{Eli's Banner Quilt} Blogger's Quilt Festival: Fall 2011

For all of us who do NOT get to attend the Houston Quilt Market there's the Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Thanks to Amy, we can all enjoy a plethora of fabulous quilts from the comfort of our own homes, coffee in hand, jammies on.

I'd like to share one of the few quilts I was able to finish this year, Eli's Banner Quilt!

This past spring I was utterly itching to finish a quilt and I was inspired by this lovely little banner quilt so why not give it a go on a larger quilt?  For my boy, Eli. (now 19mo old!)

 So I pulled out my stash of Ikea flat sheets and duvet covers, decided on this tan flat sheet for the background then started digging through my scraps for the flags.  The "strings" the flags fly from are actually lengths of selvedge I save for just such the random occasion.

I decided to do a quick and decidedly fun loop-d-loop on the long-arm machine at my LQS, and it was a FAST quilting session to say the least!  A record, I think, completely quilted in less than an hour.

 Scrappy binding with all my favorite non-girly prints including kei honeycomb, DS quilts, and Joel Dewberry's woodgrain print in brown trim it nicely.

I realize this is a whole cloth quilt, as zero piecing was done on it, but I just love it!  Its impromptu, simple, fun, and done in 4 days! 

Another fun little tid bit:  The Modern Quilt Guild will be featuring this quilt during their 100 days of Modern Quilting series starting this January!  Yay!  So look for it on their blog!

Thanks again to Amy for hosting this fabulous virtual Festival!

{Pillow Talk} + Wallflower in Mustard

 Pillows.

They're in your family room, living room, bedroom, maybe even in your office or kitchen.

The odds are your dog or cat has her own pillow!  So what took me so long to decide to whip up my first pillows?  I have no idea.  But I'm so glad I did... and I'm hooked! 

I wanted something more 3-dimentional to showcase at Craft Shows this November so I thought, "Hey, should I attempt to make some pillows?  Dare I try?"  

Well, I tried.  And it was way less painful and tedious that I thought it would be!  Its more like making a couple of mini quilts!  And more functional if I do say so myself.

I used the (free!) Stripe of Strips pattern and dug into my scrap pile to make the center strips.  LOVE how they turned out especially with the Kona cotton in Coal added!  And I broke down and used the much hoarded DS Quilts fabric for the back and binding.  Binding these pillows like a quilt is not in the actual pattern, but I love how it looks so I wandered off the pattern.  Shocking, I know.

 

Trust me, if these pillows (for some crazy reason) do not sell I will claim them for myself!  

Otherwise, I'll be making a new set for the (yet to be purchased) living room... and bedroom... and Eli's room... and the entry way... and my car.  And even one for Hazel!

OH and maybe they'd make good Christmas gifts for sisters and sisters-in-law?  

Nooooooo... they'd hate them!  Ok, maybe they'd love them.

 

And for those of you obsessed with fabric in the mustard range of color, or Amy Butler, or both... I actually found a shop on Etsy selling this Lotus Wallflower pattern in mustard yellow!!!   And not for $16.99 per FQ!

I decided to bestow 1/2 yard to my fabric stash because, well.... just because.

What's the one fabric you'd looooove to have but just cannot seem to find it?

My Ladder Theory

What does a quilter do when she does not want to lug her brand new dark wood quilt rack to two different craft shows next month?  Well she wracks her brain for Flickr images she's seen in the last two years... and I could not find the photo but a very resourceful gal at a craft show in PA was using a LADDER to hang quilts and blankets on!  How genius! 

 I scoured Craigslist and found this plain old 5' ladder someone was dying to give me for just $15.  Most home improvement stores don't even carry wooden ladders anymore as they're all made of composite/plastic... so I was thrilled to find this practically new "quilt rack" for CHEAP in the next burb over!

