Chevron quilt

What do you do with your pre-cuts?  I have several jelly rolls and a couple of layer cakes in my stash that I bought years ago when they first came on the market.  I have used a few of the jelly rolls to make sampler quilts but the layer cakes have sat untouched.  I did make one block a couple of years ago with a couple of 10" squares but then the rest of the squares have been stashed away.  Until now that is.

I don't even remember what this layer cake's name is but I have loved the fabric since I bought it.  A few months ago I saw Missouri Quilt Company's youtube video on how to make a Chevron quilt.  Looked simple enough so yesterday I pulled out the remaining squares and got to work.  The construction is very simple.  Take one layer cake square and then a contrasting color that is also 10".  Place them RST and sew 1/4" around all 4 sides.  To make this process go quicker sew in an assembly line fashion.  Sew all squares on one side, cut them apart and then sew the next side until you have sewn all 4 sides.  Cut the squares apart on each diagonal and you have 4 blocks.  Press and then put them together how you want them to look.  It wasn't until I was ready to put my blocks on my design wall that I realized I didn't have has many green blocks as I did pink.

Here was my first attempt at putting the blocks together.  Blah.


Next I tried to keep the colors together in the blocks.  Again....blah.

Finally I took everything off the design wall and started over by mixing everything up.  As you can see, I only had enough greens for one row but I like it.  

 

Now to put on the border and get it to the quilter!  A layer cake gone from my stash!  Yes!  

We Started a Quilt Guild!

Here's the youngest member of our new Quilt Guild, Rippin' Stitchers!



After living in this valley for many years, several women got together in November to organize a quilt guild.  We have a wonderful fabric store in our midst so it was about time we got the many quilters together around here and formed a club.

I volunteered to make a blog so you are welcome to have a look at it!
http://rippinstitchers.blogspot.com/

I am so excited for our new adventure in our lil' Valley!  Any suggestions are much appreciated on how/what to do at our meetings!

10 Minute Table Runner

My gifts to my friends and neighbors this past Christmas were these 10 minute table runners.  The link takes you to the directions but you can make your runners any size or width you like.  The inside fabric should be about 4" smaller than the outside fabric.  I just cut to the width of my fabric but if you want it longer, you can add to that.  They do literally take about 10 minutes.  Hardest and longest part is sewing on the button.  I take that back.....if you are like me, the hardest part was picking out what fabric I wanted to use.


I wrapped a battery operated candle inside the rolled up runner and tied a bow and whoola, I was finished!  I ended up making about 14 of these quick gifts!

2012 BOM

Another year has come and gone along with another Block of the Month from our Local Quilt Shop.
2012 applique quilt was Snowmen.  We had the choice of making that, the 12" blocks or both.  I opted to make just the Snowmen quilt this time.

This is the finish quilt from the quilt shop, Valley Fabric.  I'm not sure if it is an original or not.  Many years we do make a quilt from a local, talented designer.  This is Warm Winter Wishes.


This is the Beige/Black quilt that the shop made as a sample as to how you can finish your quilt.  I love this setting.  My daughter and daughter-in-law made these blocks.  You also had the option of making it in blue fabric which was quite stunning.

Another way of setting your blocks to finish your quilt.

My quilt in progress.  

As you can tell, I put my quilt together a bit differently than the original.  

 

My darling daughter-in-law has caught the bug!

My daughter in law joined my daughter and myself this past year in making the BOM at our LQS.  She got so excited about sewing that she bought a couple of panels and made them into floor quilts for her boys.  I am so proud of her!


She had a wonderful quilter quilt them.  Click the picture to see the detail.

Emily wasn't satisfied in just a plain black border.  She appliqued every yellow piece of fabric on that inner border so it looked like a road!  Notice the face of that cute lil' recipient of that quilt!

Again, some great quilting! 

Emily is now working on finishing her BOM to get it to the quilter next week.  I can hardly wait to see how she put it all together.

Floor Cushions

Sorry for the blurry pictures!  I'm not that great with a camera but I also have some wild and crazy grandchildren!  Sometimes they just can't sit still!  I should show the "bloopers".....nothing but blur in most of the pictures of these cuties!

A pattern was introduced several months ago at my local quilt shop for a child's floor cushion.  I thought it was very cute but did not want to pay the $12 for the pattern.  You would be or not be surprised as to what you can find online!  I did a search for a floor cushion and found a great tutorial here.  So many people have made these that this girl started a flickr page to show off their creations.  You can see that page here.
There is also another pattern here.  I like the patchwork top on this one.

One thing I did change with the cushions I made was that I filled them with bean bag pellets.  You can find them at Wal-Mart.  I was told that some of the pellets stick together and go all over if you buy the cheap brand.  Mine were pellets from Bag of Beans.  Surprisingly enough, they played nice as we (it's a 2 man operation filling these things) poured them into the cushions.


I was a bit afraid of sewing with piping but it really wasn't hard to sew on.  I made my own piping by using Nancy Zimmerman's Wrap n' Fuse Piping.  Can I say I LOVE that stuff?!!!!  It can be hard to find but so worth it if you make your own piping.

I also used just regular cotton fabric.  Directions said to use upholstery or other canvas but I decided to use what I had.  I also made the pattern as big as I could so the kids could hopefully grow into them.  The original pattern I saw is quite small compared to what I made!  I plan on making a couple more but maybe a bit higher so I can use them for footstools.

The kids seem to like them.  Another success on Christmas Day from Grammie!

What I've Been Up To...

Couldn't show a lot of things I have been doing before Christmas.  I know it is already the middle of January but having been gone so long from the blog I had to really decide if I wanted to come back.

Christmas was the year of the grandchildren.  I bought the Ellie Doll Bed pattern (Kwik Sew) several months ago but it just sat in the pile of "maybe I will get around to making that one day".  Finally at the first of December I decided to open the pattern and see if I could follow the directions.  It was actually quite easy.   Especially since I didn't put the zipper into the bottom of the bed so it could be taken off to wash.  It was easy enough that I made 3 of them for our little granddaughters for Christmas.

I really loved finding the fabric for each bed.  This one was made for our 3 year old in Denver (soon to be Iowa).


We visited her a couple of weeks before Christmas.  I couldn't stand not being able to watch her open up her gifts we gave her so I let her open a few while we were there.  She loved the bed.

In fact, she loved the bed so much she wanted to sleep in it!

When I got home from our trip to Colorado I knew I needed to get going on the other two so they would be ready by Christmas.  It was hard not sharing with the mommy's what I was making.

 

So happy I was able to capture this one's face!  

This baby is a bit too young yet but she loved throwing the pillows around!  I knew if I didn't make it now along with the other two, I wouldn't ever make it so her mommy has it on a shelf until baby is a bit older.

 

All in all a successful project for 3 cute lil' girls!