Pardon My French(ie): A Finish!

Happy Sunday, y'all! I hope your weekend has been fun and restful! The weather is beautiful in my little corner of KY today, but I couldn't help but stop and share this pillow I finished yesterday. My little cousin, Ella, is having a birthday next weekend and I realized, like I normally do, that time had slipped away and the party was nearly here and I was present-less!

Cue this pillow! Ella is French Bulldog crazy, especially since they got their own not long ago. So it only seemed proper to make her a little something with a Frenchie on it to celebrate her birthday. In fact, it looks like HER Frenchie! :)

I drew out my plan on a piece of paper the size of the pillow, making sure everything fit how I wanted. The overall layout was inspired by a picture of a Boston Terrier I found with a simple Google search. Then I used Heat n' Bond to applique the face onto the background fabric, straight stitching around the edges.

Like most of the fonts I've used in the past, I drew the letters out by hand. These were inspired by some scrapbooking stickers I saw, modified a bit to fit better in the space I had for her name.

I finished things up with an envelope backing and...IT ACTUALLY FIT! Y'all, this is the first time I've made a pillow cover that fits the pillow form! I was so ecstatic! I just did a quick search for tutorials on Pinterest beforehand and it paid off. :)

I still need to stick a little label somewhere if I can remember to, then it is ready to make a road trip this weekend! Thanks for reading y'all!

A Finished Commission: Spring has Sprung Laptop Bag!

Howdy y'all! Once again, time slipped away and I went a while without blogging again. But man, I've been sewing up a storm and having fun as the weather turns spring-like. And what better way to celebrate spring than with a bright, happy laptop bag?!


A work friend's mom saw some of my creations on Facebook and asked if I could make a bag for her laptop. Of course!

I was given free reign with design and fabric choices, which was surprisingly scary. I like having project guidelines when I'm creating for somebody else! But I persevered and I used this tutorial as a guideline to get started.

Rather than buy pre-quilted fabric, which is expensive and my Jo Ann's didn't have much variety, I simply quilted regular fabric with a layer of batting. I get serious heart eyes when looking at that gridwork of quilting. If you follow me on Instagram, you got a peek of my happiness as I discovered a seam guide (or at least I think it is, I still haven't checked the manual for sure) and used it to make a darn-near perfect grid of quilting without the hassle of taping or marking a bunch.

This was my first time buying hardware, but I only had eyes for that adorable zipper. Isn't it cute?! It added a bit of a hitch sewing it in; I had to make sure that cute little design didn't get sewn into the seam allowance, but it was worth the extra brain power! :)

I absolutely love the print for the lining. I used the yellow colorway of it in the Crown Royal Quilt and I'm pretty sure I would buy it in every color of the rainbow if I could. I just wrote on the lining with a fabric pen rather than sew in a label.

I've got some secret sewing in the works right now, but I've got some shareable sewing as well! I'm hoping to get to a point where I can share soon!

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! :)

Learning Something New!

Howdy y'all! I'm so excited to share what I've learned this past week!

You guessed it!

PAPER PIECING!!

That's right, I learned paper piecing and, even more shocking, I didn't hate it! I was actually a bit scared to try it out. I've read so many horror stories of how confusing and stressful it is and how people spend more time with their seam ripper than anything else. The funny thing is, none of those things happened. I barely had to use my seam ripper! I thought ahead and used solids so there wasn't a 'wrong side' of the fabric to fool with as I learned my basics.

Such pretty little points, makes my heart sing...

I used a free pattern from a blogger I follow, SLOstudio. She has some paper piecing patterns for free on her Craftsy page, you should check them out! I chose this one because it didn't seem too scary but was still interesting. I looked up a couple of videos on Youtube and decided to just dig in and give it a whirl.

Hello world!

And before I knew it, I had a finished block! I celebrated and continued on each evening until I had 4 blocks ready to be sewn together. They aren't perfect by any means, but I couldn't be happier with my first attempt at paper piecing.

I plan to get this one quilted soon, but I have no idea what to do with the quilting. Any suggestions?

I told LBC he needed a picture for the blog so he showed me his good side! :)

Thanks for reading, Happy Hump Day, y'all!

It's Good to Be Back

Howdy y'all, long time, no see, right? The month of May has been eerily silent here, both in posting and commenting. I wish I could say I've been busy sewing and creating and hadn't taken the time to share yet. Or even that I was making progress but nothing worth sharing yet. Honestly, though, heading into May, I was losing steam and just had to stop. I ran myself down to empty and it caught up to me, as it often does when I try to do too much for too long. I did the bare necessities to get by, then would hide under a quilt and just be. 

My desire to create was gone. Not forever, I knew that wasn't possible. But there wasn't an urge to play with fabric and tackle the WIP's I had planned to. I sewed a seam every few days or so, but it did nothing for me. So I would shut off my machine, whisper 'Maybe next time...", and retreat back to my quilt. Rather than force myself to sew miserably, I stepped back. Some days I cut fabric from a Craftsy kit I bought ages ago. I even started cutting into my Alison Glass fabric when I started feeling a bit more inspired. But for the most part, it was the same: Maybe next time.

