{catch up}

wtih a weekend of attending to a under the weather infant, i found myself with a lot of down time to catch up on bee blocks for the {lou}bee. we're doing sewing themed blocks. you may remember the few i finished here.

cara picked the "drive it like you stole it" block by badskirt amy.

 jamie picked a paper pieced scissors block.

jessica picked this cute thimble block with pins and needles.

lynne designed this awesome block. 

all the blocks are complete {yay!}. the last task is to piece these different sized blocks together to get a quilt top done.

{tote}

my mom is a soon-to-be school librarian. i wanted to make her something special for gradution that she could use. every book lover needs more totes to carry books around in. am i right?

it was the perfect opportunity to try out oh fransson's tote pattern. i've also been wanting to try the quilt as you go method. i'm pleased with how this came out. the bag is SO sturdy. the directions were so clear and easy to follow. the quilt as you go is a little time {and thread} consuming, but other than that, i LOVE it.

my mom happens to be a "mrs. fox", which means i've been hoarding this fabric for a project for her specifically.
i see more totes in my future!

pattern: perfect quilted tote, oh fransson

fabric: ds for joanns, timber and leaf

pieced & quilted by me

{finally!}

this quilt is {almost} embarassing to share, having been a work in progress for over 2 years!! oh my.

this is a modern take on the i-spy quilt for my oldest son, who is NOW 4. this quilt started when his favorite color was green {i've been informed it's now red}. this was my first foray into collecting novelty prints for little boys. i had no idea how many prints i would need. apparently, not as many as i have now collected.

this quilt was completely inspired by a quilt Carolina Patchworks did for her son. i loved the simplicity of the pattern and the chance to let the fabrics stand by themselves. what i didn't take into account was all of the different size squares/rectangles and the time for cutting. even done in sections, the quilt took a while to piece.

the next decision with this quilt was figuring out how i wanted to quilt it. i'm not a free motion quilter, but i loved the thought of curved quilting with all of the straight lines already going on here. after it sitting for a YEAR i decided it just needed to be done. i found this tutorial on wavy quilting and jumped in. it's silly, now, to think that it took me so long to get this done. i love the quilting, LOVED doing it and am so glad to have this quilt for my boy.

you can see the quilting on the back. i had thought to go even a bit more dense, but ran out of green thread.

all in all this quilt was a stretch in growth for me in so many areas. i'm glad to have it done and be enjoyed by little munchkins.

quilt stats

size: 64"x84"

pattern: idea from carolina patchworks modern rose garden

fabrics: lots of boy novelty, kona grass green, alexander henry

to boston with {love}

i have finished a couple of small projects recently. here are a few drawstring bags using Jeni's tutorial. the boys have been asking for some bags for their cars and little men.

the {stlmqg} is doing our part to partake in {to boston with love} festivities. you can find out more info here.

easter

there was quite a bit of craftiness happening around easter this year. i decided to make the boys some softie bunnies. after checking around for a free pattern, i decided to purchase the hop.skip.jump. pattern here.

they turned out adorable and weren't too time consuming. the two lighter ones are linen and the dark one is corduroy. picking out the fabric for each was a lot of fun. i only just finished embroidering the faces on. when asked if he loved his bunny, my 4-year old told me they looked a little creepy without faces. love honest toddlers. i love how they turned out and think these would make cute gifts.

i had also pinned this tutorial for toddler ties. OH.MY.GOODNESS. the three of these ties took me 30 minutes total to complete. such a satisfying quick project. again, the fabric for these was fun to pick out. as far as sizing, i needed to make the part that went around their necks a little bigger for a more comfortable fit, but they worked for the 15 minutes they were on. 

and since the boys only humored me in wearing them for pictures {kind of}, i thought the bunnies could show them off instead.

{lou}bee

i had the chance to catch up on some {lou}bee sewing.
we have started another round {another year}. this year the rules are a little different. each member of the group designs a block and shares the pattern with the other ladies. we each make our blocks from our own fabric choices for quilts that will be similar to each others, but unique to each girl. we picked the theme  of "sewing".
i'm really excited about the fabrics i have chosen to do this quilt out of. i'm branching a little out of my usual style of things, realistically speaking it means i am not using any blue or green. i don't think i've made anything without using blue {which i love}. this is living on the edge, people. pink, orange, black, yellow, purple, text prints. a handful of the prints are jay maccaroll's new line center city, a few bella prints, an orange zigzag, a little DS chicopee, texts from madrona road, and {of course} a little AMH.

the first block was Kristy's block. she designed a block with spools. she said she kind of felt like the guinea pig having to go first. the spools were paper pieced. the block is 18 1/2" unfinished.

the next block was JuliAnn's sewing machine block. i just love it. i made a couple of changes to make it resemble the machine i sew on. i still need to add the needle and a few 'buttons'. this block was paper piece and is also 18 1/2" unfinished.

mary claire's awesome block was next. she had fabric on the brain {don't we all!}. i left her block unfinished, waiting to add borders or maybe some improv piecing when i put all of the blocks together.

this is the block that i designed. inspired by so many piles of lovely fabric and beautiful bundles, i thought it would be awesome to have a fabric bundle of our very own. the pattern designing was a different sort of process, but honestly, i LOVED it. the whole other side of my brain got a workout. this block is paper pieced and is 18 1/2" unfinished.

i'm looking forward to getting the other girls' blocks!

