Log cabin love

While my oldest was at school and my baby (who is almost 3 by the way ;-) was napping I had the urge to make something quick.  I needed to feel productive and my sewing machine looked so lonely.  So I pulled out my scrap box and figured I could make a log cabin block with what little time and fabric scraps I had.   My scrap stash is very, very small.  Most of the scraps are from my citrus quilt and J's I-Spy quilt (mostly novelty prints from wally world and Hobby Lobby).    So I just pulled out some longish pieces and evened out the edges.  When I was piecing I didn't pay any attention to color placement or pattern.  It was very improvisational, relaxing and fun!  I see more improv piecing in my future for sure.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  We hosted about 15 people and had a great time.  Surprisingly I didn't overeat.  I'm hoping to get a little sewing done this weekend.  I definitely won't be doing any shopping at. all.  Have a good Friday!

My First Mini Quilt

Since I am a newbie quilter there are going to be a lot of firsts around here... :-)   I'm going to apologize in advance for the terrible pictures in this post.  They were taken at around midnight in my dark cavelike dining room STRICTLY to document my sewing projects.  Never, never, never in a million years did I think I would have a blog and that these pics would show up here.  I mean really, never.  But anyway...

Front

I made this mug rug truly as an experiment.  I follow a lot of sewing blogs and last year a couple of them had mug rug swaps.  I loved looking at what everyone was making and I just had to get in on the fun.  I didn't make this to swap though, just to make something quick and cute.  The front fabric is from a jelly roll from Hobby Lobby and one small strip of Kona Sand.  The back fabric is from It's a Hoot by MoMo.  I finished the binding by machine and was pleased with the result.  Not perfect by any means, but I'm okay with that.

Back

It measures about 6 inches high and 13 inches wide.  Its big enough to hold my favorite big Starbucks coffee cup and an english muffin (my usual breakfast).  I really need to make another one of these because it took no time at all to make and it was fun!  My stash of fabrics has grown a lot since last year and it would be fun to use a bit of it on another mini quilt. Some of the things on my To Do List  for 2012 (yes, I'm already thinking about next year) are to make something using half square triangles (since I'm a little intimidated by them), a wonky star block, a "proper" log cabin block and an improv quilt. I think another mini quilt using these techniques is in order, don't you?

I'm linking up my post to Amy's Show & Tell Friday Mini Quilt Party! There are some great links there, so check them out.

Work In Progress Wednesday: Citrus Quilt

 I have always wanted to make a quilt with citrus colored fabrics.  I've seen many on Flickr and various blogs and always thought the citrus color palette was refreshing and clean.  Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts and Sarah of Fairy Face Designs started this Quilt Along a few months back and I decided to jump right in.  It was my first quilt along and I tried to stick with the timeline but I only sew when I can find time so I fell behind.  I'm ok with that though because I don't enjoy rushing when I sew.  I get stress knots in my shoulders.  Stress knots are not good. at. all.   Sewing is supposed to be relaxing right?

I really could find more time to sew if I stayed off of Pinterest, Facebook, Flickr and stopped playing Bejeweled Blitz.  Oh and I'm re-reading The Outlander Series of books by Diana Gabaldon.   I am totally hooked on the series.  ;-)

My citrus fabric bundle

My first block

Front of quilt

I still have to do the scrappy border and piece the back which shouldn't take too long.  I also think I'm going to try and add some yardage to the white border to make it bigger.  There are some great looking quilts in the Flickr group.  You can check them out here.

I have a few projects in the works.  I probably won't get much sewing done this weekend because we have relatives coming in from out of town and tailgating on Saturday.

Still in progress:
--Citrus Quilt
--I Spy charm quilt for B-still cutting charm pieces (really, really need to buy an Accuquilt  Go Baby to help with cutting)
--Baby gift quilt

I'm linking up at at Freshly Pieced for Lee's WIP Wednesday Anniversary Edition.   Go and check out the fabulous things everyone is working on.  I hope your day is great!

C is for Cookie

In the middle of playing nurse maid to my sick husband (not really, he only let me make him some hot tea), doing the laundry and breaking up arguments over whose turn it was to play the Wii I had a hankerin' for some chocolate chip cookies.  I remembered I had a new recipe on one of my Pinterest boards.  (gotta love Pinterest) So....I put the laundry on hold, cut the Wii off and enlisted my two little sous chefs in some baking.

They turned out soooo yummy!!  The recipe is here.  Now go make some.  :-)

Stashin' some Ruby

Isn't she pretty?

