It's Official...

I'm nesting. But not in the normal sense of preparing everything for the baby's arrival. We are having another boy, so we already have all the boy cloths, misc baby gear, etc. So there's not much more to do for the baby. It's more to the effect of finishing up all my WIPs (works in progress) that have been shoved in the back of the closet for who knows how many years. Most of them are at least half finished so I've been burning through them pretty quickly.

So far I've completed 3 quilts and a tablecloth. I've got a couple more baby quilts to finish up and one larger project that is a bit of a surprise so that's all I'll reveal for now!

Yum.

Isn't this the most delicious colored binding? So glad I went with this instead of my usual red.

(Kona Cotton Chartreuse)

June's Fussy-cut Bee Block

June was Ryan's month and I absolutely loved all the fabrics he sent. I secretly just wanted to keep them all for myself! And I am totally jealous of his Munki fish.

He asked for free-style pieced blocks with the fussy-cut fish to be off centered, plus a little wonky. So that's what he got...or I at least tried to do!


Click here to see more blocks from the Fussy-cut Bee.

WOW!

I've heard so many people rave about how much they love the Fat Quarter Shop, but I hadnt had an opportunity to make any orders from them until yesterday. And all I have to say is WOW! I made my order yesterday at about 2:30pm and UPS dropped it on my door step at 10am this morning! That's right, less than 24 hours later! I could not believe it! (and I did not do expedited shipping.)

Not to mention the packaging. Everything comes wrapped so nicely with cute little Fat Quarter Shop stickers and ribbons.

Here's my loot:

These two came from the Sale section. I saw the first fabric and it caught my eye for some reason. Not my typical print. But then I realized it came from the same fabric line (Aster Manor) that I used for my long-forgotten-about Crazy Mom Star Quilt-Along (that I have yet to finish.) Well I whipped out my quilt-along fabrics and found that I, in fact, had never bought anything to use for the setting blocks. So this worked out perfect, especially since it was on sale!

And the second will be backing for a vintage-style quilt top that I just finished up.



But my most favorite part was receiving my supplies for the 2010 Designer Mystery Block of the Month. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to join. It's a little expensive for my taste and I was worried that it wasn't something that I'd totally love.


But after seeing the reveal of the first block, I was hooked. I've always wanted to make a Christmas quilt, but never found any fabric that I liked much. It was either too traditional or too novelty-ish. I almost used Figgy Pudding last year, but decided it just wasnt quite right. And when I saw Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas line come out this year, I still wasnt sure if it was right for me. That is until I saw the first Block of the Month...then I knew.

I mean, look at it. Is that not the cutest thing ever?! I have pretty high expectations for the rest of the blocks. Hopefully they live up to it and I end up loving the quilt!

You can check out the 12 Days of Christmas Flickr pool to see more completed blocks for the BOM and other projects using the fabric line.

It's not too late to join the Block of the Month! (and you dont have to order the backing or finishing quilt from them, since it's kinda expensive. You can just do your own thing.)

Appliqued Onesie

I've got soo many white onesies from when my first son was a baby and have decided to spiff them up a bit for baby #2. Appliqued onesies are so easy and cute. Here's a little tutorial for you on how I make them. (Im sure that there are about a thousand other ways to do it though.)

To start out, you'll need:
a onesie (dont be afraid to use a colored one)
a fabric cut-out to use for the applique (just a rough cut for now)
Wonder Under
light-weight iron-on interfacing



Take your rough cut applique piece and place it face down on the paper side of your Wonder Under. Trace around your shape. I like to use a sharpie, but pretty much any marking device would work. (Dont worry about getting ink along the edge of your applique since the edges will be getting trimmed.)


Cut out the shape you just drew on the Wonder Under, being sure to cut just inside of the lines (so there isnt any extra hanging over when we apply it to the fabric.)

Iron the rough side of the Wonder Under to the wrong side of the fabric applique piece using the directions listed on the Wonder Under. I usually just simplify it and hold the iron on the piece for about 10 seconds.

While the fabric is still a little warm, peel off the paper backing. (Sometimes the paper can be a bit tricky to get off. Try another quick iron to warm it up if you're having trouble.) Now you can trim down the edges of the fabric to exactly how you'd like your final applique to look.

Iron the applique piece to the front of the onesie. (A lot of people make the mistake of placing it too low and it ends up on the belly of the baby. I'd recommend putting it pretty close up to the neck line.) Technically you could be done at this point if you are in a super hurry. Wonder Under claims that you do not need to sew around the edge to anchor it down. I've never tested out that claim though.


Turn the onesie inside out. Cut a piece of interfacing that will cover the back side of the applique and reach 1/2" past all edges of the piece. This will stabilize the knit fabric when you sew it, so it wont pucker or pull.

This picture is really hard to see, but it's the onesie inside out. You can see the applique showing through from the front and a piece of interfacing has been ironed on.)

