Made It: A Quilt for Mom

Well, blogging everyday hasn't been a thing, but I have a good reason for it... Last week I traveled to sunny St. George, UT to visit my sisters and my mom! It was such a wonderful trip!!! I missed out on the crazy blizzard here in North Dakota - don't worry, I didn't cry about it. lol. And my husband was absolutely amazing with the kids while I was away! I told him that they all seemed to do better without me. But he adamantly reassured me that they prefer having me home. ;) haha. 

We stayed at my sisters house, and I just love her family! Her kids are getting so big! (as is always the case when you don't see them often enough). I was also able to visit with some of our very good friends from when we lived in Iowa, as well as some of our best friends (that I served with while on my mission) and Neil got to know after we got married. My heart was so full!! I don't think anything beats being with the people you love! Although eating at my favorite restaurants and getting out and being able to hike around was also very refreshing and refueling for my soul!

I bought my tickets to fly out to Utah a few months ago, and in the meantime my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and moved in with my sister. When I realized that I would get to see her while I was there I knew I needed to make her a quilt!!! This was 2 weeks before I left... so from planning and designing what I would make, paper piecing 12 blocks, completing the quilt top, basting, quilting, and sewing on the binding, it was definitely a miracle that I was able to do all of that in such a short amount of time! (I attached the binding before I left and was going to sew it on the rest of the way while I was there. I got it half way finished on the flight out there, and then I didn't pick it up at all while I was there - so I brought it back home with me. duh! I did show her, but I didn't want to leave it unfinished.... now it is completely finished, so now I need to mail it out to her. good grief. lol. my husband just rolled his eyes at me when he saw it still in my bag.) 

Anyway, here it is...

I used my Taurus pattern. For the outside edges I pieced all the outer sections as single white pieces. It's hard to tell in the photo, but I have a darker and lighter grey that twists between the blocks going down the quilt.

When I think of my mom I instantly think of red, orange and yellow. Not my usual color palette, but I'm happy with how it turned out!

This was my first idea, but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it... though I do still actually like it a lot. I don't know if the border of the image shows up, but this design would have simply gone down the left third of the quilt (not right on the edge, but not centered).

Maybe I'll make it with this layout another day.

My mom started her chemo on Monday, so please keep her in your prayers if you will!

Made It: Outreach Quilt

When I first started this blog back in 2010 (hard to believe it's been that long!!) I sorted all my posts with different labels in the titles of the post, like Made It - for things that I made, Fab Finds - for things I found that were awesome and wanted to share (this was before Pinterest), Our Story - for family posts, Photography - self explanatory, Sewing Basics,  etc. Last night as I was thinking about what I would blog about this month, I decided I wanted to bring those back. I probably won't use all the same ones, but I like the concept. (So here's a little introduction to why those will be in my titles - and it'll make it easy for you to filter through the posts you want to read and know what to expect as you do. What do you think about that?!)

Today we have our quilt guild meeting (North Star Quilters Guild), and we are turning in all the quilts that we've made in the last 6 months for the Outreach program. Outreach donates the quilts to foster kids in the area. (I love this!!)

Earlier this year the satellite group that I'm in, Modern Makers, made two charity quilts to donate. I quilted and bound one of them, and just finished it just in time! - like this week. Nothing like a deadline for good motivation to get something finished. ;)

Here's the quilt we made:

For the quilting I used the book Walking Foot Quilting Designs by Melissa Marginet (I met her when our guild went up to Winnipeg in May for our guild meeting - she's super nice!!) I love the book! There are so many great quilting ideas and instructions. And I love how the quilting fit the quilt. It's a great book if you want to check it out! Lots of designs you can do with the comfort of your walking foot - no FMQ! I love the possibilities!

Now to go get ready so I don't miss the meeting!! :)

Have a wonderful Saturday!!

Happy Quilting & Happy Creating!

January 2015 Finishes

I've decided to make it a goal this year to document all my finishes for the year. I really don't have any idea what all I made last year, though I'd love to go back and compile a list (which I did end up starting HERE. I need to make some cool mosaics to make my list more interesting though). I figure if I blog about each months finishes, that will be much easier to keep track of it all for this year. (Plus it will give me a good excuse to make sure I blog). ;)

January's projects were pretty simple, but nice to get some things finished!

I made two Love mug rugs:

 one as part of Sandi's Learn More Sew More event:

I REALLY love having a square mug rug. I think it's my new favorite mug rug shape!