{pinterest}

i've been experimenting with some of the ideas/patterns i've found on pinterest. 

these masks are AWESOME. they were a little time consuming, but they have been an immediate hit with the boys. i love the small time investment on my part for such a fun creative activity for the boys.

when i saw this tutorial on pinterest, i knew they would be a loved project. to make it even better, i had some home dec fabric from joann's i had bought on sale last year. i used up most of what i had on these and they make great reading pillows.

i tried to make these pouches, but was unsuccessful. i even kept the two i made so i could take pictures and share my failure, but i cannot {for the life of me} find where they disappeared to. i think my mistake was the fact that i didn't use a metal zipper. i used a regular plastic one. the plastic zipper made it difficult to sew around the corners and when unzipping the zipper gives. after looking around, i think i'm going to try this tutorial for a zippy wallet; same size, no curved zipper.

the halloween costume. my boys have fallen hard for How to Train your Dragon. when i asked my oldest what he wanted to be, after toying wtih the idea of robin hood, he finally settled on toothless {the dragon}. i remember seeing this costume last year. he wanted to be black with red {his favorite} and blue.

the tail is from this tutorial. it velcros around the waist. i made two tails, one for each boy. {trying to kill arguments before they happen}. i love they now 'fly' around the house together; a dragon and buzz lightyear.

{open wide}

i had a couple birthdays i wanted to celebrate. i thought it was a good time to try noodlehead's open wide zipper pouch tutorial.

what a great pattern. it was so clear and these came together without any hiccups.

i love the way these turned out. i will keep this one in mind for the holidays.

{wordless} wednesday

{swoon}ing

christmas?

in may?
i have a grandpa whose gifts to us were ALWAYS delayed. by delayed i mean late. we would get 2 years of christmas presents the following june, or bday presents 3 years late. they always blamed it on the cats, and that might be, but i have a feeling it's more genetic than anything.
one of my sisters and her husband lives in japan. christmas time was busy. i thought "i'll get to this project right after the holidays."

to be honest, i pieced the tops of the placemats/napkins and really didn't like them, convincing myself sis & bro-in-law probably wouldn't either. zero motivation to continue to work on them ensued.

i finally (last week) decided i would not allow myself to start another project/quilt/bag until these suckers were in the mail. i guess a little self-talk was all i needed.

and really, they didn't turn out too bad.

let's face it, christmas in may is WAAAAyyyy better anyway. it's unpredictable, and that's how we like to keep it around here.

project stats:

pattern: Elizabeth Hartman Color Block Placemats & Napkins

size: 20"x20" and 18"x13"

fabrics: Loulouthi, Kaufman metro living, Fassett shot cotton in ginger & terra cotta, kona solids

backed: neutral linen

zig zag tote

i have seen and loved the book Zakka Style. the whole purpose of the items in this book are to have small handmade usable objects for everyday life. this yells practical, which i am all about. i've decided to join in the sew along to walk through a few of the projects in the book i find appealing for either myself or gifts.
the first week was the zig zag tote.

things i love:
1. bags
2. zigzags
3. blue-green

i've been wanting to cut into some of my loved fabric and put it into good use, ideally in a quilt. until inspiration strikes, i thought i would use a little bit of AMH's Garden Party line in this tote. i'm so glad i did! i love it.

this tote is super sturdy and a great size for lugging around tons of books, diapers, and other random objects that might need toted in style.

fabrics used: kona aqua, amh garden party, pezzy prints in teal, natural linen

{pouches}

is there anything better than a little bag or pouch you can zip and keep random treasures in? i happen to be a life-long collector of such items. even better are those you can create yourself or are made by someone for you. yes! this is great.

we had a little pouch swap with the STLMQG. what a clever idea!

i made this pouch for my swap partner, kind of shooting in the dark on likes & dislikes, but i think it turned out cute. i used this super easy to follow and awesome tutorial from noodlehead, who has a TON of great tutorials and patterns.

{excuse the crappy iphone pic}

this is the pouch i received from Carol and i LOVE it! linen, amy butler, blue/green! she nailed me :)

 fabric: out-half moon modern zigzags , in-half moon modern small dots

i have had more pouches on my list and in my to-do piles for months. i finally decided to whip these up while i was working with small bags. oh.my.goodness. so cute. the pattern is keyka lou's pocket clutch pattern, totally worth the couple bucks. easy to follow directions, durable construction. i'm glad i finally got around to making these.

{bee}blocks

a recap of bee blocks from the {lou}bee.

cara asked for 2 circle of geese blocks from this tutorial. I.LOVE.PAPER.PIECING. i find it so relaxing. love her color palette.

i'm excited to see what lynne has up her sleeve with these quilt blocks. she asked for a blue on blue block.

lynne also asked us to help (which is what bees are for) her to make another quilt. here is my block.

last, but not least, jamie had a baby in January. we used the Swoon pattern, each made her a block, for a double sided quilt. you can see it in all it's quilty assembled glory here.

scrap attack

 Rachel at stitched in color is hosting a scrap-busting party.

i've been (quietly) (read-no.internet.) playing along and thought i'd share some pictures of my progress. my inspirations were my solids scraps {which have been threatening to take over the sewing room}, a classic old school rainbow color scheme {ROY B GIV}-as i'd never done one-, and triangles. i am in LOVE with all of the wonderful triangle inspiration popping up everywhere.

 my lovely pile of triangles

 i had a fun time playing around with them in various patterns and color combinations and am excited for how this one is turning out.