Scraps, Strips, & Sale!

 Next on the agenda, I need to finish a baby quilt. 

I would love to give you a peek, but it's a gift for someone special and I'd hate for her to see it early. 

I promise to share when it is complete!

I've also started work on a quilt for my parents. 

(Shh, they don't know about it.)

I've been busy cutting away at my fabric and getting the strips ready for a strip-quilt.

 

Ah, scraps. The sign of a good day.

I love when I have a productive day!

I picked out some blues, greys, and yellow fabric.

I wasn't planning on doing orange but I loved this burnt orange fabric and decided to through it into the mix as well.

(This picture doesn't really do justice for how well the fabrics go together.)

Once it's all put together it will look good, I promise. 

I have enough strips for 2 rows.

I would like to have 3 or 4 so I'll have to go buy some more fabric...ugh.

Joann Fabrics is an hour away so I'm not sure how soon I'll be getting there. 

I'll get my two rows sewn and then make a trip!

Also, I MUST show you the fun find I got at a garage sale this week!

Have you ever been to a garage sale and it was like hitting the jackpot?! 

This was one of those garage sales. 

I spent 2 hours looking through that garage sale. TWO hours!!

I bought a box full of clothes, shoes,  AND...

FABRIC!!

I got this entire sack full of fabric for $1. 

And the best part, they aren't just scraps!

Some of them are 3-4 yards! Woot!

 

My favorite is the blue and pink stripes fabric.
I'm not sure what I'm going to make with any of these yet, but it will be nice to have a little more fabric to add to my stash.

"Micro" Quilt

Finished!

My mini-quilt is done.

Or as my husband kept calling it- my "micro" quilt. 

No matter how many times I corrected him, he couldn't remember it was called a "mini" quilt. ha!

It's crazy how long it took me to make such a small project. Hand-stitching itself takes time, but it probably took me a little longer considering it was my first time. Despite how tired my hand and arm became, I liked hand-stitching my hexagons! I love that I was able to throw all my supplies in a small box and take it wherever I went. And I love that I was able to watch movies while working; something I am never able to do behind a noisy sewing machine.

 What do you think? Like it? 

 I added a little hand embroidery for a special touch. It was my first time embroidering as well. It's FAR from perfect but I still love it. 

Remember, it was my first time.

My hubs thought the back of my "micro" quilt was cool. I didn't have a set pattern I followed when I went to quilt. I just followed along some of the hexagon outlines and when I flipped it over it looked like this.

I also made my own binding for the first time. 

Seems like there is a reoccuring theme for the quilt, eh? Everything seems to be my first time! 

Hand-stitching, English Paper-Piecing, making my own binding, and the embroidery were all a first for me!

I think the quilt turned out pretty cute considering it was my first. 

I love it! Now I just have to find a place to display it in my sewing corner!

Hexagon Love

My husband says I have too many projects in the works. 

He's probably right. 

I have 2 quilts, 1 baby quilt, and a pillow top that are all unfinished.

And now I've added this to the pile...

Hexagons!! I LOVE them!
I'm wanting to make a mini-quilt to hang in my crafting spot.

I had never sewn with hexagons before so when I first saw them at nanaCompany I fell in love!

I knew I just HAD to try my hand at them.

When I was picking out the fabric, I fell in with this soft teal floral design. 

I matched this pretty pink with it and already had grey polkadots on hand.

I thought the gray was too dark so I just flipped it over and used the backside.
 I like the faded gray look much better.

 

The sewing technique is called English Paper-Piecing. 

It's a very slow process..(at least for me it is.) 

It's taken me 3 days to get this much done. Wow.

But when I think of all the time and work I've done, it makes me love it even more! 

I haven't had a lot of experience with hand-stitching, so I am quite surprised by how sore my hand and arm are! I almost want to take the day off and give it a rest, but I'm too excited about this project! 

I can't wait to see it done! 

The crazy thing is, I don't even know what design I want the finished project to be!

Do I want it to stay a hexagon, make it a square, rectangle, etc..Much to think about.

But for now, I just keep sewing my hexies together. 

I guess I'll just stop when I think I'm ready too.
I'm hoping I'm finished with the hexagon part in the next day or so.

Have you tried any new projects lately?

Busy Bee Me.

I'm back! I have been a busy bee! It's been awhile since my last post! Let me catch you up on a few things I've been making...

I've made quite a few stuffed owls lately!! Owls are so popular right now and I can see why! They are adorable!! I've probably made around 25-30 owls in the past 5 months.They are fun to make because each and every one are different! I especially like the girly owls I make with LOTS of ruffles and bows! Cute, right??

My own personal quilt is coming along...slowly but surely. I just work on it sporadically here and there when I find some free time or run across more scraps. The pattern is called Square in Square. I'm trying to use up any scraps and mismatched fabric I have. I love the funky mismatched craziness of it! I have been contemplating whether or not to add one more row..and I think I want to do one more. In the past I've made a couple quilts for myself and regret not making them longer. They are long enough for me but a little short for my husband. I've put a lot of time and work into this quilt so I want to make sure it's perfect.

For a little girl's 3rd birthday I made this special little crown! 

She's super girly so of course I had to add plenty of flowers and even some delicate pink pearls. 

I added velcro to the sides so the size is easily adjustable!

And for myself, I made this cute little tie headband! 

They are becoming quite the trend-again-and I love it! It's so 50's fashion!! 

Everyone is making them with bandanas, but I wanted something a little cuter so I whipped out some fabric and made one with some grey and white polkadots.

It was super fast and super easy! I'll have to make a tutorial for you all!

Next, I started work on a crib blanket for a friend I have who is expecting a lil boy! 

I think his name is cute so I personalized the quilt to make it extra special! I hope she likes it.

I added brown & tan polkadot fabric as the backing and did orange binding...

..as well as made owls a couple stuffed owls to match.

And she wanted a lil crinkle tag toy so I made some with fabric that was leftover.

Excitingly, there was even more fabric leftover! Enough to make a pillow to tie the nursery set together.

 The other night I got the itch to try a new pattern and tried the Herringboe pattern.

I LOVE it! It was quite a challenge.

 It was my first experience cutting angles. 

I think I'm going to turn this into a cute little pillow throw once I square it up and add some border.

Now, I'm currently working on another quilt for someone special.

 (I can't share because I want it to be a surprise)

I got the fabric today and I think I want to do a strip quilt.

 I also got some fabric to give a shot at sewing with hexagons. 

Wish me luck!