It's finally done!!

The moment everyone has been waiting for. The Little Folks quilt is done!!!

When I started this blog I had never quilted anything and hadn't sewn much. I had just moved to a new place where I knew no one, couldn't find a job, and was broke. I needed something to fill the time. Up until around that point, I had been primarily knitting, which I still love but is pretty hard on the hands and lacks....the same instant gratification of sewing. I started really because I figured I could make instead of buy a lot of things. Then my cousin was having a baby, and I figured I could sew a blanket for the baby. So I did, and even though it was very very far from perfect, I kinda liked it. A lot.

And then, I really discovered quilting blogs. That opened up a whole world of possibilities. In particular, I discovered Anna Maria Horner, both her blog and her fabrics. And I fell in love. This was while Good Folks was really popular, but before I could scrounge up enough money to buy it, it was pretty much gone. I was actually really sad about it.

And then came little folks. Beautiful, yes, but voile so I was hesitant. I am not exactly an experienced quilter so I was a bit scared. And being voile, the colors weren't quite as vibrant due to the sheerness so i was initially unsure of how much I would like it, but it turns out I seriously love it. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: log cabins! I had never made a log cabin block before, but this post convinced me. It was also one of the main reasons I was so stinking obsessed with good folks. I looked into quilting with voile and found a bunch of people making beautiful quilts with this line. In June I decided to just go for it and I ordered 2 fat quarter bundles in different colorways. This voile is amazing. I was still scared to quilt with it, but I shouldn't have been. It's just awesome, this stuff just feels amazing, so soft and silky.

I was also about to have a baby. Like any day. And I didn't want to start sewing and then have to stop for an undetermined amount of time. So I just cut it out and it sat in a pile screaming at me to be made into a pretty quilt. I decided on 12" blocks, with a 4" center and 2" strips. The pattens are laid out randomly, and I just love it. The back is marine from the pastry line, with a double strip of squares I had left over, and it is bound in pastry line voile in magenta . Using warm and white batting really helped keep the colors nice and bright. I did straight line quilting as usual, and did a big grid following all the seams. It works, but it is probably a little much. Thankfully it doesn't really mess with the lovely drape, the fabric just doesn't seem to get stiff. It is all washed and dried and crinkly and lovely. It is such a lightweight blanket, perfect for cool summer evenings of snuggles. I just don't want to share it or let anyone else use it haha.

And now a couple of pictures. The sun washes out the colors some, but that's okay. I would have more detail shots but the bees were out in force and I hate bees.



It is definitely a happy blanket. And in it I can see a lot of improvement in my piecing and quilting, and that is always a good thing :)

Mug Rug

Okay, first of all, I'm just going to go ahead and say it: mug rug sounds dirty.

Now that we got that out of the way, they are apparently all the rage haha. When I was trying to figure out 1. what to do with my scraps from my little folks quilt and 2. what to make for a friend who was promised something crafty, I thought a little mug rug would be perfect. It would use scraps and give me a nice quilt sandwich to practice my quilting on for the big one. Consequently, I made it a square, roughly 9" I believe, and just did a slightly smaller version of the log cabin blocks from the quilt. She happens to drink a lot of coffee and this is just the perfect size for a mug and a scone (or something equally delicious). It is double sided because, well why not?





It was a little difficult trying to line up the seams front and back, but I made it work. I tried some straight line quilting in each of the logs and a free motion flower thing in the center. It worked alright, the flower came out better than I expected, but the lines were a bit of a problem since the front and back were going different directions....I didn't think that through when I made them. It turned out I didn't like the detached lines much anyway and settled on a different quilting design for the big quilt, but it was good to find it out this way. I really loved quilting the voile actually, but more gushing on that when the big one is done. I am so close! Hopefully in the next couple days it will be finished being bound and get washed and ready for some couch snuggling.

a new skill

I am so close to done work I can taste it. One more full day of work and then 3 days of wrap up stuff and I am free! Let me tell you, I just can't wait. The house is sadly neglected and the list of things I want to do/make is just sky high, so I can't wait to get going on that. Soon, very soon.

Anyhoo, I did learn a new skill during this work season. I can crochet!! Well kinda, anyway. I have a somewhat larger crochet project in the works, but I don't exactly know when that will be done. I did, however, find something super cute that I wanted to make while perusing pinterest one day (seriously, obsessed). It is a knotted headband and really, it is a crocheted chain. 2 technically. I am pretty sure my mom taught me how to make a chain ages ago, but my new crochet lessons refreshed it. My biggest roadblock in making this was that, believe it or not, I didn't own a hot glue gun haha. Luckily, my office happens to be 2 doors down from an A.C. Moore so that was easily remedied :) And of course once I got one done, I just had to make a second one for a friend (she loves hers too in case you were wondering). Mine came out a bit thinner than the pattern since I used what I already had. And since I was using a different size hook and weight yarn, I just read through the pattern and eyeballed the length I needed. It didn't matter if it was too long since it got cut down anyway. I like the thinner look though and I used some of my cotlin yarn scraps, and I just love that yarn.






It was super quick, simple project and I just love it. I want to wear it all the time. It is not perfect, I had some trouble perfecting the hot gluing of the ends, but it works.

And now to go enjoy my day off...even though I still have to run to the office. 4 more days!

Baby Girl Quilts

A very dear lady at work became a grandmom last week. A couple of weeks ago someone announced they would be collecting money for a gift for her daughter and I immediately thought, hey, we could make her a quilt and called my quilting partner in crime. Was this an entirely sane thing to do? No, not really. Getting things done on a deadline while working right now, not so easy, but whatever. Will it be worth it to know that this baby has such beautiful blankets to lounge on? Totally.

