WiP Wednesday: Crochet. Baste, Quilt, Bind, and Repeat

I got a lot accomplished this week. I love it when my hubby is available to hold the baby and I can sew - sew - sew! I made three bindings, then basted three quilts, quilted two, and bound one and a half. I also made two crochet hats ( one of them several times) and added more listings to my Etsy shop. Phew! I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

I'm one of those people who love making binding. I think it's fun and fast and it looks so fabulous when it's done. I use a pen to roll them up and then put a pin in it. The rolls make them so much easier to work with and keep them nice and neat when I'm not working.

I just adore spray basting. It wasn't until last year that I knew such a thing even existed. I basted three quilts during nap time where before it would have been an all day event.

I got my first order from someone I have never met. It was so exciting. This is an adult/teen hat. I really love this owl hat!!

I also got a custom order for my shop. My friend wants her son to go as snoopy for Halloween so I made this adorable hat. Well, I actually made it four times. The first time was too small. The second was double crochet and I didn't like how it looked so open (I followed the pattern that went with this hat and it wasn't fabulous). The third one got left at her house when I was trying it on her son and this is the fourth. So this either makes me look like a totally unorganized person who doesn't know what she's doing or someone who is seriously committed to customer satisfaction.

Here's a top-ish view of the hat. Love!

I also put my first quilt listing in Etsy. The hardest part was trying to decide how much to charge for it. Seventy seemed to be the median going rate for one this size with fabric of this quality. We'll see how it works out. As a side note I was pretty funny in this listing mentioning that the baby wasn't included and referencing that little serving suggestion in the bottom of the photo like on a cereal box. I crack myself up.

I did a zigzag machine binding. The thread matches so well you can hardly see it but I'm pretty proud of it and it looks crazy sturdy.

This one is also for my shop. It has been basted and quilted and the binding was sewn onto the back. It's so close!

Even with all of that I didn't quite finish all my goals for the week. Maybe I aim too high? I still have some book blocks that I wanted to work on. Hopefully I'll get to them this week.

WiP Wednesday: Order Up!

I had my first Etsy order this week and I'm so excited!! One of my high school friends ordered a hat for herself and one for her little boy. I was lightning fasting getting it done in about 24 hours from the time of the order. I also got some batting for my quilts to put in my shop and did a few blocks from my book quilt. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

Here are the hats from the order. I think they turned out so cute!

I just adore this sock monkey hat. I have done it so many times that I don't even have to look at the pattern.

I think the apple hat turned out better this time because I sewed the leaf to the stem and it made it stick up better.

Joann's had a batting sale. This 25 yard roll was $99. It's cotton and feels really nice too. It's not the brand I usually use but I've already cut some pieces out and it seems great.

Lastly, I worked on some of the book blocks for my sister-in-law's quilt. These are stacked on their sides and are oriented like they'd be in the quilt.

 This week I hope to baste and quilt a few small quilts. Work on some more book blocks and make one more crochet hat for a different order. I hope the baby cooperates! I'm also going to my local quilt show tomorrow! I'm so excited!

WiP Wednesday: On Top of It

I had a crazy productive week this week. I went to an all day sew-in and completed nearly five quilt tops and have the fabric cut for six more! I also placed a large fabric order for some more to make and the backings of several of them. These will be going into my Etsy shop once they're finished. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

The day before the sew-in I spent all my free time cutting out and organizing a bunch of quilts so I was ready to go. I even chose the layouts for them, which, for me, is the hard part. We did this a few months ago and I was fairly unprepared and only bound one quilt and crocheted a bit on a sweater the whole day.

This is the first quilt I finished. It was a simple patchwork just made of sewing charm squares together. It was so so fast! I have a crazy hard time with random so I was glad that I figured out the layout the day before and just had to sew. The fabric is Bear Country School for Moda.

This is the girl portion of the Celebration line for Moda. I love all these cute prints! I bought two charm packs of this one because half was girly prints and the other half was boy prints. Then I combined them and sewed the matching ones together.

Here's the boy one. They are so cute and perfect for little babies!

I also put together the quilt for my sister's baby. I adore how this one turned out. It's from Melissa at Happy Quilting's original quilt-a-long. The fabric is High Street by Lily Ashbury for Moda.

This one was the last I worked on and was nearly finished there. I just had the horizontal seams to work on. I finished it a few days later. I just love this fabric line and think it will make the perfect lap quilt. It's 2wenty Thr3e for Moda.

Here's all five I worked on together. This picture was crazy hard to take because I'd get them all laid out then a gust of wind would come and blow them folded over. Isn't that always how it works?

This is for my next quilt in the works. My SIL is a school teacher in Texas and asked for a book quilt to hang in her room. I found this awesome Read With Me quilt over at the Moda Bakeshop by Melissa from Happy Quilting and it just perfect! You may have noticed I'm all about her. I can't wait to get started and hope to have something to show for it next week.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great week!

