Vintage Kitty Top Done!

From the looks of this picture, it looks like I was drinking last night but honest, I wasn't.  Tilt your head a little.  It'll look better.  lol

It was very late last night when I went in and finished sewing borders on this simple quilt top.  This is the one I started after Road to CA and before my hubby's hip surgery, Ellis's birthday dress, etc.  It's a little long but I wanted more than five blocks and this was the setting me and my sis came up with.

This is an 'extra' quilt.  One I might put away for my imaginary granddaughter.  lol  Don't you love these fabrics???  Most are from Pam Kitty Morning.

I squared up my blocks after adding the off white background piece but they still look a little wonky.  I am happy with my decision to keep the scallop borders on the kitty blocks. 

Oh!  And I got home from work to this little bundle at my door!!  I ordered some more chalkboard vinyl for more craft projects like this one and couldn't resist these other pieces I saw.  I have a cute tote pattern using oil cloth and liked these color combos.  Add it to the list! 



Yawn....I shouldn't have take that break to watch tv and then go back in the sewing room.  Me and Jimmy Kimmel are becoming good friends.  ;o)

Sunday Stampin'

My daughter Stephanie had a workshop here today so I'm sharing a card box we made and three crads we made.

Stephanie downloaded the pattern for this card box.  My first attempt at this box was a bomb since I was visiting and didn't have my own set of directions.  Once I was able to pay attention, the box was pretty easy to make.  It was made usint plain white cardstock and stamping the design on the box.  I love the stamp set we used.  So pretty.

This is the box open.  If I decide to keep this box (I have a photo box I keep my cards in), I will make dividers for it.  I might use it to tuck a gift in.  I'm not sure yet.

This workshop was nice and easy cards.  I love the paper on this one.  And now that there is a big flower punch to go with the flower stamp, it was super simple to put together.

I love this girly card.  This paper was fun too.  Mmmm, polka dots.  :o)

And this is a repeat of one I did as a sample for Steph to use.  We changed the scentiment to "Hello" and use the little embossing butterfly plate to accent the card.

Back to sewing tomorrow!!!  :o)

I Finished It!!

I finished the Dresden Plate!  I saw the cutest little doily/topper here and loved it so that's how I did mine, as a topper.  I figured since my plate was 17", to me it was too big for a block.  My sis suggested using it as a center block for a quilt and make smaller ones around it and I might do that one day but for now, I have so many other projects, I just wanted to make a sample for my daughter. 

So, I got some muslin and put right sides together and used a scrap of batting.  I sewed around the scalloped edge of the block and trimmed the fabric close to the edge so I wouldn't have to clip the curves.  I did clip in the valleys and it was pretty bulky but they flattened pretty good.  I turned it out through the hole. 

I cut a circle at 3" with my Fiskars Circle Cutter.  I hardly ever use that thing but when I need it, it works perfectly every time!  I gathered the edge of the circle and put a cardboard circle inside so I could press it for crisp edges.  I did a blind hem stitch on the edge.  I like this technique in lieu of hand stitching, especially for something like this.

For the quilting, I just stitched 1/8" from the edge of each 'blade' to hold it together. 

The back is just muslin.  Nothing exciting but I had it on hand and now my little topper/sample for my daughter is done!  Yay. 

And now it's late, again!  Off to bed I go.  At least tomorrow is Friday.  Woohoo!

Stampin' Up! Dresden Plate

I've probably mentioned on here before that my daughter Stephanie is a Stampin' Up! (SU) demonstrator so even though I shouldn't buy so much stamping stuff, I just can't help myself when the catalogs are waved under my nose all the time.  Did you fall for that?  Hmmm, I really need to work on that story.  My husband doesn't believe me either.  LOL 

SU has some dies that can be used with the Big Shot which can be used to cut out fabric as well as paper.  And with that of course, you can make quilt blocks!  They have a scallop square, smaller circles in various sizes and this new one, the Dresden Plate. 

In talking to Stephanie about the new die and some upcoming classes she wants to do, I told her I'd try to make a block with some SU fabric I bought last year (yes, they have fabric too...I'm telling you, they're killin' me!!).  I don't have an Accuquilt but the Big Shot is very similar, just a little narrower I think.  Anyway, I cut 6 layers of fabric and probably could've cut a few more layers without any trouble.  It cut like buttah!!!  They HAVE to come up with more shapes so I can have more unfinished quilts!  lol 



This is my nice 'little' 17" block!  There are two sizes of blades? on the die and I picked the bigger one.  I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking.  And now I'm not sure what to do with this block.  I did find a really cool pillow tutorial that would be cute.  And I don't do applique so I'm not sure if I'll use fusible to iron this onto a backing fabric or maybe chop off the scallops to sew a border on it?



