The Jayci Quilt: A Finish

Elvis is always up for a photobomb! And you can just see LBC's little paws on the upper right corner. :)

Hey y'all! I've been meaning to share this finished commission quilt for a while, but I have been so busy lately. I've been working like crazy, then I come home and work even more on commissions or other side jobs. Needless to say, I'm one exhausted girl! Even too tired for blogging! These pictures aren't the best either, I snapped them on my lunch break since I was delivering it to my Mom that evening, who delivered it to my client.

This quilt was commissioned after my Mom showed off the Isabella quilt at her work. A soon-to-be grandma wanted a quilt for her new grandbaby, a little baby girl! The mommy-to-be isn't a huge fan of pink, so it couldn't steal the show like it did for Isabella. Instead, her grandma and her friends picked out a cooler color palette. Their first choices weren't quite successful (not enough contrast and the colors were a bit 'meh') but after a few pointers, she went back and picked out some different fabrics and it was better!

I appliqued the name on the same way as I did before, using Heat n' Bond and stitching around the edges. I drew this font by hand also, which was fun!

I really should take the time to lay things out nicely, not just toss them on the couch and snap a pic. :P

For some reason, everybody loves this rainbow print. It's glittery and fun and makes for a neat backing, I think.

I really like this picture, but I can't figure out what my camera was focusing on. Lol.

The client also wanted to have the same quilting, so I got to make flowers again! I really like this quilting motif, it makes me so happy!

A bold binding and a simple label rounded things off nicely. I'm hoping my client and the future Momma are happy with this quilt like I am! :)

Pretty little label. :)

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Also, this is another project to mark off my 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long goal list!

Looks like Elvis is as tired as I am!

A Little Finish: A Charity Baby Quilt

Howdy y'all! I've got a finish to share this week! The Charity Quilt that you've seen bits and pieces of over the last month is finally finished! I had hoped to get some better pictures of it, but it has rained almost all week here so indoor pictures will have to do. :(

Fabric courtesy of Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation (I linked to her blog at the end of this post!)

This baby quilt started as a bundle of fabric I won in a giveaway. I love the cute little prints, but I never knew what to do with it. After hanging onto it for nearly a year, it finally hit me: a baby quilt! But for who?...To give away, of course!

Yes, I did do a quilt photo shoot on top of a dog kennel...it's been a long week!

This was just the mindless sewing I needed! Easy half square triangles, an easy layout, and easy quilting made for an all around soothing experience.

The backing is just the bigger cuts of leftover fabric, along with some smaller squares to make it a bit taller. It sort of makes it a reversible quilt!

The quilting is...I'm not entirely sure. It was inspired by some quilting I saw by Anja over at Anja Quilts. She says she hates actually quilting her quilts, but she's pretty darn good at it! This was a pretty quick and easy design, but I'm still not 100% sold on it. 

Even the binding was easy, which is insane for me! Lol. I love how scrappy the binding is! I almost used all of my scraps from these fabrics to make the binding, I'm so happy about that!
Now I just have to contact the local hospitals and see if any of them will take this quilt, along with some other things I've made! Have a happy Friday y'all!

My quilting helper *had* to do some quality control before this one gets lint rolled and ready for delivery! :)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

This finish is my goal for OMG April, I'm linking up just under the wire with this one! :)

Also, this is another finish for the Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long list, which you can see here!

Owl Tag Toy: A Finish

Howdy y'all! As hard I tried, I couldn't think of a clever owl-related pun for the title. Lol. I feel like I've been sewing up a storm lately (on the days I actually get to!) but don't have much progress to show. Today, however, I've got a finish to share!

Those wings are actually a little crinkly!

I was commissioned to make a tag toy for a baby. I didn't know much about these little things until I headed over to Pinterest and apparently these are awesome for babies. Or something. I'm not sure, but it was fun to make!

Snuggly owl belly! Love the little hearts on that white flannel

I was showed a picture of an owl tag toy from Etsy and was told to make something like it. So to the drawing board I went! I drafted a little pattern in no time at all (thank goodness for simple toys!). Things got a little fiddly at times as I was learning as I went, but after a prototype (and the surprise of ribbons being on the inside of the wings rather than the outside), I got this little bit of lovely put together!

I just want to snuggle into that minky fabric, so soft!

I hand embroidered the eyes and the beak is made out of the same ribbon as the 'feet'.

Lady owl has a beauty spot on her beak. :)

I tested out my tiny embroidery skills to make a label! I absolutely love it! It took a bit of extra time, but it's such a cute touch, I think it was worth it. :)

Tiny yet I love it!

From the sounds of things, I might be making a few more of these in the future! I thought of maybe making a tutorial for this if anybody was interested, so let me know in the comments if you would like to see a tutorial!

This is the first finish I can mark off my Quarter 2 Goals List for the Finish-A-Long!

Have a great week y'all! :)

Finish-A-Long: Quarter 2 Goals!

Shew, the second quarter of the year has begun! Which means it is time to start brainstorming and goal setting for the next 3 months! My fabric buying skidded to an impromptu stop earlier last quarter, but I still have fabric from my stash to work with so I'm going to keep sewing as much as the stash will let me! :) So here's my list, y'all. I'm placing my 'have to finish this quarter' goals first and the further down the list a goal is, the less pressing it is for it to be completed.

