Red Clover, Red Clover, Let Rover Come Over Finished! UPDATE

Maliyah Ray Meyer was born August 2, 2011.  Gramma was surprised!  It was a scramble, good thing the quilt was done.   I quickly cut out and stitched up a little outfit and a bib and burp set...here they are:

Cheery Cherry Binding is on and this little baby quilt is finished!  All ready for our new granddaughter who will be born on August 17th.  We are so excited and looking forward to her arrival.

Today's project, work on the MMM swap, it's laid out on my wall right now ready for stitching and cut out the baby dresses.  I may stitch some hexies that were fussy cut from the scraps onto the back of this quilt tonight, just for a little point of interest...or they may look really pretty on a little bib or one of the dresses...hmm.

And you better believe, I counted all her fingers and toes...so precious!

UPDATE:  More dresses for the wee one...

All my bibs have a signature rabbit somewhere on them.

MMM Swap Reject

Here it is, my spinning star, it will remain unfinished until the end of August due to time constraints and quilting priorities, we have a granddaughter being born August 17th and I have the MMM Swap to complete.

It will get finished before September.   I already have ideas for the border.  The annual Colfax Quilt Show is in September and I think this would be a fine entry.  After looking at this for a while, and reading the posts from my swap partner, looking at her blog, I determined that this really isn't her style or colors...so, keeping it.  I love it!

The piece is entirely paper pieced.  Fabric dominance is Kaffe Fasset in two colorways, there is also a batik, some hand dyed and some generic off the bolt cotton prints.

Red Clover, Red Clover, Let Rover Come Over

Red Clover is loaded and the quilting has begun!

MMM Swap Sneak Peek

I am rather stumped about my swap partner.  I have looked at her blog and see a ton of fuschia and turquoise.  Now obviously those are favorite colors for her.  Do I replicate what she already has or do I take her in a new direction?

 Her fabric selections are swirly.  I have constructed something with very straight lines and yet it has movement.   I have used her color palette on steroids.  I wonder if she would like this or if I should make it over in a different fabric selection.  I have ordered up some more fabric which should arrive this week and will make it up again in that color way to see if that might be more appealing to her.  In the mean time, these are just little snippets of my potential swap.

Baby Blues Quilt is Finished! And Delivered!!

The Baby Blues quilt was finished and delivered, thought I would post a final pic here and show you a sneak of the next baby quilt, made Sherbet Pips.

Soft and snuggly flannel with a pieced center strip for the backing.

Little Baby Feet strips for binding.

This was fun to finish up with those little feet!

All tucked into the box with the matching diaper tote.

Okay, here is the sneak peek for the next baby quilt.

After a little bit of input from several online quilt pals, I ordered up some red for the border which arrived yesterday, so today's project is to get that border on and then add the blocks around it.  I have ordered up a few yards of the little pips girl in the swing under the tree in white and also in pink for the back of the quilt.  Not sure which color way I will select until I see it together with the quilt.  

A dress will have to be made from the unchosen one!  Stay tuned for more!!!

Japanese Wrist Bags

I have been having fun this weekend sewing up these Japanese Wrist Bags.  I love them and want more!

I saw the pattern offer and the video online and ordered it up, but it will take 5 days to get here, so I just watched the video and drafted up my own pattern.  These go together in about 20 minutes or less, hold everything you need and nothing more, are light weight and secure when they are closed and on your wrist, I mean seriously, how much do you need to tote around with you?  I have found that the bigger the bag, the bigger the mess you have to sort through to find what you need.  This has resolved that issue for me.  Economy of space.  Smart people those Japanese.

Well here are some pictures of the little bags I stitched last night, you can see they are not difficult.  The large loop feeds through the little loop to close the bag and slips nicely over your hand to sit comfortably on your wrist.  It takes only 1 fat quarter of fabric to make this little gem, with the tiniest sliver of waste, I mean tiny as in toss it, there is no use for what is left. (if you've been reading my blog, you know I'm inundated with scraps presently)  I will put the link for the video at the end of this post if you want to make your own.

Another nice thing about these little bags...you just toss them in the washer and you're good to go.  Here is the video, you can watch it, she shows you step by step how to make them.

Pin Cushion Tutorials

Another Project on my list of millions...pattern is blogged here...

offset-square-wrist-pincushion-tutorial

pincushion-tutorial

More Bins, Bins for Scraps!

 Blogged here Bins for Scraps!   I am so excited about this, I just finished making a box for my postal supplies and just ran across this on flicker.  OMGosh, this is perfect, I have been looking for something to sort all the scrappy pieces and this will work.  Sort by color, have the bins with your quilt stuff and you are set!

