Poppy Pillow Part 2 - Blogger's Pillow Party

This week, I finished my second Poppy/Chopped Veggies Pillow. 
It looks AWESOME on my purple couch next to the first Poppy Pillow. 

Again, I used Oh, Fransson!'s Chopped Veggies pattern.  This pattern taught me the basics of improv piecing. I usually prefer exact instructions and clean lines, but it was fun to try something new. 

I used Laura Gunn's Dogwood Stripe in Aqua for the back.  I love how all the fabrics coordinate.  

Zippers are becoming my friends too!

Here's the beautiful pair!  They make me happy!

Jump on over to StitchedinColor.com to see other pillows at the Pillow Party.

Winter Placemats

I made more placemats!   Since Christmas is over, I needed something new on my table. 

While visiting Texas, my friend Lacey and I picked out this Joann fabric for winter-esk placemats.  The bare trees remind me of winter and the pink has subtle hearts for Valentine's Day.

I used this pattern by Handmade by Alissa.  Her instructions were very easy to follow! 

I wanted to practice my free motion quilting, but my machine had other plans!  After I snapped two needles, I decided straight line quilting works just fine! 

The tree fabric reminds me of this painting I made at ARTjamN. (3rd from left) We had so much fun painting!

Poppy Pillow

Here is my new pillow!  I used a pattern by Oh, Fransson! and fabric by Laura Gunn. 

My parents gave me this book by Miss Oh, Fransson! herself.  I cannot wait to make something from it.

I picked up the fabric from Klazzy Katz and Joann.

Here you can see my first zipper!  I thought it would be difficult, but it really wasn't!

Christmas Placemats and Towels

Just in time for Christmas! I finished these cute placemats yesterday! 

I like to practice new techniques with placemats, so I'm not too committed if I don't love it.  With these, I practiced my machine binding.  I sewed the binding onto the back then top-stitched the front.  It turned out nice!

For the design, I tried this 9 patch technique from That girl...That quilt... It was super easy!  The blocks came together very quickly, but for this small project, with only 3 fabrics, it was hard to mix them up.

A few weeks ago, I made these towels.  I bought waffle muslin from Joann and was thrilled with these towels!  I used wonder under and then stitched around the edges.  So.. bad news... the muslin SHRINKS big time when you wash it... so now I have wash rags. LOL  They are still cute though.

That's all for now!  

Merry Christmas, Blogland!

Fall Table Topper

I've been in the mood to make small projects to spruce up the house for fall.

I found this cute fall tree fabric at Joann's and couldn't resist buying it.  For weeks, I could not come up with a project for it and then one night, I thought of this design.  All the other fabric is from my stash.

My new-ish walking foot made quilting SUPER easy.  This is my first attempt at making a grid.  It turned out pretty well.

Mug Rugs

Since "mug rugs" are all the rage in Blogland, I decided to make a few of my own.  

I've always been interested in flying geese, so I decided to try them out on this small project.  

Conclusion: Flying geese are complicated and only cute when they are perfect!

The fabric is a reproduction print left over from this quilt.

My dad requested this mug rug inspired by LandShark Lager.  lol

It was a good opportunity to test my free motion quilting skills.  As you can see, they are lacking, but I'm improving.  Maybe in 2 years, I'll be ready for a quilt. 

Free Projects = Fun Projects 

I used left over fabric and batting for these mug rugs!

Blogger's Quilt Festival!

It's that time of year again!  The Blogger's Quilt Festival is so much fun! There are so many fun and beautiful quilts to admire.  I can spend hours looking through all the links.

I wanted to share my New Wave Love quilt that I made this summer. 

This pattern came from one of my favorite blogs Oh, Fransson!

And the fabric came from a sweet lady on Etsy plus some Kona Khaki from Joann.

I used 12 fat quarters, but the dimensions didn't quite work out the way the pattern explained.  I like to prewash my fabric, so once i did that, I couldn't get the full 9" shape.  8.5" works just fine and left me enough extra for 2 more rows!
 

I pieced the back with leftovers and an extra half yard of my favorite Amy Butler pattern.  Then, machine quilted in the ditch to make a beautiful wave design on the back!  This was the first quilt I've made using my walking foot.  What a difference!!!

Here's the label that I made.  This is the first time I've ever used a selvage!  I think it looks great!

I can't get enough of this quilt!!

Vote for Me!

Recently, I discovered this weekly quilt contest sponsored by the Quilting Gallery.  Since, this week's theme is "Scrappy Again" I decided to enter my Scrappy Flower Quilt.   Click on the box below to vote!

Halloween Placemats

I made these fun place mats over the weekend.  They are perfect for Halloween!

I was inspired by this tutorial and plan to make more in different colors.

It's Halloween!

It's Halloween at my apartment!

I made this cute pumpkin pillow with the scraps from my Leaf Placemats.  

Piecing these tiny 2" squares was easy with Oh, Fransson!'s technique.

It's a simple envelope style pillow cover with spooky backing fabric from Joann.

Here's how the process started!

My Halloween decor!  I have about 10 black cats sitting around.