Celebrate! Good Stitches

Back in March of this year, I joined the Joy circle for do Good Stitches.  Since then, I've made wonky star blocks, a Swoon block, patchwork wheels, star weaving blocks, and this past month I had my first attempt in paper piecing with these hot air balloon blocks.

I probably would have never taken the time to do any of these quilt blocks otherwise, and it was great trying them out with only a small time commitment.  I encourage any quilters out there to consider applying for one of these circles.  All the quilts are given to worthy charities or individuals struggling with an illness or loss.

It is optional to apply as a quilter, and originally I didn't plan to.  But there was an opening for one in the circle I wanted, so I went ahead.  Because of this, I was in charge of hosting two of the quilts for the Joy circle this past year.  This means that I get to pick the design, colors, and everyone sends their lovely blocks to me.  The first time I had everyone make simple string blocks in girly prints/colors.  I then used my Boxed Strings tutorial to assemble the blocks.

The second time, I had everyone use the Hugs & Kisses quilt block tutorial from Little Miss Shabby.  I changed the dimensions a bit, and everyone used boy prints/colors.

At the beginning of this month, I received an email from the host of the Do Good Stitches groups.  She is hosting a year-end celebration!  This is our chance to encourage each other to finish up our quilts and link them all up in one place.  There is also going to be a giveaway for any non-bee members to link up charity quilts, so anyone has a chance to win! Details are here.

quilted teapot cozies . . .

The Intrepid Thread sent me a stack of fat quarters from The Ladies Stitching Club line.  This line seemed perfect for some teapot cozies, so this week I tried a couple different styles.  I was trying to go for something less traditional, and I wanted the pieces to be quilted.

The first pot is a smaller one, and I used a wrap-around cuff style with matching trivet.  I love the dense quilting on this one, and had fun picking out a couple snaps to coordinate with it.

The second pot is a more traditional one, but I changed up the style of the ties, and did little belt loops instead of a casing.  The bottom is also a little more boxy than most teapot cozies, but I wanted to avoid gathering the top fabric to a circular bottom, because that would've been pretty tough with pre-quilted pieces.  This teapot cozy will be featured in an upcoming newsletter from The Intrepid Thread - if you'd like to receive it, you can sign up here.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

more fabric to play with . . .

I received three lovely packages of fabric in the mail!  First off is a prize from a giveaway at Doohikey Designs.  I plan to make a pillow with the Cottage Home's Lolly Dolly Pillow Tutorial  for a Christmas gift for my little girl.  I know she's going to love it!

Next is a stack of fat quarters from Andover Fabrics.  I had sent them in pictures of the Kindle cover I made and won a prize!  They have an ongoing contest on their blog right now - all you have to do is email them a picture of your project done in their fabrics for a chance to win!  They also sent me a reusable shopping bag (which I love and got lots of compliments on while shopping), and a big stack of Dimples charm squares.  Aren't they incredibly generous?!

And my last package of fabric was all wrapped up like a gift and from the Intrepid Thread.  I'm working on a tutorial for their newsletter with it so that's what I'll be busy working on this week . . .

it's Fall . . .

Getting my girls off to school in the dark this morning, the realization that Summer is officially behind us became suddenly clear.  We turned on our furnace a couple weeks ago, and I find myself in my fuzzy slippers daily now.  Pumpkin Patch fieldtrips are already done for the year, baking has become a regular activity around here, and this weekend we'll get to enjoy an extra hour of sleep.

My kids are settled into the new school year, often with inside recesses because of the rain.  The apple pies have been made, and fundraisers for Christmas have already begun.  Another flyer that came home from school was for the Germ Detectives program from Lysol®, reminding us that cold and flu season is upon us. This program reinforces healthy habits like hand-washing and knowing how germs are spread.  Let's hope it makes for less sick days this year and less laundry for this mama!

Disclosure: I am part of the Lysol® Healthy Families Ambassador Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

a baby quilt for the Bloggers Quilt Festival . . .

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
(Entry #524)

Finished quilt measures : 41" square

Quilted by : myself

Best Category : Baby Quilt, Scrap Quilt, Quilt Photography

(if you feel that my quilt would be a worthy nominee for one of these categories, 

you can make your nominations between Nov 1-4 at amyscreativeside.com)

A cousin of mine was given the gift of a sweet baby girl last week.  This cousin and I are the same age, and he has always been one to put a smile on my face, encourage me, and have a good time with.  I have so many great memories from my teens and twenties that include him, and am just thrilled that he now gets to be a Dad.  And I love making baby quilts, and literally got to work on this within hours of the birth announcement. The pattern is a lattice quilt with setting squares.  I couldn't find a tutorial online, so I worked out the measurements myself.  If anyone would like them, just email me at ourbusylittlebunch@hotmail.com.

I didn't have to do any shopping for this quilt - all the fabrics were already in my craft room either waiting for a project or leftover from another one.  The squares are a charm pack of Riley Blake's Happier and my scraps.  The setting squares are a fat quarter of Andover's dimples, the lattice is Kona Snow, the border is Riley Blake's Dainty Blossoms, the binding is a pink solid, and the backing is a super soft flannel from Lila Tueller.

When I trimmed the edges of the quilt, I kept a 1/4" past the points so that when the border was attached, none of the points were lost.

I made a bias binding for this quilt, and used Alisa's method for attaching it.  I was impressed at how quick and easy this was, and found the bias binding to be much easier to work with than straight-cut binding.  I will definitely be using this method again (and if you don't want to burn your thumb while making it like I did, Alisa has lots of beautiful pre-made bindings in her shop).

