Mother's Day Part 1

Yay! I can reveal some of my secret sewing. I made these three zipper pouches for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. She received them in the mail today, so I can share.

 I cut up a Scrumptious charm pack into 2.5 inch squares and made one big enough for her iPad. I also double layered the batting for extra padding.  The medium pouch is a little tight for a Kindle, but it held plenty of chocolate and an Amazon gift card. The small pouch is so adorable!

My mother-in-law travels a lot, so I know she will put these pouches to good use. I still have some squares left, so I will have to come up with some more ways to use them. I will post more Mother's Day gifts after my mom gets hers on Sunday...

Christmas?

So lately it has felt like Christmas! First this book arrived via UPS the other day. Elin Hilderbrand is one of my favorite authors, so when I saw the contest on Goodreads a few weeks ago of course I entered. And I WON!!! Now I need to finish it by 5/19, so my mom can take it with her on their upcoming motor home trip. Oh darn, I will just have to spend some time outside enjoying the weather and reading it.

 My basket from one of the Flickr swaps I am participating in arrived in the mail yesterday. My partner, Cindy, absolutely nailed my color preferences.

 The basket is too cute and spacious.

 She made me this long pin cushion too.

 

 She included one of my favorites, Reese's peanut butter cups, a great aqua perle cotton, scraps, buttons, lace, and a Scrumptious charm pack. I totally scored!

Then last night, I ran down to the grocery store for the second time in one day. I ran out of oil to make fried chicken. Of course I had to dash by the magazine rack and look what they had!

The Quilt Sampler magazine is my favorite...I savor it and only read about one shop each day to make it last! I love the quilt on the cover. I have been locking for a quilt to make for our bed and this might be just what I need to make. I can use up some scraps and not make it too feminine to appease my hubby.

Also in the mail were a dozen copies of this book that my book club won! I love Amy Hatvany and am looking forward to reading this after I am done with The Matchmaker. See what I mean about Christmas!

I am also celebrating that Fort Worth Fabric Studio is featuring my plus tote bag on their blog. What an honor!

 

Furthermore, it feels like Christmas because I have been making gifts for Mother's Day and for the swaps I am in. I can't share my Mother's Day creations yet, but I will share the swap projects I finished yesterday.

 My partner likes aquas and strawberry fabrics. I finally came up with an idea yesterday morning. I used wool felt and perle cotton embroidery for the strawberry block.

 Here is the interior.

I made another wool felt and embroidery block and made it into a pouch. It is 7 inches square and matches the basket. She embroiders, so I put some embroidery goodies in it. I also picked up strawberry fabric fat quarters at my LQS for $1.25 each, so I am filling it with those and some other trinkets. I just love swaps!

 

Today, I am cleaning my sewing room and working on my mother-in-law's gifts and embroidering my Let It Snow blocks as part of Slow Sunday Stitching. Plus, I need to sneak outside and read some of that book! I am loving our spring weather!

Let It Snow BOM

This week I was able to put together three more blocks for the Let It Snow quilt I have been working on.

 It had been an April goal to get this quilt top done so I could start hand quilting it, but I still need to finish 3 more embroideries. There was good progress despite not completing the top. I am just worried that my hand quilting window is narrowing because of summer coming. It is really difficult for me to hand quilt when it is hot during the summer. I hope to work on the last 3 blocks as part of Slow Sunday Stitching tomorrow.

Our local quilt shop recently moved locations and to celebrate they were offering a sale. I scored on the drawing and received a 25% discount on my purchase yesterday.

 I bought the new Lori Holt book because I so want to make some granny square quilts. I also bought some more Scrumptious yardage as I am so in love with it! 25% off  made it hard to pass on.

I also bought a white fabric to get started on this fire truck quilt. One of my colleagues just found out she is having a little boy and her husband is a fireman for the Department of Forestry. I have had this pattern for several years and have not made it, this seems like the perfect opportunity. I think I can make it mostly from my stash...

 

I have been making other things, but I cannot share them until after Mother's Day! I can assure you I spent my Friday Night With Friends sewing up a storm, but don't want to ruin my surprises.

 

 We only have 2.5 weeks of school left and then I can really focus on my quilting! I have so many projects to complete and new things I want to make!

Swap Tote Bag

I am participating in a few swaps over on Flickr and for one we are making tote bags. I really struggled with ideas because my partner likes bright colors and low volume text prints. I have really wanted to play with plus blocks, so I finally just dove in yesterday and came up with this bag. It measures 16 x 16 x 4 inches a pretty good size. I used 2 layers of fusible fleece, so it is pretty sturdy.

I machine quilted it vertically every half inch and used scraps. I also quilted the lining the same way.

I thought the front was so busy, I would just use a solid on the back. It is not solid but a smallish red check.

I used a low volume text print for the lining. I put red pockets on each side for storage.

Today, I plan on working on a goodie to go inside, tidying up my sewing room, and some handwork for my Let It Snow BOM embroidery quilt. I have to go to a charity event that I am on the board for, but I would really just prefer to stay in my sweats and enjoy the rainy, gray day in my sewing room! Our computer died earlier this week, so I am learning how to navigate with Windows 8, it is significantly different, so I have a big learning curve...

