Pay it forward from imagingermonkey!

This has really been my month for pay it forwards! I signed up for a pay it forward on Katy's blog imagingermonkey a while back and then completely forgot about it! She is also one of my partners on the scrappy Christmas block swap on flickr, and she told me last week that my package was on its way, which is when I remembered having signed up. So imagine my surprise and delight when I opened the package to reveal this beautiful animal quilt! Excuse the wrinkles in the picture above-my excitement about photographing outweighed getting the wrinkles out from shipping.:)

A couple of days ago she posted about an interview she did for mixtape, and in the second picture down, you can see a picture of another quilt she did that is just like this one! I find that very exciting. It is a famous quilt, you see! Plus, she is now famous, too!

I love it so much! It works perfectly in our baby's room as you can see. It has all the perfect colors, and it appears as if it was made for this room specifically.

Check out how well it goes with our white rocking chair and the little chair pad I made a few weeks back.


One of my favorite parts is the label she included on the back of the quilt. I really need to start making labels for all of my quilts. So our little one will have a fabulous quilt made for her from all the way across the big pond in England. I think that is pretty fantastic. Thanks Katy! I absolutely adore it and it will be well loved and treasured for many years to come.

This leads me to my part of the pay it forward obligation. The first 3 names who want to play along will get a little handmade something from me in the next 365 days. The only condition is to do one of your own. If you have a blog have your own Pay It Forward, and spread a little handmade loveliness to 3 other people to keep the chain of handmade goodness going on and on. :) Isn't that a lovely thought? Get ready, set, go sign up if you want to play!

Go check out Katy's blog as well!

Pay it forward!

I was the lucky recipient of a wonderful Pay It Forward package from my new friend, Karen, at ShortStoryLong. I signed up for a pay it forward for her a while back, and I had no idea of all the loveliness that I would receive. We live in the same area so we got to meet for lunch on Saturday. I had a great time talking and it was so much fun to get to hang out with a fellow blogger and crafter.

Here is the cute sock monkey bag that she made! Isn't it adorable? I love the flap closure and the blue button. It is the perfect size for library books or to tote back and forth to school. I may have to use it for a diaper bag this fall too!

She used knitting slogan fabric for the interior which I love. Although I am a beginner at knitting, I do hope to get better-maybe I can use this to tote my yarn projects around! I am so happy with the little pockets and I like that they are off center from each other-adds visual interest don't you think?

Inside the bag, there was this cute tin with little knitted booties! How cute are these!

The second picture is true to the color of the booties. These are my favorite part of the gift! I can't wait to get to use them. I love these! I don't know if I can say it enough.:)

Also included in the package is/was a loaf of homemade zucchini bread. It was so fresh from the oven that it was still warm when I received it! I have already had some for dessert Sat. night and for breakfast Sunday morning and this morning. It is yummy!

Thanks Karen for a delightful Saturday afternoon and the thoughtful, wonderful package you put together!

Sewconnected August and Sewconnected2 July

I finished some blocks for two of my swaps over the last week or so. I have been slow at posting the pictures though, so here they are. Amy, at acommonplacelife, is working on a quilt based on a quilt by Kafe Fassett with many blocks within blocks so she requested the same from us for her month of sewconnected.

I made an assortment of sizes ranging from 3.5" square to 9.5"square. In the picture above, there are 5-3.5" and 1-6.5". The little teeny tiny squares that you see in some of the blocks above are 1/4" square! She sent foundation papers to make the smallest ones. They were fun to make. The picture above is a little washed out; the true colors are closer to the pictures that follow.


The three blocks above are 9.5" square. I love the fabrics she sent for us to use. I did add the horse in the last block because it seemed to fit the rest of the fabrics to me.


I also finished this last block for Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio. She wanted us to make blocks based off a drawing one of her sons completed with the beautiful color palette she selected. I felt like I was back in college in one of my two dimensional design classes playing with the layout and composition of this block. I love how it turned out, but I did mess up on the block. She requested that the black lines be 1/2" wide but somehow I read 1" wide so I am hoping that she will be able to use it. I apologized and she gracefully stated that she was sure she would be able to use it, but I still feel horrible. When I realized my mistake, it was too late to go back and fix it because it was already in the mail. It also makes me mad at myself because I was so happy with the way it came out.

I started back to work last week, so I am having to adjust to not having as much time to sew, play, write on this blog, or keep up with other blogs. It is hectic getting everything ready since I will be taking a leave of absence once the baby comes-only 5 weeks give or take! I have a couple more pictures to share of things that I managed to get done last week and this past weekend to share but not much actual sewing has occurred in the last couple of days or probably will occur in the next week or so.

Rocking Chair Cushion: Oh, so comfy!

As I continue to work on the baby's room, I made a cushion for the rocking chair. This was fairly easy to do, but it did take a lot of steps! In case you want to try something like this and so I remember how I did it, here are the basic steps on how I made this cushion.

1. I used leftover jellyroll strips from this quilt and sewed them together to create a bigger piece of newly constructed fabric. I had to add some of the horse fabric because I love it.
   
2. Using a piece of freezer paper, I laid the paper on the chair and traced around the top of the chair to make a pattern piece.
3. I used that pattern to cut the top piece of fabric into the chair shape.
4. Using the same pattern piece, I cut out two pieces of batting utilizing leftover scraps from other projects.
5. Cut out backing fabric for the interior of the cushion.
6. I then freemotion quilted this sandwich together-top piece of fabric, two layers of batting and backing fabric.
7. Make and add cording to the quilted sandwich piece. There are many tutorials on the web for how to do this. I just googled "add cording to pillow" and used bits and pieces of information to best suit my needs.
8. Make ties to attach cushion to chair.
9. Cut two more pieces of backing fabric to create an envelope style closure on the back.
10. Sew everything together! Flip inside out so the right side of the fabric is now on the right side.
    
11. Using leftover egg carton foam (for placing on top of your mattress for more cushion), cut out the same shape of the pillow and insert in the back of your cushion.
    

I am very happy with the way it came out. Now we just need to paint that chair white!

Sewconnected 2: July

I finished my July blocks for Emily of Carolina Patchworks today. I love these fabrics. This is the same line that I used to make my buttercup purse, but I used the green and gold colorway. She requested non-traditional blocks in increments of 5", so these are both 10.5 inches.

I wanted to showcase the lovely deer fabric with this one. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!

Hello Betty Quilt

This is the first quilt made specifically for our little girl on the way. When my mom was visiting about a month ago, we picked out a jelly roll of "hello betty" by chloe's closet by moda. The colors worked perfectly in the scheme of the colors in her room. I love the 1930's style prints in this line. It is big enough that she can use it when her crib is upgraded to a toddler bed.


I love how quilts look when they are folded up! For the backing and the binding, I went with a solid pink. I decided the front was busy enough and something solid was needed for the back. This is the first time in a while that I have used a solid binding and the first time I have used a solid one colored backing. I like it on this quilt, but I do love a pieced backing!

I quilted 1" on either side of the seam lines to mimic the squares and 1/2 inch apart in the border. I really like how the quilting came out after it was washed and dried.

(click on the pictures for a better view)

Specifications:
Fabric: Hello Betty by Chloe's Closet for Moda-used one jelly roll
Pattern: Simply Squared from Strip Happy by Donna Kinsey
Size: 46" x 58"

Happy Thursday!

Basting Away!

I will hopefully be quilting away today!