Cute quilt finish from Sew paint it...

Darling finish from Marianne of Sew Paint It. Marianne does a little bit of everything, sewing, decorating, renovating, painting, you name it. Our kind of lady! We got this submission, and Megan and I both have a soft spot for Sarah Jane fabric. Just looking at this quilt makes me want to go play with my stash. Anyhow, Marianne did a little bit of everything on this quilt, applique, hand stitching, machine quilting etc. We love it all! 

I finished a quilt!  It is my boys quilt using children at play fabric by Sarah Jane and I am really, really, really pleased with it!

I finished it today.

The backing was a sheet I found and I love it.  It is so soft and lovely.  Love the design for my little boy too.

Diggers and tractors - just what little boys like!

I did machine quilting on this quilt and then hand quilted around the stars.

I love hand quilting because it is so soft and specially for someone.  It shows you care.

The machine quilting is 0.25" from each seam.

The binding is also a sheet, a plain blue one which was worn out in areas.  It is really soft.  I hate doing the corners!  I must find some tutorials on doing that better because there is definitely room for improvement there!

Sew Paint It darling hexagon quilt...

Marianne from Sew Paint It is a lovely blogger from Australia. She is a crafter, quilter, home renovator, furniture re finisher and more crafty things kind of girl. (we could be Bff's!) This entire quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted! Amazing! Be sure to visit Marianne's blog to see some more fun quilts and projects....

I made this quilt a while ago for my little girl.

It is hand pieced and hand quilted.  The fabric is Love u by Deb Strain for moda.  It was made from a jelly roll.  It was the first jelly roll I ever bought so I didn't know much about machine piecing then.  So I cut it all up and made hexagons.

I made up the design.  The pale pink dot fabric is from spotlight and I used two fat quarters of it. That was all I had and I just managed to get enough hexagons out.  I don't know where the white is from but it was in the stash.  It is ribbed and a bit too thick really as it was rather hard to sew.

The backing is ikea fabric and the binding is from delilah by tanya whelan. For the hexagons I do not have a plastic template to work from.  I used word and I drew hexagons and printed out the pages and cut them out.  I tack the fabric to them and do not use adhesive. 

I also made a cushion with the same love u jelly roll.  I just did it random patchwork and quilted it by machine using a swirly freehand pattern.

I did round corners on the quilt and I love them.  It means you have to use bias binding which is a pain, but looks so cute rounded. 

The chair is painted my favourite colour.

Teje's Baby Stars Quilt

Teje from Nero's Post and Patch is always posting and sharing such fabulous things, we constantly feature her on Fabric Tuesdays :)  And with a backdrop like Greece she always get great pictures.  Make sure to see Teje's shop, her finishes and some great tutorials too!

Hello my Dear Friends! I have a great day at home! Even lots of works are waiting still it’s so nice  not to go anywhere! Long time I was waiting to show you my latest quilt, but it was a secret so it had to wait till the little baby was born.

My dear friend is now grandmother for a sweet baby boy and when I returned from Finland with beautiful fabrics, I began this quilt. Still I had to wait if it’s a girl or a boy. For the girl I would have made orange binding and for the boy this green.

Because we didn’t know if it’s going to be a girl or a boy, I chose colours to be nice for both. I new that mom likes orange and green and they had used yellow for the baby-room. I saw that I do need more yellow fabrics for my stash!

I have seen so many beautiful quilts with different kind of star patterns and I really love these wonky stars! I had made few just to try these happy fabrics and then I realized they would be nice for this quilt. I have had in my  ‘to do list’ a quilt with this kind of squares so here they are now.

When I made these stars, I cut first stripes and then squares from them. There was some stripes left, so first time I used a little  colour also for the backing …

Now I understand better how you enjoy making the backing also like an other quilt. I only wish my fabric stash could be big enough for that! By the way, did you know that you can click photos to see them bigger.

Quilting by hand is one of the best parts! And again I was able to use different colours – even more fun! I have always loved stitching – every where – in bags, shoes, cloths any where!

Now the new born baby boy, my dear friends first grand child, has this quilt and all the family were happy and liked ‘Baby Stars’! And … I have a custom order for an other baby quilt … for a girl! I think I shall make it similar with this but perhaps not stars …

I think I could use few butterflies for the girly quilt! I have been also very lucky to sell the blue baby quilt ‘Ripples’ and two pillows from my etsy shop, ‘Jumping Dog’ and the ‘Pic Nic’ pillow! Thank you so much for the wonderful buyers!

