Friday, December 20, 2013

Stacked Coins baby quilt top

This is my latest project.  I worked on it on Tuesday, but never got around to posting it.  It is a baby quilt that I am making for one of my husband's colleagues whose wife just had a baby.

The quilt top is made from 13 jelly roll strips, for the coins and inner sashing, and half a yard of matching yardage for the border.  I plan to use the blue polka dot fabric for the backing, and the dark green floral (from the border) for the binding.  My intention is to machine quilt in the ditch between each of the coins and between the coins and the sashing.  Then I will probably quilt one or two straight lines around the whole quilt in the border.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Christmas Stocking

Today I made a Christmas stocking for my new daughter-in-law.  I wanted her to have a stocking here at my house so that hopefully she will feel like part of the family.  Her's will be a little different from the guy's stockings, because theirs have white fleece at the top, but I don't think she will mind.  I don't know what happened to my white fleece. . .

Anyway, the stocking is made from poinsettia fabric with a solid green lining.  The top fabric is quilted to the batting.  Then the lining and outside fabrics were sewn together wrong-side out.  Then the whole thing was turned pillowcase style.

Birthday Bag

Today is my mother's birthday, and I made her this bag as a birthday present.  It uses the same basic pattern as the other bags I've made recently, but it doesn't use charm squares.  I wanted this bag to be a little bigger than the bags I made previously, so I cut 6 inch squares to use instead of the charms.  I also cut the strip for the bottom of the bag a little wider, too; it is 9 inches wide instead of 7 inches wide.  When I boxed the bottom of the bag, I came in 2 inches instead of 1.5 inches. 

The only thing that is smaller on this bag is the handles.  My mom wanted them shorter because she says she doesn't carry her purse on her shoulder.  Because of the shorter handles, I moved the handles closer in to the center of the bag.  She also didn't want a closure for the top of the bag, so that was omitted as well.  I hope she enjoys it.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Christmas Chaos


This is the finished quilt from the top featured in this post.  It is made from a Christmas Countdown layer cake.  I machine quilted straight lines across the quilt at 3 inch intervals.  I considered quilting at 3 inch intervals going up and down as well, but decided against it. I also considered machine binding it, but opted to hand turn the binding instead.

This is a picture of the label on the back.  After much agonizing, I decided to name it "Christmas Chaos".  Since the quilt has a random design, I thought that chaos was an appropriate descriptor for it.  Plus, Christmas time is often a chaotic time of year, so it seemed fitting in that regard as well.

Monday, December 09, 2013

Auburn Coasters

This Saturday is the Pike County Habitat for Humanity annual Giant Cookie Sale.  And while these certainly aren't cookies, I plan to donate them to the cookie sale.  (The sale actually includes cookies, candies, cakes, and crafts.) 

I made 8 coasters that measure approximately 4 inches square.  They have Auburn Tiger fabric on top.  The top is quilted to the batting only.  Then they are finished by adding an orange square of fabric for the backing, using a pillow turn technique. Then finally, it is top stitched close to the edge all the way around.
Here they are all packaged up for the sale.  I was thinking I would price them at $5 per set (of 4 coasters), but I'll wait and ask at the drop-off before I actually put a price on them.

Thursday, December 05, 2013

Christmas fabric purse

I enjoyed using my fall themed bag so well that I decided to make one out of Christmas fabric.  This one uses the same pattern as the last one, but with a few utilitarian additions.  I added a small pocket inside to keep my chapstick and nail clippers. 
 And I added a D-ring to clip my keys to, so they would be easy to find.

The D-ring is attached to a fabric strip that is then sewn into the seam that attaches the outside of the bag to the lining.  It was added at the same time as the shoulder straps and the top closure.