Churn Dash Quilt for Chewie

We bought our Yorkie Chewie a dog bed from Costco, but he won't lay in without a towel in it (weirdo!). Plus the beach towel isn't terribly attractive! So I wanted to use some of my Christmas fabric up and make him a little quilt for his bed.

I decided to make one giant Churn Dash block. I used my 10" Sizzix square die (unfinished) for the block and trimmed them down to 9" before putting it together. Then I just put a 4" border around the edge. I was going to make an attempt at free motion quilting, but I chickened out and just did my usual wavy lines! The whole thing came out to 33" square.

It covers the bed pretty well. I'm hoping he will like it!

I think I might even do one like this again and 5 more for a big person quilt. I love the giant sized block!

Until later, happy sewing!

Jamie

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Christmas Table Runner - 8 Pointed Floating Star

I'm excited to say that I finished a Christmas table runner for my own house! The last Christmas table runner I made was for my sister-in-law so she's enjoying it at her house now.

This was the first time that I've made an 8 pointed floating star and I have to say that it was really fun! I used my Sizzix Isosceles 4.5" Die to do this and it made it super easy!

I didn't even realize that I could use this die to make such a star until a bunch of ladies in one of my FB groups were doing a mystery quilt and were making these pieces. So I was super jazzed when I realized I already had the die I needed! Each block came out 12" finished. I just ordered the 6.5" Isosceles die (to make 18" blocks) and I think I'm going to get the 3.5" die so I can make 9" blocks too. I also used my 4.5" square for the center and my 2.5" strip die for everything else. I love my Sizzix!

The first 2 blocks were slightly wonky but as I narrowed my seam allowance a bit, they came out much better. I originally put a 2.5" red boarder on each block but then cut the whole block to 15" so that red border ended up being only like 1" when it was finished. It barely fit our entertainment center! It could have used to be about 2-3 inches longer on either side to fit the edge. Oh well!

I'm really happy the way it came out! I love this star fabric. It's a Christmas fabric I've had for several years and I hate to use it because I like it so much. I almost went with green, but red felt more like Christmas. With all these colors you'd think it would be easy to find a color to match, but it turned out to be a little tougher than I though! I used a lot of organic wavy lines for my quilting. I did about 10 and realized I hadn't used spray basting or pinned enough so they were stretching the block out so I ripped them out and started over. One day I'm going to branch out, but I don't think I'm ready to start FMQ yet.

It's looking pretty festive in our living room now!

I can't wait until next week when I'm on Christmas break and I can get some sewing done! Yay!

Until later, happy sewing!
Jamie

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Christmas Tree Table Runner

I really enjoyed having my Halloween table runner, so I tried to do a Thanksgiving/Fall one. Unfortunately it was an epic fail! I blame part of it on the fact that I used linen, and I also blame the fact that I wasn't paying attention to the grain when I cut it and I think that I kept rotating pieces so it got all crazy stretched. Then I did quilting in specific sections and it became a hot mess pretty quickly. It was the first time I tried to use my 60 degree Sizzix diamond die so I'll have to give this die another whirl when I do some better planning!

So I moved on. I used my Sizzix Large Simple Wedge Die (designed by Missouri Star Quilt Company) to make little trees. I got my inspiration from Pinterest of course.

At this point I actually decided that I was going to make this for my sister in law and send it to her for her birthday. I'm really happy at the way it came out! I am happy to say that I used all the Christmas fabrics from my stash! I actually didn't like it much when I finished sewing it up, and I was nervous I wasn't going to like the final product. But the wavy quilting really made it shine, and I love the way it came out!

I ended up cutting enough tree pieces for probably 2 more table runners, so hopefully I will get one done for our house soon for this front entry table.

Until later, happy sewing!

Jamie

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Halloween Table Runner

We've been in our house over 2 years now, so I thought I should start making some holiday stuff. Our holiday decorations are pretty skimpy so I'm hoping I can add to it bit by bit every year.

I've been crazy busy with my new job and have hardly sewed anything! I went back to teaching science (Biology and Physics specifically), and I was on a craft hiatus for seriously 3 months! But I feel so lucky to be doing a job I love at an amazing campus!

