A Doll Quilt finish

I just wanted to show you all some pictures of a gift I made for a friend's daughter's birthday this past weekend.  Her little girl turned 5 and my children are quite fond of her!  

Whenever she comes to play she lines up all of our stuffed animals and toys in the kid's beds and tucks them in.  So when we heard it was her birthday I thought a doll quilt would be perfect for her!  We also got her a purple sock monkey to go with the quilt. 

 I thought of this idea on Friday afternoon and the party was Saturday afternoon....of course!!

First, I pulled some 5" charm squares from my never-ending stash of those lovelies, and my kids and I messed around with them until we came up with this!  

As you can see, they're quite proud of it!

We ended up with 56 charms, 8 rows of 7 squares...I like the size of it.  It could even pass for a small baby quilt.  I sewed three rows Friday night and did the rest Saturday morning.  The top measured about 33 x 37. 

(isn't my little helper the best?!)

I used a great bright Amy Butler print for the back.  I didn't want to piece it and fortunately had enough of this print to use!

I also got to use my new FMQ foot for my machine on this and it was really fun!

 

I LOVE the hula hooping girl, she's so adorable!

I really like how it turned out (so did the birthday girl and her mom!) 

and I want to make some more of them!  

Is this something you think anyone would be interested in?

(not this very one of course, but something like it)

 I don't need to make 10 doll quilts all for myself :)

Oh, will be getting some goodies in the mail for my upcoming 50th post giveaway this week.

 I'm pretty excited about it and I think you'll like it too! 

Hint: If you like some of the new collections that just came out you're really going to want to stop by for this!

Thanks for sticking around!  

I've got great things to show you this week! My WIP list is getting hacked to pieces!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  My husband is finally done with school for the semester so tomorrow is officially the beginning of our summer break (aka summer job hunting...)!!

WIP Wednesday

Wow what a week.  Just to catch up a bit (Hi to the grandparents - these pictures are for you!)

We're back to a better schedule here, with the little lady taking her naps again.  Husband is taking finals this week and then it's summer jobs for him.  We had a pretty fun weekend though - we went bowling and pitched a new tent in the living room!  We had smores (minus the fire part) and slept in the tent!  The kids thought it was awesome.  And who would have known that they'd both be great at bowling?! I did win the game though :)

I still need to post pictures from Matthew's birthday but we'll save that for later this week.

I got some great mail this week! Along with the wonderful Parisian Star blocks I've been getting from hosting two bee's with the same block in April, plus the lovely house blocks from the ladies of the Bliss circle of do. Good Stitches, I also got my lovely goodies from the ALFALC swap (A Little Fabric A Little Chocolate) all the way from accross the pond!

Oh man that Galaxy bar didn't last long!  Thank you Linda!  This was a fun swap and I'd be doing it again if I didn't have too much already on the list for May.

Ok.  Here's what I got done this week (that I have pictures of).

1 - Made In Cherry Quilt is Quilted!
I received a wonderful new free motion quilting foot from my sister in law, Anna, and put it to good use practicing on my Made in Cherry quilt!  Now I just have to bind it.  I have to say, FMQ-ing is really fun!  It's not as scary as I thought it'd be at all.

I doodled around the solid purple background with loops and stuff.  I like it and am excited to get it finished

2. Zooey goes to the beach! Top finished!
This is a quilt from the Zooey pattern by Lu of For The Love Designs.  I LOVED making this.  It was super easy to put together and I love the way it looks.  The colors didn't quite translate though...the orange parts are actually greens in real life.  I'm calling the quilt Zooey Goes to the Beach because all the colors are sort of sea-foamy greens and remind me of the beach.  I highly recommend this pattern if you're looking for something like this.  You can find all of Lu's pattern's here.

3) I picked and started cutting fabric for the Patchwork Prism QAL (details can be found here)


So...that's what I did!

I also made a list of all the things I have on my WIP list for now.  It's a list of almost 40 things and over half of them have deadlines for this month!  Several swaps for handmade items and bee blocks...lots of bee blocks...so you'll be seeing lots of those from me this month...but they all look fun to make so it will just be another busy month!

