Little Red in the Woods

It was a busy weekend,but I still managed to get a bit of sewing in!

Last year at Fabric Fest I purchased this,Little Red Riding Hood roly poly.  This Moda Bake Shop tutorial has been on my radar for a while now and was the inspiration for this quilt top.  Although I had to change it up and make it my own.

Partly because I did not have enough of this Kona Candy Pink,and partly because I just wanted to.

So here she is Little Red in the Woods...this was sewed up yesterday afternoon and evening!  Since it was finished after dark I had to wait until today after work to take photos.

I am toying with the idea of some straight line quilting or just tying this one.  Since my sis was here the tying my quilts bug is biting...

Eyes Crossed Spied quilt pattern tested...

When Melissa posted about her Eyes Crossed quilt I commented that sometime this year I needed to make a quilt for my nephew's little guy,and this looked like a winner.

My fabrics all cut and ready,the larger squares are from the Bots & Bolts fabric line.  I won a 6 piece fat eight bundle  during the For the Boys hop.  The smaller squares and rectangles were pulled from my stash.

This is Melissa's quilt top,posted here where you can also read about and see all the other testers versions.

After reading through the pattern for the first time,my thought was,oh man,what did I get myself into!  Don't get me wrong,this is a great pattern,and as you can see it turned out just fine.  What I had a hard time with was the layout.  This is where all of Melissa's pattern pages really came in handy for me.

Included in the pattern is a page with a close-up of the original layout,so you can see the fabrics and placement of them very well.  Of course there is also a page with all of the required supplies,which also includes a few abbreviations & notes.  The page with the cutting instructions has a picture "swatch" of each of the original fabrics used and  the corresponding fabric letter.

As always the directions are clear and concise with pictures of each step to make your block.  The one thing that I would suggest if you feel a little overwhelmed with trying to decide on the layout would be to make yourself a key.  At the bottom of the coloring page I made a key to help me.  Using a colored pencil I drew a rectangle and colored it in,then wrote the fabric that color represented inside the rectangle with a regular pencil.

The pattern makes a 60 x 60 quilt but,Melissa was gracious enough to let me change the size down a bit.  So my quilt top measures 48 x 48.  Let me tell you that the name of this pattern is perfect,because your eye just does not know where to land.  At least that is my feeling.

Once the layout decision was made and the fabrics cut this top went together rather quickly.  You can purchase the pattern from Melissa's Craftsy shop for only $7.50

Thank you S0 much for letting me test for you once again Melissa,after I got over my layout issues it was a cakewalk!

Dizzying Diamonds Pattern Review

Today is the Big Day!  Melissa over at  Sew BitterSweet Designs is releasing her third pattern today!  Congrats to you  my friend :)

                                                      (photo borrowed from Melissa's blog)

The photo above is the smaller(60x72)version that Melissa made,I just love the fabrics she chose for this quilt.

You might remember that I posted a sneak peak(above photo) a while back.  When Melissa asked if I would be interested in testing this pattern,you know I could not say no!  Especially since triangles are one of my favorites :)

This pattern is designed to use a layer cake,since I did not have one in my stash I used a bundle of The Red Thread by Andover Fabrics for the print and Marble Swirls by Moda,in green for my "solid".  I wanted a quilt that would not only read as Christmas but,could also work for everyday.

Melissa has such a talent for writing a pattern that is a little challenging yet,at the same time being easy to follow!  This is a great pattern for working on in between other projects,which is how I personally pieced this top.  It was easy to do in stages,and also easy to pick up from the last step completed and continue on to the next step.

Thank You Melissa for asking me to test this pattern,it was super fun to sew/piece together!  Want to purchase this pattern and make a Dizzying Diamonds quilt of your very own?  Visit Sew BitterSweet Designs at Craftsy for the pattern!

ALYOF Mid ~ Month progress

Half the month has flown by already,which means it is time to show my progress on my list (s)...

This is the photo from the book (Simple Choices,by Abby Lane Quilts).  This quilt is titled Simply Spring,AKA my birdie quilt,which is on my projects list.

