Halloween Hexies: A Finish

My backyard fence may be my new photo backdrop from now on, it holds quilts quite nicely! :)

Y'all, it has been far too long! Renovating and moving into the house took over, as well as the new adventure of selling some homemade goodies at craft shows! But I have been sewing for fun a little bit and finally got around to photographing those finishes! Today was dreary and windy and my camera batteries were dead, so I had to use my phone. But the show must go on, right?!

The texture on this one is wonderful!

I love everything about this atypical Halloween quilt. I learned how to piece Y-seams and it was actually fun! And those Cotton+Steel prints are adorable. The cats are my favorite, though I bet you already guessed that! :) I quilted spider webs, spiders, and loops all over --- so much fun!

This quilt is actually fairly small, more baby sized than lap sized. I only had a fat quarter of each fabric, so supplies limited me from making a more functional-to-me size. The backing is a skeleton print from Jo Ann's and it's supposed to be glow in the dark! The binding is the same as the backing.

I'm not sure where this quilt will end up. I love it, but I may end up offering it to sell because I don't see it getting a lot of use in my home. We'll have to wait and see! Thanks for reading y'all, stay tuned for my Postcard From Sweden finish next time!

I'm a Terrible Blogger: A Finished Baby Quilt

Y'all, I've said it time and time again. I still can't figure out how so much time passes without me realizing it until I sit down and count up the days! My days have been full lately with house renovations, but we are nearing the finish line on indoor work (YAY!) and beginning outdoor repairs and replacements as the weather warms up.

During all this craziness, I made a baby quilt for a friend of mine! We were college buddies and roomies and she blames me for introducing her to her husband (guilty as charged!), so I was so excited when she told me she was expecting. :)

Momma requested a gender neutral quilt since the gender wasn't revealed until the shower or right before. She wanted green and purple (their favorite colors) and animals were a must! I used the Triangle Hexies pattern by Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. Such a lovely pattern, I recommend it! :)

Momma-to-be and I were Animal Science majors and share a love for all things sheep-y, so when I spotted the sheep flannel backing, I knew it was a must!

I wish we lived closer together, but after graduation, we both headed back to our hometowns, which are about 3 hours apart. I made the trip to her baby shower though because I wanted to give her this little quilt in person (and give her a long overdue hug!). She loved it! I'm happy to say that she had her baby girl this past week and both are doing great!


Have a good weekend y'all!

I Have Something to Say: An Ongoing Project

Hey y'all! It seems I blinked and nearly 2 months flew by. I've been busy sewing, but I can't share anything quite yet. Today though, I'm sharing a really personal project. To explain it, however, I feel like I need to go back a bit.

The past 8 months have been...surreal. There's been so much growth and learning and faith and all-around living. I left an unhealthy marriage and essentially started back at square one. I sorted through a lot of guilt and confusion. I struggled through loneliness and disappointment. I've learned to smile and laugh for real again. And I'm learning to speak. Really speak.


I know I can't be alone when I often put my thoughts under wraps. True to Southern hospitality, I'm asked, "How are you?" a lot. And for years and years, I've simply replied, "I'm fine." Even when my world was in shambles and the strongest thing on me was my shoelaces, I bit the inside of my cheek and managed the lie. Because who would want my burdens?

I learned though, when I was put to the fire, I would speak. During the hardest time of my life, the first thing I did was call my mother. I had something to say and dang it, I was going to finally say it. And months later, that idea stuck with me and inspired me. I've finally decided that I have something to say. What better way to say it than with quilts?


If you follow Jess @ Quilty Habit, you know she is really passionate about words on quilts and saying things that matter to you. Though my quilt is far less political, it was her that got the idea rolling that I could say what I wanted in the way I was most comfortable speaking.

I'm (Not) Fine is a piece inspired by my valley, my dark patch, my low point. Though it is in my rearview mirror, I was still coping when I planned this quilt. The entire process has taken nearly 6 months. I often worked on this when the house was empty because, frankly, it was heavy. Heavy on my heart, heavy on my mind. And working with that heaviness has lifted a weight off my shoulders.


The words are paper pieced, using patterns from a book called Quilt Talk. I can't remember the Kona colors except the pale blue/green, which is Ice Frappe I believe.
I listed many of the things I should have said rather than 'I'm fine' and free motion quilted them in the background with matching thread, causing them to nearly disappear. Only when you look, really look, can you read what's written.

