Holiday Wall Quilt

So it's time to finally post my second and last Christmas craft! (Now that it's packed away in deep storage for next year...) The Holiday Wall Quilt! Yayyy!

The inspiration and design for this project can be found here. 

I loved Jennifer's quilt and wanted to replicate it asap. I found some leftover Christmas fabric (previously used here, here, here, and here) and a piece long enough for the background.

I freehanded my letters and holly pieces (and trees - can you find them?), but if you want to be more precise, I suggest you follow the tutorial and print out the pattern pieces that Jennifer supplies. (I was in a hurry...)

I had a great time making this quilt namely because I haven't made a quilt in a long time. It was fun to bust out the free-motion needle and aggravate my husband with its squeakiness (does yours squeak too?). Just kidding, I don't really try to aggravate him. :)

I got it up on my wall as fast as I could. In this picture it looks a little wonky probably because it is a little wonky, but probably also because it's hiding the ugly red fire alarm box that adorns our wall.

I thought I'd throw in this iPhone photo just to show you how big the quilt is. (I have no idea why my son looks like he's going to eat it. I think I said, "Smile!" and this was the best I got.)

Anyway, glad I made it and glad I finally got around to posting it. Whew!

I also got some knitting done over the holidays and that's up next for the blog...

Have a wonderful day!!

Patchwork Chenille Baby Quilt

Oh, Chenille Quilt, I am glad you are done!

Not in time for Christmas, mind you, but I did get it done a few days afterwards.

I started this little quilt by sewing the top and then assembling the quilt layers over the summer.

 Then, only recently, I spent hours and hours quilting this sucker and then cutting the strips.

Let me back up and say I followed this lovely tutorial at Aesthetic Nest, a blog I truly enjoy reading for all its beautiful sewing work and photography. I thought about going out and buying some nice matching fabric for this project, but decided to go with what was in my stash and see how the chenille turned out.

Everything turned out well and I'm quite happy with how the chenille looks and feels! I love the rounded corners (which I'd never done before). And I love my pink binding which I attached entirely with my machine.

However. This little 25"x22" quilt was a bear.

The biggest problem for me was that I made it more difficult than it should've been. Mine is more of a quilt than a blanket (as the tutorial calls for). Meaning, I made this patchwork top with all these little seams going this way and that. And I never even considered how very difficult cutting up those bottom three layers would be with my scissors getting caught over and over on those darn seams. So if you do this project, DON'T make my mistake and do a pieced top. I have an extremely sore and bruised hand/thumb from all my scissoring. And, I'll also share, that the last two fingers on my cutting hand went numb for a couple DAYS after cutting up the majority of the underside. Ouch!

So this leads to my other suggestion: get one of those Olfa Chenille Cutter's that Aesthetic Nest recommends if you are serious about doing chenille blankets. :)

Anyway. It's done. It's lovely. And it's going in my daughter's newly re-vamped doll cradle (which I'll post about later on this week. Hopefully.). I can now cross Chenille Baby Blanket/Quilt off my list!
Have a great week!

A Pair of Potholders

 My parents are a terrific pair of people. But buying them gifts is extremely difficult. They are not very into "things" at all, and oftentimes make helpful comments like, 

You don't have to get me anything. 

Um, really? 

Yep.

Oftentimes, the stuff I give my mom either ends up still wrapped in it's original packaging at their house (I find it!) or it ends up back with me at my place at some point or another. (Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe I should start buying her Coach handbags.) 

So recently, I made these potholders for them, thinking, Who doesn't need potholders?? I thought they might also jazz up their kitchen and go well with the light wood on their new cabinets.

They seemed to go over pretty well.

 But I warned my dad, "I want to see stains on them!"

We'll see the next time I visit...!

Linking up:
Seven Alive

Christmas Quilt Reveal #2

Now it's finally time to post my daughter's Christmas Quilt! 

Yes, I certainly wish I'd gotten both her's and my son's quilts done before Christmas Eve so that I could've taken pics and posted while we were all still in that post-Christmas glow. But I figure, why not do it now, even if all the Valentine's stuff is already hitting the shelves! Why not, right? So here it is. And I have to say, I totally dig it.

