A Quilted St. Patrick's Day Decoration

   I'm calling these St. Patrick's Day Stars.  I made these small wall hangings in green, orange and white for me and DD.  We love to decorate a little bit for the holidays and I like to make her little things to put around her house with the holiday color.

    I used a free paper piecing star pattern from the Carol Doak website.  The link is here.  It's the star pattern that is called Introduction to Paper Piecing and it's about half way down the page.  I've used this free pattern before I love it.  With the borders and binding they measure appoximately 13" x 13" square.  I gathered my fabrics for this project right after Christmas.

    These were fun to make and DD loves it.

One more thing,

   I did some more paper piecing and made up this pretty block to decorate my front door in between specific holidays.  I used a fat quarter set that I won from Barbara at Cat Patches blog.  It was eight fat quarters of Junebug Fat Quarter Bundle by Dear Stella Fabrics. I used the free paper piecing pattern from Carol Doak.  If you go to Carol Doak's site and click on Free patterns and scroll down to this one which is the 11th picture, it's called "Introduction to Paper Piecing" and it's pretty simple, but I think it super pretty.  It looks great no matter what fabric you use.  I would love to make an entire quilt with these blocks.

The Return

     I've been too busy to blog the last five months but I have been crafting and trying new things so I'll try to do a little catch up here.

     I finished my Carpenter Star quilt with simple quilting and an equally simple backing.  This quilt is made up of 100 squares, I made the half square triangles with 8" squares.  I love it.

    I finished my colorful pinwheel quilt and did simple quilting with a pretty lavender back and binding.

   I also made a a third string quilt which I offered for sale to my two older brothers.  The oldest brother bought it and loves it.  I make 10" string blocks using full size paper towels which finish at 9.5" and I make the quilt 7 blocks by 7 rows.  They make great size lap quilts.

  I found a Youtube video on how to knit fingerless mitts and I made a pair for myself and for my daughter out of acrylic yarn.  Love these.

   I bought myself some pom pom makers and I had to crochet a hat to try them out.

    I used my embroidery machine and made some embroidered hanging dishtowels for my brothers for St. Patrick's Day.  I wanted to remind them of our Mom who was 100% Irish and she loved St. Patrick's Day.

    I just recently finished this basket weave quilt.  I took the pattern from this website.  I counted how many squares the blogger used of each color and I cut 6" squares of three different colors of fabric and put mine together.  Love this quilt.

   I made a country floral quilt that I absolutely love.  I bought 49 - 10" floral squares from an eBay seller, put them together and had a quilt top in no time.  I backed it with some simple floral fabric and did my usual grid and diagonal quilting.

    I made another scrappy top using 3" squares of fabric and I backed it with a fun zebra print.  Love this quilt as well.

    I've been wanting a spool pin doily for all of my sewing machines and I couldn't find any for sale so I made up my own pattern.  It took me three tries to find something really nice to make them with.  I tried yarn and number 10 crochet thread, but the yarn was too thick and the crochet thread was too thin.  I settled on embroidery thread.  I had a ton of of it and this was a good way to use it up.  I ended up crocheting a lot of these little doilies, it turned into a little obsession.  I did give some away but I still have a bunch that I want to use for a pillow cover.   Here is how I make my doilies. 

I used six strands of embroidery floss with a size 1 (2.35 mm) steel crochet hook.

Round 1: Chain 4, join with a slip stitch to the first chain to make a ring.

Round 2: Chain 3 (counts as a double crochet) and make 11 double crochets in the ring for a total of 12 stitches, join with a slip stitch to the third chain in the beginning chain 3.

Round 3: Chain 1, make a single crochet in the first stitch, chain 3 and single crochet in the same stitch(these are picot stitches), make a single crochet in the next stitch, chain 3 and single crochet in the same stitch, do this in each of the 12 stitches around, join with a slip stitch to the beginning 
chain 1.

Round 4: (Another round of picot stitches) Chain 1, make a single crochet in the first chain 3 space, chain 3 and single crochet in the chain 3 space, make a single crochet in the next chain 3 space, chain 3 and single crochet in the same chain 3 space, do this in each of the 12 chain 3 spaces around, join with a slip stitch to the beginning chain 1, cut yarn and weave in ends.

    Each doily takes about 15 minutes to make.  I also made up some two and three color versions as well that were fun to do.  

    I knitted a tea pot cozy for the tea pot I keep on my stove top.  Color stranded knitting is new to me and I had a good time trying this out.  The curly q decorations are crocheted.

   I crocheted a shawl using the free Frosted Layer Cake pattern.   Here is a link to the YouTube video on how to do it.  Youtube video on how to make frosted layer cake shawl.  It was a fun pattern and so simple.  

     I'm currently working on making a new Irish Chain quilt to replace this one that I recently gave away to a friend.  I can't make it exactly because the fabric is no longer available, but I'm making it similar.

  

Another Crochet Project With Colorful Yarn

    Here is another yarn I had a hard time finding the right pattern for.  It is a 70% superwash wool, 30% nylon blend called Chroma from Knitpicks.com.  I bought this yarn in 2011 when I was a new knitter and I fell in love with the colorway called Midwinter.  It's a blend of dark blue, gray and purple.  I have two skeins of fingering weight.  It also comes in a worsted weight and I made my crocheted earwarmer with two skeins of worsted weight in this colorway.

   So I settled on the feather and fan pattern to make a scarf and I tried to knit it but I get frustrated knitting so I switched to a crochet pattern.  There are lots of feather and fan patterns available for free on the Internet.  The free crochet pattern I am using is available on Ravelry (membership is free) or you can go to you tube and find a how to video here.

