UFO (unfinished object) is finished after 10 years

I fist learned to quilt when I was a young wife in a small town and didn't know a soul.  One afternoon I was exploring my new hometown and discovered a quilt shop.  I didn't even know they existed at the time.  I walked in the door and my world was changed forever.  I signed up for the beginners class and fell in love.  A few years later we moved and the first thing I did in my new hometown was look up where the local quilt shop was.  Over the years I have moved many times and have so many wonderful friends and memories from all those wonderful quilt shops I had found.  

Here is a quilt I started for myself 10 years ago from one of those many quilt classes.  The instructor used the new (2005) issue of Better Homes and Gardens Quilt book to teach us how to make the classic monkey wrench block.

 

Verteran Star Quilt

Every year the quilt guild I am a member of donates new handmade quilts to our veterans here at the Dallas Veteran Hospital.  I enjoy spending my extra time making something for someone who has done so much for me.  I just finished this one and thought I would share.

 

And to all the brave and dear veterans that might read this, thank you.

 

Heirloom Block's

My most recent project was creating a quilt out of heirloom quilt blocks.  The blocks seemed to be kind of fragile so I wasn't sure what I should do but I knew the owner of my local quilt shop would know exactly how to help me.

 

 

 

 

The first thing she suggested was to use a lightweight iron on fabric stabilizer which I did.  There were not enough blocks to make a full quilt so I decided to cut them on the diagonal and make half square triangles using a cream muslin as filler fabric.

 

 

And finally I framed the blocks with color coordinated fabric.

 

 

Now that it is done I'd like to find more vintage blocks and see what else I can create.

 

 

 

 



Children's Books Baby Shower Theme

Need some ideas for a baby shower you're planning?  Well, yesterday I attended the very cute shower for a very good friend of mine.  She and her husband have been married 14 years and are expecting their first little miricle in May!

The shower was decorated in the most adorable way with children's story books as the theme.  I especially loved the cupcake table!

We all brought our favorite book from our own childhood instead of a card with a special message inside.  I gave her the story of Mr and Mrs Mallard and thier search for the perfect home in the town of Boston.

Each table was cleverly decked out with it's own book theme.

 

 

And of coarse we all gave other gifts as well.  This is the quilt I made her.

 

 

 

The sign in table had a book for us all to sign and the invitation was even in story book form.

 

 

 



Hopefully these picture have given you some ideas for a baby shower you might be planning too.  If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.

 

Thanks, 

 

 

Easy How To For Mitered Borders

When working with striped fabric mitered borders look so much better than traditional log cabin style.  At first I thought it was going to require difficult sewing skills but I was so wrong.  With measuring and marking it is as easy as can be.

The first thing you need to know is that the fabric you cut for your border needs to be longer by at least 10 inches than the desired finished measurements of your quilt.

Example:  If you want your finished quilt to be 45x45 then you need at least 55 in long strips for the borders

Second thing is to remember not to cross over seam allowances.  That is where the measuring and marking come in.

So let's get started

1. cut your 4 border strips the width you desire and at least 10 inches longer than the desired finished dimentions of your quilt.

 

 

2. pin the borders to your quilt top right sides together being sure to center quilt top on border length.  Sew border starting and stopping 1/4 inch away from quilt top edge.

3. Keeping border and quilt top right sides together fold at the corner (right side of quilt top showing) and mark a sewing line that is at a 45 degree angle from the seam line and from where the seam line ended (remember not to cross seam lines).

 

 

 

4. sew on marked line, open, press and trim excess frabric

 

 

 

 And now you have a very nice clean mitered border.



The Feel of Spring

You would think with all the cold weather keeping me inside I would be so on top of my blog posts and handmade projects for my shop. Wrong! There must be some truth to the correlation between low amounts of sunlight hours and depression.  Of course I'm not depressed but just feeling blah a lot of time and have taken way too many naps and watched way too much TV.

So anyway I was at the salon today getting that pesky grey colored and flipping through all the new March issues of my favorite magazines.  It was just what I needed to put that spark back in my days. I'm all excited about getting a garden started and making all kinds of cute spring bright colored projects for my shop.

My first project is a bunny outfit for a newborn. And the second is a baby quilt for a dear friend who's having her first baby in May.

Can't wait to show you the finished products!

So what are you doing to help bring spring a little earlier to your life?
Leave your comments below.  I'd love to hear from you.

 Happy Crafting!

Dr Seuss Quilt

Our grandson turned one!  Oh how the days are long but the years are short!  His mother threw a wonderful Dr Seuss party for the family and everyone had a great time!  All the decorations were so cute and fun.  She wants to decorate his room with Oh The Places You'll Go story so I made a quilt and framed two of the pages to help get her started.

 

I got this chevron pattern from HERE.

 

 

Happy Birthday Brady! We love you!

A Quilt for my BFF

My best friend loves the colors of fall and so for her Christmas gift I made a simple lap quilt using a charm pack of the Phenomenal Fall by Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics.

 

After exchanging gifts we took her two girls to see Christmas lights. Sharing good times with good friends is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas.

 

 

Commissioned Tree Skirt

It's fun being paid to be crafty!  The receptionist where I have my nails done asked me to make a tree skirt for her.  I brought in an assortment of ideas and she picked this one.  The directions were for a 25" diameter and I adjusted the measurements to make it 60" for her 9' tree.

Making a 60" diameter circle takes about 4 yards of fabric by sewing two 60" long pieces together then trimming the 88" width down making a 60" square. I then folded the square in half and then in half again the alternate way. I then folded it on the diagonal twice making it into a cone. I used a plate charger which gave me the scalloped look I was after.

 

For the ornaments I traced the design onto iron fusible interfacing. After ironing the the fusible interfacing to the fabric I cut out each piece then ironed in place.

 

 

Finally I embellished each ornament with gold trim and a red ribbon.

 

 

Before quilting I sewed the back fabric, batting and top together with top wrong side up.  I left a large enough gap to turn the skirt right side out. Then I machine quilted the edge and around each ornament.

 

Then I added red ribbon to tie the skirt around the tree and whola I was done!

 

 

Merry Christmas! and Happy Crafting!