Peg's Batiks

 

Peg made this throw from a kit.  Lots of really pretty Batiks in here!  Even the backing is batik.  I've heard of batiks giving quilters some issues with the tension due to the tightness of the woven fabric, but I didnt have any such issues with this one.  At all. 

 

 

I used a coordinating brown thread and did some Paisley-feathery-swirlies. 

 

 

Thanks for having me do up your quilt Peg!

Liebster Award!

Maria from Mia's Creations has nominated me for the Liebster Award!  It's an fun "award" passed from blogger to blogger as a way to network and acknowledge some of your favorite blogs. A receiving blog must have less than 200 followers.

To participate:
1. Thank and link back up to the one that nominated you (Me).
2. Answer 11 questions asked to you by me.
3. Tell us 11 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 11 of your favorite blogs that have less than 200 followers
5. Ask them 11 questions.


1. What's your favourite colour? 
Blue

2. Do you like to design your own patterns or are you happy make things from other designers patterns? 
I like following a pattern.  Although it is fun sometimes to make up your own version of something.  Tweak it just a little. 

3. Do you enjoy cooking, if so what's your favourite recipe? 
I do.  Oh, I don't know!  We like to make pizza quite a bit and I make my crust from scratch.  I make it so much that I know the recipe by heart.  I've actually tweaked it by adding milled flax seed and wheat bran to it in attempt to make pizza somewhat healthy.  Here it is:

1 cup hot water-put this into a large bowl.  Then add 1 tablespoon of yeast, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon each of sugar and salt.  stir that together.  Then add about a quarter cup each of the milled flax seed and wheat bran.  (I never actually measure this, I just dump some in and eyeball it.)  Stir.  Next you add in your flour.  I use regular white flour.  I've tried using a blend of half wheat and half white flour, but it makes it taste like cardboard.  So I've just eliminated the wheat flour altogether.  If you were to add some- I wouldn't put much more than 1/4 cup.  Anyways, add in your flour until it forms a ball.  (2-3+ cups)  Knead in more flour on a floured surface until it's not very sticky anymore.  Next, pour a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil back into your bowl.  Take your ball of dough and plop it into the oil, give it a spin, and then flip it over so that it's pretty much covered in oil.  Then you let it rest for 10 minutes or so until you get your toppings ready. 

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Spray your pizza pan with cooking spray and press your dough out.  It shouldn't stick to your fingers.  If it does, add more flour next time.  Once you get it pressed out, put it into the oven for about 10 minutes or so to pre-cook it a bit.  If you don't pre-cook it, it can be a little doughy in the center.  We have the pizza pan with the bajillion little holes in it and this is the way that works best for us.  I don't know how it would turn out on other non-perforated pizza pans...  Anyway, then you obviously take it out and add your sauce and all your toppings.  We usually do sausage and pepperoni, then I make my side with green peppers, mushrooms and onions.  The hubby prefers his without the veggies.  And then the cheese goes on last.  We also really like to make ham and pineapple pizza too.  And once in a great while we might do BBQ chicken pizza. 

Let me know if you actually try it and how you like it!

4. Which is your favourite season? 
spring

5. Which bad habit would you like to quit? 
Gaining weight :)

6. Why did you start blogging? 
To network with others who share the same quilting/sewing/crafty interests as me.  And as a place to share what I can do and promote my quilting. 

7. Have you traveled abroad and if so where? 
Once, to Greece.  Loooved it!

8. Do you prefer cooking or housework? 
I'd rather make a mess than clean it up!  So cooking :)

9. What's your favourite thing to do on a rainy day? 
Bake something and sew.  perhaps a movie.

10. Do you have a pet and what is it? 
I have several neglected houseplants- do those count??

11. If you could have one wish what would you wish for? 
World Peace

11 Random Things about me:

1. I am NOT a morning person.
2. I live on a farm.
3. I am a 4-H leader.
4. I do not like coffee.
5. I like making photobooks on Shutterfly.
6. I like listening to all kinds of music. 
7. I can usually name that tune in a few seconds. 
8.  I almost always sew a scant 1/4 inch seam allowance
9. I am partial to tone-on-tone fabrics
10. I like to keep my toenails painted at all times.
11. I am good at shuffling playing cards.

