K-State Rag Quilt

I did make a few Christmas gifts this year but I never got around to blogging about them. One of my favorites was this rag quilt made for my brother! He is a Kansas State Wildcats fan. I knew I wanted to make him something handmade but I couldn't figure out what to do.

So I decided on the quilt! What is better than a nice quilt to keep you nice and warm.

This quilt is made out of 9 inch squares. It is all flannel. The K-state print is from Walmart and the rest are from Joanns. Three yards for the front and 3 yards for the back! When I make a rag quilt with this large of squares, I always try to quilt them with an X before sewing them together, but on this one I wanted to get more creative!

I know quilters use paper to paper piece string quilts and if you can use it for that why not use it to quilt and image on to my squares. So after tracing 32 footballs and basketballs, I got to sewing! Pin your paper on top of your square on sew on the outline. I used a small tight stich! When you are done your paper will be be easy to tear away!

I have also been working on getting the frayed area fluffier! When washing it for the first 2 times, I use a high aggitation. When it is done washing, I take it outside and shake it! Make sure you do this outside, or it will look like it snowed in your house. Then wash and repeat. Toss in the dryer and checkout how soft and cuddly it turns out!


I am linking up at Made with Love Mondays!

My First Pillow cover!

So after seeing all the pretty pillows out in blog land, I decided to give it a try! The other day while thrifting I found a new 14 inch pillow form. I have 2 new 20 inch pillow forms from Ikea too. Start small is what I figured.

I also gave string blocks a try. I used the paper backing method on 5 inch squares. All the strings are one inch wide and just random colors from my scraps, avoiding pink!

Over all I love it, not to sure what my husband thinks but I know my little guy loves it and my little girl too!

Friday Thrifting!

Today was the first time that I have ever bought anything at a Thrift store! I have been into them before, but most of the time I end up gagging due to their nasty smell, or just don't find anything to my liking!

I ended up spending about $20 today. My favorite find was a vintage Fisher Price Barn! It was in a bag that was stapled closed, but there were some toys inside of it. So I took a chance after checking it over. It was $5.95. After getting it home and checking it out, it is in really nice shape. It still Moos when you open the barn door. It contained a horse, a black pig, two tractors, and a trailer for the tractor! I am pretty happy with this buy!

I also ended up coming home with a pack of 9 sewing patterns. This was the same way, all seeled up in a bag with a price tag on it! I had hope from looking at the one on top and the one on bottom! They were all womens patterns. I believe 3 or 4 of them are for knit fabrics. The picture of 3 contains the ones I like the best! Nine patterns for $1.95, not to bad!



I also bought a 14 inch pillow form for $2.95. It was brand new and unopened! A pack of toy pinwheels for my daughter, who almost had a fit about them! They were $.99. I also got a dress. It is marked size small. I personally think it is on the extra small side. It fits ok, but I wish there was more volume in the skirt! It was $7.95.

Does anyone out there have any tips on thrift store shopping? I asked a few ladies in the store if they were ever special sales, but all they said was that it was a bit cheaper on Saturdays. I also thought the prices were a bit high. There were a few books that I was going to get but they wanted $4.95 for a used novel. We also saw 3 used sewing machines. A Kenmore for sears, a 80's Singer, and a Morse brand one. Morse was the only one that I had never heard of! After this trip, I think I will go to a few more local shops, but I really don't have that high of hopes.

Odds and Ends!

I am on a use up my scraps mission! I thought about making a quilt with them but I am not really that focused! So I have been doing random tutorials that I have found from some of my favorite blogs!

Yesterday I made 2 zippy wallets. This is a tutorial from Anna over at Noodlehead! She really has some of the best tutorials. This is where I learned to do zippers on pouches like these ones!

These fabrics are from the Meadowsweet line of fabrics. MY FAVORITE! This one is for me and I plan on using it to carry my business cards and probaly some change! Ignore the double snap and the pen mark. I was to lazy to get up and get my disappearing marker and used ink, thinking it would get covered up but it didn't! It came out pretty perfect if you excuse those mistakes.





