Mini Felt Project

Sewing was suspended in anticipation of our state June Gathering. 

I signed up for the wool felt applique, partly because I didn't want to lug a sewing machine

to the sessions and partly because I wanted a quick finish.

I finished the mini hanging above in class and started the one below.

I hope to finish the second one this afternoon.

There is also a pattern for a small Christmas ornament that I will cut out today.

Here is a close-up.

Our teacher brought all the materials, even the little stand.

Another fun part of June Gathering is shopping.

I bought fat quarters that appealed to me.

Now-what can I made with these 5 pieces? 

Maybe a small trip around the world.

Here are five more I think look good together.

These two might make a cute girly bag for Miss Ava.

 The boys might get something made from these two fabrics.

Orange was the connection for these three.

Something fun to do this summer.

A scavenger hunt! I think it will be lots of fun.

The pink dot is the color of a log cabin block I get to make.

I posted my first entry of the scavenger hunt on Instagram. Look for more #MQASummerHunt2019.

Bouquets for LeAnn

This is the story of a super fast finish for me. I bought fabric on Monday and cut it out. Tuesday I had to go back for a fourth yard more fabric because I cut a strip wrong.

Strip pieced and chain sewed the blocks after school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Sewed on the borders then the backing went on envelop style with no batting.

I top-stitched around the edge then quilted on the diagonal thru the white blocks.

Below is the finished flimsy.

Here my quilt holder is showing the front.

And here is the yellow minky dots back. It is sagging a little on the quilted lines.

All ready to give to my friend LeAnn.

This isn't really a quilt since there is no batting. LeAnn is moving to New Mexico. I thought a light weight throw would be more useful than a heavy quilt.

She said she likes a soft backing. Minky Dots it is.

I didn't want to put a label on the minky side so I wrote on a corner block.

The throw is 72" by 60" and was finished in four days!

It is a simple four patch pattern with 6.5" alternate blocks.

The pink and yellow blocks criss-cross around the solid blocks.

In other news we have had several very stormy days. These Asian lilies are doing great here...

and here.

White Easter lilies are blooming, too.

Linking up with Wendy. Take a look at her shuttles quilt. Happy Mothers Day!

Small finishes

Small gifts for my students are finished.

The first group was done a week or so ago.

I had problems with the snaps so this group had buttons and thread loops.

Here are the new finishes. These have button and elastic loops instead of snaps.

The students chose two colors and I pulled fabric from my stash.

I tried to use the first color as the outside and the second color inside.

I still need to make button holes and sew buttons on my blue top.

Then I am going to start my Good Fortune quilt.

I have so many downloaded quilt patterns. I don't know where they will lead me.

Have a good week!

She loves the unicorns

Little Miss Ava made up a song about unicorns and our son sent a short video of her strumming his guitar and singing, "I love the unicorns." So cute.

We are going to visit her next week end and I found a free apron pattern and unicorn fabric.

TaDa! Unicorn apron.

It has pockets, rickrack, and unicorn ribbon ties.

Super quick. I made it yesterday after school.

In other sewing finishes, I made myself a top out of this lightweight batik-like fabric.

This is the front.

Here is the back.

Another view. I made the sleeves without roll tabs. I am going to add a button because the fit is too loose at the neck. Other than that I am happy with the pattern.

And here is the pattern. I made view A.

Last week end I shared these key ring pouches. I changed the snap closure to a button and loop. Each student got to choose a lip balm. Even the boys took one. I'm making 13 more tomorrow.

These will be handy for keys and ID cards.

have to leave you with a photo of the flowers blooming in our yard this week.

Hope you have a great week.

This week's finishes

This week was good for finishes. 

I made these pot holders to add to the wedding gift.

The pot holders match the apron I finished last week. The color is truer in the photo above.

I almost finished these key chain card holders.

I had problems with the snaps on the first one, so I have decided to change the closure.

Velcro is one option but I think I'm going with a button and elastic loop.

I will make another pink/blue one because the snap doesn't work and removing it will leave a hole.

These are for my students. I have about 10 more to make.

The simple shell wrap is finished. I changed the pattern significantly.

I made it longer and had the rows going horizontal instead of vertical. 

I added a shell border all the way around. 

The last row was written with a straight edge. I stopped with the scalloped edge and reinforced it with a single crochet along the length.

I am very pleased with how it turned out. It will be a great wrap to use in air conditioned rooms.

I used 4 skeins of 100% cotton Ultra Pima Paints yarn.

The finished size is 60" X 21".

Still time to get more sewing done over this long week end.

Happy Easter!

Spring projects

Spring is here! My favorite flowers are blooming. I love iris.

I started crocheting a shawl from a pattern I found at Dabbles and Babbles. At first I chained 100 and
crocheted along for a while. Then I decided I wanted to orient it the other way so all that was undone.

This time I chained 200+ and began again. I fixed some parts that I didn't understand the first time.

Below is how far I have gotten with one skein and a little more. Fortunately my yarn shop had more of the same dye lot, so I bought another skein. I think 4 skeins will make the shawl I imagine.

I meant to finish the charity quilt but realized I had an invitation to a wedding shower so....

I looked at the gift registry and found that all the happy couple had chosen was white or ivory with a few accents of red. I made a quick reversible apron with fabric I bought in Boston at a Vietnamese fabric shop. Below is the red side.

I used cream for the other side. If there is time I will make some matching 'Hot Fingers' oven mitts.

Hope to link with Wendy. Enjoy the spring/fall where you are.

April baby quilt finish

Today I pin basted this charity quilt. My quilt group puts together kits of fabric to make lap quilts for children and adults. I picked up the kit in January and sewed the top together. I could have turned it back in for someone else to quilt and bind. I decided to finish it myself. Next step, quilt something in the long yellow and blue sections. Then bind with yellow. 

Here it is all rolled up and ready to quilt. 

I always pin baste on the dining room table on this cardboard cutting board. The pins can stick into it and not damage my dining table or the expensive pad under the table cloth.

Most of my batting is odd bits. I zigzagged two pieces together for the next quilt.

My usual baby quilt is a giant 9 patch. It takes 2 fat quarters and one half yard. This fabric was so cute I wanted to try something different. The center is a fat quarter of some darling foxes, squirrels, and hedgehogs. After a few oops moments, this is the final design. 

Ready to quilt. The backing fabric has little chicks. I cut it too small, so it had to be pieced. 

We'll call that another design feature - pieced back.

I found just enough aqua polka-dots for the binding.

I remembered to sew a white triangle for the label. It's my favorite way to label small quilts.

Finished! The binding went smoothly. I machine sewed it on the back first because of some issues with an almost too small backing. I wanted to be sure there were no gaps between the binding and backing. Thumbs up. It worked.

All four corners look great. Yea!

I will work on the charity quilt next.

Linking up with Peacock Party.

Thanks, Wendy.