I couldn't wait for this fabric line to be released, but when it was I couldn't decide between buying a precut or yardage.   I mean that's an important decision right?  Well, I usually try to buy fabric in half yards to build my stash, but the half yard bundle of Ruby was way above my fabric budget for October so I decided to buy this jelly roll to see all the prints.  After seeing them I'm definitely going to buy a few of the prints in yardage because they are so pretty.  I think this lovely fabric would make a great strip quilt.  Don't you?

Ruby jelly roll by Bonnie and Camille for Moda

Boo!

I finished my "tablemat" (a.k.a placemat) last night and I really like it.  I decided to use one of my favorite fabrics for the binding, full moon polka dot in lime by Amy Butler.  If I was making this again, I would change the purple to a natural linen or Kona Ash.  It just seems like a lot of purple.  I still like it a lot though.

Here's the reverse with those cute little kitties.

Here is a close up of the quilting.  I did meandering loops.  Not sure if that's the "technical" name but that's what I'm calling it.  I'm not a free motion quilting expert, but I think it turned out pretty well.

I'm linking this up at  crazy mom quilts for finish it up friday.  Have a good weekend and Happy Halloween Y'all!

A Tablemat-Just in time for Halloween!

This is what I've been working on this week.  It's not a table runner, it's too big to be a mug rug, it's not meant to be a placemat....so I'm just going to call it a "tablemat".  My tablemat is designed to go under my fruit bowl on my kitchen table.  I thought it would bring a little fall/halloween spirit into my otherwise undecorated kitchen.  We usually do a little bit of decorating for Halloween but this fall has been very busy.

Below is the fabric I'm using for the other 3 sides.  The multicolored dot might be the binding.  I'm not liking the purple with the back fabric.  We'll see...

This is the fabric for the back.  Aren't those little cats cute?  I decided to use more of a fallish fabric on the reverse instead of halloweenish so I could flip it over and use it during Thanksgiving.

I'll post it when I'm done.   Happy Wednesday Y'all!  Linking this up at  Freshly Pieced for Work-in-Progress Wednesday.

Working on:  This halloween mini quilt and a couple of things for a baby gift.
At a dead stand still:
1.  Across the Sea Quilt Along citrus quilt
2.  Baby Quilt
3.  I-spy quilt for my little one

A Quilt for Me

Ok, so it took me like 5 months to finish my first easy-peasy square quilt.  So because I have so much extra time on my hands I decided to do ANOTHER quilt.  My sewing machine was calling out to me for attention.  I was browsing my blog list and came upon this nice pattern that would make a great quilt for me.  Above All Fabric was hosting a spring quilt along that provided a timeline.  I  had the perfect charm pack in mind for this.  I made each nine patch block whenever I found small blocks of time.  I made it bigger than the pattern called for b/c this quilt was for me.  Making this quilt made me realize that I like making quilts slowly and not rushing through.  The process of quilting calms my mind.  Here it is before I added the borders:

With the borders added:

 The pieced back is a combination of fabric I found at Ikea and some Bella and Kona solids.

The binding is a black and white stripe.  This quilt is the perfect size for me to cuddle with.  The hubs has put in an order for a quilt that's big enough for his 6 foot tall self.  To that I said Yipeee!  Just the excuse I needed to buy more fabric.

Front:      Punctuation by American Jane, Kona solid in white for sashing
Back:      Striped Ikea fabric, Bella and Kona solids
Binding:  Black and White stripe-no name on selvedge
Quilting:  Straight line quilting

My First Quilt

My 1st quilt, a photo by formy2boys on Flickr.

This is the first quilt I ever made. It was a 5th birthday gift for my oldest son. He and my youngest love to play "I -Spy" with it.

It's made with 5 inch charm squares that were fussy cut.
I was encouraged to start quilting by a very good friend of mine who is a young mother like me. I was always intimidated by the idea of "quilting", but making this quilt empowered me. It's not perfect by any means but I love it.

Fabric: some of the  print squares were gifted to me and the others I picked up from Hobby Lobby and my local quilt shop.  Solid squares are Kona Sand.

Border:  Random green fabric from Hobby Lobby
Binding:  can't remember name of fabric-from my local quilt shop


I'll try and do better about posting the names of the fabrics I use.  When I made this back in February 2011 I wasn't keeping track of what the selvedge said....whoops!

Finally did it!

I took the plunge and started a blog.  Bet, you already knew that huh?  I hope to share my sewing and use this space to chronicle my life.  Basically it will be a hodge podge of stuff.  My goal is to post at least weekly.  Hope you enjoy!