Diamond Chevron Quilt Top

I have a finished quilt top to share. I participated in Kristen's QAL at KD-Quilts using her pattern Diamond Chevrons. I made it with Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric and Free Spirit solids. They were all a Designer Select Bundle over at FatQuarterShop. Seriously LOVE this quilt. I had sworn off HSTs after the quilt I did for J, but I enjoyed doing this one. Prep time took the longest, but the piecing didn't take long at all! I managed to do a row here and there in between caring for my spoiled sweet baby boy and before I knew it, it was done.

I ended up adding a row to the top and 2 rows to the bottom because I wanted a little extra length. I'm still trying to decide what to use as a back for this one, but I can't wait to get it quilted to cuddle up under. 

I also posted this in the Tula Pink Sew Along Flikr group. I have to say that, sadly, this is the first time I had used Tula Pink. Lets just say I'm hooked! I still have a bunch of 4" squares and plan on creating another quilt top with it. Wonder what I'll do with them? Any ideas?

What's Up? (Picture Heavy)

This is me:

I deliberately hid my face because it is so swollen and I look pitiful. This was actually taken a week ago. I'm currently 31 weeks. I'm miserable and not really fun to be around right now. Lately I haven't really been spending time at my sewing machine, either. However, I do have some stuff to show you that I've done over the last few months. I could separate these out into additional blog posts, but just the thought makes me need to go take a nap. So, here goes:

First, I want to show you the last full quilt I finished. This one I finished in May for my mother. It features Java by Deb Strain. It is almost the size of a queen, but not quite. It was huge! Also, it is the largest I have quilted on my little home machine.

Front

Back

After I had finished this quilt, with many many tears involved I swore off quilt sandwiches until after baby K is born. Here are two quilt tops I have finished:

D9P featuring Fandago by Kate Spain

New Wave Pattern by Oh Fransson! Featuring Terrain by Kate Spain

Also, I've been doing a bit of sewing for the baby:

Burp Cloths

Bassinet Skirt

Nursing Cover

So, that's pretty much been what I've been up to since my last blog post. Most of these pictures were taken with my iphone on instagram, so they aren't the best quality. I apologize, but I just do not have the energy to dig out my good camera and stage fancy photos as I normally would. :)

Until next time (whenever that may be)... happy sewing and quilting!!

First Finish of 2012

I realize it has been almost 2 months since I've last blogged. I'm still dealing with family changes, but I'm starting to get back into my routine again. Thanks to some nudging from my mother, I have managed to complete my first quilt of 2012! I started this quilt many months ago, but was burned out (3rd quilt with Sherbet Pips in a row). This quilt is for my middle H's twin size bed.

I ended up doing many changes to my original idea. Originally was going to do the back solid instead of pieced. This was my first attempt at a pieced back. I was not happy with it, but I continued on. After getting the quilting done on it I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Another change I made was going with  pieced binding vs solid, darker blue. I think this makes it so much more girly, too.

Next quilt up is a Java quilt for my mother! She "says" that once I finish that one for her I get to borrow her New Home 9000 Embroidery machine. Yippee!

Quilt Top

I don't generally post quilts that aren't finished, but I wanted to share this one. All I've done so far is get the top completed. I have the pieced back up on my design board, but with so many obligations right now it's been sitting there a week.

I call this quilt the book quilt because it looks like books to me. It is also done out of Sherbet Pips, yet again. This is my last quilt ever for a while out of Pips (3 is enough). So, here it is in all it's unfinished glory...

This was actually a very fast quilt top, and I honestly don't know why I don't have a completed quilt yet. My poor 7 year old DD keeps asking for it, so I have to get it finished soon! I'm such a bad mama. :)

Happy Quilting!

Sneak Peak

I wanted to give all of you a little sneak peak of what I'm working on. It's almost done, too. I'm working on piecing the back as we speak. I'm hoping to have it completed this weekend, but not holding my breathe.

Did you notice it's Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey? This is my 3rd quilt with Pips. Why, you ask? While I do love this fabric, it was more so to unify and avoid favoritism between my 3 girls. Each girl has their own quilt made with Pips, but different designs. I love this fabric line for my children. It's so playful and innocent looking. When I started thinking of making quilts for my kids, this was the fabric that instantly come to mind! How could it get any more perfect than that?


Happy Quilting!

Blog Hop Day 3

Today we finish up our little Friendship blog hop with Sharon from Craizee Corners. Go see her beautiful quilt and tell her Tiffany sent you!

If you missed Day 2, be sure to go see Carolyn from ...Just One More Stitch.

