What I made today

The Buttercup Bag! I discovered this blog a couple of weeks ago and had been wanting to try this cute little bag.

Made by Rae


The possibilities are endless and although it took me all day, it's quite an accomplishment for me to finish anything in just one day. This is especially true with 2 lunatics running through my house all day. I had a remnant of a brown, cream and turquoise paisley that I wasn't sure what to do with. Paired with a brown and blue dot print, my very first Buttercup Bag came to life! Love it!

Mini Quilt Frenzy

I'm loving making up mini quilts! When you're making it up as you go, it's quite gratifying to finish in a few days (cause I'm slow) rather than weeks & weeks! I had an idea for a fishy quilt that came together using a couple of fat quarters and scraps from a twin size quilt that I started quite awhile ago but have yet to finish.


When my resident quilt admirer (age 2) came in and saw it, she exclaimed, "The fish says BLOOP BLOOP!"


I raw-edge appliqued a large and smaller fish and a hook. The fish are smiling and have button eyes. I quilted lines of water and small fish outlines which can be seen even better on the back. Cool! AND I'm proud to say I'm using up some of my great big stash of fat quarters!

Sea Glass

I'm feeling rather scrappy these days.. Looking through leftover fabrics makes for a HUGE mess in the room, but thankfully I can close the door and ban all visitors from the space so nooo ooone knows about it but me!


I happened upon a blog the other night: http://www.quiltdad.com/ and was inspired to try my hand at a wonky log cabin block. Quilt dad hosted a quilt along a couple of years ago and demonstrated three different versions. I figured that "wonky" comes from having a big ole glass of wine and just sewing random stuff together, but sadly, this is not the case. 


I found a very tiny scrap of a cool bubbly print in primary colors and set about searching/tearing up the sewing room looking for stuff to match it. I actually wasted a lot of time being too matchy matchy and eventually settled on a set of good sized strips that I had leftover from another project.

Strips o' blue

I had originally intended to make a couple of blocks into a mini quilt, but after I was finished making 6" squares, the 8 resulting blocks just evolved into a small baby quilt instead. I even had enough leftover to make a pieced border/frame! 


Boy, I had the wrong idea about random sort of made-up quilts. They actually take a lot longer to plan out and arrange than when following a pattern! At about the point when the front was complete, my 2 year old daughter intruded/came to visit me, and exclaimed, "I LOVE IT!" and  squatted right down and gave it a little kiss, but I didn't have the camera ready, darn.

quilt front

The white on the front is a soft tonal white flower and the white on the back is flannel - ahhh soft.  I absolutely love Ashley from Film in the Fridge's method of piecing quilt backs together, so I tried that on the back and I'm pretty pleased with the result. The colors remind me of sea glass, so that's it's name - simple.

oops the wind blew at just the moment my son was coming by on the mower

Sea Glass

feelin divine

http://windhamfabsnipits.typepad.com/windham-fabric-snip-its/2011/08/feel-divine.html


Great new line of fabrics! I need something cheery and summery as fall approaches.

What I've been up to

In the midst of back-to-school shopping and last minute summer hanging out time with my gals, I've been trying to get some sewing done! I've been told to get my shop "fully stocked!" I wanted to get started on some baby quilts in addition to the totes that I've done.  It's made for some laaaate nights, but I just love to see progress.


The baby quilt that I finished tonight took about 3 days of catching a few minutes here and there to sew. I always spend a great deal more time stewing over what to do than I do actually doing it. I had a couple of HSTs (half square triangles) leftover from a quilt I made a few months ago for my nephew and thought they could make a cute lovey sized blanket. I'm pretty happy with the result.

adding borders, log cabin style

Voila - complete with sashing & self binding

A view of the back - red flannel bordering the odd HST leftover

quilted in the ditch of the front blocks

mistakes were made

I bought this really cool book a month or so ago (after admiring it for weeks on Amazon.)








I've been really looking forward to trying some things. I even found a website on which a group of sewing enthusiasts are gong through and making all the projects over the course of this year! Pink Chalk Studios sew along.  Ahh the petite diaper bag looked so adorable in the book. 

I'm trying to look at mine as a learning experience. I really had to scrounge and piece in order to get enough "ingredients" together for the project. 

• I learned that you actually need to read through the entire process first AND understand it. 
• I learned not to use powerful Pelton as the interfacing. The book just said to use interfacing - it gave no guidance (I don't think) as to the strength, so I guess - wrong. Have you ever tried to maneuver this stuff? I broke out into a sweat trying to flip the tab inside out after it was sewn. The bag is now stronger than me. 
• I learned that the little piece on the changing mat is supposed to be left open in order to attach it to the bag - I confidently sewed mine shut and quilted it before realizing it should've been left open. I didn't even bother with the Velcro.

Ah well, my "petite diaper bag" looks like a wine bag which is what it’s going to be. I’m thinking that the changing mat could be padding between 2 bottles of wine or maybe some sort of pouring placemat because drinking wine is way more fun than changing diapers.

pouring mat

Super Strong wine bag

My activity today

How fun! I was checking out a print site today and had the idea to try my hand at making something. One idea turned into 3! I had rain on my mind as it sprinkled off & on today so I started with a rain drop. The drop became a leaf for a budding tree and then a petal for a flower. I'll think I'll put these in my shop!