Finally a crafty weekend!

It felt good this weekend to get a lot of crafty project done!  ***Ann and Ava don't read this; it's got SPOILERS!***

1) Remade my phone case for running.  The sides were too tight, so I ripped it out and sewed it back together with a different technique.  It works great now, especially when hubby demo'ed it for me when I finished it.  Love that guy.

2) Made my baby niece a Buttercup bag and ruffled clutch for her birthday in May (extra yay for getting it done early.  Buttercup pattern is here, clutch pattern is here, and fabric is Always & Forever by Deb Strain for Moda fabrics

3) Made a Dr. Seuss taggy blanket for my other sister's bun-in-the-oven

4) Quilted a set of 4 mug rugs that I originally intended to hand quilt.  Yeah, that went no where.  I still need to bind these.  Fabric is Awesome by Sandy Gervais and pattern is by Sweetwater

All on top of being sick!  Also, my Halloween quilt is on its way to Mom's to be quilted.  I have my Christmas mystery BOM out now to work on.

2010 Designer Mystery BOM Blocks 9 and 10

This weekend I got two new blocks finished from the 2010 Designer Mystery Block of the Month sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.

Block Nine "Matching Ornaments" designed by Joanna Figueroa

Joanna Figueroa designed the fabric line used in the FQS 2011 Designer Mystery Block of the Month

Block Ten "All Tied Up with Pretty Red Tinsel" Designed by Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson

My first swap!

In April, I'm going to do my first swap!  Swaps have appeared on many sites, like Craftster and flickr groups, but the one I'm doing is hosted by AnneMarie at Gen X Quilters.

For this swap, I'll send in 12 fat quarters of Robert Kaufman's Kona Cotton Solids, and receive back 12 different colors.  I'm sure some people will use it for "stash building," but I've been actually looking forward to swapping since I lurked on the Craftster swap forums a couple years ago.  (Check out the photo galleries!)  I like the idea of picking out fabric and sending it away to AnneMarie, who will divvy up the goods and send them back to the participants.  I'm already excited about it!  Check out all the great colors Kona comes in here: Sew Fresh Fabrics.

Block-a-Palooza First Round of Blocks

I'm participating in this Quilt-Along.  It's my first quilt-along, and I'm behind schedule.  Oh well.  Here's what I've done!

Block 1: Flying Over Fields by John Adams Quilt Dad

Block 2: Word Search by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson!

Block 3: Shoofly Geese by Amanda Sasikirana from sasikirana handmade

Block 4: Gingham Pinwheel by Cherri House from Cherry House Quilts (oops, skipped this one!)

Block 5: Geesy McNinepatch by Kaye Prince from Miss Print

Block 6: You Are Here by Monica Solorio-Snow from Happy Zombie

Block 7: Orange you glad I chose a nine patch by Heather Bostic from House of a la Mode

Block 8: Basket of Geese by Angela Yosten from Moda Home Mom

Block 9: Lemonade Stand by Scott Hansen from Blue Nickel Studios

And here's my Rectangle Reverie, a design from Monica Solorio-Snow from Happy Zombie.  Her link is above.  I'm almost done, but I wanted to share what I have now.

Castle Peeps Quilt Top

I finished my Castle Peeps Quilt Top!  Here it is!

There's one corner not done, but I'll get that later!  Overall, I still love this fabric.  I probably should have chosen fabric with a smaller print scale so that the patchwork blocks would show better, but now I know for the future.

I now have quite a stack of quilt tops.  At least 5.  I'm not quilting them yet because my mom (who lives in Texas) just got a long arm machine.  Instead of paying rental fees or for quilting by others, I'm going to pay for a plane ticket to go quilt at my mom's house and hang out with her!!  So this won't be totally finished until later in the year.  But I'm okay with that.

What do you think?

My envelope system

I saw a picture of the coupon holder on Jaybird Quilts's blog, I wanted to make it.  I don't really use coupons, but I wanted to make something like this to hold receipts and cash for our budget.  The tutorial is on Moda Bake shop's site.  They have other great projects too.  I'm probably going to make Jaybird's giant pincushion soon.

Jaybird Quilts Coupon Clutch Tutorial

Jaybird Quilts Giant Pincushion Tutorial

 I used half of a charm pack of Awesome by Sandy Gervais.  I used the included PDF card stock dividers, but I flipped them over and wrote my own categories that match our budget categories.

Mug Rugs

I've seen these little quilts popping up everywhere, and I decided that my sister really needed one!  (Nevermind the fact that since I chose the Bento Box pattern, I'd end up with two.)  I used fabric in my stash: a red rose print, a yellow rose print, and a print with a bird on a branch with colored leaves.  Mug rugs I've seen are usually rectangular, but mine are square because I couldn't cut up these blocks!