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Head over and see what everyone's doing!!  And thanks for getting this far too :)

Look what I have!!!

Thank you Anna!!! I'll be trying this out as soon as I get something basted!

WIP Wednesday

I tried out a few new things this week, and took a couple pictures too!  I have much more that is "in progress" and I even cleaned up my sewing space (and then messed it up picking fabric for the patchwork prism QAL).

First I wanted to share some non-sewing business with you.  I've been trying to hit the gym frequently to get rid of some "extra stuff" I'm carrying around and went with a friend on Monday.  This was new for me.

I don't really like working out around or with people I know.  I'd rather sweat like a fool and look like one around perfect strangers.  But, my friend had invited me to a class, so I laced up my Asics and went.  And I went to the wrong one...in the wrong room... It was an aerobics type class and wasn't super challenging except for the abs part (but holy cow have I been feeling it since).

Here's the thing though,  I am a 5' 10" uncoordinated mess when it comes to having "moves"... I look like a total loser in a room full of mirrored walls, and have always been shy and self-conscious...yikes...so the fact that I stayed and did the workout was an accomplishment for me.  So yay!  There's that.

In more interesting news, I tried Hexagons!  It was easy!  And fun!  I was prompted to make these because I joined a hexagon swap.  I figured I probably wouldn't give it a try unless I had a reason to make them and this was it.  I followed my friend Katie's tutorial and it was wonderful.  I don't use thimbles though and found my fingers were ok (so far - granted I've only made about 30...I made some more last night after I took this picture)

Then, I made these two blocks with fabrics from my scrap box for Katherine in one of the bee's that I just got a spot in.  She's making this quilt as a gift and I think it's going to look really wonderful!

And I picked out fabric for the Patchwork Prism QAL.  If you haven't heard about this yet you should check it out.  It's an amazing free pattern from Anna Maria Horner and there are some truly amazing prizes (like a new Janome sewing machine!!), so I'm all over this.  It's being hosted by Bianca who is amazing, and you don't want to miss it.  Seriously. 

It's much more color theory than I'm used to wrapping my head around so I kept this post from Bianca open while I pulled my fabrics (all from my stash so far) and I really like the way they look together.  I want to add a yellow and perhaps another brown and another red.  What do you think? Anything you would add or take out?

I really like looking at these and haven't moved them off the table yet.

I'm also working on the Zooey pattern by the great and talented LuLu (here's her Etsy shop) and should have the top done tonight or tomorrow (I hope) and then it can hang out with the other tops in the pile on top of the dryer :)

On an unrelated note we have also been trying no naps for either kid this week (their choice, not mine...) and Abby has been wearing real underwear and using the toilet to go potty.  She's doing pretty well so far, but I'll spare you the nasty details.   It's been an interesting week so far.

 To you experienced moms out there, what did you do when your kids stopped taking naps?  I'm trying to figure out how to still get that break in the day that we all need, and haven't quite figured it out yet.  Any tips or advice would be wonderful!!

I'm hoping to get to the post office today to annoy the mail lady some more, and hopefully I'll be able to get some things finished this weekend between potty breaks and laundry.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced (be sure to check out the other lovely projects over there!)

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

p.s. This is my 44th post - I'm thinking something fun for my 50th!  Stick around!

Maybe the cutest thing I've ever made...

...besides these monkeys of course... ($20 pool and 80 degrees?  yes please!)

...would have to be this little turtle and snail block...

Of course the colors aren't 100% but I love how it looks like the turtle and the snail

are having a VERY important conversation.  I just know

they're bestest friends!

I am participating in a potholder swap this month and the end of this month is coming up soon...

So, last night I grabbed some supplies and started "messing around" with them.  That means I had no plan but just did something because I had to...deadline approaching...and this block is what I came up with!  This morning I finished it off and made another one as a mismatched "set" for my swap partner.

I added some hand stitching around the star of the turtle one and then in the middle of two of the borders in the second one instead of machine quilting it (I am without a walking foot you see...)