 Even the sideways panel strip on the back. Just didn't have enough of the old-fashioned Rudolph print to put it the other way. And just didn't realize I could've put the strip going the other way too -- until it was too late. Doh! Oh well.

 I have some wonky quilting going on. Just enough to keep things together.

I wanted this to be a really cozy, thick quilt. One that my daughter could snuggle up with in the years to come. I did the turn-it-inside out method and then sewed a 1" line around the edges for a binding look. It turned out, that respect, just how I wanted it too. Never mind that it was also super quick!

 The blocks were 9"x9". I had tons of fun putting the creative juices to work for this part. I also found this book really helpful in this stage of the game.

The finished quilt ended up being 46"x56". A good lap size or toddler bed size, I've found.

 

Looking forward to many more Christmases wrapped up with this one. And my little munchkin.

Linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!

Christmas Quilt Reveal #1

We had a beautiful day today and so it was the perfect opportunity to take my Christmas quilts outside for a little photo shoot. I sweet talked asked my darling husband to hold the quilts while I took dozens of enough pics, and he begrudgingly loving obliged without complaining once about his arms getting tired so hurry up.

And, so as not to overwhelm anyone with photos, I'll just show you my son's quilt and save my daughter's for another day. ;-)

 It took me quite a while to do these blocks, but I found myself enjoying it a lot. I tried to incorporate pieces that I knew my son would really like ... space scraps, Rudolph, a turtle (so tiny, can you find it?), etc. I also had this really questionable great idea to order a Grinch fat quarter at the last minute, and so on Christmas Eve, I had all but the last block sewn onto the top. Yeah. I was up all stinkin' night finishing.

But it totally cracks me up when my son sings "You're as charming as an eeeeeeeel!" So who wouldn't want that memory in their quilt?? Here's the back. Dontcha love the old-school Rudolph-Santa stuff in the middle? My son loooves the "Bumble." And....he liked this side better than the front side. The front, which I so pain-stakingly loving put together. Strip by strip.

 Here's another picture of the top, which *I* love. Below is a close-up of one of the blocks. I incorporated some "feely" scraps into this one. The shiny green on the left and the fleecy green in the middle were both scraps from his 2010 Hungry Caterpillar costume. Ah, memories. That's what quilts are for. Aren't I right?

 Some detail from the back. My previous quilts don't have pieced backs. I enjoyed tacklin' this one.

Love the fleecy red and the minky green. I like watching my son push on the minky dots as if he's trying to pop a bubble...

And down below is a close-up of one of my favorite blocks from the front. A scrappy Rudolph block.

This quilt is lap size. I'll try to measure it soon and put up the stats. It's 50" x 50" - a nice big square. Currently it lives on my son's bed. Love. :)

Thanks for visiting!

Linking up here:

Tatertots & Jello
Canoe Ridge Creations 
Sugar Bee Crafts
Today's Creative Blog 
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night 

Christmas Kiddie Quilts ~ WIP

 A while back, some time over the summer, I think, I thought it would be a great idea to make the kids their own little Christmas quilts. I bought the fabric (and had a lot of fun choosing the prints), got the yardage in the mail (and had a lot of fun running my hands across the the fabrics when they arrived), and then stashed them in drawers. Until November. When I decided I needed to get crackin.'

I have a boy and a girl, so I started cutting up the fabric and making 9x9" blocks with one or the other in mind. Can you guess which blocks are for my son and which are for my daughter?? Ok, I'll just tell ya.

For my space-lovin' little guy.

 For my brown-haired little girl who really does love to swing.

 For my puppy-lovin' princess.

 And some blocks were just a toss-up. But this one is going to my daughter.

 And this one for my son.

 My son looooves Rudolph. It's a four-year-old thing, you know.

 And another for my doggy-lovin' daughter.

I've made 19 out of 24 blocks so far, but these are some of my favorites. Tonight, I started putting together my daughter's quilt top. It's fun seeing it all come together. I just hope I can get both quilts done by Christmas Eve!!

