Herringbone Quilt, Final Fat Eighth Bundle Project

After making two triangle quilts (here and here) with a fat eighth bundle of Coquette by Chez Moi I did something a little different and made this girly herringbone quilt. It has been quite a while since I used a lot of white in a quilt so it was fun to revisit something familiar. This quilt was featured on Quilt Story!

I pulled out all of the green and blue fabrics from the bundle leaving just shades of pink, purple and yellow. The blues ended up in a herringbone pillow, the greens are just orphaned to the scrap bin for now.

The backing is pieced in purple and yellow - I was a little nervous that I wouldn't like how it turned out but I'm really happy with it.

I especially love the chevron pattern on the back left by the quilting! I followed every row on either side of the seam using my walking foot. I used white thread since I was using a big dash of Kona White in this baby quilt. I used just under one yard of white for this quilt which measures 36x38.

When making my rainbow herringbone quilt last year I worried that it would be difficult to line up the seams but it is actually a very forgiving pattern. You can grab a link to the herringbone tutorial on my pinterest tutorials board.  I modified it some but the instructions are really good. My cut pieces were 2.5 x 9 which makes this a jelly roll friendly pattern too! I did have a little trouble with the rows not lining up this time around - there is a good dash of 'eye-balling' that goes into this quilt when piecing the rows. At first I thought my seam allowances were off but it ended up that my eye-balling was the issue. I must have had beginners luck when doing the pattern the first time because I didn't experience this issue the first go around.

I'd love to say this is the final installment of my fat eighth bundle but I have a huge pile of scraps so I'm not quite finished with these fabrics. I've used them so much I might just add them to my overflowing scrap bins.

Fat Eighth Bundle Projects 

Just to recap my projects from one fat eighth bundle and 1 1/4 yard of white 

Herringbone Crib Quilt, 36x38, plus 33 inches of white

Herringbone Pillow, 18 inch square, plus 10 inches of white 

Triangle Baby Quilt, 31x31

Triangle Crib Quilt, 36x42

A small mountain of scraps!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Show and Tell Tuesday Sew Fresh Quilts My Quilt Infatuation crazy mom quilts Whoop Whoop Friday Sew Cute Tuesday and Quilt Story 

One Lovely Blog Award

Oh. My. Goodness. I was ridiculously happy to see that someone had selected my blog to participate in One Lovely Blog Award, thanks Amanda! The rules are as follows

1) Share a little bit about the person (or people) who nominated you.

Amanda has some seriously cute things going on over at her blog, The Cozy Pumpkin. I don’t have any littles but if I did I’d be checking out her blog for adorable hand-made clothes. Instead I’m interested in her quilty awesomeness and amazing hand-stitching skills. One of my favorite Cozy Pumpkin quilts is one that she made for her daughters room, a giant tumbler quilt with free motion stippling, yum! The colors drew me in right away but that quilt has some beautiful crinkliness that I can't get enough of! She has a lot of tips and tutes too!

2) Share seven things about yourself your readers may not know.

1. I've only been quilting about 5 years although I had dabbled before. I attempted my first quilt in college, bought a sewing machine, fabric and set out to complete a king size pinwheel quilt with very small pinwheels (I needed about a thousand or two)... still working on that one!

2. I have quilted all of my own quilts. I recognized right away that I couldn't afford to take my quilts to a long-armer. When I first started I just made quilt tops and folded them up and put them in the closet (good idea right?!). After a small pile amassed I bought a plastic free motion foot for my little Wal-Mart sewing machine. I finished one quilt with the little foot and started a second. Unfortunately the machine and foot exploded into a dozen parts! This is the story of how I came to purchase my Pfaff 4.2 Quilt Expressions machine which has been a workhorse and improved my piecing and quilting dramatically. It has made sewing and quilting so much more fun.

3. I probably spend more time researching ideas for quilts than actually making quilts! Anyone else have this problem?! I'm a regular pinterest, instagram, flickr, blog stalker... and boy does that keep you busy!

4. Proud mama time! My son is a US Marine and currently stationed in Pensacola, Florida. He's studying to be an air traffic controller and is waiting to find out where his next duty station will be! He's hoping for the west coast - he is not a fan of Florida humidity. Wisconsinite through and through.

5. Speaking of Florida, my hubby and I met in college while completing our Masters program and were married in Panama City Beach, Florida at sunset. We stayed at a little pink hotel on the beach which was demolished a year or so later and turned into a high rise condo. My hubby put together all of the flowers for the wedding including my bouquet. I bought my wedding dress from ebay for $300. I like to be thrifty like that...

