Tis The Season

I'm one of those people- I begin decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween (and really, that is only because the husband puts the kibosh on doing it any earlier :)  I put out my Christmas quilt, table runners, and pillow the other day.  Wait?  What?  Pillow?  Singular??  Yes, somehow I only have ONE Christmas pillow!  Obviously that was not going to do.  Enter my finish for this week-

 

I found some red and cream strip sets left over from the trimmings of a Christmas tree skirt I made a few years ago and paired them up with a green holiday fabric I had.  I also learned (once again) that I am horrible about using scraps.  I am so worried about getting as much fabric out of extra bits of fabric as possible that I mull over ideas again and again- and ultimately a pillow this size take 3 hours.  Oh, I can procrastinate like no one else!  I just stare at the scraps, like I am looking at a puzzle and trying to figure out how to use them effectively without cutting into them too much.  Anyone else like that? 

 

And here is the new pillow with the one I already had.  I am loving the pops of color on the couch.  Hubby teased the other day that he must be in the wrong house, because he could sit on the couch without having to move pillows.  Well that won't do :)  Off to go make more!

 

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at CrazyMomQuilts.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

This is such a strange feeling!  I have enjoyed seeing the quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival since the very first one, but this is the first time I have one to share myself! 

I'm choosing to share a wall hanging I made last year (but before I had a blog, so it has not been featured on here before).  As is becoming typical for me, I was inspired by a photo I saw on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/207024914092055770/) but decided to switch it up a little and make a wall hanging vs. a pillow.  I also wanted to change how the bow was made.  Since I was winging it on that I figured it was the perfect opportunity to make a design wall and really allow myself to play- I'm so glad that I did!  It made things much easier to be able to lay the piece up on the wall and really see the finished project (with the added bonus that my two fuzzy "helpers" couldn't get to those small squares and make a mess of them!  Kitties like fabric just as much as they like quilts :)

 

For the quilting I tried out a few designs from my very favorite quilting book (and the one that makes me want a longarm so bad!) Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters.  Hopefully the quilting can be seen in these photos- one day we will live in a house with good picture taking lighting, until then I make do with photo editing sites.  In the border I quilted some scrolls and then echoed them when they did not fit enough of the space.  In the remaining white areas I stippled and in the red bow I quilted small swirls in each square.

 

My favorite quilting on this is the leaves that are in the wreath.  Oh how I wish you could see them better!  I love the texture the quilting created and that it fit with the theme of the quilt made it all that much better.

 

This quilt was one of my favorites as I was making it and a year later it is still at the top of the list of favorites.  Could have something to do with my love of Christmas too that helps this quilt top that list :)  I couldn't even bare to put it away last year and instead it hung in my sewing room all year long.  I'm excited to pull it out again in the coming days (yes, I am one of those people that will put up Christmas decorations right after Halloween). 

 

I'm entering this in the Favorite Wall Hanging category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. 

Spots and Stripes Forever

Oops I did it again... I made more bloooocks, got lost in the quilt... (to the tune of Brittany Spears Oops I Did It Again- yes I am a child of the Brittany Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys generation :) 



Some stripe blocks to add to the blue/green quilt.  I also found a new use (kinda) for my little, diy, traytable turned pressing table.  Turns out I can move it around the house and press blocks in front of the tv with hubby.  It doesn't actually have to stay in my sewing room!  Yes, It took me a solid year to realize my portable pressing table was portable :)

And a little sneaky-peek at the quilt (this is only a sampling of the blocks tossed up on the design wall).  There are the square-in-square, stripe, and solid/print blocks.  There are also three patchwork blocks in the works that will be scattered about.  I'm getting excited to see it all together! 

And for those of you who don't follow along with me on Instagram (@flipflopsandquiltblocks, if you want to) - hubby and I announced some big news!