11 questions for my nominees:

1.  What is your favorite healthy snack?
2. What is your least favorite thing about blogging?
3. What was your first sewing project?
4. Do you organize your fabric, and how?
5. Do you play a musical instrument?
6. Name a song that you never get sick of hearing.
7. What is your worst sewing injury?
8. Paper, plastic, or bring your own (most likely handmade) bags to the grocery store?
9. What is the oldest thing in your fridge right now?
10. Favorite kind of pie.
11. Do you paint your nails?

Those answers ought to be interesting!  Now here are my nominees:

1. Wendy  http://stitchduchessscrazysanequiltingworld.blogspot.com/
2. Amanda http://heartlandhappy.blogspot.com/
3. Karen  http://whereismyseamripper.blogspot.com/
4. Kim  http://sewnsewquilting.blogspot.com/
5. Kathy  http://kathystitchbystitch.blogspot.com/
6. Karen http://hazeldellquilts.blogspot.com/
7. Shannon http://moderntraditionquilts.blogspot.com/
8. Candace http://doublenickelquilts.blogspot.com/
9. Judy http://furballfarmquilting.blogspot.com/
10. Lori http://nightowlquilting.blogspot.com/
11. Ramona http://threadtime.wordpress.com/

Thanks so much for nominating me Maria!  It took me a while to get this post together (finding 11 blogs with <200 anticipated="" but="" difficult="" followers="" have="" i="" it="" more="" nbsp="" p="" than="" there="" was="" you="">
 

Joyce's Dresdens

 

Joyce made this cute quilt for her grandaughter.  The grandaughter had seen a similar quilt in a teen magazine and thought Grandma can make that!

 

 

 

 I came up with some fun fillers for the plates.

 

 

And the leaves and things were fun too!

Quilts for sale!

 

Jessica made these quilts and I quilted them up for her last spring.  She has just posted them on her Etsy site for sale!  Click on the pics for the link. 

 

 

As the last person to see these tops before they were quilts; I can say that her sewmanship is excellent!  Every point is pretty much perfect on this one!  I would have a tough time seeing this one go if I were her.  I sure hope they find a lovely home. 

 

Last of the Christmas gifts!

This is the last handmade Christmas gift post.  I promise!

 

 

Amy from A Quilting Sheep had a give-away for the pattern plus a little kit for this adorable little coin purse.  And I WON!  I never win!  I said that if I won I would make it for a Christmas gift, and although I had second thoughts (Hmm...I could keep it for myself, noone would ever know...), I held true to my word.  I made it for my sister.  I had a hard time deciding which fabrics to use and went with the funkiest choice.  She liked it :) She's a funky lady.

 

Say ahhhhhh.

 

And then there's these two.  Oh the cuteness!  You may or may not recall the reindeer pillows I made last year.  Well, we've had a couple more additions to the family since then (including my own) and had to make sure no one was left out of the reindeer pillow cuteness. 

 

I opted to write the name and year with fabric marker instead of quilting it.  It's just as quick, easier to do, and just looks better I think. 

 

 

It's made from the hand and foot prints of your little one- in case you couldn't tell.  You can find the tutorial here.  By far the hardest part is getting your squirmy baby to hold still long enough to trace his hands and foot.  It's kinda impossible really.  If you can get enough traced to get the general size of things, you can kind of draw in and adjust the fingers as necessary. :)  No one will ever know.

 

 

I had to share the fabric for the back.  Loove it!

 

 

 

And last but not least were these two Christmas card holders.  They were for my Grandmas.  I had to tell them what they were; apparently it was not very obvious they were for Christmas cards.  But they sewed up pretty quickly.  If I were to do it again I would piece a block or something for the tippy-top.  But this was a last minute type of project and I was in too much of a hurry to think up what to do other than just quilt it up.  I had to snap this pic before the binding was all sewn down on the one.  I saved that for the car ride.  :) 

 

And that wraps up the handmade Christmas gifts!  Phew!  I did quite a bit.  Lots of fun little projects that perhaps might inspire you for your next gift-giving experience. 

Signature Baby Quilt

 

I finished it!!  This special baby quilt for my little guy was over a year in the making. 

