Last Quilt of 2011

Well, I have yet to turn on any type of sewing machine so far this year, and have barely set foot in the basement other than to fetch something from the freezer.  But I think I have a good excuse--I just had a baby! 

So this was my last big quilting finish of the year-meaning I quilted it about a month ago... It was pieced by Norene as a Christmas gift.  This quilt made my feet swell and my back ache something terrible--but I think it turned out great!

Hooked feather borders, Stitch in the ditch along the smaller border...

...and a free-motion filler in the middle.  See how I copied the red flower motif that is in the dark brown squares on the left?  I also threw in some feathers, double loop-D-loops, and lots of swirls.

Being my last quilt I quilted for the year- my total was 47!  I know I was a little short of my goal of a quilt a week, but I really lost steam the second half of my pregnancy and couldn't tolerate being on my feet for very long.  BUT that being said, I did actually have over 52 total quilts in my possession to be quilted, so I consider that a success!

  Hmmm...how many will 2012 bring??

Look Who's Here!!

Well, he arrived a couple weeks earlier than expected and in a more dramatic way than anticipated- but little Grahm Matthew is here!  We are just bursting with pride of our little man and are pretty sure that he is the cutest baby ever born! 

Grahm Matthew

born 1-3-12

6 lbs 15 oz.

19 inches long

Handmade Christmas Gifts 2011: Reindeer Pillows and Nursing Covers

One of my very few handmade Christmas gifts this year are a couple of these Reindeer Pillows for my niece and nephews.  Once I saw this on Longarmclassroom.com I knew I had to make them!  What a cute little holiday memento of your little one! 

You trace their hands and a foot to make the reindeer faces. 

Quilting in the names proved to be a challenge for me. 

They were a big hit--little Thea insisted she sleep with hers last night. 

The only other handmade gifts I made were a couple of nursing covers that I did not get pictures of.  The FREE pattern is from Connecting Threads.  The pattern is pretty easy.  It took longer to press all the edges under than it did to actually sew it together.  But the hardest part was deciding what fabric to use!  I forgot that I need to make one for myself too!


Also- Remember these little mini Christmas quilts (and here) I made last year?  Well, during various holiday visits to both Grandma's, Mom's and MIL's, I spotted each and every one on display in their homes.  Kinda gave me the warm fuzzies :)

And that wraps up my Christmases this year!  Next up- delivering our baby in the next couple weeks.  I'm soo ready to wrap up this 3rd trimester and finally meet our little guy! 

Wishing all my readers a blessed 2012!

Another Scrappy Baby Quilt

This one I made is for little Rya. 

Perhaps avid readers of my blog will recall the letter N in my alphabet quilt project that I said needed to be re-done will recognize that it has been re-made into these new letters.  3 letters in your name is just the right amount for this quilt block. 

Super scrappy, and super random quilting. 

Just so you know--I make each block 10" (9.5 inches finished) and use 2.5"  strips (2 inches finished)for the sashing. 

Embroidered Baby Quilts

These 2 baby quilts were embroidered by Rose.  They are pretty adorable!

Swirling water and with a few fishes thrown in is what was quilted in this one.

And how sweet is this one?

All-over Curly-Q's and flowers seemed to fit the bill here.

Peggy's Christmas Quilts

Peggy had me quilt these 4 fun little Christmas quilts.  One for each of her adult children and one for herself.  They have seen the quilt tops, so I'm not spoiling any surprises here.  :)

This first one I did free-motion feathers.  I used a Holiday variegated thread which really turned out nice with her festive colors.

The back.

Quilt #2...

...and the back.  The quilting on this one goes along with the design in one of the light fabrics. 

Quilt #3 was curly-Q's and holly leaves.  See where I got the idea for curly-Q's??

And #4 was loops and holly leaves. 

These were the last quilts I did on my old longarm machine.  That's right- I purchased a new longarm about a month ago! (I'm really good at keeping this blog up to date huh?)  It's a Nolting Fun Quilter 20".  I think I have finally gotten to the point where I'm comfortable with it.  It takes a while to get used to the feel of a different machine- much like driving a different car.  Perhaps I will share my new machine with you in another post.  But for now, I have more holiday quilting to do!

