Famous Last Words....

Ugh. In my last post I said, "...it should go pretty fast. Nothing super complicated."

There is nothing but straight seams and easy cuts in this quilt. No half-square triangles, no angled cuts. If you are a beginning quilter, this would be perfect for you. Yet somehow I have had the most difficult time with this quilt and I can't blame it on anyone except me. So annoying!

 To begin, apparently I don't know what a 1/4" foot looks like.

The foot on the right is my 1/4" foot. The foot on the left is not. 

I'm not sure why, but after sewing together 5 sets of a jelly roll strip and a background strip (about 42" long) something told me my seam was too small. I got out my handy-dandy ruler and checked....YUP. Not a 1/4" seam like I thought.

That may look like a 1/4" seam....

...but it's not. It's a little short. Short is not good. 

I take out all five of the pairs I have sewed together and put on the RIGHT foot this time. I'm zooming along, sewing my pieces together and then I realize....the thread in my bobbin is out. I "sewed" the same five sets I had just taken out back together without realizing there was no bottom stitching. I'm not even sure how that's possible, but I totally did it.

Ok, re-wind my bobbin with more thread. Get ready to sew-for the third time-these lovely pieces of fabric together. 

Where's the cover to my bobbin?

Seriously--where is it? 

Earlier, a certain two-year-old son had been playing near me while I was trying to get things back together and I had seen a little hand reach up onto my sewing table--which is a big no-no in my house. 

You DO NOT touch Mama's sewing machine. 

I had also seen said two-year-old playing with something near the heating vent on the floor. 

Oh no. 

Please, please, please, please, please...don't be in the vent. 

Thankfully, it wasn't. However, it did take me about 24 hours to find it. 

When asked where it was my sweet little Bubba would say in his tiny little voice, "I don't know Mama. I find it." 

Ok. The correct foot is on the machine. The bobbin is threaded. Let's sew!

Again, I'm sewing those five sets together and don't think that maybe I should check them when I am done with each to make sure everything is going swimmingly. What else could go wrong? 

Looks like my tension is not where it should be. 

It's almost kind of pretty-like maybe I was trying to do some rouching. 

What's really sad is it didn't stop at just one. 

Happily, I finally got my act together and was able to put together the strips. I wish I could say that this was over the course of just an afternoon but I think it was more like three days-three frustrating days.

Happy little strips waiting to be cut. 

Onward and upward right? 

It can't get much worse. I mean, how many silly mistakes can I make in just one quilt? 

Uh oh......

Back to the Lottery!

Now that I have completed the projects I wanted to for the baby-or at least to the point of sending them off to be quilted-I am back to the lottery projects! You can see them all here, here and here.

WooHoo!

For those who are wondering, there is a tab on the website labeled, "The List." Very creative, I know. But it's the list I use to keep track of what's in the lottery. When I am ready to pick a new project, I use a random number generator found on the internet and that picks my next project from the lottery.

Anyway, the next project is.....

Another quilt!

I can't believe it; it's not that I don't like making them but it feels like I have made quite a few since the beginning of the year.

 I just went and looked through my posts since January and I really haven't made that many. I guess I was kind of hoping for something that didn't require me to stand at my cutting table for long stretches of time. I suppose that's the dark side of my lottery system-I don't always get what I want. 

Luckily, it is another jelly roll quilt-I love them so much-but it is my last one....until I buy another one!

It is for one of my sweet nieces and it should go pretty fast. Nothing super complicated-all straight seams and easy cuts. 

Here's the material I will be working with this time:

Happy fabrics for the happiest two-year-old I know!

I'll keep you posted and let's hope for smooth sailing!

Penant Wall Hanging

I'm not sure what exactly has gotten into me with this pregnancy--I have just been feeling really creative and have had lots of energy during the end of the second trimester and beginning of the third. Maybe she will be super creative, I don't know.

I first saw this quilt in Poulsbo, WA at Heirloom Quilts and loved it. I originally was going to do it for my son and make all the pennants in a nautical theme since that was his nursery theme. But......that never happened. Plus I found an awesome wall hanging for his room at a quilt store that went out of business, so that really worked out for me!

Instead, I made it for this baby. The theme for my oldest daughter's nursery was Peter Rabbit and my mom made some beautiful-absolutely gorgeous-curtains for her room. She also made a bumper and skirt for the crib which the new baby will use as well. Once I get those up, I will definitely post them because everybody should see just how talented my mom is and how gorgeous they are. For the new baby, I'm kind of going with a rainbow/Noah's ark/weather theme. I don't know. It all seems to go together and it makes me happy and that's all that matters, right?