6.  I've been taking an interest in sewing clothes lately! Not sure what got into me.  Over Memorial Day a friend and I got together to sew the Staple Dress. After that I completed the Belcarra Blouse in cotton and a self drafted linen circle skirt! There are some cute dress and tank patterns I've been eyeing up for future projects. This has been a new adventure - there is so much to learn, garment photography, reading patterns, tailoring, apparel fabric... The Pinterest, instagram and blog research is in full swing!

7.  Randomness. I'm currently watching Lost on Netflix; I was never caught up in it while it was airing. I was missing out. I'm also way hooked on Mad Men; I want to be on Mad Men. I just finished reading Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline, a book about the clothing industry in America. Favorite books include Like Water for Chocolate, The Help and anything by Jen Lancaster. Some of my favorite movies are Steel Magnolias, Hope Floats, and Drowning Mona. I love watching old movies, especially Carey Grant, James Stewart and Jack Lemmon flicks. Don't even get me started on holiday movies... I have a large stack that must be watched every single year. Every. Single. Year. I listen to a lot of country and classic rock music. I like a craft beer or glass of wine (or two) pretty much every day. Green Bay Packers have my heart always. And I wish I could remember half of the Spanish I learned in high school. Randomness.

3) Choose bloggers that you wish to nominate for the One Lovely Blog Award and share a bit about them.

Girl With a Sewing Machine: Lala sews some amazing clothes for herself and her young daughter. Great photos and the fabric, oh my, the fabric! I love reading about her sewing adventures in Singapore.

Where is My Instruction Manual: Again with the clothes! A theme here? I want to sew everything she has made. Lots of kids sewing too.

Never Just Jennifer: A quilty blog! I've had this scrappy baby quilt pinned for half a year. I love the random blocks in the simple and slightly off center setting setting. And then there's the rounded corners to fall in love with!  I love Jenn's style and use of color.

This post has been quite an adventure - hope you enjoy!

Pillows and Patio Gardens

I’m still working on the third quilt from my Coquette fat eighth bundle but I did manage to complete a small triangle baby quilt and a zig zag quilted pillow! How much fabric has been stuffed in these little bundles?!

I used only the blues from the collection along with a bit of Kona white for the pillow top. I installed a blue invisible zipper and backed the pillow with white minky dot – minky is my go-to when I can’t decide what else to use.  Something with this blue… I just don’t have anything in my stash that ‘goes’ with it. Hard to believe I know! Tons of navy and tons of teal but blue is in short supply at my place.

The second quilt from my Coquette bundle is this baby quilt, smaller than the crib quilt I shared last week this measures quilt measures a square 31x31. 

Instead of quilting every seam I did only the diagonals which made a pretty cool diamond pattern on the back.

I’m a little in love with this purple lace fabric and I especially like that the white in this fabric line is not bright white rather a soft cream.

Three finished projects from the bundle so far. I still have quilt number three on my design wall….  And happily working on other projects at the moment! 

Patio Garden 

I still can’t believe it has been over four years since we moved to this area; but what I really can’t believe is that this is the first year that we’ve had a garden… a patio garden!  We used to have a huge garden with every vegetable you could imagine at our old place – I miss that. This year my hubby and I put together a patio garden with pots and containers of little tomatoes, jalapenos, lettuce, basil and cucumbers!  We have gotten a ton of rain and had a few warm days so everything is really taking off this week. Patio gardens are pretty simple to start and maintain. We spent half a day shopping for plants and planters and did the planting in a couple of hours – a weekend project. Now we, and by we I mean my hubby, just make sure that the pots are watered, no weeding required! Next year I’m hoping to add some zucchini and full size tomatoes.

And I couldn’t help take a photo of Peanut, our parti-color cocker spaniel. He’s getting very sleepy while he patiently waits for me to take photos this morning.  He has to stay awake so that he doesn’t miss a thing! After all, there could be opportunities for barking (!) at any minute... 

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts Whoop Whoop Friday Quilt Story Sew Cute Tuesday My Quilt Infatuation and crazy mom quilts

Three Quilts One Bundle!

Gosh I love deals, especially fabric deals! So much that sometimes I buy too much, way, way too much! When I jumped back into quilting a few years ago I bought an inappropriate amount of fabric; it's normal to buy a couple hundred yards of fabric in a year right?? Right....  I have seriously curtailed my fabric intake this year. The neatly folded fabric has spilled off my shelves into piles on the floor which is not neat at all! In an effort to make a little room I decided to devour a fat eighth bundle of Chez Moi Coquette I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop which has had a birthday or two here. In case you are wondering you can make at least three baby quilts from a single fat eighth bundle!  Here is my first finish

After my recently finished postage stamp quilt with a gazillion tiny squares, a few angles were necessary to keep me straight! This is my first triangle quilt finish. I've dabbled in triangles before with my triangle pillow but this was the first usable quilt with nothing but triangles.

I'm constantly admiring them and I quickly realized how tricky the triangle points can be. By the time I finished this quilt I decided that pressing all seams open was the best way to save them. I did have a couple of 'point casualties' but there is always a couple!

