Purse #1 done!

Well, hello! I know i haven't blogged in way too long, but it has been a very fun couple of days and figured i would tell you a little about it! :D School keeps me so busy that i haven't had a chance to do much sewing! But, Sunday i got together with 3 of my sewing-enabled friends and started on a purse! It wasn't one that was on my summer to-do list, but at least i now have an adorable purse!

So, i got Amy Butler's Style Stitches in January and have been wanting to make a purse out of it for EVER! One of my summer projects was a different purse from the same book, but i didn't want to start in the hard section and went with intermediate instead. Some of the directions were a little confusing, but i was able to figure them out with minimal annoyance ;)

So, i went to the Sister's Quilt Show on Saturday and it was a blast! There were so many quilts and i love the Stitchin' Post (a little quilt shop in Sisters, Oregon co-owned by Valori Wells). Anyway, i bought this wonderful Valori Wells fabric at the sale they were having on quilt show day :) I had to make something with it, so after i got home, i looked through my purse books and figured out what i needed, then stopped by a little fabric store in my neck of the woods and picked up a coordinating solid. Then came home and got to work! I used a coordinating pink thread to do some stitching around the outside and give it some interest :)

I started last night and got it all cut out and started sewing. It turned out bigger than i thought, but i think it's a good size for everyday. Plus, if i go to the movies, i can totally fit a 20 oz. soda and some candy in it! :D

I am also glad it lays well. As i was sewing it, i was scared it wouldn't lay right and look weird, but it's adorable! I might need to go to the store just to be able to use it!

I will post pictures of the Quilt Show within the next day or so... there are a lot of pictures, so i will go through and post a few of my favorites ;)
Hope you all have a wonderful day! Hope it's sunny and beautiful!
Holly

Vacation...

So, I am on vacation visiting family until monday. I was showing some pictures of my projects to my mom and came across a little bag I made for a friend. Her nickname is Bug, so every time I see something with lady bugs on it, I think of her! This was a quick and easy pattern. I can't remember who the pattern was by, but it's a good one! I ended up taking the pattern and tracing it on some quilt block plastic so it would stay good and then I can cut it out with a rotary cutter! Yay! So, anyway, here are the pics of it:
Here's the front

And the back (I ran out of polka dots, but I like how it turned out!)

And this is why I ran out of polka dots, I cut the inside before the outside :D

And here it is all finished and looking adorable!

I have one more cut all the way out, it just needs to be sewed up! It's a green polka dot and poppy print, if I remember right :) Super cute! And perfect for summer... I better dig it out and get it finished! I'll add that to my summer list!

So, when I get a chance to blog again, I finished the Abbey bag (pin cushion with bag) for my friend that was on my summer list, so I will post pics of that! They need to be uploaded and then I can blog about that ;)

Well, I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of Summer! Maybe it will get warm, yet!
Holly

Baby quilt...

So, I haven't had a chance to sew with finals and now I'm sick :( But I wanted to post some pictures of the quilt I made for my best friend's new baby. She gave me free reign over the fabrics and wanted it to be a surprise, so all she knew was that she was getting a quilt :)

So, with free reign, I found the cutest materials! I went with a jungle theme, with yellow, blue, and brown. Here are a couple of the squares:

I picked out all the fabric and got it all at once. I knew the squares I wanted to do, but I didn't know exactly how all the fabrics would go together... but I think it worked really well:

It was a little bit of a process, but I got it! I had to cut the squares smaller than I had originally planned because I made some wrong cuts, too small. But I'm glad that I did, otherwise, the quilt would have turned out way to big! Here it is when I laid it all out:

After looking at it, I knew I had to do a sashing, it just looked like too much and needed to be broken up. I had to lay it all out with the different fabrics that I had to choose from for the sashing. I bought a lot of extra fabrics and was glad to be able to use another one of them :)

The finished quilt was about 45x45 inches. Here's the topper:

Both of the quilts I've made turned out so much bigger than anticipated, I guess I need to plan a little better in the future! :D Here is the finished quilt:

Here it is up close, the baby's name is Trent :) If you look close at the quilting, it is little elephants quilted in it! So cute!

I don't have a picture of the back, but this is the fabric I used. The minky is so soft and wonderful! I had more than enough to make this cute little elephant!

I hope you like it! I'm done with quilts for a little while, but maybe after I get some of my other projects done I'll start up again ;)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Holly

More of Grandma's quilt...

I have been so busy the past few weeks! Sorry I haven't posted, but I really haven't sewn anything since my curtains :( I had to make a 3 hour trip for a false alarm (my best friend thought she was in labor... turns out he's not ready to come out, he's quite content where he is!), that was last weekend, plus I spent a lot of time with my parents since I hadn't seen them in a while. I've also been way too busy with school work! Believe me, the Health Info Tech field is a ton of work and time, but it will be worth it in the end (at least that is what I keep telling myself!). I have one week before finals and I am so not ready for it! I also started a jazzercise class to whip myself into shape, hopefully all the hard work will pay off! Anyway, that's what I have been up to. Nothing too fun :P

So, I happened to open a folder on my computer the other day that had more pictures of grandma's quilt, and since the ones I posted weren't the best, I figured I would post these! And I do have a picture of the back of it! Yay!

Here it is:

Here is a picture of the back, I love it!

I totally forgot I had those! But I am glad I found them :) Hope you enjoy! I am not sure when I will be able to post next, but hopefully it will be soon!

Have a fabulous day all!
Holly

Summer project 1 finished! Well, kinda...

