Little Patchwork

I finished this little quilt over a month ago, and I am so happy with how it turned out! My main goal with this quilt was to make something small and easy so that I could practice my machine quilting skills.

I decided to go with more masculine colors simply because I had made so many girly quilts and as I pulled fabrics and played around a little, I fell in love with this color combo!

I really love a simple patchwork quilt!

Lastly, I did quilt it myself and I am really happy with the results.

I started with horizontal lines about 1/2 inch apart, then I decided to go diagonal vs. vertical and I'm so glad I did! I think I'm thinking about whipping up another one of these in some fun sherbet colors for spring!

I want this!

The Epson Stylus R2000 Printer that is! As most of you know, I love photography & scrapbooking and I would love to be able to print off a photo I want right at home and right when I want it. It would make completing my Project Life pages so much easier! Speaking of Project Life, I need to post Weeks 1-4
(making a mental note here!) So far, it has been a fun process and has made me more aware of the everyday moments and the little things that make me happy. As a result I am noticing that I am more aware of all of the things I have to be grateful for as well!

If I could choose any printer in the world right now, it would be this one and you can enter to win one 

here!

Have a great weekend!

It's a quick (and easy) Valentine's tutorial!

I don't know about you, but sometimes for me it's all about the instant gratification. Don't get me wrong, I love the process of making a quilt and watching it come together over time, but sometimes I jus want to make something, have it finished, and put it to use! With that being said, I give you...My improv pin cushion tutorial!

When I attended The Sewing Summit last fall, one of my favorite classes was Improv Piecing taught by Jessica Barrett of Urban Patchwork. Since then I have been itching to do an improv quilt, but haven't taken the time yet, so in the interest of instant gratification, I decided to whip up this little pin cushion.

Start by picking a few scraps of patterned fabric that you love, then add in a few solids that work well with it. For this particular pin cushion, I chose "valentine-ey" colors, but it would be darling in so many combinations! Then take your rotary cutter and free hand cut about 8 strips about 1-1.5" wide and 6-10 " long (note: the longer you make your strips, the more room you have to play with how you cut it out).
I just moved my cut strips around until I found a layout I liked.

Now you get to sew them together with 1/4 inch seam!

Don't worry if the strips don't line up, that's the fun part... just line it up as you go along then press after each. This is what gives you the wonderfully curved and imperfect lines!

After you have sewn your strips together, you are going to trim them down to a 4.5" x 4.5 square.

As I mentioned earlier, you can play around with this part. I love improv!

This is what I decided on, THEN, I thought, "how cute would it be to add a simple little embroidery stitch somewhere?" So that's what I did. I used 3 strands of brown embroidery floss and just did a little straight stitch on one of the white strips. Then cut a 4.5' x 4.5" square of solid fabric for the back of your pin cushion. Turn right sides together and sew leaving about a 1.5" opening to turn. then take your scissors and cut off each little corner before you turn.

Turn right side out making sure to get the corners good and now you get to stuff it!

I used crushed walnut shells that I bought at Petco. Notice it is a 7 lb. bag? 7 pounds!!! I think I will be making lots of pin cushions! It gives them a nice weight and is great for your pins as well. I also put in just a little batting. Then I quickly hand stitched the opening together and Voila!  A happy little pin cushion that would make a fun gift for a sewing friend- especially if you pop a few cute pins and some candy in with it!

If any of you feel so inclined to whip one of these up, I would LOVE to see it so leave a comment with a link to your blog please! Thanks and enjoy! :)

P. S. My tutorial is featured on the blog Totally Stitchin' sponsored by Baby Lock.

Thanks McKenzie!

My baby started college. Wait... WHAT?

I'll admit I've been awhile  in writing this post. I've totally been trying to process the fact that my sweet girl moved away to start college! We moved her in to her dorms about 2 weeks ago and she is loving it!
Having a child move out to go to college is a milestone for every mother, but just to to be able to get my girl healthy and strong enough to handle it is nothing short of amazing. She has severe Crohn's disease and shortly after High School graduation, she became extremely ill. She was so severely ill in fact, that she spent the majority of the summer in the hospital or at home hooked up to feeding tubes and other various gadgets. I won't take the time to tell the story today as that would take hours, but come August, when all of her friends were getting ready to start the next chapter of their lives, My girl got to have about 15 inches of her colon removed and had to defer fall semester. She was heartbroken and so was I. Crohn's is a vicious disease! After a long hard battle though, I am so very proud of her! She is loving the college experience and I am loving that she is doing so well!

Also, just to tie a little crafty goodness in to this post, notice the cute pillows on her bed? Dylan and I made them together. Also, in the middle photo, I made the cute letter "d" out of colored pencils and Dylan made the two "Ugly Dolls" sitting next to it!

My 2012 "List"

Let me just start off by saying that this post was totally inspired by Faith over at Fresh Lemons.
She made a lovely mosaic of all of her 2011 quilts and wrote about the things on her 2011 list that she accomplished and didn't and some of the things she hope to accomplish in 2012 - like make a zig zag quilt - which has been floating around on my mental list for months and voila! I decided that I needed to make a list, a real one, not just the random scattered thoughts in my brain, so with that said, here is my "list" for 2012.

*Make a chevron quilt
*Make a completely improvisational quilt
*Make fun skirts for my girls
*Work on my scrapbooks at least once a month
*Drink more water
*Make a wonky star quilt
*Spend a little more time on my blog
*and most important of all... Enjoy the process!!!

Here is my first finished quilt for 2012, The Firecracker Quilt. The pattern is by Jaybird Quilts.
A fitting quilt for the new year don't you think?