Happy Holiday Weekend!

Happy Canada Day weekend to my fellow Canadians and Happy Independance Day to my American friends!  Yesterday we finally had a summer day, the first one this year, and today we're back to rain this morning and clouds this afternoon.  My backyard is looking more like a hayfield than a lawn, maybe I should have a pet goat instead of a dog. Of all the jobs around the house, I hate mowing the lawn the most (the downside of being single, I guess).

Not much has been happening on the sewing front between work, babysitting Alex and visiting Zoey (and her parents).  I did get Alex's I-spy quilt top put together and he helped me pin-baste it.

I gave Sarah the quilt and crib skirt I made for the baby, but before it went in the crib I had to take a few pictures!  She is eight days old in these pictures.

Here she is in the crib - the skirt is double-tiered and the bottom layer can come off when they drop the mattress to the lower level.

One last picture that makes me giggle.  Zoey tries really hard to focus on her nose and we were able to capture the shot! 

Two flimsy finishes in one night!

I was on a roll the other night and got two tops finished. That makes a total of 4 in the last month - more than I have ever completed in a year, let alone a month.

The one on the left is made with Pure by Sweetwater for Moda and Bella Solid in Natural and it only took me a few evenings to put together, thanks to Melissa of Happy Quilting and her quilt-along. 

 I am in love with this disappearing 16-patch pattern and I'm already brainstorming a smaller block version for my scrappy leaders and enders.  Melissa still has her quilt-along instructions posted with many size variations so be sure to check out her website. I made a large lap-size/small twin to cuddle up on my sofa.

I was still in the mood to sew when I finished this top so I pulled out an old UFO from about 4 years ago and finished it off. 

(The colours are a little off and the wind was picking up so it looks a little off kitler.)

This started as a fussy-cut panel and was one of the projects from a class my LQS put on called Washtub Club.  The class projects used 30's prints and this quilt was the final project.  I had pieced the blocks to the coloured triangles, and then put it away.  Luckily I had bought all the finishing fabric so it was easy to cut the strips and triangles and finish it off.  There is supposed to be one more border that matches the pants of the little guy in the blue block, but I think I might leave it like this and give it to a friend.  She just bought a new house and the appliances are red so I thought this might make a cute wallhanging.  It's about the size of a baby quilt.

I love the fact that all the Sunbonnet characters are wearing pants and even though they are doing traditional "women" chores, like the washing on Monday and the ironing on Tuesday, I like to think of them as men!  Just the way they should be ;o)

I finished another of these this week as well. It's quilting simply with a vine machine-embroidered along the seams and Minkee on the back. It was the second of two flimsys I've had on hand for about 4 years, so it was nice to quilt it and give it to a friend for a birthday.  My dog, Daisy, gave me a hand pin-basting it!



Now I'm off to work on a little Vignette mystery quilting.

What's on my design wall!

A sweet bunny quilt for a sweet baby granddaughter, due to arrive about June 1st!  This quilt has moved from the UFO pile to the WIP pile.

(My apologies for the crappy picture - I do live on the "Wet" coast after all, and winter weather means rain and clouds.)

The pattern is called Cherished Memories from Rabbit's Haven by A. Neely,  a (somewhat) local designer from Vancouver Island.  I purchased it as a kit from my favourite quilt shop, Hamels, when I started back at quilting (for the third or fourth time) about 5 years ago. 

When I pulled it out about 2 weeks ago, I had only stitched 2 1/2 blocks before putting it away.  Since then, I have completed a total of 9 blocks, with only 3 to go.  I think I might finish this on time ;o)

January Finishes - warning picture-heavy!

I have never had a more productive month and I have to thank all the lovely quilting and sewing bloggers out there!  I get so inspired when I see pictures and read about what they are doing, so much so that I put my little netbook computer in my sewing room so I can easily look things up!

Here's my little parade of projects.  First up, a 3-year-old UFO - a table runner for my sister.  I started this while her family was living with me after they suffered a devastating fire.  She picked Lava Red for her new kitchen colour, and when I saw this little charm pack that featured cats, I couldn't help but think of her!  It must have been one of Moda's first charm packs, because it was only 4-inch squares (the fabric is "Cats that Cook").

