Thursday, October 24, 2013

"Be Creative" Mini Quilt + Blogger's Quilt Festival

I only have this one photo of this little beauty for now, but I thought I'd share anyway.

"Be Creative" Dresden Mini Quilt

This little mini quilt has been over a year in the making.  I was inspired by this quilt by Bijou Lovely (hey, she told me to be inspired).

I tried to "Be Creative" with the quilting on this one.  I used superfine 100wt silver thread from invisafil for the quilting, which is a combination of free-motion and straight line.  Each design is different, and while I used some designs I've repeated often I tried a few new ones as well.  That woodgrain quilting is my first ever attempt.

While the mini quilt might not be perfect, it makes me happy having it hanging on the wall above my computer.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Dresden plate, inspired by this quilt by Bijou Lovely
Fabrics: Various prints from my stash, Essex linen in Natural, Kona Indigo
Quilted: By me on my home machine with 100wt invisafil thread in silver
Dimensions: 24" x 24"
Completed: October 2013

And hey, why not?  I'm entering this little quilt in the mini quilt category of the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

AmysCreativeSide

Penny's Quilt + Blogger's Quilt Festival

AmysCreativeSide


I have a quilt to share with everyone today that I'm really excited about.

You could even say that this quilt was 9 months in the making..... but not really.

Here it is..... Penny's quilt

Penny's Quilt

This is the quilt I made my daughter Penelope.  It's definitely the showcase of her woodlands-themed nursery and everything else in the nursery evolves around it.  This is my baby quilt entry for the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Penny's Quilt

I love the colors.  SO bright and fun without reading either "boy" or "girl".  The fabric inspiration was the "Fox Hollow" line by Monaluna (which I used in the border and the centers of the dresdens),  paired with five different more basic prints.

Penny's Quilt
For the pattern I was inspired by this quilt by Melissa of Polka Dot Chair, but I wanted the border to be a little more fun and show off the different prints in the Fox Hollow line, and I wanted to frame the quilt a little more so I added in the gingham piping between the center panel of the quilt and the border.  It gives the quilt such fun dimension.

Penny's Quilt

I chose the fabric placement for the centers of the dresdens very purposefully.  The center of the large dresden has a frog under a flower because Penny's daddy's nickname as a child was "Toad".  The smallest dresden has a little gnome poking out of his stump house because gnomes are mommy's favorite.  The mid-sized dresden has a momma fox being followed by her two babies, with a papa fox watching, because the fox family reminds me of our family (though of course we only have one child so far).


Penny's Quilt

For the quilting, I didn't want to distract too much from the quilt top, but I did want to add a lot of free motion quilting, so I did things a little differently.... I had two layers of batting and quilted the top and back separately.  It gives the quilt a heavier weight, but since I was using fairly thin cotton batting it worked out well.  On the quilt top there's quilting around each square in the border and each spike in the dresdens.  I used the blanket stitch on my sewing machine.  The look it gives each dresden plate is fantastic.

Penny's Quilt

The back is quilted in an allover design with flowers.  It was quite fun to do once I got the hang of it. Once I had the back and front quilted individually I did some quilting that tied the whole quilt together.

Penny's Quilt

I love it and I hope it's something Penny can treasure when she's older. She was kind of cranky when I was taking these photos so she's not in any of them, but I hope to get a shot or two of her on the quilt tomorrow to share with everyone.

edited 10/25/13: The photoshoot was well worth the wait.  While I had 200+ mediocre photos of a blurry baby, all the shots were worth it to get this one perfect shot of my little girl.

Penny & Her Quilt

 She's still a little blurry and the quilt is slightly out of focus, but that smile is to die for.  (And yes, she's wearing the little mini dirndl I made her for Halloween, but I'll post about that in a few days).

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: Loosely adapted from this pattern by Melissa of Polka Dot Chair
Fabrics: Various Fox Hollow by Monaluna prints + basics in red, green, and blue
Quilted: By me on my home machine
Dimensions: 36" x 46"
Completed: March 2013

Thanks for looking, and please think of Penny's quilt (and my baby's perfect little smile) when it comes time to nominate your favorite baby quilt!

To check out my 2012 entry in the Blogger's Quilt Festival that took "favorite hand quilted quilt" check out this post.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

WIP Wednesday 10-23-13

Ever since posting my 4th quarter list of finishes for the 2013 Finish-A-Long I've been plugging away at items from my list.

Progress I've made so far:

Goal #2: I've labeled 1 quilt

Goal #3: I've narrowed my fabric selections down, but I've also realized I need more lavender prints so I'm waiting on those

But I do need some input: Which looks better, background #1 or background #2?

