hearts all around quilt

I had to squeeze in one more finished quilt before the end of the year.

I finished the top of this quilt this summer and since then I have debated adding borders to make it larger, but I decided to keep it as is. The finished size is about 36" x 36". The backing is solid cream, so it is a genuine 2 color quilt. It was hard to restrain myself to just those 2 colors, but I think that the results are stunning, so I am glad that I did. The curves are hand appliqued. (I am not good at it.)

It will be a wall hanging in little A's room after the walls are painted. (It was really hard to photograph since the colors are so light....double clicking on the photo might help.)

Hope you have a great and safe New Year's Eve.

sprucing up the house, part 4

Up until 2 days ago, my front window looked like this....(I'm not into the lace valances....)

so I sewed up some little panels and now I have some updated (and a bit loud, according to my husband) curtains.

here is a night time shot...
(do you have any idea how hard it is to photograph windows?)

This fabric is the perfect choice, since my walls are currently light blue and will eventually be a shade of red. The fabric is bangle dots by Alexander Henry. I love it.

I finished these curtains up an hour before my company arrived on Friday night. Gotta love a deadline!

I think this is the end of the sprucing up the house posts, at least for now. Thanks for all your kind comments. It's been fun to share it will all of you.

merry day after christmas

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Ours was pretty quiet...well as quiet as it gets with 3 kids. :) We stayed home and tried to keep things fairly laid back. The highlight of our day was going sledding as a family. We had so much fun. Even little A went (and loved) sledding. We had the perfect lazy snowfall for a good part of the day. It was magical.

Now that it is after Christmas, I can show you this funky quilt that I made for my friend Heather. I used the happy hour pattern and I would highly recommend it! I was able to sew the top together in a few hours. I think it took longer to cut out the pieces than it did to sew them back together.

I used mainly holly jolly fabrics from Moda with a few other random fabrics mixed in.

The backing...

and the binding! (oh, I love a striped binding....I can't figure out why I haven't done one before.)

And this is my favorite square.

I made this quilt from start to finish in one week.

The hardest part of making the quilt (besides keeping it a secret!!!) was to pick out 20 different fabrics that go together. Especially with these shades of red and green. Finding the backing fabric (on a budget) was also a bit distressing. But I am very happy with how it turned out. And so is Heather. Yay!

FYI...we are taking a week off from the quilt-a-long, so those of you who are behind can have a chance to catch up. I plan to post a block 7 next week. (maybe on Wednesday.)

Merry Christmas

Hope your day is filled with love and warmth.

spurcing up the house, part 3

Way back at the end of May when I finished this quilt, Anina asked, "What are you planning for the pillows?"

Here I am, 7 months later, with my answer.
The throw pillow is inspired by glittergoods.
The king sized shams are quilted, of course.



And here it is all together.
(I am grinning from ear to ear, I love it so!)

I promise the next post will be a picture of something besides a bed.

sprucing up the house, part 2

pillowcases made from a vintage sheet bought at an estate sale

I love the mix of vintage and modern. Now I am wondering what took me so long to get around to sewing these pillowcases. I think I was able to make all three in a few hours, which includes interruptions. These look so much better than the khaki and navy cases we were using before.

I used a wonderful tip from this tutorial while making these. Sew a quarter inch seam around the raw edge to use as a guide for ironing. Such a time saving tip! Thank you Chara Michele.

One thing that I can cross off my list.

sprucing up the house, part 1

We have family coming in a few days after Christmas and then for New Year's Eve, so we are scrambling to get the house in order before our guests arrive. It's good to have company coming to light that fire under your rear, as Mama Urchin put it in this post. We moved at the beginning of November and are still trying to settle in.

Last summer when I was walking with the kids we stopped into a thrift store and scored this fabulous metal bed for $20. (I talked them down from $25.) My husband wasn't quite as thrilled as I was at my fantastic deal. And that is putting it mildly. But how cute is it for my little girls room?

My original intent was to assemble the bed today so I could measure how large to make this quilt for her bed.
But lo and behold my pretty moda quilt, which is a queen size, works perfectly on this bed. I love it when things work out like that.

My little girl won't be using this bed for awhile, but at least it will be an extra bed ready for when our company arrives. And it can sit there and be pretty in the meantime.

More sprucing up the house tomorrow. Nothing like starting a blog series (and company coming) to keep ya' going. :)

quilt-a-long week 6

Welcome to week 6 of the quilt-a-long! Here are my first 6 blocks. (They are not sewn together.) I wanted to lay them out to see how they look, and I am thrilled with how pretty they look when they are together. I can't believe that I have waited this long to make a quilt with 30's fabrics...I'm loving them.

for this weeks block:

cut 8 squares 2" from your background fabric

cut 8 squares 3 1/2" from your background fabric

cut 8 squares 2" from a colored fabric

cut 4 squares 3.5" from a second colored fabric

layout as shown

sew together

and you have another block. (we're half done!)

happy quilting!

my list

as per your request from this post.
this is not my Christmas to do list, if you were wondering. :)

do you feel better about your own list now? erin?

tree

Well, I finally got the tree up today. The little hands in the house love it.
I like it, but I can't believe that I was really that country at one time.
My tastes have changed quite a bit.

This guy is my favorite.

This year at our house it is all about use what you have, do it yourself, eclectic, throw it together at the last minute Christmas. Fun times.

house of girls II

In seven years of quilting, this is my first charity quilt. About time, no? This is going to be donated to my church for the Women's Christmas Dinner Silent Auction, which is tonight. The quilt was finished last night around 11pm. (See, I can make a deadline once in awhile.)

It was improvisational pieced, again. All you need to do is take 2 pieces of pretty fabric, sew them together, press, add another piece of pretty fabric....on and on until the piece is big enough for a quilt. This type of piecing is so addictive! I recommend you try it sometime.

Polka dots are my favorite choice for the binding these days.

The backing is a heavier weight cotton purchased at Mill End last April while shopping with Roxanne. (It's good to be using up some of that stash.)

The quilt is a lap size, measuring about 55" x 70". It was quilted on my Juki, again with the meandering. (It's basically all I do anymore.)

And for those of you keeping track, this is #15 completed for the year. I hope to squeeze in a few more finished before the end of the year.

quilt-a-long, week 5

Welcome to week 5 of the quilt-a-long. Have I told you lately how excited I am that y'all are quilting along with me? It makes me so very happy....thank you! I am so appreciative that you have taken an interest in this project. And those of you who are using your stash get extra points. (hee hee)

This was going to be the block for today...I tried to do something simple and quick because I am busy and I am sure you are busy, too. But once it was finished, I thought it looked a little too familiar.

It is basically the same block as week #1, just a different way of putting it together.
So, I tried again. (oy!) Maybe I can laugh about this tomorrow.



Lets get on with it, shall we?

cut 4 squares 2 7/8" from the background fabric

cut 16 squares 2.5" from the background fabric

cut 5 squares 2.5" from 2 different fabrics, for a total of 10 squares

from a different fabric, cut 2 squares 2 7/8" and one square 2.5"

and from another fabric cut 2 squares 2 7/8" and one square 2.5"
mark all 4 of your 2 7/8" background squares with a pencil on the diagonal on the wrong side of the fabric. pin together one background and one colored square right sides together.

sew on each side of the line a quarter inch. do this for 4 sets of squares....

press open and you should have 4 squares of each fabric,
for a total of 8 half square triangle blocks

layout your block as shown

sew together

and you should have this...repeat for the other block...

now, for the nine patches

layout as shown

sew together

and you should have 2 nine patch blocks


(that was easier than the first two, wasn't it?)

layout as shown

sew together

and here is your completed block...it should measure 12.5".

as always, any questions will be answered in the comments.
if you have joined in and I haven't added your name in the sidebar, send me a quick email and I will add it. :)