Latest Finished Projects

I have been really busy sewing Christmas gifts this past month.  This has probably been my most productive season of sewing, but I wish I was faster and could have completed everything in time for Christmas.  I even have one more project to complete for Christmas.  My new goal is to complete Mom's pillows before the end of January.  I have also decided to start and projects I think I want to do for next Christmas in the summer.  We will see how that goes.

My first completion was this pin cushion for Beth's sewing kit.  The design was inspired/copied from Crazy Mom Quilts.  Her post about her pin cushions was here. This was a quick and easy project.  I wish I had quilted the top like the inspiration cushions, but I still think it is a cute pin cushion and I hope Beth really loves using it as she is learning to sew.

Beth's pin cushion

The three grocery bags felt like they would never be completed.  There are more mistakes than I would like to admit and I felt like giving up more than once.  Greg's mom should be receiving them this weekend and I really hope that she likes them.  I bought enough fabric to make 3 more and I am not sure when I will have the fortitude to face this project again.  I love the look of the bags, but I am really wishing I had not used the outdoor fabric.  I think the instructions were wonderful and the design is really great.  I just felt like the fabric was working against me every step of the way.  I may try these again in canvas only since the parts that were only the brown canvas were so much easier compared to the rest.  The tutorial I used can be found here at Sew4Home.  The bags are really big and look super cute with Maggie inside!  Perhaps, the last 3 will go together more smoothly since I learned so many lessons on how to work with the outdoor fabric during the making of these 3 bags.  

Grocery bag

 My final finish was this reversible purse for Deidre.  This bag came together really quickly and was much easier than I thought it would be.  It was easy enough that I am pretty sure I will probably be making this bag again.  The tutorial I used was posted on Sew Mama Sew.  The pattern is from a book called the Bag Making Bible and I was impressed with this pattern enough that I think I would like to purchase the book to see what the other projects included are.  It also looks like the book will help me to learn how to make my own bag patterns.  The only change I made to the original pattern is that I covered two buttons and sewed them together onto both sides of the bag instead of having one button on a safety pin that can be moved to either side.

Exterior of purse

The striped side of the bag is the one I made on the outside and up close it looks better, but I think the inside looks good enough that Deidre would be able to use it as well as long as no one looks closesly at the stitches.  I need to work on my thread and bobbin tension on this bag next time I attempt it so that the inside looks good as well.  I also think I would want to figure out how to make pockets for this bag as well.

Interior of purse

Now I need to work on the pillow cases for Mom.  Since that involves piecing, I am really looking forward to a project that I am more comfortable with.  Thank you for being so patient with me, Mom!  I hope to finish those quickly for you.

Tumbling Blocks Pillow

I have decided to take a break from Maggie's quilt so I can focus on finishing up Christmas presents before it is too late to send them out.

Greg bought me The Essential Sampler Quilt Book for my birthday.  I am hoping to learn new skills by working on the different blocks in this book.  The first block in the book is Tumbling Blocks which is made using English paper piecing and applique.  All of the examples in the book of this block were made with each of the cubes looking the same with one light fabric, one medium fabric, and one dark fabric used in each of the 6 tumbling blocks.  The tumbling blocks look like children's stacking blocks to me, so I thought I would like to have them be more colorful.  Between the scraps I have and some scraps that Beccy gave to me, I was able to pull 6 colors with a light, medium, and dark fabric in each one.  It was great to find that the template fit inside 2 1/2 inch strip scraps since so many of my scraps are that width!  

Once I became familiar with the piecing, I found that I really enjoyed sewing the blocks together.  It is nice to have a project that is small enough to sew it while the family is spending time together instead of being isolated in my sewing room.  The applique was also not as difficult as I had expected it to be, but I am not sure I am doing it correctly.  I would love to have someone who knows how to applique by hand show me what I really ought to have done.  However, I feel like the finished look is what I had hoped for.

I decided to hand quilt inside of each block using coordinating thread.  My stitches are not as even and straight as I would like, but I did get better as I went along.  Before I try to hand quilt again, I want to learn how to bury my ending knots since I was not able to figure that out on this project.  I also will need a different hand quilting frame.  Some straight line echo quilting by machine finished off the background.  I gave the pillow an envelope closure on the back.

Finished Tumbling Blocks pillow

This pillow is for Anna, and I hope it is something she loves now and as she grows.  It is fun, but I don't think that will be too babyish as she grows.  I asked Hannah and Audrey if they thought Anna would like it.  Hannah said that she would.  Audrey said that Anna wouldn't like it so maybe I could just give it to her instead!  

Last year I saw a vintage quilt in a magazine made up of these diamonds made into blue stars on a white background. I thought that the quilt was stunning, but that I could never attempt something so complicated.  After paper piecing this pillow I think I would like to try to make that quilt even though it would be a long term project.  However, I want to see if I could just cut out the diamonds from hexagonal graph paper rather than tracing a template.  I look forward to having a long term hand sewing project for nights when I want to sew, but not be separated from the family.

Now, I need to get more progress done on some shopping bags!

Beginning a quilt for Maggie

While I was pregnant with Maggie, Beccy picked out some fabric for me to use to make a new quilt for Maggie's bedroom.  I had told her that I was thinking of lavender and yellow.  When I arrived at Beccy's house she had a stack of beautiful fabric waiting for me.  I then picked out a pattern to use up the fabric.  It was the first time I have picked out a pattern after the fabric was already chosen and I found it a challenge.  I picked out a tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts called "The Future's So Bright."  However, I keep going back and forth in my mind about whether it will turn out great or be a complete mess.  I guess I will have to keep putting everything together in order to find out.  This quilt will be my first quilt set on point and I love learning something new with each quilt I make.  

   So far, I have cut out all of the pieces for the top and have sewed the setting squares as well as the smaller purple 4 patch squares.  This week, while Greg is gone, I hope to complete the purple blocks and start on the yellow 4 patch squares.

setting blocks

small purple 4 patches

Car Seat Covers

Besides welcoming Maggie this summer, we knew several other people who were having babies this summer.  I wanted to make handmade gifts and I decided to make car seat covers.  After working on quilts, it was really wonderful to be able to start and finish a project in one or two days.  I just finished another one that isn't pictured this week for another newborn.

This one is for baby Lily.

This one is for baby Joshua.

The kids and Greg decided after the first two that we needed to make one for Maggie as well, so here is hers.  When she outgrows it, I want to use the fabrics to inspire a Farmers Wife Sampler quilt.