   I'm using a size I (5.5 mm) crochet hook, which is a larger hook than what is recommended for this yarn, because I want a lacy look and the larger hook is working.

   Here is a picture of what I have done so far.

    I'm planning to use both skeins of yarn on this scarf and I'm about half way through the first skein.

 

My Favorite Market Bag Made From Cotton Yarn

    I found a lovely market bag pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn website a few years ago and made one to give away to a family member.  The patterns was really easy and I've been wanting to make one for myself because I love the shape of the bag an the handle.  I finally made it last Saturday.

   This is a free pattern but in order to get the pattern you have to create a free login on the Lion Brand Yarn website.  There are several market bag patterns on the site and this one is just called Market Bag and has one center handle.  On the website this bag is pictured in a dark blue yarn.

    I used Peaches and Creme Cotton Yarn in the Ivy League colorway that I bought at Walmart on Saturday morning.  I bought a cone of 706 yards for under $10.00.  You need approximately 360 yards of yarn to make one bag according to the pattern.  I probably have enough yarn leftover to make a little smaller version of the bag.  

   I always hand wind my yarn into balls before I start a project.  This gives me a chance to check the  yarn for joins and imperfections before I start my project.  This process also ensures that I won't run into a big yarn tangle at the end of a skein while I'm working which can be quite frustrating for me and really doesn't help me finish my project.    

   Here's my new market bag.

I Love This Fun Sewing Machine - Window Shopping

      While I was shopping for my vintage Singer Model 221, I saw this cute little machine.  So sweet.  I've heard a lot of people say that they wouldn't buy a new Singer sewing machine because they are worthless, but this machine has a really sweet shape (kind of like the Model 221) and I could totally see myself using this for a lot of craft sewing.

    This is a Singer One, it has 24 stitches including buttonholes and 4 stretch stitches.  It comes with an all purpose presser foot, blind hem foot, satin stitch foot, zipper foot and buttonhole foot.  The base on the left side slides off for free arm sewing and there is also an accessory storage box there. It's so adorable and it's on sale all over the internet.

    The best deals I saw were on Amazon and Walmart.  Amazon had it for $179.00 with free Prime shipping  and Walmart had it for $179.00 at Walmart with free shipping or free site to store pickup.  Overstock advertises it at $179.00 as well but they are out of stock.

    There is also a Singer One Plus that is a little more expensive because it has loads of features like the needle up and down and 231 stitches.  The Singer One Plus is also on sale all over the internet.

Quilting The Chevron Quilt and It's Finished

   I spent a few hours quilting and binding my colorful chevron quilt top.  I love the orange and white backing and binding materials I used.  I think orange is my new favorite color.  I did fun loopy free motion quilting on it.

Merlin, my big boy cat, had to inspect it while I took a break.

Preparing To Make Two More Quilt Tops

     Today I took some time to cut fabric from two more quilt tops.  I don't have a chevron quilt or pinwheel quilt and I love to make quilts with half square triangles.

    I'm making my chevron quilt with 5" squares cut from these bright colored fat quarters I had in my stash.  These are from the Free Spirit Collection I bought from Craftsy earlier this year.  I love the bright colors and I think they will make an awesome chevron quilt.

   I bought two sets of 100 - 5" white charms from an etsy seller.   I usually cut up my own yardage for projects but I didn't feel like it this time and took the easy way out.

   The other quilt will be a pinwheel quilt.  I've made three pinwheel quilts and they were all made with lots of fabrics so they looked old fashioned.  I gave all three of those away to family members so it's time for me to have one of my own.  Here is a picture of my very first quilt made with half square triangles.

    My pinwheel quilt will be made with two charm packs of Union Blues by Barbara Brackman for Moda and one of the pack of 100 - 5" white charms I bought already cut.  I love the Civil War reproduction fabrics and these will be fun to work with.

   With my fabric cut all I have to do is start sewing.

Latest Quilt Finished.

   I was able to get the back pieced and the quilt sandwiched by Saturday afternoon.  I quilted it on Sunday and Monday, finishing the binding yesterday.  Here it is.

    Front:

   Back

    I did simple straight line cross hatch quilting on this one.  I tried to free motion quilt it with my new Janome 7700 but it didn't turn out very well.  I did two blocks before I decided to remove that quilting and use my walking foot to straight line quilt it.

    I need to practice free motion quilting on this machine so I can get the speed of my sewing coordinated with the movement of the quilt under the needle.   The next time I try to free motion quilt with this machine, I think I'll do a simple stipple and see how goes.

   I've already cut 5" squares of pretty floral fabric for my next quilt top.  It will be a simple design with the floral squares framed by green fabric strips.  I haven't started sewing it yet.  I'm taking a break for a few days to look at my to do list and get some other things done around the house.

The Quick Curve Ruler

   I bought a Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Wonderful last week (it was on sale at Connecting Threads) because I saw this super cool video tutorial here.

  Here's the link to Sew Wonderful's free pattern pages.  I love this pattern and I can't wait to try my new ruler out.

A Handmade Birthday Present

Today is my DD's 38th birthday.  Wow, is she old.   hehehehe

Earlier in the summer I decided to try my hand at embroidery and I made up this embroidery to give to her.  It's her first initial secured with buttonhole stitch in black and red, some french knots, some lazy daisies, her date of birth, and a primitive little bee I drew free hand to represent the first initial of her last name (not to mention, she loves bugs).  I wrapped the embroidery hoop with gray ribbon (silver is her favorite metal) and I mounted the embroidery by hand sewing a backing onto the embroidery to secure it in the hoop.  This was a fun freehand project.  Sorry the pictures aren't clearer, I took these with my cell phone.  My camera was being re-charged.

The front.

The back.

I can't wait to do more embroidery.