And the back...not as exciting...

I used binding I'd already made that was leftover from other projects and I like the colors together.  The turtle and the snail is a 7" square and the wildflowers one is about 7.5" square.

I just hope my partner likes them! I let my 3 year old put them in the mailbox today so hopefully they'll be arriving next week!

Thank goodness it's finally warm!!!

WIP Wednesday

Today I'm determined to get my post finished before it's Thursday and the title and link up no longer apply.  Here we go!

I got 4 blocks done for Bee Simple (I got to fill a spot so I had two blocks from March to catch up on).  These went together really easily, and turned out pretty well!  I think they will turn into great quilts. It's not great lighting but there is a white border on the bottom and left sides as well. 

 I also got one of my Hoop Up! Stitch and Send projects on it's way today!

 It's a quote from Modern Family that says, 

"If you want to fly I'm not gonna hold your feet to the ground, 

I'm gonna be the one to push you off the cliff." 

-Phil Dunphy

Here's what's up next:
Learn to make Hexies for a swap
2 potholders for Bee a [modern] swapper potholder swap (excited to start on these designs)
Modern She Made swap

This is my jumping off point for the MSM swap.  I don't want to give too much away (it's a secret swap) but I want to make a couple i-spy placemats for my partner's kids (hopefully in this color combo) to include with the other goodies.  Stay tuned partner!  More sneak peaks to come!

For now that's all I've got.

I appreciate the tips for the allergies and have been on the lookout for some locally made honey, as many of you said that helps, but haven't found any yet.  I've been hitting the Claritin pretty well in the mean time.

Linked up to Lee's WIP Wednesday!

Oh, and while I was perusing the other posts linked up to Lee's WIP Wednesday I came accross Kelsey Sews and saw the awesome quilt she made with i-spy charms.  I've got sooo many of those, I'm going to try to whip up a quilt with her tutorial soon to get some of them used.  I think it'd be pretty great to use rainbow charms in the quilt also.  Have a look!

Covert Robin Guest Post

I'd like to welcome Jill from Made with Moxie to the blog today!  She is the wonderful creator of my incredible clutch from the Covert Robin Swap!  


Hi! I'm Jill, aka ThatMoxieGirl, from over at Made with Moxie Today I am going to be sharing the gift I made for Marian as part of the Covert Robin handmade gift swap.


This was my first swap ever so I was totally nervous. I wanted to make Marian something she would love love love. I'm one of those people plagued with the need to give the perfect gift. The fun part of a swap is that you get to stalk a person's blog, flickr account, pinterest, etc to get an idea of who your person is and what they like. Call me crazy, but I like it. I'm the kind of girl who peeks in your medicine cabinet when I use your bathroom. (There go all my dinner party invitations....:P )

Oh, yeah, my gift for Marian. I'm a sucker for bags and I haven't met a crafty lady yet who didn't love them too. Just about the time I got my Covert assignment, Anna at Noodlehead released her new Envelope Clutch pattern. It was a great
excuse
reason to buy the pattern, or at least that is what I told my husband. Seriously, I have very tolerant husband, but I don't think he completely understands the You Can Never Have Too Many Bags philosophy of life. *Note: this also applies to shoes.

I used some of this pretty flowered fabric that I had been
hording
saving for the exterior and a sweet green polka dot for the lining. Inside the clutch there is a good sized zippy change pocket, slots for four credit cards and 2 pockets for a phone or other what-nots. This was the first time I had ever put a zipper in like that so I was so nervous not to mess it up!

To finish it off I added a little hand embroidery in complimentary colors to the exterior flap.

I always think it is nice to have a small bag for daily necessities that you can throw in a bigger bag (because I have an infant and toddler to haul around their "stuff" too.) I really hope you enjoy your new clutch, Marian and thank you for having me over!


Jill you really did a wonderful job, I'm so happy with this clutch!  It's perfectly done and absolutely my style!  I absolutely love it!

Be sure to check out Jill's blog, she's wonderful!