So, I was really in a mood to sew when I got back from class today. I've had a hard, and emotional weekend and really wanted some "me" time. So, I got home, made a sandwich, and turned on some HGTV (I am addicted and I am in love with David Bromstad, if he was straight my husband would have some major competition, lol!!). If I don't eat before I sew, I will forget and get physically sick. Plus, I have to have some background noise.

Anyway, I decided to start on the curtains, the easiest of my projects. So, I pulled out my fabric, iron, scissors, and machine and off I went! It took me about 3 hours to make them with ironing, cutting some by hand, re-threading my bobbin and measuring and remeasuring, but it was so nice to start and finish a project in one sitting! It has been sooo long since I have been able to do that! (In reality, I should have worked on homework... but, like I said, I was in desperate need of "me" time!)

After I finished the curtains, I went to hang them up... Now, these curtains are hanging on the door to my sewing room. The doors are beautiful, and have glass panes, but unfortunately, since it is also our guest room, our guests don't have much privacy. Light bulb! Well, I thought I had enough to cover both doors, and when I measured, I knew it would be tight. I just didn't realize how tight until I went to hang them...

So, comes the "well, kinda" part of the title of my blog. What I ended up doing was Putting both panels on one rod to give it a little fullness and cover the panes completely. It looks great! But, now I have to go buy 4 more hooks, 2 more rods, 2 more yards of each fabric, and do it all again... At least this last time I won't have to sew 2 different panels, so that will save some time! Lol, live and learn ;)

So, here is the finished product:
From inside my sewing room looking into the hall (see my snoopy kitties outside the door? Hehe!):

From the hall:

The good thing is that I got the fabric from Wal-Mart, so it's cheap and should only cost about $15 for all the supplies. I don't usually buy fabric from there, since it's not very good quality, but for this, I didn't want to spend too much. Now, I am really glad I decided to do that! Next on my to-do list is the Abbey bag (pin cushion with bag) for my friend. Who knows when I will get the time, but I will make it work ;)

Hope you all had a great day! It snowed here and then turned to sunshine, I love having all 4 seasons here, but really?! Snow?! Lol!
Holly

Summer sewing projects...

So, I've been thinking of things I want to accomplish this summer and there are so many things, I wasn't sure where to start. So, I've been looking at other's blogs and thinking hard. Then, some friends and I decided to do a quilt run around the area, stopped at all 8 places (160 miles round trip) and spent too much money on fabrics. I am now ready to get my list together.

I, however, am not much for quilting. The 2 that I have done are good for right now. I am way into purses and the like. I also like making aprons, clutches, and almost anything that is functional and useful.

With that said, here is my summer project list:

1. I got this awesome canvas-like material on sale and want to make a messenger bag with it for my school books and things (since I am a full-time student). I love the different patterns and think they will look great together once I figure out exactly what I want to do:

2. On our quilt run, I found this wonderful pine cone fabric and wanted to make my mom something with it. I finally decided on some place mats. She uses place mats for every meal and loves to decorate around them. So, I found the coordinating fabrics and want to get them done as a late mother's day gift. Plus, she loves pine cones and they live in a log house, how perfect:

3. Okay, I've had this amazing guitar fabric for a while now and needed something to put with it to make a small clutch/wristlet... and I found it! I saw this guitar pick fabric at our quilt run as well, and had to get it! Plus, I got the polka dot material for free from one of the fabric stores:

4. While at Hancock fabrics (in the midst of a huge sale) I caught sight of this fabric and had to get it. For $5 a yard, how could I pass it up? I didn't know what I wanted to make, but then decided to make it into a bag for projects, or even for an overnight stay or carry-on. I really like the old-fashioned look of it. Plus, I don't think there is such a thing as too many bags:

5. Now, this fabric I spotted as I was leaving a fabric store and absolutely was not leaving the store without it! I fell in love and couldn't imagine a life without it! :D I've always wanted a sewing apron and figured this was the perfect material to make it with, plus the turquoise sewing needle fabric for pockets and a tie... How adorable is that going to be?! Yeah, I know:

6. This project I have been meaning to start for quite some time, but have been so busy with school, that I haven't started it yet. It is the simplest of them all, curtains for my sewing room. The doors to my sewing room are glass paned and so you can see right through them. Since, it also doubles as a guest room, I have been wanting to add curtains to the door to give more privacy. I am doing the dark blue on the side that will show in the hallway and the black and white will show in the room:

7. I also have 3 Abbey bags (the pincushion with a bag attached for scraps and thread) to make for me and 2 of my friends. The first one I have the fabric for and the other 2 I am not sure what I am going to use. So, I am just posting the fabric for the first one:

I'm sure as the summer starts and ends, there will be more to work on and keep me busy! But, for now, this is my list. What is everyone else working on? Let me know! I can always use ideas and love hearing what others are up to! :)
Have a great Friday!
Holly

First finished quilt... for Grandma!

So tired and yet so awake :P
I figured now was as good a time as any to post pics of my first finished quilt, which was for my husband's grandma :)I finished and quilted it myself (very basic, stitch-in-the-ditch around the squares, nothing fancy) in about 2 1/2 months. I decided after that i was never quilting myself again! It is very basic with rail fence blocks and some solid blocks that had the birdies on them. The pictures aren't high quality so the color is much better, but i don't have any other pics of it.

Here is my husband holding it up... it was supposed to be a lap quilt, lol! I got carried away, but i love it and so does she!

 Here's some of the detail around the edges. The binding looked like birch wood, it was perfect!

All of the fabric is Valori Wells, so it's very soft and wonderful! The back was done in coordinating bird fabric with a big print on it.

Hope you all like it!
Good night and "talk" to you soon!
Holly