Work in Progress Wednesday

What a week!  Busy, busy, busy! 

I have loads to share and I have put a few things on the back burner.  I have been feeling very overwhelmed lately.  I don’t know why, I just do.  So, I decided to put a few projects away, concentrate more on my family, and just do to the things that inspire me in the moment.  The pressure I was putting on myself was sucking the fun out my life.  Not cool. 

That being said I do have a few fun things to share with you that I am very excited about. 

Finished Projects

My pincushion for the Bee a {Modern} Swapper swap is done.  You can read more about this Pincushion here.  I break from it was just what I needed.  I just love how it came out.

My quilt for the Modern Triangles Quilt Along is done and you can read more about that quilt here.

New Projects

Doll Quilt Swap 12 – I am in the current round of the Doll Quilt Swap and have been spending most of my free time working on this.  Above is a little sneak peak.  I even did a little block for the back.  I love that I had to challenge myself and jump outside my comfort zone.  In this round they have changed things up a bit.  First, they gave you 5 blocks to chose from the churn dash or shoofly, log cabin, drunkards path, NY beauty, or flying geese.  I picked the NY beauty because it is a block I have never made before and it looked kind of hard.  The second thing they changed was that they don’t want you to use white or off white.  Wait.. what?  No white background?  That is something that is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I can’t wait to share more of this mini once it is finished and in the mail.

On Going Projects

I am still working on my Modern Folder Star Mini Quilt tutorial.  It is coming along nicely and should be ready soon.

On Hold

Memory Quilt for my Daughter

Apple Core Quilt

2010 Scrap Quilt

Want to hear more of what’s going on in the quilt world? Hop on over to Freshly Pieced and check out her Work in Progress Wednesday link-up.  This week you will even find a giveaway for some thread.  Definitely worth checking out. 

Pinball Swirl Pincushion

All finished an on its way!  Here the little pincushion I made for the Bee a {Modern} Swapper Pincushion swap. 

I really hope my partner likes it .  I did a bit of stalking and found she likes lots of bright, happy colors, check, and after seeing the mosaic she did for this swap I knew some paper piecing was in order.  Um… paper piecing?  Me and paper piecing don’t go way back.  I had only made a handful New York Beauties before attempting this block.  So, why not make it miniature… that will be easy right? 

This block is called a Pinball Swirl.  I had lots of problems with it in the beginning because it was so small but after some trail and error it finally came together.  I am glad I stuck with it because in the end I think it came out awesome and I am all kinds of proud of myself.  Now I just hope my partner likes it….

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Edit to Post: If you would like to make your own check out my tutorial here.

Modern Triangles QAL {Show and Tell & Link Up}

Well it time for the big reveal!

That also means it is time to link up your completed quilt.  I will keep this linky open till next Friday, March 2nd, and will select a winner then.  If you have made this quilt but do not have a blog post to link up, feel free to link up a Flickr photo instead. You will still be entered to win.  I can’t wait to see all of your quilts.

Here is some pictures of the front and back of my Modern Triangles Quilt.  I just love how it came out and don’t know what side I like better.

Good Luck and thanks for all of your support. This was my first quilt along and it is hard sometimes to put yourself out there.  I am so glad that there are so many of you that have been so supportive along the way. 

A quick reminder, this bundle of Happy Mochi Yum Yum is what is up for grabs, and thanks again to everyone who participated in the Modern Triangles Quilt Along!

Work in Progress Wednesday

You may or may not remember but a couple of weeks ago I finished a memory quilt for my oldest son.  Now, I have pulled out, sorted, and washed some clothes for my next memory quilt.  This time I am going to make a quilt for my daughter, but I am taking a departure from baby clothes and making her a quilt out of all the dress my mother made for her when she was a toddler.  I haven’t quite figured out the layout or block, but no rush, when it comes to me I will know.  

I have also been doing a bit of housecleaning on the blog.  I have updated the About Me page above and even added a picture of myself.  I am generally very shy about putting myself out there, so this was a big step for me, but I felt it was time.  

I also, took some time and organized my Tutorials page.  I had no idea that I had this many tutorials.  This has been on my list of things to do for a long time now and I am very happy with the results.  I would love to hear what you think.

New projects:

Modern Folder Star Mini Quilt – Remember this mini quilt that I made last year for the Mini Quilt Challenge over at Amy Lou Who Sews?  Well it has been very popular on Pinterest and a couple of people ask for a tutorial.  So, here you go.  The squares are cut and ready to go.  I am using my Sugar Creek fabric by Denyse Schmidt.  I just couldn’t wait to cut into it.

 

On going projects:

Modern Triangles Quilt Along – This quilt is finished!  I am so excited, it came out better than I expected, I even love the back of it.  I can’t wait for the big reveal on Friday.