I removed all the stickers, then added a coat of spray primer and two coats of spray paint and shazaam I have a collapsible customized quilt rack for my two shows... yay!  And it isn't bad for taking sewing photos either! 

I've been working on said craft shows since July so here are a couple more items I've whipped up!

 Some girl bibs made from Amy Butler home dec fabric, I believe its the "LOVE" collection.  Backed with white terrycloth.  And I used the bib pattern out of my Lotta Jansdotter baby sewing book, although squared off the bottom edge.  I rather like my new label placement... makes it look legit, ya know?

 This is my favorite bib... bold, bright, and says "I'm a girl but where's my plate of spaghetti!? Bring it, Mom!"  Eli has a couple of these bibs (in greys/reds/black) and I love them!!!!

Then there's  the release of Jessica Levitt's new book, Modern Mix! I actually don't own the book (yet!) but I think it will be in my grubby little hands by Christmas, even if I have to gift it to myself!

Well there's been a whirlwind blog tour for this book and one of the patterns from the book is actually available for FREE as a PDF.  These colorful strips are going to turn into two pillows, 18" square, each!  I 'm going to flank each stripe with Kona Coal... yum!  

You can find the free PDF pattern for these pillows at Sew, Mama, Sew!

I just dug thru my scraps and voila, I loved how it looked... and it was SO easy to sew!  I know I say that all the time but this pattern is great!  I'll be sure to share my finished pillows soon, promise!

So what have ya'll been up to?  Have a productive weekend? 

Aqua Inspiration

 

Aqua Inspiration found on Pinterest my newest addiction!

 i. want. this. machine!

 this salvaged wall needs to be turned into a quilt!  next on my list for sure!

 The most perfect bedroom I've ever seen.

And last but not least a funny little snippet  about boys, and the goofy things they say.

If Eli ever starts talking then I'll start sharing his crazy ideas, but until then, I've got nothin'.   

His list of words is limited to "All done!" "Ama" (Grandma) and "ck" (truck.)

Have a fabulous weekend and maybe I'll see you at the Craftin' Outlaws alternative craft show tomorrow (10/15) in Columbus Ohio.  I'll just be there Christmas shopping, not as a vendor.

Go!Baby Winner!

Our winner is #14 - Tracy!

I've sent you an email to get your mailing info and which 3 dies you'd like!

Congratulations!

And to everyone who who came in 2nd place, make sure to put this Baby on your Christmas list, you will NOT be disappointed!  Less cutting time = more sewing time!

Accuquilt Go!Baby Giveaway

 Now is your chance!  One lucky STML reader will win an Accuquilt Go!Baby along with 3 dies of your choice... read my review to learn more about this Baby and see the sewing machine cover I whipped up in no time!  I hate all the time (and accuracy) it takes to cut fabric for quilts and this is the perfect solution!  Portable, no batteries required - it'll cut your cutting time by up to 90%!  

I'm smitten, can you tell?

Here's how to enter:  comments are now closed!


1. leave a comment on this post - tell me how you would use this ingenious fabric cutter, or which die is your favorite! (one entry)

2.  sign up to get 22 FREE patterns from Accuquilt by following this link, all you need is an email address... come back here and leave an additional comment that you signed up. (one entry)

INTERNATIONAL ENTRIES WELCOME!

** please be sure that an email address is available on your profile or is included in your comment - NO EMAIL ADDRESS = NO VALID ENTRY)**

So that's 2 potential chances you have to win over $250 worth of fabric cutting yummy-ness!  I'll draw the winner this Friday at 2pm (EST) so that's when comments to this drawing will be closed.  I'll announce the winner here on Friday and send them an email too.  Now off you go, and good luck!