Lucky Lucky Lucky me … again I have win! I won a jewellery from Emma’s give away! Emma is very talented artist and writes a beautiful blog ‘silverpebble’!She has etsy shop full of the most cute and beautiful creations! Thank you so much Emma! Emma was also featured in the latest ‘Country Living’ – the magazine we all enjoy so much!

Also I like to say big thank you for Maureen, who is one my favourite bloggers! She makes so unique,happy and colourful crafts! Her blog is ‘Maureen Cracknell Handmade’ and I won fabrics from her give away! Thank you Maureen! Only thing is that I won them just when I was shopping fabrics in Finland and still they haven’t arrived here … I’m so affraid that they have got lost! But I hope the best and perhaps they still come because Nero got also once his Christmas present from Ronja (from Finland) after 2 months!

Summer is the most busy time here in Crete! It’s the hot holiday season and fortunately we have lots of lots of tourists even the economical situation is difficult for us who live here. Some people say that they are affraid to come here, but everything is like it used to be. There are no difficulties for tourists, everything is working like always and Crete and Greece is one of the best holiday places! Beautiful beaches, friendly people, the most delicious food, lovely nature, warm (hot) weather and so much sunshine!

So you can guess that I am also very busy and unfortunately can’t see you so often. I don’t want to say that I shall take a brake from blogging, because I miss you a lot. So I do my best and now and then I hop here … or I think it’s better I’ll ask Nero to do that! He has again ‘adventure’ – now he has an infection between two toes. I think something has scratch there and then it got worse. No we have ‘therapy’ moment every morning and evening. Washing, betadine, bactroban, clean white cloth, clean sock, some tape to hold them, lots of ‘nami nami’ (Nero’s sweets) and antibiot. He is such a good boy when I have to take care of him, but in the vet he tries to eat his vet!

I leave you with Nelli’s surprised face, because this really describes my latest weeks!So many things has happened … oh I miss my slow boring (why I said boring, it’s never boring here with 3 dogs and a cat and so much sewing) winter life!

Could you guess from this link, who was eating from Nero’s plate last Sunday afternoon?! Yach!!!

Thank you so much for being the most wonderful friends and readers! I wish you the best ever summer and happy holidays! I shall visit you often … perhaps too tired to comment every time … but I’m there some where …

TEJE 

Argyle Robot Quilt from Don't Tell Quilts

Amanda from Don't Tell Quilts submitted her darling quilt a couple weeks ago.  Amanda is just like Heather and I....she doesn't like to make the same quilt twice!  That is exactly our problem.  Often we get asked why we don't sell more of our quilts or other sewing projects, and there are a few reasons but one major one is I don't enjoy making the same thing over and over.  Back to Amanda, she started her blog when she was making a quilt for her brother and named it "Don't Tell Nathan Lindsey!" as in specifically telling them not to tell her brother.  And things have just taken off from there!   She just opened her shop, so check it out!

Here's my very appropiately named Argyle Robot.

 What is there to say about this?  It's argyle, it's got a robot.  That about covers it really.

 My husband commented that this combination was very me.  Apparently argyle and robots aren't an obvious combination to most people.  But really, they so work!  What is more geeky sophisticated than argyle?  Nothing, that's what!  And robots are equally geeky sophisticated.  Especially this one, he has a bow tie.

 I backed it in fleece, which caused a whole right side wrong side internal debate while I was laying it out.  And, Holy Lint Roller, Batman, my floor is now devoid of stray threads.

 (also, I used the June Taylor fusible batting; it was on a major clearance.  My opinion: weird.  It worked well enough on the solid piece sides, but beneath my piecing, not so hot.  I still used pins.  Who am I to tell June, but I don't expect I'll be fusing it again.  I did get a queen sized batting for six bucks though, so not a total bust.)

 This was also my first time quilting with embroidery floss.  And I loved it!  It is the perfect look for this.  It had to be something as visible as floss or a whole element would have been missing.  Argyle isn't argyle with out the crosshatch.

This little bit of me is headed to my etsy shop.  We'll see if there are any other geeky sophisticates out there.

I also finished my Princess and the Pea quilt pattern.  That request took some brain power; I made a quilt pattern but I've never used one myself!  Got a few of those in my shop as well.

Chemo Quilt from days and years...

Kim from days and years  created this amazing quilt in record time 10 days! (during her busy life). She made it for a Aunt who is going through chemotherapy. What a wonderful thing to do! Her blog is full of crafting, sewing, cooking, gardening among other things. Make sure to go visit her. 

