Keep Your Weinee Warm: A Baby Quilt!

Happy Friday, y'all! I'm excited to share my latest finish today! If you follow me on Instagram, you caught a sneak peek of this one.

A work friend of mine, who I lovingly call the Weiner Queen due to her love of weiner dogs, is having a baby boy soon. When she first announced she was pregnant, I knew right away that a quilt with wiener dogs was a must! It really was meant to be because the awesome pattern by Elizabeth Hartman came out not long after the gender reveal, giving me plenty of time before her baby shower.

The instructions for piecing the dogs were absolutely fantastic and I recommend this pattern 100%! There were a lot of pieces, but labeling my stacks with painter's tape and clover clips kept everything in order. Elizabeth is a fantastic pattern writer, I'm sure I'll be buying from her again!

I quilted a boxy meander all over, leaving the dogs untouched so they would be soft and have a little poof to them. I couldn't help but pet them when I was done! :)

I also made some bibs and burp cloths with the scraps. Having a matching set just sets this gift to a new level, don'tcha think?

I was so excited to gift this to my friend at her baby shower last weekend. I couldn't have been happier when she opened it and squealed before hugging it. Everybody oohed and aahed, but her happiness really made my quilty heart smile. The next day, she let me know it was already hanging on his crib, waiting for his arrival so baby and momma could snuggle in it. :)


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

Finish It Up Friday: Happy Mail and a Happy Pouch!

Howdy y'all! All the posts I tried to create the last couple of weeks have fallen flat as a flitter. It just wasn't working. Motivation to sit behind a computer and write blog posts has been low when it is so pretty outside! But then some happy mail came this week.

It all starts with a quilter. That's always how it starts, right? ;) This particular quilter is Svetlana over at s.o.t.a.k handmade. Svetlana is a fabulous pattern designer, quilter, and lately, fabric printer. She is probably best known for her unique pouches. Svetlana is one of those creators that has a distinct style - you can see a project and just know it's one of her creations. Anywho, after commenting on one of her posts, I got the surprise of her insisting on sending me some Clover Clips! I had never used them before and she had a box she wanted to send to a new home! :D

Quilters really are the nicest, most generous people in the world.

So later in the week, I got my happy mail. But there wasn't just the Clover Clips! There was also a charm pack (Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille) and a Sotak Kit! For those of you who don't know, a Sotak Kit is something Svetlana has put together so you can make your own pouch, Sotak-style! It includes all the fabric and odds and ends you need. Mine had waxed canvas, a linen for the lining, some of her printed fabric (!!!), a metal zipper, and the signature leather zipper pull. It also had instructions on how to make the pouch in a nifty little pamphlet.

I'm in love with her printed fabric!

My pouch making is pretty limited, but I dug right in and made this little beauty in no time! I had such fun working with new materials (waxed canvas is different but I love it!) and never felt lost in the instructions. And I got to use those new Clover Clips along the way!

This was my first time doing box corners on the bottom of a pouch, so it stands up on its own!

I know May is for Makers is past, but I believe wholeheartedly in cheering on our fellow makers all year around, so I wanted to shine the spotlight on Svetlana for being an awesome quilter/sewist and also for just being a lovely person. This bit of happy mail really turned my week around and got me at my sewing machine with happiness in my heart. And for that, I thank her with all the virtual hugs I can send her way! :)

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and NTT!

*Note: I was not paid or given any compensation for this review. In fact, I wasn't even asked to give it! I just wanted to share an awesome product with fellow sewing buddies who may want to make pouches as well. :)

Finish It Up Friday: Birthday Edition!

Pika-CHU!

What, two blog posts in a row?! That's right!! I finished up a little present for Mr. LBC this week since his birthday is Saturday. He's a huge gamer nerd and, like many of our generation, he still loves the Pokemon franchise. I think I hear the Pokemon theme song at least once per day in our house, my husband belting it out off key to the amusement of Elvis and LBC. While I was perusing Etsy for possible gifts, I stumbled across this awesome store that had this cool piece of geometric artwork of Pikachu, probably the most popular character in the entire series. As soon as I saw it, I saw a sewing project!

Fun doodles! It was like a puzzle in reverse. :)

So I got to brainstorming! I drew a rough sketch on a piece of paper and traced it onto some Heat n' Bond. I was a big dumb-dumb and forgot to mirror the image, but no harm in the end.

Stitching away!

After bonding it to the material, I laid out the pieces the way I wanted onto a big scrap of gray fabric and ironed them on. Then it was time to stitch all those shapes down!

This was the point I squealed in excitement because it actually looked like what I wanted!

