February 2015 Finishes

I decided this year that I am going to blog all of my finishes for each month. I did blog January's finishes HERE. But then.... I didn't upload my photos for February's finishes until, well, this morning. But anyway, here are my finishes during the month of February!! There are only two, but I do have quite a few more for March, so I'll post those next. :)

But who cares about quantity right?! I love these!!


First up, I made this Celestial Star Mini for Sarah of Pheasantpress.com. You definitely should go check out her site! She is has some amazing paper product goodies!! 

Around the World Blog Hop

Have you heard of the Around the World Blog Hop? I had a few people invite me to join, so I decided I'll give it a go. It's been fun to look back and see lots of different people's posts, and see what everyone is working on.

I was tagged by Amanda of Material Girl Quilts. I mentioned her in my recent Celestial Star blog hop, as she was one of the sponsors. Amanda is crazy talented!! You should definitely go check out her blog if you haven't already. :)

As part of the blog hop, there are a set of questions to answer...

1. What am I working on?

That's kind of a tough one. I just finished up the Celestial Star QAL, which kept me pretty busy. Though I feel like I'm a little in between projects right now... besides the ones I can't share. ;) I'm am working on a few new patterns, as well as other projects. :) I have been catching up with my Handmade Birthday Club gifts though! Here are my latest finishes that I can share:


I made this fun little mini for Di.

 

 

and added a tissue cover and a few other goodies. :)

I also finished up this pillow for Rebecca.

 

 

and some extra goodies for her too!

I love how they both turned out!! and I'll be working on sharing both of these patterns soon. :)


2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is a hard question to answer. I think the biggest difference I notice about myself, is that I always have to come up with something new. There are so many great and amazing designs out there that I LOVE, but for some reason I always want to try something different and create my own designs or patterns. I think that is something that really fuels my desire to quilt. I love sewing and quilting, but constantly coming up with new patterns and designs really adds so much dimension to my own personal experience when it comes to quilting. Perhaps the design process is my first love, and sewing and quilting are the vehicles I use to make those ideas a reality. :)

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

I kind of answered this in the previous question. To be more specific to my designs, I really like math, and geometry. I've always noticed shapes and how things fit together, especially designs of symmetry. I like figuring out how to put everything together, like a puzzle. I don't know...

On the flip side of the question, why do I design and create in the first place? I have a young family, 4 children 6 and under (the oldest was 4 (about 3 weeks shy of being 5) when the youngest was born) so they are all very close. When they were really young I did not enjoy taking them places because it was too crazy for me! Too stressful. So quilting became my hobby, and still is often my outlet from stress and the day-to-day routine of cleaning and those mundane mom tasks. Love my family and my children, but my hubby and I both realize that I need an outlet. ;) He's awesome!

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

Often I'll start doodling on graph paper. That used to be my all-the-time go-to medium, but it seems like I don't have any near me as often. I'll often do rough sketches on my phone in a drawing app. They are usually always really horrible, as the apps are kind of like using Paint. But at least I can get my ideas down. Then I'll work in Illustrator, where I can create, design, manipulate, and change my ideas until I have something I love, or maybe just like. Illustrator is my best friend in the entire process!! I love the freedom I have there to do so much. As well as how quick it is to make small changes and compare, without having to start over with a new drawing every time. It saves me a lot of time.

Then I fine tune my project, turn it into a pattern, print it out and start sewing. I'll often take notes as I use the pattern, on things to adjust and change. Then once it's ready, I type up my patterns in In Design, do some proof reading, and size checking, and there it is.

That is my really quick explanation of how I create my patterns! Often I'll start with the first steps, and then start working on different patterns before I complete the entire process. I just don't have enough time to materialize all of them. But I'm working on that. ;)

 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed a little sneak peek into my world. :) It was fun!


I'd love to point you in the direction of a few friends who I think are awesome!! Though some have already participated in the blog hop, I'll share them with you anyway. Because hey, I don't mind traveling to the same place more than once, especially if it's somewhere awesome!! :)

Marian will be participating next week. She is so awesome!! We met a while ago and was so nice and sent me some cookies once. It was the kindest thing ever!! I also bought some cute earrings from her, and we swapped some charms once.  Let me tell you our complete history together... haha. Anyway, she's super cool. I had a dream a few weeks ago that we were moving to the town where she lives. I wish it were true! She'd be awesome to hang out with. :)

Courtney is an awesome friend I've definitely mentioned on my blog before. What can I say? She's the bees knees of quilting and quilty friends! :) She's awesome!! And I love her style! Everything she makes is so cute. :)

