Off course

Today I am traveling 3 hours away to stay with family for a night before I attend a funeral tomorrow morning. I won't be sewing for the rest of the week basically. 

When I return from the services for this great man, I am packing up my two and returning home for a night. Then we are heading back that same way to drop the kids off with my in-laws and my hubby and I are staying in a hotel so he can attend a massive geek flea market. That is not an exaggeration. 

Until then, here are some pictures of my scrap quilt which turns out to not be a spiderweb quilt. I decided to do a log cabin type of pattern where anything goes. I have some cut outs to appliqué on afterwards. I'm not sure how long this will take me, but I'll keep you up to date on the progress. 

Rest in peace, rotary cutter blade. 

There will be a lot of red and pink. It turns out I have many of those scraps. 

Most of these blocks are about 5.5-6 inches. 

Glutton for punishment

I seem to desire projects which are tedious and difficult. This pattern I had made years ago, but didn't finish sewing it together until quite recently. Here is the finished product:

I've decided to try my hand at another one. The Spiderweb Quilt is, despite my severe hatred of spiders, such a cute way to use your scraps. I may or may not have a few scraps to use up, and I even have fabric I've been holding onto because I hadn't found the right project for it.

One tip if you have an abundant supply of one fabric is to make big triangles out of it and sew the scrap strips on the triangle. It adds weight and warmth to the quilt and reduces the tedium slightly. Otherwise, you can make your own 'kite' piece by using the measurements on the website I posted a link to.

I am truly excited to begin another quilt, even though I just finished making an apron yesterday and was planning to make curtains for my daughter's room this morning. The great thing about this quilt is I have the most adorable backing fabric, also a scrap, and an even more amazing trick to show you!

I have tried this trick before with the other spiderweb quilt, and I will use any excuse to do it again. It is backing and binding all in one!

The fabric on the right is the backing to my quilt, and I simply placed the quilt top on top of the backing, cut around the top, leaving about an inch or more (depending on how big you want the side binding to be) on each side. Just make your quilt sandwich as it will appear while you are doing the actual quilting.

Then, I carefully pressed the fabric, folding it over once and then a second time so no raw edges were exposed. Then, just sew close to the inside edge with any kind of stitch or color thread and voila! Your quilt is complete. I love this trick, and when I find the site I got this tip from, I will share it and give them proper credit. A complete time saver for sure.

Enjoy!

Mmmm ... Cupcakes

Greetings! Today I finished an apron which has been in the hopper for a while. This is my Love to Cupcakes Apron and it is one size fits very many. The waist ties wrap around the natural waist for an old fashioned look. These ties wrapped around mine a full time and were tied in a nice bow. 

The bib is heart-shaped, and you can see the adorable cupcakes all over. I took some photos of its construction. 

 

I'm getting a toothache just looking at these photos! What do you think? Sweet pattern, eh?

Flannel is the fabric of Beelzebub

I love how warm and nurturing flannel fabric feels. It's soft, cuddly, and perfect for a winter baby. 

But I am (probably) never going to work with it again. 

The amount of shifting and stretching has ruined the big quilt, even though I took measures to prevent it from happening. I will have to cut off a row of blocks because of the serious nature in which it shifted. It is pretty disappointing. 

The taggy blanket is finished, so I can show pictures of the finished product here. I only am willing to share close up photos of the details of the big quilt. I also am perturbed because the sewing machine was being temperamental yesterday and that resulted in lots of lost thread. Here are some pictures, before I rant on and on about how annoyed I am with this project. 

I only put tags around two sides so mommy and baby can have half the blanket to snuggle without having tags in the face (that would annoy me).

Here are close up photos of the big quilt. 

Be well!

Monkey monkey

I am stalled on the final stages of the full quilt, so I began work on the small taggy blanket. Here are some shots to keep you interested ...

The flannel helped limit shifting, but for good measure, I added a little washable glue stick to the back of the D. I love that trick; it really has saved a lot of trouble. I need to go along the inner edge and do another pass along the outer edge. 

