Wednesday, May 30, 2012

WIP Wednesday!

Let's do it!

E's King Size

Guess what. IT'S (finally) FINISHED!!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy this makes me! This is the longest I have ever had a quilt on my WIP list, and it is such a pleasure to finally have it done! I still need to get some decent pictures, so look for a post on this one tomorrow or so!! But - YEA!!!!!


Wedding Quilt

Again... IT'S FINISHED!!! I finished the quilting on Monday, and she finished up the binding yesterday. It's washed and ready to go!! YEA!!! I also have to get a few decent shots of this one, so... stay tuned!!! :)


OSU Father's day Quilt

Top is done! It is ready to be basted and quilted!! I hope to get this quilted by the end of the week or so!


Well, that is all for now! Be sure to check out all of the WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Quilt tops!!!

I have been on a quilt top making rampage! I have two completed tops to show:

Bella Patchwork:


I have had a blast with this one, because my awesome neighbor and I have been tag teaming this one! We each did half of the blocks, then she did the sashing in each row, then I assembled the top! It has come together very well! I love the colors, although I think if I were to do it over I would have like a slightly darker grey in the corners. Oh, well! It looks great!

OSU Father's day top:


Go Beavs! This top came together beautifully and I, at the last minute, decided that it needed a OSU in the corner. My friend agreed, so there it is! I think her hubby will love it!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

WIP Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday everyone!! This week, I managed to increase my WIP list!! Two new projects! :)

But first, a few finishes:

Teacher Gifts - Sprocket Pillows

I finished all 3 Sprocket Pillows with minutes to spare! lol!! They turned out cute, and the teachers really seemed to like them!



Now, on to the WIPs!!

E's King Size

No progress this week, but I'll be working on the binding this week!!


D&L's Wedding Quilt

My awesome neighbor asked me if I wanted to make a quilt together for a mutual friend's wedding. YES PLEASE!! :) We decided to use Elizabeth's new pattern Bella Patchwork! It is a great pattern! You can order it HERE!


We got the fabric, got it cut and got all 30 blocks sewn in just 3 days. Word. Now, I am going to stitch the top together! The deadline for this is June 2, so it'll be a quicky!! :)

L's Father's Day Quilt

A dear friend of mine commissioned a quilt for her husband for Father's day (June 17th!). I am excited to get it going! He is graduating from Oregon State soon and she wanted it in his school colors! Orange, grey, and black it is!! :)


I love any excuse to use orange! She decided to use THIS pattern! It's going to look awesome!

Well, that's all for this week!! Be sure to check out all the awesome WIPs at Freshly Pieced!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Manly Advice

Something happened this weekend that is... well shocking! Let me fill you in...

Over the weekend I had a friend ask me to make a quilt for her husband for father's day. As we all know, making a quilt for men is challenging. I told my hubby about it, then promptly assumed that he wasn't really paying attention anyway and went on with some planning.

Saturday morning, after my hub's bike ride, out of the blue, he said, "Hon, I was thinking about you man quilt project and I have some input."

WHAT?!?!? Hold on while I pinch myself, then grab a notebook. Or voice recorder. Or video camera.

I know that this information is rare and precious, so I will share with you exactly what he told me. It wasn't much, but it was in fact helpful! Here it is...

1. Men don't really notice the pattern on front, so don't worry too much. Although, simple and geometric is probably better than more complicated designs.

2. Neutral and calming colors, unless you're doing a sports team related idea.

3. Soft, snuggley fabric for the back (yes, he used the word "snuggley" and was referring to what's on the back of his quilt - minky)

4. My hubby's absolute favorite feature on the quilt that I made for him is the stripe on the back.


That blue one. You know, the one I added just to make the back big enough... He said that while he couldn't even tell me what the pattern on the front looks like, he loves the stripe for one reason: it helps him orient the quilt correctly. Every time he pulls the quilt over him, he checks to make sure the stripe is in the right direction. Who knew that would be the winning detail. lol!

So, there  you have it. Some real life input about quilting from a man. Weird day. :)

Friday, May 18, 2012

Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2012

Hello to the Bloggers Quilt Festival!! I am so excited to share my quilt with you all! This is a very special quilt to me and I am happy to be sharing it!

Last month, my sweet sister in law was married to her sweetheart in the St. George LDS temple. As a quick back story, a year and a half ago we didn't know if this amazing woman was going to live. She had been living with a failing liver for many years and got sicker and sicker as she waited for her turn to get a liver transplant.

Then, thankfully, in November of 2010, she was blessed to receive the much (much) needed liver transplant. As she began to heal and live again, she met a wonderful, sweet man and yesterday filled her dream of marriage. So many miracles. We feel so blessed.

So, I made this quilt as a gift for them:


I really do love how these 6 point stars turned out. Y seams aren't too bad once you get used to them. I will be posting a tutorial for this very soon!


I backed it in flannel. Because I love soft, snugly backs! :)


I quilted with a meandering stipple. Mostly because it's fast. haha! But I love the way to turned out!


I am so pleased with this quilt!!

Stats: M's Wedding Quilt
Size: 55 x 64
Fabric: Melrose by Anna Fishkin and Monika Zhn for Red Rooster Fabric (btw - the line is totally gorgeous! I picked it for the purples and loved it!)
Quilting: FMQ meandering stipple
Backing: some beautiful deep purple flannel. I don't know the line... sorry!
Blocks: 6 point diamond stars (cut via Accuquilt Go! Baby)

Thanks for visiting!! Happy Quilt Festival!!

