Simple + table toper pieced...

Don't you just love the photos of a beautiful kitchen table. Complete with table runners, table cloths, and the like. As much as I would love my home to look like that, it's just not possible. As a matter of fact my kitchen table is so embarrassing I don't even want to post a picture of it! 

Jackets hung over the chairs, paper work, spelling words, math papers, other forms of homework ( both mine and the 1st and 5th graders!) along with various other things are always strewn across the kitchen table, no matter how many times I pick them up.

 It's as if when I clear of the table, it screams at people to place stuff on it! So I have come to the realization that it will be several years until my kitchen table is photo ready, and I am OK with that! 

However it doesn't stop me from loving all the beautiful table topers that I see on everyone else's table. Who said they had to only be for the kitchen table! 

This small roll around kitchen block needed some love, so using 2 1/2 inch squares and 2 1/2 by 6 1/2 inch rectangles I made up this small + table toper. Right now it's just 14" square. I am thinking I will quilt it with some nice waves and bind it with a charcoal gray or gray and white binding. 

If it is going to stay here, I really think the gray will help tone down the colors and bring it all together!

That, or I may just have to change the vases!

Leaders and enders block

I have recently found the joy of Leaders and Enders. I originally started because after some reading I found that quilters change their bobbin less often when they use leaders and enders. I am happy to report, this is completely true! It seems like I am winding my bobbin much less since I started using leaders and enders!  

I decided it would be a waste to just use a scrap pice of fabric so perhaps I could make a quilt with the leaders and enders. So I sat down and organized my scraps, cutting lots of 2 1/2 inch squares. I quickly fond that I had a relatively small range of scrap colors. So I promptly signed up for a 'Candy swap" where we all exchange sets of 50 different 2 1/2 inch blocks. SO 200 + blocks later they are all bagged and ready to be sent out. 

At the end of each block I was making for my churn dash quilt, I just fed in the sewing machine 2 of the 2 1/2 charms. They quickly added up. 

I am hoping to do a scrappy around the world kind of block. The white will be the focal point with all the scrap pices adding a bit of color to the quilt. I don't plan on having this one done anytime soon, but I do like how it is coming together. 

The trick is to keep this a leader and ender quilt! I am really liking how easy it is to simply match the pieces once they were all cut. There is no thought to putting it together, just as long as two of the same colors are not side by side I am happy.  I don't pin either, just go slow to match up the seams and it works well. This block is 25 blocks, finishing at a 10" square. 

Jelly Roll Skinny Pinny Tutorial

This weekend I finished a few Skinny Pinnys for the upcoming swap that I am with. While I did like the original tutorial here I couldn't help but notice the measurements were pretty close to a jelly roll. 

So I thought to make a few made out of left over jelly rolls from other projects. 

As you can see, they sit well along the base of my sewing machine. 

Very easy to do, Just follow along

You will need 

1 Jelly roll at least 13 inches long

1 Jelly roll at 10 inches long

Keep them all at the 2 1/2 inch width

12 inches of trim, you can use lace or ribbon or ruffles whatever you like

Cut a jelly roll for the middle section 6 1/2 inches long, so you now have two rectangles

Then cut the other jelly roll into four 2 1/2 inch squares

Cut your ribbon into 3 inch sections ( If you don't want to trim them up latter cut them to 2 1/2)

Next place your rectangles print side up and lay the squares print side down over the rectangle. 

Sew the squares to the short ends of the rectangles using 1/4 seams. 

I like to press my seams open as it reduces bulk when we move on to the next step however, the choice is yours

You now have 2 long rectangles

 Place the ribbon on top of the seam where you sewed the square and rectangle together. Then sew on both sides of the ribbon. If you used longer ribbon pieces, trim them up after you sew them on.

Now place each rectangle print sides together and sew along the edges again using a 1/4 seam. Make sure your ribbon ends are aligned as well. 

I like to start at a short end corner and sew all 4 corners and leave a small opening in the middle of the short end that you will use to turn the pinny right side out. 

I also trim my corners so that they will fill out nicer when turned right side out. 

Turn the pinny right side out though the hole you left in the middle of the short end earlier. Then poke out the corners. I use a crochet hook to do mine as it has a rounded edge and seems to work pretty well. 

Then fill with your choice of stuffing. 

You can use walnut shells, stuffing, or all natural kitty litter as well. Whatever you happened to have on had will work. I love walnut shells as it seems like you need a LOT less of it to get the desired shape and consistency  I like compared to stuffing. 

Then sew up the hole that you used to fill the pinny with.  

And ta da! It was that easy! And it makes such good use out of the half used jelly roll scraps that just seem to have multiplied in one of my bins….

Less than 20 min to complete each one, and less if you decide to make several at once! 

I hope this was pretty straight forward but if there are any questions please let me know! I'd be happy to clarify. 

