Fancy Tiger

This afternoon I visited Fancy Tiger, in downtown Denver.

Amazing shop. Absolutely the best quilt shop I have ever been too. I would have walked out with arms full of bolts of fabrics if my paycheck could afford me to. Lots of modern fabrics, an amazingly large selection of Japanese imports from Kokka and Echino
and a great variety of organic fabrics. I was so happy to see the Circa 50 collection!
The shop also had a great selection of Kona solids.

Here's what I couldn't leave without today:

A few Kokka prints - little cars, tiny bicycles, pink deers

Echino Helicopters, Organic Woodland Friends from Birch fabrics, Hunky Dory Garden Sparrows, and Red Letter Day by Lizzy House Bubble Trees

I also added a few more pictures while wandering around the shop on flickr.

Baby Blanket+ Changing mat

I made up this baby blanket this morning. It is grass green on one side, and green minky on the other side. It rolls up nice and compact so you can take it with you in your diaper bag and have a changing mat, or a nice travel blanket. I made this one for my cousin who had her baby boy born premature last week. She told me she liked green for him, and I hope this super soft blanket will be nice when she can finally hold him, and be able to take him home with her.
Last weekend I picked up some fabrics to make some more of these nice baby blankets+ changing mats. My fabric diet lasted nearly two months! I still have a few local quilt shops that I want to visit too ^_^

Scrappy Pincushion

I finished up my scrappy pincushion! I was so eager to finish it I sewed up the rest yesterday before going into work. I added a tiny 1/4 inch linen border, to coordinate with the backing fabric.

The squares are are 1 inch finished.

The fabric on the back is a Japanese import Little Red Riding Hood cotton/linen print. So lovely.
It is so nice and soft, it seemed like it would make a great little pillow :)
I had so much fun picking out each of these fabrics and piecing them together, I hope my partner loves it!
(Inspired by the pincushion on Bijou Lovely)

first scrappy blocks

I started sorting though my scrap bag and made up my first blocks for my scrappy border quilt. The center fabric is Kona charcoal, and each block will alternate with a solid block.

Just 38 more blocks to go!

The pattern is from Red Pepper Quilts - Scrappy Border Quilt.

I also made Big boy some new shoes (finally). I didn't complete something each day as part of Elsie Marley's challenge, so I made him these shoes, as well as a robot pair.

Spiderweb Quilt

I finally finished my spiderweb quilt.

I made this quilt with scraps and selvages from projects in 2009. I am a bit embarrassed that I made my first block for this quilt 7 months ago.. I was inspired by Katy's spiderweb quilt, then I picked up a Sew Hip! with a spiderweb quilt pattern.
My original plan was to make a block a week, but I simply became bored with this quilt!
(note to self: one big project at a time! start another big project only after the first is finished!)
I used Kona grass for the binding and backing. I still need to slap a label on the back too..

I followed the lines of the spiderweb block for the quilting, and some of the centers were sooo thick to quilt through! This was actually the first quilt that I have quilted myself that wasn't a mini!

Big boy has already dragged the quilt around the house, it has been used for a tent, and Kiki enjoys jumping on the circles like hopscotch..

I am already planning my next quilt too ^^

Spiderweb Quilt

Finally finishing my spiderweb quilt.

I got the top sewn together last night, and basted this morning.

Ready for quilting!
Here's hoping for a long nap today so I can have this quilted and then bound this weekend!

a bit of sewing

I didn't work on more spiderweb blocks like I should have today..

I am so close to having the quilt finished, and I just want to be done with it..

So typical for me, I like seeing results, and I don't like a big wip pile!So I worked on a few disappearing nine patch blocks. I am making a small lap quilt for my Grandma with my Aunt Susan, and my sister Rachel. We will each make 6 blocks, and it will be a small enough quilt that it wont trip under her walker, but still be enough to keep her warm. and it will be pretty :) Susan came up with this great idea.

