Queen of Diamonds Quilt

This is called Queen of Diamonds, a quilt I've been planning to make for Aviendha since just before Gage was born.  I had even bought and began cutting the fabric days before I had him!  It took me just over a week to make this with all the cutting  and piecing and children to take care of.  It does not have the batting or backing on yet because I still need to go out and buy the batting for it.  Aviendha isn't aware it's for her but she loves it so it'll be a nice surprise for her birthday or Christmas.  Please forgive the wrinkles as it's been folded up for a week now waiting for backing and binding.

The next couple of quilts I make will be MUCH simpler/faster because I can only do so many intensive projects in a row!  The boarder on this is my favorite part.  It was extremely easy and is fun to look at!  Unfortunately it's yucky outside and we have only one weak lamp (as the other 3 have been broken in the last year "We just can't have nice things!") and light from the windows so the pictures aren't the greatest...

Here's a close up:

I got this pattern from a book so I'm not sure if you can find it online or not.  I tried searching for it but couldn't find it.  The book I got the pattern from is called "Dealer's Choice" which you can find HERE for the cheapest price.  This has a lot of good patterns in it of which I made this as well:

These are both definitely projects for a little more experienced sewer/quilter than a straight-up beginner.  They also takes a lot of patience!!!  

For the amount of knowledge and experience required to put this together without any frustration I'd rate this a 7 or 8.

Pattern Sale!!!

There is a sale on Simplicity Patterns for $.99 from today until the 10th at JoAnn.  From the 13th till the 15th Butterick patterns will be on sale for $1.99.  Just thought I'd throw that out to the void to anyone who likes patterns, and likes them cheap!

Also Tulle is on sale so you can pick some up to make some tutus!!!

Simplicity 4842 Christmas Stockings

So, finally I have time to post something.  This weekend was busy!  I have a couple of things to buy to finish 2 of my latest projects so hopefully those will be coming up in the next couple of days.  Until then I'm going to talk about the stockings I made a year ago.

I never did get a chance to post them before Christmas last year on my regular blog because I was having some serious tonsil issues!!!  I'm excited to show them now because they turned out better than I expected.

I really love this pattern style because they just felt more classy than some of the other stuff available.  There are 3 sizes.  The small ones are actually quite small.  The medium ones are bigger than I anticipated but not nearly as big as the large ones which I would classify as ginormous because of how ridiculously huge the pattern pieces are!  Anyhow, I did the medium size ones.

I think they used cotton on the stockings in the picture and they tell you to get this special jingle bell trim of which I did neither.  I ended up using brocade and some trim that I thought went better with it.  The brocade looks very nice and elegant but I don't recommend it unless you can get it super cheap (it's expensive!) and if you're ok working fabric that unravels VERY easily.  If I can find it cheap enough this year I'm hoping to make a tree skirt to match them but we'll see.  

Over all the pattern was very simple and easy to follow.  I can't remember any instructions that would give anyone trouble and I also plan on using it again to make stockings for additions to the family.

Here is my work which the picture doesn't do justice for:

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to put names or initials on, or if I'm just going to randomly assign one each year.  The first 3 are for the kids and Tekara and the last 2 are for Mom and Dad.

I'm rating this a 2 or 3 on the scale depending on what fabric you decide to use!

Up and Coming!

     I know that normally I can whip out projects every day or two but the one I'm working on now is EXTREMELY tedious.  Not hard, just tedious and time consuming, which I don't have much of!  I have to work on this thing when Gage takes his naps and when I'm not doing something with/for Aviendha.  However, I'm enjoying how it's coming together!

In the mean time I'll tell you about what I found.  I've been thinking ahead to the Christmas projects I want to do for decorating and what my current options for fabric are.  After my Mom died I obtained a box of Christmas fabric from her sewing room.  Fabric that hasn't been touched in almost 20 years!

Now I'll admit, there's some dang ugly fabric in this box!!!  Most of it is OK though, and some of it is actually really pretty.  It doesn't look like much but it's been sitting for a long time in this container and has had time to compact quite thoroughly.  I unfolded about a quarter of this thing and had enough to fill our front loading washer!  There is A LOT!  Anyhow, as I was looking through it all I stumbled across this:

This is a pattern with all the pieces and instructions right on the material.  All you have to do is cut out the pieces and sew it together!  It makes a tree centerpiece:

I don't know if this was more common back in the day because I haven't seen anything like this currently.  Either way I've decided, what the heck, I'll put it together.  I'll be sure to post the final product when I'm done!  Don't look for this for a few days to a week as I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to finish my current project...

I'll be posting the stockings I made last year in a couple of days!!!

Simplicity 2935 Flower

Yep, I revisited this pattern!  I made the flower this time for baby #3 and probably won't be doing another rag quilt for quite sometime!  

My same bonus advice goes for this one as with the other two except this one is MUCH faster.  Either that or I've got it down to efficiency art.  But truly the sewing on this is incredibly simple and fast.  There also isn't a whole lot of marking either.  

Only two of the colors I used were purchased just for this, the rest were left-overs from the other ones I made.  I have to say, using brighter colors makes the design much more appealing than the ones they put on the pattern example.

This a fun, easy, and cute design for any girl big or small!

Here's my version where you can't see that the white fabric actually has small pink polka dots.  Also I used 3 colors for the petals instead of 2.

This is a 2 on the difficulty scale.

Easy Tutu Tutorial

Want to make something without a sewing machine?  Here is a tutorial for making tutus for little girls that only requires cutting!  This is the most straight-forward video on the basics but you can never get too creative.  Add ribbon in with the tulle, flowers, beads, etc.   This is probably a 0 on my 1-10 scale for difficulty!  ANYONE can make this and it's super cute!

I'm going to do this once I get some of my other projects out of the way.  Why haven't I done this before?  Because other people have bought my little girl tutus in the past that she still wears.  They're getting pretty beat up though and not as cute as anything I know I could custom make for her so I'm excited to make a variety of them (sew and no-sew alike) for Halloween, her birthday, and Christmas.  Tulle is VERY cheap so if you have a little girl, feel free to go crazy!!!

Simplicity 2493 Turtle

Here is another rag quilt I made for Gage for Christmas.  I did the turtle which is supremely easy and totally adorable!  I'm going to include here some of the advice I gave on the butterfly rag quilt with one added piece of information I forgot on the other one.

The added piece of information is that some marking tools will be difficult to use (not work very well) on the flannel.  Test out out how easily it marks on a scrap of flannel.  I found my pencils were terrible but my marking pen worked wonders!

First:    If you don't have a heavy duty sewing machine I don't recommend getting the fleece padding that is completely optional to put between the flannel layers.  This will make sewing the pieces together difficult work for your sewing machine!  I didn't use it!

Second:    Before you pick out fabric, go over the pattern so that you know which fabrics will be used for what parts of the butterfly.  The easiest way to do this is to use a pencil/pen and write the number of the fabric in each section of the picture and then shop for it.  

Third:  Don't cut the fabric out with right sides together since you're going to be flipping them around to having wrong sides together anyway.  Also the markings will be going on the right side so it's a waste of time to cut it out the way they say.  

Fourth:  They suggest putting the eyes on last which ABSOLUTELY stinks because of the bulk of the quilt and trying to sew in tight circles.  It's not worth doing those last.  Put them on before you sew the rest of the pieces together and you're life will be much easier.  

Last:  Back stitch all ends when you are sewing pieces together as this is a heavy blanket and just because it's a rag quilt doesn't mean you really want it falling apart =D

Here is my finished product that I had trouble tacking up straight....:

This is definitely a 2!