Leona, I met her in Florida before we moved - she moved to the area where I lived about a month or so before we left. I miss her. She's amazing!! Probably the kindest person I've ever met!! I will always cherish the time we did get to spend together before we moved away. :) p.s. she doesn't know I'm tagging her. oops. :)

Stephanie Daniels and Pam Lincoln also tagged me. They are both super great!! It's been fun getting to know them better over the recent months and however long it's been since we've become online friends. :)

Ok, that's way more than three people. Oh well. ;)

 Hope you are having a great week!! :)

#HandmadeBirthdayClub2014 February Gift

Last year I saw a post on Instagram for a Handmade Birthday Club. What??? You get in groups of 12, and each month that someone has a birthday that month, you make that person a handmade gift. Over the course of the year you will have made 11 gifts. On your birthday month, everyone sends you a gift. That means that you get 11 awesome handmade gifts!!! Yes please! Sign me up!!! It has been so much fun!

We didn't have any birthdays in January, so February was our first month. I was totally behind on sending out my gift, but I'm really happy with what I made and want to share it. I'll be linking it up with Ellison Lane's Crafty Traveler Series here. (Go check out the series if you haven't been following along with it already, it's great!!)

Last year I took the year off from bee's and swaps. I did not do a lot of sewing for others, and having this birthday club group has been really exciting! I love the feeling of planning and making things for others. Though I have plenty of things I'm WAY behind on in regards of making for others, I'm trying really hard to not get behind on this one. It'll be a good year. :)

Ok, so what did I make??? I don't even know what to call it. I kind of just made it up, and improvised as I went along... which makes me really insecure about if  the recipient really likes it or not. I am happy with it, otherwise I wouldn't have sent it, but I must say it does have some personality to it. ;)

It's a travel pouch. Both sides look identical, and have the outer pockets that velcro shut so you don't lose anything that you put in them while traveling.

I have seen a lot of travel cases, and even made one before, that I really like. But I haven't seen many, if any at all, that are fully zipped. I like the idea of having a "book" that you can open, but I also like zippers that ensure that nothing will fall out. This is made so it is 1" thick, so you can fit a lot of bigger things inside without busting the seams out.

The zippers were the trickiest right at the ends, but I think this worked well. :)

Add in a little personality where the zipper came up short. I did measure... wrong apparently. :) It would also work to use to zippers and bring them together in the middle of the handles. But I kind of really like this! If you want to carry some long knitting needles, or a ruler or something, you can have it stick out the little zipper part. Is that stretching it too far? I don't know. I really like the added weirdness?? I think I might just make it this way again.




Open it up and it is full of pockets and whatnots. Let me show you...




Both sides where the red flower fabric is, are big flat pockets. For rulers, paper, whatever. English paper piecing papers or already joined projects, etc.




On the one side there are three smaller pockets. I contemplated securing some with velcro, but decided not to. What do you think? Would you prefer a few more velcro closed pockets? Maybe some smaller ones to hold pens?






The other side has a zipper pocket and a little needle book for your pins and needles.




The center red things are for your thread. Or the other day I saw someone put bobbins on this. Great idea!

The hardest part making this was putting the final binding on. I hope Karen doesn't look too closely to my stitching, because I'm afraid it isn't so amazing. Hopefully it's not too noticeable. If I were to make it again, I think I'd make it just a little bit wider, I can't even remember the final measurements, but I know the inner side pockets were just a little short to fit my 6" square ruler. I think a 5" one would fit. But that might be nice to bring along. I based the measurements off the zipper, but since it's not long enough, I guess that doesn't matter. It would be cool to have one that I could fit my 7" x 10" (maybe it's a little bigger?) cutting mat in. Then this really would be the perfect travel companion!!! So adjust the size, and perhaps add a few more closed pockets? but maybe not. Probably at least one pen pocket. I would also top stitch the handles. I totally spaced that part. But it's fun. With the zipper closure, you can really just put random items in there and not need to worry about them. 

What do you think the rest of my birthday club group? Do you want a similar item? What changes would you make/want? Maybe I'll make it a few more times. :) 

It feels so good to be blogging again (I should probably say, to blog again. since this is only one blog post) ;) and sharing something I've made! Wahoo! What have you been working on?

Ps. Did you notice some new buttons on my blog??? I think I like them! AND I think I've basically finished my Patterns and Tutorials pages. I am REALLY happy with where they are going anyway! This has been a LONG work in progress, trying to get them to a point that I'm happy with. Now to figure out my Made page. I feel like if I can get my blog cleaned up, and to a point I'm happy at and can feel organized with, I'll be a lot better at blogging. Kind of like never wanting to go in the messy room. It just isn't enjoyable. Thanks for hanging out while I get things cleaned up. :)