Mini Heart Pillows!

With Valentine’s Day soon approaching, I’m making s few themed gifts for a couple of craft swaps that I’m participating in.  And one of my favorite things to make are these heart pillows from a pattern called Box ‘O Chocolates on the Sew4Home site.  This particular pillow is smaller than the original size so it’s easier for shipping to my swap partner.  I made it smaller by printing the template smaller.  So fun to make and give as gifts!

Photo Memory Quilt Block

It's been awhile since I've had time to write a post...even a small one!  I have been on mandatory overtime at work since November, and I've literally had no time whatsoever in my life to sew for the past couple of months.  It's been quite disheartening, to say the least!
This past weekend I finally had some time to spend in my sewing room.  One of the projects I've just started working on is a photo memory quilt featuring photos from my boyfriend's family's life on the farm from the late 1960's.  We found a poster in the attic from when his parents auctioned off the farm, and I've had that put on fabric through Spoonflower.com.  We also found an aerial photo of the farm from before it was sold.  And his eldest sister scanned in some photos and emailed them to me, since she was the only one with a camera taking pictures way back then.  So anyways...  My hopes for this quilt are to have it completed by July so I can display it at our first ever quilt show during the Rosholt Thresheree.  I want the quilt to represent a piece of Rosholt, Wisconsin history, featuring my boyfriend's family.

Here's the very first quilt block, featuring a photo of one of my boyfriend's older sisters...

... this block is paper pieced, and the reason for the orange color-tone is because the poster is actually orange, so I am sticking with the color theme.

I can't wait to see how this quilt turns out...I have it imagined in my mind, but things don't always turn out the way we think they will.  Only time will tell!

A Polka Dot BOM - October 2015 Block

As mentioned in my last post,

I just LOVE participating in BOM's!

Here's my 2nd block from

Melissa Mortenson's BOM over at PolkaDotChair

October 2015 Block

A Polka Dot Chair BOM

I just LOVE participating in BOM's, and I'm actually currently active in a few different ones at this time!

The most recent BOM that I joined is with

Melissa Mortenson

over at the

PolkaDotChair

Her September 2015 Block, was a simple, yet a very fun pattern for me:

Plus Quilt Block

Here's my version of her block:

Wouldn't this look awesome in a quilt, if every block were a plus block?

Can't wait for the next one to come out!

Fun with Quilt Blocks!

I have recently started getting into making wonky house quilt blocks due to a swap I've been participating in on Swap-bot.com, called the "BOM Wonky House Block Swap."  So far I've participated in two of the Wonky House Block Swaps this year, and am really loving how fun these blocks are to make!  Of course, they are paper pieced, so it takes some patience to make them, but they are so adorable when they're finished!!

Here's the two I've made so far...

"House in the Woods"
Block pattern design by Regina Grewe

"Wonky House Block"
Block pattern tutorial by SewCraftyJess

This year has been busy for me...

I haven't had a lot of time to spend in my sewing room the past couple of months,

so unfortunately I've got a lot of UFO's piled up. 

About all I've had time for was a quilt block here and there.

So here's a few more blocks I've managed to squeeze in since the beginning of 2015:

 "Butterfly in the Sky"

"Let Them Eat Cake"

Snapshots QAL: Block 1

"Sew On & Sew On"

Snapshots QAL: Block 2

"Put the Kettle On"

Snapshots QAL: Block 3

"The Penny Arcade"
Pat Sloan's 2015 Vacation Time QAL: Block 4

 

 "The Beach Bag"
Pat Sloan's 2015 Vacation Time QAL: Block 5

"Summer Nights"
Pat Sloan's 2015 Vacation Time QAL: Block 6

"The Hot Dog Stand"
Pat Sloan's 2015 Vacation Time QAL: Block 7

And although I posted about the first 3 Vacation Time blocks in a previous post,

here's a reminder of what those first three blocks look like...

Block 8 just came out on August 1st, so I have yet to make that one!

"A Person's A Person No Matter How Small!"

...a Dr Seuss crib quilt

A friend of mine is soon to be having a baby, and she asked how much it would cost to have me make her a Dr Seuss themed crib quilt.  There was no way I was going to make her pay me for a quilt for her baby-to-be!  I told her I'd make one as a gift for her and baby.

So I found a variety of fabrics to put into this quilt...  One fabric was from JoAnn Fabrics, a couple I purchased on eBay, a couple others I purchased at Herrschner's in Stevens Point, WI, and a couple were found right in my stash!

The photos show what I came up with for her baby's crib quilt,
which I named after one of Dr Seuss' quotes:

"A Person's A Person No Matter How Small!"  ~ Dr Seuss

Vacation Time: Block 1 update

I like this block so much that I decided to make more than one.  So as I participate in Pat Sloan's 2015 Mystery QAL: Vacation Time, I will be making 4 quilts total instead of just one.

Here are my blocks for the first step... (There are 2 skull blocks, but I wasn't sure if I'd like dark or light color ways better until after making them... I like the light color way better).

Note: I am strictly using all stash fabric for these quilt projects and won't be buying any fabric for them... It's part of my goal to use up stash fabric that's been sitting around for way too long.

Another Pat Sloan Mystery QAL!

Last year I participated in Pat Sloan's Globetrotting Mystery QAL, and my quilt top is off at the long-armers waiting to be quilted.

Here's a couple pictures of my Globetrotting mystery quilt (quilt top only... Completed quilt photos will be published in a few months when it's completely done)...

