Sunday Sewing

My littlest got her big girl bed a few weeks ago and requested pink and orange pillowcases.  We made her pillowcases together this morning.

She was very excited to do a big girl thing like sewing.   When I bought her pillowcase fabric I found this great elephant fabric by Dear Stella and picked some up to make pillowcases for both girls.  My girls are elephant obsessed.

Christmas Quilting

I finished the last quilt in the nick of time for Christmas, sewing the last bit of binding to the quilt around 9:30 on Christmas Eve...talk about cutting it close!  Below is a photo of my Dad with the quilt.  To say he loved it was an understatement.

 

 

There is a grey ribbon appliqued to the corner of each of the quilts that I made for my family.  We are all in this battle called brain cancer together.  For those that don't know, my Dad was diagnosed with Glioblastoma in March 2013...to say this year has been rough is an understatement.  Our world as we know it was forever changed with the diagnosis.  My life is lived in 8 week increments, from one brain scan to the next.  I love my Dad so much and it makes my heart hurt so much that he (and the rest of us) have to go through this, but we are in this together; hence the matching quilts with the ribbons.  

Below is a photo of my Mom and Dad, my brother, my sister and I.  I have started my version of the quilt but didn't get it finished in time for Christmas.  I am hoping to finish it on New Years Day while my hubby watches football and my girls are with my parents.  My sister was very excited to "make the blog."

This is my Dad and my youngest N.  They are buddies...always have been and always will be. 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

Absent blogger but for good reasons

I have been a busy, busy bee the last few weeks and since I have no idea who in my family reads my blog, I haven't been able to blog about anything.

All I have to say is that I am so so happy to have pulled it off this year.  I ended up super sick right before thanksgiving and it lingered and lingered...turned into an ear infection, sinus infection, a bought of the stomach bug and deviated septum surgery and I am just starting to feel a little better.  

I just finished sewing the binding on my last quilty Christmas gift (more about the quilts later).  Here is a sneak peak...

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Another quilt top finished

I finished up another flimsy this morning.  I am making 4 quilts for my side of the family that are all nearly identical.  I have added grey ribbons to the bottom of the quilt for the battle that we are fighting with my Dad and brain cancer.  I am hoping to get this one basted and quilted tonight.

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

New Neice

My brother and sister-in-law just had a baby on Sunday.  I love my nephews, but I am so excited to finally have a niece.  My Grandma always knitted hats and booties for my girls and my cousins' children when they were born.  She now has dementia and can't do this any more.  I have all her old knitting and crochet stuff and used a pattern that she purchased years ago (it was $0.39) and made Kinley a hat, booties and little mittens.  My sister-in-law has since asked me to make Kinley another hat which I am going to whip up over Thanksgiving.

Back in the saddle

My nephew turned 2 last week and is obsessed with fish.  The blue fish are made with fabric from his baby quilt and the crabs are fabric from his Christmas present.  Needless to say he loved it!

                                   

Trying to get a photo of him in the shirt was near impossible...he's 2 and on the go.

 

 

Another Scrappy Finish

I had leftover 10 inch squares from this quilt and wanted to do something with them.  I have decided that if I have scraps when I finish a project and they lend themselves to making another quilt, I am going to make it as soon as possible...it will help with my fabric hoarding stash.

 

The quilt has 42-6 inch half square triangles and stretched my Type A need for organization/symmetry tendencies.  I love the slightly random look of the blocks and splashes of orange.  I did have to have 2 solid white squares because I ran out of colored 10-inch squares. 

 

I have extra "oranges" back ground that I have on the hangar for the backing.  Binding is made up with leftover orange fabric.  This quilt is the perfect baby size. 

Scrappy Quilt Finish

I was organizing my sewing room (aka trying to find my copy of Simply Retro that I misplaced) and I found a bunch of strips for 25 patch blocks leftover from this quilt.  I decided to sew up the blocks to see if I had enough to make a baby quilt.  I only had to add in 4 squares of fabric to make the needed 20-25 patch blocks for the quilt front. 

 

Next came the backing and I may have a slight obsession with Me and My Sister Designs fabric when making quilts for baby girls.  I went through my scraps and found leftovers from several quilts which allowed me to 100% piece the backing.  There are fabrics from at least four different quilts including this one, this one, this one and this one. 

I'm even going to be able to use up scraps of batting that I have sitting around and leftover binding from another quilt.  It feels so good to use what I have to make a fun quilt that will either wait for a little girl to enter into out friend/family circle or it will be donated.

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

Alpha Phi Red Dress Quilt 2013 is Finished!

The Red Dress Gala is tomorrow evening raising money for the Alpha Phi Foundation, an organization that is near and dear to my heart.  I have served as the Chapter Advisor for the Alpha Chapter for 5 years and this is the third quilt I have donated to the auction.  Last year the quilt raised almost $500 for the Alpha Phi Foundation.  I am hoping that this one raises a boatload of money as well. 