Scrappy Baby Quilt for Briggs

Well, I finished another one of these scrappy baby quilts for a special little guy.  He's only 6 months old now (I'm really on top of things here!), but I got to meet him for the first time on Thanksgiving.  He sure is a cutie! 

This time I made a special center block.  B for Baby Boy Briggs.  I'm still in alphabet letter-making mode I guess.

I have fine-tuned my scrap block making in the last couple weeks by separating all my little scraps into shoe boxes.  I have one for yellows, blues, greens, pinks, and reds.  So now I keep a box close by my sewing machine and sew a random piece together here and there as a "leaders and enders" project.  Once I get a 10 inch block together, it gets squared up and put into a drawer with a stack of other blocks.  So I always have one of these little quilts almost ready to go! 

I used this cute Adventurer fabric for the back- I got it at Hancock Fabrics. 

Linking up once again to Megan's Sew Modern Monday--Check out some more neat projects!

A tree for Baby's room

I haven't blogged much lately.  Not because I don't have anything to post about (I have a lot actually), I just have been too busy to take the time to make a post! 

One major thing that has kept me busy is getting the baby's room ready.  Once we got the room painted, I decided to paint a tree.  I did a Google image search for "baby room tree" and found tons of inspiration! 

For the owl's eyes I traced a circle on some painter's tape and then used a 3/4 inch circle punch to remove the darker part of his eyes. 

And here is the finished tree complete with foliage and an owl.   The tree was vaguely penciled out, but mostly free-handed.  Not much different than free-motion quilting really.  I did draw out the owl though. 

(wow the color is really washed out in this pic!)

You can buy fancy decals that just stick onto the wall that are probably a lot quicker to do, but I just bought a tiny can of brown paint and some sponge brushes and spent less than $10 total.  The paint for the leaves we already had.  Oh yeah!  The crib will go under the owl like in the pic above. 

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out!  My kiddo better like it too because it's staying up until he's 18-like it or not!  :)

Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

It's time for the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival! 

If you are a new visitor to my little blog- welcome!  I have enjoyed sewing since my childhood days and have recently started a little longarm quilting business.  This blog features both- my various sewing projects and my longarm quilting. 

Here is my entry, Pieced Scrap Borders from Red Pepper Quilts.  (Free Tutorial Here.)  I started this quilt about a year ago (posted here and here) and finished it this summer.  (posted here)  My version has an added border.  I just love it!  I used up a lot of scraps with this one.  The white fabric is from an old bed sheet, and the back was a large piece my sister picked up at a garage sale.  The only fabric I actually bought was the binding. 

I quilted free-motion feathers on it.  If I were to quilt it again I think I would have picked a more contemporary design that would match the pattern better.  But I was really digging feathers at the time I guess! 

A peek at the back.

Check out all the other quilts featured in the Festival.  There are HUNDREDS!

Premie Baby Pants

So my sister had a little boy a few weeks ago.  Born just past 32 weeks and weighed a little under 4 lbs.  Baby and mom are both doing really well! 

I had a hard time finding premie baby clothes, so I found a pair of 0-3 month pants and used them as a pattern to make these out of a couple old T-shirts.  I  made them a bit smaller and made the legs longer and enclosed the feet.  (Which I realize you can't see in my picture)  I have no idea how well they will fit him, but I think they will fit better than the 0-3 month pants. 

I used the bottom hem of the shirt as the top, so all I had to do was rip out an inch or so to sew up my side seams so it wouldn't be sewn closed.  Then thread your elastic through the pre-exhisting casing.  Top stitch all around the bottom of the elastic to close it all up.  Easy! 

For the little decorations I just used some HeatNBond to iron them on, then top stitched about 1/8 of an inch around the edge.

That is the back of the football pair.  He's a big Chicago Bears fan.  :)

Linking up to Sew Modern Monday--Check it out!