Made It: Swappers Anonymous

A year and a half ago (early 2013) two friends and I decided to do a little private swap! I was so excited! It is always fun making things for people you know and love!  Well, we started last spring, and decided to set the deadline for May or June... Tommy was born the end of April, so it was kind of busy, but definitely doable. Well, then there were some delays for other people and we decided to push it back, and back some more. Then I was teaching at the Sewing Summit last year, and that was REALLY busy, and right after that we moved to Florida... so anyway, our deadline became a bit fleeting on my end and it became a slow project amidst everything else going on. I think it was last December or maybe January of this year (?) that I finally finished up one project. Then we moved from Florida to Idaho and there goes more delays... I finally finished the other package this summer... but I don't think I really shared much of it. Anyway... I shared one picture on Instagram yesterday, and decided I should share everything because I received some amazing gifts that I just LOVE! :)


I'll start with the goodies I received. :)

Marika made me some amazing placemats and napkins (she did make me 6 of each - some must be in the wash). As well as a cute clutch. I love these placemats! They really are the most perfect colors!! We use them all the time, and I've probably washed them a bajillion times. Which means maybe I should have ironed them before photographing them, oh well. I think they are awesome in all their crinkly goodness! ;)

Tiffany made me the best pillow ever! Again, my favorite colors! I LOVE it! It lives on our couch and is one of my favorites! I ended up making my own insert from it from some other pillows that exploded in our dryer when I washed them. oops. :) But it works perfectly!

 

She also made me some cute fabric baskets that are perfect in my cubbies by my sewing area. love!

Here is what I made.

First I made this super cute fox hoop for Tiffany! I used the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery pattern from the Woodland Sampler, and simply enlarged it and added a few more dandelions.

I can't remember how large the hoop is, maybe 6 inches? So this is way bigger than the pattern.

A also made her this sewing machine cover. I love how it turned out. The color scheme is not one I have made much in, but I really love it! It is paper pieced, and some of those strips are super thin. It took for.ever. But I think it was definitely worth it! I love the design! I'd love to scale it up and do a quilt with this! Or it would be cute for a mini or mug rug or something. Anyway, it was really fun!

 I didn't get any really good pictures of the entire thing, but here's the best one.

 modeling over my smaller sewing machine. ;)

 Here's a shot of the back, showing off the quilting. I did really close wavy lines, but went around the x's.

I also sent some Lizzy House charms that she had mentioned earlier that she loved.

For Marika I made a Celestial Star Pillow. I really love the bold colors and the how the border pattern wraps around the pillow. This is definitely a favorite! and all of my family was SO sad when I sent it away (my son and my hubby were heart broken that it wasn't for them. lol.) :)

and how it looks on a pillow form. I like how the border wraps around.

I hand stitched the top, and I really like how subtle it is.

Here's a good shot of the border pattern.

I lucked out with the back - the pattern matches up so close on each side of the zipper!

I also made a tissue cover from some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks prints (the inside print is from the Pretty Potent collection), and included some more goodies, as well as some Erin McMorris charms and scraps.

I know I was super delayed with so much going on in life, but it was fun! I hope my gifts are loved and used as much as the gifts I received! It really is special to have some home made goodies around the house. :) Thanks Tiffany and Marika!!!


Ps. Don't forget to link up your finished Celestial Star projects on THIS POST! Winners will be picked and announced Monday morning!

#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. :)

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!!

I am so excited to be hosting TGIFF today! :) I love projects, especially starting new ones, but there is never anything better than finishing a project! Whew, what a relief.... when one is done I don't feel as bad starting a new one. ;)  If you are new to my little corner of blogland, I hope you'll stop and stay a while and check things out! I've been a bit quite so far this year, but if you are on Instagram, I've got plenty of things going on over there (my username is fromblankpages). Come follow along. :)


For my finish today I want to share with you an activity book I made for a custom order. I've made two for my little kiddos and they LOVE them! I still need to make one more (as well as finish up the pattern). They've been perfect for church and in the car on long trips. I'm usually not a purple person, but I love how this one turned out! :) Most of my purples are Kate Spain's Cuzco. I instantly fell in love with how SO silky soft those fabrics are!

The front

Measures 10 inch tall by 7 inches wide

The back.

Under the strap there is a full sized pocket to hold paper and other flat things, mini book, etc.

The inside.

I found these mini clipboards at Walmart and that is what inspired the idea for these! They are perfect for a half sheet of paper. I want to find some coloring pages and print two out per sheet. So far I've just cut plain paper in half and my wee ones have enjoyed those a lot so far. :) 

I also found some spiral top notebooks that fit perfect as well! Bonus!

Holds 8 mini twistable crayons, or regular crayons, but I LOVE these twistables.

The little pocket above the crayons is great for stickers or other fun stuff you want to carry along.

Hooray for finishes! :) Now it's your turn! Feel free to link up any recent finish you have, being sure to link back here so others can join the fun. You can grab the button from the main TGIFF site (or if you want to learn more, go here.

Also, stop by some of the link ups and comment on what others have finished. We all love a bit of comment love!

Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!