Blog Hop Day 2

It's day 2 of our Friendship blog hop! Today is Carolyn's day from ...Just One More Stitch. Go see her beautiful quilt and tell her Tiffany sent you! 

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see Sha's from Craizee Corner's quilt!

It's a Blog Hop!

I am so happy to finally be able to share with you the quilt I just finished! First, some background. :)

A couple weeks ago, my friend Sharon from Craizee Corners and I were looking through all the many patterns on the FatQuarterShop's website when we came across this one:

Both, Sharon and I, decided that we wanted to do this pattern with Hometown by Sweetwater. Ok, really I think Sha was just trying to get me off my duff to start sewing again. It had been a while since I had sewn, but it worked so kudos to her. Love ya, Sha!

Where was I? Oh yeah...so we decided to do this pattern and Sha also got Carolyn from ...Just One More Stitch to join us! We decided to do each of our quilts in different fabric thus leading to a Mini Blog Hop to show them to you! Without further ado, here's my finished quilt.

This was my 4th quilt ever and I am totally in love with it!  I haven't even washed it yet (gasp!) because it hasn't left my side since it's been completed. I cannot wait for all of you to see what Sharon and Carolyn have made with theirs! Carolyn will be posting her quilt Saturday (tomorrow) on her blog and Sharon will be posting her quilt Sunday on hers. You will not be disappointed, so be sure and check theirs out!

Everybody Makes Mistakes...

Everybody has those days... As I type that I hear Hannah Montana's song Nobody's Perfect (Too much Hannah Montana on my TV). Really, the whole song makes sense.. "I gotta work it! Again and again til I get it right." Before you all think I've run off to crazy town, let me explain.

Remember how in my last post I mentioned I was working on a quilt? Well, I still am. The pattern is called Key to my Heart by Sweet Jane's Quilting and Design. It's a beautiful pattern purchased at the FatQuarterShop.

It's also a very well written pattern! My first thought when I saw this pattern was, "Hey, this is going to be easy!" It should have been and this is where the song from my title comes in. I have learned a valuable lesson while doing this quilt. What is it might you ask? Follow. The. Pattern. Exactly! I'm new to quilting, only made 4 quilts, and am inexperienced following patterns. Needless to say, when the pattern says cut x amount and you should have y amount left over. Don't cut y amount to get x left over. It totally messed up the size of my blocks. Luckily I was able to fix it by trimming down length and width. I feel absolutely stupid after realizing what I have done. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and just remember... "Everybody makes mistakes..."

Finally a Finish...

I finally completed another quilt! Originally, the quilt top was made for the Naked Bed Challenge back in the Spring. The quilt is for my oldest daughter to put on her full sized bed. This was my 2nd attempt at machine quilting and by far the largest quilt I have attempted quilting. I am happy with how it turned out, but there was a time when the quilt and I were not on speaking terms. Getting it to go through the small hole on my machine was not the easiest thing to do. So, without further a do...here's the quilt:

Alrighty, ladies and gentleman...please let me know what you think. Have a quilty day!

Quilt Reveal

I have another quilt to reveal! Yay! I am super excited about this one because 1.) it came together super fast 2.) it was super easy 3.) I hand embroidered my DD's name and  4.) I machine quilted my first quilt! So, without further a due .....

Front

Hand Embroidery

Back

  I used the McKinely Quilt Pattern from OCD - Obsessive Crafting Disorder's blog. It has flowers on their version, but the more I thought about it being for a young child the more I realized it's just something else she'd tear up. I decided to leave that part off. I used Sherbit Pips charm pack with a light grey sashing, light pink accent and binding, and dark grey for backing.

I am ecstatic about the finished result! And feel such a huge accomplishment with the new things I tried. It was the first time I had tried my walking foot and it was so much easier than I thought. Basting was a new experience as well! i used 160 pins on this crib sized quilt!! Hehe

Thanks for stopping by to look! Happy Quilting!

Naked Bed!!!

I don't have a naked bed, but Princess #1 does. Are you signed up for the Naked Bed Challenge??!!! If not, you need to be!! I finally received all of my fabric, cut it up, and started on my blocks for the NBC. Here's what I've got so far.

I'm following Quilt Story's Tutorial for these blocks to make a full sized quilt. I've managed to get 4 of these done over the last couple of days. I have to say it's been a very trying time for me! I've had to walk away a few times and come back to it. I went with the pink because my daughter's 8 and wanted something girly, but looking at it...wish I would've went gray. Oh well...live and learn, right?!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!! We did a bit of egg hunting and alot of candy eating.  I'll leave you with the following pic from yesterday.