This next one is for a friend that sent me a sweet little gift! I will be mailing it tomorrow! I am really happy with how these turned out and they only take about 30 minutes to make and would probably go faster if you made them several at a time! I thought it was cute that this one matches her business cards!




Another scrap project was this mug rug. It is also made with Meadowsweet fabrics! This is the 3rd mug rug I have made but really the only one that has come out how I wanted it too!

Valentine's Gifts for a special little girl!

Sunday the 13th of Febuary was filled with sewing for my daugher! I made her a beautiful Popover dress! This is free pattern from Oliver+S. I think it came out great and she will be able to wear it for more than just V-day!


I also made her this adorable pencil pouch! We are using it for her markers! Very nice to have a cute place to keep them! This was a tutorial over at Little Big Girl Studio! Very good and very detailed directions!


In other notes, this coupon code is still good until Monday! Save 20% on your order from my Etsy shop using coupon code LOVE2011!

Sweethearts

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it is one of the very best for you and your's!

Here is a special gift from me to you! Use coupon code LOVE2011 to save 20% off of your order in my ETSY shop!

Meadowsweet Love

I am so in LOVE with Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet line of fabric. I bought a half yard bundle of Meadowsweet, and included in the bundle was splashy rose. I loved that fabric. So when she came out with Meadowsweet 2, I became even more in love with splashy rose in this colorway. I finally went a head and bought it. The colors are so pretty and so springy, you can't not fall in love!




I choose to make the 4 pocket tote with these fabrics. I love this tote, it is so simple, yet useful. There are 4 pockets on the outside and 3 on the inside. It closes with a magnetic snap and has just the right size of straps. Whenever I make a purse with this pattern it gets snapped right up out of the shop. The only reason I am not keeping this bag, is that I am going to try to make one that is a few inches larger! Having 2 kids, I don't think this will hold everything that I need to carry. I have these fabrics in mind for the one that I am going to make myself!



I bought the fabrics for Hawthorne Threads. I really love their shop! It is very easy to navigate and they have a great newsletter that they send out about once a week! The other plus is that they are located in New York. I live in New Jersey. I purchased the fabrics on Friday morning and had them in my mailbox on Monday afternoon. I only payed $2.50 for shipping and I had a tracking number! They have a really great selection of fabrics in their store! You should really check them out!

ACU BOHO BAG

So sorry it has been so long since my last post! I really have no excuse. I sit at the computer each morning and look at all the blogs that I follow, but do I post? Nope. Just nothing super interesting to post about. However, today I had a great sewing day! My husband is away for a few days, on TDY. So it has just been me and the kids. They have been great and have let me do many things!

Today I worked on a custom order. I had a lady contact me on Etsy and she wanted a ACU BOHO BAG with black lining. I was happy to do this because I have a lot of ACU fabric hanging around the house! I love being payed in fabric, it makes my day so great.



I was a little nervous because this is only the 2nd time making this bag. It is designed by ALI FOSTER. I won 3 of her patterns in a sewing contest. The bag has a beautiful braided strap, the only problem with this feature is that it is a little thick to sew on. The other thing that makes it a bit difficult is that it has curves and a gusset. Oh, and I also decided to add another layer of interfacing into that mix.




Talk about a thick, sturdy, georgeous bag! I did not have a single problem sewing this bag today. I took my time and relaxed! I knew I would have time this evening to sew it if I didn't finish this afternoon. I finished it in about 3 hours. My machine didn't fuse at me when I was sewing the strap on, didn't fuse when I was putting it all together. I didn't even have to use my seam ripper. Talk about a good afternoon of sewing!



Only wish I have would of been to have someone here to take a picture of me modeling it! I know I have a picture of me modeling it, but that was taken by my almost 4 year old daughter! She does a pretty good job!

I hope you had a great sewing day too!