This mini quilt is the most intentionally designed piece I've ever made. Never once did I leave anything to chance or just wing it --- I had every detail picked out from the beginning. Though that normally isn't my style, I couldn't imagine approaching this quilt any other way. I plan to make more quilts following the theme ' I Have Something to Say' and I encourage y'all to join me! It's both terrifying and liberating to bare yourself in fabric and thread and, I'm sure, you have something to say just as much as I do.

The Isabella Quilt: A Finish!

Mr. LBC's first appearance as quilt holder!

I'm so happy to be sharing this one with y'all! This quilt has had a lot of ups and downs, but here she is and I'm so proud of her!

Pretty in Pink!

The piecing went together easy-peasy with such a simple layout. My Mom actually helped pick out all these pink and grays. It was so fun having her input, she has a good eye for fabric. :)

My handwriting in real life is terrible but I managed to pull things together a bit for this! :)

 And I had fun coming up with a font that fit this top! Yay for Heat N' Bond and raw edge applique!

A rainbow striped back. I even managed to match up stripes so it looks seamless! :)

The texture on this one was so lovely, I love this FMQ motif. :)

As you may recall, quilting this thing was a nightmare. The first two-thirds or so did great; I was loving the flower motif and was zooming through things. But then the problems started. Thread kept snapping, needles kept breaking. I ended up in tears, praying my last needle didn't snap before finally finishing the last flower. I had a quilty miracle though when a new machine got passed onto me, free of charge! I plan on introducing it soon, but I will say it has served me well for putting the binding on and piecing some other blocks!

This shows off the backing, binding, and quilting quite well (though it doesn't show the glitter on the fabrics), as well as the lovely green grass that is growing like crazy now!

There were no special requests for a label, so I made a simple label with my name and LBC Quilting on it. I even managed to get it hand stitched on before the sun went down!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF @ Anja Quilts

For Paris, With Love: A Finished Baby Quilt!

Not so nice weather leads to an indoor photo shoot sadly!

Hey y'all, I have a finish for Finish it Up Friday Saturday and I'm excited to share it! This is the first of the baby quilt commissions I was given not long ago. You guys saw a sneak peek of the fabrics and everybody LOVED the Paris themed print. I can't take credit for it; my client brought it to me as a starting point! If I remember correctly, she and one of the relatives of the recipient went out looking for ideas and fell in love with this fabric. It's only fitting since the baby's name is...you guessed it, Paris!

Ready to be gifted to the mommy-to-be!

I had every intention of doing progress posts and blogging about this like usual. But that just didn't happen. I have been running around like crazy since this started it feels like and sadly, all you get is the finish post. The top went together super easy; I think I got almost the entire things cut and sewn while watching Fifty First Dates on Netflix!

Doggy photobomb!

Special instructions for this quilt was to have her name on the quilt. They were thinking the front, but I felt like that was going to be too busy. So we chatted back and forth and I suggested putting her name on the back the way I did on the front of the Ella and Garrett quilts. They trusted me, so I got to work! I loved using the font from that Paris fabric to make the name! I have terrible penmanship, but with quilting and a little inspiration, I can clean it up some! Lol.

So much texture with the loop-dee-do's!

I really had to mess with the contrast on this picture to make it barely visible, but I managed to fmq her name into the bottom corner!

Quilting this was both fun and a nightmare. I love FMQ loop-dee-do's and getting to add little hearts was a special treat. But my thread just kept snapping. Over. And over. And OVER. Thing is, this was the first time I tried FMQ with Aurifil thread. I was expecting it to be awesome because I've heard such good reviews about it. It did fine for piecing and I love the light grey color, so it wasn't a total bust, but I'm a bit disappointed in it.

 A scrappy binding! And some of the sharpest corners I've ever made on a binding. :)

I used leftovers from the front to make the binding. As I've said before, I'm not a pink fan, but the pink in the binding is probably my favorite pink print. And those grey dots just have a hint of sparkle!

And the label. I'm so glad I went a little more special on this label. I've cut out some of the names and whatnot for privacy sake, but I had my name and blog name, as well as the name of the family that commissioned it. But I loved getting to use the fabric with her name and the flower to make it more special!

I think he thought this was for him! Silly Elvis! Lol.

