Be brave.

Not sure I will ever sell it - or ever sell anything to someone I don't already know - from my Etsy shop but I just posted my last quilt there!

I wanna be brave and see where crafting - something I love - might take me in a direction that someday could provide some extra income for us. So, someone needs to buy this quilt. :)

St. Elmo Sweetness on Etsy

Quilt #3.

I finished my third quilt! This one is a bit smaller than the first one I made but would be perfect for a baby quilt! It is a little masculine but I spiced it up with some red and yellow to mix it up some.  I really like it because it is the first quilt that I "designed" myself by drawing it out on graph paper and then figuring out the layout. 

Here is a closeup of the fabrics. A yellow hounds tooth, a small red floral, solid light blue, a really simple dark blue circle print, and the veggie print which I am absolutely crazy about. If I could find more of it, I would totally make a veggies skirt. 

 I sewed the blocks together and then quilted in a primary red so it would show up on the back really well. I quilted diagonal lines across in both directions and I am really glad I took the time to go both ways. 

The edges of the squares don't meet up perfectly all over - lots of quilting lessons continue to be learned around here - but overall it looks pretty good. I'm proud of it either way because I'm learning so much and finishing projects (a.k.a. burning through my fabric stash so I can buy more!). 

I hand made the binding out of a bright yellow multi dot fabric and I'll never go back to buying store bought bias tape ever again. If you make your own, you have ALL the choices in what it will look like. 

I love the binding color and print. I am not incredibly pleased with the way I sewed the binding on. I think that I probably twisted it a bit as I was holding it to hand sew the back so it looks like it twists all the way around. While it isn't intentional - and I will figure out how to not make THAT mistake again - it looks OK now that it has been washed and dried. 

I really like how the quilting turned out like diamonds on the back. 

If you know someone who is having a baby anytime soon, this would make a great quilt for them! I'd be willing to sell it if someone was interested. Otherwise, I'll just give it to the next baby that I know coming along...or keep it for myself and snuggle under it on the couch. 

Just some details:

cotton fabrics

100% cotton batting

finished size is about 46"x46" square-ish :)

Handmade + Christmas + Quilting

I made a depressingly small number of handmade gifts this Christmas and I am determined to do better next year. I know some people don't "get" or appreciate handmade gifts but I personally know how much time, effort, and heart each one takes so I will continue to give them!

Entertainingly enough, the thing I think I like the best is this big spaghetti plate that I painted for myself. Our staff got to go to one of those paint your own pottery places as a staff appreciation day and I picked out this plate. After scouring Pinterest for something that I could easily replicate, I picked this dotted paisley idea and I am pretty proud of the way it turned out!

This is technically not handmade - or even a gift - but it is always a gift to myself when I decorate the front porch. I always love the house being decorated for Christmas because it looks so festive and loved. And of course, the guard corgi doesn't hurt either. I'm committing to making my house be a place that I love in the new year - instead of tolerating the mess or leaving projects half finished. Stay tuned for updates there...

This is a possibly too short but awesome none the less sleeve I made for my sister's glass french coffee press. I just measured it while at her house before Christmas and made this from estimates. I will try to make her another one that fits a little better soon but I loved the fabric!

I also made her some placemats that I am pretty proud of even though they were my first try. I forgot to snap a picture so I've requested one from her. I'll put it in here once she sends it.

I volunteered to make a friend at work some placemats when she was bemoaning that she couldn't find any Christmas ones that she loved. I actually used a pattern for these so they turned out pretty good though I obviously have the final pictures on my regular camera, not my phone so they aren't here either. The upper pictures is the back - I wanted them to be "every day" use so I used some fabrics to match her house.

This is the Christmas side of the placemats and I love them. So bright and fun. I made a set of four and even taught myself how to hand stitch the binding on the back so they look really awesome and finished. 

Chad got a couple of handmade mugs from me, though not made by me. I've broken a couple of his over the last few years so bought some replacements. If we had a cabinet full of mismatched pottery mugs, I'd be a happy girl. One is from an art student at Covenant and the other was from a little lady at his parent's church. I love them both and I'll take a picture to add later. :) I know - worst blogger in history. 

I've been working on two different quilts - for us! - since I'm not quite ready to make one to give away yet. I've been aching to replace the two quilts/coverlets on the twin beds in one of our guest rooms. Eventually - not an announcement of ANY kind - this room will become a kids room and we'll stack the beds back into bunk beds to make room for a crib/rocking chair, etc. I wanted to make quilts that were we a little more "youthful" without being too kiddie so that room can be used lots - if we never have kids too.

These two pictures are some of the half square triangles that I'm using to make one quilt. The fabric is called "Forest Friends" and it is by Moda. There are lots of foxes, rabbits, bears, skunks, cute little mushrooms, leaves and trees involved. Lots of sewing, cutting, and ironing too. This is one stack of 84 squares and the twin size will require nearly 5 stacks. Sigh. Work in progress - maybe this is why i didn't make many homemade gifts? I've had quilting on the brain instead. 

This quilt I am pretty excited about because it is a little more simple and feminine. Chad doesn't like that it is "random" like the last strippy quilt I made but I love it. I've since added a wide pink border to make it a twin size and I purchased the fabric for backing and making the binding yesterday. Making your own binding is also a pain but it opens up a whole different world of binding colors and patterns and will totally be worth it. This is the "Miss Kate" fabric by Moda as well. 

my first quilt.

When I went to #nccraftweekend at Dani's house, she taught us all the basics of quilting while making our table runners. I've now put those skills to good use and basically made a larger version of the same thing. I used this tutorial from Heirloom Creations which sounds a lot more confusing than it really is. You basically take an entire jelly roll and sew it all together in one long strip, on the diagonal (which was the most difficult/time consuming part of the whole thing!). Then you sew the ends together, again and again, about 5 times. I know - watch the video - it'll make more sense.


This is the only picture I took of the finished product and it is the dryer at the moment so I'll try to take more later.

My original jelly roll(s) were from Hobby Lobby and didn't have as many different fabrics as the ones shown in the tutorial above but it worked out pretty well. Chad had the nerve to say "I'm not sure I like the way there isn't a pattern" but I guess he didn't realize there weren't supposed to be. I did a simple straight line quilting across every other stripe and backed it with some plain blue fabric that my mom sent me forever ago!

I am so happy with it and can't wait to snuggle with it on the couch! Yay for a new skill and putting it to work. I can't say that you won't see some quilted Christmas presents show up here in January when I can post them! :)