Go!Baby Fabric Cutter review {& giveaway on monday}

 So I was given the opportunity to try out the GO!Baby Fabric Cutter by Accuquilt and can I say, I'm in love!  Up until now I've avoided odd block shapes like the tumbler but with just a few cranks of the handle, I had 104(!) 3.5" tumbler blocks cut in 20 minutes!  And each one is cut perfectly, dog-ear corners and all!  I also have the drunkards path die and the quarter-square triangle die, again, more blocks I probably wouldn't attempt to cut by hand because I love sewing and quilting 100x more than I like cutting fabric.  As odd as that may sound! 

No batteries required for this GO!Baby cutter - its all done with old fashioned elbow-grease, a crank handle!  Which means you can take it with you and not have to worry about batteries or power cords!
 It cuts 6 layers of fabric like a charm, and just a tad bit of wasted fabric.  Well worth the time savings!  It also cuts paper, although I have yet to try that.

I was able to whip up this fun modern sewing machine cover with just 16   3"(finished) tumblers and some Kona cotton in coal.  Its basically a mini quilt with 4 ties to keep your sewing machine cozy and dust free.

Available in my Etsy Shop!  SOLD!

Want to get 22 FREE Quilt Patterns from Accuquilt?  Click on the above icon and just enter your email address - simple as that! 

I will be giving away one of these GO!Baby Fabric Cutters to one of my readers this coming MONDAY (10/10/11) so be sure to come back on Monday and enter to win!  

And on a side note:
Is anyone else completely bummed that they are not attending the Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City this weekend?  I have two local sewing/blogging pals who are there right and I am just daydreaming about all the fabulous people they're meeting, the Fabric Shop hop they went on last night... the all night sewing room at their hotel, the classes, discussion panels, fabric swaps.... *sigh*
Maybe next year they'll move it closer to the Mid-west?  Anyone with me?!   

Hoarding my Pips no more

I've been drooling over all the pretty pillows on Flickr for who knows how long!

Two little charm packs of Aneela Hoey's Sherbet Pips were sitting patiently in one of my fabric bins (aka moving boxes) and I've been wanting to use them in a manner befitting of such fun lively prints.

So in my usual manner of sewing... I made up this pillow as I went!

 I used 4 rows by 4 rows of 5" charm squares, which happens to make (roughly) an 18"square pillow cover!  Top + batting + creme backing then a bit of straight line quilting...

 Some fun coordinating fabric for the back to make the envelope opening...

I put WRONG sides together (plus lots of pinning) and did a narrow zig-zag stitch to attach the back to the quilted front... then I added the binding just as if it were a quilt!  Worked out perfectly!   

A boy version is also in the works using the red/blue/grey Pips... so I need to venture down to Sew To Speak for some backing and binding!  Wow, I actually have a good reason to buy more fabric for once!  Sweet.  Just like Sherbet Pips.

 I still have an entire pack of Pips (+10) left over from these two pillows... maybe a quilt is in order!  Along with some added solids? Hmmm

And Hi from Hazel!

how to make fabric labels

Over the past few years I've gotten more than a handful of inquiries about the labels I attach to my sewn items.  Baby quilts, burp cloths, bags, mug rugs... I attach them to almost everything I make.  I like the 'professional' look it lends to handmade items.

So I thought I'd give you a quick run-down of my process for creating these lovely little tags.

Here's what you'll need:

 1" cotton twill tape (or whatever size you'd like) - I get mine on Ebay

Fabric ink pad

your personalized stamp - mine was custom made by foryoo

Pinking shears or even plain old scissors

 ~ roll out your twill tape

~ stamp away - but leave about 2" of space in between to cut and sew the label on to your item

~ WAIT about 24 hours for the ink to set

~ press with super hot iron to permanently set the ink, and it will never wash out

~ clip with pinking shears or scissors and they're done!

I typically finger press each end under then sew it on for a nice finished look, and so the tag won't unravel after a zillion washings.

Now... non-baby quilts - those tags are a whole other animal.  I'll save that story for another day!

And HAPPY OCTOBER!  Man, its such a great month...  and the weather is finally cooling off so its time to break out our quilts!  Yay!!