I'm thrilled to say that this was also a 'no-pins' quilt.  Because it's a pretty basic design, the squares lined up well and I didn't need to pin the rows when I put it together.  I also spray basted this one because it's still a little hard for me to crawl around and pin baste right now.  The quilting is just an all-over meander done on my sewing machine.

Thanks for looking!

Notepad Organizers . . .

After my recent surgery, a couple great friends took care of our kids for a few days.  I wanted to say 'thank-you' to them with something handmade, and after coming across this tutorial, decided on some notepad organizers.  I changed the measurements to fit a 5x8 pad of paper, and made the notepad pocket taller.  There's lots of pockets including a zippered one, and I had fun mixing up the prints from six different fat quarters.  I hope they like them!

Design team for Fabri-Quilt . . .

Fabri-Quilt is a fabric manufacturer of cotton prints, cotton solids, poplin, and converted nylon.  You can find all their fabric lines on their website, and they are coming out with new lines all the time.  They have put together a design team of four bloggers that will create projects and share the tutorials with you.  I am so excited that I have been chosen to be a part of this team!

The other three bloggers are Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks, Roseann at Rosebud's Cottage, and Christina at 2 Little Hooligans.

I have so many ideas of things I want to create, and can't wait to get started on this new endeavour!  I love sewing accessories and small projects, but also love to quilt.  If there is a specific type of item you would like to see me do a tutorial on, please let me know!  It might help me to narrow down my ideas :)

playing with fabric . . .

I've had so many ideas for new projects lately, but still don't have the energy to make them.  It seems that the biggest setback in my recovery is upper chest and back pain from the CO2 that they pumped in me for the surgery - has anyone else had this problem?  I'd love to know when it will start getting better . . .

But anyways, I wanted to show off some of the fabrics that I've been playing with in the meantime.  The fat quarter bundle above was purchased from a school fundraiser, it's from a local quilt shop.  The next two bundles of fat quarters are from my Secret Sister through the women in our church.  Didn't she completely SPOIL me?  I LOVE the prints and colours, and have a bunch of ideas of what to make with them.  I think I'll work on a couple small projects and accessories with them, and I'll definitely be making myself some things so I can enjoy them for a long time :)

a Kindle cover . . .

This past Saturday, I went to the ER with stomach pains, and was released a day later after an appendectomy.  So this past week has been a struggle with pain, medications, and trying to rest - but I am on the mend.  We have been blessed with family and friends that have helped us out - a couple friends took my kids for a few days, my Mom took my five-year old and nephew for the week (he was staying with us), and our church community is taking care of our meals.

I was hoping to finish up a quilt this week, but since I'm unable to crawl all over a quilt to baste it right now, I found a small small project to do instead - a Kindle cover.  My brother lent me his to read some books, and my Mom has the same one.  After seeing this tutorial, and since I had the Kindle to measure, I decided to make one for my Mom.

The fabrics were given to me by Andover and they are charms quartered into 2.5" squares.  I used the darker prints for the outside, and lighter ones for the inside.  The scrappy binding is also from the charms.  I had the buckle left from another project, and used a magnetic snap for the closure.  I hope she likes it!

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Sew & Tell Friday.

Double-sized Quilt - done!

I'm so happy to have this one checked off my list - my daughter has been waiting for this quilt for way too long!  I repainted her bedroom to white this past Summer which goes much better with this quilt than the old yellow covered in her sister's drawings.  I still hope to find some vinyl art or do some stencilling in her room.

The fabric was donated to me by a close friend, and it's from Pat Bravo's Spellbound line.  I searched for some matching yardage and ended up getting in contact with Pat Bravo herself to find it.  She lead me directly to the right source.  So now I have four prints waiting to be turned into curtains and some throw pillows.

The backing of the quilt is a fleece blanket that we found in a retail store.  I really don't like piecing backings, and my daughter insisted on something soft.  This blanket was a perfect match, and she loves it.

The quilting is an all-over meander, and in the bottom corner I quilted my daughter's name and a flower. This is something I've done in my other daughter's quilts too. Can you see it?  It's 'Elayna'.

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and amylouwhosews.

crocheted hats . . .

No, I didn't suddenly become an expert at crocheting.  But I wanted to share these adorable hats that my grandmother made for us last week.  Doesn't she do beautiful work?!  And after giving her some yarn and a pattern, she had three of them done in a day!  I love handmade, and 'Oma-made' is even more special!

A chance to win $$ for your school . . .

So it's already October . . . the leaves are changing and the mornings are cooler.  My girls are back in school, and I honestly thought that I would also be getting back to my hobbies.  I was wrong.  September brought a charity quilt project that kept me busy for a couple weeks, and then an apple pie fundraiser for my girls' school which I also played a part in organizing.  Being back to school has also brought field-trips,  seasonal colds, and one of my daughters also had her birthday party last week.  So, maybe October is supposed to slow down for me?

My husband and I were both put through a private Christian education, and my children are now in the same school system.  It has a lot of benefits - including the parents getting to be directly involved in the running of the school.  I have a position on our Ladies Aid board, which raises a lot of fundraising dollars throughout the year, and we get to decide what additional items to purchase for the kids and school with that money.

Lysol Canada is hosting a photo contest on Facebook - it's a chance to win $10,000 for the winner and $10,000 to the school of their choice!  All you have to do is upload a picture of your child or grandchild and make it go with the theme 'a child who touches everything'.  They already have some great pictures in their photo gallery to give you some ideas.

Disclosure: I am part of the Lysol® Healthy Families Ambassador Program by Mom Central. I received compensation as part of my affiliation with this group.  The opinions on this blog are my own.