Monday, January 27, 2014

Just the Basics

Sometimes there is a line of fabric that I love so much that doing anything fancy with it takes away from the fabric itself. 
"Little Black Dress" by Basic Grey is one of those (in my opinion).
I love this fabric. It's one of my favorites. 
I made a postage stamp quilt with this same line for my dad and step mom for Christmas 2012. I figured, there are two of them…I should make another one so they each have one. 
When I bought this fabric I bought a jelly roll (for the postage stamp quilt) and then a fat eight bundle. I had no idea what to do with the fat eight bundle, so I paired it with some white and made some basic blocks. I actually have enough to make another quilt identical to this one. Which is a good thing because when my (almost) 10 year old saw this one she said, "OH MY GOSH! I WANT ONE EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE FOR ME!!!" 



When making this quilt, everything went right. I was so happy. The quilting was fun..the binding went on like a breeze, the whole process was enjoyable. 
They received it and said they loved it. Which makes me happy!
Measures approximately 58"x81"

Sunday, January 19, 2014

A LATE Christmas Gift for My Sister

I'm such a slacker! 
For Christmas this year, my sister requested a quilt for her bed. She loves Chevrons and wanted a Chevron quilt. She found all the fabrics she wanted so I purchased those and got to work on it. It's fairly easy to piece, so that part went rather quick. But this was big. The hard part was the quilting. I knew I wanted to do straight line quilting but it's so time consuming! It took me a while to get it done. Plus, I have such a hard time with straight line quilting especially with such a big, heavy quilt. But I got it done and I hope she likes it! 
Measures: 78"x82"





Friday, January 10, 2014

Crochet Baby Blanket Pattern




I get more and more requests for this pattern. So I thought I'd just do a post about it. I pretty much "winged" this. (Well, the body of it is a pattern and the edging was totally improv.)

For the Body:
(This is a baby blanket size. I think around 34"x39". I typically buy 1000 yards of yarn for a blanket that size.)
Foundation chain: multiple of 3 + 2 chains 
Once you get the length you want…
Row 1: In 2nd ch from hook work single crochet and 2 double crochets. skip the next 2 chains. In the next chain work a single crochet and 2 double crochets, skip the next 2 chains. repeat this all the way down. In the last chain, do a single crochet. chain 1 and turn.
Row 2: in first single crochet work a single crochet and 2 double crochets. Skip the next 2 double crochets. In next single, work a single and 2 doubles and so on to the last single crochet. In the last single crochet, do a single crochet, chain 1 and turn. 
Repeat row 2 until you reach the length desired. At end of last row do not chain 1 do not turn. 

For the Edging:
This was improved so I don't really remember how I did it since it's been so long. I'm pretty sure I went around the whole blanket with a single crochet, (3 singles in each corner). For rounds 2-4  I did a half double crochet (3 hdc in corners). Then I believe I did some variation of this: (oh and because I did a couple rows of half double crochets (hdc) and not just a single crochet all around, I worked the corners accordingly. I think I usually do a hdc in the first sc of the 3 sc in corner then 2 in the center one then one in the last) Does that make sense? Like I said, I just sort of wing it on the corners to what looks right.

Next round: Ch 3 (counts as a dc), (2dc, ch3, 3 dc) in same hdc for corner, *skip 2 hdc, 3 dc in next hdc, repeat from * to next corner, (3dc, ch3, 3dc) in center hdc of 3 hdc corner group; repeat from * around ending last rep (skip 2 hdc, 3dc in next hdc) to beginning corner, skip 2 hdc, join in 3rd ch of begin gin ch-3.

Next Round: Ch 5, skip next dc, sc in next dc; in next ch-3 work sc, ch 5, sc) for corner, * work (sc, ch 5, skip next dc, sc in next dc) to next corner, and so on all the way around.

Edgings are tricky for me and I usually get so lost in the directions and on which round I'm on, so I almost always never follow a pattern. I just go for it and see what looks good. This is the only blanket I've made that has this fancy of an edging and I don't even remember how I did it!


I was having a hard time keeping track of the numbers when I was going around, so I ended up just sort-of creating my own pattern. If you're looking for a good Crochet Edgings book, this is a pretty good one.



Monday, October 21, 2013

Stacked Strips

My husband's annual Navy "Hawkeye Ball" was this past Saturday. I made a quilt to donate for a raffle benefitting the VVOSA. This year we raised a total of $4000! 



I made this quilt, start to finish, in TWO days! I did use a jelly roll so that helped. But I had a heck of a time squaring it up. 
Fabric: SoHo Chic by Sandy Gervais
Backing fabric is a print I picked up from Joann's since this fabric wasn't out yet in yardage yet.
Measures: 67"x79" (approx. I forgot to write the actually finished dimensions down)

One of my friends won it so I was happy!



Chevrons, Baby!

My sister wants a Chevron quilt for Christmas. So with the help of Crystal, she designed a pattern for me. I decided to make a "practice" quilt before I tackled a large queen sized one! Problem was that I'm not too bright and I read it wrong and cut all the wrong sizes of each strip of fabric. So I then had to add another row and play around with it a bit. 
After I was about 1/2 way through it I found out one of my husband's cousins is having a baby girl and her shower was in a week. So I cranked it out and got it mailed to her in time. Ended up working out perfect! 


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A Quilt of Valor...Spreading the word for a fellow quilter...

Would you like to make a block or two for a good cause? Here's your chance!
Please read this post. I plan on sending a few blocks myself!
Looks like she needs blocks for the red,white, and blue quilt for the Quilt of Valor and also some blocks for quilts for his girls!  

Sunday, September 1, 2013

One Panel done!

I finished and hung one of my curtain panels. I was going to make 4 but now I'm only thinking two because if I hang all four on this one wall I'm afraid too much of the window will be covered and we will lose all the great light. 

Anyway, here's the one finished and I love it. My husband loves it too. He said it looks like Stained Glass.