Assorted Finishes

I've had a few finishes this week. Only one of them was on my Q2FAL list so we'll start with that one. They are quite the assortment.

The Octopus Sailor Top was number 13 on my Q2FAL list. I gathered my supplies and collected all my bravery. I've never made a shirt before this but was so excited.

I just ADORE how it turned out! Seriously, let's just take a minute to bask in the greatness. ..... Yeah.

I look so skinny in it too! So there are so going to be more of these in my future. I already have the fabric for the second one but I have other things in line ahead of it.

I just love this print so I bought extra on purpose. Well, my middle daughter is having a big project at school where she picked a zoo animal and is doing a presentation tomorrow. Her animal is an octopus and I just had to make her a shirt with my left over. She is so cute and we're both excited to wear our shirts tomorrow and hang out at school. I still have almost a yard remaining too so expect to see more goodies from this.

Excuse the awful picture. It was taken late at night with my phone. This is what I ended up sending to my Open Wide Pouch Swap partner. It was fun gathering and making things for her and I think it turned out well. I was worried it wasn't fancy enough but all the pictures in her mosaic were plain pouches that showed off the fabric.

This is what I got in return. SCORE!! This was given to me by the fabulous @spoolgoods. Seriously cannot tell you how much I love everything here. I adore hexies and all things Bonnie and Camille so the pouch was perfect. The candy and key fob were both things I love and I've been itching to get back into paper crafting and those other extras are throwing me that way in a hurry.

Last up for this week is my social tote. This was for the Sew My Stash Bag Challenge. All of the fabric and the interfacing came from stash - score! At this point I was really hoping I'd done the hard part. Not so much.

Getting to this stage I was feeling pretty confident. I love how the pockets and handles turned out. This is seriously one of my all time favorite lines of fabric.

Going from the last picture to this one was a nightmare. All told, I'd call this a successful failure. It reminds me of Apollo 13 in that I succeeded in getting it finished but nearly everything in the in between stages went awry. It was awful. There was stress, tears, stress and tears. I don't know if my interfacing was too thick or what but it was not good. Nothing would lie flat, trying to get the inside to attach to the outside was awful. Don't even get me started on the binding of it all. I sincerely hope it's me and not the bag and at the same time I hope it's the bag and I'm not a lost cause.

I'm amazed at how passable it looks in the pictures. You totally can't tell that me, the bag, and the seam ripper had a confrontation. I'm excited to have this sitting on my table and organizing my crafty tools. Right now they are strewn about and really hard to find. I'm going to make the matching pin cushion too. I imagine that's a lot less stressful. I'm linking this up with the challenge post.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my finishes for the week! I feel super on the ball and ready to attack my to do list even more! Next up are my Pin Cushion Swap project and the Alison Glass Mini Swap quilt! Until then I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Dresses for the Girls

I did something totally uncharacteristic this week. I made two dresses and a skirt for my girls. Clothes people! I rarely sew clothes. I also started on my octopus Sailor Top for me!! So excited! The dresses were a test for the Infinite A-line Dress Pattern by Whisk 'Em.

I was so excited when I finished it that I had her try it on and we ran out the door to take her picture right then. Later we did a proper photo shoot.

This was my first time doing buttons unassisted and I even did this cool thing with the facing. It was a little tricky but I'm so proud of myself with how it turned out.

I love how this fabric from Cotton and Steel has a built in cute hemline! I was pretty perfect for this dress.

Feeling great after the success of the first dress I whipped up a smaller version too!

Ruby is pretty happy with it and so adorable getting her picture taken.

The bodice piece was supposed to be gathered but I couldn't make that happen so on this version. Her big sister has the gathers on hers.

With the fabric I had left over I made this skirt for my eldest too. It just has one seam up the back and an elastic waist. Love!

Here they are all together. They wore these to church on Sunday and I was pretty excited about all the complements I received on their dresses.

I just love this picture of her with her little pose. She's adorable with her curls too.

One more picture of one of my sassy munchkins. Love!