Goal #4: Paper pieces for EPP all cut and ready to go

Goal #11: Quilting completed, now just need to purchase and sew on binding


And then from my list of other goals (but not WIP goals) I've made a lot of progress on the Halloween costume for the Babe that will also double as an outfit for Oktoberfest. 




This is my hack of the Geranium dress by Made by Rae.  I still need to add snaps in the back, hem it, and add elastic to the sleeves to make them puffy sleeves... but I need to actually try these on Penny before I do all that.  I also need to sew an apron for it.

Over the weekend my husband and I took Penny out to Oak Grove, CA to go pumpkin picking.  It was a beautiful day, and we had a terrific time.





Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Let's Get Some Stuff Finished!

she can quilt

Let's Get Some Stuff Finished!

I've been busy burning the midnight oil staying up after putting the babe to sleep working on getting pouches made and up for sale in my Etsy shop (see details here), but now that they're up I need to get serious and finish up some of my WIPs.  While I'm working on finishing WIPs, I thought I'd join the final quarter of the 2013 Finish-A-Long with Leanne of She Can Quilt

So here's my 4th quarter list:

1.
Goal: Finish turning this pile of fabrics into pouches
Current status: Most of the fabric has been cut, just need to sew and add zippers

 2.
Goal: Put labels on all my quilts
Current status: The labels have arrived from Spoonflower, just need to cut and apply


3. 
Goal: Finish monster quilt for Sprout
Current status: Fabrics selected, need to get cutting!


 4.
Goal: EPP Pillow cover
Current status: Waiting for the fabric to arrive, need to cut out paper pieces


 5. 
Goal:"For Pleats Sake" Tote Bag
Current status: Fabrics selected, need to start cutting


6.
Goal: Finish 12 Days of Christmas Sampler Quilt
Current status: All blocks complete, just need to add sashing and/or border and quilt


7.
Goal:Finish Solstice Stars Quilt
Current status: 3 Blocks completed, 2 to go, then quilt.


8. 
Goal: Quilt these 2 Christmas table runners
Current status: Sandwiched, just need to quilt and bind


9.
Goal: Do something (anything!) with these Polaroid blocks
Current status: A huge pile of Polaroid blocks collecting dust


10. 
Goal: Surge these napkins
Current status: Napkins cut


11. 
Goal: Finish this mystery project
Current Status: Sandwiched and needs to be quilted and bound


12. 
Goal:Mystery goal (that I can't show a pic of or talk about because a certain person checks my blog)
Current status: 7 of 12 blocks completed

That's it for my list of WIPs.  Hopefully I'll get to a few of these before the mad rush to make Christmas presents sets in.  Luckily a few of them are destined to be Christmas presents so there's a good chance I'll at least get to those ones.

Other goals of mine for this quarter include:
-Halloween costume for the Babe
-Playmat quilt Christmas present for the Babe
-Photograph and start blogging about all the stuff I made this year that I haven't photographed or written about

What about you? Do you have any WIPs you're working on? Or is your list one like mine, a neverending one?

p.s.  Be sure to check out the deal I have going on in my Etsy shop.  Free matching wallet with each pouch purchased (but that deal ends today 10/15!)

Monday, October 14, 2013

New Open Wide Pouches Listed in my Etsy Shop

 
 
 My large-sized open wide pouch listings are live on my Etsy shop! 
 
To say "thank you" for helping me re-launch my shop I'm including a matching wallet with every pouch purchase today (10/14) and tomorrow (10/15) only! No codes needed, I'll automatically include it with every purchase made (a $10 value) https://www.etsy.com/shop/SewingByStephanie
 
Happy Shopping! 


Saturday, October 5, 2013

A Zip Pocket Pouch

Last night after the baby was asleep I tried out one of my new patterns: the Zip Pocket Pouch from Michelle Patterns (which is still on sale for $5 until tomorrow).

Zip Pocket Pouch

Zip Pocket Pouch Opened

It was super easy to pull together and I love it.  I think next time I might use Pellon thermolam as interlining instead of cotton batting, but other than that I wouldn't make any other alterations.

If you haven't checked out the sale at Michelle Patterns yet you definitely should, it's their last one of the year.



Friday, October 4, 2013

Last $5 Friday Sale at Michelle Patterns and it's HUGE!


Hey! Have you heard?  Michelle Patterns is discontinuing their $5 Friday sales, and to say "goodbye" to the sales they're having one last HUGE sale where everything is only $5

That's right, everything is only $5

This will also be the last sale of the year so if you want to use any of her patterns to make Christmas or holiday gifts you should hop over there and stock up before it's too late.

As for me, I'm grabbing the Strap Clutch and Zip Pocket Pouches patterns.


The sale ends this weekend so hop on over to MichellePatterns.com and treat yourself to some patterns!



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