Sunday, October 31, 2010

My School Bag



I have a whole stash of tote bags, each with a different purpose. I have one for my Sunday School material, one for volleyball, and since as of the end of September, I am a student again, I needed one for school. I had found this funky fabric at Ikea in the spring. I knew it would make a super cute tote for someone! I used a no-whale corduroy for the pockets and handles and lined it in a chocolate brown solid. Filled with school books, it's a pretty heavy bag, but it makes me smile :)

Friday, October 29, 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Amy's Creative Side - Blogger's Quilt Festival

DQS8finished, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.


I'm sharing with you a little doll quilt that I completed this year, using all fabrics from my scrap bucket. I had made a large lap sized Merry Go Round Quilt last fall and I wanted to challenge myself to a mini version. It was really a lot of fun to put together. I just loved matching up all of the fabrics! I was able to practice a new-to-me quilting technique because it was such a small size. Hope you enjoy and have a jaw-droppingly good time looking at all the gorgeous quilts!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Back to School I Spy


Back to School I Spy, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.

My youngest went off to Kindergarten this year. I'm caught somewhere between *sniff* and Yay! Well, anyway, each child needed a nap mat. The teacher sent home a note saying that they could simply bring a towel for a mat, but there was no way the son of a quilter was taking a towel for a mat :) I saw this great I Spy pattern written up by Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Fabrics for Craft Hope. I knew that I wanted to make one, but I made a few changes (as usual!) Check out the great FREE pattern!
Quilted in an allover stipple using variegated thread. I "enveloped this quilt and backed it with Minkee. I'm not thrilled with the result. As you can see the edges are pretty wavy. But little guy likes it and that's really what it's all about. I have a feeling it won't help him nap, though, in a room full of kids :)

Sewingmamas.com Summer Doll Quilt Swap


SMSummerDQS, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.

Here is the little quilt I did for my partner on the www.sewingmamas.com doll quilt swap. I saw a mini Trip Around the World in an old (at least 20 years!) quilt magazine and sketched out a version in my handy dandy graph paper notebook, adding it to my to-do someday list. Just a few weeks ago, I saw that the super talented Red Pepper Quilts had done one of these in stunning primary colors. LOVE! Well, that quickly moved this project up from the TO-DO to the MUST-DO :) I was pretty sure that I didn't want to just cut and piece all those little pieces so I used a very thin fusible web and ironed on all the squares (cut 1 1/2" each), then sewed the vertical seams first and then horizontal. I used some of my favorite bright summery fabrics all framing that one little Heather Ross mushroom.
I quilted this little one in an all over diagonal pattern and bound with a solid red.
The quilt is in the hands of my partner now and I think I might need one for my wall, too :)

Saturday, June 12, 2010

A fantastic giveaway!





Amy, from Amy's Creative Side Blog is having a ton of fantastic giveaways. Definitely check her out. I would love to win this!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Recess Mini Quilt


Recess Mini Quilt, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.

Happy Memorial Day! And a huge thanks to all those who have faithfully served our country in the armed forces. Most of you are volunteers, some of you were drafted, but you all gave of your time and energy to make our country a GREAT place to live!

I was really going to sleep in this morning, but my puppy and my bladder had different ideas! Anyway, it's so nice to be up before the crew and enjoy a few peaceful moments before I need to be making my potato salad and apple pie :)

Above is my most recent finished project. I have a spot at the end of my hallway that has displayed seasonal quilts. The problem is, I only have a fall and winter one that fits. The empty space was bothering me so I picked up this Shnibbles pattern (LIttle Bit O' Country, I believe) and found some leftover Recess charm squares and went to work! It was a quick, fun project to do and I couldn't be happier with the brightness it adds to the hall!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Bloggers Quilt Fesitval!

I just love the Bloggers Quilt Festival! Thank you so much Amy for your inspirataion and continued willingness to host it. If you would like to see all of the other participating blogs, just click on the button :)







My quilt this time around is a queen sized bed quilt for my very own bed. You know the old tale of the shoemakers children going without shoes? Well, my dear hubby has been asking for a time for one of my quilts for OUR bed. *Of course, the pup had to get in on the action!*

I put it off for so long:
A. because we have moved SO much thanks to the Army
B. I couldn't decide on the appropriate colors
C. I don't love making large quilts

Now, we are settled though, and I had no more excuses. Our bedroom walls are a sagey green with white trim. Dh really likes more traditional fabrics and patterns so we decided together on the fabric line Glace by Moda. It's really a Christmas line, but really it had so few obviously Christmas prints that I knew it would be just fine.
Pattern is a disappearing 9 patch. Quick and easy!
The best part about this quilt, though, is that I had an opportunity to visit my sister over Spring Break and quilt this on her mid-arm. So fun! I made tons of mistakes, but it was so much easier than straining my muscles trying to quilt this on my home machine!



Have fun visiting all the quilts and blogs!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Links to some of my Paducah favorites!

Ok, I can't post the pictures that I took here on my blog, but I so want to share some of the beauties we saw at the AQS show in Paducah. So, take the time to follow these links. I think you'll be inspired.

Captivated- I think this might have been my favorite. I love the traditional blocks incorporated in the pictoral design.

www.mariaelkins.com/index.php/quilts/captivated/comment-page-1/#comment-17

Or maybe it was this one...

www.denisehavlan.com

This next one was a winner at the Lancaster show and displayed in Paducah. I would LOVE to make something similar someday.

www.picassaweb.google.com/sacredspacefiber/AQSLancaster2010?feat=directlink#5453692163450428546

Where Fabric Grows on Trees. This is a little one. The details were so well done!

http://www.ihqs.org/images/2010gallery/1000_Full.html

I wish I could share

with all of you all the lovely quilt pictures I have from the AQS show in Paducah, KY. There were some absolutely jaw-dropping quilts! Alas, they are not mine to share. You'll just have to make the trip sometime :) We did notice a huge trend toward the art quilting and extremely detailed machine quilting. There were actually very few traditionally pieced quilts.

A little disappointment in the vendors at the quilt show. The fabric vendors were heavily leaning toward the Civil War type fabrics, which are lovely, but I just don't work much with them. I saw NONE of the new lines of fabric, surprisingly enough. I did have a blast at Hancocks of Paducah. In their back room, it's a fabric frenzy with flat folds at $3.96 a yd. Fun, fun, fun. Most of the ladies I was travelling with didn't like the crowd in there, but I had a blast!

Not a lot of actual quilting going on here. I just finished up the costumes for Suessical and that took a bunch of time. I'm glad to be able to cross that off the list and get back to some fun projects :)

I did sew up this tote for a door prize for our Ladies Spring Fling. (Fabrics ala the craziness at HOP)


Monday, April 19, 2010

What to do with leftover blocks?


I found a GREAT idea over at Modify Tradition! I used 12 1/2 " Quatrefoil blocks to make.....Ricebags with removable/washable covers :) These will be gifts for some of my favorite quilters, who all happen to be related to me. We are off to Paducah on Wednesday for 4 days of quilty fun! Don't look, Joy :p

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Elizabeth's FQ pack from SewMamaSew

So, I recently decided that I was going to make a picnic quilt for my cousin and his bride-to-be. He has two young boys involved in sports and I figured they would be spending a bunch of time sitting outside watching ball games :) I was checking out her gift registry and saw that her basic house colors were grey, brown, and green. I don't know the bride very well, so I wanted to go with the colors I knew she liked. I'm just planning to do large simple squares. Anyway, I saw that Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson had put together a FQ pack for SewMamaSew and it was just perfect! I went to order it and the site said Sold Out :( I thought I would just look for something similar and I saw the pack again in another section of the store and this time I was able to order it.. Hmmmm...not sure what happened, but I'm tickled! Not only was I able to order it, but the package was here on my door step in 3 days! Way to go, SMS!

Thursday, April 8, 2010


I have been in a bit of a sewing slump, therefore a blogging slump. I did need to get a few things done, though, so today I set aside the time to get re-acquainted with my sewing machine. My aunt picked up these vintage blocks at a flea market somewhere. I think she even got them for free. She found sashing and border fabric and pieced the top, then asked me to quilt it. I mulled around a LOT of ideas. Researched how quilts from the 60's era would have been quilted. I realized that this quilt very well could have been tied. I knew I wasn't going that direction, so I began to think of doing the Baptist Fan pattern, or maybe Clamshell, then I thought of cross-hatch quilting. I hadn't done any of these on a quilt larger than a doll sized, so they all were a bit intimidating! I finally decided that my good 'ol stipple would work swimmingly on this quilt and as soon as I made the decision, my mind was free to get to work on it. I'm pretty pleased with the results and now I have a little extra cash for the trip to Paducah!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

My 1 year12quilts month! Woohoo!

This quilt was my inspiration. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. A huge thumbs up to this quilting bee and especially to ritapizza for her fantastic finish!

I also happened to have a few layer cakes of Tula Pink's Neptune line hanging around just waiting to be used and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I'm sending each participant 7 layer cake pieces along with a 2 1/4" strip WOF.

I spent some time on Flickr looking for quilt blocks reminiscent of the sea and found quite a few. Snail's Trail looks a lot like waves to me. Marinier's Compass, Storm at Sea, Geese in the Pond. I could go on and on.

Just look at this gorgeous Storm at Sea by quiltedoma...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27027073@N04/4103894530/

In a nutshell, my "guidelines" are:

1. Be inspired by the sea.

2. Use the Neptune fabric only (if you must add one fabric to make your vision complete, use a solid-ish white)

3. 12 1/2" Pieced blocks- no applique this time

4. One or two blocks, whatever works :)

5. Know right now that I will probably be thrilled with your idea and execution, so relax and have fun!!!!

I really can't wait to see what the group comes up with!

Monday, March 8, 2010

On my Sewing Room Floor


Well, it WAS on my sewing room floor. I had the first two rows sewn together and got called away from the the project and although I meant to finish up this weekend, unexpected company came and there went the weekend plans! Did I mention that we have a 7 month old lab puppy AND a 5 year old little boy, both of whom felt it was their duty in life to mess up the carefully laid out blocks. *sigh* So, I picked them up, all out of order, and put them back in the UFO pile. I WILL get to it soon! I plan to make this a quilt for my daughters double bed. I'll wing the borders as I go, so who knows what the finished product will look like :) I promise I'll share, though!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

A pair of doll quilts

First up is my doll quilt for DQS8. Based on my larger sized MerryGoRound quilt. I used a 1 1/4" strips this time. The trickiest part of this was definitely the binding. I *almost* cut the edges off straight so I wouldn't have to mess with all those corners, but I just knew I wanted to show off the hexagon shape, so I went ahead and did the hard thing :) As it turns out, it's my least favorite part of the little quilt, but at this point, I'm not re-doing it!


Next is the doll quilt for my Sewingmamas partner. It was really a winter themed doll quilt swap, but I just loved the color scheme of my first mini, so I stuck with that. Besides, my partner mentioned that her daughters play room was decorated in these colors. I was completely inspried by Oh, Fransson's baby sized quilt. Ack,my colors are kind of washed out. Oh well, it's already packaged up!


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Quilting Bee Blocks For February



Rene had a great concept this month. Improv crosses, red on white. I was excited to start, but I was stumped for so long on what I wanted to do. The day I SHOULD have had the blocks in the mail, I sat down with my trusty graph paper and sketched out some ideas. As soon as I put pencil to paper, I began to trust the whole process. I suppose the whole idea of improv is to just start sewing, but that worries me a little :) I felt better when I could see where I was going.


Friday, February 5, 2010

Sew and Tell Friday!


Yes, I can sew non-quilty things! I actually have quite a large stash of garment sewing fabric, especially knits that I need to bust through. I'm participating in the stash challenge over at Sewingmamas and working hard at sewing up some of my favorites. I'm getting to the point where I'd rather be quilting but I just hate to see this cute fabric go to waste and selling it too much of a bother, so stash busting it is for the month of February!
First, up some undies for my dd. A Kwik Sew pattern, the number is escaping me, but she just loves the fit on these and unfortunately she's now in the largest size :(


Next, a few pairs of simple fleece lounge pants for the littlest guy. He is so into soft clothes and he was thrilled to wear these!

And finally, an easy peasy way to bust through the knit scraps....washcloths! These are way more fun to use than the boring, plain washcloths you buy at the store, just ask my kids:) Knit tops with terry backs.


This is the first time I've participated in the Sew and Tell Friday. How fun! Now go check out the other entries at amylouwho!

*Tutorial* Oilcloth Bowl Covers


So, I have these really great wooden bowls that I absolutely L-O-V-E. They can go in the fridge, in the microwave, in the dishwasher. You can drop them on the floor and they literally bounce back. I ordered them from King Arthur Flour years ago and they've just been my faves. Here's the problem, though....plastic wrap absolutely will not cling to it, even aluminum foil struggles to stay in place. Well, about a month ago my LQS got some lovely Anna Maria Horner Oilcloth in stock and the light bulb over my head flashed on as I remembered the plastic bowl covers that my mom used to use. These are SO easy to do, you probably don't need a tutorial, but hey, it was easy enough to take pictures of the process, so here ya' go! And seriuosly, I'd choose YOUR ChexMix over all the other ChexMix's if they came in a bowl with a nifty cover. Yup.
Oilcloth Bowl Covers

Supplies:

1/2 yard oilcloth- this should cover 4-6 bowls, depending on size

1/4 " elastic (or around that size)

Pinking Shears (optional, also. I just like the look :))

Mixing bowls

Instructions:
1. Take the mixing bowl you would like to cover and place it, rim down, on the wrong side of the oilcloth. Trace around the bowl, adding 2 inches. I used my ruler and marked 2 inches about every 3 inches and then "connected the dots"


By all means, measure and use a compass if you can find one of the 15 you know your family has SOMEWHERE in the house.


2. Use your pinking shears to cut out the oilcloth along that line. Then mark a line 1 inch in from the outside edge. This will be your sewing line. I really just eyeballed this.

3. Now we need to measure for the elastic. Measure the circumference of the line you just drew and multiply that by 2/3 and then subtract 1 inch. For example: if your circumference measures 33" then 2/3 of that would be 22", subract 1" and your elastic measurement will be 21".

4. Mark your elastic into quarters and do the same for your oilcloth circle. This will help you in getting the elastic sewn on evenly.


5. Sew on the elastic using a zigzag stitch, stretching the elastic to match your marks.

Place the cover on your bowl and admire your work! Thanks for looking and as always, feel free to ask any questions!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Or dis? or dis?



My now 13 yo used to ask this when she couldn't decide between two different things. I love her! Now I'm in a quandary. I just can't decide which color scheme I like better for the doll quilt I'm making for DQS8. I'm planning on doing a miniature version of my Merry Go Round quilt, if that helps. What do you think? I wish I could show you my partners flickr faves, but it really needs to remain secret. Suffice it to say, I think both would fit her style. I hope....


Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Sleep-Over Quilt


I was pretty excited when my LQS asked me to start sewing some samples for the store! I don't get paid or anything, but I do get free fabric and a pattern and I get to keep the finished project when she's done displaying it.

Here is my first project. It's called the Sleep-Over Quilt and it's a simple project to put together. It's basically 24 layer cake squares, sewn together, quilted and bound. Then some pockets are added to the outside. The quilt folds into the large pocket and the two smaller ones are to tuck in a toothbrush, pj's and any thing else you might need for a sleep over.
And here's the pattern. Easy Peasy, great directions. I would make the handles a bit longer next time, though.










Thursday, January 7, 2010

Another Christmas Party!??

Yep, one more to go. This one is actually a re-schedule from mid-December. We were hit with a snow storm and had to cancel our 3rd Annual quilting group get-together. There was NO WAY we could squeeze it into December, so January it is!

We each had a challenge to use a specific FQ, in this case it's the holly berry, and make a gift for someone. You can use as little or as much of the fabric as we choose. (One year, I used just 1 sq. inch! )

Here is my gift this year. A hot pad, a tea towel and a White Chocolate Scone Mix in a fabric bag. I sure hope one of my quilting friends loves it!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Projects 2009


Projects 2009, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.

I thought I'd share some of my favorite quilts from 2009. I just had to throw in my Amy Butler Weekender in there because it was so much work and I LOVE to use it. I'm so glad I took the time to make it :)