June 2015 Finishes

 Since I'll be posting lots of finishes this week, this blog post is also a part of A Week of Finishes, an event I put together in 2013, and decided to revisit again. If you have any recent finishes you'd like to link up, grab a button and please do! (you can share blog posts, flickr photos, or IG photos.) I love to see what other people have been making!

June was a fun month for finishes! I finished a lot of Wip's and that is SUCH a great feeling!!!

The week after school got out we went on vacation to Utah to visit my sister who was visiting from Hawaii. It was a great week, and a great excuse to hurry and finish a few things before we left.

First up are two pairs of capris I had made in May, and had actually been wearing, even though they still needed elastic. Yep, my belly was big enough to hold them up on their own, though after a while the knit would stretch, and while that was not a problem being at home, I figured elastic would be a nice addition. ;)


Meet my almost-37-weeks-pregnant I-just-woke-up haven't-gotten-ready self: ;p

I have to laugh at this photo, and yes, I purposly left that finger there. My oldest took some pictures for me, and then my hubby came out to take *better* pictures to put on my blog. Well, every single picture he took had his finger in it! lol! I love him!! 

And my second pair:

This guy wanted to hang out with me for this picture, and I had to pick this photo of course. This is how I always carry him. He is definitely my most cuddly/attached kiddo! I love that he's always near me. :) Though I think he's REALLY going to miss this baby bump when it's gone!!! He fits perfectly sitting on top of it and laying on my shoulder. I think it's probably really comfortable for both of us. Anyway, I just wanted to document this too since I got a picture of it. :)

I found both of these knits at Joann's, which I never see knits that I like there. I don't really know what to wear them with though. Prints on clothes is a new thing for me, so sometimes I definitely don't match - as my maternity attire is limited, or I'm in a black or white shirt. Whatever. They are super comfy! and cool. And I'll be able to wear them as non-maternity as well, which is always nice.



The last time we went to Utah for a summer trip was about 2 years ago. While we were there my brother gave me one of his quilts to repair for him. I love the story of this quilt, and I LOVE that I was able to add a little bit of myself to it.

When my brother was young, he helped make this quilt with my grandma, (and my mom and sister, I think). Then at a family reunion, or some family get together, it was raffled off. Well, my mom bought tickets for all of her kids, and my brother won it! Apparently my mom's aunt was really upset that a little boy won it as she really wanted it. Ha! Obviously I don't know the story well enough, but still, I think it's awesome.

It has been his family's favorite quilt and it definitely showed! There were a few huge holes, and all around the edges was bare and falling apart. I also thought it was interesting that it was always the green fabrics, and a few blue fabrics, that had the most wear on them.

Anyway, I patched the holes from underneath, adding batting and a layer of fabric. Then pulled the original fabric over that so that it would have as much original fabric as possible. Then I added a binding around the edge to cover any wear, as well as help prevent any more.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to get a better photo of the finished quilt. Maybe I'll see if he'll send me one. Until then, here it is. I think the scrappy Cotton + Steel binding goes so perfectly well with the patchwork quilt. The prints are perfectly vintage, and I like that making it scrappy didn't add a frame to the quilt, since it didn't have one originally. :)



Other finishes: Teacher gifts! I had started these pencil mug rugs months and months ago and finished them up. I just love these so much! Hunter had two amazing teachers this year, and I am so grateful for all their efforts to help him! His year and progress was 100 times better than what he experienced in Florida. That was a rough year, so as his mom, I am so grateful for people who care about him and help him!!!

I had better photos, but iPhoto has been acting weird and it won't show me a bunch of my photos. :( Luckily they are only the ones from my phone, so I think I have them all backed up somewhere... I just need to find them. :)

These mug rugs are another project from my 2nd Quarter Finish-Along list with Adrianne of On The Windy Side. So I will be linking them up over there.



On our road trip I finished up my Simple Celestial mini! All the handstitching was perfect for the long car ride! I finished all of it up except two sections, because the colors I had weren't quite perfect, so I finished those after we got home. But now it hangs next to my computer and I am SO in love with it!! I wish I had time to make ALL the quilts, because this would be a fun one to have in a large quilt!

 And just in the last minute, like literally the night of the 30th, I finished stitching down the binding on Tommy's quilt. I made the first block over two years ago. And that was all until earlier this year. Now it's finished!! Tommy loves it and he's SO excited to use it! But I need to do a photo shoot with it first, so I'm making him wait. ;) He's pretty patient about it, so that's nice. :)

This quilt is another project from my 2nd Quarter Finish-Along list with Adrianne of On The Windy Side. So I will be linking this up over there too! Wahoo! That's four things off my list so far! (and I actually finished another one last night!)




Alright! That's it for catching up with all my finishes! It was a good week! I'll share my last finish for the FAL too, so I can link it up. Can I just tell you how great it feels to finish something!! But I also must admit that it is also very enabling to start new projects, which I have definitely done! ;)

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If you want to share any finishes you've had for the year, feel free to link them up below! :) Thanks for everyone who has linked up! It's fun to see your projects! I'll keep the linky open if you want to keep sharing!

