Table Projects

Back during the summer, my darling husband took me on a road-trip up to visit +Keepsake Quilting. It is a day trip from here and I usually get to go at least once or twice a year.  I especially love the bargain outlet and usually manage to find some great deals.
This year among my treasures was a package of remnant odd cut strips- all in blues, tans, and creams.  They were not uniform in size, but pretty close, so I decided that some table toppers would be a great use for them.  I created two, a rectangle and a square.  Not in any pattern really just making it up as I went along.  I added borders from my stash and ordered a nice brown print from +Missouri Star Quilt Company  to use on the back.

Quilted them both on my frame with my Janome 1600 and my favorite King Tut thread (Sands of Time - variegated creams) from +Superior Threads.

Most often there is at least one cat asleep on top of these and sometimes a rather large pile of books from the kids as well. I have to get my blog worthy photos quick around here.

Blessings on your sewing journey~

New and Improved Sewing Room

This is cross-posted from my regular blog here.
It continues to be proven how very blessed I am as Steve's wife.  He designed and built a fabulous addition to my sewing space over the last few days.
It went from this:

To this:

Which then allowed me to make it like this:

Which means that what once looked like this:

Now looks like this:

Almost every bit of fabric I have is now organized on this massive shelf wall along with space underneath for notions (zippers, trims, etc), shelves for current projects in process, and even a floor cubby for one or more cats to nap in while they keep me company.  All the shelves are adjustable too! 

My husband loves me so!

Quilt Ministry Baby Quilts

**Photo Intensive Post**

Other than the 2 quilts I'd done for the twins born last year, I hadn't had opportunity to get many of the baby quilts finished.  A dear woman I serve with monthly is about to become a great-grandmother and that event (probably happening this week!) was a catalyst to not only quickly create a very special quilt for the soon-to-be-born great-grandson, but also to finish up some of the other projects I've had hanging around.
I do have one more large special project that isn't quite finished yet and that may get it's own post... or not... it's emotionally special for me and I may just keep that private.

First is the newest quilt - for Elijah Robert - who will (Lord willing) arrive safely later this week.

The quilt is an enlarged version of a block I had seen a long while back and I transformed it into a full size quilt pattern - sort of an intertwining ribbon design.  It is made with 100% cotton quilting fabrics for the top in animal/Africa/safari prints that I just love.  The back is an all-over animal print flannel that should be snuggly for a small boy.  It is quilted edge-to-edge on my New Joy Frame with the Janome 1600P, using KingTut "Pharoah's Treasure" variegated thread in shades of green/gold/burgundy in an all-over leaf pattern.  The top is machine pieced and the finish binding is done by hand.

Next are 4 quilts that haven't been made for anyone specific as far as I know, but have been prayed over for whatever precious child God will allow them to be given to in the future.
First up are two 'girlie' quilts.  Both were made when the quilt ministry was in the capable hands of others and I just had opportunity to work on and finish them.

This one was machine pieced and sent out to be quilted by another generous lady with a giving heart.  It is all cotton, pieced front and back with an all-over large meander design.

Here we have a simple design, machine pieced in sweet small print cottons and then hand quilted in double heart designs and some outline work on the chenilled blocks.

The colors in these photos are very off - the closest one is the last one.  This is a full flannel quilt - both front and back.  Simple 4 patch blocks are alternated with solid squares and machine pieced and quilted in a broad line grid. The colors are soft 'baby' greens, yellow and big eyed owls.  So cute!

This was such a fun quilt to make - I adapted a pattern I'd seen in a magazine and built the colors off the backing fabric.  When you are working with mostly donated materials, you sometimes have to wing it.  We had this large piece of John Deere themed fabric and it was great for a back.  I dug through the stash to find fabrics that would coordinate and put this together.  It is in an all-over 'raindrop' pattern (again on my New Joy/Janome set up) using KingTut "Sands of Time" variegated cream/beige thread.  All cotton fabrics, machine pieced and the binding is scrappy and hand-finished.

Special thanks to my very helpful daughter for helping me with all the photos out in the chilly sun-porch.

May God richly bless each little one who will be receiving these gifts of prayer.

Blessings,

Christmas Auction Quilt

Our church (Riverside Christian Church) is having a fundraiser auction to raise money for a short-term missions trip to Guatemala.  I decided to make use of a batch of beautiful Moda fabric Christmas fat-quarters I'd purchased from The Bunkhouse Quilt shop a while back and create something to donate for such a good cause.

As I posted before, I had the opportunity to take a long-arm machine quilting class and was very excited to be able to finish this quilt as my very first long-arm project.  Steve took the photos for me today after I finished the hand-work on the binding.
These two are cropped close-ups of a few different blocks to show the quilting & fabrics.

This shows the backing fabric & my 'tag' for identifying purposes.

First Batik Dress

Jess chose this fabric and I wasn't quite sure how a dress would look, however I was pleasantly surprised!
It only took about 6 hours to make and is quite possibly the most well-finished dress I've ever made.  Every inside seam is serged to prevent fraying, etc.

I think she looks lovely - even if she does loath my taking photos of her. :-)

Another baby quilt

I've been on a kick lately to try and finish up odd projects and also to use up things I have already.  This is especially necessary when it comes to my sewing.  Do you KNOW how much fabric I have amassed over the last 9 years?
It's embarrassing to admit... there is so much that I forget what I have.  Not a good thing generally, though it has led to some happy discovering when I open the odd bin or drawer and find some perfectly lovely piece of fabric just begging to be used in some way.
Anyway - I had been 'using up' some flannels for a small baby quilt.  These are flannels from an assortment of projects in days gone by.  I finally finished the hand work for the binding this past week.  Now to decide what to do with this little snuggly bit of work.

Shows how long I've been collecting fabric.  This backing flannel was purchased to make "lovies" when Ben was just a baby.  He never took to the lovies the way Jess did, so I didn't use it then.

Yes - all the photos of the front of the quilt are sideways.  I couldn't figure out how to edit them on this computer.  Good thing the pattern works in any direction.