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!

Throwback Thursday on a Saturday: The Beginning

It's that time of the month again! That's right, Jenn @ Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting another link up for Throwback Thursday!

I've talked about this crazy little mess before here, but I didn't share any pictures. It's quite a travesty, but it still holds a bit of charm for me. Points are decapitated more often than not. I had no guidance on how to make a binding, so I just winged it (seems I've had that mindset from the beginning! Lol). I didn't know you could machine quilt either when I made this, so I rushed a crappy hand quilting job to be done within the time period I was given.

This originally just sat on my bookcase, but after I moved out of my parents' house, it became a mat for my sewing machine. It kept my machine from bouncing around when we had a glass topped desk and now makes it easy to slide it around on the card table I use. When I made this, I never realized it was laying the groundwork for where I am now! It's funny how things work out! There's still a little bit of time to link up with Jenn for Throwback Thursday (it ends tomorrow night!), so hop on over and share some of your quilty past with us! 

Throwback Thursday...On a Friday?

Howdy y'all! Once again, I'm late on posting something, but better late than never, right? I have to be quick about this one because life is screaming down my neck at the moment, but I had to share something with y'all today, even if it was small. Jenn @ Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting Throwback Thursday again, so here's my contribution.

This is my first mini quilt! I made it after seeing a picture on Pinterest; it reminded me of LBC and I couldn't help but imitate the original maker. The blue fabrics were from a fat eighth bundle I snagged at Hobby Lobby and the rest were scraps from previous projects. I used Heat n' Bond to set all the shapes, then I stitched around all the edges. I used FMQ to draw the lines on the umbrella.

So what about you? Are you digging up an oldie but goodie to link up with Jenn's party too? You've still got a couple of days to join in the fun! 

Happy Monday y'all! I wasn't sure what to use for my first post, so I thought I would share a mini quilt that I finished not-too-long ago. This is my first try at improv piecing and I absolutely loved it! I got to channel one of my blogging favorites, Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, and dig into my growing scrap bins. It was a blast finding the perfect scraps and fitting them together like a puzzle.

Though it may seem silly, I'm especially proud of my mitered corners. I've made 8 or 9 projects and worked to get pretty corners on my binding and have never had much success. I worked so SO hard to change that with this project. I'm not one to brag, but man those are some sharp looking corners! ;)

I chose to make the word 'Hope' to remind myself that there's always something to hope for, even if it's in the middle of a crazy mixed up mess! :) I'm hoping to improve on photographing my projects, so please don't judge too harshly on this hastily snapped picture. Until next time, have a good day y'all!

-Jennifer