Monday, September 30, 2013

Quick baby gift

After finishing my (Boom Boom) Pow Wow quilt, I had some scraps left over to make a gift for my super-crafty friend who is having a baby soon. As luck would have it, she's using this fabric in her nursery too.

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 I made a fabric basket using Ayumi's tutorial (she has dimensions for a larger basket at the bottom of this post). I added in some other robot-y fabrics I had on hand in addition to the Boy Crazy scraps. I consider it a personal failing that the robots ended up upside down. I really thought long and hard about how to make sure they were face up. Obviously, this was beyond my mental capacity.

 onesie
I also appliquéd some robots and a space ship on onesies.

 Baby gift
Ta-da! (The book I included is called Boss Baby, and I think it's hilarious.)

Thursday, September 26, 2013

And then...she spray basted / Pow Wow finish

I'm not sure why I've been resistant to spray baste. I'm generally in favor of shortcuts, but I've been a little bit stodgy in sticking to my pins. I did try the spray once before without much luck. But after seeing my growing pile of quilt tops, I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see if I could figure this out.

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I found lots of helpful tips online (like Kelly's video and Kristie's tutorial). It does seem that brand matters, and most quilters seem to prefer 505 spray. (I got mine here--I've heard it's the best price around.)

 two quilts
And, guess what? It worked. Within a weekend, I had two quilts basted, quilted, and awaiting hand-stitched binding. (Machine stitching the binding is one shortcut I haven't been able to take. I've tried, but I'm no good at it. And hand-stitching the binding is my favorite.) Will I stick with the spray? Hard to say. It's definitely a time-saver, but spraying all of those chemicals on a quilt bothers me a little. I bought several cans, so I'll be using the spray for a while!


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One of my finishes was this (Boom Boom) Pow-Wow quilt. (Pow-Wow pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.) It's a fun, dynamic quilt that's great for small-scale prints. Most of the prints are from the Boy Crazy line by Riley Blake.

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The large-scale print from Boy Crazy is really fun, but it didn't work with the Pow-Wow pattern, so it ended up on the back!

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And...all finished up! One note on this pattern: Allison's fabric requirements don't include much room for error. Allison says right there on the pattern to cut carefully because you'll need the full width of fabric, but I still made a cutting mistake (or two...) that caused me to rework my plan. (Just to be clear: The cutting instructions are perfect. I happen to be a dunce.) If you're prone to cutting mistakes, you might order a little extra fabric. :)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

WIP Wednesday!

Trying my best to stay on track seeing as *cough* Christmas is three months from today. *cough*

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Finished:
Bee blocks
Do. Good stitches blocks for Michelle
Scrappy Sticks blocks for Michelle (tutorial here)

 #thatstashbee blocks for @renorx Hope you like them!
Lemon Squares blocks for Michonne (tutorial from Fresh Lemons Quilts)

  Baby gift
Baby gift
 More on this soon, but it turned out pretty cute!

Pow Wow and Giraffe Quilts Untitled
 So after seeing the list of quilt tops in my last post, I decided it was time to take up spray basting to speed the process along. As a result, both of these are finished! More on this soon too.

In progress
Orphan dresden
Orange Brown Dresden

I was looking through a storage bin this weekend and found this sad little dresden block. It deserves better! I'm going to make it into something. Probably a fall pillow!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Heartstrings
Giraffe quilt
Guitar quilt
John Deere
Boom Boom Pow Feathers
 Pump Up the Volume

Head to Lee's for lots of WIP inspiration!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Epic blog post of awesomeness!

Well, hello there. How was your summer? We packed a lot into the last couple of months with summer school, family trips, birthdays, lots of pool time, and first days of school. But now it's time to get back on track, and what better way to do that than with a WIP post?


If you follow me on Instagram, lots of this will be familiar!


WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

 Finished:
Bee blocks
Arkansas traveler blocks for Kelsy Houses for Lisa/peace circle Do Good Stitches for August

In progress

Lots of quilt tops around here. My goal for the weekend is to get ONE of them quilted.

John Deere
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Boom Boom Pow Wow

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Pump up the Volume

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Feathers
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Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Heartstrings
Giraffe quilt
Guitar quilt
John Deere
Boom Boom Pow
Feathers
 Pump Up the Volume

Head to Lee's for lots of WIP inspiration!