I got frustrated after these 3 blocks, because one came out 1/4 smaller than the rest.. so I probably will have to scrap it..
so, in order to get some instant gratification (and check one items off my March sewing Olympics!) I made a pillow to match the elephant quilt.
The pillow is an envelope style, and was simple to make, and probably took about an hour.
I started to work on one more this afternoon, these pillows are just too fun :)

Sunday's Spiderwebs

Or rather, spiderweb.I haven't been working on the spiderweb quilt lately. Mostly because I have been quilting up a doll quilt storm..
I have decided to make this a throw size quilt instead of a large queen for our bed. With the white centers, I would worry about it getting dirtier and not being able to launder it as often because of the size.
That, and I am loving this quilt , and think it would be great with some of the charcoal Kona I picked up when Hobby Lobby was having a sale last week.

chicka chicka BOOM BOOM!

and A told B and B told C I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree!

chicka chicka BOOM BOOM! doll quilt. We read the book Saturday night and I thought it would be great to make into a doll quilt!

(you can see the colors better here)
close up of the quilt top.
I used cotton, corduroy, twill and linen all from my stash.
The letters and coconut tree are appliqued on with coordinating thread.

The doll quilt is the same size as the book, so it can be played with when reading the book.
a close up of the back. My machine was being a bit fussy, and some of the bobbin thread wound up on the back..
The back of the doll quilt. I love how the letters look.
My head is already filling with other doll quilts I can make from children's book. Anyone have any great children's book ideas?

Sewing Olympics..

I thought it would be fun to get it on the sewing olympics I saw everyone tweeting about. There is a flickr group here.My list to get done.
I finished the binding on The Hungry Catepillar Quilt late saturday night..

I actually only sewed the binding on this quilt, the top was made by my Aunt Susan (chickenfoot) as a gift for my 3 1/2 year old. (but dont tell my 1 year old, he claims every quilt for himself)
Being a good little neice, I rescued it from her wip pile, and finished the binding for her. Becasue I am nice, not greedy and wanted my son to have the quilt, :)
My son now has to read The Hungry Catepillar every night, while he points out everything on the quilt.

The hungry catepillar, close up
a close up of the quilting
all folded up with the book.
*Edited to add that A quilt A Day linked to my Hungry Catepillar Quilt here.

Quilt Top is finished!

Yeah! I got Kiki's quilt top finished this morning! Here it is, 72x90.I used Japanese elephants, some katie jump rope and kona solids. You can see the fabrics here.
Big Boy was very eager to poke and try to pull down the quilt.

A close up of the rows.. I am going to piece the back tomorrow so that I can bring it to the quilters on Sunday.
Hopefully when I get the quilt back I can get some better pictures outside with good light!

Grey+Orange Doll Quilt

I wanted to work on some new quilting techniques before making my DQS8.

I started to put this together last week, the same day that my computer crashed.

I got about 2 inches from the bottom of the quilt, when I ran out of thread. I guess i underestimated how much pebbling would take!
This was my first time doing applique circles, and free motion quilting a doll quilt.

A close up of the pebbling. This was so much fun to do, and my stitches turned out nice when I got into the motion of it.. (next time I wont do this when the kiddos are awake!) My bobbin kept giving me problems, and broke at least 4 times.. I just need to practice more with my tension and such..

Here it is all finished up.

Made with orange cotton scraps and upcycled grey linen. It measures 13x17.

I already want to make some more for 'practice'..My sewing room wall looks bare with only one doll quilt hanging up!

DQS8 ideas

Got some of my ideas finally drawn out for Doll Quilt Swap 8 onto paper this morning! (you can see the photo better over on flickr)

Colors I will be using for this quilt are -lime green/chartreuse, red/pink, and aqua/teal.

