Cowboys!

I needed to create a baby quilt for a sweet little boy last week, and... you know, we don't do a lot of boy stuff around here! It's usually girly, girly, girly...

And I wanted to use my stash, so here's what I came up with.

I love those cowboys.

And I wanted it to be "monogrammed" but subtle, so I quilted the little guy's name into one of the blocks.

I especially like how well the clouds worked as a binding.

I have a lot of projects that I've neglected to blog about, so I'll be putting those up in the next few days.  Stay tuned!

Get thee to Target!

So I have 2 quilts I'm working on, and both have come from this palette.

I can't show them yet because they are both wedding gifts....  but stay tuned, cause they are fun!

The tops are pieced, so now I'm in the market for backings.

And today I ran across a DEAL I had to share:

Target has some sheets that are 100% cotton.  I got the set for $9.98 and I'm going to use the 2 sheets as backs for my 2 blue quilts.  That's less than $5 per backing, and I don't have to piece anything!  

(Happy Dance)

Also, it comes in this cute little velcro pouch:

I think I'm going to put straps on it to be a backpack for my 2-year-old.

And the pillowcase?  It's going to become a pillowcase dress for my 4-year-old.

Also, while I was there, I ran into this:

And since my 2-year-old is obsessed with all things elmo and the price was this:

he had to come home with me.  He's hiding in the closet until Christmas.

In case you're interested, here's the details on the sheet sizes. I'll use the top sheet for the larger quilt and then cut the elastic part off and use the fitted sheet for the smaller one.

Rainbow Melt

I saw this amazing rainbow idea here and knew I had to use it as a starting point.

But I didn't want a plain canvas!  I was going to use it in my sewing studio, which also doubles as my daughters' craft space.  So I figured out a way to combine those thoughts.....

I purchased 3 11" x 14" canvases in a pack for $5.47 at Wal-Mart.  They were not traditional canvas depth, they were mostly flat, which I liked.  And I liked the price. And I didn't want to make another stop, so into the cart they went!

I took a Sharpie and "took a line for a walk" around the canvas to break up the space.  And then in each one, I filled in a machine quilting design.  For inspiration, I trolled around Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project site and found lots of ideas!  {If you haven't seen Leah's work, it's amazing! She has wonderful instructions and videos for over 300 machine quilting designs.}

Just to save some time (and work) I marked off where the crayons were going to cover at the top and left that part blank.

I hot glued the crayons on.  Actually, before that I arranged them in approximate order.  My youngest daughter really wanted the white one on the left side (and she's 2, so I left it there!) so I put the black one on the left to balance it out.  All of these came out of a box of 64 crayons.

Then, the exciting part!  We got out the hair dryer, took it outside and melted it!

I love how it turned out!

Just a few tips in case you are going to try this:

It doesn't take long to get the wax to melt, and yes a hair dryer will work.

But it's messy.  And I don't say that lightly.  I am used to my projects making a big mess!

But the wax kind of flies around, so be aware of your clothes, your surface, your shoes, etc.  

They might get splattered.

what to do with orphan blocks?

I have amassed quite a collection of blocks without a home.  Extras I made, experiment blocks, blocks that didn't turn into quilts, blocks that got ripped out of quilts, etc.

I have seen some quilts in blogland where someone has just put all their orphan blocks together into a quilt and magically they look nice.  I am not sure that will be the case here.  I laid all of them out on the floor (I had more than I thought!) to kind of get an idea:

Now they are all different sizes.  Here's the possibilities I'm considering:

a.  realize it may not be cute and abandon idea.

b.  cut blocks into some set size.  put borders on smallest ones and cut largest ones down or into pieces

c.  assemble it like a jigsaw puzzle, leaving most of them the current size but cutting the biggest ones down into a few pieces to spread them out a bit.

What do you think?  Some of these blocks I'm a bit attached to.  There's pieces of my daughters' baby quilts in there, quilts I made for friends, etc.  I also thought about making some more blocks from scraps leftover from especially special quilts I've given away, thus allowing me to keep a little piece of that quilt.  But I'd like to hear your opinion.

Also, thanks for your feedback on garment making!  Thanks to your really excellent feedback, I now have a project in the works, and I'll be telling you more about it this week.