Chemo Quilt

How to make a quilt in 10 days while working a full-time job, and doing a girls’ cabin weekend in the middle of it all (a.k.a. quick ‘n dirty style):

Day 1: Decide, upon hearing that your dear auntie who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer will be starting chemo in 10 days, that you MUST make her a care package, complete with handmade lap quilt. Make plans to hit the fabric store after your New Year’s Day date with your husband. Curse the universe when you realize that the fabric store closes too early for you to get there.

Day 2: In a 20 minute between-appointments break at work, run into your favorite local fabric store. Grab several bolts of your favorite Anna Maria Horner fabric, thank your lucky stars that there isn’t a line at the cutting table, and walk out with about 1/2 yard each of 6 quilting cottons and 1 yard each of voile. On the drive home, wrestle with the eternal question: to prewash or not to prewash?? Opt to prewash.

Day 3: Decide that you don’t have time to use an elaborate pattern. Start laying out the fabric on your living room floor, keeping the pieces as large as possible. Time is of the essence… planning and piecing eats time. Misplace your scissors. Burst into tears a few times. Ponder the thought of losing yet another family member so soon… Start ripping fabric. Discover that your plan for the backing won’t work. Dig through stash, find more fabric. Assemble the top and the back. Cry yourself to sleep.

Day 4: Make your quilt sandwich, using organic cotton batting and basting spray to hold everything together. Try not to spray your dog, because he keeps trying to “help.” Gather quilting needles, thread, curse yourself for failing (again) to buy a thimble.

Day 5: Go out of town with your girlfriends. Take a day off from working on the quilt. Say a silent “thank you” to the universe for blessing you with such great friends.

Day 6: Everyone knows that girls’ weekends are filled with wine, chatting, more wine, more chatting, and other sedentary activities (except that one time when there was snow – we went snowshoeing!). Use this opportunity to start the hand quilting. Work on the stitching whenever sitting down, which ends up being about 10 hours over the whole day.

Day 7: Continue stitching on the drive home, and for the rest of the evening. It helps if your husband is sleeping on the couch.

Day 8: Stitch stitch stitch!

Day 9: Yes, more stitching! Finish! Stand back and realize – whoah. Those colors are, um. Bold. Loud. Not exactly subtle. Then again, there’s nothing subtle about cancer.

Day 10: Trim the edges. Realize that the failure to measure anything while assembling results in less-than-square corners. Decide you don’t care. Make double-fold bias binding. Machine-stitch to the quilt. Wash and dry!

My sister and I delivered the care package to my aunt last weekend, right after she finished the first treatment. She loves it, and refuses to bring it with her to her treatments.  That’s alright. It can stay at home.

In case you find yourself in this situation and are looking for chemo care package ideas, here is what we came up with:

Large tote bag

Slim expanding file folder

Business card folder

Notebook/journal

Fun pens

iTunes gift card

Extension cord (for her iPad)

Hard candies (sugar-free Jolly Ranchers, Werther’s, mints, honey-lemon lozenges)

Smartwater

Water flavorings (Crystal Lite packets, Mio water flavor drops)

Various teas (Smooth Move, Ginger, Peppermint)

Crystalized ginger

Assorted hand lotions

Lip balm

A tea kettle & pretty mug

Cozy lounge pants, t-shirts, and zip-front hoodies

I feel like there was more in there… I can’t remember what else though. We made a pot of vegetable soup and a pan of veggie lasagna and froze those in single servings. We also cooked some frozen fruit, then re-froze it in ice cube trays. We thought those might come in handy if her white blood cell counts go low, and she wants to keep doing smoothies.

Now we just need to say our prayers and call in our favors and hope that she comes through this as strong as ever.

Little Island Quilting amazing hand quilting...

Little Island Quilting made this duper darling "word" quilt. See their is a reason we have to buy all the prints! Then she hand quilted the heck out of it! Love it! Here is a great spider web quilt tutorial, must try one! Be sure to check out Little Island Quilting for some cute inspiring projects...




Words Quilt Finish


Many hours of hand quilting later I got to this:

Excuse smudge on lens which makes the pink bit look a bit smeary.

But I just didn't feel it was quilted enough.

So I carried on.

I still think you can transform a quilt so much by densely quilting it.

And then I think the point was reached where both myself and the quilt felt we had spent enough time together and we agreed to stop.

So I could move on to the next quilt.

Kona White with one triangle pieced into the back.