The year I got into quilting…

2012 was the year I caught the quilting bug. I have been busy making and creating. I decided to create a mosaic of the quilts and some of the projects I have made. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed learning how to create each of them. Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

You can look at any of these pictures larger on my Flickr account my user name is makinglifeprettier

I hope to learn even more quilting skills in the new year. I was spoiled and got a new few pieces of fabric for Christmas! Plus I finally have a 1/4 inch foot. I actually feel like a real quilter now, lol.

Happy Sewing!

Christmas Vinyl

This year for Christmas I didn’t really sew that many gifts. I instead made some vinyl signs with my Silhouette Cameo.

I made about eight nativity scenes for family members.

A sign was made for my Mom. Apparently I took a really bad picture of that one. Oops.

Then last minute I made this for my little sister who just turned 12.

Vinyl Love!!!!

Jewelry Pouches

I made a few of these sweet jewelry pouches up for Christmas. They were quick and easy. Although I did not sew the button hole my Mom did it for me since I have not idea how to set up my machine nor the patience to figure it out. One day I will grow up a little more and learn such things.

You can find the tutorial over at the Art Gallery Fabrics blog here. The only thing that I changed was I added a drawstring closure thing so it would close tightly. We were able to find some cute rectangular metal ones. Oh and I also made a little oops and only sewed six pockets instead of eight. That is what happens when you don’t look at the instructions as often as you should!

Linking to finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts

Mug Rugs

I finally made some mug rugs and now I want one for myself!

The first one I make a simple chevron pattern out of some three inch binding scraps just because I couldn’t bear seeing those little beautiful Lilly Belle triangles thrown in the garbage. (It was from my sisters first quilt she made a few weeks ago. It was three inch binding if you are wondering) It was fun so I decided to make another!

This one I decided to try something new! I tried paper foundation piecing. I simplified the pattern a bit and I am so proud of my little birdy! I used this pattern found here.

I also decided to try sewing the binding by machine this time around. It went well and I was glad not to have to hand sew these little projects.

Linking to Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts

All dressed up!

I have two projects to share with you that I finished up this week!

First off are a couple American girl dresses:

Look at that cute little bow in the back!

And the purple one has all that gathery goodness!

I don’t have a 18” doll in my house yet so I could not model them on anything but I am sure they will be awesome since I bought the patterns off of the Liberty Jane pattern site. You can find the pattern for the gathered dandelion dress here. You can find the pattern for the brown flower dress here. They were fun to make and Lorelei has requested some of her own. One day maybe!

Secondly I am sooo excited to show you what I did with some of my left over pieces of Simply Color. I made a few Anna Maria Horner feathers and put together a sewing machine cover for a friend for her birthday! If you haven’t seen this quilt top you must see it. Check out the pattern here.

If you are curious the ties were cut out at 10” by 1 1/4” then pressed in half and folded in. I placed them about 4” up from the bottom. Other than that I just made three feathers and squared them off and added a little extra fabric to make it long enough.

Hope everyone is getting all there Christmas projects done! I know I still have a few more to make and finish up. Good luck and Happy Sewing!

Linking to Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts

Pincushions and a Needle book

I made a few more Anna Maria Horner Wildflower pincushions as gifts recently. You can find the pattern here. I love mine and have to say I could not sew without it! I really do not know how I had sewn for so long without one. You can’t really tell how big they are in the picture but they are about six inches wide. I used some Joel Dewberry Heirloom and a little Simply Color for those purple petals. I fill the pincushions with crushed walnut shells with a little bit of polyfill in the bottom where you need to hand sew.

I decided to make a little ruffled needle book to go with the pincushion that I was giving my Mom. It was so tiny that I decided to add a page to it to allow some more needles to fit! I found the tutorial for this one here at luvinthemommyhood. It was super quick and easy.

Linking to Thank Goodness it’s Friday Finish at Sewing by Moonlight and Finish it up Friday at crazy mom quilts

Pinwheels in progress.

I am hoping to finish squaring up these 100 blocks soon! This will be a baby doll quilt for my oldest daughter who I made the Pow Wow quilt for. I hope that she will like that her baby and her have blankets that go together!

I also got my solid in the mail so maybe after Christmas I can make my Lilly Belle quilt. So excited to make something for me! I am going to make it for my extra blanket for my side of the bed. I bought Kona Bone and I have to say I was sooo pleased with the colour when it arrived.

Linking to W.i.P Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Question

Well to my few followers I have a question. Do you think that a granny square quilt should be made out of only scraps or could I make one out of precuts? My little sister has my name for Christmas and I was thinking of asking her to get me enough of these Mini Charm packs:

To make one of these:

What is your opinion?

Fabric I am craving…

Notting Hill by Joel Dewberry in the teals and greens! I love them! 

And I really want the greens/blues in the new Amy Butler Alchemy line that is coming out!

Oh and I would would love to get some of this for my princesses!

or maybe make this one day for one of their beds…

So much to want and do! But instead I have to go clean my house…

Baby Doll Butterfly Quilt

First Christmas present done! So many to still complete.