Here is my version,the blocks are made up with Polka Dot Stitches fabrics.  My birdies are from other fabrics in my stash.  Right now they are just pinned on,since I need to purchase some steam a seam before I can attach them.

The wings and tail feathers pattern pieces cut out of freezer paper.  I still need to pick the fabrics for these pieces...

On to some goals,here are all 20 of the crayon rolls that were sewed up last week!  Obviously I can not count to 20 as I only came home from the store with 19 packs of crayons...

Three new fabric journal covers all ready to go,just need one more composition book for the one in the center.

A few more only,these are chalk board journals.  Killing two birds with one stone,as these have been pinned on one of my pinterest boards for quite a while.

Laundry soap,these are just what would not fit into my big jars!  The one on the left is made with Fels-naptha bar soap,the one on the right is made with pink zote bar soap.  They also both have super washing soda,and 20 mule team borax,I have been using these for around a year now.  They work just as well as store bought at a fraction of the cost :)   Still trying to figure out what to use as molds for my bar soap...

No progress on the clutches yet but,I do have the fabric!  The new bag pattern,bag is in progress and I will post about it as soon as it is finished,or at least to a stage where you can tell what it is from the photo.  Stalking my triple zip pouch partner,and have some fabrics in mind...

Row 13 ~ Spring Tulips

They say "all good things must end" and the bee in my bonnet row along is no exception.  It doesn't seem like that long ago we were starting off on the very first row...

And here we are with the last row,Spring Tulips :0)  Don't you just love them all blooming in spite of the crazy snow ;0)

Not sure about you,but I am ready for spring,whenever it finally decides to show up around here!

This afternoon I brought all the rows out to the living room to decide on the final layout.  After quite a bit of row shuffling,and the much appreciated help and suggestions from Mr. P.  this is the layout we finally decided on!
Now I still have to add the two borders,quilt,back and bind it too.  However,since we are so close to the end of this month,this is going to get set aside.   Not for long tho!  It will be my goal for next month over at ALYOF :0)

I have been pretty busy this past week,with this and also sewing up the things for the bake/craft sale.  Which is this coming Saturday!  Those things will be another post in the next few days.  Now I need to get busy with my last goal,totes for my store!

Last night I sewed up barn # 2,this one is kinda whimsical,so it may become a bag!  If it does,I will need to make another one to take its place in the quilt.

Green...

Happy weekend everyone! Sorry I have been rather quiet this week.  Would you like to see the project that has kept me so busy?  Yes?

Ta Da!  As soon as the strips were laid out for the photo,Midas decided that he needed to make a quick inspection.

Here it is minus the cat ;0)  I am thinking that it needs another checkered strip at the top and the bottom.  What do you think?  The width is good,so I am going to go with no borders on the sides,but it is pretty square,which is why I am thinking it needs the strips at the top and bottom.

This one is for my shop when completed,there is enough of the squares left over to make another quilt,so I am thinking about how to change up the design for a similar yet different quilt top.  The second one will be for the bake/craft sale.

Any suggestions for a name for this one?  The Frog Prince of Green,maybe?

Quilt progress

This weekend was very productive in the sewing room!  With Matty's quilt top all done,I decided to start on big brother Jaxin's.

Here are 6 of the 12 blocks that will make up the quilt top.  They still need to be sewn together,but I need to decide on sashing or no sashing.  If I do decide to go with sashing between the blocks it will be a narrow sashing.

Remember that I was making 3 baby quilts?  One each for the boys and also one for the neighbors baby girl.  So this is part of the quilt for Gracie,the top is about 3/4 of the way finished!  So far this one does not have any MARPAT fabric in it.  I am still debating on using some,or keeping it totally girly!

Of course I did not sew these blocks!  They are the latest round of Gothic Windows blocks to show up
in my mail box :)  I am getting really close to receiving all of them,which is very cool and exciting!!  Once they have all arrived,it will be time to decide on the layout/design of the quilt top.  Depending on how many blocks I end up with and the layout,there just might be enough blocks for 2 quilts!!  We will just have to wait and see how it works out ;)

Miss me?

