Happy New Year

 

 

Welcome 2014.  I'm hoping you will bring many wonderful moments and happy times.  I've been on vacation since Dec 14, 2013.  But alas, tomorrow I must return to work.  This morning I decided I needed a new bag to carry lunch and such with me. And of course, I want it to use tomorrow!  LOL!  Sooooooo....this is what I spent my day working on.  I sewed a new bag and decided to go with the Chevron style.  I used some fat quarters from 'Metropolitan Fair' by Barbara Brackman for Moda.  The lighter color fabric I believe is' Chelsea Manor' by Bunny Hill Designs for Henry Glass & Co. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out.  I may need to make a scrappy quilt using the Chevron design while using up some of my bits and pieces of left over fabric.

 

 

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in NB.  However, quite cold.  Walking on the snow sounds like crunching Styrofoam.  This is a pic of the winter wonderland that is my backyard.

 

 

 

Hope you've all enjoyed the beginning of 2014!

 

 



Quilt love for a gorgeous new baby boy

Hello,  I know it's been almost a year since I've posted but my cousin has recently given birth and I've made a new quilt for the little one.  Ronan was born last week and this is the quilt I decided to make for him.  In this first picture I'm laying the blocks out to see what colour combinations that look best.  The pattern I chose was Camille Roskelley's design 'Dilly Dally'.  I love this pattern.  Camille has the most wonderful patterns that she has designed and sells on her website.  The fabric collection I chose is called 'Grow With Me'.  I just love the colors in this collection.

 I added a teal border.

 

 

This was hand quilted by me and I was really pleased with the design that happened to show through from what I decided to quilt around..

My daughter was kind enough to hold the quilt so I could take some pictures.

 

 

                                         

 

I sure hope Ronan enjoys this quilt made especially for him with lots of love.

Easy Peasy Runner

I found a wonderful tutorial for a runner on Amy Smart's blog http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2010/08/table-runner-tutorial.html. Thanks Amy for posting such awesome tutorials!!  Amy's instructions are very clear and detailed.  I've made two runners since I saw her tutorial and they were easy and fast.  The blue, yellow and pink runner is for my sister as she just painted her kitchen and I thought this would be very nice for spring and summer.

The second runner I just finished today is for my daughter and her husband.  They just bought a house and I wanted to make them a runner for their kitchen table as well. 

These runners can be made mainly with scraps of fabric you have.  The largest piece of fabric required is for your backing and you could even piece that if you wanted to.  The sky is the limit with this type of runner.

Everything was stitched using the sewing machine except sewing down the binding which I sewed by hand.  I'm so pleased with these that I already know I want to make more.  Well, I'll need one for my kitchen too. ;)

Brown and Turquoise

A few years ago my daughter mentioned that she would like a quilt.  I asked what colours she would like and she immediately said brown and turquoise.  I asked what pattern she wanted and she said "I want the same one that is hanging in Nana's room".  I asked if that would be the log cabin.  I showed her what that would look like and sure enough, that was the one she was thinking of.  My Mother has a quilt rack shelf that hangs in the computer room and one of the quilts is a log cabin.  Here is a picture of the quilt I'm currently working on for my daughter.

  I've surely received my love of quilting from my Mom.  She has been quilting for quite a few years and it has only been about the last 10 years that it's become all I really want to do.  My Grandmother also quilted and we have pictures of she and her sisters all sitting around the quilting frame working on a pretty quilt with ladies holding umbrellas.  Mom says it is called 'Colonial Lady'.  Thanks Mom!

Hope you are all enjoying whatever project you are working on this week and happy sewing!!

Baby gift

One of my daughter's friends had a baby and I wanted to make something for him.  I decided I would knit a sweater and make a taggie baby block.  This is
for the sweetest little boy whose name is Talon.  Below is a pic of what I made.


The sweater is a 12mths size and the pattern is from Cabin Fever.  This is a top down cardigan and sooooo easy to make.  You can add different borders or panels to make the sweater just what you want it to be.  This is the 4th sweater I've made 3 using this book.  They just turn out super cute!!  And ... the best thing about the pattern is the only sewing you have to do is under the arm and it takes about 10 seconds to do.  Who doesn't love that???

I also added a handcrafted tag to the taggie block.  I think whatever you make deserves a cute hand crafted tag.

Hope you are having an awesome day!!

Taggie Baby Block Toy

 I saw this toy in the Winter 2011 issue of a magazine called 'Quilts and more'.  In the article Scrap Lab,  3 designers are challenged to make a project with a certain set of materials.  Camille Roskelley designed a baby cube which I thought was super cute and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make one.  Here is my finished project.

I added the ribbon tags made of satin ribbon and grosgrain ribbon.

As soon as I finished this one which is made using 5" squares of fabric, I thought I smaller one might be cute too.  So I decided to make a block using

 3 & 1/2" squares.  So you can see the difference in the sizes here are both of the cubes below.

I tried free motion quilting on the large cube and on the smaller cube I just did some regular machine stitching.  I love both of them.   I just know I will be making more of these adorable items.

Baby Toy

 

Cute baby fabrics huh??  I'm making a baby toy.

I chose pieces of ribbon to go with the colors in the fabric.

6 pieces of batting as well.  Come back tomorrow to see the finished product.