First Bloom

This quilt reminds me of the beginning of spring...the first burst of warm weather that brings just a few patches of blooming flowers, when the landscaping is fresh.

I had a few design ideas incorporating a splash of beautiful prints along with coordinating solids, and this is where I landed!  I'm really happy with the finished quilt, and I can't wait to work on a few more ideas.

For this quilt, I featured Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet along with Kona cotton in bone and coffee.  The pieced block in the upper left corner includes a fun ruffle that adds a unexpected softness to the design.

I just love square in a square blocks.  They are simple yet striking, and just changing the size, pattern or shade of a fabric creates a whole new look!

I stippled this quilt to help bring out the soft crinkled look.  After washing, it measures 45" x 54".
The backing is a large scale yellow floral print with a border of Kona in bone.

This quilt is now in the shop!

 

The Simple Life

I just love the Make Life... fabric line by Sweetwater.  It is bright, fresh, modern, and so much fun to work with!

I pieced this quilt from:
1 charm pack
1/2 yard of 1 accent fabric for border
1 1/2 yards for binding and backing

After using a simple piecing design, I wanted to try some fun quilting.  I played around with some straight line quilting on this piece, and I really like the secondary design that the quilting creates.  I started with some grid quilting 1/4" away from the pieced edges and added diagonal lines also set 1/4" from the pieced intersections.  The combination of grid quilting and some diagonal quilting created a simple, modern design that complements the fabric line really well!

I love this line so much that I may have to buy another charm pack to make a table runner for myself!

 

Measuring 32" x 36", this quilt would be great as a table topper or a stroller quilt.  Add a splash of color to your kitchen or nursery with this fun modern quilt, now for sale in the shop!

Romantic Baby

I wanted to play around with some simple piecing with charm squares.

For this quilt, I used 1 Eva charm pack by Moda and lots of Kona in pale flesh.  To play up the soft colors and prints, I quilted this piece in an all over swirl pattern.

I really love how it turned out, and it's now listed in the shop! 

Wonky log cabin - selvedge style!

It took me awhile to get into the selvedge sewing trend.  I love to see the projects that people come up with, but simple selvedge piecing just didn't appeal to me...until I realized that I could incorporate selvedges into a bigger pieced design!

Now that I've started working with selvedges, I'm finding it really hard to throw away even the tiniest pieces of fabric.  Which is why I've made a FOURTH Hope Valley pillow!  It's not my favorite, but I think that it's a nice combination of scrap, improv piecing and the more structured quilting that is my comfort zone.  I really did use up just about every scrap of Hope Valley that I had, which is a good feeling.

I think that I like the back of this pillow even more than the front.  What a nice option to have when I'm making my bed in the morning!

Stash Busting!

Moving into a much smaller design space has forced me to take a good look at my stash.  In the past, I shopped mostly sale fabric.  Working at a quilt shop made that pretty easy, because I often saw the mark downs before customers.  But it still meant that there was less to choose from-and it was easy to come home with 5 yards "because it was on sale".

I've been offering fabric and patterns to all of my sewing friends and I'm also being more diligent about my fabric purchases.  It's so much easier to buy at full price when I have a project in mind already!  And to offset my new purchases, I have been sewing from my stash as much as possible.  So when I inherited Matt's old mac, I knew that a charm pack would make the perfect laptop sleeve.

Fabric: Blush from Moda by Basic Grey
Lining: a soft pink pintuck fabric - Moda?

I included a cotton batting, machine quilting in a random curved line pattern, and a velcro closure.

 

I didn't need the entire charm pack for this project, so I was able to choose my favorites.  The other squares went into my stash!

The most difficult part of this project was the fit.  I wanted a snug fit, but my first attempt was too small.  This sleeve is a good size for slipping the laptop in and out, and there's enough room for the charger if I want to squeeze it in there.

Not-a-Frock by Friday

I just can't stay away from the Frock by Friday events over at Grosgrain!

They have been a lot of fun, and a great way to sew from my stash.  I seem to be sewing more dresses than I can wear, though!  The June FbF was to lengthen a summery shirt, so I took the opportunity to create the shirt version instead.

Fabric: Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile
Pattern: Tara from BurdaStyle

My alterations:
I stitched the elastic casing directly to the shirt instead of just enclosing the elastic in the seam allowance.  This forms a neater look.
I used bias binding to finish the to edges of the front and back.
I eliminated the sleeves and used bias binding for straps.

 

Overall, I like this top.  The fabric is really soft and it fits well.  The pattern was really easy to use, and I may use it again to sew up a few camis to sleep in.  This top may even end up in the pj drawer - look how well it matches my cutie "lingerie" pj pants!

Beat the heat without sweating it!

I'm really picky about my water bottles.  I prefer plastic, spill resistant, with a straw.  Until Camelbak came out with their Better Bottle, I thought I'd never find a bottle to fit my needs.  But once I tried it, I was hooked!  I could fill the bottle with ice water and toss it onto the passenger seat of my car without worrying about any spills.  I can also take a drink while I'm driving without the distraction of trying to keep my water from ending up in my lap.  And it's dishwasher safe!  Finally, the nearly perfect water bottle.

Yes, it's nearly perfect.  What could I possibly dislike about it now?  Bottle sweat.  Yep, I'm seriously that picky.

Rather than search for an insulated bottle that fits all of my other needs, I created a water bottle cozie!  Not only does it keep my bottle from sweating all over, but it helps to keep my drink cool for longer. Plus it just looks cute. ;)

I took my bottle cozie for a test run before making a smaller version for the kid-size bottles.  Once I knew that I liked my design, I created one for Addy's bottle, too.


The large cozie fits the 750ml Camelbak Better Bottle perfectly.  My husband uses the 1L Better Bottle, and the cozie is a tad bit too small for his bottle.

The small cozie fits both the Camelbak Kids Bottles and the Nalgene Kids Grip-n-Gulp.


The small and large cozies are now listed in the shop.  If you have a custom request, please contact me!  I can create a cozie in nearly any size, color or pattern to fit your needs.