Last night, I sat down and sewed. And my heart was happy. :)

It's good to be back, friends. Happy Sunday!

Finish It Up Friday: City Blocks Top Complete!

Happy Friday, friends! Another week is coming to a close and I can't wait for a weekend off. I managed to get this little booger finished up this week! I'll be honest, I'm glad to see this one done. Though these blocks were fun, they were time consuming and started feeling finicky. When a project stops being fun, I know it's time to wrap things up because I quilt for fun, not because I have to.

I ended up picking a seam on one of the columns to change the layout from 4 squares high to 3 squares high. Rather than make a 3x4 quilt and have to make quite a few more of those blocks, I decided on a nine-patch layout that wouldn't need anymore blocks. And you know, I'm super glad I did. It's not as big as I wanted, but the square layout has its charms. I like the few odd bits of white in the sashing as well, that was a good idea on SewKatieDid's part!

I'm not sure when I'll have a backing for this one, so for now it's on the 'to-quilt' pile which will hopefully be joined by another top soon! Thanks for stoppin' by y'all, have an awesome weekend! Linking up with NTT and Finish it Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday: Progress, Progress, Progress!

Happy Hump Day y'all, hope your day is going well! Today is the first day in forever that it hasn't rained (yet!), so I'm loving this sunshine even if I'm stuck inside at work all day. I've made some serious progress over the last week that I'm so excited to share!

First up is my newest quilt start. I've been toying with a name, which is always the hardest part for me to decide. I think these blocks look like a street map of a downtown area, so I was toying with something like 'City Blocks'. Any suggestions for names are welcome, leave them in the comments below! :)

Also, I managed to save the embarrassing block that was my first attempt at this new technique. It's far from perfect, like all the others, but I think it looks so much better than what it was. I'm so glad all the effort wasn't wasted!

There are four smaller blocks to each bigger block and I have two bigger blocks done so far. Just chuggin' along... :)

Next up is scrap vortex blocks! I worked on these a couple days this week and manage to get some bigger slabs put together! I've said it before, but these are such a blast to work on, I love it. I dug even further into my fabric and came up with some more cute novelty prints (that octopus had to be included at least once!).

Overall, I've had a blast sewing this week. I've barely used my seam ripper and I've been getting off work early enough to actually get settled in and sew before it's time to head to bed. Hopefully the rest of the week keeps playing the same tune!

Linking up with NTT after I get off work this evening!

Driving the Struggle Bus This Week

Hey y'all. As dramatic as it sounds, I'm surprised I made it to Friday. Work has been absolute madness with being understaffed and completely booked up and life in general has been crazy. But enough about life, let's talk about quilting. On Thursday, I was able to run to Jo Ann's and get fabric for my next project, which meant I had to actually decide what I was making. I really liked the Snowball quilt that I showed in my last post, but I had to be realistic; I needed more time and more money to be able to gather all the fabrics it called for. Maybe in the future I'll get to do it, but not this time. My second favorite was the Fresh Cut quilt, the last in my post that didn't make it into Quilting Modern.

Check out Sew Katie Did for a look at all her awesome quilts!

Rather than go with the original colors, I swapped out for a more vibrant blue (Kona turquoise, I think?) and a bold red (Kona, but I can't remember what sadly.) I stuck with Kona white for the neutral. My Jo Ann's is a little sparse with stocking Kona's, but I'm happy with the colors I got. I also snagged some red and blue thread for quilting, a first for me! Before now, I've always quilted in white or gray. It's time to branch out and try new things though.

I've already started cutting some, but progress will be slow for a day or so. I woke up sick this morning, so I'm wrapped up in the Supernova and praying for the ickies to get the heck out of my body. Speaking of slow progress, I got some more work done on my Scrap Vortex block. I put them up on my design wall in hopes that they would brighten things up (and my orange peels kept falling off, so I retired them to my fabric bookcase for now).

 So my only finish this week was deciding on my next project and buying supplies. Not much, but beggars can't be choosers, right? I hope everybody has a fun, healthy weekend, thanks for stoppin' by y'all.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Where to Next?

After finishing my Supernova, I took a few days of piddling around to recharge. I fiddled with my scrap vortex stuff, but I didn't start something else right away on purpose. As much as I love sewing and quilting, I don't want to burn myself out. I took some time to read and think about where to go to next.

I'm pretty new at quilting. Unlike some, I'm still trying to figure out where I am with it. Some are strictly modern, some are strictly traditional. I have a feeling I'm somewhere in between, though I do like modern designs a bit better I think. So I've been browsing through a couple of quilting books from the library (I had to resist checking out Quilting Modern again! Lol).

The first book is called Quilting Happiness. There are a lot of ideas about being happy with sewing, finding inspiration, and other creativity ideas. I checked it out more for the patterns, but it has still be a fun read. There are actually several patterns I like out of this one! These two are my favorites I think. :)

I really like this take on a star quilt! The varying sizes really sold me on this one, as well as that gorgeous quilting!

