Embroidery 101 - A finish

It is done! Not only done, but gone to it's new home too! I didn't get to do much in the way of sewing this weekend, but I did manage to finish up the binding on this Friday so I could send it to it's new home Saturday. It was a pretty great weekend. A day-long date on Saturday was a lot of fun; a bit of shopping, a lunch date, a movie, and a bit more shopping before having a great dinner/dessert with my sister and baby girl :) It definitely put me in the mood to get a lot done this week. Of course today is the only day I have to make a couple little valentine's day gifts for tomorrow so I hope I can manage to get that done.

Anyway, on to the quilt! I started this one in the fall. Well it has been on my list since the QAL over at Clover and Violet this past summer, but I found the fabric while quilt shop hopping in October and had all the blocks together in November I think, and then they sat, waiting to be embroidered. I am glad I finally made myself take the time to do it. It was so much fun. I loved learning all the stitches and I'm so happy with how it turned out. My blocks are a bit small since I pre-washed my fat quarters so they weren't quite 18" so instead of 3" strips mine were all 2.75" giving me 16" finished blocks. I added some 2" sashing (4" on the outside) to bring it up to a 60" square. I quilted straight lines to the side of each seam and I love how it came out. I'd love to tell you what the fabrics are, but I'm not sure. I know the blocks are mostly from the Central Park line and the sashing/back/binding is from the DS quilts lines at Joanns.

This was a quilt I never intended to keep, although I wasn't sure for a while exactly who it was going to. It is delivered and loved though. And I am glad to have my second quilty finish for 2012. Now I just need to get one done start to finish this year instead of finishing up last years haha. I am on my way though, my ikea quilt is almost ready for basting! This week for sure. And now, I better go think loving thoughts and get some gifts done for tomorrow :)

Embroidery 101: blocks 4-9

I must be crazy...crazy productive that is! As of last week, I had 4 embroidery 101 blocks finished. This weekend I went into overdrive and finished the other 5! That is correct, all 9 blocks are finished, thanks mostly to some quality movie time. And I am hoping to have a quilt top by the end of the day. We'll see about that, but I'm going to try. I even think I know what I am going to use for the back, but I still have to go get it so it is subject to change.

I had a good time working on these. For the last one I did change it up and do a back stitch instead of a stem stitch for the outline because I do hate stem stitch a little bit, and the second to last one I skipped the satin stitch for the sake of time/thread/sanity. Oh, and my coral stitch - terrible. But I love how they all came out. So here they are, blocks 4-9.

I can't wait to see this all together. I really want to get this one done and out of the way to clear out some space. I have far too many things (quilts mostly at this point) just sitting around waiting to be made so I am hoping to put some energy into that over the next month or so. I am pretty excited about it, I just need to keep the momentum going.  Now if I want this quilt to together today, I best get to work!

Embroidery 101: blocks 1-3

I am finally really working on it. My embroidery 101 quilt that is. This quilt along was run over at Clover and Violet over the summer and it was on my to-do list even then. I put together the blocks ages ago and never got around to doing the embroidery part, but now it is on my finish-by-the-end-of-the-month list. The problem was that I was saving it as a project to work on at night while sitting around watching things, but there were too many other things to do instead. So I've been spending some afternoons working on it. Now that I am into the 4th block, I thought I would share the first 3. I am really loving them so far.

At this point, I have done: backstitch, french knot, running stitch, satin stitch, lazy daisy, and stem stitch. I'm not great at all of them, but I'm working on it. My satin stitch has gotten worlds better! Here they are!

I am just loving it! I don't know what I am going to do with this one yet, I have a few people in mind to give it to, so we'll see. I think today I'll be trying to finish up number 4. With a bit of luck, this weekend I'll get caught up on skill builder blocks, make some slippers and keep embroidering. And at this rate, I only need a few more movie nights to finish my Farmer's Wife quilt! Happy Weekend!

handmade holidays {2011}

How was your Christmas? Mine was exhausting but great :) We had a great time with lots of family, stuffing ourselves full of yummy things and running between houses. Now we are finally home and getting settled back in and I thought it was time to share the remaining handmade gifts from this year. Most of my pictures are a bit blurry since I had to take them at night before I wrapped them if I wanted pictures.