The quilt was made with Kona solids in white, orange and marine.  It was quilted with white, dark orange and yale blue thread by coats and clark (not my usual, but in a bind I have used the 100% cotton with no issues).  The backing is Good Morning by Me and My Sister Designs in Bow Dots Orange.  I linked up to the tutorial I used for the pattern in an earlier post and I strongly recommend using Best Press when making this pattern as everything is on the bias.

 

The quilt measures 60x72.

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.



It's a flimsy!!!!

'twas a pile of 10 inch squares Monday morning and tonight it's a flimsy!!  Basting Wednesday and quilting Thursday...binding Friday and auctioning Saturday.

 

 

Solid Chevrons

As I have previously mentioned I am a chapter advisor for a sorority and our annual Red Dress Gala is this weekend.  I have had stacks of solids cut for about 2 months but have been so busy with work, exams for work and back to school that I haven't touched this quilt in awhile.

I started back at it yesterday morning and have 3 rows sewn together and another 6 rows pinned and ready to be sewn.  The quilt is 10 half square triangle blocks wide and I'm thinking it will be 12 rows long...pretty decent sized.

                                            

Once all this rain goes away I'll take some better photos and here's hoping I make the Saturday deadline.  The colors are all Kona solids...white, marine and orange.  Starch has definitely been my friend with all the bias edges :)  I used this tutorial.

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday

 

WIP Wednesday

This stack of lovelies is ready to be sewn together into blocks for another L7 quilt for Christmas.

                                          

 

Twins are Complete

I finished sewing the binding on to this quilt today and just threw it into the washer to get it all crinkly and cozy before I wrap it up.  The quilt was made with scraps from this quilt with the pinwheels being leftover/orphan blocks from the quilt.  I am excited to get this washed and wrapped up for Christmas!  Hopefully the recipients will love their twins.

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

Block #4

I finished block #4 this past week.  It came together pretty easily...there was some seam ripping but that is because I didn't fully rad the instructions for piecing the smaller triangles together. No big deal :)

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.

Reaching out

My quilting blog "family" was the first to know about my Dad's cancer.  It was an outlet for me without my Dad knowing that I was telling the world.

My Dad has had some set backs recently that necessitate modifications to their home and when the primary bread winner can't work due to brain cancer, finances are quickly strapped.  My siblings and I help out as much as we can, but we are all young and all put ourselves through college...in other words we owe the federal government now for student loans leaving very little extra money.  

My Dad is the kind of man who would do anything for anyone anytime and now he needs help.  I fell so weird doing this, but want to spread the word because every dollar helps.  If you can't donate, please lift him up in prayer.

http://www.gofundme.com/4ak7og

Thank you for being my "ears" throughout this process.

WIP

I have the backing ironed and ready to be pieced for another Christmas present!

 

Third Birthday

We just celebrated a third birthday at our house and the birthday girl requested a pink and orange quilt and a bed for her baby.  Even though I made her a quilt, it is second fiddle to a gorgeous pink, orange, yellow and red quilt that her Nancy Nancy gave her (she can't say or chooses not to say Auntie Nancy).  I will have to snap it from her bed at take some photos because it is gorgeous!

 

Over the summer we went to an estate sale and found this great doll cradle for $8.  It was a God awful shade of yellow and in need of a few screws, but otherwise was in great condition and it looks exactly like our oldest's doll cradle which was my great-great-great aunt's.  I painted the cradle bright pink and orange per the birthday girl's request and purchased some craft foam to make a mattress.  

 

 

 The cradle sheet is made out of a Kate Spain fabric from the Honey Honey line.  It is perfect...pink and orange!

There were scraps leftover from the quilt that I made so I trimmed them down into 2.5 inch wide strips and made a doll quilt to go with the cradle using the jelly roll race method.  It turned out super cute and I had enough scraps to make the front and the back of the quilt. 

 

Next came the birthday girl's quilt.  It was a bunch of blocks on Monday and her birthday was Sunday.  I finished piecing it on Tuesday and quilted it Friday night.  I bound the quilt in the car on the way to my parent's house and again on the way home.  I was able to give the birthday girl her quilt on the night of her birthday.  I used the free pattern over at Moda Bakeshop, but modified it to make the quilt wider (I added 2 extra rows).  There was a ton of extra fabric leftover which allowed me to make the quilt wider. 

 

The pattern utilizes a dessert roll and came together very quickly.

The backing is the same great pink and orange from her doll cradle.  The quilt was made using a dessert roll of Honey Honey and some white yardage.  I ended up using a Cuzco print for the binding because the birthday girl wanted orange (her favorite color). 

 

She loved her quilt and has it in her bedroom.  She is not currently sleeping with it because her great Aunt made her a pink and orange quilt as well and put a Hungry Caterpillar (her favorite book) tag on it.

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.