Quilt Reveal

I have finally finished my 1st quilt! Yikes! I'm so excited!!! The quilt is a little larger then queen sized, but not as big as a king. I made it reversible as well. I like to have the darker colors in the fall/winter and brighter in the spring/summer.

 We've actually been using this on our bed for a week or so. Hubby was kind enough to tell me it was "snuggly." From him, that is a HUGE compliment. LOL

Off to finish up another project so I can get started on my quilt for The Naked Bed Challenge.  If you don't know what I'm talking about just click here and Cara Wilson at Cara Quilts and Sarah Fielke at The Last Piece will fill you in on everything you need to know. These two amazing ladies have made an idea into a reality! Seriously...go check it out and add your name to the linky! It's going to be a blast!

Odds and Ends

Seems as though it has taken me a week to catch up on sleep, dirty laundry, and house cleaning from last weekend. I made my kids clean their room and somehow they'd managed to keep a basket and a half of dirty clothes in their rooms! No wonder why I couldn't find their clothes to wash and they complained every morning they had nothing to wear to school. Haha!

Friday I cleaned off my crafting/sewing area and got it all organized yet again. That night I sat down to add borders or frames to my quilt. First sewing I've done since last weekend! I thought I had my quilt done, but then I decided I'd like it just a little bit longer and wider, but I had no more material to continue with the 9 patch blocks. Last week, I had bought these fabrics to use as borders for my quilt. To make a long story short, the local quilt shop's measurements ended up sending me home (in my case out of state) with not enough fabric to go around my quilt like I had explained. I had planned to leave my quilt with my mother-in-law so it could get quilted, but I ended up bringing it home with me so I could finish the borders. Monday I went and bought more material, made some changes, and here's the final quilt top...

I'm thrilled with out it turned out! I have enough extra left over of the fabrics I can make shams for my bed as well! I'm sending it off to get quilted on Monday or Tuesday. I can't wait to get it back and all finished!

Hope ya'll have a wonderful rest of the weekend and if your in the area (like me) that's supposed to be getting bad storms w/possible tornadoes tonight...stay safe!

Fabric Shopping

I finished the majority of my quilt top last night! I decided to put a 2 inch brown frame and a 4 inch frame around it as well. So...off to the quilt shop I go! I had a hard time matching my quilt with what they had in stock, but I ended up with these...

The brown will be the 2 inch frame (Marbles by Moda), the middle will be the 4 inch strip (batik, not sure), and the blue will be the binding (Marbles by Moda)

I also picked up these cuties...4 fat quarters...also put out by Moda, but not sure the designer.

Anyways, those are my yummy goodies I got today! Can't wait to finish up my quilt. I want to do a while different back for the quilt so it can be reversible.

Off to finish up my quilt! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Quilt in Snow

There's just something about making a quilt and having pictures of it in the snow. I'm not finished with my quilt yet, but I don't know if we'll be getting anymore snow so I took advantage of what we had to get a few pics. Most didn't turn out so good, but I like this one okay so it'll be the only one I share. This is my first quilt and I'm making it queen sized and this is only the top. :)

 

Comments would be appreciated! I have a few more rows to do and then it'll be ready to send off and get quilted. My biggest problem is trying to decide what back to use. Anyone have any suggestions? I'm pretty desperate at this point for ideas.

Sending warm and cozy vibes your way!!

Quilt in Progress

I started quilting during the Thanksgiving holidays and I am totally and completely hooked! Here's the 9 patch quilt I'm working on and hope to get finished soon! I haven't worked on it in a few weeks though. I ordered a 1/4" quilting foot and a darning foot (I think I called it the right name. it's the one with the spring looking thing with the plastic circle on the foot) for my machine and have been waiting on them before I did more. I got them in about 2 weeks ago, but have been working on other projects. I'm going to my inlaws for Christmas and I'm taking my sewing machine and material (she sews too). Anways, here's my QIP (quilt in progress)...

Happy Crafting and Quilting! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

In Need of Inspiration

I am in total need of inspiration for this blog. I Love doing all things crafty, but seems like my budget is always so tight that I cannot do anything. I'm also just getting started with crafts so I don't have stuff "just laying around." I have however started a new adventure...quilting. I have started my first quilt. I LOVE it so far. It's a very basic 9 patch. I decided to do it without borders around the blocks. Not too sure what the size with be when I'm finished. I'm hoping it'll be the size of a queen bed, but not sure that I have enough material. My fingers are crossed though!!

Back to the whole crafty inspiration thing...I follow so many blogs and so many crafty people. They seem to be always inspired and always crafting. It's like I have a crafter's block (if that's even an word). I have this want to do crafts and sewing stuff, but I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do. There's so many great ideas. Also, have to remember limited resources.

Well, until next time... Chow!