Roskelley from Simply Retro

5.  Lotus Pond Quilt - In love with this fun, bright fabric from Rae Hoekstra

Looking forward to 2016...see you in the New Year! 

Christmas Pillow

A quick post with a Christmas pillow finish!  More details on how it was done on this post.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Linking up with sewfreshquilts.  

Not so secret sewing....

Over Thanksgiving my mother-in-law spied a microwave bowl potholder that my sister-in-law had made for me last Christmas.  She hadn't seen one before and really liked it.  These are great easy gifts to make, so I sewed some up for her.  It's difficult to pick fabric for other people, but I think she will like this choice, which is an out of print Moda line called Mistletoe Manor by 3 Sisters.  A co-worker of mine gave it to me over ten years ago and I always liked it but didn't know what to make....I'm glad I finally cut into it!

Hope everyone is not too stressed about finishing up your secret sewing!  If you would like to make these yourself check out this tutorial by Karen Church.

Linking up with crazymomquilts, sewfreshquilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Handmade Style Floor Pouf

After making the Carry-all Pincushion from Anna Graham's amazing book, Handmade Style, I decided to make the Floor Pouf.  I'm really happy with this project.  It is similar in construction to the pincushion, but a lot bigger.  It was definitely an effort to wrangle this thing together, but totally worth it.

The top is 24 inches square.  I quilted the top with (not so) straight line quilting in three different colors, off-white, gold, and dark pink.  For the side panels I used a curved shell stitch on my Bernina which has come in handy on a few projects now.  It's fast and looks really good.

 I used an orphan block I had on hand and made a finished bottom for it as well, just in case the recipient wants to change it up every once in a while.  It has a zipper closure in case you need to wash it.

I recommend Handmade Style, so far both patterns I've worked with have been excellent.

One more gift checked off the list...though it's going to be tough to part with this one.  Can't get enough of the Cotton + Steel fabric either!

Linking up with Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation, Lorna at sewfreshquilts, and Amanda at crazymomquilts.

Pocket Mending Book and Pincushion

Heidi Staples at Fabric Mutt has done it again with a great tutorial...the Pocket Mending Book.  I needed a pincushion for our December guild meeting holiday pincushion swap and I was stressing over what to create.  When I saw Heidi's new tutorial, it gave me a good idea to use her tutorial to make a pincushion and a matching mending book.  And here is the result!




And look at the cute back:



The fabric is Country Girls, by Tasha Noel for Riley Blake with a few other scraps.

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

WIP Mini-Charm Tumbler Pillow

I love the Christmas colors in Basic Grey's 25th and Pine collection.  It has the traditional red and green, but mixes with a lighter green and navy.  In addition, I love mini charm packs because you can get all of the fabrics without a lot of commitment, so you don't feel guilty!  Here I'm putting both to work for a small pillow project.

I used this mini tumbler template which fits the mini charms perfectly.   

I arranged the cut pieces in diagonal stripes by color and came up with this:

I added a border on all sides and I'm working it into a Christmas pillow, more to follow.  

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.   

Handmade Style Carry-all Pincushion

My last WIP post was related to the book Handmade Style by Anna Graham.  This project is also from that book, it is the Carry-All Pincushion.  I used the same fabrics from this post.  Another present to check off the list!

If you do make this pincushion take note....it's really big...almost 9 inches wide.

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

WIP Handmade Style Floor Pouf

The real WIP today was Thanksgiving preparation... a lot of hard work, but so worth it in the end! I'm working on a floor pouf for a present for Christmas. This project is from the book Handmade Style, which I recommend, it has great projects and clear directions.

First I made this top, which I quilted in three different threads, a dark pink, beige, and gold. They match the cotton + steel fabrics really well.

The pattern doesn't require a pieced bottom but I had on hand a block (Mystery Quilted Pillow pattern from In Color Order) made out of another set of scraps and decided to add some strips from the top fabrics.  This is how it came out:

Now I'm not sure which is the top and which should be the bottom...it generally wouldn't matter but the sides I have are made with the directional bee fabric...any thoughts?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Linking up at WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social.

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Modern Minis

Working on some Christmas sewing this week.  (I'm going to save part of what I made until after Christmas in case someone sees this post!)  In the meantime here are two small finishes.  One is another Lazy Girl Designs Suzi Purse Insert.  See this post for my other version.  And the second is a tiny fabric box that I made using this free tutorial by Lisa Calle at Vintage Modern Quilts, the Itty Bitty Fabric Bin.

I used a fun retro fabric from Lori Holt's Vintage Happy collection and a super cute new line called Modern Minis, check out Lori's blog for more projects with these Modern Minis fabrics!

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

Mod Hexagon Quilt

This quilt has been a while in the making.  I originally saw the pattern for it in the Winter 2015 issue of modern patchwork and started cutting last spring. The amazing designer is Rashida Coleman-Hale.  The quilt is made up of hexagons, which are constructed using two rectangles, one of a color fabric and one of the background fabric. After constructing the rectangles it uses a hexagon template to make each unit. Next the units are sewn together into columns and then joined, all machine pieced. Once it is sewn together all the hexagons disappear and make the triangles appear.  Such a clever design!

I pieced the backing using extra strips from the front along with a great cotton + steel print by Sarah Watts, Tokyo Train Ride.  Originally I was going to quilt along the hexagon seams, but I didn't want to lose the way the hexagons disappear, so I used a very large stipple all over the quilt.  The binding matches the background so that it doesn't distract from the triangles.

This was the first time I used a template and it was challenging to cut all of the hexagons, but in the end it was worth it!Linking up with  My Quilt Infatuation and crazymomquilts.  

Fall Pillow

I had received a few cuts of fall fabric in a mystery box I had purchased a few months ago.  I wouldn't have picked these fabrics myself because they are a little too traditional for my taste, but they really worked out well.  For the design I went with my favorite tried and true disappearing nine patch (4" squares) and added two sets of borders (2" each).  I used an envelope back and for the first time I put a binding on a pillow.  I love how the binding turned out, it really makes the pillow and was worth the extra time for hand stitching.  I don't think I'll do a pillow again without it.  The pillow fit a 14 x14 form.

I also practiced my FMQ stipple with this project.  I wanted to do a trial run for another lap quilt I have basted and ready to quilt...more to follow in another post.

Happy Fall!

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

Purse Insert

If you like to sew bags you must check out Purse Palooza at Sew Sweetness.   One of the reviews was for the Lazy Girl Designs Suzi Purse Insert.  It looked like a great little project so I purchased the pattern on Craftsy and got to work.

The pattern is very well written with lots of pictures.  You need three fat quarters, one for the main inner and outer pieces, one for the outside pocket, and one for the inside pockets.  You can add up to four pockets with this pattern, one or two outside and one or two inside.  I used Pellon 809 Decor-Bond for the interfacing and it is very stable and stands up on its own.

I will definitely be making more of these for Christmas presents.  This is the medium size but the pattern also has a larger size as well. You don't have to use it for your purse, you can use it to store sewing supplies on your craft table!

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.

Mini Tree Skirt

My son loves Christmas (what kid doesn't) and was so upset when we took our tree down last year. To ease his pain we went out and got him his own small tree to keep up a little longer.  He started talking about it again a month ago, so I knew the little tree was going to be even more important to him this year.  I found some new mini lights a few weeks ago along with a gold star.  He came home from Grandma's today with an ornament...so I'm not sure we'll even make it to December before this tree comes out!

To make it special I decided to make a mini tree skirt.  I made a paper template of a 60 degree wedge and used three fabrics.  I cut a quarter sized circle in the center to make room for the trunk.  I used this tutorial for bias cut binding, a must when you have a circle (otherwise it won't lay flat.)  It's going to be super cute with the little tree.

Here it is in progress, so you can see how I put it together:

And finished:

Linking up with crazymomquilts.

Scrappy Pincushions

Another round of pincushions...can't get enough.  These are totally inspired by Amanda Jean from this post.  I used a five inch square of batting and stitched one inch strips right onto the square.  I used crushed walnut shells to fill and also used a layer of Pellon SF101 on the backing square.  I did quilt as you go on one pincushion and quilted a grid on the other two.  They finish up at around 4 inches.

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.

Small Finishes

It's finally starting to feel like Fall here in New York.  The light is changing and so are the trees.  I've been working on some small items this past few weeks, hoping to get some gifts together.  It's been fun having fast finishes.  Also good for using up some scraps.

A small doll quilt:

Some JETS mug rug/coasters for football season:

And a bunch of key fobs:

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.

LIMOD Improv Scrap Swap

My guild had a secret swap this summer where we all brought a bag of scraps, picked one and had to make anything we choose as long as it used improvisation.  The scraps I received were all Kaffe Fassett which I had never worked with before.  It was a real challenge not having a project in mind to start with.  I 'made' fabric using the scraps and sliced and re-sliced the fabric as I went.  Another challenge was that the scraps varied between warm and cool colors.  Once I had a few improv blocks put together I found a fabric that had the same color in all the blocks.  I decided on a table runner for the final project.

 I made a template in a straight line spiral and quilted each block in a different coordinating thread.

I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I love the improv blocks.  I'd like to go further next time on the layout/design of the project.  I think the blocks and runner make the project more traditional and it would be good to keep the improv style with the whole project, not just the block parts.

And here are my scraps in a totally improv design by Kim of Leland Ave Studios....my scraps never looked go good!

Look at this amazing piecing!

Thank you Kim!

Linking up with crazy mom quilts.