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

End of the Year + Teacher Gifts!

Hunter finished up his first year of school a few weeks ago. He really loved preschool, and as far as I'm concerned, he did amazing! He's grown, matured, and learned so much. I'm so proud of him!! :)

Here are his first and last day pictures :)

Isn't he the cutest?!!! I love this picture!

Last day of school.
He definitely looks older. (bittersweet)

I am so a last minute person. I wanted to make teacher gifts, but of course I couldn't decide on anything until his last day! Why do I do this to myself??? lol. Anyway, with a only a few hours to spare, I got started.

I decided to make each of his teachers a little coin purse. I used the same pattern that I made for the UR Priceless blog hop last year. I think these are so cute!! I was a little weary as to how the Denise Schmidt fabric would turn out, but Hunter really liked it so I went with it. I am so glad I did because it's my favorite!! I absolutely love it!

Front

Back

I even had some time to make some Oatmeal Craisin cookies, put them all in a clear bag and ran off to pick up Hunter and deliver them. I forgot to get pictures with them open, so you can see the inside fabric. Oh well. I sure hope they like them! (I was running late so I didn't get cute pictures of them in the bags (the purses fell over. lol.) But I tried, and I like the concept anyway. :)

Hunter actually started out the school year at a different preschool in another town. We had to stop going there for personal reasons at Christmas time, but lucked out getting him into the preschool that is just a block away. I still need to make his other teachers some gifts, they were so amazing!! And I'm still a little bummed we couldn't finish up the year there. But both schools are amazing and I can't really say that one was better. It's just how it happens. :)

So now it's summer, and things are going a lot better than I had anticipated. :) Hooray!

Did you make teacher gifts?? What did you make?

Happy Monday!!
(Can you believe I blogged again, already?!) :)

W.i.P. Wednesday {2/6/12}

Hello! :) Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a free copy of My First Alphabet, a paper piecing pattern. You can enter HERE. I am loving everyone's ideas for what they would do with it! Thanks for making my to-do list longer. ;)

I feel like I've been having Crafters ADD times a million lately. I am working on so many things, or at least feel like it. I keep going around in circles from one project to the next, but honestly, I think the variety helps keep me motivated and I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot. 

In the sewing area I have been working on my DQS13 mini. Here's where I'm at right now... 

I started with just a corner of it, and actually have one more row to test. I was SO nervous about how these colors were going to come together, but I am really loving it! I hope my partner does too! The single squares are 2.5" finished, and I have 39 more to go AFTER I finish this next row. They are small and the pattern is simple enough, so it goes fairly fast. :) It's my Starburst pattern (you can find it on Craftsy or Etsy).

I am also almost finished with a new cover for our mini trampoline. The original one got shredded!

New! and my little drummers.
I am hoping this one will hold up a lot better. ;)
I used some Home Dec fabric by Jessica Jones. Nice to finally use this from my stash.

All I have left to do is make wholes for the legs to go through. We will be jumping in style now! :)

I've also been slowly adding onto this project:

1" finished HST's. It makes me just a little bit mad (as in crazy) but I am loving it. I will be turning it into a knitting roll, similar to the one I made for the Sew Sew Modern swap. So excited to have something nice for myself for once. ;)

(ps. I'm still waiting for my items to arrive and I am DYING!!! It is so hard to watch everything awesome get snatched up and wonder what is going to be left for me... even though it's all awesome so I am in no way disappointed. The suspense is just killing me!)

While I was waiting for my Woodland Sampler to arrive, yep, I'm jumping on board with that one. I decided to do a little cross stitch of my own and came up with a little surprise. I want to have this up in the next few days... I want to make a million of these! (this is actually my second one!)

I don't think I've done any crossstitch since I was in elementary school, maybe jr. high. I LOVE it! It's so relaxing and fun. I'm really excited for my new, easy to travel with, project!

Though I want to turn it into a calendar instead of just a single panel. I'm using this cute button calendar from I heart Patchwork as my inspiration.

I am also slowly working on my honey cowl. Mostly just in the car while my hubby drives. I think I am officially the slowest knitter in the world! But I'm determined to finish it.

As for a finish, I made up this cute little zippy pouch for a good friend. It was her birthday on Sunday, and since we still had sickies, we all stayed home and it's still sitting on my desk. She'll get it this weekend at least. :)

I used some remix dots (I think) for Robert Kaufman. I picked them up at Sew Mama Sew while they were having a good sale. Love it! And the dots are awesome for spacing out my stitching. Wahoo!

The inside with a little pocket.

and I added a zipper pull. :)

It looks more like a St. Patrick's Day present with all the green. lol. :)


OH! and on the computer front (I told you I've been multitasking!) ;) I finished up the UPPERCASE letters of the new My ABC's pattern. Except we ran out of printer ink so I can't test it. It may be another few weeks before this one gets released. I'm excited about it though. and then the lowercase will be next.