Things finally slowed down a bit a couple weeks ago, and I was able whip out this table runner for Halloween.

I did organic wavy lines with matching thread on each section, but I wish I would have done straight radiant lines from the skinny to the fat side instead. Oh well! I used the Sizzix 10" Dresden die and it sewed up so fast! I know I'll definitely use this die to make some more table runners.

I actually had enough pieces left over to make one for the living room, but I ran out of time so I'll just get that one done next year!

Until later, happy sewing!
Jamie

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Baby Boy Dino Quilt

My friend at work is having a baby, so I really wanted to make her something sweet for the shower coming up. I challenged myself to only use fabric out my stash.

I picked out this cute dino fabric since the baby is a boy, but the only fabrics I could find to pair with it were these 4 solids. I don't generally sew a lot with solids. Nothing against them...I just don't have a lot of experience with them. I have to admit it made me a little nervous.

I decided to use my Sizzix 4.5" tumbler die. I love that it cut quickly and sewed together quickly too!

 

It ended up about 39" square. I figured it would be good as a quilt or even a play mat.

For the back, I didn't have enough dino fabric left, so I used what I could and put some borders around it. I find that I do well with really wide borders around the edge that don't make it so obvious if the back isn't perfectly centered. 

I really like how the wavy organic lines like I used in my little sister's quilt accentuated the tumblers and helped to break up the solids.

I'm really pleased about how this came out, and I can't wait to give it to her! I will definitely try my hands at a solid quilt one day when I get through a little more of my stash!

Until later, happy sewing!

Jamie

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UPDATE: 5/28

Yesterday we had the baby shower, and my friend absolutely loved the quilt! I was so excited to give it to her all week...I was tempted to bring it in earlier in the week, but I held out. This morning she posted the sweetest Facebook post about it, saying how much she appreciated it. 

THIS is why we quilt! Just knowing how much this quilt will be loved is what keeps us giving our materials, our time, and our effort to make things for people we care about. I just wanted to share that! :)

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My little sister's gift quilt and my first organic wavy line quilting

My little (half) sister is turning 14 tomorrow and in lieu of the normal gift card to Michael's I get her to fun her jewelry-making habit, I decided to make her a quilt. Her mom suggested something orange, but it's REALLY hard to find a bunch of orange fabric that is cute. So I found a pattern that had navy, coral, mint, and grey colors that I think a teenager would like.

I started it about a month ago, and had I not been so indecisive, I could have definitely finished it in a couple of weeks. One issue I had to work around was the fact that I didn't buy enough of the navy floral fabric to totally cover the back. So I ended up with these arrows as the back. Now I'm really glad I did it like this because it's kind of a double sided quilt now!

I'm still not in love with the quilting portion of quilting (I love sewing the tops the most), but I LOOOOOOVE Lorna's organic wavy lines that she uses for quilting over at Sew Fresh Quilts so I decided to finally try them. I think they came out really good. I even did legit binding this time (I kind of did cheater binding before) and realized it's not so bad at all!

I'm pretty proud of this quilt! I got it in the mail today, so it'll be a couple days late. Not as late as the baby quilt for the baby born last September that I still haven't given my friend. Whoops!

I really wanted to take some fancy pictures outside, but time was of the essence to get it in the mail after I finished it last night. So, I made my coworker hold it up in my hallway at school before I dropped it in the mail.

I did cut everything in the quilt (except the fat 12" border around the arrows) with the Sizzix Fabi that I won back in October! I've been kind of crazy buying dies lately so it felt good to use them! I used these: 2.5" strip die, 3.5" strip die, 4.5" strip die, and the 4.5" HST die.

I also got a chance to use my new 4'x8' design wall for the first time! I just took pieces of wood to make a frame and wrapped it in batting and cream colored flannel that matched my wall. I love that it blends into the wall!

The funny part was that my husband asked me if I used any fabric in my actual stash for this. Hahahaha...OF COURSE NOT!

Until later, happy sewing!

Jamie

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