My Introduction To Rag Quilts

    I bought some flannel.  Check out this cute, cute print.  It's called "Arctic Antics" by Debbie Mumm.  It wasn't on sale but I bought 9 yards to make myself a cozy rag quilt. This will be my first rag quilt.  I cut it up into 126 - 10" squares to make a 6 x 7 block rag quilt.  The cutting is done and now I just have sew an X in 42 - 3 layer blocks to secure the middle layer then I'll put them in 6 blocks rows, then sew the rows together all with 1/2" seams.

 

   I'll be back in a few days with the final quilt.  I should be done by Friday.  

Floral Square Quilt Is Finished.

  Here it is.  I did all straight line quilting on my Janome using the dual feed foot.   It was super simple.  I did have to adjust my tension to 7 on the dial to get the needle tension to work nicely.  If I leave the tenion dial on Auto I get loops on the underside of my stitching.  Weird.

     The front:

   The back:

   I'm currently working on my secret project which I won't be able to share until it is gifted.  I'll be back as soon as I can with projects I can share.

Thank You Mr. Electrician

   I finally had a ceiling fan installed in my bedroom.  I love it.  I've been meaning to have this done for the last 7 years.  It was so worth the wait.

 

Pretty Fabric To Enhance My Stash

   I received these four pieces of fabric in the mail yesterday and this morning I hand washed them and threw them in the dryer so I could add them to my stash.  So pretty.

Orange You Glad

This reminds me of that old knock knock joke that goes:

  Knock knock

  Who's there?

  Banana

  Knock knock

  Who's there?

   Banana

   Knock knock

   Who's there?

    Orange

    Orange who?

    Orange you glad I didn't say banana.

     Here's the addition of the color orange to my stash.  10 orange fat quarters and 4 yards of orange with white polka dots.

  The polka dot was purchased with a project in mind, but the fat quarters are just stash for right now.  

Shhhh! Secret Project Time

  I found this lovely flannel fabric, it's called Blizzard Happy Cats Flannel, on Hancock Fabrics website at $3.99 a yard.  What a great price.  I ordered a quantity to make a secret project for someone special.  Shhhh!

Fall Sunflower Door Decoration

    I finally finished a sunflower door decoration for use during the fall season.  The flower is made from 100% felt.  I made a petal pattern in 3 sizes for the petals and the center was cut freehand from a 6 inch circle.  I sewed the flower to cotton backing material.  I made the center with points which is different from the normal plain circle.  I also added some dark purple seeds in the center for texture and color.  I was thinking of the Van Gogh sunflowers when I decided on the blue background.

    I enjoyed making this project.  The felt was really easy to sew.  I did a straight stitch around all the edges of the petals.  I used a few pins when I placed the petals and I was really surprised that I didn't have any problem with the felt shifting during sewing.

Missing Colors

   I was thinking about my fabric stash a couple of days ago and I realized that I do not have a lot of orange fabric in my collection.  I think I have one or two small pieces of orange fabric.   The same thing goes for purple fabric.  I'm fixing that little problem this week with some fabric purchases.

   I just bought 4 yards of this fabric from an etsy seller.

 

Pairing the orange with this fabric I just found at Joann's on sale for $5.99 a yard.  Yippee!

   I'll be using these in my next quilt project with plain white as my background fabric.  I'll be using my new Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind Of Wonderful to make the Metro Twist Pattern.

   I'm currently working on my sunflower door decoration.  That should be done soon.  

Floral Square QuiltTop Is Assembled

 

  After making all the little odds and ends that I finished in the last couple of weeks, I finally got this top together.  It's about 56" x 56", there are 100  5" floral squares framed by 1.5" green floral tone on tone fabric.  

 

I found that as random as I tried to be putting my squares together, I still had a problem putting the rows together.  I found these three pink blocks hanging out together.  I won't be taking any of this apart to separate them since this quilt is just for me.

   I've ordered the batting for this quilt and I'm going to start working on piecing my backing together in the next few days.  

