Secret Sewing & More

My hubby asked me to make throw pillow covers for his mom for Mother's Day--he wanted spring themed. I made four 18 inch pillow covers, but only remembered to take pictures of one of them--this flower. I also made another flower, a butterfly, and a bumblebee using all spring fabrics. I mailed them on Monday and she received them, so I can reveal this secret sewing. I made the envelope backs using the method shown on Crazy Mom Quilts 

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-make-envelope-backed-pillow.html

It is super simple!

I also finished up all of my book covers. These are gifts for my 5th graders who are moving on to middle school next year. I made them according to their favorite colors.

Bright colors are popular with 10-11 year olds!

So far I have delivered the book covers to one group of kids and they were really excited about them.

 Most of these will be given out this next week.

 Did I mention I made 30 of these in a few days?

Plus, I only spent $20 because I shopped mostly in my stash. 

I wrapped them simply and inexpensively in brown paper bags with simple ribbons. With all of the book covers done, I could go back to my own sewing...

 Yesterday was Friday which means Farm Girl Friday! I am making the six inch blocks from my scraps. This is the Autumn Star Block. Since my background fabric has black dots, I decided to pull some black in to tie it all together. I love how this block came out!

Next up was the Baby Chick Block. It was fun and simple too. There is a baby quilt made completely of these baby chick blocks with pinks featured in the book--I definitely will put that on my to do list. Also on my to do list is the mini heart quilt Lori featured on Friday, here is the link

http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2015/05/farm-girl-friday-week-2-simple-farm.html

 I spent last night and this morning finishing up the hand quilting on my Journey of a Quilter BOM Quilt. This is the label on the back.

 Most of it is just stitched in the ditch with perle cotton #8. I did use a stencil flower border since it is the only quilting that really shows up.

  I just attached the lime green binding and will spend the evening and tomorrow morning working on it.

 Here is the backing. I am joining many others with the hand quilting for Slow Sunday Stitching http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com and this should be my last Sunday working on my Journey of a Quilter! Happy Mother's Day!

Sweatshop Sewing

 The school year is nearly over--11.5 days to go and yes I am counting! If you want to laugh out loud about how this time of year feels for moms read this blog http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-hatmaker/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever_b_3378480.html and believe me having been a mom and a teacher this time of year is even worse for teachers!!!

For the last five years, I have sewn book covers for my fifth graders as promotion presents. I usually start them after Christmas and work on them a little bit at a time, but this year our department budget was cut and there was really not any money to buy the supplies to make them. I figured they would just not happen this year, but I have felt very guilty about it! I have the privilege to work with most of my students for three years and they are such nice kids, so I just dug into my stash and my own wallet to make them. I only decided to make them on Thursday. I ran around the fifth grade track meet trying to find all 30 of the fifth graders I work with to ask them their two favorite colors. The few kids that weren't there or I never found I e-mailed their moms asking for the color combinations.  This yellow one is for Siera.

 The turquoise and black is for Emmalee. I machine appliqued their initial on the cover. Here is a link to my tutorial for how to make them 

http://tanyaquiltsinco.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-cover-tutorial.html

and they only take a quarter yard of fabric, a 9x12.5 inch piece of interfacing, a 12 inch length of ribbon, and a button.

I have thirty book covers that just need to be whip stitched closed and buttons added to the ribbons that are the book marks. I need to have 14 of them done by Thursday to give to one group of kids. It is the last time I get to see them due to a field trip. I guess I won't be finishing my Journey of a Quilter this week, but I am glad that I decided to whip them up even if I felt like I was working in a sweatshop!

Farm Girl Friday!

 Whoo who, today is the first Farm Girl Friday! I have my book and my background fabric all ready to go. I was laughing with my hubby about how funny it is that I am excited about something farm and agriculture related as I don't really enjoy dirt, manure, or bugs. I grew up in San Diego not on a farm or even a town, but now we live in rural western Colorado surrounded by farmland and ranches full of chickens, cows, pigs, horses, ducks, goats, sheep, and llamas and many other animals. I actually like living in the country even when the crop duster buzzes our house all summer at six in the morning.

 We have the day off from work today, so I went grocery shopping early. On my way home, I watched some of my neighbors putting a couple of calves into their pasture. The calves were running around like super excited dogs because they have been in small pens and this was their first time having a big area to run around in.

After I got my groceries put away, I walked around the corner to get some pictures of them.  They came right up to the fence and I could pet them and got these cute pictures. It will be fun to watch them grow. I will have to check with our neighbors and see if they have names, but maybe I should just call them "Hamburger" and "Meatloaf" since that is what they are destined to be. We live on 2.5 acres and picked our house partly because you could have livestock. Since we were moving to the country we wanted that option, but our daughter was not interested in having a horse or participating in 4-H, so no livestock for us.

Now that she is a teenager, she reconsidered and did get a horse last summer--Chuck, her Mustang convertible counts right? She has been cruising around this week with the top down and will today too since it is going to be 80 degrees.

 http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2015/05/yeehaw-farm-girl-friday-is-here.html

So this is the block we are making this week for Farm Girl Friday--Apron Strings. I took this picture from Lori Holt's blog. See the link above.

 Here is my version of the 6 inch block made by digging in my scrap bins.

 I also made an extra block and turned it into a pin cushion following the tutorial Lori has on her blog. This is the top

 and this is the side

and this the back. Her tutorial is great and this went together very quickly.

Is this the devil? If you read my last post, you saw a picture of our sweet puppy/dog, Bella. Two weekends ago, she ate my hubby's cell phone. He says goodnight to our dogs every night because they reside in our sunroom/dog room since Bella is too destructive in the main house. His cell phone slipped out of his shirt pocket and onto Bella's bed. Of course he did not notice it and she ate it. She loves plastic things with batteries. Then, the same thing happened again this past weekend. Two cell phones dead in one week!