WiP Wednesday: A Start Up

I've got so much going on right now! I just finished my Star Surround quilt this week. I started another quilt for my sister's new baby due the end of the year. I crocheted three hats. Started up an Etsy shop bought a truckload of yarn and fabric to get going on those. No wonder my WiP Wednesday post is late! I'm linking up over at Freshly Pieced.

First the finish!!

I love everything about how this one turned out. The colors are awesome and the pattern is so fun! Check out the finish post here.

This is the start for my sister's baby. I'm using High Street for Moda. The bright colors aren't typically my thing but I'm loving them here. These will be turning into disappearing 16 patch blocks  from the original quilt-a-long by Melissa over at Happy Quilting.

We have an apple orchard near by that has so much more than apples to draw people to it! There are all kinds of fun things to do and play including a giant corn pool. We buy season passes every year. Well, I decided to make Ruby a little apple hat to keep her tiny head warm and out of the wind. Everyone loved it!!

Her big sister wanted an apple hat too! You should have seen people ooh and aah over these as we walked around.

Everyone's reaction got me thinking. I took out the collection of hat I've made just for Ruby and thought I should sell these! Many many people have suggested that to me before but it never took root. However, now I'm all excited about it and opened up my own Etsy Shop.

So I went out and bought a crap ton of yarn. In so many different colors. People like options! I'm so excited about this venture!

I also started checking out a bunch of different options. I love the more fun hats like this shark. Pattern found here.

Here's my son showing off the side view.

 I was also thinking I could do some quick and easy quilts at my shop too!

The Green Fairy was having an incredible sale on charm packs so I picked up a bunch and I've got a plan for each of these! I can't wait for them to take shape.

So there was my crazy week. I'm so excited about my new venture that I'm afraid my house may be suffering a bit. I hope to get it all set up then we'll see how it goes. Each listing is made to order so that should take some of the pressure off. As always thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Star Surround Top

With a crazy burst of time and energy on my hubby's last day off I finished my Star Surround quilt top. This was part of a quilt-a-long by Melissa from Happy Quilting.

This was a far as I was hoping to get today. I finished all nine blocks this morning. The baby, about 1.5 months old, was being so good that I kept going.

I finished the whole top today! You can see the pieces I had in this post written this morning. I love how it turned out! My dead, dying grass looks great with the colors on this quilt too. ;)

This is just a cool angle of it. The fabric, which I love, is from Basic Gray's PB&J for Moda.

The secondary pattern it makes is pretty sweet too. I just love everything about this one!

Cheers to Melissa at Happy Quilting for writing up another fabulous quilt-a-long! I am waffling on what to do quilting wise so this may sit for a few weeks while I figure it out. I'm thinking straight-ish lines or an allover pattern.

I'm linking up with Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WiP Wednesday: Pieces No More

I've made more progress on my Star Surround quilt. It's a good thing too because the grand prize linkup closes on Sunday! I have the centers and the surrounds all pieced together and the quilt is ready for assembly. I have eighty more seams (albeit some are quite long) until this is a queen-size  quilt. I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

These are the centers of the blocks. I love these fancy stars and how they came out! All that trimming was so worth it now seeing the points all come together so well.

These are the surrounds. The corners at the top alternate and the pieces that look like the letter M go on the sides. I am loving how it is coming together and I'm so excited to get this one finished up.

I hope to assemble this over the next day or two since it has to be done by Sunday. I have so many fabulous things coming up! I can't wait to share them with you but I have to finish up this one first. Here's to another productive week!

UPDATE: My productive week is already off to a great start. I finished my Star Surround top. Go here to check it out.

WiP Wednesday: Just Keep Trimming!

I carved out some time for quilting this week. I am at that stage where there is a lot of work but not much to show for it -- trimming. I am now ready to put this bad boy together this week. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

My sweet hubby got me this smaller ruler and it has made all the difference in my trimming world! I used to have to use my 12.5" square and it was a pain! I also put them out on my cutting mat 24 at a time and it seemed to make it go faster. I would do two sides and then flip them all and do the other two. I had 144 of these to trim.

Here are my HST all trimmed up along with the fancy pile of trimmings. I love how, dare I say, perfect they come out after trimming. It is a lot of work but it really makes a difference.

I also cut all the dog ears off my flying geese. There were 108 of these so it took a bit of time but not too bad.

Now all of my pieces are ready for assembly! This will become the Star Surround quilt from Happy Quilting. LOVE!

So to build the block you start with the centers. I love this, especially how the fabrics play off each other.

I laid out all my pieces so you can see the block. Isn't it fabulous?! I can't wait to put this one together. The fabric is PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda.

This week I hope to put this together, well, at least the centers. My hubby has vacation time so I'll probably have more time for sewing! Thanks for stopping by!