Okay, on a mission for patterns for these buckets!  Found these links

How-Tuesday Organizational Fabruckets
Bagsket Tutorial
Collapsible Bucket
How To's for Many Styles
Using a Tin Can
Using A Real Bucket
Fabric Scrap Basket
Nesting Quilted Fabric Buckets
Fabric Boxes and other nice links

Fabric Boxes! Just what I need for my organizing escapade! UPDATE!

Well, I have been tearing my sewing/crafting area apart and looking for ways to organize things more efficiently.  So I am in search of creative ways to make boxes, little bins and assorted containers for "things".
These are some links that I have come across this morning and so I am saving them here in my blog to refer back to.  I will add to it as I come across more, if you have suggestions, let me know!

And the winner is...

Geta's Quilting Studio: Fabric boxes

Here is my box and part of the process, you can refer to her tutorial for the details.  Oh my gosh this went together quickly and is exactly what I wanted for my little "postal" space.  I was tired of always reading the mail in the kitchen, making neat little piles only to have them knocked to the floor or mixed up.  I needed a little mail sorting space, with little bins..."bills to be paid", "papers to file", "postage and mailing supplies", etc.
Well, look how cute this turned out!

I had remnants from a chair I covered a few years back and while going through my stash I came across them.  They would be perfect for what I want to do.  So first you cut out your double sided heavy weight fusible interfacing.  Iron your fabric to both sides, trim it up.  You'll need a bottom and 4 side pieces as shown.  Dimensions are your own.  This box measures 9.5" x 12" x 3".  big enough to hold a piece of  8.5 x 11 copy paper with a bit of room to spare.  It was made to fit my space...I'm already planning other sizes for drawers in my bathroom and drawers in my stash area.  Oh, I WILL BE ORGANIZED!

Fuse your fabric to both sides, it doesn't have to be the same fabric, I just really like this one so I used it for the outside and the inside.

As I mentioned, I used my serger to serge all the edges that would be at the top of my box before assembling them.  You could finish it with a simple zig zag or even use fabric binding.  The serger gave me a nice finished edge quickly.  The other thing to do at this point...stitch your handle on if you want one.  Then as shown in the picture below, zig zag with a close wide stitch, your side pieces to the bottom piece.  Look at the picture below this one and you will see how it should look when you are finished.

To finish constructing your box, bring the sides together folding the bottom in half diagonally will let you squeeze the corners together.  I just ran these through my serger as well, but you could zig zag them also.  And you are done!

So after I took this shot and uploaded it, I thought, hmmm...I need a handle on the end, so I whipped one up while this was uploading, it would be easier to do it when it's in the flat stage, my recommendation.  Instead of zig zagging the top edges to finish them, I just ran them through my serger before assembly!  Quick, easy and then I zig zagged the sides to the bottom, used the serger again to complete the side corners and there you have it!  I will be making a lot of these, soon as I run down the hill for some more fast 2 fuse heavyweight double sided fusible interfacing!  This was fun and I am delighted with the results, it totally serves my purpose.  I can see several of these in my drawers already!

More Storage Basket Ideas

Structured Fabric Baskets

Fabric Boxes

Fabric Box tutorial

Cardboard Box covered with fabric

Fabric Basket Tutorial Pink Penguin

No Sew Fabric Covered Boxes

Fabric Container

Embroidered Boxes

I'll add more as I come across them, this will get me started though.

Binding For Ashleigh

Ashleigh, here is a good video that shows you all about binding, watch this before you finish your quilt.


Making Your Binding from Elisa Wilson on Vimeo.


Sewing the binding from Elisa Wilson on Vimeo.


What is a Fat Quarter and Cutting Tips from Elisa Wilson on Vimeo.

PP8 Potholder Pass

Here are the contents of the last package I just sent out on this current round PP8.  To go with the potholders, I made a little apron from the same pattern that Jeannie made mine and of course a little tea wallet and some BBQ fun things to finish it off.   If you would like to make this apron, it takes a yard of fabric and the pattern is blogged about here http://teaginnydesigns.blogspot.com/2011/05/apron-in-hour-remix.html  You can scroll down my blog for a tutorial on the tea wallet, these are fun and can be used for credit cards, business cards, modified and used for passports or just about anything your heart desires.  I used some stack and whack blocks for the potholders.  They were fun and turned out cute I think.  Well looking forward to my next swap, "Make Mine Modern".  This should be fun!

Working on finishing up a baby quilt right now, that is the focus this week, get it quilted and bound, wrapped and delivered!  My package of "peeps" arrived this past week, and those will be put together for the next baby quilt for our granddaughter who will be arriving in August.  This has been a bumper year for babies in our family!  And of course, more sun dresses will need to be made!