I decided at the last minute to make 2 aprons, one for my mother-in-law (she requested one) and one for my sister. I used some tea towels I had been saving for just such an occasion. My mother-in-law got a full length apron using this tutorial. The only problem was that I used another towel for the ties so they are a bit short, but it works. I also should have topstitched the ties. I don't love it, but she does and that is what matters.

My sister got a half apron because it was just so cute I had to. Tutorial here.

I also made her a scarf (which I don't have a picture of) and an emmy clutch (oh man do I love these! what a great pattern!). I used 2 DS fabrics from Joanns and I lovelovelove the outer one.

For my hubby, I made an e-reader case (no picture, it didn't come out well....it didn't really fit it so I'll have to try again) and a really sweet laptop case. It all started with the robot fabric for the lining. It took me quite a while to embroider those robots on the outside, but it was so worth it. I really love it and so does he :)

I also gave 3 quilts, a christmas quilt for my grandparents, swoon quilt for my parents, and the star quilt for Edie.  Not too bad. I love making Christmas gifts. So much that I am already planning for next year. Is that crazy?? I just thought of things after the fact that people would really like. I guess I'll have to make a list....and not lose it! If I am lucky I will slip things in all year and not be so crunched in December.

I'll probably be popping in again this week. I am hoping to finish cleaning up my to-do list before the new year, but clearly my days are limited. That's okay though. New Years is my favorite so I'll be looking forward to it even if I still have a pile of things taller than me to do :)

Merrylegs --the pillow!

So the other day I went crazy and made the entire pillow in a naptime. It was crazy and awesome. I love making small things like this, it just goes so quick. This is one of those things that I designed in my head and then just couldn't wait to make.

Anyway, the fabric is a combination of the leftovers from the doll and some scraps from a quilt that a friend made her and she graciously gave me. They blend well together even though the doll has blue and the quilt has aqua. Each square is 2.5 inches and the circle is 6". I put the patchwork together and then sandwiched it and did a couple of quilting lines and then sewed the circle on. I decided for the circle to sew it to another piece of white all the way around and then cut a slit and pull it through. I thought that made the raw edge issue much easier to deal with.


The back is a pillow case from the set I bought for my little ones curtains. That way the edges were finished, although I did add some binding to the outside edge because it was pretty and I'm glad I did, I like it a lot. The bravest thing I did was add piping, and as annoying and imperfect as it is, it really makes the pillow. It was actually leftover piping from when I ripped the seams out of the ikea pillow case I used to make the birthday dress and it was pretty uneven, but the color was so perfect I decided not to care. Consequently, the piping is sewn in really close in some places and not in others and the white basting stitches that hold the piping part in are pretty obvious in a lot of spots. I actually ended up basting the piping in place before I put the pillow together so I didn't have to worry about it moving and it worked well.


I love it and I hope my little friend does too. Now I want to make pretty quilted pillows for my house....I suppose I do need to cover one more couch pillow....haha I guess I'll add it to the list.

Embroidery!

I finally took the plunge and tried my hand at embroidery. I love it!! It is really like coloring with thread. I had been wanting to learn and even got Doodle Stitching for christmas and had been waiting to have time to try it out. Well the hubs has been gone all weekend so I decided to give it a go after the little one went to bed. It went pretty well for a first attempt. Some of my french knots could use a little help (they are a bit loopy), but other than that, I impressed myself.

This is the merrylegs design that came with the pattern in the Fat Quarterly Holiday 2010 issue, and I wanted to make it for one of the girls I gave the doll to. She loves her doll and takes it everywhere so I thought it would be nice. I tried to have it coordinate with the doll, using the same colors and whatnot. It's pretty close and I'm quite proud. I am planning on making this into a pillow and I am super excited. Hopefully I can get it done this week (since her birthday is in 2 weeks) but we'll see since I am in the midst of a lot of birthday prep for my little one. I am just about done her 4th of July dress so now it's on to the birthday dress and the rest of the decorations! So much to be done!