1.) Commission Baby Quilt

(Sorry, no picture yet!)

After finishing the Isabella Quilt, my Mom either took a picture or took the actual quilt to work and showed it off to her friends before popping it in the mail. Suddenly, everybody wants LBCQ to make them something! This order is for a quilt like the Isabella quilt with a different color palette. My client picked out the fabrics and after cutting them and laying them out, I didn't have a good feeling about it. My Mom came over and looked and agreed: it just wasn't working. So the fabric was sent back to my client to let her see and have the final say. If she likes it, I'll press forward. If not, some things will be swapped out before progress is made.

2.) Baby Tag Toy

So soft and fuzzy!

This is actually for the same person that wants the quilt I believe. They saw a cute little tag toy on Etsy and asked if I could make something similar. "Sure" was barely out of my mouth before most of the supplies showed up at my doorstep. I'm actually really looking forward to making this one, I think drafting a little pattern and trying something new will be fun!

3.) Charity Baby Quilt

You've seen a few peeks of this one lately. The top is all done and I'm hoping to possibly get started on piecing the backing today!

4.) Scrap Vortex Quilt

These blocks just keep coming back all the time, time to get them finished up!

I started these scrap vortex blocks a while back, back when Crazy Mom Quilts did a Quilt Along last year! I knew I wasn't going to make a whole quilt of these blocks, but I have a plan for how I want to do these. I think the Kona Coal is really going to make those scrappy blocks pop!

5.) Hexie Quilt

It's hard to tell that this fabric is white on white, but I think those hexies will look great against it. :)

These hexies are the product of a hurt back in February. I may have to make quite a few more before I can fiddle with the design in my head, but I have all the supplies (background and plenty of scraps for hexies!) to make this top come into existence. :)


6.) Alison Glass

I just want to hug this fabric all the time. The rainbow goodness is just fantastic!

You may remember that I got a fat quarter bundle of Alison Glass fabric for Christmas from my parents and I was absolutely over the moon about it! It sits proudly on my fabric shelf just waiting to be turned into a beauty. I actually have two pattern ideas in mind (and may be able to squeeze both of them out of this bundle!) but I haven't been able to get the Essex Linen I want for the first pattern. I'm still deciding on a background fabric for the second pattern, but until those fabrics magically find their way to my sewing room, this goal is a long loooooong shot. 

7.) Notched Baby Quilt

Seriously, check out that Notched tutoiral, the block is awesome!

I was a lucky blogger last year. I think I won 3 or 4 giveaways in all! One win was this bundle of solids that you may remember from a huge free block blog hop last summer. I have planned to make Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl's Notched Block using her free tutorial. I'm thinking I'll need more white fabric, but again, unless the fabric fairy pays me a visit, I may just get this one partially started.

Man, that seems like an overwhelming amount of goals, but I love having a game plan in place. And since there's no penalty for not meeting all the goals I set by the end of the quarter, there's no reason I can't shoot for the stars! :) I'm linking up with SloStudio for this quarter. Head on over and join the goal setting fun, there's plenty of chances to win some cool prizes and see some awesome projects! 

Throwback and Looking Forward

Howdy y'all, I've got a double post for you today! First up, I have an oldie but goodie to share for Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge. This is a continuation of 'quilts I made the kiddos for Christmas'. This one is the third I will have shared, called the Garrett quilt for my little cousin that received it. He is quite the pirate, so I knew right away that it had to involve pirates and all things ocean.

This one is quite busy also (this was before I learned about using neutrals and blenders to keep things calmed down), but it's just so fun! And I remember I loved doing this FMQ. I was shooting for ocean waves and I feel like this simple and quick design was spot on.

And I love this backing fabric! I randomly find bits of it in my scrap bins and it always makes me smile. :)

I've been a scrappy binder since the beginning! Those bits of red really pop!

After looking back, it only seems fitting to look forward now! I'm sure many of you are getting sick of reading everybody's goals and resolutions for the coming year, but I'm here to add another! (I'm actually one of those people who loves reading those posts, anybody else like that?) One thing I wanted to do this year was be more active with goal setting, so here's what I have planned for the next 3 months thanks to the Finish-A-Long link up, which you can see here!

My biggest goal is to get City Blocks completely finished - quilted, bound, and labeled! I've already started quilting it, so this one is on its way to being completed.

Next up is my Orange Peels! I just ordered some fabric for a backing thanks to a gift certificate I won on a linky party. I also snagged some Aurifil thread to try out, which excites me to no end! My plans for the Orange Peels is the same as City Blocks - completely finish her up!

My final goal was a bit harder because I wasn't totally sure where I wanted to go after these 2 WIP's, but I think I know what I want to do. I've got my Scrap Vortex blocks back up on the design wall and I want to do something fun with them. I don't want to make an entire quilt out of just scrappy blocks (not yet at least!), but I do want to make a quilt top out of the ones I have. So my goal is to get them pieced into a top, then finished up like all the rest!

I've made more since this picture was taken, but forgot to take a picture!

Three quilts in three months is quite ambitious for me, but I'm shooting for the moon since there isn't a penalty for not completing all my goals in the time limit. After all, if there is something left to do, there's always next quarter to wrap things up! :)