Basting

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Haley

Last week I finished all the blocks for E’s quilt and started deciding the layout. Above is what I came up with and I thought something wasn’t quite there about it. Showing the picture to my mother, she suggested another dark border around the group of star blocks. Ah ha! So Tuesday I ran out to the LQS and picked an extra navy bit for another border, the backing, and the batting.

I switched the bottom right two blocks and made pieced the extra border. Much better! and more complete looking.

I finished up the quilt top Wednesday and now am basting the layers together (of course with a helper) and thinking about the quilting pattern. Any suggestions? The back is a light tan with blue and red flora (should show the stitches well!) and I have navy quilting thread.

January Envelope Exchange

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Haley

Meant to post the photo of these envelopes sooner but I forgot until last night when the internet was down. lol

Love’s Greeting to my Valentine

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Haley

Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly so I thought I’d share one of my favorite poodle valentines.

As always you’re welcome to use my illustration for your own personal use. Enjoy!

Love’s Greeting to my Valentine (PNG) Download

Preparing with a quilt

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Haley

Serena of Evan Wren Quilting asked if I was going to make a quilt for our soon-to-be-here 6 year old son. My first thought was I’ll never be finished in time! But as I pondered it I realized that if I pieced the top with my machine it might be possible to finish in time depending on when we get him. I suppose if I don’t finish the hand quilting by the time he gets here he might appreciate it more because he’ll witness first hand my efforts for a gift. LOL Hard to say with a little guy though.

So urged by Serena, I looked through a couple quilt books and thought the Union Star Quilt in Civil War Sewing Circle, The: Quilts and Sewing Accessories Inspired by the Era (That Patchwork Place) by Kathleen Tracy was perfect for a young boy. It’s not too big and if I keep to similar colors of blue and red he’ll probably like it. When I first browsed the book it was one of my favorite patterns and I had started setting aside some possible fabrics for it. After some shuffling these are what I came up with.

The last day and a half I’ve spent sewing blocks and have 4 finished and one more cut. I made a mistake on two but I’m probably not going to bother taking it apart and resewing them. I’ve already done some seam ripping to get the first 2 blocks to the right size. The 1/4 inch mark on my machine must be slightly off and made the finished blocks much smaller than should be. Most people probably wouldn’t notice the mistakes anyway especially with 8 more blocks. Would you have noticed them if I hadn’t pointed it out?

Crochet Sheep Blanket

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Haley

With our son coming soonish, I thought I should make him some special things just for him. I found a crocheted sheep blanket pattern in October that is just so cute. I started right around Christmas and have decided to crochet it something like this one with the sheep, stars, and moon appliqued on the top. About half of the blue night sky is finished (not terribly interesting yet, thus no photo).

I also came upon this cute granny square turtle that he might like. Have the shell finished so far and not quite enough yarn for the head and legs. Might use some of my handspun merino yarn for those with some of Eleven Hills handspun for the underbelly.

I’ll probably make a few more animals for him too. I was thinking the lion from Easy Crochet Critters would be good.