This was Baby's First Trip to Disney!  Baby M is due April 21st (and for those of you doing the math, I am 3 months pregnant and 5 months married- everything is on the up and up :)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday over at QuiltStory.





Finish It Up Friday

A few weeks back I had the funniest craving... fabric!  Can anyone else relate :)  Suddenly (at 10pm) I just HAD to go online and look at fabric, of course that led to buying fabric.  I realized I had been pinning lots of navy and green things on Pinterest, so I used that as my inspiration and just started looking for fun prints in that color scheme.  My bundle of goodies arrived last week, but this past Wednesday was the first chance I got to dig into them.

 

I did things a little differently this time and decided to cut all my pieces before sewing.  At the time I hated it (#tedious), but now I'm really glad I did it.  It is so nice to be able to pop into the sewing room for a few minutes and have something ready to work on. 

 

I found a quilt tutorial on CluckCluckSew and fell in love with it- no surprise there, I pretty much love all her quilts.  Nothing hard or fancy, just some square-in-square blocks, some stripe blocks, some patchwork blocks, and some "regular" blocks with just the one fabric.  It is probably one of those patterns that I could do without a pattern, but I love that someone has already done the math for me and showed me a cutting diagram. 

 

One of my favorite blocks.  I usually hate cutting into printed fabric and making blocks like this, I always expect the fact that the print no longer lines up to annoy me but then I see other quilts where it has been done and I don't even notice.  I guess looking at quilt as a whole make it less noticeable than looking at just one block.  Either way I'm glad I did it, love these little zebras.

 

And a second favorite block.  Those letters are so cute!  And I'm glad to finally have cut into that polka dot (as well as the matching stripe that can be seen above), a fabric that I hoarded from Joanns a while back.  Colors I aways go after, so I figured it was a safe bet for me to stock up on. 

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts.

Finish It Up Friday & An Accuquilt Review

Finally feeling back in the groove, and even have a finish this week! 

Nothing big or fancy, just some simple, fun sewing.  Funnily enough, after 4 years of sewing/quilting I think this is my first simple patchwork quilt.  I made a patchwork quilt years ago, but it has two borders on it, so this one really is the only simple one.  Only I would take 4 years to make the easiest pattern (fun fact: the first quilt I ever attempted was a bargello pattern.  I like to skip the simple stuff and start with the intermediate :)

I used my Accuquilt to cut the squares for this quilt, but I must admit I am not impressed.  I have had my Accuquilt for about 2 years now, and to be honest I am still waiting to fall in love with it.  Years ago it seemed that all the "star bloggers" of the quilting world were being gifted with Accuquilts and then reviewing them "this is great!" "there's really not that much waste!"  "It's so easy, my kids can use it!"  Ummm... maybe I would say that too if I had gotten one for free and had access to someone at the company to answer all my questions (and if I was getting a kickback...), but I really don't see any of that.  Here are my thoughts-

1. Waste- yes, there is fabric waste.  And no, it is not always "the same as if I were to rotary cut".  I think it depends on the die being used.  I think for applecore or something that is an "odd" shape that is true, but for squares, strips, even triangle and tumblers, I find I would have way less waste if I were to rotary cut the fabric myself. 

2.  Preparing the fabric- it is not quite as simple as "fold the fabric and turn the crank".  You have to iron and starch the fabric very well, the slightest wrinkles tend to affect my cuts way more than I think they should.  You still have to cut the fabric down to size so it fits on the die (and only on the part of the die you want, some of the die have more than one shape/size on them).  And once the fabric is layered on the die, it can be hard to turn the crank to get it to go through the machine.  I was using 6 layers of fabric, which I did by folding one piece of fabric in half lengthwise and then folding it in thirds widthwise.  Those folds add a lot of thickness and can make turning the crank tricky- which I think also tends to make the fabric shift a bit and brings me to...

