A Wonderful Gift...

My all-time favorite quilt block is Dove in the Window.  (My all-time favorite quilt block that I'll actually make... Log Cabin.)

Dove in the Window is a difficult pattern to find... and a difficult pattern to make.  So, imagine my delight when my dear friend Chrissy offered to tackle the beast to make a fabric-matching quilt for Julia (she completed one for Raven the day Raven was born... oh, yeah!).  She set out on the adventure and I will say, this quilt was definitely about the journey and the destination.

Imagine my further delight when this quilt showed up at my front door earlier this week delivered by Linda Schminke of Quilting Corner here in Pella.  Chrissy had sent the quilt top with me so that I could take it to Linda to discuss the quilting in it (beautiful!) and Linda and Chrissy took care of the rest (transaction-wise).  Chrissy and I discussed briefly the possibility of this quilt being done in time for the Tulip Time Quilt Show, but if she is anything like me, I know she is a busy woman (even more so than me, I think!), and I wasn't expecting to see the quilt finished.  So, it was such a fun surprise to see Linda with a finished quilt -- bound and everything!  And... done a full week before it was even needed for the show!  Thank you to Linda for binding the quilt...

... and of course, MANY THANKS to my darling friend Chrissy for being willing to attempt this beauty... it was difficult, but oh so gorgeous in the end!  I love the quilt... and obviously Julia does too!  (She couldn't get enough of rolling around on it and saying, "Ooooh!  Pretty!")  Thank you, Chrissy!

love,

erin

Baby Gift

There's nothing like your friend's water breaking to finally put the fire under you to try something you've been meaning to try for a while in terms of a baby gift...... :)

I had picked up a cute packet of fabrics (thanks to Janice for introducing me to these cuties) and some soft flannel and backing fabric and thought I'd try my own little Take-Along.  Julia has a Taggie Blankie that she has always loved and I always meant to make some... this is a version of that... instead of the ribbon tags, I put satin blanket binding around the edge.

Then I had a little fun... my machine does lettering, so I programmed in the name of the new baby-not-yet-born-as-of-last-night and stitched it around the edge... I can't wait to give Allison and Jeremy this little giftie when I meet their new baby girl... yay!  (So, come on, Allison...!  Woohoo!  So exciting!  Can you tell I am excited to hear about this  baby being born?  I love babies and love that so many of my friends are due this month... yay!)

erin

Diaper Bag!

I love to make bags... and it has been a long time since I made a diaper bag, so it was fun to make this one.  I will get this out there right away... I am itching to take it apart and fix a few things but I won't... because, well... taking a bag apart and having it go back together even remotely nicely is a pain... and, well... I don't really *want* to take it apart.  (Ha, if the recipient wants the "issues" fixed, THEN I will take it apart!)

I made this for my friend Janice, who is expecting at the end of the month.  She had this stack of absolutely FABULOUS "children's fabric" that she brought out at the retreat in February, and I'm fairly certain I drooled on it.  Funny enough, I had bought a yard each of two of the fabrics in the pack she had... great minds!  She mentioned she wanted to make a diaper bag from it, and I had just finished a bag and was itching to make one from scratch, so I offered up my services.

Sure, sure, that was almost two months ago... I had pieces done but kept neglecting to buy a zipper when I was out, and I needed the zipper to really solidly put it together.  I finally put it on my shopping list this last Friday and actually remembered to buy the darn thing...!  So, last night I finally found the time I needed to finish piecing this cute bag together.

I threw in some of my own fabric from the two yards I had bought... I love the patchwork'd-ness of this bag, but at the same time, I felt like some solidness was needed to round it out, so used cute green owl fabric for the gusset and strap.  I used a white with green polka dots on the inside.

I am fairly happy with how the bag turned out, though I would change the side pockets... they are too long and start too high... I think they will be basically unusable.  And, I normally don't use a gusset... I wanted to try it out... I might go back to my "old way" of doing things.  It worked out fine, but seemed a little more work for not anything that I didn't already get from my "old way", and it also made the inside of the bag loose... not my fave.

Things I loved about it, though... what a great opportunity to practice more free-motion quilting and have I mentioned out cute the fabric is...?

BUT... Janice... I hope you LOVE it anyway... and if you don't, I know someone who can fix the things you don't love about it.  :)  Either way... thanks for the chance to make a bag for you!

erin

What do you get for a 100th birthday party gift??

Well, my GREAT grandmother turns 100 next Monday. And she still has a driver's license... Which amazes me!!! Obviously I've got some longevity genes!!! I was wracking my brain to come up with something to give to a woman who really needs nothing.. My first thought, a cake that says "Way to make it over TWO hills!" seemed, perhaps, not the most fitting joke for her (however if I make it to 100, PLEASE get me a cake that says this, I find it hilarious!) So then I recalled hearing a story of how when my grandfather (her son) was young, he was in bed sick for a week. So she put him to work embroidering kitchen towels. I have inherited a stack of these towels, and while I'm not sure they are the specific ones he worked on, I have since learned that every year (including last year) my great grandmother has diligently embroidered a set of Days of the Week kitchen towels for her annual church auction. HOORAY a great gift plan emerges!!! So in the stack of inherited towels I found 1 complete set, and its soo cute, little Dutch girls doing their weekly chores. I just so happened to have a set of 4 matching fat quarters and away I went tonight. I have the top done, now to do some machined-in-the-ditch quilting and bind w/a nice red border. (This last portion is a job for tomorrow-man) However here's the top as I'm too lazy to get my camera out AGAIN tomorrow nite when i'm all done ;o) And don't I have the cutest quilt holder with the big blue eyes??? She took one look at this and has requested I make HER one too... SIGH.

Dear Julia... hope this keeps you warm!!!

Here is the results of a quilt that was, in hindsite, way beyond my expertise level. Inset seams/LeMoyne Stars, what the hell was I thinking?!?! Well... I was thinking I wanted to make something "perfect" for one of my best friends, i.e. one of HER favorite blocks, doves in the window. So for her daughter's transition to twin bed-dom, I offered to make a quilt for the bed. I'd already made one for the newest addition to their family and since the girls share a room, I wanted to make the quilts match (fabric anyway...) Many google searches later, I found the pattern I wanted to reproduce. However, either the printing off on an inkjet or the actual instructions themselves are off... By enough that it makes a difference in overall size of quilt... Sigh... I even broke out some pythagorean theorem work to try to deduce just how much "off" it was... I settled for making all the diamonds 1/8" bigger to end up w/the 14" blocks. However, I didn't realize the sizing was off until after i'd already cut the squares and triangles?DOH>>> Oh well, after much groaning and complaining (sorry, Erin!!) I have a finished product that I'm actually not totally disappointed with... Just don't look too closely. HA!

Baby Pea Pod

I had the pleasure of creating this little cutie the last couple of weeks.  A friend of mine is due with Bebe #2 in April, and she was wanting this Baby Pea Pod to be made.  She showed me a picture of it that she had found on etsy.com and asked if I would be able to find yarn for it.  After a quick stop at what is becoming my favorite yarn shop, Crazy Girl Yarn Shop in Coralville, IA (thanks, C!), I found the "thick and thin spun" yarn, and then was asked if I would be willing/able to make it.  I thought the pea pod was CUTE, so I said I'd live to give it a go.  It worked up really quickly, and what's more, I learned a cool new technique that allowed me to do the entire thing on circular needs: Magic Loop.

All in all, a fun experience, and I can't wait to give it to my friend for her new baby... and well, I can't wait to meet the new baby either! 

erin

IKEA Fabric Bag

Over Christmas (which was late January for us), my sister-in-law, Claire, and I started discussing purses and bags and got on topic about how Claire was in need of a new one.  I was already perusing the etsy.com site, and ran across a purse made from an awesome IKEA fabric.  The purse on etsy.com was $42, but I knew I could make it a lot cheaper.

 

And, lo and behold, not five days after we discussed the purse, I would be driving through the Twin Cities, home of Minnesota's IKEA store.  Julia, Raven, and I dined at the IKEA cafeteria and then went on a hunt for the fabric.  I was delighted to find it and bought four yards... because I could.  :)  Ha!

The weekend before last, our Pella Area Quilt Guild held a retreat, and this was where I planned to make the purse.  I have experience in making bags and whatnot, but this time I chose to use a pattern, because I have zero confidence with zippers.  After a short time, I learned that I should have trusted my instincts and gone rogue.  But, I kept on with the pattern, and after a multitude of cursing, bang, and at one point, attacking a piece of fabric with scissors (no, literally attacking... it wasn't one of my finer moments), the purse was done.  It took a bit, but I was back to my jovial self a few hours later and was able to laugh about the experience for the rest of the weekend.

 

And, well... I think it turned out really great... so it was worth the effort that went into it.  And next time?  Well, next time I'm going to trust what I already know how to do.

erin

Debbie Bliss Embroidered Kimono

Sorry, this is a repost from my regular blog so I can update this link to Ravelry... In future all fabric craft projects will be dumped on this blogsite.

Ok, here's knitted project 2 completed.  Thank you CANDY for adding the detail work and cleanup, it looks AWESOME! of course it helps there's such an adorable model posing....

 

 

First t-shirt quilt..

Well, I've been on a roll lately.  Must be the change to the management type job at work (which provides NO sense of self-accomplishment) which has caused me to be so ambitious on the homefront lately.  Exhibit A: here is the "running t-shirt" quilt I made w/shirts from college races.  It was pieced and pinned together so long ago that at least 1 of the pins had rusted!  i.e. an unfinished project that was at least 5 years in the making.  This past weekend I took a few hours to myself to quilt in the ditch around each shirt and add a binding, and I'm callin it good!

Finishing Touches

Back in August I started this super secret quilting project and after working on it for the better part of a day and experiencing some real highs from it, I was dealt a blow and sulkily packed it away, hoping I would feel inspired to work on it again someday. Fast forward two months and it was October and our quilt retreat was looming and I decided that not only was I going to dig it back out and work on it again, I was going to FINISH it.

Well, I finished it minus about 20 minutes worth of work that I did tonight... I'm so excited to say that it is done! I completed it over 4 days and 20 minutes tonight. And it's still super secret so this is only a special sneak preview and the rest will be revealed in a few weeks. But, I had to blog tonight because dang, it sure feels good to have another project finished. I just wanted to shout, YAY!

erin