Linking up at Freshly Pieced!

On the schedule for tomorrow... potty training. 

Wish me luck!

Mother's Day Pillows!

This year was a first for Mother's Day Gifts! I'm sure I've given them before, but this year was kind of unplanned turned into definite and distinct gifts for Mother's Day! It was very fun! I think it was a first for being on time with hand made gifts as well! (except for my MIL, I didn't get the pillow in the mail until Saturday morning. but she did receive it yesterday!) All of this also means the first time ever buying pillow forms! (besides the ones my hubby bought at ikea for our big boring pillows. lol.) :)

Yup! I made pillows!

First, for my mom. When I showed her my block for the Paper Pieced Pattern a Day Garden Party Blog Hop (or however that name goes, I never get it right), she gasped and just told me how much she liked it. I've never really seen her act that extreme toward anything I've made before so I knew I had to make it into something for her.

Potter Roses. Pillow finished at 14" x 14".

When I first made the block I was kind of ho-hum about the fabrics I used for the pot, but I am SO glad I did! They totally scream my mom! I used those same fabrics for the sashing and back of the pillow with some light cross hatching quilting for the sashing only. She loved it! :) It was one of those times where I could see it in her eyes how much she liked it! It was kind of a neat experience for me giving it to her.

For my mother in law, I gave her my "practice run" pattern for the Modern She Made Swap project. I can't ever remember now, but I'm pretty sure I planned on making this for her before I started because I know she loves purple. Neil okayed all the colors for it as well.

I say it was a practice run because I used blocks that I pieced together as well as paper pieced blocks. Unfortunately not all of the points came together perfectly, but I still really like it despite it's imperfections.

I used a natural fabric as well as one with a little bit of brown flecks in it, though you can't really see the difference. All the fabrics are Konas.

I LOVE the quilting on this! This is the backside of the top. All these wavy squares create such a great texture!! I'm tempted to quilt it the same way for my MSMS pillow too, but we'll see. This pillow finishes at 12"x12". I'm going to make my partner's pillow 18"x 18", so just a little bit larger. I sure hope she'll like it. 

I even "signed" our names on the back with a little hand stitching. Yikes. That was scary. The thing at the top is supposed to be a heart with 12 in it, for 2012. :)

I think I am definitely getting addicted to pillows! 

I can't wait to get started on mine.... soon enough I hope! :)

linking up at Quilt Story

A Christmas Quilt!

My sister-in-law was in town this last weekend so I was able to give her her quilt! :) Yippy! I sure hope she really likes it. ;) Anyway, that means I can now share some pictures with you! :)

Now the hard part is figuring out which ones! ;)

This was my first time doing zigzag quilting and it was a lot of fun! I love how it looks with the pieced zigzags! :)

We've been having the most amazing, and unusual, weather around here! Most days have been absolutely gorgeous, and warm! :)

I had my little buddy come help me with the pictures! He had so much fun!! ;)

Say cheese! :)

I used some red flannel for the back. Finding that fabric was the hardest part! It must have been the lighting in the store, because everything just made me feel like my quilt was ugly. ;( but it actually goes together perfectly I think! :)

And of course the "Linding" = Label + Binding. heehee.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a great week!

And don't miss the Cash Envelope Sew-Along that will be starting up soon! The first giveaway for supplies will be later this week! :)

I am also linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations, and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory. So go see what everyone else is up to as well! :)

Custom Crafty Sewing

My cousins boy is the exact same age as my youngest boy (I think they are only an hour or so apart) and they both have crazy curls! :) Too fun! For her baby shower I made her a carseat blanket. Simply some minky sewn together, and some turtle applique, along with a couple of elastic loops to hook to the carseat so it doesn't fall out and get dirty. (the WORST thing to happen, especially during a snowy, dirty, Utah winter.) ;)

Well, a little while ago she asked for another one for her second boy (it made me so giddy when she said the first one was her oldest's *favorite*). :D  So I went looking for fabric, and with a request for some orange, here's what I came up with

I love this fabric!! :) (Riley Blake flannel - I think the line is "All Boy" or something?) 

I hope they like it too!

I added some stitching in the stars to hold the layers together.

I used flannel for the top and minky for the back (turquoise dimple dot).

I made one of these for Mabel for Christmas, but added a layer of batting in it. I do not recommend batting. It made it way too stiff to really be useful. I think I'll make her a new one... ;)

This is happily on it's way to the post office today! :)

(I always get anxious about making things for people. What if they hate it??? :/ but I like it, so if they don't I'll keep it and happily do it over.) ;)

I tested it out with Little M to check the size

Hum, I wonder what she thinks of it?!

"It's a winner!" ;)

I also took pictures of something else today... but those pictures will have to wait! ;) ;)