Here you can see a quick snapshot of the tags ready to be sewn. Then, when you flip the blanket the right way out ...

 

Cute, n'est pas? 

And I have enough for a second taggy blanket. Tomorrow I hope to finish the quilt and this little guy, and maybe send them out to the little man who will enjoy them for years to come. 

What have you been doing lately to stay busy? Sound off in the comments!

That was fast

It's amazing what can be accomplished when you know what you are doing. Now to piece together some batting. Here are pics of the top, which I just finished. I also included a photo of the top casualty draped over my sewing machine and the muslin. 

I have this problem getting the seams to line up all the time, and I'm fairly certain the brown flannel is stretchier than the monkeys. 

I am going to wash these now and hope a huge shift isn't going to occur. Cross your fingers. 

In the meantime, I am going to continue my search for stuffing. I'm nervous because I always have issues with shifting, and adding something to the middle will only make it worse. Cross your toes (since your fingers are already crossed). 

Monkeys on patrol

I am making a quilt for my newest nephew using this adorable flannel: 

I also selected a nice muslin and ribbon combo which adds an extra flair to the blanket:

I have lots of extra fabric, so I will probably make a plain blanket with the ribbons along the edge to add some play to it. Here are two ribbon selections I have along with the new ribbon I bought today:

I'm going to attempt to use the widest ribbon as the binding, but it is likely I don't have enough to go around. Therefore, it is probably going to be the small blanket binding. 

What do you think? It will be cozy for sure! 

Crayon to madness

My daughter, two, decided her bedroom wall was missing something. I found toothpaste worked well, but I didn't think I should use the rest of the tube on the wall. So I grabbed an important tool from my sketch set and went about it. 

 

My daughter wanted to help too. She had trouble keeping the eraser wrapper from sliding down. She didn't help for very long. 

After a good half hour, my results were impressive. 

That's about the extent of my artistic reach for today. Moral of the story is, when crayons are about, erase your doubt! 

Chicken pot pie of the gods

I swear, this pot pie recipe is the best thing I've ever made. Alright, maybe it's the best entree I've made. Swedish apple pie is the best dessert I've ever made (think pie filling plus sugar cookie for the top crust). 

I've made this a few time, and even my kids (ages two and one) eat it. I don't add celery, but add extra vegetables like broccoli and peas. Tonight's dish doesn't include peas, sadly. *Side note: I do not trust anyone who doesn't like broccoli.*

This recipe just plain rocks. Here's a shot of the filling (this one in particular is an extra filling to freeze and use at a later date).

Mouth watering! 

And a shot of the finished product

Divine! I should also add this recipe is for turkey pot pie, but obviously you can sub in whatever you wish. If you want beef, just add beef bouillon and cubes of beef. I do have to say the chicken and turkey pot pies are heavenly. 

And the greatest shot ever of any food is coming up in 3, 2, .... 

....

On a less tasty note, here are photos of the shirt I made!

Once I am ready to wear it out, I will have my husband take a photo so I can model it. I'm happy with how it turned out, considering it was made using a pattern from the 70s and those gals were a bit skinnier than I. I adapted the pattern, and it came out beautifully. 

I hope the weekend was kind to you all and wish you a happy Monday tomorrow!

Welcome to the pants party!

Today I have four pairs of pants on my sewing table. One had the pocket ripping out so I couldn't use said pocket. It was unfortunate because that was the pocket I always use my cell phone, but I replaced it with a nice blue and white gingham fabric. 

The rest of the pants just need to be taken in a little at the waist, and one pair I'm going to crop significantly more so they are more like capris. Right now it looks silly. 

So, for your enjoyment here Is a photo of my project for the day. I hope to get time to finish my shirt, which I made from the same fabric as my pocket. I used a pattern from the 70s and those girls were a little skinnier than me, so I just need to add a little panel On the side and since I am doing that anyway, I was thinking of making it a more free-flowing tunic rather than a fitted like the pattern suggested.