Did you think that I fell off the face of the earth? Blogland?
Sorry about not posting all week,but I have been sewing,
ripping,resewing,re-ripping.... all week long!  The Wonky
part of my QAL top has been kicking my butt All Week
L O N G :(

The block above is my first ever paper pieced block!
It is the March block for Stash Bee  

I have been seeing a whole lot of peeps Pinning these little
microwave cakes,so thought I would try making some.

Here it is with a dollop of  carmel apple pie filling/whip
cream!  Not bad!

Super easy and no (regular) oven required :)

This is not a good photo,will try to get a good one tomorrow
outside.

This is what has been kicking my butt all Week Long!

Finished :)

Baking up a Storm tonight :)

Since I have been to busy this evening to take any pictures
of my baked goodies (for a toys for tots fund raiser)
I thought that I would show you some of the goodies
from my garden instead :)

Top right~peppers
top left~yellow pear tomatos
Red tomatoes~ the one in the middle is a purple Cherokee
Yellow/orange tomatoes~Mr. Stripey

And here is my Modern V quilt top
All finished,now I need to find time to quilt it!

Want to enter my giveaway?  Go here

Will try to post some photos of all my baked
goodies tomorrow evening :)

Peach Salsa Twister ~Tutorial~

For this project you will need...
20 charm (5x5)squares
1/3 yard fabric for inner border
2/3 yard for outer border/binding
1 yard backing fabric
1 yard batting
Lil Twister template

Lay out your squares in a 6x4 pattern.

Sew your squares together in rows.  You can either sew them
from one side to the other,or from top to bottom.

Here are all my rows sewn together.

Take each row to the ironing board and press your seams
open.

After pressing open all of your seams sew your rows to each
other,as before either side to side or top to bottom.

Next you will need to press all of your seams open again.

Here all of the strips/rows are sewn together to make 1 large
block/mini quilt.

Next you will need to cut your inner border fabric.
Cut 3 inch strips the width of your fabric.

Sew the strips to your large block/mini quilt of fabric on all sides.

Press open your seams.

At this point your large block/mini quilt should look like this.

Now take your Lil Twister template and line up the black lines
on it with the seams on your mini quilt.
As shown above.

Here you can see that I have traced out the template with
white chalk.
The instructions say to cut out your squares with a Rotary
cutter.  But I am not that great with the Rotary cutter
unless it is a straight line.
So I traced out the template squares and then cut them out
with my scissors.

Here is another picture of the traced templates.

The first row of squares has been cut out and laid out in the same
way they were cut.

Now all of the squares have been cut out and put back together.
If you look at the second square up on the right side bottom
of my quilt you can see that I have turned one square the Wrong
Way!
Make sure that your layout is correct before sewing your squares back
together! :)

In this photo my first row has been sewed together.
You will repeat the steps from above.
Sewing your squares together in rows and pressing your
seams open as you go.

All of my squares cut out.
At this point your original block/mini quilt will resemble
a large piece of Swiss cheese!
Don't throw this in the trash!
Cut out all of those 2 1/2 inch squares you see there.
You Can use them in the border,or use them for another
project.
(I chose to use some of them on the back and saved some for another
project.) 

This is what I had left,as I took the small wedge shaped fabric
scraps and threw them in my scrap bin.

All the squares have now been sewed back together here.
Hopefully minus my mistake on your version :)

Here is a photo of the back side with all the seams
nicely pressed open.

Now take your 2/3 piece of fabric and cut 3 inch strips to form
the outer border.
You can use some or all of your 2 1/2 inch squares for
this,or just use the strips.  If using the squares sew them
together to make the strips for the outer border.
Sew them to the mini quilt top as before,with the 3 inch strips,on all four sides.

Press the seams open.

There you go!  You now have a Lil Twister Mini Quilt top!

Here is a picture taken outside on my clothes line.
You can now make a quilt sandwich with your quilt top,
batting and backing.  quilt as desired and then bind together.