Honestly though, I don't know what I was thinking when I tried this?  I have a quilt on the design wall waiting for borders, pot holders to make for a gift and umpteen hundred UFO's.  I wonder if I have A.D.D.?  They have medication for that, right?

Chalkboard Placemat

My hubby is doing pretty good healing from his hip replacement surgery so I've been able to get in the sewing room.  I have been wanting to make a chalkboard placemat since I bought two pieces of chalkboard vinyl at Road to CA last month.  Since my daughter's are in their 30's and no grandchildren are on the horizon, I don't have many opportunities to make things like this very often.  Helping Jenny with a few projects for little Ellis's first birthday party, I thought it would be the perfect little gift.

I had a fat quarter pack someone gave me a few years ago.  Since Jenny is Chinese and her husband is Korean, this fabric seemed just perfect for the little birthday girl.  This is the placemat side.

This is the chalkboard vinyl and the little pocket told hold a wipe cloth and a few pieces of chalk.

This was my first time mitering store-bought binding and I did okay.  The challenge was where the fabric was thicker and needed a little more binding.  I don't think a one year old will mind my seams being a little thicker here and there.  :o)

I'm glad I thought of adding elastic to the edges before I stitched it up so everything is nice and tidy for tucking in a tote bag or the back seat of a car. 

Argh.....back to work tomorrow.  I've been off for two weeks.  I should've been in bed hours ago!  Wish me luck. 

Ellis's Party Dress

Today I pulled a marathon sewing day with Jenny.  Jenny is my daughter's friend and co-worker and she wants me to be her crafty mom, or "mam" as they call me.  :o)  Jenny is also the mom of two adorable little girls, one is Kylie, the cutest flower girl ever shown in this post at my daughter's wedding.  The other one is Ellis and she's turning one year old. 

Jenny asked if I could help her with some sewing and one was the birthday dress.  She had the dress Kylie wore for her first birthday so we measured and used that one for a pattern.  The colors of the party are obviously pink and grey so the party girl will be adorable in this little frock.  I was very happy with how it came out since I barely do any garment sewing.



Here is the back.  The dress was lined.  I could've cut a new lining out of grey but I used the muslin sample I used to see if the pattern I made would work.  I can't wait to see Ellis in her dress.  Jenny found a pink diaper cover-up from another dress and it matches perfectly for underneath! 

I will share a picture of Ellis in her dress as soon as I can.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get to sew my quilt project.  :o)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

My hubby had hip replacement surgery last Tuesday so I've been a stay-at-home nurse.  No complaints from me as he has been a good patient but I do need to work on him to ask for things when I'm up instead of right after I sit down or climb in bed.  lol  I took two weeks off work but he's doing so well, I think I'll get a little sewing time in this week!  Yeah!!! 

Before my hubby's surgery, I got some sewing time in and worked on these vintage reproduction kitty blocks that I purchased at Road to California.  I also picked up a few of the coordinating prints and made Irish Chain blocks to make the quilt a little bigger.  I love the fabrics by Holly Holderman of Pam Kitty Morning!!  

The only problem I had was the blocks have this adorable little scallop design around them and I didn't want to cut it off.  The booklet for the fabric shows several quilts that can be made with the fabric and if you open up the link here you can see a quilt similar to mine but they cut off the cute border.  The pattern is available (according to the brochure) at McCall's Quick Quilts but I didn't see that until I designed my quilt in EQ7 with my sister.  Anyway, in order to leave the border on, the blocks are some crazy size, like 11 5/16ths or something.  So, I had some bleached muslin that matched the kitty blackground perfectly so I added a small border around each kitty block to make it 12 1/2".  Here is a close up of the block wtih the border. 

I think once it's quilted it won't show too much and even if it does, leaving that little border on each block is worth a little seam showing.  ;o)

On Sunday I went to a card workshop and made that cute heart box (the first photo of this post) so I'll share those beautiful cards with you tomorrow.  There were some pretty ones!