Houses & Gifts

 

Here are my house blocks for the quilt along over at http://kimsbigquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/

Breaking this quilt down by 2 blocks a month has been much less daunting.

 Secretary's Day is Wednesday! I have been using up scraps left over from my Good Night Irene table cloth quilt to make pouches for the secretaries who help me.

Here are the 6 pouches I need. I bought chocolate, Chapstick, and tissue packs to put in them. I have to remember to stock up on travel sized lotions at Bath & Bodyworks' next big sale in June as lotion or hand cream would be perfect in these.

This is my teenager's Easter basket. She did not want any candy, so it has candles from Bath & Bodyworks, lotion, a couple of journals, a water bottle, sugar free gum, cute socks, nail polish, Cliff bars, hair ties, note cards, Starbucks tea, and a Starbucks gift card. Looks perfect to me!

 

I also spent time today working on my quilt for the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge 2014. I hope to have the top completed tomorrow. I also have to get my next blocks together for the Quiltmaker Love Blooms Here and embroider my first Journey of a Quilter block. Lots to do and the weather helps as it is cloudy with sprinkles on and off, sounds like quilting weather to me!

 

Rain, Snow, & Hail Sunday Stitching

This quilt is "Purple Patches." I got an email on Wednesday that there is a baby shower next week for a pregnant coworker. I had no idea she was pregnant. The email said she did not want a big deal made, but her nursery was going to be in purple. This woman is an artist with cookies. She decorates with icing the most adorable sugar cookies and makes lovely cookie bouquets. I know she will appreciate the time and effort of a custom made quilt.

I pieced this making log cabin blocks I had seen on a website as part of a scrap challenge. (I cannot remember whose website to give credit. Sorry!) The purples were cut 2.5 inches wide with the centers 2.5 inches square and the white backgrounds are 1.5 inches wide. The blocks finished at 12 inches square.

 Wednesday after work I rushed to my LQS and bought a white background with little purple flowers a 30's style print. (The only fabric purchased. Yes!) Ran home and dug into my small stash of purple fabrics. I cut like a maniac and even started piecing on Wednesday night continued on Thursday night. Friday night I got all the blocks done. Saturday morning I sewed them all together, pieced the back from my stash, made a label, and pinned it. In the afternoon, I quilted it using my new favorite wavy stitch on my Pfaff, trimmed it, attached binding, and started hand binding it. I did not stay up late working on it because I went out to dinner with some friends or it would have done yesterday. Not bad for a 50+ inch square quilt! I finished binding it this morning for Slow Sunday Stitching. Washed it and managed to run outside for pictures between rain, snow, and hail storms.

This afternoon I whipped up this lovely fabric basket for my teenager's Easter Basket. She picked out the fabric when she drove me to the fabric store during Spring Break. She found the last bits of some Bonnie and Camille Marmalade fabrics plus the trendy chevron. It came out great and I have some fun loot to fill it with.

I am still working on my "Let It Snow" embroidery blocks and have to get a couple of house blocks done for a quilt along. I think we will need a couple of crock pot dinners this week, so I will have more quilting time!

Spring Break Sewing

With our Spring Break trip cancelled and being sick the whole week, I was determined to at least finish making something and feel slightly productive. I was working on my Good Night Irene blocks for the sew along hosted by Terry over at her blog http://terrytreasures.blogspot.com/ I realized that I could finish it up and have it as the spring/summer table cloth sooner and that is just what I did.

 I used two charm packs of Moda's American Jane Potluck fabric plus lots of scraps from my bins. I have Fiestaware dishes in a rainbow of colors, so these bright hues should be perfect on my table. I had been thinking of red for the border as that is my favorite Fiestaware color, but our local quilt shop was in the process of moving and I went up to a fabric store a couple of towns away and found this gorgeous spring/summer green for $5 a yard. Sold!

 It has been a very long time since I have actually quilted a larger quilt on my sewing machine. I usually use my mom's long arm, but with her knee replacement and me being sick I did not want to go over to her house and bother her...I used a wavy quilt stitch on my Pfaff and went diagonally across the blocks. It took a fair amount of time, but I am thrilled with the outcome! It really helped to use my old quilting gloves and work from the middle out. I got half of it done on Friday night as part of Friday Night with Friends http://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/2014/04/fnwf.html and the other half of the quilting was last night.

 I put the binding on this morning and did it all by machine since this will be washed so often. I washed it before taking this pictures.

It was really windy outside, so I did not get the best pictures of the whole quilt...I have lots of 2.5 inch squares left over, so I whipped up this little pouch using this tutorial http://kelbysews.blogspot.com/2011/03/zippered-pouch-tutorial.html



 Here is the other side. I think these will be perfect little pouches to put some chocolate and hand cream or lip balm in and give out at Secretary's Day. Working at three schools means I have many valuable secretaries to thank. I am going to order some more zippers on-line right now!

Then, I am going to sit and work on my embroideries for this Let It Snow BOM as part of Slow Sunday Stitching. Back to work tomorrow for seven more weeks of school and then summer vacation! Yes, I am anxious for summer!!!