Eight finished quilts
A quilt-along and lots of fabric dyeing
The new kitchen
Thanks to everyone who stopped by during 2011! You’re the best:)
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Two quilts for Christmas
(Edited to add to Sarah’s Whoop Whoop Friday!)
I had the pleasure of making two quilts for Christmas gifts this year.
This is Ashley’s quilt from this Moda Bakeshop tutorial. This quilt was a joy from start to finish although I had a little trouble getting back into the free motion quilting rhythm. I haven’t done a full size quilt for a while. I used Terrain from Kate Spain. Beautiful fabric line!
The best part was… she was here to open it in person! My best present:)
Ashley’s husband, C., is a huge Notre Dame fan. As of this posting, he hasn’t seen his quilt yet since he spent the holiday with his family in South Dakota. I hope he likes it:) The tan color is actually more goldish. The letters were done in a free pieced style, but without the wonkiness. The “N” was a bear! Good thing there was only one.
If I do another quilt like this, I’ll do things a little differently. The center logo was fused on and didn’t come out of the wash as flat as I'd hoped. I believe a lighter weight fusible would work better on such a large area. It may be possible to only fuse the edges, too, as long as it has some quilting lines to hold it down. I also think that pre washing the fabric might have worked better for this one. It still turned out okay.
Are you familiar with felted bar soap? It’s been a popular item on Etsy this year, so the girls and I thought we’d give it a try. I already had a little wool from a needle felting kit and found a local yarn store that carries a nice supply. We used ordinary, inexpensive bar soap. I needle felted the little hearts for some extra zip. This was fast, easy and kind of relaxing. There are a zillion or so tutorials online to follow.
I threatened to felt Mr. DJ’s Irish Spring. He wasn’t amused…I can’t figure out why! Not like I’d make it pink or something.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
I had the pleasure of making two quilts for Christmas gifts this year.
This is Ashley’s quilt from this Moda Bakeshop tutorial. This quilt was a joy from start to finish although I had a little trouble getting back into the free motion quilting rhythm. I haven’t done a full size quilt for a while. I used Terrain from Kate Spain. Beautiful fabric line!
The best part was… she was here to open it in person! My best present:)
Ashley’s husband, C., is a huge Notre Dame fan. As of this posting, he hasn’t seen his quilt yet since he spent the holiday with his family in South Dakota. I hope he likes it:) The tan color is actually more goldish. The letters were done in a free pieced style, but without the wonkiness. The “N” was a bear! Good thing there was only one.
If I do another quilt like this, I’ll do things a little differently. The center logo was fused on and didn’t come out of the wash as flat as I'd hoped. I believe a lighter weight fusible would work better on such a large area. It may be possible to only fuse the edges, too, as long as it has some quilting lines to hold it down. I also think that pre washing the fabric might have worked better for this one. It still turned out okay.
Are you familiar with felted bar soap? It’s been a popular item on Etsy this year, so the girls and I thought we’d give it a try. I already had a little wool from a needle felting kit and found a local yarn store that carries a nice supply. We used ordinary, inexpensive bar soap. I needle felted the little hearts for some extra zip. This was fast, easy and kind of relaxing. There are a zillion or so tutorials online to follow.
We made some little beads, too.
I threatened to felt Mr. DJ’s Irish Spring. He wasn’t amused…I can’t figure out why! Not like I’d make it pink or something.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Assembly required…
Some secret assembly stuff happening in the sewing room.
Terrain from Kate Spain. That’s all I’m saying for now.
Other items that are not so secret.
Some fiddly little applique with Make Life from Sweetwater.
Mini pillows for my Etsy shop.
I’m getting pretty fond of Osnaburg.
A mini tree brooch on it’s way to France. Merci beaucoup:)
A random silly fact about me: Christmas is the only time of the year I choose to listen to music. That may seem strange, but after 40+ years of my life revolving around all things music (teaching, performing, accompanying, church stuff…you get the idea) I flamed out in a big way. It’s like Mr. DJ eating too many peas when he was a kid and being disturbed by them now. Maybe it was a mini mid-life crisis sort of thing. Weird, I know. It still bothers me to have music playing in the car, but having the two musicians in the house play guitar or the string instrument du jour doesn’t bug me so much now. I don’t consider this to be a bad thing…. a personal paradigm shift perhaps.
However, I love Christmas music! I’ll listen to almost any genre and have had my Pandora holiday channels on shuffle for a few weeks. I wonder …just how many remakes are there of ‘Carol of the Bells’ and ‘Santa, Baby’? I did, after a few shuffle cycles, give a thumbs down to the Shotgun Shells on the Christmas Tree song, though. To be considerate, I will not provide a link to that one.
Here’s one you might enjoy! Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Kids voices! Wonderful!
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