Happy Birthday Banner

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while and finally finished it up last night! I used all scraps for this project which made me so very happy. The only thing I had to purchase was heat n bond to use to fuse the letters to the background.

I also had fun some of my decorative stitches on my machine to applique the letters on. This was my first attempt at applique and it was fun! I love trying and learning a little bit about a new skill.

The entire banner is approximately 15 feet long with each pennant approx. 4.5 x 9 inches. It took a while, but I am looking forward to making more of these. I think a "merry christmas" is in order for Christmas next year as well.

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Edit:

I used a combination of tutorials to make this project.
I used this tutorial from moda bakeshop for the applique letters.
This tutorial inspired me to make triangular shaped pennants. I changed it up by appliqueing the letters on first.

My modifications on the triangles:
1. Sew the fabric together wrong sides facing and then flip it out so the pretty fabric is on the outside. Next, sew a 1/4 inch down the sides of the triangles to help them keep their shape.
2. I then made binding tape out of leftover 2 inch wide strips of varying lengths of various scrap fabric. I used about 15 feet.
3. The tutorial from moda follows how I attached the triangles to the binding strips.
I hope this helps anyone who wants to make their own!

Strip Twist Pink and Green

The pink and green version of the Strip Twist quilt is finished! I love the pink and green fabrics together. It is approximately 28" by 36". I used half of a Oh, Cherry oh! Jelly Roll from Moda for the fabrics on the front and assorted prints from the line and a miscellaneous green I had in my stash for the backing.


I attached the binding by machine using a decorative stitch. I really like how it mimics the meandering in the quilting. The binding is scrappy pieced using leftover fabric from the project. I am currently loving pieced bindings.

I had to do another pieced backing. This time I just did long strips for the back. I wanted to hang it up for a picture, but my improvised yarn clothesline snapped when I was trying to hang it up. So it was draped over the swing instead.

I love how quilts look all folded up! Have a good weekend everyone!

Quilt Festival 2009

Here is my entry for ParkCityGirl's Quilt Festival:


I couldn't resist entering Amy's quilt show! These two quilts I completed last summer and you can find the full details for the quilt above and below here. I had a lot of fun with my Fresh Squeezed quilt. It is a disappearing nine patch and is lap quilt size. I used four charm packs of Moda's Fresh Squeezed line of fabrics. I love how summery it is and cheerful.
I went wild with the backing and used up all my leftover pieces of fabric and leftover quilt blocks. I pieced it together as I went without a lot of preplanning which was very liberating and quite fun! I did have a couple creases or wrinkles that were quilted over on the back but I still love it. It is amazing to see how much I have learned over the past year and how much easier it is to do some things that seemed so hard at the time.

This is the very first "real" quilt that I completed so I had to include it. This is my Nickel Dog Quilt using Strawberry Lemonade fabrics from Moda. I love all the dogs and the happy, bright fabric. This was a baby gift for my niece who was born last May. Now I wish I had stippled in the green border, but that seemed so difficult at the time.

Oh Cherry Strip Twist

This past weekend I finished my first Oh Cherry Strip Twist baby quilt. It is amazing how much easier it is to quilt a baby quilt than even a lap quilt! It is approx. 32" x 48". I used leftover jellyroll strips to make a pieced binding. I love this fabric line. It is so perfect for little ones and it just seems so happy and cheery:)-silly pun on words...

When I pieced together my green and pink version of this quilt, I had leftover blue blocks, so I included them as a row on the back of this quilt. I really like how the back turned out. The colors are a little washed out, so you can see the colors a little better here.

This marks my fourth baby quilt finish for the year and the third for the month of April. I may just have another one done by next weekend. I am enjoying Jacquie's Spring to Finish because it is giving me the drive to finish up all these in progress quilts! I still need to make more baby quilts because I know so many people with little ones on the way. :)

Oh Cherry Strip Twist Pink and Green Version

This is my second baby quilt using the rest of the Oh Cherry Oh! Jelly Roll. I decided to make this one all pinks and greens. Now I just need to finish making backs for the these two quilts and get these quilted!

Happy Friday everyone!

Oh Cherry Strip Twist

This is my newest wip- Oh Cherry Oh! Strip Twist baby quilt. Each block is 8". I used a pattern called Strip Twist that I picked up at my local quilt shop. I had to learn how to make partial seams for this one. The partial seams were not as hard as I thought they would be.:) I used half of a "Oh Cherry, Oh!" Jelly Roll from Moda. I am hoping to have a finished quilt after this weekend.

Black, white, and yellow Squares Askew Baby Quilt

Over the past weekend, I was able to finish another baby quilt. One of my goals this year is to create a quilt with black, white, and one other color. I found this great black and white fabric at a local quilt shop and added a shot of yellow to the mix. I have heard that babies can only see black and white when they are first born so this seems perfect for a newborn.
A while ago, my blog friend Amy at ParkCityGirl created her own pattern using squares within squares. She was kind enough to send me the pattern that she created so I could create my own! Thanks Amy! The only thing that I changed was shaving off an inch on all sides so that I could use a single piece of 44" wide material for the backing.

I found the perfect piece of black, white and yellow fabric for the backing, too. I love this print. It doesn't fit what I normally think of for a baby quilt, and I think that is why I love it so much.:)

New Zig Zag Baby Quilt

I finished my second zig zag baby quilt that has been in progress for a while. I had started it back in March. This is the second one I have made with this color scheme; the first one you can see here.

I am really loving the orange, pink, and green combination and I love the simplicity of the zig zag design.

I pieced the back on this one. I did not have enough green left over so I needed to do something to make it stretch over the back of the quilt. I am happy with the way it came out.:)

I am also happy to have finished another wip and just in time for Jacquie's Spring to Finish motivational contest! I have so many things that need to be finished! A list is coming later this week with all of my works in progress.

Happy Thursday!

Southwest Colorado

Last week was spring break, so we took some time to explore the southwest corner of Colorado. We stayed in Durango and explored from there.


We drove from Durango to Silverton and Ouray, CO along "the million dollar highway". The views were beautiful. I would not want to drive these roads when it was snowing because there are no guard rails on any of the roads. You can look straight down the side of the mountain.


We also went to the Hovenweep National Monument which is on the border of Utah and Colorado. It is really out in the middle on nowhere.
The ancient Pueblo people built their community along this canyon. We hiked around the rim and then back through the canyon and up. It is a two mile loop where you pass the remaining structures from 800 years ago. That is amazing to me!


Since we were in the vicinity, we stopped at the 4 corners region where one can stand in four states at the same time! It really wasn't as cool as I thought it might be. They do have a cool marker so you can see which state you are currently in. I have now stood in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at the same time.:)




We also headed over to Mesa Verde . We went here a four years ago during the summer and had a wonderful time. It was much cooler this spring, in fact it was snowing while we were there.Most of the sites are closed during the winter, but we were able to hike down to Spruce Tree House.



These pictures are from inside Spruce Tree House. The ladder descends into the kiva where they would have sacred ceremonies in the earth. Aren't the walls amazing? It is unbelievable that each of these stones in hand carved and carried through the canyon to form this structure. Each of the rooms was tiny-5x6 feet.


Here is another site built into the side of the canyon wall. You have to climb up 36 ft. ladders to access some of these location. They would use footholes and hand grabs to climb up to their home. It is such a beautiful place.

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone.:)