Originally, we were going to go to Joanns, pick out some fabrics and make a strip quilt similar to my pink and brown one. Simple enough. Then, I made the mistake of looking at fabric online to get ideas. In my searching, I found the Lily and Will by Bunny Hill Designs in pink and fell in love. Pink and brown? Yes please! And bunnies too! A jelly roll seemed just the thing to make a pretty strip quilt and have a nice variety of fabrics. But surely we could get two quilts out of a jelly roll! And so the plotting continued. I had been wanting to make another stacked coins quilt ever since I saw one with different (read: better) quilting, and this seemed just the opportunity.



The jelly roll came with 40 strips and we used 17 to make the stacked coins quilt and the other 23 for the strip quilt. I already had the ivory for the sashing and enough batting so we just needed backing and binding which we decided would be opposite for each. I made the stacked coins quilt, quilted both and bound them. All straight line quilting, across each strip about 1/2" from the bottom for the one quilt, and the other has straight lines down the sashing. It took 3 pretty intense nights to get them bound, but they are now finished, washed and wonderful.



We love the way they came out and just can't wait to give them. (if only the pictures did them justice....stupid lack of sunny days...). Hopefully they will be loved and enjoyed. I actually love them so much I would be happy to keep them, but I am pretty sure I have enough quilts and with so many more planned, I can handle parting with these two :)

So that crosses those off my list. Actually I had to add them to my list just so I could cross them off since it was really just me getting side tracked. I am still trucking away at some other things. Believe it or not, I am actually 1/4 of the way done quilting my little folks quilt. I love it more with every step of the process. More on that later.

Still Alive

And crafting if you can believe it. I don't yet have any pictures to show for it, ya know, since the one thing I have totally finished I forgot to take a picture of before I gave it away, but that's alright.

The point is, I have not been swallowed by work, and actually have been busy making quite a few things. I have....6 things in progress....I think 6, at least that's how many I can think of. With any luck, 3 of them will be finished very soon. I can't wait until the end of April when I can really get down to business again, but I'm doing alright all things considered.

I guess that's really all I have to say. I just thought it was time for a check-in here. In the meantime, are you familiar with pinterest? I am obsessed. And I am almost sorry for sharing the addiction. Almost. Have fun and I'll be back soon with pretty things :)

Curtains for the little one

A few weeks ago (maybe a month now actually) we moved the little lady into her crib in her room. Our nights are still pretty rough, but they are really no worse than when she was sleeping with us and now we have the added bonus of better sleep when we get it. Anyway, I thought that maybe if we blocked more of the light from outside, it would help her sleep, and so the search for light-blocking curtains began. Do you know how freaking expensive blackout curtains are?!?!? Maybe some would disagree, but I was not prepared to spend $30 per panel for boring, plain curtains. So I checked Joanns and found that insulating blackout lining is only $6/yard and I had a 50% off coupon. Thus it was decided; I was making some curtains.

Of course then followed the dilemma of what fabric to use. We tossed around a lot of ideas and finally decided that if we could find an inexpensive sheet set, that would be the way to go. I looked through many sites sale bedding section and finally found Pottery Barn Teen. They have such cute, colorful things! As luck would have it, they had a beautiful bold floral sheet set on sale. I was able to get 2 twin sets for $22 each which gave me enough fabric not only for the 4 curtain panels, but I still have a flat sheet left over to use as a quilt back! And some pillow cases!


I made them pretty simple, and just did some tabs across the top. I added a strip of solid color at the top and bottom to....I guess ground the large pattern better. They are definitely more girly than I usually go, but I really like them. I made the front a couple inches bigger around and then folded it over to meet the back and then over again and topstitched around. It keeps they laying nice and I didn't have to worry about flipping the lining right side out and trying to get it to behave.



They are not perfect, but they work and they look nice. Somehow they consumed the better part of my weekend even though they were a pretty simple project, but they are done and I am so glad to have that one off the to-do list. It was definitely one of those projects that needed to be done but was not on the list of things I really wanted to be working on. So there you have it, much cheaper and cuter than what I could have bought and so far the darkness seems to be helping with sleep.


And now, I'm off to play in the mountains of snow (or, ya know, large piles) that got dumped upon us last night and then curl up in a blanket with some hot chocolate. Amazingly enough, it is our first big snow storm in a long time, state of emergency and all. We'll see how the little one feels about snow :)

Little Folks peek

It happened. An opportunity presented itself and I took it. And now I am super busy and will remain so for the next 7ish weeks. I keep reminding myself that in reality, I am not losing much crafting time since I had so little to begin with. I will just slowly keep trucking away and working on things when I can. Today I got a little time and made some binding and got some curtain fabric cut out for the little one and hopefully I will actually get to sew the curtains this weekend....since she really needs them.

Anyway, I thought I would share a peek at what I am working on. These are two quilt tops that are finished out of my Little Folks fabric. I love them. A lot. The top is the log cabin quilt I had been waiting to make since June when I got and cut the fabric and then I made a smaller baby size patchwork quilt out of the scraps. And actually I think I have enough little pieces to make a small mug rug perhaps to test out my quilting idea :) But we'll have to see about that. I hope that by the time I have time to make some more things in a couple of months, the sun will be shining more and the pictures will be prettier. I have the tops done, and the back of the big one done and the binding made, I just need time to baste and quilt it so maybe I'll find a spare weekend day for that in the next couple of weeks.


I am hoping that I have enough time to get some things done and can post once a week or so over the coming weeks, which I guess is not really that much less than I was doing before. We'll see if that actually works out, but I am sure going to try. My sanity would very much appreciate some time to work every week, so I'm going to do my best. And someday my child will be less needy and might even nap and then...oh the possibilities. Oh my I'm a dreamer....