I've got one more commission to do, then it's back to my usual projects! Linking up with Finish it Up Friday!

4x7 Challenge Complete!

Can y'all believe that February has come and gone?! What a blur! I started out strong with the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs, but I'll admit I fizzled out towards the end. I was still getting some sewing done, but none of it was selfish sewing. I got work on those baby quilt commissions I mentioned last week. I'm having fun getting back to FMQ loop-dee-doo's!

A few hearts thrown in for fun too! 

I did make some selfish sewing purchases lately though! Some lovely Kona Coal and this interesting white on white text print are hopefully going to help me finish two different projects. I can't wait to get started on them!

Remember those scrap vortex blocks?!

That white is going to be a great background for those hexies!

I'm sad to see the end of the 4x7 Challenge, but it was so fun to have some motivation to sew for myself this month!

Finish It Up Friday: Saturday Edition!

Long time, no see y'all! I feel like I've been gone forever, but it's actually been around 2 weeks. I caught the end of the summer funk that seems to plague everybody around the time school starts. I was unlucky number three at work to get it! If I had gone to the doctor the first day I felt awful, I could have avoided a lot of pain and suffering, but if I'm anything, I'm stubborn. I refused to go to the doctor for several reasons, but in the end, I let Mr. LBC make me an appointment after 4 days of misery. After getting meds, a grilled cheese sandwich, and some much needed rest, I was back to basically functional in time for my weekend shift taking care of hospitalized animals at the clinic.

This past week I've been getting back to normal slowly, getting back to sewing in short spurts enough to get this finished! And not a moment too soon, the baby shower is today!! But I managed to get the binding on this baby quilt last night, so I had a little time to spare! ;) Speaking of binding, this binding went on smoother than any other I've done; in fact, I think it's the sharpest binding I've done so far! I ended up using flannel instead of cotton because I couldn't find the right shade of navy I wanted in the cottons that were available. I like how soft and cozy the flannel is though, I might make a habit of including it more often!

 I even remembered to put a little label on this one. Nothing fancy, but it's a start. :) I almost forgot about it, but I happened to see the fabric pen on my catch-all shelf as I was rounding my fourth corner! And wouldn't you know it, I didn't take a picture of the label during my photo session. *face palm*

 I even managed to make some burp cloths a la Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation's tutorial. I didn't follow it exactly, but it got the ball rolling for me. I even had time to snap pretty outside pics before wrapping it up!

What's funny is, my neighbor and her daughter came out as I was picking things up and getting ready to head back inside. As soon as she saw the quilt, she exclaimed, "Did you make that?!" After explaining I did, she and her daughter fawned over the quilt, going on about how lovely it was and what not. And they were shocked that I did the FMQ myself; they had never known somebody could do that on a domestic machine! The mother quilts some and she said she had always sent her quilts off to be quilted like that. I might have been steppin' a little lighter after they left, my quilting ego being thoroughly inflated after all their praise. LOL! I just loved that the mother was as thrilled as I was to find 'another quilter finally!'.

Happy Saturday y'all!

Finish It Up Friday: Follow Your Arrow Wherever It Points

Happy Friday y'all! Hope your week has gone well, mine hasn't been too shabby. I got to work a little bit on that lonely arrow block on Wednesday and Thursday night. I'm sad I didn't get better pictures, but by the time I was finished, daylight was long gone. This pillow is inspired by a song by Kacey Musgraves called Follow Your Arrow. The video and song are kind of silly, but I love the line I quilted onto the pillow.

This started out as a gift from my Mom. I use the word gift loosely because she was actually going to toss out this old throw pillow from her and Dad's bedroom. It got a mysterious, ugly orange stain on it and wasn't useful to her anymore. She knows I like refashioning and reusing stuff when I can, so she offered it to me before throwing it away. I gladly accepted and it sat in the closet forever until the lonely arrow block was made. I feel like the size and shape of the pillow fit the block perfectly!

I wanted to try some new quilting on this, but wasn't sure what. I looked online and found a darling little bird that I decided to try. I had to pick out the little head once because it was lopsided, but after fixing it, I think he turned out pretty well. :)

As you can see, I'm about a 1/4 inch too small on the back. :( It doesn't bother me enough to rip everything out and fix it since it is just going to be sitting on my couch with me and Little Black Cat. I'm just learning my lesson for next time so I can improve!

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