Now just flip the onesie back to right side out and stitch around the applique, approximately 1/8" from the edge, using matching thread or even clear thread (that's what I used on this one.)

And you're done! Now go make another!

There are so many great fabrics that you could use as cut-outs for the applique. This is also a great way to save a stained onesie from the trash! Or you could even place a new applique over an old printed store bought onesie that you are just plain tired of.

A friend of mine had a baby shower recently, and they actually made appliqued onesies at the shower! I thought that was such a genius idea. The hostess had some fabrics ready for the guests to choose from to use as their applique and they each just ironed their creation on to a onesie. Super quick and easy, and so cute! If the hostess is as neurotic as I am, she could go back later and stitch each one to make sure it's nice and anchored down.

to prairie point or not...

The Snippets quilt was my first time ever working with prairie points. For those of you not familiar with them, they make up the little triangle border seen below. They are not just triangles pieced into the quilt, but little folded pieces sewn into the quilt on only one side, giving a nice textural/3D effect to the quilt.

It's pretty impressive in my mind that all of the printed fabric (except the binding) came from ONE charm pack. It sure made this quilt pretty simple to assemble.

To make my prairie points, I cut a 5" charm square in half horizontally and vertically, giving me four 2.5" squares. Take one 2.5" square and fold it in half, creating a triangle shape (not rectangle) with wrong side together. Then fold again, creating an even smaller triangle. Now all your raw edges will be along one side of the folded triangle. Do this about a thousand times more to have enough triangles/prairie points to go all the way around your quilt.

Now here is my take on the prairie points. They take forever to cut and fold! So so long. Then you have to pin them in place along the border, making sure that they are all equidistant apart and fit perfectly along the length of the border (this took several attempts of pinning, unpinning, and re-pinning.) Again, this part also takes a really long time.

So basically, they take forever to make.

I think they really made this quilt and I wouldn't have done it any other way. But I'm not sure I love the way they look. The picture below is what they looked like after coming out of a wash/dry cycle...so wrinkled, squished, and puffy. I had to go through an iron them all down again. Definitely not something I'd want to do after every wash. Plus, ironing the prairie points down also means ironing down some of the nice crinkly quilting that you want to keep.

And lastly, the issue with quilting around them. I tried ever-so-slightly raising them up and quilting as close as I could, but that ended up being the worst idea. I tried really hard to not pull at the border fabric while doing this, but I didn't do as good of a job as I thought, seeing as how there is now a little extra bulk of fabric under the prairie points, making them poof up slightly.

I do love the effect prairie points give to a quilt. And I won't say that I'll never do them again. But if I do, the quilt will be one that is pretty important to me to spent the time a effort on them.

If there is a next time, there are a couple of things I'd do differently. First off, not quilt so close to them. Just quilt around them. And second, I would stitch in the ditch along the edge of the border (right on the seam where the prairie points are sewn in) to try and help keep them laying more flat.

All Star Mini Quilt

I had a bunch of long skinny strips leftover from my other two All Star quilts and wasnt quite sure what to do with all the tiny scraps. Im not very creative when it comes to using my scraps, so I went with the typical mini quilt.

Because it's so "scrappy" it became a little busy for my taste. I usually prefer quilts to have more negative space (i.e. areas of the quilt that give your eye rest or don't demand attention), like using solid borders and sashing. But this was made to be used and is not sentimental, so I don't really mind the busyness.

And I barely had enough to finish! The quilt back and binding had only inches to spare! It measures 18"x 21" approx.

This mini quilt is a little out of the ordinary though. It's the first anything that I've made for my immediate family to keep. No quilts, no baby bibs or burp cloths, no diapers and wipes cases, no nothing.

The plan is for this to be a changing pad for our new little boy arriving in September. Our place is pretty cramped right now and he will be in our room for quite a while. So this pad will be a great place to change diapers without worrying about getting our bed, his bed, or the floor dirty. Although, with little boys and their "accidents" during changing time, we may need a few more of these!

Verna Quilt

(fabric: Verna by Kate Spain for Moda)

I've had this quilt top done for months. Then my morning sickness got into full swing and there wasnt much sewing going on at all. It became one of those projects that sits and sits, waiting to be worked on. And when you finally do, it actually doesnt take all that long to finish. And then you wish you had finished it long ago.

It measures 42.5" x 57.5" and makes a great lap quilt, toddler bed quilt or baby quilt. Love it when they are so versatile! I can't get enough of all the bright, summery colors and would love for it to live in our home, but I just cant rationalize it. So it's up in the shop here!

And I just have to throw this one in. About half way through the photo shoot of the quilt, my little guy had a very exciting idea: "night night" time on the quilt. It was so cute how excited to got to lay on mommy's quilt. I love it when he shows his love for my quilts. At least one time, with every quilt I make, he will come over to it show how much he likes it (like saying "awww" and smile while running his hand over it, or giving it a big hug, etc.)