Now I'm participating in Pat Sloan's 2015 mystery quilt project called "Vacation Time."  I plan to make 3 or 4 versions of this new mystery quilt... I've started with a skull theme to use up some skull fabric from my stash... Here's a picture of the first step...January's block:

I have some Harley Davidson fabric I plan to use for another version, and then I want to find some cute or pretty fabric from my stash to put into another version.  I love this block and how fantastic it works for fussy cutting focal fabrics!

Having Fun With Spoonflower!

Have you ever heard of Spoonflower?  It's a company that allows you to create and design your own fabrics, wallpapers, decals and gift wrap!  I recently began playing around with photos I've taken... one example is a photo I took last year of a bucket of sour cherries... did some editing... and created a few unique kaleidoscope designs for fabric!  I've taken photos of objects...like a wine bottle for example, and removed the background images, then edited the photo using PicMonkey.com to create a cool wine bottle image on a blue brick wall design for making fabric!

Here are some of my fabric designs on Kona Cotton...

 I realize it's hard to see the designs in the above pictures, but you can see them better if you go to my Spoonflower shop and see them there.
Not all the designs I'm showing here will be in my Spoonflower shop, because some of them will never be for sale.  But I just wanted to share with you the cool stuff you can do on fabric!

I have many other designs on Spoonflower that aren't for sale, simply for the fact that I haven't yet ordered a sampler of them.  Before Spoonflower will allow me (or anyone wanting to do this) to make my fabric designs for sale to the general public, I have to make the first purchase to see it in person...they require that I either order a swatch, a fat quarter, or BTY before it can be for sale to the public.

Below is an old auction poster I had printed onto a yard of Kona Cotton.

The poster was from when my boyfriend's parents sold their farm back in 1969.

I plan to make a memory quilt from this, along with some old photos.

This will be a fantastic way to preserve a piece of his family's history!

After getting written permission from the poster company to replicate one of their posters onto a quilt,

I had a Lake Mills Town & Country Days poster printed onto a yard of Kona Cotton as well.

With all the colors in the poster, it's going to be a fun quilt to make!

So...this is just a taste of what you and your imagination, with Spoonflower's help, can accomplish!
Now get out there and start creating some of your own fabric!  :)

A Little Catching Up....

I haven't had much time to Blog the past couple of months, so I'm falling behind on my posts.  Here's just a quick recap of some projects I've been working on and have worked on that I didn't get a chance to Blog about.

 Above: "Modern Christmas Trees" - Still needs a border yet before it can be quilted.

Below: Shadow Box Airplanes - Still needs a border, too, before it can be quilted.

 Completed Christmas Quilt

(Left and below)
This was a Star Point Quilt Guild group effort...

members of the guild made the "pinwheel" blocks,

I won the blocks at our 2012 Christmas party,

and I made this quilt using those blocks as the basis of the quilt.

Quilt binding was hand sewn on by Rona, our Guild President.

Quilt was completed in early 2014

 

Below: "Candy Store"A fantastic stash buster quilt to make!

This is just the quilt top. It's been sent over to Meandering Mary for long-arm quilting.

Pattern is from Fons & Porter's Love of Quiltingmagazine, May/June 2012 Issue.

 

My First Photo Memory Quilt - Pug Themed

My very dear friend, Mary, had asked me to make a photo memory quilt featuring photos of her daughter and future son-in-law and their beloved pugs, for their wedding.  I had never made a photo memory quilt before, so this was a fun and exiting quilt for me to attempt.
Mary helped me with the measuring and cutting of the materials, and kept me company while I sewed the pieces together.
Once the quilt top was finished, we took it to Jannie's Quilting in Weston, WI to be long arm quilted.
Yesterday was Randy's and Courtney's wedding, today was the gift opening.  Mary text messaged me earlier today to tell me that she made them wait to open the quilt last, and that when they did open it, they both loved it, and Courtney even cried when she saw the quilt.  How wonderful it feels to know how much something like this meant to them!
So anyways...now that they've finally been given the quilt, I can finally post photos of it online!  The pug centerpiece of this quilt was purchased on eBay.  The rest of the materials were purchased at our local Hancock Fabrics and JoAnne Fabrics stores.

Above photos are of the quilt top before being quilted.

Below photos are of the completed quilt.

 

My Quilt Version of Nana's Surprise Is Finished! (...and it's FOR SALE!)

I finally got this Mystery Quilt finished and am going to sell it.

It's the perfect size for the back of a couch or to drape over the foot of your bed.

I'm asking $175 plus cost of shipping.

Please contact me with any questions!

All three photos were edited using BeFunky.com

ANNOUNCING: Christa's Quilt-Along

I will be participating in this Quilt-Along, so thought I would share it with you as well!  This should be a fun one to join...so give it a shot!

Christa’s Quilt Along 6.0 – String of Pearls Introduction

Fabric Requirements

• 12 chubby eighths of colorful prints – a chubby eighth measures approximately 9″ x 20″ or half of a fat quarter.
• 1.5 yards solid black – Christa is using Kona Pepper.
• 2.5 yards grey or neutral background – Christa is using Kona Medium Grey.
• 4 yards for backing (or lots of scraps and leftover pieces).
• Piece of batting that measures at least 70″ x 70″.

Quilt Along Schedule – links will be active at the completion of each step:

Please note, this time around Christa will go two weeks in between each step. She’d like to give everyone plenty of time to work at their own pace.

• Step 1 – Rotary cutting all the pieces (June 5th)
• Step 2 – Sewing all the “pearl” blocks (June 19th)
• Step 3 – Completing the top (July 3rd)
• Step 4 – Basting and backing (July 17th)
• Step 5 – Machine quilting (July 31)
• Step 6 – Binding to finish (August 14th)

Be sure to share pictures of your progress on Christa's flickr group: Christa’s Quilt Along.