Linking up here today:

Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe

Mini-Tute: Thanksgiving Handprint Potholder Keepsake

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I love little hand-print turkeys, don't you? And this one, made out of fabric will last and last. I told my husband (who actually made our turkey today), not to use it on anything messy. I kind of imagined it to be pretty much (solely) decor with the occasional (maybe) use. But he said, "Are hot lids OK?" Hmm. Eh. Well. All right. I gave him the green light for lids. "Just be careful!"

 So are you looking for a quick and (relatively) easy Thanksgiving keepsake to make this weekend with your kids? Try this.

Supplies:

- Masking Tape

- Fabric Markers

- Pencil

- Fabric for front, back, and the turkey

- Binding fabric

- Batting (you could use the potholder kind if you plan to use this)

First, tape a rectangle of fabric (mine was roughly 8"x6") on the table and then trace your child's hand on the fabric using pencil.

Then, go over the hand with fabric marker.

Let your child color the hand with fabric markers. (Just make sure he doesn't run off with them!) I encouraged my son to use a different color for each "feather."

Draw the face on the turkey and, as my son suggested, "Give'em a Pilgrim hat!" Will do.

Don't forget to add legs!

Cut out the turkey from the fabric (this was a great way to get rid of the "coloring beyond the lines" that my 4-year-old did big-time on the blue finger).

I appliqued the turkey to some contrasting fabric using Steam-a-Seam2 and some small zig-zag stitches (tension at 0-1 helps achieve this).

For the back, you can use a solid piece of fabric or do some piecing like I did.

Then, I appliqued a patch of white fabric after writing "Thanksgiving 2011" on it.

For the batting, I used actual potholder material that I got a while back at Joann's.

For the binding, I used leftover binding fabric from this quilt and attached it first to the back, then machine stitched the other half down on the hand side.

Lastly, I stitched a little loop on one corner so that I could hang this potholder in the kitchen. 

  After I took these pictures, I wrote my son's name and age in the bottom right-hand corner of the turkey side.

Perfect Thanksgiving decor with a practical twist!

Linking up here: 

Our Creative Spaces
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap-Up

Mini-Quilt Link Up

I thought it'd be fun the party at Amy Lou Who's Mini-Quilt Challenge! So here's my embroidered mini that I hung in my daughter's room. Pretty simple, but full of love.

Check out all the amazing little minis here:

Embroidered Wall Hanging ~ finished

 Yes, I was feeling super sappy last week and penned my heart-felt affection for my daughter in embroidery floss. Then I turned it into this below. I hung it in her room so that she

 can see it from her crib. I read it to her, word by word, the first time she went into her room after it was hung. The little smile of understanding on her face made me so glad I did it. (sigh)

Linking up here today:

Girl on a Tree Swing ~ Second Finish!

Yay! My second one is done and already up on the wall!

You can see my first girl on a swing here.

She is totally yukking it up there on that swing. 

What was so funny??

This one is bigger than the first one I did, but the white space is smaller (I think I like the thicker border and white space on the first one better...hmmm). For this one, I tried to follow the color scheme of the original with the fabric I had on hand. You can find Aneela Hoey's super easy tutorial on her blog, Comfort Stitching. I had a really fun time doing this mini-quilt!

I tried to imitate Aneela's quilting style with the border -- see those little circles? Fun! I really like how it turned out. I would love to do a project like this one again with an image that might be appropriate for my son's room (stars and planets, I'm thinking, since he LOVES outer space). Anyone have tutorials in mind??

 I also put some little pockets on the back when I stitched up the binding so that I could hang this baby on the wall. I followed the mini-tut at A Girl in Paradise (though I just used some extra charm squares and didn't bother ironing them.). Super easy.

And then I went outside and found a stick to use and put it inside. The stick is a little bumpy on one corner, so I may have to go back out and find a smaller, straighter stick (the exercising aspect of quilting, I suppose.). Oh, and I added a little rubber band and then hung it up. For my smaller, first girl-on-a-swing mini quilt, I used a chop stick and that worked perfectly!

Linking up here today: