Another finished quilt and a tip!

Wow look at me, two blog posts in a week! Maybe I am finally getting back on track!

Today I want to share another of my recent finished quilts. Now, this is soooo not my normal color palette, but when I ran across a Martinique honey bun on sale at my LQS, I couldn't resist! It was just so PRETTY! Not me at all, but so feminine and pretty!

I went with super simple and just sewed all the strips together. I have wanted to do this with a honey bun for AGES, and that was the plan when I purchased this particular honey bun, but it had been sitting in my stash for 6 months before I finally got to it.

Since the top piecing was fairly basic and straight, I knew I wanted quilting that was more elaborate than my normal free motion or straight line abilities. I had tried to free motion quilt flowers before, but I was REALLY bad at it, mostly because I couldn't figure out where to stitch next fast enough and messiness ensued...Then I had a BRILLIANT idea that I will now share with you! Before I basted the quilt, I ironed freezer paper onto the ENTIRE quilt top and drew my quilting lines on first! Then I pin basted straight through the paper.

It worked AMAZINGLY well! I knew exactly where to go to stitch, so I have stitching that actually looks like flowers on my quilt! Now, quilting was a pain, cuz the paper made the whole quilt a little stiff, and I had to tear off chunks of paper as I quilted so I could stuff the quilt under my machine, and at the last bit most of the paper wasn't ironed on anymore, but it was still held on with the pins, so I will definitely NOT do this on any quilt bigger than this, but for this size and smaller, it was SO worth it!

I love this flowery print I used for the back! I am still debating going back for more (in any of the colorways!) to make myself a skirt!

This one finished at 43"x43". That seems to be my average quilt size lately...it's so nice to not have something ginormous to work on!

I used a pretty polka dot from the line for binding. There were so many good choices to choose from for binding fabric, but I finally decided to stick with dots :)
This one is listed in my shop, and will also be available at a local boutique this Friday and Saturday. Actually, I guess this is a good time to inform you about said boutique!


I would like to invite you all to {Handmade} Boutique, happening this weekend here in Gilbert, AZ!

We have some super talented women contributing to this boutique, and I would love to see you there!

Walk in the Park

Alright, I promise I'm not dead or anything, I am here!
I have mentioned that I am a terrible blogger, right? I have? Oh good :)

So I did finally get to photographing that stack of quilts that was sitting around, and I think I will share one today! (Finally!!) And instead of starting with the one that has been sitting neglected the longest, I'm starting with the newest, because it is just so dang pretty!

Spencer has named this one "Walk in the Park", since it's kinda nature-y and flowery and leafy and whatnot. I once again used my square in square block method to piece this one. But, once again, as much as I love these blocks, I got bored and antsy after making 20. Since I wanted to have a larger finished size, I added a pieced border, something I don't do very often. Yeah, I will be doing that more now, because I like it!

It ended up finishing at 48"x58", and is a great lap quilt size.

And have I mentioned I love a pieced backing? Well, let me mention it now! The main blue in the backing here is a print from the Verna line by Kate Spain (I love her fabric!!). I also had a good size chuck of this awesome large scale floral that I used a bit in the front, but couldn't bear to cut up any more. Ta da! Awesome backing fabric!

I straight line quilted this one because I really didn't want to wrestle it around in free motioning, and because well, it just looks good :)

 

I used a fun wavy line print from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern for the binding, which looks great(at least I think so!). This pretty pretty quilt is now listed in the shop, and will also be available this weekend at the Handmade Boutique in Gilbert (at a discounted price!) for any of you who are local. Come on out and support some local "crafty ladies"!

Holiday Homemakers Sale

I love you all, and I don't want to annoy you with advertising, but well, I'm gonna advertise. Well, we will call it INFORMING instead of advertising :)

I am participating in a boutique tomorrow, and would love to see some visitors! I will be selling quilts: all of those currently on my etsy site plus 5 more that haven't made it online yet. And a few of my etsy quilts will be on SALE at the show! My friend and I will also be selling these super cute coal sacks, awesome stocking stuffers!

There will be some other awesome and talented vendors with cool stuff too!
Jewelry
Hair bows/flowers
Bow boards(these are sooo cool!)
Scentsy
And more!

For anyone interested, it will be from 8am-2pm tomorrow, Saturday 20, at the S.E. corner of Recker & Guadalupe in Superstition Highlands, Gilbert - follow the signs!

Thanks tons for putting up with all of my, uh, informing, and hope to see you there!

I hate coming up with post titles

Preparations for the boutique on Saturday(eek, only 2 days away and still much to do!) continue around here. I have added two more finished quilts to the growing stack that I have yet to show off; I just counted and there are SEVEN unphotographed fnished quilts sitting here! Ok, I have my naptime activity today...
Anyways, along with my quilty preparations, my awesome friend Melanie came up with a super fun item for us to make for this boutique. So, off I went on Tuesday to craft! We decided it is way more fun to craft with someone else than all by our lonesome!
Of course, lame blogger that I am, I forgot my camera! Luckily, Mel is much more blog responsible (and has a much better camera!), so she snapped the pictures. And put up a fabulous post! So, I now direct you to visit the Crafty Cupboard to see our fun!

ps- Hurray for no face shots in those pictures since my hair was still wet and I had not a speck of makeup on!

All quiet on the blog front

So, the blog has been pretty quiet lately. Closer to completely silent than quiet, really... But that is because I have been sewing up a storm and haven't taken the time to 1) take pictures of whatever I am working on or 2)uuhh, blog about it. I'm lame, I know.

Besides some awesome halloween costumes (Waldo, as in Where's Waldo, Wenda his girlfriend, and a super cute punk rocker; pictures to come!), I have this whole stack of quilts that need to be photographed:

Yeah, I already admitted I was a lame blogger. I am WAAAAY behind!

And I started this one this week:

Blocks made with my square in square tutorial. I love these blocks, I can't seem to make enough quilts with them! I am participating in a Holiday Boutique on 11/20 (If you are local and want more info, let me know! The coordinator is still looking for vendors, or if you want to shop, I can get you that info too!), so I hope to have this one done by then, but I want it to be on the bigger side, so who knows if that will actually happen!

Drawstring Backpack Tutorial

Warning, super super picture heavy post!! I have step by step (by step!) pictures for making this awesome easy(ish) drawstring backpack! And may I say, wow blogger took FOREVER...

Alright, most of the directions are on the pictures, and each picture is numbered. I refer to picture numbers in a couple steps :) 

Materials:

Yardage requirements for 1 fabric bag(straps/casing/body all one fabric): 3/4 yard

Yardage requirements for 2 fabric bag(pictured): 1/2 yard for body, and 1/2 yard for straps and casing

Matching thread

Important!!! IRON YOUR FABRIC before you cut it out. It will make your life soooo much easier.

Cut sizes:

Bag body 14" x 30"

casing 4" x 14" (cut TWO)

straps 4" x 34" (cut TWO) 

I use something called french seams on the body of this bag (pictures 2 and 3). You can just serge it if you want, but I like the finish of french seams for the inside of the bag.  

Now time to prep the top casing:

And now the straps:

Ok, back to the casing. 

Alright, now to attach straps to bag body. I apologize for the somewhat crappy pictures and instructions for the straps. I realized midway that I should have had the bag turned how it is in pic 18 so it would make more sense...

Time for the casing!

As always, if you have any questions or need clarification or whatever, leave me a comment or shoot me an email! I'm finishing this late at night, and it makes sense to me now...I will definitely need to proof it again in the morning! :)