 

 

My MIL made these blocks and had everyone at my baby shower sign them.  Then they were given to me along with some extra fabric for me to piece together.  They sat in a sack for a long while until this fall when I finally got around to putting it all together. 

 

 

The original plan was to just put the brown dots as a final border and call it done.  But I guess I was too tired when I did the math and made the cuts, and cut them too wide.  I was 1 strip short!  Good thing I was with my Mom and Teresa who helped me figure out what to do! 

 

Put in cornerstones! 

Nope, still short. 

 Make another signature block!

Nope, still short. 

Make another one!

Mmm, still short! 

Add strips on both sides of the blocks! 

Hey!  I think we've got it!

 

It was quite the brainstorming effort, but I really love how it turned out.  Especially the fussy cut animals in the corners.  And thanks Teresa for the perfect coordinating fabric!

 

 

I got a little sentimental in the last few passes of quilting and added a few words. 

(it says "our son")

 

 

I got a little fancy and actually put some effort in putting the back together.  The orange was just a few inches short.  Normally I would have trimmed some off the side and added it to the bottom, but I decided to make it a little more special for my little guy.  I thought cutting out all those 2.5 inch squares would take me a while, but I had them done in no time! 

 

I finished it in time for his 1st Birthday.  It's fun to read everyone's messages and signatures.  It truly is a labor of love! 

More Christmas gifts~ Kids smock and a snowman wallhanging

 

This might be my favorite thing I've made this Christmas!  It's a kids smock!  It cracks me up every time :)  It's for my nephew, and this is how his top teeth came in: baby fangs--right around Halloween too!  How cute is that?  Anyways, the green fabric is like umbrella fabric.  I scored it out of the remnant bin for about a dollar fifty.  The face is felt that is top stitched down.  The basic pattern shape I followed came from here.  And the monster face was inspired from these. 

 

 

And here is the back.  I just zig-zagged some ribbon onto the bias tape covered edges.  You'd never guess that my little smock model is very P.O'd in this picture.  Ooh he was mad! Which is why the previous picture is modeled by the floor instead. 

 

 

Alright, and now here's another handmade gift: a little wall quilt.  My friend Teresa has an embroidery machine and had made up this snowman.  Only she didn't want it anymore.  What?  Uh, yeah, I'll take that off your hands then, no problem!  So I pieced the rest of it together- improv style.  The flying geese units were actually left overs from a quilt I made loooong ago.  I only had 12 of them, so this is the arrangement I came up with.

 

Quilting him up was pretty fun. 

 

And I attempted a flange for the first time.  It's not perfect by any means, especially the corners.  I should have invested some time looking up how to actually do it correctly, but I just went for it.  Next time will be better :) 

 

A few handmade Christmas gifts

We finally got our last Christmas in this past weekend!  As well as a first Birthday party for a certain special little guy.  It was quite a busy and very fun day... 

 

Anyway here is some of the stuff I made as Christmas gifts...

 

 

I made about 5 of these flowers for the females on my gift list.  These were pretty fun to make!  I followed this tutorial.  The goal was to use stuff I already had.  I didn't have embroidery floss like they had in the tutorial, but I did have beads and floral wire!  I just did a little zig-zag in the centers with my sewing machine and then hand sewed the beaded wire flowers down.  I did buy a pack of assorted metal pin backs, clips, and bobby pins that I sewed onto the backs as well. 

 

 

More beads!  These beads were all leftover from my wedding DIY stash.  I had bought a veil from Hobby Lobby and hand sewed beads all along the edges.  It had 2 layers and it took me forever!  (Now I know why beaded veils are so expensive to buy!)  Anyway, these were easy to do as well.  Just string a bunch of beads onto a wire and then give it 1-2-3 twists at each point.  I used floral wire, but I would recommend a thicker gauge wire because they are pretty flimsy.  I used these to decorate the outside of my wrapped gifts.  They would make good tree ornaments too.

 

 

 

And here's a pillow I quilted up.  While I was making this table runner, I used some Christmas scraps to help figure out the size of dresdens I wanted.  And here they are now on a pillow.  I knew they would come in handy someday!

 

 

This is the back, and before hand stitching it closed. 

 

Stay tuned for more of my handmade gifts! 

(I've been busy!)