Amy's Creative Side

Thursday, May 17, 2012

TNT Thursday - Teacher Edition

Today for TNT I am proud to have done something that I have never done before - planned and started my teacher appreciation gifts a whole week before school gets out!! That's right! This week, I'm trying out this "being prepared" concept! lol! Get ready for Sprocket Pillows, teachers! (Son's idea!)


And if I'm lucky, I'll get them done a whole hour before I need to take them to the teacher...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

WIP Wednesday!

I almost forgot it was Wednesday (again...) lol!

I haven't done much, but here's what I have done this week...

Pillows

I made 2 pillows this week!



Skill Builders Sampler

Here are my 2 most recent blocks -

#31 - Cactus Flower

Awesome.

#32 - Hexagon Flower


I will admit - this one was the one I was MOST nervous about. The whole idea of English Paper Piecing was intimidating. Bit, I am glad I tried it! It's very relaxing, you can take it anywhere, and it looks awesome done! Well, not my leaves so much... but with practice, that will get better! :)

New Wedding Quilt!
My neighbor, Shelly, and I are going to be making a quilt for a mutual friend's wedding! We are going fabric shopping on Friday! Yea!!
E's King Size

Don't judge. It's still sitting here, waiting to be bound. THIS WEEK!!

Be sure to check out all of the lovely WIP's over at Freshly Pieced!

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Pillows!

I ended up making a few pillows in the last few days - one for my hubby as an anniversary gift (11 years today!!), and one for my little man's 5th birthday!!

Here's the one for my Hubby:


The words are from the song we danced to at our wedding! (awwwww!) It was fun to make and turned out great!

The next one is for the little (soon to be 5 year old). A few months ago, Elizabeth, of Don't Call me Betsy fame, was kind enough to send me some leftover Superhero fabric. I have been trying and trying to come up with something to make out of it for the little man, until a few days ago when it hit me:

Sprocket Pillow. It was perfect!


I love how it came out and can't wait to give it to him!! The tutorial for the Sprocket Pillow can be found HERE! A HUGE Thank You to Elizabeth for the extra fabric!!


I just love making pillows! :)

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Wait... it's Thursday?

So I somehow missed Wednesday. Whoops!! But I do want to post my projects so here goes... WIP Wednesday - Thursday Edition! :)

Cowboy Wedding Skirt

Done! Delivered! I am pleased with how it came out! The photo shoot is on Sunday. I will post a link when the pictures go up on the wedding blog!! :) For now, here are my own - pretty lame - pictures!




Skill Builders

Block #31 - Cactus Flower, skill - Y seams

After my last quilt, I think I have Y seams down okay. But, I think I like to work with larger diamonds! :)


Way cute block, though!! So I am still caught up!!

Beejeebers

May block - for Karen


So cute. This was one of the Skill Builders tutorials, and I am so glad to have done it again! I think it turned out way cute! And, it's in the mail already!!

E's King Size

Still waiting patiently to be bound. :/

So there I am for this week!!! Happy Thursday! :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

TNT - Long Arm Edition!!

Last Saturday was an AWESOME day! For two reasons...

First, I got to meet someone amazing!


That's right folks, That'sMelissa, of Happy Quilting, my new "real" friend, as well as a quilter extraordinaire and the Bee Mama of my Beejeebers Quilting Bee!! She is super sweet and fun! It was a real pleasure to meet her!!

And where did we get the opportunity to meet? At Let's Quilt! The local Long-Arm Quilting place! We were both able to rent a machine and learn how to quilt with a long arm!!!

Long Arm quilting is SO totally fun! The owners were helpful and patient. We learned how to load the quilts onto the machine (which was the hardest part and took forever!!) and off we went.


Melissa flexed her awesome muscles and went for total free motion quilting (and it turned out aMAZing!!). I went with the pentagrams - a pattern that you can follow. Totally worked for me and make my quilt look amazing!



I really, really wish that I had a cutting table this large at my house!! ;)



All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and I totally plan on doing it again (and again, and again...)



Here's to trying new things!!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

WIP Wednesday!

This has been a SUPER-FANTASTIC week!!!!! Seriously!

First off, E's King Size

Wow. I think this has been in progress for about 6 months now. I don't think I've ever taken that long on a quilt... but you know what - that's okay!! Because this may just be some of my best work!

So - the king size has been quilted! ON A LONG ARM!!! BY ME!!!! Yes, this past Saturday I learned how to use a long arm quilting machine! But I'll be posting more on that tomorrow! :)



As it stands now, the quilt has been quilted and the binding sewn on, so all that is left is hand stitching the binding down, and then this will be done!! WOW!! I am super excited!!

Wedding Dress Projects

I am currently working on the Cowboy/Western themed Wedding Skirt. Right now, only one word can describe it...


Ruffles!!!!!

It is coming together nicely so far. I would like to have this skirt finished by this weekend, so wish me luck!! Ruffles are fun, but time consuming (also - THREAD consuming! lol!).

That is actually all for now! Tune in tomorrow for a post about my Long-Arm quilting experience!

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Be sure to check out all of the WIPs over at Freshly Pieced!