The pattern for this quilt can be found in the book "Everyday Handmade." You can find it here on Amazon. The two women who wrote it have some really cute ideas.

That's a Jackalope stuffed animal, in case you were wondering

The pennants and clouds all cut out

I just love these fabrics!

Attaching the fusible interfacing I really like my shadow!

All the clouds and pennants cut out

Laying it out to make sure it hangs right

I can't get over just how cute the fabric is!

This is another quilt that has been sent to my husband's cousin to quilt for me as well. I thought about doing it myself but she will do such a great job and save me a lot of aggravation! I should get this and the baby quilt back from her by  the beginning of next month and I'll post updates.

That's it for the things I wanted to make for the baby. I'll go back to the lottery and see if I can squeeze in at least one more project before she makes her grand arrival!

Apologies and a Baby Mobile

My goal last week was to post four new items to the blog. If you weren't paying attention, that didn't happen. I was so proud of myself to have four new items to show all of you. But Tuesday of last week dawned and I realized that while I had been sewing and crafting to my heart's content, I had kind of let my house go. Now, this normally wouldn't be a problem but we were having guests come into town to stay with us that weekend and we were going to a wedding Friday night. All of a sudden getting my house in semi-working order became priority #1 over sewing, photography and blogging. Plus, it is getting harder to move as quickly as I want to as this sweet baby gets closer and closer to being born.

So, my apologies. 

But I do have a great craft to show you. And let me tell you, I am SO PROUD of this little gem for many, many reasons. 

First, there was no pattern for me to follow. I was inspired by a picture I saw -probably somewhere on Pinterest-and just started started playing around with ideas. 

Second, I was able to use supplies that I had laying around the house. The only thing I bought was a $1.49 spool of ribbon. I was also able to re-purpose something that usually we would throw out. 

Third, it turned out SO. DARN. CUTE.

I present to you: the baby's mobile!

Isn't it cute????

Here's what I started with

My workstation: the kitchen table

 I used some leftover felt from a project that I abandoned earlier this ear, plastic to make templates, scissors, a chalk pencil, scrap paper, and (not pictured) my iPad to trace a raindrop to make a template.

The templates

 You will notice when I originally started I was going to have raindrops hanging from the clouds but when I was sewing them together they didn't look all that awesome. They also kind of looked like teardrops which I wasn't really going for, so I switched it out for hearts.

Cloud

 I have another project to show you that uses clouds in it as well and used that template to make the clouds for the mobile.

Triangles for the sun. I used a bowl for the sun

Making the tent on top

 I was all done with this bad boy but it looked a little naked up top. I had taken apart the boats that had hung from my son's mobile and using that to hang the clouds and such. So, I looked at the tent topper (I have no idea what it is called) and kind of used that as a template to make the top for this mobile.

Hemming

 I kept on playing with the top to make it work. I hemmed it first and put it on the mobile; realized I needed to baste down the edges of the hem and then sewed a little diagonal hem about 1/2" from all four corners so the prongs of the mobile would fit inside.

Isn't it lovely?

I'm so stinking proud of that top. Plus, I think it really finishes it. 

Now, all I have to do is find the mechanism that attaches to the mobile that makes it turn and plays music. I know it's around here somewhere but if I can't find it, I think the baby will like it anyway. My son and daughter do; they keep on asking to get in the crib to play with it.

Yay! One more project done!

The Baby Quilt Top is Done!

If you have been following the blog you might know that my husband and I are expecting our third child this summer, a little girl! I started my own tradition where I have made baby quilts for each of the kids. I love the idea that they go to sleep each night wrapped in a blanket that I have made--although they usually don't start using them until they are a little older to have a blanket around them. The quilts I have made for my oldest daughter and son are dragged around everywhere-their newest thing is after breakfast to go get their "blankie" or "kee kee" from their  rooms and then lay on the couch and look at books after I have snuggled them into place. It's really super cute. Makes my heart melt.

I really should take a picture of them and post them on the site.

But back to this quilt. This quilt is HUGE, which I like since then she will be able to wrap herself in it  and pretend she is a shepherd, a princess, or anything else she wants and be nice and warm.

I had to get my husband to act as my model and hold up the quilt for me so I could get some good shots of it.

Even though they caused much gnashing of teeth, I love the mini pinwheels in all four corners!

My only real complaint with this quilt is I dislike that the white background fabric wrinkles so darn easily. If I had to do it over again I would have chosen one with a small pattern in it. But, as we all know, hindsight is always 20/20. 

I wasn't even going to attempt to quilt this one myself. Luckily, my husband's cousin has a long arm quilting machine and she has agreed to quilt it for me. Once I get it back from her I will post pictures of the final project!