I put it aside because of those pesky triangles.  I forgot that when you cut a square in half, you lose 7/8's of an inch due to seams, so when I tried to put my rows together of course nothing would line up. I put it away until this month.  Then, when I went to machine quilt it, I discovered that I can't lower the feed dogs on my sewing machine - what gives?  My 30-year-old machine could, so I expected this 15-year-old machine would - nope.  I persevered and it turns out it does a pretty good job with no puckers, even without a walking foot.  I used a featherstitch to do the quilting.

Here is the finished table runner in its new home!  I forgot to take a photo of the back but it has an inset of the blocks.

Next up was another UFO that I finished up for a good friend of mine.  About 3-4 years ago, I purchased a small fat quarter pack and had enough to make 2 lap-size tops.  It was so nice to pull one of these out and finish it off with a cream Minkee backing.  I tried machine quilting again with a leafy vine design in the ditch and I only had one small pucker in the back.

I let myself start a new project since I was so good to finish 2 UFO's.  I kept it small so as not to add to the pile!  I made a Modern Valentine table runner (pattern by Sherri at A Quilting Life).  Bloggers are so generous, Sherri and her friends put together a "blog tour" and shared seven days of beautiful Valentine-inspired projects.  I found the blog tour through one of those elusive buttons on another blogger's site.

Made using scraps and a few pieces broken out of one of my precious Honey Buns - Oh, Cherry, Oh from Moda. 

Then I made 2 of these:

Roll-up high chairs!  This is a pattern of my own design that dates back to when I had my babies.  My twin nieces had babies last summer, 3 weeks apart, and now that the little ones are sitting up, I made these for their diaper bags.  Very handy when you are visiting, in a restaurant without high chairs or even in a shopping cart.

This was also my first attempt at machine-sewing the binding.  My first bit (the T-shaped piece) was pretty lousy as I did the sewing from the wrong side.

I did better on the second one.  I reviewed some instructions on the internet and realized that you sew the binding on the same as if you were hand-stitching it down; then from the front, you machine-stitch in the ditch and hopefully you'll catch the binding in the back.  It also helps to keep your stitches straighter.

In this picture you can see the front of the larger piece on the bottom (much better), the front of the T-shaped piece in the middle (yuck), and the back of the larger piece on top (much better, but I should have made that run to the store for matching thread.  You can also see the flap on the back to hook over a chairback when you are using it as a "high chair".

And my last finish (although it doesn'l look like it), is a bench cushion for the top of my cedar chest.  How I finished the back is the subject for another post.  It involves recycling!

I also busted out 3 BOMs that have been in limbo and started on those, plus picked up the newest "Buck a Block" Thangles program at my favourite local quilt shop, Hamels.  More on those later as well.

All in all, I had a great month and I'm so happy I got my sewing groove back.  I have completed more things in the last 4 months, than I have in the last 5 years!  Thanks everyone for your inspiration and hopefully I can inspire you too.

The rest of 2010 finishes

Finally I have all my pictures downloaded, but I missed a couple of things - oh, well!

My final 2010 finish (literally, at 9:30pm on New Years eve) was Alex's cuddle quilt:

This was a simple quilt that I should have finished long ago.  The section of squares was purchased as a single unit in 2008, and I intended to do it as soon as I found out my daughter was having a boy -never happened as I wasn't feeling the sewing mojo then.  Move ahead a year and half, and I decided to make it large enough to cover a twin bed, bought some flannel for the top and bottom which didn't quite match, started tie-quilting it - still not feeling it, put it aside for another year.  Flash forward to Spring 2010 - I have a spare room for the first time in years, I painted it, bought some new tables, etc. and I now have a craft room.  When I was pulling out boxes and bins, I came across this and made up my mind I was going to finish it in 2010 come hell or high water and I did!  Done is better than perfect!

I decided to make pyjamas for Alex; I used an old pattern that my mom used for my brother.  Alex modeled the pants for me (somewhat relucantly):

They must have made kids differently back then - the pants would have fit a 4-year-old, but the tops barely fit a 1-year-old.  Alex used them to dress a teddy bear.

Shoulda caught that when I was cutting them out ;o)  So I went back for more fabric.  Of course I couldn't find it so settled on some solids and made bottoms to match the tops for gifts for my new grand-nephews!

I also made 2 Lazy Girl Wallets, 2 Long John money holders and a knitted eyelash yarn scarf since I started sewing again.  I am thanking the Craft Gods for giving my interest back!