Folded edge pillowcase

I am not always sure what to give people for Christmas, and this year was no exception! I really wasn't sure what to get or make for my sister-in-law. After telling my sister, she suggested I make her some pillowcases, perfect!

I had made pillowcases before and loved how simple and beautiful they turned out. For this project my sister gave me two different fabrics that she wanted two sets of king size pillowcases made out of. The challenge for me was figuring out how to make both sets out of just one strip of fabric.
I ended up taking one of the pillowcases we had at home that were store bought and made them from that.



I basically folded a 23 x 86 piece of fabric, folded in half lengthwise and sewed down one side and across what became the bottom of the pillowcase. I then folded down the top to the inside of the case by 6 inches. Very simple but they ended up being really pretty.

close up of the top hem folded into the pillowcase

finished strawberry pillowcase set

both finished sets

look inside at the folded hem on the pink pillowcase

Thankfully my sister-in-law loved them!

Finished puppy quilt

Now that Christmas has passed and the handmade presents have been passed out and opened, let's look at the finished puppy quilt.

One of my favorite parts of finishing a quilt is the binding roll. I love how it looks and how it comes together, such an easy way to make any quilt look good! This fabric was perfect for the Spongebob quilt, it is called "Reef dots"! Yeah!

front of quilt

back of quilt, sorry it's blurry!

Check back tomorrow to see the other presents I made this Christmas!

Doggy quilt continued

I have always loved applique quilts, but am also intimidated by the process. Since I tried the Cricut and it didn't work for me, I decided to just cut it out by hand. I have often thought that since I know how to draw, it shouldn't be too hard to do this on my own.


I first drew a rough sketch of what I wanted the applique to look like.

I drew the bone on the back of the fabric onto the Steam-a-Seam 2 Lite. I wrote out the name, just to see how I wanted to fit that on there.

Both applique's completely cut out.

All ironed together

Sewing the applique onto the quilt, very slowly.

Mason sitting on my lap, hoping this quilt is for him!

Now I am almost finished, just have to bind the quilt! Yeah!!

Quilting with the Cricut

Anyone have a Cricut? I bought my Cricut from an infomercial a few years ago. In that infomercial they show you how to cut fabric out using the machine and using it for applique's on quilts. I recently decided to give it a try, again.

I say again, because when I originally tried cutting fabric with the Cricut, I had a horrible time! I looked on youtube.com and found a wonderful explanation by TheScrapReview.

One of the great tips from this video is to use Scotch Blue Painter's Tape. I ran out to Target, since I was doing Christmas shopping there anyway, and pick up some tape.

I am making a blanket for a friend of mine, well really for her dog. I met her at the local dog park, which has been an amazing place to meet some really great people. My friend loves to buy sweaters for all the little dogs, and furnished my Mason with a great winter wardrobe. I wanted to thank her for her generosity with a cute little quilt!

These are the accent colors. Very bright, I know, but they go great with the Spongebob fabric for the quilt.

Both colors now have the Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the back.

The fabric is loaded in the Cricut ready to cut.

Well, after all of that I couldn't get it to work! Sometimes part of using the Cricut, it's really about trial and error. I think I need a new mat because it may not be sticky enough. I will try again.

Puppy helping me quilt.

Mason watching me quilt.

Sewing a doll

I have a few patterns for making dolls and wanted to try making one. I decided to use the Simplicity pattern, # 2809, I got from Joann's. What I really liked about this pattern is all the clothes you can make for the dolls and also cute little stuffed animals for the dolls to hold.

Right now I have the body, legs and head finished. I realized that I sewed the legs on crooked and need to take them out and redo them. Unfortunately the fabric I am using for the body, a cotton felt (got it from my sister, so not sure exactly what the felt mix it is) is kind of delicate and does not hold up well to being seam ripped and re-sewn! This has turned into a learning project!!

I am not sure if you have used Simplicity patterns before but I have found myself having to change some of the steps in this pattern that don't make sense or add more work to making this doll.
The pattern calls for you to sew the head closed, except for the opening for the neck, and then hand sew on the ears. I thought it would look better to sew the ears on from the inside of the head, which turned out so much better.
I think the clothes for this doll will be really cute and I am also going to make it a little quilt and pillow with pillow cases! So cute!!

Holiday Time!

The weekend after Thanksgiving is exactly the perfect time to put up the Christmas Tree! I look forward to decorating for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over. It's always hard to wait, but the time always arrives!
I wasn't able to find all of our christmas decoration boxes, so the tree isn't as full of trimmings as I would like, but hopefully this upcoming weekend we will dig the rest of the boxes out of the closet we use for storage!

Blue Log Cabin quilt, small update

I have been fighting a cold this week, so not a lot of sewing or quilting has been going on! I wanted to show the two modified blue log cabin quilt squares that I have finished so far. I think the quilt will be really fun, but it's totally wonky blocks at this point.
It's so true what my sister says though, I make quilting a lot harder on myself when I don't use a pattern, which is totally coming true on this one!!!

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Kirby quilt squares

My b.f. came home from work one day and said he had a quilt square he wanted help making. That made me very happy! I don't know that much about video games, or Kirby for that matter, but the quilt is part of a project Nintendo is having various artists and other types in the video game industry work on that coincides with Kirby's Epic Yarn release.

Here are the two squares that I worked on and helped the b.f. make. 

Check back to see the completed quilt! I can't wait to see everyone's interpretation come together in a quilt!