Here's the block finished:

(I'm so happy the corners all lined up!)

Here's pictures of the two mug mats finished.  You can see a little of the quilting in the close ups.

I sent these to my sister.  She finally got them yesterday and put them right to use!  Here's an action shot:

In the upper right is a picture of me and Ann when I graduated from Basic Military Training.  In the upper left is a cross-stitch piece that Ann did for this Valentine's Day.  AND...on the mug rug is fresh scones that she baked herself!! And coffee.  Of course.

More Castle Peeps

I have three new Castle Peep blocks to share!

Grandma's Star:

Joseph's Coat:

Rolling Stone:

I have 5 more block patterns to complete, then I can start laying out the whole quilt top.  I want to finish the blocks by the end of the month so I can start on this:

Blogger's Block-a-palooza is being hosted by John Adams, aka Quilt Dad.  Head over to his blog or to the flickr group for more information.

More Stockings!

Over the weekend I finished the front of the sixth and final stocking.  I also assembled the stockings and put cuffs and loops on all of them.   Here they are:

I still have the embellishments to do, and I spent all my January crafting budget, so these won't get done until at least next month, possibly later.

More Block of the Month Blocks

I've finished two more Fat Quarter Shop 2010 Designer Mystery Block of the Month blocks.

Block Five: "Peppermint Pinwheels" designed by Carrie Nelson

Block Seven: "Warm Woolen Mitten" designed by Pam Buda

I got a little out of order, but now I'm just one month behind!  Woot! I've also ordered material to finish this quilt, so hopefully I can get some bigger pieces together in the near future.

My 2010 Designer Block of the Month

I'm in a Block-of-the-Month club sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.  The fabric is 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain.  I'm sort of...well...behind.  I finished the first block in a sort of timely fashion:

During block two, I had equipment gremlins.  That was in November, or so.  I finally pulled it out and finished block two,...and three and four!  These were three of my seven completed blocks when we had a huge snow storm.

Block One: "Gifts Under the Tree" designed by Gudrun Erla. (I made this previously.)

Block Two:  "Santa's Lucky Hat" designed by Bonnie Olaveson and Camille Roskelley. (I started this before Thanksgiving and finished it today.)

Block Three:  "Wreath Over Our Door" designed by Sandy Gervais.

Block Four:  "Oh Christmas Tree" designed by Heather Mulder Peterson.

At least I'm less behind now.  I should be getting block eight soon.  Sigh.

More Castle Peeps

Did I mention I love this fabric by Lizzy House?  And today I just found this!  I really don't like embroidery, but I might like it for that.

Well, on my snow day, I made four more blocks for my Castle Peeps quilt.

Here is London Roads:

And here is Ornate Star:

I also made three new blocks for the block of the month I'm in right now, coming up next!

Log Cabin Stockings 4 and 5

These stockings have the same contrast fabric (I call it Peppermint stripe), but I put the stripe in a different place so hopefully they will look a little different from each other when they're done.

Stocking number four has Riley Blake's Colorful Christmas fabric with mittens and mugs, with the green stripe as the contrast.  The little blue squares are from my stash.  I love how the steam from the mugs make hearts!

Stocking number 5 has tossed trees and the peppermint stripe.

Just one more front, then I can start assembling the stockings!

Paisley Checkbook Cover

I loved the fabric from my new wallet so much, I used the leftovers to make a new checkbook cover.  I took a glance at the selvage and the fabric line is Make Life by Sweetwater, Colorful in Ocean and Shine in Apple.  I don't have the designer information for the pink marble.

It's hard to see, but where the register goes, there are page holders. 

Paisley Wallet-My First!

Yesterday I made my first wallet!  I had two fabrics in my stash (the paisley and the stars) that I was saving for a wallet, so I finally sat down and made it.  I got some measurements from a purchased pattern, some from a similar (leather) wallet I purchased on sale, and the rest I just measured and eyeballed and cut as I went.  My wallet has an applique embellishment, quilting on the outer fabric, 16 card slots, 4 money slots, and a zippered coin purse.  Here are the pictures:

I've loosely typed up what I did, so hopefully if (when?) I make another one I can go back to it.  A couple of things I'll definitely change: a different interfacing, and 1/4 wider overall.  I used Steam-a-Seam because I had it on hand, and I generally like how stiff it made the card and money slots, but it didn't really work to interface the base and outer pieces.  Also, I need to cut the interfacing so it isn't included in the outside seam allowance.  I need to make it 1/4 wider overall and possibly taller so I can topstitch around the whole thing.  I just like how it looks.  I may or may not quilt the next one.  I needed it for structure, but I think I would rather just find a different interfacing or other product.

Here's my Craftster post for this wallet:  http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=369533.0