 

3. Fabric shifting/ fussy cutting- Fussy cutting isn't really an option, even some thing as simple as keeping your stripes straight can be hard.  Even if you lay the fabric out perfect, putting the cutting mat on top and running it through the machine tends to make my fabric shift a bit.  All of a sudden my stripes are off kilter. 

4. Cutting- My shapes rarely come right out of the Accuquilt.  Out of the 6 layers of fabric (so 6 shapes) I would get 3 maybe 4 that would come out perfectly.  The others were still stuck to the waste fabric and I had to cut them out.  One small slip of the scissors and the shape can be ruined. 

Basically, I haven't found the Accuquilt to be that accurate.  My issues this time could have been compounded with using a few different types/qualities of fabric, but many of my squares were not the same size- which seems awfully strange since they were cut with the same die!  I always expect my Accuquilt to save me time, but after I have prepped my fabric, cut it down to size to use in the machine, run it through the machine, etc... I could have rotary cut it faster. 

Does anyone else  have these troubles with the Accuquilt?  Any tips to change my mind on it? 

Fabric Tuesday

Yippee!  It's Fabric Tuesday and I actually have something to share!  Sooo glad to have my sewing mojo (kinda, sorta, mostly) back.  I pulled out some scraps this past weekend and my Accuquilt and started cutting. 

Surprisingly, I really don't have much of a scrap selection.  I tend to buy fabric for a project and use it all up.  The scraps that I have are from a bunch of random projects and sometimes it is hard to get a color scheme that works from them.  This little set of fabrics took way longer to choose than it should have, but I think it is looking cute so far.  I am starting to get the appeal of scrappy quilts though- the fabrics in here all remind me of other fun, past projects.  It's like a trip (ok, a short one) down memory lane!

I was chain piecing these squares and finally, finally, found a way to make these easier on myself.  Once again it ended up being Clover Wonder Clips to the rescue!

Whenever I sew squares together in a chain, they always end up flipping around as I sew and by the time I go to cut them apart I have no idea which fabric I wanted on top and which on the bottom.  Not a big deal... until it comes to ironing and I want to alternate the direction of my seams.  This time I grabbed the Clover Wonder Clips and clipped the two squares together (opposite the side I was sewing).  Now I know that the red part of the clip is the top, so even if/when the fabrics flip around, I know which direction they should be.  Made thing so much easier! 

 

Linking up to QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday.

 

Welcoming Fall

Oops!  Didnt' mean to take a blog-y break!  I have a big project stealing all my time, but I can't share just quite yet ;)

I did get some of my crafting mojo back today though.  The change of seasons always means a change of front door decor, and big project or not I couldn't let Fall arrive with a Summer wreath on my door!

I went onto Pinterest and found this wreath which became my inspiration- http://pinterest.com/pin/207024914093883744/.  I love this wreath, but when I got to Joanns and was looking at the flowers the green and cream suddenly seemed to say Spring instead of Fall, so I changed it up a bit.

 

I started off with a wreath form from Walmart, and wrapped it with some burlap from Joanns.  Just a little hot glue on the backside of the wreath to (hopefully) make the burlap stick.  Those grapevine wreaths are tricky- so many holes between the twigs make attaching things hard.  Oh, and I trimmed all the little bits off the wreath.  What can I say, I like my natural twig wreaths to look nice and uniform :)

 

Next up was to trim the hydrangea blossoms off the long stalks so I could attach them to the wreath.  I just put a bunch of hot glue on the stem and shoved it down into the wreath.  So far it seems to be holding/working.

 

Ta-da!  The finished (I think) wreath!  Of course, it is too heavy and pulls the hook off my door, so I can't put it up until I buy a real wreath hook tomorrow (I have been getting away with using a command hook with magnets glued to the back for the last year).  I say I "think" I'm finished because I am very tempted to add our last name initial to personalize the wreath a bit.  On the one hand I like the flowers just on one side... but on the other I like things symmetrical (and the hubby definitely likes symmetry).  I think the letter on the other side would balance it out a bit.