Double Trouble: Two Finishes for the Price of One!

Howdy y'all! Hope this weekend is treating you well! Today, I have not one, but TWO finishes to share with you. I finished binding these two minis last night and despite the forecast for rain, the sun stayed out for me to get them photographed. :)

Double the minis, double the fun!

These two minis are my first two tries at paper piecing and what fun I've had! I love having a new skill in my quilting tool belt, it opens up so many more doors. I definitely got acquainted with my seam ripper, but I never felt overwhelmed figuring these out.

All I can think about is bumblebees when I look at this. Lol.

The first one is the pattern from SloStudio that I shared with y'all last week. I ended up quilting around the edges of the black areas with black thread - I didn't want to distract from the piecing I worked so hard on!

And it was fate to have that black binding because I found a leftover piece of black binding from something I sewed for my Mom. It looks sharp and frames it so well!

Why hello there, Little Mermaid!

Next is my pride and joy. I found the pattern for The Warsaw Mermaid on Craftsy a while back and saved it despite it being a paper piecing pattern. Some day is what I thought as I filed it away. Well some day ended up being this week! As I was going through my fabric, I noticed that I had the perfect colors for a Little Mermaid and I remembered this pattern.

"NOW! RIGHT NOW!"

I absolutely adore her hair!

So I scrambled to print the pattern and get started. On this one, I took a note out of Jenn @ A Quarter Inch From the Edge's book and colored the pattern pieces according to what fabric went where. It was such an easy thing to do, but such a lifesaver!

This one sat and marinated for a little as I tried to figure out what to bind it with. Nothing fit. I was afraid of ruining my hard work with a crappy binding job. Then, yesterday evening, it hit me - I didn't need a binding! I found this tutorial by Red Pepper Quilts and finished it via the birthing method. It's not quite as neat as I wanted, but for a first try, I'm happy with it. :)

A happy little pair to add to the wall of minis!

I already have plans to make some more mermaids (there are a couple of little girls in my family that LOVE Ariel), so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them before Christmas time!

I was playing with my camera and LBC was cooperative for once! :)

Sunday Stash: Retail Therapy

Happy Sunday y'all! Last weekend when I was feeling sick, I happened to stumble upon an ad on Facebook. It was advertising a big sale on Craftsy. I've never bought anything on Craftsy before this, mainly due to budget. But this sale was phenomenal! It took some narrowing down, but I finally decided on a quilt kit: Miss Kate's Turnover. This kit originally sold for $125 (!!!), but I snagged it for $46-ish dollars AFTER taxes and shipping. I couldn't believe it!

I've never bought a quilt kit before, so for some silly reason, I was really excited! When it came in the mail (as a side note, Craftsy has the most colorful, fun shipping envelopes ever. Lol), I was thrilled with all of the pretty fabrics. My pictures are a bit less vibrant than the actual fabric, but let me tell you, they're scrumptious. It actually took me a few days to take off the Moda ribbon, it was just too darn pretty to mess up! Hahaha

I'm not usually big on floral fabrics, especially big, obvious florals. But I love every single fabric in this kit. I can't wait to get started on this quilt and work with such awesome fabrics! And I like that this pattern looks like it has curves, but a closer look reveals that there aren't any. I do want to work on curves eventually, but it is sort of a relief that this won't be the quilt I do them on.

LBC sees the camera and can't help but get in a shot or two. ;)

What about you guys? Any fun fabric finds this week? I'd love to see/hear about them, enjoy the rest of your weekend!