My pincushion for the Bee a {Modern} Swapper swap – I didn’t even touch it.  After all the trouble I had with it last week, I just needed a break from it. 

Apple Core Quilt – A little more progress… but not much.

2010 Scrap Quilt – Don’t ask… I haven’t touched it since the Super Bowl.  Seriously, I never thought I would “need” time in front of the TV to get this done.  I might need to download a good series off of Netflix this weekend.  Any suggestions?

Want to hear more of what’s going on in the quilt world? Hop on over to Freshly Pieced and check out her Work in Progress Wednesday link-up. There you will find other talented quilters and hear all about what they have going on.

Easy to Make Shoe Bling

This week at the mall I saw someone with some rhinestones on the heel of her shoe. She was very fashionable and clearly up on the latest fashion… something that eludes me most of the time. I am a busy mom that struggles to put an outfit together never mind accessorize it.

Now, I am not sure if these rhinestones were part of her shoes or not but it occurred to me this was kind of sexy.  A little eye candy as you walk away, if you will.  So, why not add some to the only pair of black heels that I own.  You know for that rare occasion that my husband actually takes me out on a date and I actually put on that little black dress that hangs neglected in my closet.

These were ridiculously easy to make. 

I took some stretchy jelly cord (the kind you use for beading), strung 10 – 4mm pearls, and tied it together with a double knot.  Then I just added them to my shoes. 

Seriously, that was it. 

I did do some experimenting and found that if the jelly cord lays flat on the inside of your heel they stay put.  When I stung the pearls all the way around the heel they eventually rolled off.

I am sure that this is the kind of accessory that can be made a thousand different ways.  So, I challenge you to do just that.  Make some yourself and share them with us.  I can’t wait to see what you come up with.  Please be kind and don’t forget to link back to this post. 

I will be linking this project to some of these great linky parties.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

We have a Winner

The My Memories Software Giveaway is over and we have a winner!!!

The lucky winner of the My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software from My Memories is #2.
 

Who is #2?  Well it is Kathleen, of course!
 

Kathleen, I hope you enjoy your My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software!

I will be contacting you soon with more info.

For those of you who didn’t win, My Memories has also offered all my awesome readers with your very own Share the Memories coupon/promo code STMMMS45812 that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the www.MyMemories.com store.

I am totally in love with this software.  I have been a scrapbooker for years and have made several beautiful scrapbooks for my older children, but since the birth of my last child, I am embarrassed to say I haven’t made one for him and he is 3.  Part of the problem is the great digital camera my husband gave me for the birth of said child and social media.  With no film to develop or far away relatives to send pictures to, all my picture remain on the computer yet to be printed out and scrapbooked.  Now, I have been working hard on getting his “book” done and love using this software.  It is very user friendly and without all the stuff to pull up and put away it is coming along very quickly.

So, give them a chance and check out their website.

Modern Triangles QAL {Machine Quilting & Binding}

For this quilt I decided to do some Straight Line Quilting. 

A few thoughts before we begin…

• Thread – Use 100% cotton thread.  I like to use Gutermann 100% cotton thread.  For the beginner it will give you the least amount of tension problems.  For the more experienced quilter, the possibilities are endless, but if you decide to use a decorative or specialty thread be sure to experiment on a small quilt sandwich to make sure your tension is right and that your machine likes the thread. 
• Needles – Start each quilt with a new needle.  I like to use a Schmetz Quilting Needles.  It is designed for machine piecing and machine quilting.  For 50 wt thread such as Gutermann use a 75/11 needle.  For specially threads or heavier projects use a needle designed for that thread or project.
• Walking Foot – A must for straight line quilting.  This foot will help feed your quilt properly and prevent puckering and tucks.

To begin, lower your presser foot to where you would like to begin.  (If possible, I like to start a few stitches off my quilt top.)  Lower your needle one stitch to pick up the bobbin thread and pull to the top.  Holding the both threads start sewing.  Using the side of my walking foot and the ditch, as my guide, I quilted a total of 4 straight lines on each diagonal row of solid fabrics, as shown in the picture above, ending each line a few stitches off my quilt top.  When you are finished square up your quilt.   

  Now we are ready to bind our quilt. 

Cut 4 – 2 1/2” strips (2 1/2” by 44” or WOF) for your binding, sew together into one long strip.  Then fold in half the long way and press.  At one end fold your raw edge in and press.  This will be the beginning of your binding.  Lay the beginning of your binding down first and leave about 2 or 3 inches before you start stitching.  Sew all the way down to the first corner, cut the thread, and remove.

Fold your binding straight up with a diagonal crease, and then.... 

...straight down. Start stitching again. Do that for all 4 corners and sew till you are almost to where you started. 

  Insert your raw edge (end of your binding) into the fold of the beginning (start of your binding and finished edge), pin, and finish sewing. 