I made this darling little quilt for my youngest daughter for her new dolly that is arriving this Christmas. I used the butterfly tutorial from Bee in my Bonnet row along quilt. And decided to make it scrappy. Luckily I was able to go through some scraps of a friend to make it since my scrap variety is not too high due to me being fairly new to the quilting world! I used some Kona Sky for sashing which I cut at 2 inches. And decided to quilt randomly, trying something new on a small project. I pulled out some masking tape to use as a guide and just kept on sewing until I thought it was done. I quilted it in a variegated rainbow thread.

This quilt ended up being approx. a 22 inch square.

Now here is to hoping she will like it and use it. Fingers crossed! 

linking to Finish up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Simply Color Pow Wow Quilt

I was lucky and thrilled to win a layer cake of Simply Color by V & Co. from Fat Quarter Shop when I entered my hexie pouch during the friendship bracelet blog hop a few weeks ago that was hosted by Diane at from blank pages…  When it came I pretty much cut into it the next day especially since my almost four year old has been asking me for a blankie. That is right I made a baby quilt for my almost four year old. I really wanted to try the Pow Wow quilt by Cluck, Cluck, Sew. So here it is:

I made the baby size not the crib size since I only had 1 1/2 yards of solid hanging around but it is perfect for her to carry around and that is what she wanted.

And here is my happy princess! She loves to sleep with her cozy blankie and carries it down to the couch to watch morning shows just like her baby sister.

Did you notice that I found eggplant minky! You can’t really tell in these pictures but I quilted it with a sherbet like rainbow variegated thread. This is such an awesome fabric line to work with and I still have a couple more projects to come! Yay! So bright and colorful.

Linking to TGIFF at Quilt Matters and crazy mom quilts Finish it up Friday

Work in progress.

It has been a little while since I posted so here is a little work in progress. I am currently making a scrappy butterfly doll quilt for my littlest one. I actually have pieced them together and quilted it since this picture. So now this sweet butterfly quilt is just waiting to be bound and wrapped up for Christmas. I hope that my girls love their baby doll quilts (I have just started another one yesterday, no pictures yet) and maybe one day far in the future I will have grandbabies that use them. I must say I love the idea of my quilts being loved throughout time!

If you are wondering where to find out how to make these butterflies I followed this tutorial from Bee in my Bonnet.

Linking to W.i.P Wednesday at freshly pieced.

Geeky Zig Zag Quilt Take 2

A few of the blogs that I follow introduced me to the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I decided that I would love to enter my husbands quilt. So those who follow my blog may have seen it already not that long ago sorry but I did take some new pictures!

The story behind this quilt is I really wanted to make my husband a quilt and was struggling on a theme. He came across the circuit board print and suggested a computer theme. I was able to find some awesome prints! The quilt fits my husband since he is a computer geek. I did have some trying moments with hours of squaring blocks but it was totally worth it. I love seeing those I love wrapped in a quilt I made for them :)

Look at this little geek!

  

I pieced the back with some left over yardage. I love how the quilting looks on the back!

  It is now his cuddle up on the couch quilt :)

Finished quilt measures: Approx. 50” by 75”

Quilted by: Me on my home sewing machine

Best category: Favourite Quilt Photographer, Favourite Throw Quilt, Favourite Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Linking to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival! Thanks for stopping by and seeing my quilt!

Simple Stripes Quilt

I made this baby quilt a while ago but finally finished up by embroidering the name and birth date  on a piece of fabric then sewing it on. We were just waiting on this sweet bundle to arrive before it could be really done!

I used this tutorial from diary of a quilter. And practiced some straight line quilting! I am happy with how it turned out and I hope that the Mom loves it too!

linking up to finish up Friday at crazy mom quilts and TGIFF at What a Hoot

Just a side note I got my free Simply Color Bundle in the mail and it is awesome. Thanks Fat Quarter Shop and from blank pages… I am glad that I participated in the friendship bracelet quilt hop :) If you want to look at my pouch that won me this awesome bundle you can here!

Baby doll sling

I had made Lorelei a baby doll carrier but she did not like it because she could not see her baby’s face as she carried her. So one day she had used a play necklace to tie her baby to her like a sling. So I told her that I would make her a sling for her baby the next day. The next day came and I wasn't even allowed to eat breakfast before I made the sling! These are the fabrics she choose from my small stash in the closet.  I used this tutorial from chasing cheerios. If you want a quick and easy Christmas gift for a little girl in your life this is perfect!

Feeding her baby:

Luckily Elena still wears the original baby carrier I made! Love these girls!

Linking to: Skip to my Lou Made by you Monday

Geeky Zig Zag Quilt

I made a Zig Zag quilt! It was a lot of work and I must say I was about to just give up at times but I did it! I wanted to make a quilt for my husband. I asked him what he wanted and he said a computer themed quilt would be great. So I hunted down some pac man, space invaders, circuit boards, computer keyboards, some geeks gone wild print, and some blue prints then started cutting!

He loves it and I am glad it is finally done. I backed it with some left over yardage. And quilted it in navy cotton 1/4 away from the seams. It measures at approx. 50” by 75” Oh and I have to mention that I was shown some love by a quilt fairy who donated me some batting :) Thanks!!!!!

And it finally took a break from raining today so we were able to go outside and take a picture!

  

And I have to share a picture of my crazies making some mud soup or something…

Linking: Thank Goodness it is Friday Finish at Echinops and Aster and crazy mom quilts.