Wedding Quilt

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My dear friend, Shelley, made this quilt top for her son’s wedding and I had the privilege to quilt it for her. She did a great job of collecting batik fabrics and piecing them for each block background. Then using her super fancy cutting machine she cut out each black applique and fused it to the background block. Then she used a buttonhole stitch around each design. The black sashing set the blocks on point and the piano key border really set it beautifully. Well done!

Wedding Quilt on the frame

Wedding Quilt on the frame

Wedding Quilt finished

Wedding Quilt finished

This quilt is so beautiful!!! I just love it. I’m sure the new couple will get many years use from it.

Travel Sewing Kit

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Hello friends!

I’d like to share a wonderful little project I made – it’s a travel sewing kit. There are two zippered pockets inside to hold plenty of supplies. I don’t have a picture of mine filled, but I keep the fabric portion of the project in the left pocket and the right side holds thread, scissors, a small needlebook, and whatever else I need. It’s so easy to take along on car trips or even on a plane. With the clear pockets it’s easy to open for airport security, too.

Travel Sewing Kit

Travel Sewing Kit - inside

I thought it might be a good idea to show a picture of this Travel Sewing Kit in actual use. I know – brilliant!

Travel Sewing Kit - filled

Have a great day!

Memory Bear / Teddy Bear

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I took some time today to make a teddy bear. I had a new pattern and wanted to give it a try. It’s been a long time since I made any stuffed animals and thought this would be a fun project. Sure enough – it was fun!

I didn’t have any fur fabric on hand but I did have an old sweater. So I cut it apart into usable pieces like this:

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Then cut out the bear pieces and sewed it together. Look how cute this is!

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He’s soft and cuddly, not over stuffed. And sits nicely.

I just used an old sweater I had, but if this had been a special piece of clothing from someone who has passed away, it would be a Memory Bear. What a nice way to remember someone dear to you.

Have a great day!

Quilted Tablecloth

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Here is a totally new kind of project for me – quilting a table linen. In this case it’s a tablecloth. It’s only about 30″ square so it’s like for a card table. I had so much fun designing the quilting and then actually quilting it.

Here’s a picture of the finished tablecloth.

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Here are a couple more detailed photos.

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And since white thread on a white background is hard to see, here’s a picture of the back.

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If you have a special linen – tablecloth, dresser runner, embroidered hankie (washed of course!) or doily, this is a great to preserve them. If the finished piece is small, it can also be framed! I mean what can I say – I don’t decorate my house with embroidered linens, do you? So what will you do with all those handed down linens from your mother, grandmother, or great grandmother?

Best Wallhanging Ever!

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This is absolutely wonderful! My sister, Janet, embroidered this for me and I quilted it. It makes me smile every time I see it. I was going to hang it in my office at work, but I don’t have room in our newly remodeled office space. It’s all open concept now so I don’t have the cubical wall space I once did. So, I’ll be hanging this in my sewing room, Wandalandquilts.

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Fabric Buckets

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Let me tell you – these are so handy! I made these from the leftovers from a quilt I made for a graduation gift. The stiff batting inside really gives them some shape and they are quite sturdy, too.

both fabric buckets

Currently I am working on a memory quilt and it’s coming along nicely. I have all the clothing cut into the correct sizes as well as some other special items like the patch from a baseball cap, a “terrible towel” from a sports team, and even worked in a portion of a baby blanket. Next, I’ll be working on the layout. Hope to be able to share some pictures here soon.

Have a great day!

Baby Gifts

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One of my co-workers is expecting twin girls in a few short weeks, so naturally I had to make some baby gifts.  The picture below is two small blankets (with the bumpy fleece fabric), two changing pads that are backed with flannel (one is laid out flat and the other is rolled up – makes for easy outtings) and the ties can easily be removed and used as a larger baby blanket, and a pouch to hold a package of baby wipes and a couple diapers.  These were so much fun to make and worked up quickly. 

 

 

changing pads, blankets, wipes pouch

 

 

 

 

 

baby gift - zip top bagThe picture above is a small zippered pouch that I made with the left over pieces of fabric.  I started with a collection of six fat quarters from Keepsake Quilting.  I recently read a magazine article that after you make a quilt or project, make it your goal to use up all the left overs so that you feel comfortable throwing away the scraps.  Those few pieces of fabric in front of the pouch is all the fabric that was left over.  If you look closely at the pouch you can tell I had to piece the back section because I didn’t have a large enough piece.  So, use it up!  Although I must confess, I really didn’t throw away those scraps, I put them in a bin with like size pieces to use in making rope bowls – but that’s a future project.

 

Here are a couple fleece blankets I made for our neighbor who had a baby earlier this spring.  This is some double sided fleece I purchased at Quilt’s Plus on the north side of Indy.  All that was needed was some binding!  How easy is that?

double sided minky baby blankets

 

Floating Plus Signs Quilt

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The blocks were created from a book by Tula Pink called 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  Since the book suggests that the quilter name the blocks themselves, I called this Floating Plus Signs because that’s exactly what it looks like to me; however, in the book it’s Block 11.

I had this collection of delightful Oriental fabrics to make the blocks from.  I pulled the gray background from my stash. I believe it was leftover from another quilt, but who really knows?  I seem to have a lot of leftovers from other quilts so I’m trying to use those up.  So, creating the blocks and sewing them together was pretty easy and made a delightful lap size quilt.

The machine quilting is what I was looking forward to the most.  I wanted to practice my longarm quilting and this was the perfect piece.  I did stitch in the ditch (SID) around the plus signs using a ruler and that went pretty well.  SID quilting can be tricky and takes some concentration.  The background around the plus signs is a swirl pattern.  I was practicing keeping the spacing even and not getting stuck in any of the corners – trust me … there were a lot of corners!  The first border, I used a plastic template to trace a border design, so I just quilted on the line.  Sounds easy enough, but still takes practice and concentration.  The outside border is my own design.  This was practicing several things, backtracking, spacing, stitch in the ditch, and making the design while stitching in all directions.

This quilt has been entered in the Quilt Guild of Indianapolis show in October 2015.  I also decided to have it judged as well.  It’s been awhile since I’ve had a quilt judged so it will be interesting to see what the judges’ comments tell me.

The longarm quilting advice is correct – practice makes perfect!  Although this is not ‘perfect’ it sure did give my confidence a boost.

Started: March 2014

Finished: September 2015

Floating Plus Sign - the quilt

Floating Plus Sign – the quilt

Close up of plus signs and background quilting

Close up of plus signs and background quilting

First and second border quilting

First and second border quilting