For the quilting I decided on light pink 50wt Auriful thread following each seam. I really love this design partly because it creates stars all over the front and back

Pretty, pretty, pretty! This crib quilt measures 36x42. I was also able to create a triangle baby quilt and a herringbone quilt that hasn't quite taken form yet from this fat eighth bundle! Who knew so much fabric was stuffed into those neatly folded bundles?!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday crazy mom quilts LAFF Sew Cute Tuesday i have to say and My Quilt Infatuation 

Sew What?! The Staple Dress

Sew.... What?! I made something that wasn't a quilt and I liked it!

I came across Me Made Made 2015 on Instagram while cruising Art Gallery Fabrics and thought, I could do this right?!  I bought this amazing voile Indelible Floret Stains in Mulberry by Katarina Roccella and the Staple Dress pattern by April Rhodes. Mustard, mint, teal, pink - yes, please! I read a bunch of reviews of the pattern and quite a few people said that it was a great pattern for beginners and lots of newbies like me had good outcomes.

Since I've never made a piece of clothing before I thought maybe I should practice on something that was a little less expensive.  I bought 2.5 yards of pretty pink pin dot on navy fabric from the bargain bin for around $9.  I think it is rayon - I know nothing about apparel fabric, nothing! Note to other beginners, rayon is very slippery, a less slippery choice might be better for your first garment. The learning begins! A friend of mine, another newbie sewer, joined me and we dove in thinking we'd be wearing our dresses out for the evening. That did not happen. In a few hours we did manage to trace the pattern, cut our fabric pieces, sew together the shoulders and sew the pockets in. We figured we could probably finish sewing the sides together, sew the neck, arms and waist shirring in a couple more hours. That did not happen. On our next meeting we managed to sew the two main pieces together and the neck. Sewing neck and arm holes are really hard! Seriously. My biggest struggle was pressing this fabric; it just would not crease. Even with lots of pins it was still moving around quite a bit while I was sewing. My neck is a little ruffly on the inside as a result but it looks ok on the outside.

I was determined to fix the ruffle effect for the arm holes. Much research commenced. I decided to add a sheerweight fusible interfacing and recut the arm pieces. Much better! The interfacing allowed the fabric to crease when pressed which made all the difference. Next time I'll be sure to carefully fit the arm and neck pieces too. Sigh.

Although a lot of freaking out was done over the waist shirring, it was all for nothing, my Pfaff handled it like a boss. The trickiest part was hand winding the elastic thread on the bobbin. Yes, hand winding the bobbin. And of course I wound it the wrong way the first time. Doh.

Hemming was last. No freaking out but tons of research for hemming slippery fabrics. Basically, the tinier the hem the better. But I still had the pressing issue and this time I couldn't use interfacing like I did with the arms. I took a chance and just sprayed it down with lots and lots of heavy starch. Worked! Immediately put dress on and demand hubby take photos before it falls apart!!

Whew! I sewed a dress. A dress I could, and did, wear to work. Happy!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Sew Many Ways and Made by You Monday

Postage Stamp Quilt

I'm so happy to be finished up with this oversized baby quilt! I love these colors in the Up Parasol line by Heather Bailey and used up every last scrap of them finishing this postage stamp quilt. This quilt was featured at Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday!!

I added a bunch of scraps from my stash including Art Gallery Pure Elements solids in coral and light pink and several strips of my Birds and Berries collection plus a couple of others strays that fit in. Since these colors are a little out of my typical jive I ended up selecting a solid minky dot in celadon for the backing. Whenever I am in doubt for the backing I tend to gravitate towards a minky in solid. It seems to go with everything!

I liked the solid minky color against all the small squares - there was so much going on that a solid color worked well here. I went ahead with a solid light pink by Art Gallery for the binding after doing a couple 'binding auditions' on instagram.

I kept it really simple with the quilting here; using light teal thread in alternating directions on every other 'stamp.'  I really like the diamond look that it leaves on the backing.

I was really wishing that I had some of the Up Parasol plaid for the binding...  probably going to need to stash some of that!

This quilt was made up of 9 patch blocks created with 2.5 inch unfinished squares. 9 patch blocks measured 6.5 inches when completed and the total quilt size is 43x48. This quilt coordinates with the postage stamp pillow I created last week. Usually I do the pillow as a bonus project but this time I wanted to see if it was feasible with my patience level to actually finish an entire quilt using 2.5 inch squares. Turns out it was, but I've moved on to some nice equilateral triangles for my next project!

Link Parti's 

Take a look at the linki parti's I get down with here or by clicking on the Linki Parti's link above. Linking up to Whoop Whoop Friday crazy mom quilts Sew Cute Tuesday Quilt Story and Show Off Saturday