  To finish your binding turn over to the backside of the quilt and use a Jacob’s Ladder or Step Stitch and hand sew your binding on.  If you take a look at the picture above you can see I loosened the treads so you can see what that stitch looks like.  It is a very simple stitch and comes together quickly.  In the picture below I have pulled the stitch tight and as you can see that it virtually disappears into the binding.

Join us next week for the big reveal!  Link up your completed quilts and enter to win this bundle of Happy Mochi Yum Yum.  If you have made this quilt but do not have a blog post to link up, feel free to link up a Flickr photo instead.  You will still be entered to win.

If you have any question or concerns about this Quilt Along, please let me know.  Also, don’t forget to check our blog roll on the side bar. Keep up to date with the other bloggers involved in this quilt a long.

Mini Valentine Treat Boxes

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here is a quick and cute Valentine treat box that I made with my kids this weekend to give out to some family and friends today.

Here are a few things that you will need to get started.

• heavy card stock
• scissors
• tape (double sided tape if you have it)
• scrapbooking glue
• paper cutter
• ruler and cutting mat
• dull butter knife (or something to score your paper) 
• heart paper punch
• black sharpie marker
• black fine tip marker
• candy of your choice

To make this covered box:

• cut 2 squares out of your card stock, one 5” and the other 5 1/4” 
• on both squares measure 1 1/2” in on all sides, score the card stock   
• fold along the score lines
• cut the 2 center score lines on the top and bottom edge, as pictured above.

Note: If you have a attachment for your paper cutter to score the card use that, if not, a dull butter knife and ruler works just as good.  Do not cut through the card stock with the knife, just make an indentation into the card stock to make it easier to fold.

Now it is time to make your box.  If you have double-sided tape use that, it will make your life a lot easier.  I, of course, did not.  So, I used regular tape and some scrapbooking glue.  Don’t use regular white glue because it will warp the paper. 

Fold in the 2 sides and tape together.  Then glue the outside flap to complete your box.

Next, I punched out 2 hearts out of my left over card stock and edged them with my black sharpie.  Then with a fine point sharpie I wrote in some cute conversation heart sayings.  My daughter helped me with this part as my mind was drawing a complete blank.  We had a good laugh and got a little silly as we picked out sayings for the recipients of our boxes.  Then we glued them to the top of our box and filled them with my favorite Dove chocolates.

I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day!  Enjoy!

Sunday Stash #10

I swore, I would never get sucked into the Denyse Schmidt craze, but I couldn’t help myself, I am in love.  Just look at some of these prints from her new line called Sugar Creek.  I am not usually a huge fan of blue and white, but I really like how it is mixed with the lime green to give it a contemporary look.

Can you believe it has been over a month since I added any new fabric to my stash?  A shame really, but sometimes you have to wait to the perfect line rolls around and catches your eye.  I am really happy to be happy to be adding this line to my stash and can’t wait to start working with it.  It has a great feel and weight.

• Sugar Creek - Diamond Blue
• Sugar Creek - Gingham Nut Meadow
• Sugar Creek - Wavy Check Cornflower
• Sugar Creek - Floral Meadow
• Sugar Creek - Kitchsy Tile Cornflower

This line of Sugar Creek by Denyse Schmidt can be purchased here.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Modern Triangles QAL {Piecing the Back}

This week we are going to piece the back and sandwich our quilt to get it ready for quilting. 

So, now we that have a completed quilt top we need to take some measurements and get started on out back.  My quilt top measures about 34” by 38” and depending how you have laid out your quilt top yours should be about the same. 

If you don’t want to piece the back, that is fine, this quilt will take a piece of fabric about a yard and a quarter.  You can use that for your backing and move on to sandwiching. 

I love to piece my quilt backs because it give me the chance to think outside the box and experiment with some improv piecing.  I look at it as a challenge to use up some of my unused quilt blocks from the front or the leftover scraps.  Take your time and audition a few options.  There is no right or wrong way, just do what feels right. 

Above, I took the opportunity to use up my leftover triangle units and the fabric I had left over from my fat quarters.  All I added was a yard of Kona Snow.  I am using that to “float” my triangles and to boarder the top and bottom.  The rest I will use for my binding.

To float my triangles, I first cut 2 – 6 1/2 strips (or the height of your triangle units) of Kona Snow. Then I cut 4 triangles using my template, and I sewed them together with my 6 leftover triangle units, as shown above.  Then I used what was leftover from that strip to finish off the row, off centering them a bit.  Then I added a 1 1/2” strip of the Kona Snow to the top and bottom of that row to float them.

Next, I cut the leftover fat quarters into 2” strips, then in half again.  I was left with an assortment of 2” by 9” strips.  I pieced them together in 2 rows of 24.  One I placed in the center of the 2 triangle rows, the other one I cut in half the long way and placed one on top and the other on the bottom of the triangle rows.  Then I added 2 - 3” strip of my Kona Snow, one the top and one bottom.