More fabric

Isn't this gorgeous? It's Shell Montage by Phillip Jacobs for Rowan. This fabric feels so warm and summery. Now that we are fully in the middle of fall, with the rain and falling leaves, I feel like this fabric is even more yummy! Don't know how I am going to use it, but I love looking at it for now!

One more quilt and some fabric

The other day my b.f.'s sister asked me how many quilts I am working on. Great question! With the addition of this colorful flying geese pattern quilt, I think the count comes to 8 all together. WOW! It think it's fun to start them, and I like to work on a few at once, but maybe I got a little carried away! 

Part of the blame can go to my sister, she let's me work on quilts she doesn't have time to finish, which makes me a very lucky girl! I love what my sister picks out and then I get to spend time making the quilt all my own, such fun!

most recent quilt added to my collection of projects

My sister is also very generous with fabric, often giving me amazing scraps all the way to yards of fabric! Awesome. 

I squeeled with joy when I saw this collection of Liberty of London prints! AHHHH! 

I also love this Alexander Henry Lake Lawn Regent Peacock Jewel. Love, pure love.

 Do you have fabric you just drool over and dream about? This collection is so dreamy!

My little helper

I can't post too often without including pics of my puppy. I recently started taking pictures in my bedroom, which has better lighting and more room to spread out my stuff. Of course, Mason, my dog, must join me.

I put a blanket down to block him from walking on my stuff and give him a designated space where he can watch me. He eventually finds his way edging closer to me as I am taking pictures! Dogs are such funny friends!

An interpretation

I am working on a quilt from the City Quilts book by Cherrie House. The quilt is called, City Shops. I am using a much more vibrant and strong color pallet for my interpretation of this quilt.

This quilt is coming together really quickly, which has been really fun! I have been thinking I want to try my hand at free motion quilting and I want to try a pebble pattern.

New fabrics and new quilts.

Every week it seems I start a new quilt or get some new fabric. Not a bad thing at all! I got some beautiful deep blue polk-a-dot fabric that I am going to use for the blue log cabin quilt.
I bought the Sew Scrappy magazine and there is a pattern called Boxed In.

I am going to use the blue polka-a-dot fabric for the "window pane" effect.

The boxed in pattern seems like a great way to put a twist on the classic log cabin block. I'm excited to see how it will go!

what I am thinking about

Along with a lot of quilting I have been thinking. I haven't posted anything for a week now because I haven't known where to start.
I have been thinking about where I belong as a quilter, what quilting means to me, the history of quilting, what is Modern quilting, how does economics play in quilting, what do I want to do with quilting, where do I want it to take me, how do I give to others through quilting.
That is a small fraction of what has been rolling around in my head while I have quilted away on the many, many quilts I have going on right now.
I haven't forgotten about my little blog, just haven't known where I wanted to go with it. I feel like I am in a transition phase, where I am taking my quilting even further. It's exciting, frustrating and a little unnerving. I take my quilting seriously, I want to go far and be successful at quilting. I feel like I am myself when I quilt, that I know myself through quilting.
Thanks for sticking with me, and let's see where this all goes!

Birthday fabric.

My birthday was about ten days ago but I am a lucky girl to have birthday fabric keep coming my way! I saw my sister today and she gave me some gorgeous fabric I have wanted for awhile. It finally arrived in the mail and I am so excited!!!

I actually posted about this fabric and how much I was drooling over it back in August. Now here it is!!!! AHHH! So exciting!

In all my excitement to use this fabric, I completely forgot to share it with you! My sister gave me this fabric for my birthday. Not sure what it's called but I already used half of it in a secret project. Well, not secret, but I can't quite share the project quite yet!

For those of you in the S.F. Bay area, don't forget tonight's meeting of the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild at it's new location, New Pieces quilt shop in Berkeley. Hope to see you there!

Halloween preparations

Halloween is fast approaching and I need to put the finishing touches on my little families costumes. My b.f. and little puppy are going to be Luchador's (Mexican wrestler's). My b.f. already has his costume and mask. Today I am going to work on my dog's mask, since he also has his outfit.

Mason is wearing a Martha Stewart Halloween dog costume, but he still needs his mask. I found this really great pattern for a Luchador mask. I could not believe the total cuteness!!

Sewing FAIL

I was working on an applique project and a little fuzz ended up in the needle/sewing foot area. I of course decided I needed to get the fuzz off right then, instead of waiting, say like when I have stopped SEWING.

I broke the needle with my thumb!!! I couldn't believe it! Thankfully I was very lucky and I got a very minor cut/hole in the top of my thumb. The needle though wasn't as lucky.

On top is what the needle should look like, the bottom one is totally bent and the eye is completely gone. Now you know, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I mean who would anyway?

Have a safe sewing weekend everyone!

Winner!

Last week I won 8 fat quarters of the Heather Ross Far Far Away II fabric collection! I could not believe it! It was a very wonderful surprise for my birthday!!
There is this awesome website, Talk About Fabric where you can do just that, talk about fabric! You can see what other people are doing with the fabric they have, gossip about the newest fabrics coming out and see upcoming stuff! So much fun!

Also check out Adrianne's blog, Little Bluebell a wonderful blog, one of my favorites!!

Ok, pics of the winnings! They aren't that good since it is dark and cloudy here today, but they arrived and I am super excited!

the package arrives!

Talk About Fabric, a little note