Thanks for stopping by! I know I usually do quilty things here so hopefully you enjoyed this break from quilting projects as much as I did. I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Bag It Up: Finishes

I didn't realize I had so many finishes to share this week! I've been the crazy zipper pouch lady lately and it's been so fun! I also made a little pin cushion and a crochet preemie hat. Check them out...

We'll start with the preemie hat. I made this from my own pattern (free here) and still love it. There are many variations and it's pretty quick. This was an order from my shop and you can find the listing here.

Next up I finished up all six pouches for my SIL! I love how different these all look in spite of using the same pattern. It's crazy what fabric choice will change. These are number three on my FAL list.

I love the rainbow of zippers too! I get my zippers from ZipIt a crazy good shop on Etsy.

Finally I'm in an open wide zipper pouch swap on Instagram and this was my offering. I'm seeing a bunch of much fancier ones out there and hope my partner isn't disappointed but she had one nearly identical to this (the unicorn fabric was orange) in her mosaic so I think I'll be alright.

I love the green on the bottom and the fun green metal zipper. The lining was so fun too. I love a fun lining just as much as I love a fun quilt back.

I whipped up this little pin cushion as an extra to go in her package. I have a few more things to gather then this will be shipped on Monday.

That's me for the week. Thanks for stopping by! I also finished up a dress for one of my three girls but I'll wait to post about that until I make the other one for my littlest girl and maybe a matching skirt for the eldest. I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

Cotton and Steel Mini Quilt Finish

I am shocked and amazed that I actually got sewing in this week. Not only that I finished something! I made the binding and tag on this quilt my goal for April because my nearly two year-old daughter had surgery on Monday. She needed her giant tonsils removed so she could breathe and eat better. Everyone told me how hard it was going to be and how much she'd need me but she has been such a trooper and often running off to play with her siblings. I'm so glad it went so well and as a bonus I finished my Cotton and Steel Mini which is also number one on my Q2FAL list. Take a look...

I used the Nested Churn Dash pattern for this with Tokyo Train Ride fabric. I was thinking about doing pebbles to make the pattern pop more but then I decided that it's a pretty simple block and the pattern already is so strong that some crosshatching would soften it up a bit. I love the texture of it! I had fun deciding on placement of the fabrics and making sure all the HST fabrics pointed the same way.

Here's a closeup of these adorable prints. I'm usually a strong Melody Miller fan but Sarah Watts knocked it out of the park with this collection.

I bound it in mint and gold metallic notorious from the Cotton and Steel basic collection and I found the perfect Aurifil thread match. I did my usual machine zigzag binding because I seriously cannot bind by hand. It looks awful!

The last step was to add my tag. I covered up the recipient's name with a crochet hook because this is a secret swap and the shipping date isn't until June.

  Now I just get to work on some fun extras for her to make this package even better. Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my latest finish! I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.

ALYoF and Q2FAL Goals

I am so excited about my list of projects for this quarter! I have a tendency to overshoot and I think I may have this time as well with 15 on my list but most of them are pillows and minis so it should go pretty well. Many of these are for swaps or presents. The first project on the list is also my ALYoF goal for April.

#1 - Cotton and Steel Mini Swap quilt I used the Nested Churn Dash pattern. My partner said she was loving Tokyo Trainride so I went with it. I'm loving how this picture is showing off the quilting too. I need to finish by trimming, adding the binding, and the tag. This is my ALYoF goal for April.

#2 - Alison Glass Mini - I'm planning on using the Sea Breeze pattern. To whip up a mini for my partner in the Alison Glass Mini Swap. I'm loving the idea of this one and may need to make one for myself.

#3 Suzi Pouches - I'm making six pouches for my sister-in-law using the Quilted Patchwork Pouch tutorial. I have all the stuff for the pouches but have only made one of the six.

#4 Nana Pillows - My mom asked for pillows from this leftover bunch of Papillon that I used to make her this quilt. I'm excited about this!

#5 Route 15 Pillow - Made to match this quilt. Should be quick, easy, and fun!

#6 Preppy The Whale Mini - I won this kit on an Instagram giveaway and I'm excited to add it to my growing collection of mini quilts.

#7 Riley Blake Challenge - I got the fabric for the MQG challenge and I've been struggling with a plan. I'm thinking something to do with hexies, maybe this tutorial here.

#8 Dottie Mini - This was a total impulse buy at my LQS. I usually don't do that. It should be fun though. I think I'll try the pinwheel one in the middle. Another one for my mini wall.

#9 Primrose Quilt - Ruby is really excited about this quilt and it has been on my list for about a year. I need to just get it done because all she has is her baby quilt from me and she is no longer in a crib. I decided to use the Miss Kate fabric from Bonnie and Camille because it will coordinate well with her baby quilt made from Ruby by Bonnie and Camille.

#10 Scrumptious Baby Quilt - I've had this fabric all cut out and ready to piece for over a year now. It just needs to happen. I'll be using this Pinwheel Baby Quilt tutorial.

#11 Hazel Hedgehog Quilt - My eldest daughter is in love with all kinds of animals and wanted an animal quilt. I'm in love with C+S Basics so the two combined should be pretty epic.

#12 Orange Fancy Fox Quilt - My youngest son adores all things orange and foxes. This quilt is going to be epic for me. I have all the foxes pieced and basted. It just needs to be quilted and bound.

#13 Sailor Top - I've never made myself a shirt before but I saw several people wearing this top at Quiltcon and I thought to tackle it. I have three fabrics for this, all Cotton and Steel, the end intention is to make one out of each of them but for this quarter I'll just make one. Probably the octopus.

#14 Mittens - I'm knitting myself a pair of mittens out of the same yarn as my cable hat from last quarter. I'm using the Cozy Purl Ridge Mitten pattern. I'm really loving these and think they should be a pretty quick finish. I altered the pattern to make them fit me better.

#15 Big Owl - I'm knitting my first animal. The Big Snowy Owl from the Purl Bee. It's pretty giant and is going really fast but I haven't been really motivated to finish it. I'm also worried about how I'll get the stuffing to stay in as it's not incredibly tight.

 So that's about what I hope to accomplish in the next three months. I have a few more swaps I'm signed up for but have no idea what direction I'm going with for them so you'll see other things pop up here as well. I also have my ongoing swoon project but there is no way I'll finish that this quarter. I'm excited for this quarter and for all the near instant gratification projects on my list. I'm linking this up with the Q2FAL post as well as WiP Wednesday.

Road 15 Quilt Finish

I finished another quilt! I'm loving the texture of this one and the fabrics. I'm glad to have it finished. This is number four off my Q1FAL list. This quilt was also made entirely from stash. I'm loving using all my stash and so is my bank account!

I used the Happy Weekender tutorial with a slight modification. I changed the number of charms in the border so I only needed two charm packs instead of three. I needed slightly more background yardage for this way but I think it's worth it not to have a charm pack minus four squares lying around. This is the second time I've used this pattern.

I think I made a bad call with the background fabric though. It blends too well with some of the fabrics and they get lost. Maybe a lighter or a darker gray would have been a better choice.

Here's a better view of some of the prints. I really love these. The colors are fun and the little houses, maps, and tree prints are right up my alley.

I quilted this with 1.5" increments and then bound and added my tag. I got some yardage with tags on them from Sweetwater and I just love them. Since they also made the Road 15 fabric from this quilt it was a pretty great match and the little house is just adorable.

I had SO MANY PROBLEMS quilting this one. You wouldn't think a bunch of straight lines would be harder than my last quilt with all the pebbles but it totally was. The spray basting just wasn't holding. I've spray basted for years and have never had this problem. It was so weird. I even used the same can of spray on a different quilt with no issues. The whole thing just came apart without me being aware and there were huge shifts and wrinkles. I had to unpick several lines of quilting and make do the best I could. Needless to say I'm happy this is over.

I love the pictures of quilts being held up, you get a really great view of the quilt. However, my usual quilt holder was at work so I enlisted three of my five kids, plus a bonus baby, to hold it up for me. They did a great job.

Even though the wind would get involved from time to time. The little one in the middle was to help keep the quilt more straight. They were quite the team.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to cross another thing off my Q1FAL list. It was looking pretty sad last week and now I've got six finishes! I'm linking up with TGIFF and Finish It Up Friday.