Simple line of quilting to outline Pikachu.

I did a super simple line of quilting around the shape to let the design shine. Then I made a simple backing with some leftover flannel scraps I had.

Hullo little leopard pillow, do you like your new cover?

As you can see, I still haven't figured out the backing. Lol. I told my husband I can't keep the pillow from pooping out the back, which he got a kick out of. I MUST look up a tutorial so I get it right next time! Fun bit of info: That leopard pillow is actually from my childhood bedroom! I'm so glad to be able to make it useful again. :)

Mr. LBC loves that I called him a Pokemon Master. Lol. The things we do for love! Hahahaha

I also added a simple label, which Mr. LBC liked.

Linking up with NTT and Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday: The 'What Was I Thinking' Commission

Happy Wednesday y'all, though it's nearly gone by now! I've been working away all day, most of it at the clinic, then running errands with Mr. LBC, then upstairs to my sewing machine and this project when we got home. I started this on Sunday and basically every spare minute has been devoted to working on this. "Why?" you may be asking, when I've never been one to rush like this (except with the Supernova!). That's because I'm crazy! Hahaha

Who doesn't love an LBC glamour shot? LOL

My boss asked if I could make a baby quilt for somebody in her family before Christmas. It was already after Thanksgiving but I foolishly said YES! The parents of baby are big Legend of Zelda fans, so my boss requested something along those lines. She liked the pixel quilts she saw on Pinterest, so I found a design we both liked and started crunching numbers. I'm not a fan of math, but at least quilty math leads to sewing!

I bought a delicious stack of solids at Jo Ann's. Sadly, I couldn't get all Kona like I wanted, but time was of the essence and I needed fabric NOW! I started cutting 2.5 inch squares when I got home and laid them out on the floor since my design wall is occupied at the moment. What a battle it's been keeping Elvis and LBC out of the craft room and off the squares! Lol. I just finished sewing all the individual rows tonight, so next is ironing all those seams open and then sewing all the rows together into a top.

Being supervised. Lol. I was being as quiet as I could so I could lay out squares in peace. ;)

I'm sure plenty of people have thought of this, but I felt so smart when I came up with this idea for transporting squares from my 'design floor' to my sewing machine. I used an old cookie sheet, ruined by an old roommate but I couldn't bare to toss it out. I found it among my craft stuff not long before starting this project! I just put a row at a time on the cookie sheet and worked my way through them like words on a page, top left to right, moving down the pan. They helped me keep my chain pieced bits straight as I worked.

One row at a time fit perfectly on this little pan!

And the pan fit quite nicely beside my sewing machine!

Though I'm enjoying making this quilt, I can tell I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to meet such a tight deadline. I need to smack my optimistic side next time! Lol.

For those of you thinking LBC is an angel, this is the face he made when I told him to get off the squares. Lol. I came in to find piles of squares strung across the room the next morning and LBC sitting in his chair looking smug. Hahaha

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and NTT!

On the Design Wall: Orange Peels!

Howdy y'all, hope your Thursday is going well! I delivered Missed Punchline last week at my grandma and grandpa's 60th anniversary party. To my surprise, she absolutely loved it. :) She couldn't believe I was giving it to her and everybody was talking about how pretty/nice/etc. it was. She wrapped up in it when she got in the car to go home, so I say that it's a success!

After finishing Missed Punchline, I couldn't decide what to do next. I knew I should piece my backing for City Blocks, it's been sitting on the WIP pile for too long. But the onset of cold weather just made me want to curl up on the couch, not trek upstairs to the spare room where I keep my sewing machine. Passing through one day, I looked at my design wall and saw my Orange Peel blocks waiting patiently and decided to get my supplies out. I hadn't had an appointment in a while, so they've been sitting stagnant for a little while (here's the last time you saw them!).

I really need to consider a bigger design wall. Lol

So for the past week or so, I've been snuggling under my Supernova and stitching like crazy on orange peel blocks. I absolutely LOVE where these blocks are headed, it's such a fun design so far! Depending on the night, I've made anywhere from one to nine blocks in a night. I'm a slow hand stitcher, but I like to settle in nice and cozy and relax with it. I get to watch my favorite Youtubers and sew, what could be better? :)

Hope you guys have had a good week, we're almost to the weekend! A quick note: My camera broke before taking these pictures, so you may notice a change in the quality of my photos. I'm not sure when a replacement camera will make it into my hands, so please bear with me! And also, a mandatory picture of my favorite fur-boys. :)

Not quite best friends, but we can get close to each other without war breaking out. :)

Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday!