Family Tree Quilt

All the hours of cutting, sewing, sandwiching, quilting and binding are worth it when you have a finished quilt you love. And I sure love this one! I'm calling it the Family Tree quilt. It's been gifted to my parents as an anniversary present. :-)

It all started with Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow fabrics. I knew I wanted to highlight the pretty trees. And I loved the play of the light and dark fabrics. Log cabin blocks seemed to be the way to go.

There's so many ways to lay out your log cabin blocks! I had to decide before I got too far in since it would matter how I placed my trees. (No upside-down trees in this quilt!) I chose to do diagonal light and dark stripes.

The back is simple. Pieced from a large IKEA sheet and some of the dark brown fabric used for the border on the front.

For the quilting, I did straight diagonal lines to go along with the striped front. I'm not gonna lie, I had a few problematic puckers happening. I pulled out the worst offenders and re-quilted, but there are still a few tiny imperfections. Just keeping it real!

As predicted, my mom loves the trees and the pattern of the front, while my dad prefers the simple look of the back. As long as they're both happy, I'm happy. AND I have enough fabric to make a matching one for me. Keeping it all in the family. :-)

It also feels very fall-ish to me, so I'm entering it in the Celebrate Color event!

New Tea Wallets

Just updated the shop with some new tea bag holders! These little guys keep your tea bags handy and uncrushed for whenever you might need a cuppa.

They can also be used as simple wallets and make for nice little gifties. Which is your favorite?

Making lemonade

Have you seen the Bottled Rainbows quilt-along over at Stitched in Color? While I wasn't sure I wanted to commit to a whole quilt in this style, I really love the look of these colorful blocks. And it inspired me to try some ticker tape quilting.

I was in a purple mood, so that's what I went with. It was actually quite fun arranging my scraps into a pleasing grouping! Once I sewed everything down I was really loving how it came out. So much so that I was tempted to make more of these guys. But in the end I decided to stick with the original plan of making a little mug rug. Got everything all sandwiched, quilted, and bound. And then I did a dumb thing. I decided to wash it. What was I thinking? There's no real need to wash a mini quilt, right? But I had some other mug rugs to clean and some new fabric I wanted to wash. So I threw it in. And it brought out a flaw in my stitching. Eek!

What would you have done at this point? Take it apart? Applique right through to the backing? Try to hand stitch it back on? Throw it away in disgust? I considered all these things. And in the end I had a happy thought: my sewing labels are just about the size of the little rectangle that got messed up... and they're purple! So I pulled out the offending scrap and ironed on the label. I do miss the extra pop of turquoise in that corner, but overall I think it was a good and simple fix for me. And next time I'll be more careful with my zigzags!

Aviary, Embellished

Being partial to birdies, I was quite excited when Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2 fabric line came out. I snatched some up, but wasn't sure at first what I wanted to do with it.

Inspired by images of people simply hanging pretty fabric in hoops, I thought I could do something quick like that to make a nice display. But I couldn't leave well enough alone and just put the fabric in the painted hoops, I had to embellish it!

Just did some simple embroidery to enhance those lovely birdies. I tried to make the stitches look like real bird feathers/markings. It didn't take that long, and I'm pleased with the results.

I added these two little guys to my other birdie embroidery for a nice little display on my wall! I like how it looks now, but I also like that I can add to it and move stuff around as I do more needlework.

What's keeping me busy...

More gifts for friends, like this wallet/checkbook cover.

Fabrics: Alexander Henry Apples & Pears and Joel Dewberry Rose Damask. Label: my design printed by Etsy seller BitsyCreations.



Making progress on my hexes:


Decided I should do something about fabric for the middles so I could get to sewing the hexagon flowers together. Sometimes I think I am clever, like when I picked this Wonderland by MoMo fabric. I can use the fun circles for centers and may use the plain parts for flower borders. I really like how this gives me some variety while tying things together.


Also excited about the Amy Butler Mid Mod contest. I've got an idea in mind and have been working on some prototypes as I wait to get some Midwest Modern fabric. Want to try the contest, or just want some of that gorgeous fabric? Jenna Lou Designs is having a Midwest Modern fabric giveaway!


What's keeping you busy?

Pouches for Pals

The little bags I made for my niece and nephew started me off making a string of zipper pouches. These four were made for my last weekend's reunion with old friends, some of whom I hadn't seen for over two years! The idea was to make something personalized for each of the girls while still somewhat coordinating the fabric to connect the gifts together.


The fabrics are Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry. I filled the bags with some little goodies (Bath & Body Works loot and chocolates), but the girls seemed especially happy to each have a custom-made bag. Before the weekend was over they were showing me how the bags had become makeup kits and purse organizers. Hopefully whenever they use them it will make them think of me and our fun weekend together. :-)


It's so much fun making something to give to someone else! How about you, what is the end result of your crafting? Is it more often for yourself, for gifts, or for sale?