The thought of sewing curves sort of terrifies me, but that's sort of why I want to do it. Snowball quilts are really interesting and pretty, I'd love to tackle one after I buck up and go for it. :)

The second book is called Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe. I was actually excited to find this one because there were a few names I recognized right off the bat (Cluck Cluck Sew and Blue Elephant Stitches!) There were some pretty cool quilts in this one, but I narrowed down my current interest to these.

RAINBOW QUILT. Need I say more? Lol. I love colorful quilts! And I need to work on my HST game and get better at matching points. 

I could see this one as a rainbow quilt as well, but it feels a lot more controlled and contained than the craziness that is in the HST quilt. 

Check out Sew Katie Did to see all of the awesome quilts she makes!

And I also found a pattern from one of the author's of Quilting Modern. It was actually supposed to be in the book but was cut before publishing. When I saw it on Sew Katie Did's blog, I loved it right away, but I agreed with what she said: It's an odd shape. I would definitely add another column at the very least. And as luck would have it, she shared a link so that the pattern can be downloaded for FREE! Woooooohooooo! I could see this quilt in the original turquoise and orange, or I could see switching out the orange for a red maybe?

So what do you guys think? I'm still up in the air on where to head from here. I want to challenge yet enjoy myself. I want to have fun picking fabrics (even if it stresses me out sometimes). And most of all, I want a quilt that I'll love to snuggle under. :)

WIP Wednesday: The Home Stretch

Hump Day once again, y'all! I'm sure you guys are tired of seeing/reading about my Supernova quilt. That's one of the curses of working on the same quilt until it's done before starting a new one. :P I'm loving working on it though! I've had a blast every step of the way (except basting, of course. YUCK!). I really like improv piecing and I'm looking forward to a lot more of it in my quilting future. So quilting this beast has actually been fun! I was worried about wrestling it all over the place and what not, but it has been surprisingly cooperative (knock on wood, I'm still not done! Lol).

So here's a sneak peek of a little bit of the FMQ I've done. I've never done swirl-thingy-majigs, but after a quick Pinterest search, I was zooming through them! You can tell when my hands got shaky, especially on the blue parts, but overall, I'm happy with the results. :)

I did sort of start a new quilt this week though! I've jumped on the bandwagon for the Scrap Vortex along over at Crazy Mom Quilts. I wasn't feeling the best the other day, but I reallllllllly wanted to sew some. I didn't feel like I had the energy or the focus to quilt on the Supernova, so I just started grabbing scraps out of my bins and sewing them together. I made a nice little pile in no time at all! I don't have enough scraps to make a whole quilt (at least I don't think I do), but I can make it a work in progress and keep adding as I make more scraps. :)

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Finish It Up Friday: A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That...

Happy Friday y'all! I'm glad to see the end of this week, it's been a bit crazy around these parts! I've got several things to share today, so buckle up for the ride!

A little wee basket

First off, I made a little QAYG basket earlier this week before I got the supplies to continue with my Supernova quilt. I just dug through the scraps from making the top and just cut and pieced some squares. I used this tutorial as a guide, but of course I didn't follow it close so it ended up a little wonky. Lessons learned, I assure you. :) I've decided to toss my basting pins in it as I'm quilting since I didn't have a real container for them before.

Next up, a picture I thought was kind of funny. My little fold out table is being completely swallowed by the Supernova!! I've got my first 'round' of quilting done, starting in the center and radiating outward. I'm not sure what to do for the next layer, but I've got a full shift at work tomorrow and a high school graduation to sit through, so I'll hopefully have some time to ruminate over some ideas.

And last is sort of a finish. When I pull in to my apartment complex, I have to pass by the mailboxes and the dumpster area. I glanced over and, lo and behold, I saw this shelf sitting by the dumpster. A perfectly good bookshelf just being tossed out, it's madness! I parked and tossed my stuff on the kitchen table before running off to get my latest find. A quick wipe down with some pledge and this shelf was as good as new! I've stacked all of my fabric on it, amongst other things. As you can see by the chaos, I've essentially tossed all the Supernova fabric and backing leftovers, as well as my most recent fabric purchases, on top.  I'm not sure how I'll organize it, but it gets most everything out of the floor, which I'm thankful for. :)

That gawky Christmas box is holding all my Supernova scraps until I'm ready to sort them into the proper baskets!

If you stuck around this long, thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! Hopefully I'll get some major quilting done on Supernova by this time next week! Linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday: Supernova Progress!

 Hump Day once again, y'all! I'm so happy to announce that all the Supernova blocks have been pieced! I don't know how it happened, but I was finding little snippets everyday where I could sneak off to my sewing space for a while and piece...and piece...and piece some more! By the time this gets posted, the top should already be partially done and will hopefully be finished by the end of the week.*ETA: I actually got a few columns sewn together before I took progress pictures, so you get a teeny-tiny sneak peek if you can overlook my filthy floor. :P

I had all the squares stacked up so nice and pretty, everything organized just right...then I started piecing the top and it looks like a hurricane blew through and knocked them everywhere! I barely tidied them up before snapping this picture, but I wish I had vacuumed all those stray threads and scraps out of the floor! Lol.Even my seat cushion ended up in the floor, though I'm not entirely sure how...

Thanks for stopping by y'all, have a great week! Linking up with WIP Wednesday.