Is it her fault that her dad put two cell phones on her bed and she thought they were treats? She does not think so and I think it is his fault too! Let's just hope it does not happen again...

I have completed hand quilting three sides of my Journey of a Quilter and need to mark the last side. I was looking back over my blog and realized I started this project as a BOM last April and I embroidered the last block in December 2014. I pieced it and have been hand quilting it since then, I guess it has not taken too long even though it feels like forever!

I did work on some more projects today, but I can't share them yet. I plan on tidying up my sewing room tonight because Lindsey will be over tomorrow to sew with me. I am joining quilters all over the world tonight for Friday Night with Friends (FNwF) http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/2015/04/fnwf_29.html

I will post what I finish tonight later this weekend.

Snapshots Mini Quilts

 Here is my Block 4 Puppy Love Mini Quilt which is the April Snapshots block. Can I tell you how excited I was about this block? I love dogs and puppies are the best!

I made the puppy look like our youngest dog and perpetual puppy, Bella. She will turn 5 years old in September, but still behaves like a bad puppy. My hubby said good night to her on Saturday night and his cell phone slipped out of his pocket unbeknownst to him. Well, of course Bella chewed it up and left it for him to find on Sunday morning. I am sure she thought it was a remote control--she ate over a dozen of those before she was banned from being in the main house. At least she did not eat the battery and need a visit to the vet!

I am using the corner pieces to hang these mini quilts with thumbtacks in my sewing room, plus they are perfect for labeling.

 Here is the Block 3 Put the Kettle On March block that I quilted and bound this weekend

and its back, hanger, and label. I am using mostly Bonnie and Camille fabrics and trying to use what I have on hand and not buy anything.

This is the big quilt which I decided to make as mini quilts to make them easier to hang.

 This is Block 1 Let them Eat Cake

and Block 2 Sew On & Sew On. Directions for the blocks can be found here http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/p/snapshots-quilt-along.html

 I have my book for the new Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along that starts on May 1. I ordered some background fabric today. I selected a white with small black polka dots as she recommended for $5 a yard over at 1000s of Bolts and One Nut. I ordered 7 yards more than I need, but I never mind having some in my stash. Hopefully, I can shop in my stash for the rest of the fabric.

You can find more details about this Sew Along here http://beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com/2015/04/im-so-excited-to-announce-my-latest.html

Come on join everyone, the more the merrier!

I am working on some secret sewing, so I will get that posted once I can. It was nice to be back in my sewing room!

FNSI & Gifts

 Sorry, I have been MIA lately busy with some mom duties and have not got much sewing in. I pieced the little tea kettle for the Snapshots Quilt Along and hope to make the dog in the basket this week. I am making mini quilts with the blocks, so I will add a white border and quilt this one up ASAP.

 Since I seem to have lost my sewing mojo, I signed up for last night's Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/2015/04/fnsi-sign-ups.html and got myself back into my sewing room. I met Lindsey for a Friday afternoon happy hour where we enjoyed white peach sangria and appetizers. Then, we brought dinner home to our hubbies which meant  I made it into me sewing room by 6pm. I machine quilted the fabrics for these Coffee Koozies. Here is the link to the free pattern 

http://www.fatquartershop.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/CoffeeKoozie-Pattern.pdf

I made a bunch of these for Christmas presents, but for this batch I did not piece them just using 4.5 x 12.5 inch fabric pieces.

 These are gifts for Secretary's Day which is on Wednesday, 4/22. I just dug into my scrap bins for cheerful spring fabrics. The coffee cups are the reusable ones that Starbucks sells for $1.

I made 7 of them between last night and this afternoon.

 I hit the after Easter sale at Target and got chocolates at 75% off and filled the cups to the brim. I spent about $2 each on these sweet little gifts. I always try to be generous with the secretaries and custodians at the schools I work at because they are really who run the schools. A little kindness with them goes a very long way!

I am nearly done with the second side of my Journey of a Quilter and have the third side all traced and ready for the hand quilting. I will spend some of Sunday with this for Slow Sunday Stitchinghttp://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I have some other projects I need to work on, but they are secret sewing and cannot be shared, but I will share it as soon as I can!

Zany ZebraZ Quilt Finish & FNwF

 Well I am back to work tomorrow and I managed to finish both of the quilts I started this Spring Break. I finished up the Zany ZebraZ Baby Quilt. This was a free tutorial from Lorna over here http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/2015/03/zany-zebraz-quilt-block-tutorial.html

 I had planned on quilting this zebra stripe style, but when I did a practice piece I was not that in love with it. So, I just straight machine quilted it every 1/2 inch vertically on my Pfaff with my walking foot. It actually went pretty quickly. For Friday Night with Friends (FNwF), I put the binding on it. See what everyone accomplished here http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/2015/04/fnwf.html

 This morning, I added French knot eyes and nostrils on every zebra. The nostrils show up fairly well, but the eyes kind of blend in. I used black perle cotton #8. After washing, this quilt measures 36 x 46 inches. I made an extra zebra block and turned it into my label.

 I think the zebra print backing is perfect. It was tough getting pictures because it is really windy here today, but the sunshine made it pleasant outside anyway.

I have one side of the border quilting on my Journey of a Quilter BOM done and traced the quilting design on one more side. I need to finish this up because I have a big blank wall in my sewing room waiting for this to be finished and hung. I will work on more of this for Slow Sunday Stitching this evening. Check out what everyone else is up to here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com