Spooky Cat Quilt

I have the privilege of showing you guys a quilt I machine quilted for Anita last week.
Please note: I didn't piece this quilt. I only quilted it.  I don't want to ever appear to take credit for someone else's work.
 Isn't it beautiful! She brought me such a cool piece to work on.  It was quite inspiring for me.

We decided on green thread that would match the wool eyeball applique.  Since the background varied a lot, I thought the green would be a happy medium.  Turns out it was a good choice!

I showed her a quick mockup of some quilting designs I thought would be nice for the background of the kitties.  The left is snail shells, and the right is eyeballs.

We went with the eyeballs, and as I was basting it, I decided to ask if we could do spiderwebs on the border.  And she thought that would be nice, so we were off and running!

Here's a closeup of one of the corners.  You can see that the eyeballs looked neat in the background, but I am awfully partial to the spiderwebs!

I liked how the green really popped on the different colors.

 The green and purple combo was my favorite.

 and I liked how the spiderwebs could be entangled in the corner applique.

All in all, it was fun.

and here's the finished piece.

Garment Sewing.

I stink at sewing garments.

But I've decided that I want to tackle this.  I really want to sew something I'd actually wear in public that is not a halloween costume (and if you've been a reader for a while, you know that sewing those has been a challenge!  Click here or here.

But I need some serious help.  Can you recommend something to try?  Maybe a blouse or a dress?
I like working with knits, but I'm cool with non-stretch too.   Please please leave me a link to a pattern you have tried that worked for you, or a blog post about a pattern, or any sort of suggestion you can offer.

I realize that most of you have never seen me in person.  Here's a post that actually includes a picture of me.  This might help in making suggestions for what I should sew to wear.

And I promise to chronicle it here so you all can enjoy my follies.

And I promise to wear whatever I make.  In public.  With pictures. {yikes}

My new sewing friend

We've added a second dog to our home.

Like our first one, he's a rescue dog.  He's yorkie-ish, and I was drawn to him because of his sweet personality with my kids and other dog.

But when we got him home, he appears to have a Great Love of Quilts.  He picked this one out immediately. One of the girls left him a unicorn on a stick to play with in case he got bored....

He also loves to chew on empty spools of thread.

Perfect dog for me, right?

Congrats to.....

Allison and Sallie on winning the fat quarters of DSQuilts dots.  Can't wait to see what you ladies come up with to use them!

And thanks to everyone who has participated in my giveaway.  And to everyone who is kind enough to follow my crazy antics!

300 followers!

I had intended to hand out some door prizes when I reached 300 followers... 

and then things got busy, and today we're at 317! 

I never dreamed anyone but my mom would read what I had to say on here, and I value you all very much!

{Hi Mom.}

So... leave a comment.  Tell me what you're working on, what you're doing this week, whatever you want to.  I have 2 fat quarters of this print from the DSQuilts collection to share with you.  

If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave an e-mail address so I can contact you.  I'll leave it open until Friday night.

Thanks for following!  

Confession...

 I hate trimming blocks.  It's my least favorite quilting activity.

But I do find the pile of tiny shards of blocks rather captivating!

And I love the progress I'm making on my polka dot quilt.

Posting at Moda Bake Shop

Hi friends! 

Last week I posted a tidbit of stuff to come, 

and I'm glad to tell you that my pattern is posting today at Moda Bake Shop!

Click on over and check it out!  And while you are there, will you please (PLEASE!) leave a comment?  Thanks ever so much.

If you wanted to make the same quilt larger, you could make it from 30 squares.
To do this, you'd need 2 3/4 yards sashing and 1/2 yard of binding.
Finished size would be approximately 65" x 73".
Make 5 columns of 6 blocks each.

And I wanted to show you what I made with the leftover layer cake squares as well.  You know, I can't just leave unused squares alone.... I had to create something.

a cute mom-around-town bag....

with a green zebra lining!

Keep watching, there's a (FREE) pattern on the way!

Patterns for sale!

I have a few patterns for sale on etsy.... please take a look!

This pattern is very easy.  It goes together quickly and makes an excellent gift for a baby or child.
Click to go to the etsy listing.

I so enjoyed creating this paper-pieced pattern!  Finished size is 43" x 50", and it makes a great small quilt or wall hanging.  All templates are included in the pattern.  Click here to go to the etsy listing.

Until the end of the week, receive 10% off any pattern purchase with the code MODABAKE.