W.I.P Wednesday

Today I'm Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP, because hey i got something done by Wednesday! 

Well I did it! I finished both BOM blocks for this month within the first week! Go ME!

The Aurifil BOM here was done. I did have to part with a few vintage pillow cases for this one but I really like how it turned out!

And my Globe Trotting block was pieced together yesterday! While I'm not crazy about the dots in this one, I think in the end it may just all come together!

And of course while blog surfing I came across another cute project tutorial from 

The Crafty Quilter.

The little house is adorable, and can be done with scraps. I think with an added border this would make a cute pillow or add a few together for a small wall hanging! Not that I need another project or anything! 

The whole tutorial can be found here

First time FMQ, What was I worried about!

Soon after I witched eloquently discussed what to do about my big star Baby quilt Karen from Stitching Puma suggested quilting would really make it better. Now here is a confession, I LOVE the piecing of the quilt tops, but the quilting part always kind of put me off. There was no way I could do it on my own. But after going to a quilting shop and getting the pricing 

($50.00!!!!) I decided for that price I could figure it out on my own! 

So I pulled out some scraps and the Simply Retro Book by Camille Roskelley that I received this Christmas and made a quick turn dash baby quilt. 

  Then after extensive Utube enlightenment on free motion quilting I took the plunge, and made a few mistakes as you can see ( don't worry I'll point them out for you!) I thought just a basic stipple stitch would work, but as you can see there were a few errors in the work. That was the first corner, and I found that it was to tight. I noticed that if I was slow in my stitching, the stitches were closer together,choppy, and angled 

When I just put the peddle down and went for it you can see a big difference. 

I chose to do the stitching in the red because there really was so much white space in this quilt. It only took 20 min to piece together with some large ( 10") HST so it had a very plain look to it, I really love the red thread. Karen was right, the quilting really does make a HUGE difference! 

I even like it on the back. The red really makes the back more intricate and complex looking then it really is.

The best part, from this angle you can't even see the free motion mistakes. 

The binding did NOT turn out the way I had intended, I normally use a bias tape maker, but for this one I just cut 2" strips from the left over fabric and folded them over to use as binding. I should have gone a whole 1/2 inch larger to give me room and not have the corners pucker as much as they did 

Also I did NOT know it took that much thread to Quilt. I can not believe how often my bobbin ran out.  Thank goodness I had another spool of red thread on hand. I used a small 250 yd roll and still had 1/3 left to go! 

BUT I am happy with it. 

What do you think. Not bad for a first try! And talk about a quilt going from BLAH to OHHH! I love the texture that it gives the big old boring white spots! 

My Irrational Zipper Fear

Not to long ago my Mother-in-law-to-be acquired quite a few zippers. All vintage and in the cutest of colors!  Knowing that I sew she passed them on to me. What she didn't know is I have a fear of zippers. The first time I tried to sew a zipper, I snapped 2 needles and ended up with a nasty gash on my finger. The book I purchased when I had these grand ideas of making cute travel bags was promptly stuck in a drawer and forgot about.

Well fast forward to Christmas when craftsy had a free mini class on zipper pouches. 

I downloaded it of course, (they did say the magic word free)

And eventually I sat down to watch. 

after a few viewings I thought HECK I can do that!

And it was a success. 

Ok, by success I mean I ended up not bleeding this time! But the zipper got on that pouch!

Then I ran across Pink Stitches  boxy  Pouch Tutorial, and just loved it! and it was so much that I hadn't done before, boxing corners, fusible lining, and a zipper. 

Well, there were a few mishaps along the way, 

Did you know that fusible interfacing looses it's fusability?

Not quite sure how old it was but that was a new one for me!

So I had to adhock that one

Then I didn't have any scraps for batting, so I found Christmas snow. 

Yes, the kind you use to decorate under the Christmas tree. ( Surprisingly if I knew it worked as well as it does, I would have grabbed quite a few more bags during after Christmas Clearance!) 

So TADA! The small blue is the one from Craftsy class

and the pink was from Pink Stitches 

I loved the boxy pouch so much, I can't wait to make a few more to hold all my little sewing notion knick Knacks! 

Big Star Baby Quilt

  I made this very quick Baby quilt top using a tutorial over at Make it handmade here. It came together very fast, the whole thing took less than a few hours. However it has been hanging over the door for almost a month now. I have been going back and fourth on if I should add a small border to make it pop or just use some really scrappy binding to frame the star…. 

As of right now it measures 36" by 36". Perhaps a bit more pondering and I'll have an epiphany! 

It was originally made for a friend who told me they didn't want to know the sex of the baby so I wanted to use nice bright nutral colors, but alas they ended up finding out and now I am debating if I should make another with more "boy" friendly colors or just finish this one up or perhaps finish this one and gift 2 quilts!