New Project - Sunflower Door Decoration

  Yesterday I spent some time cutting up 100% wool felt sheets that I purchased several months ago for a sunflower door decoration I want to make for the fall season.  I purchased my wool felt from an etsy seller.  I used a petal pattern that I drew.  Petals are one of the things I can draw along with Christmas trees and holly leaves.  I used three different sizes of petals and two different colors of felt for the petals.  I'm waiting for my background fabric that I ordered a few days ago.  I should have that next week and then I can get the sewing part started.  Here is a little peek at what I did yesterday.

I Just Could Not Resist . . .

Making one more neck pillow for myself.  I love this fabric.  A link to the .pdf pattern and the sewing tutorial is on my August 11th post.

Neck Pillow For Long Distance Drives

  When I'm not driving, of course.

   I'll be using this around the house as well.  I may even make another for a back up.  I have quite a bit of neck pain and I usually deal with it, but I think this will help me a lot.

    I used this tutorial here.  The link has the .pdf pattern and the sewing instructions.  This project took me about 2 hours from cutting the fabric to the last stitch.  It was fun to make, it fits well, and is super comfortable.  I used cotton fabric from my stash and an almost 12 oz. bag of fiberfill which I bought yesterday.

   Using stash fabric and a $4.00 bag of fiberfill, this would make a nice gift for someone.

My Super Cute Pincushion Ring

     I love this little thing.  I have been wanting to make one for months, but just got around to actually doing it.  I followed the tutorial here.  I made a three changes to the way I made my pin cushion ring.  I used a hammer and nail to make the holes in the cap and then I enlarged them with the tip of old scissors.  I used material instead of ribbon to cover the sides of the cap because I didn't have any pretty ribbon.  I didn't glue the material I just sewed it to the top and bottom.  And I used a hair elastic to make the ring part because I didn't have any thin elastic.  The hair tie worked great.  

   I will be making a couple more of these.  They are super cute.

Floral Squares

      I've started a new quilt top with fabric I bought in January.  I posted about my fabric purchase on January 22, 2015.  I bought the fat quarters of the floral, then I realized that wouldn't be enough material, so I bought some charm squares to make sure I had enough fabric.  The floral fabric is from the Roses & Chocolate line from Sentimental Studios.  The 5" squares are framed with 1 1/2" strips of this beautiful olive green fabric I found at Marshall Dry Goods, it's 108" backing fabric.  I'll be using 100 squares for this top.  I have 17 made so far.  I'll be placing these squares on point for my quilt top.

Quick Project: Water Bottle Carrier

   This water bottle carrier will come in extra handy when I'm out and about.  I found this tutorial here.  Thank you Pink Chalk Studio.  This holds a 16.9 fl. oz. bottle of water.  That's a pretty standard size around here.

    The tutorial was really easy to follow and from fabric cutting to finish took about 2 1/2 hours.

      I used some pretty Laurel Burch cat fabric I had in my stash and I also had the Insul-Brite already as well.  I used the same fabric for both the lining and the outside to save me time.

     I did change up the strap.  I made my strap from fabric strips because I didn't have any twill tape or pretty ribbon like the blogger used.  To make my strap I cut two wof pieces 2 1/2" wide and sewed them together to make a long piece about 80" long.  I ironed the strip in half lenghthwise, then folded the long edges to the crease in the middle, then I folded it again making it about 3/4" wide.  I ironed it down, then I sewed it 3/8" from the edge.  I trimmed the length to about 58", then attached it just like she attached her ribbon strap.  It's very comfortable.

Bird On A Twig Pillow Puffs

   I found these sweet pictures of birds printed on fabric sold by an etsy seller last week.  They were advertised as reproductions based on vintage images from a calendar printed in 1889 by the Louis Prang Company.  I knew they would make sweet little pillows for dear daughter's new house.  She loves birds.  I bought two 12" square pillow forms and used fabric and batting from my stash to finish these.  

    I made the fabric pieces smaller than the pillow forms so I had to stuff the forms into the envelopes I made so that is why I'm calling them pillow puffs.  They will be sweet little accents for her den or living room.

This is a bobolink

This is a chickadee.

My Knitted Christmas Hat Is Done

   I started this in April and have been working on it since then.  It's finished.  It's not as pretty as the first one I made  because I got a little sloppy when I was knitting two together to reduce my stitches, but it will do and I can wear it around the house at during the Christmas holiday.