Pinwheels and Crayons

My latest quilting accomplishment!!



Aren't those colors adorable?  I just love it to death.  Right now I just have the top pieced and am undecided if I will actually be able to quilt it considering the size.  It's about 80"x95" and that would be quite an undertaking.  Humm...we shall see.

Also, these are the first pinwheels I have made and I actually found them quite simple, time consuming, but simple.  I swear I think you sew the same dadgone square 10 times before you get a finished product.  Needless to say I will definitely post the tutorial I used...as soon as I find it  :)




The most astonishing late night craft on the face of the planet!!

It's a Crayon Roll!! (ok so technically it's a vertically challenged marker roll, because I own no crayons. But I'm making this for a friend whom will use this for crayons) What does it do you ask?  You would put crayons in the little slots then it conveniently wraps up to contain all the crayons inside.  Something very useful to carry in your purse for little ones.  This is surprisingly easy to make (as long as you don't spend an hour trying to attach the elastic).  Here is the tutorial I used, but you could make all kinds of rolling, carrying along, contraptions...just use your imagination.

Spring Quilting Bananza

Here is my lasted quilting project and by far the longest project I have endured. I used this pattern and made it larger for my project.

A few things you probably notice.  The squares aren't lined up perfectly on the front well heck they aren't even lined up 30% right. On the back you'll notice the fabric does a kind of whooshing to the left and then to the right and then to the left again.  So let me tell  you why this happened.

1. Low-quality material. (note: lesson learned) By "quality" fabric I mean the weave of the fabric is not snug and close together. It almost appears that some of my fabric choices are missing some strings.  This also makes the material very thin.  By having low quality fabric it isn't something I did it was purchased like that.  I'm sure a non-novice quilter would be able to spot the difference,  however I would still consider myself a novice quilter.
2. Slippery Batting.  I thought I was getting quite a deal by purchasing batting that was iron on. When layering the quilting sandwich you iron all the pieces together and then bast as normal.  I think what was "supposed" to happen was the layers were going to semi melt together, however after following the instructions that isn't what happened. I actually tried it numerous times to maybe reactivate the glue. Actually ironing the batting only made it slippery probably causing most of the wooshy lines.
3. Large Size. As you'll notice the pattern I used was for a baby quilt but I wanted to make it "people sized" so I got the fabric I needed and instead of calculating a million different numbers I just cut all the material I had.  This size was too big to both baste and to machine quilt. The finished size was somewhere about 80"x70".
4. Begin Quilter. I am just learning to machine quilt so I am by no means a professional at quilting.  I struggled with keeping the material going through the machine at a steady pace, and for some reason when I press the foot petal after stopping it goes lightening speed.  This is probably what caused the majority of the "whoosh-iness" on the backing.

So, I have learned lots from making my first Large quilt. This will obviously be for personal use since I am still learning and it is not by any means "gifting" quality.  I'm off to more sewing...

..'Nother Baby Quilt

I found this super easy, super fast pattern for producing multi-baby quilts on the run.  Haven't you noticed all the momma's-to-be, haha.. I think we may be in the process of Baby Boom the Second.  Needless to say I've been churning out baby quilts like a mad woman.  I want to share with you this very quick pattern, which I had found this about a year ago.  Large 9 Patch

Of course, I didn't follow the pattern exactly but here's what 3 short hours produced:

Overhead View

Back

Closer look at the back

This is the finished product other than the binding, however will update that soon. BTW check out that machine quilting .. I think I'm getting better.  Now it's in the mail to the New Momma-To-Be :)

Beginning Machine Quilting

Take a look at the first quilt I machine quilted.  This baby quilt I used 3.5" squares in 4 different materials.  I organized the pattern in a simple block design.  For the back I pieced one solid piece and a strip of the patterned block design to make the material long enough.  Ha ha.. my fault for not measuring correcty. 

When I went to quilt I attached the top and bottom via safety pinning which was super easy, compared to the basting I did previously.  The top and bottom stay lined up and dont scoot around.  Plus I have this super easy safety pining device called a Kwik Klip.  It makes snapping those safety pins a breeze.  When I started to do the machine quilting I used my waking foot and just sew'd "in-the-ditch" on all the horizontal seams on the front side.  After taking my quilting class I have noticed this is SUPER easy now.  WOW, what you can learn in only a couple hours.  When piecing the back I made sure the quilting stripes went up and down 1/2 way through the squares because making sure they went "exactly" on the seams was way to hard.  Needless to say it made for a great look.

Also I searched for Mitered Corners on youtube.com and found a nifty tutorial that made my corners look super great.  I can tell I'm learning a lot and really progressing in my quilting skills.  Take a look at the pics below.

Sewing projects finished for Christmas

Placemats got the pattern from Quick Quilts.  Lots of tiny cuts but they are super adorable.

Final Project Finished

Also Made This full size Turning Twenty variation.  It is fall themed with apples and fall colors, however I didn't get it finished in time.  At this pic only topper finished, too busy with Christmas to get it quilted.