1) white stripes with wavy fm quilting, with two rows of tiny hexagons. Ignore how the left row looks, I will be using tiny 1/2 hexagons.
2) log cabin block with a birdie embroidery in the center
3) off center. left will be flying geese, right will be appliques circles of various sizes on a white background. This one is my favorite, and I like that I could do a half-sie kinda quilt and combine two ideas.
4) right side is appliqued circles of various sizes on a white background. left will be made up of three log cabins, each in the different colors I am using - chartreuse/lime green, pink/red, and aqua/teal.
5) top right will be an embroidered bird, or the tree/bird embroidery from little dear. Surrounding it will be strips with varying colors and sizes of squares/rectangles.

Let me know what you think! I am going to go out this weekend to start looking for fabric.

Sunday Spiderwebs..

I was committed to get some sewing done today. I grabbed a piece of dove chocolate before I started sewing, and the inside message was 'Make peace for yourself'

I told hubby I was 'punching out' for an hour, and went to make a few spiderweb blocks.

Finished up 4 more blocks, bringing the total to 8 of 99 needed. I am going to make a queen size quilt, 90x110, and am planning to have it ready to be quilted by the end of June.
I cut up all of my scraps into strips when I made my first blocks, and I actually have another full bag of scraps I need to cut up already!

Once I got going, it was hard to want to stop, lets see if I can limit myself to 4 a week!

DQS8 inspiration

I just made up my inspiration mosaic for DQS8! It was hard for me to figure out which ones to include, and which to just leave in my fav's..

So, some of my favorite things right now:

::Grey or natural linen with orange/gold/yellow, grassy green, teal/turquoise (especially with red!)

::birdies, applique, embroidery, circles, hexagons, bright colors.

And it is probably good to mention a few things I don't really like..

purple. Really girly pinks, (like the far far away line), dark, drab colors, civil war prints, 30/40 repros- just not a big fan.., batiks, lots of embellishments like beading, etc.

Excited about this round, especially since I didn't sign up until last minute and got in just as sign up's were suppose to be closing!

Even better? My aunt, my sister and I are all in- yeah ^_^

Flurries...

Flurries, like the butterfly feeling you have in your stomach.

Well that's how my head has felt lately..

I have a bunch of ideas that I keep bouncing around, and it has been overwhelming and very unproductive trying to get projects done.

In an attempt to clear my head, finish some wips, and get my etsy stocked up, I am going to step back from the computer for the next few days or so..

This is one of the projects that I have been working on and have been so excited about. I am making an improved version of the memory game that I made a few of last Christmas. I will be making an alphabet and an i spy version of the memory game, with a lined drawstring bag for storage. It is kinda ridiculous how giddy I am to be finally getting this idea out of my head...
I received a wonderful array of fabrics from A bit of this and a bit of that's giveaway. I swear I have some kind of giveaway karma, because I have seemed to won a giveaway after having my own giveaway.. The fabrics are mostly blends, and super silky. I was thinking they would be nice for drawstring bags, and ideas?
Finally made Adriano some new booties. They are lined with super soft fleece, and are oh so cuddly. They are also my practice pair for 12-18 month size booties for my shop.
I needed the larger size for the reversible baby shoe pdf that I am working on! (check back in a week or so!!)

I needed a break from drawstring bags and tiny memory game squares, so I made up this little RAR! dinosaur embroidery for Cristian's room. We watched Transformer's when it came to video on Tuesday, and I couldn't sit still the whole movie without doing some hand sewing ^_^

I also realized how much more I love these wooden hoops than the plastic Clover hoop I have been using for so long..

I picked up some craft books, because well my sewing book stash is obsolete, and I am hoping to get inspired for some Christmas gifts.
Both of these have some great patterns and projects. I plan to (finally) make Christmas stockings for my family this year.
I made up some little trick-or-treat totes for the kids to use this Saturday. I love the wee mummy on this fabric!
I started to make some simple cards to include with my etsy orders. I had some blank cards and envelopes leftover from wedding thank you's (which I just got the pictures from and are sending out this week!). I picked up a scrapbook paper pack, and a thank you stamp, and just added a little button.
I made up another Emmeline Apron for my sister to give as a gift. It was nice to use this pretty pattern again, I haven't made one since Christmas gifts last year. Maybe I can finally make one for myself :)