This is a little different than the picture above, sorry I keep changing my mind, then the lighting got really bad for pictures.  So here is a quick rundown of the order….

• 3” strip of snow
• 4 1/2” strip of the assorted 24 – 2” fat quarters pieces
• 1 1/2” strip of snow
• 6 1/2” strip of snow with triangles units
• 1 1/2” strip of snow
• 9” strip of the assorted 24 – 2” fat quarters pieces
• 1 1/2” strip of snow
• 6 1/2” strip of snow with triangles units
• 1 1/2” strip of snow
• 4 1/2” strip of the assorted 24 – 2” fat quarters pieces
• 3” strip of snow

Now you are ready to sandwich your quilt.  I like to use a 100% cotton batting or a 80/20 cotton poly blend depending on my project.  For this quilt I am using a piece of Warm & White that is a 100% cotton, that I had leftover from a previous project.

Sandwiching a small project like this is much easier than a larger quilt and can be done on the table.  First I will iron my quilt back with a little starch and lay it flat, wrong side up, on the table.  Then I will lay my batting on top of that.  Lastly, I will iron my quilt top, again with a little starch and lay it on top of the batting, right side up.  Smooth it all out making sure you have no bubbles and pin all three layers together with safety pins.

Now we will be ready to machine quilt our sandwich next week.  So, join us again for your Machine Quilting Options and Bindings.  If you have any question or concerns about this Quilt Along, please let me know.

Also, don’t forget to check our blog roll on the side bar. Keep up to date with the other bloggers involved in this quilt a long. Want to be added?  Just leave a comment below and add the Modern Triangles QAL button to your blog.

My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Giveaway

If you are anything like me and love all thing that are crafty, then today’s giveaway is for you.  That’s right my friends we are talking about My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software, rated #1 by Amazon and Top Ten Reviews.  So, if you love to scrapbook but are limited on time, or if you have always wanted to try it, this is a great way to get started and preserve and share your photos and memories.

My Memories Suite is a digital scrapbook software that is extremely easy and fun to use.  Using this software, anyone can create digital scrapbooks, photo books, cards, calendars and gifts without having to buy expensive and complicated software programs.

The winner of this giveaway, will get a copy of the My Memories Suite software for free!

My Memories Suite Version 3 digital scrapbooking software is a fun and creative way to keep and share your memories, whether you have a Mac or PC. The software's design tools will help you to build entire albums effortlessly using one of the many installed templates, or designing your very own pages from scratch.

My Memories has also offered all my awesome readers with your very own Share the Memories coupon/promo code STMMMS45812 that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the www.MyMemories.com store.

Check out some of the pages I have created and enter to win your own My Memories Suite software below.

The Giveaway Details

Prize: My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbooking Software {a $40 value!}
To Enter: Visit the www.MyMemories.com and leave a comment sharing which digital paper pack or layout is your favorite.  One comment per person please.
Giveaway Ends: Friday, February 17th at midnight EST. One winner will be selected using random.org and the winner will be announced here on my blog, Saturday, February 18th.

Please make sure that you are not a no-reply blogger and that I have a way to contact you if you win.  Check my sidebar for more information and directions.

You can also visit or follow My Memories on the web.

• Follow the My Memories Blog
• Like them on Facebook
• Follow them on Twitter
• Visit them on YouTube

Have fun & Good Luck

Work in Progress Wednesday

Finally, some love for my scrap quilt.  With the Super Bowl and some rainy weather I have been snuggled under this quilt getting a good portion of it done.  I might actually see it done in the near future.  Unfortunately, most of my other projects have sat neglected and I have no new projects to share….

… except that my awesome husband made me a new design wall.  We used the Oh Fransson! Making a Design Wall tutorial and it was super easy.  Just a board of foam insulation from Home Depot, some white cotton batting, and duct tape.  Of course, I would have loved the mac daddy design wall that she made, but I need it to be semi portable, so guess it is half a design wall for me.  

On going projects:

Modern Triangles Quilt Along – I have the quilt top done and the back all pieced, now I just need to sandwich it all together.

My pincushion for the Bee a {Modern} Swapper swap – my first attempt at foundation piecing was unsuccessful.  I used muslin, but this time I think I will try paper.  Hopefully I will have better luck the second time around.

Sewing with my daughter – We are still making some 4 patch quilt blocks for 4 Patches 4 Hope. She is doing really well and cranking out some awesome blocks. 

Apple Core Quilt – A little more progress…

Want to hear more of what’s going on in the quilt world? Hop on over to Freshly Pieced and check out her Work in Progress Wednesday link-up. There you will find other talented quilters and hear all about what they have going on.