Amanda's Quilt

Quilt top rescued at estate sale for very minimal price. Sewed an extra strip along side of quilt and hand-quilted it to match the rest of the pattern. Sewed binding to edge of quilt and was able to finish it in time to give Amanda for Christmas. It was already a beautifully hand pieced and hand quilted piece of work, but since it hadn't been finished it was in like-new condition. We already have too many quilts in our house, but I know she would appreciate it.

Superhero capes

A couple of capes made for a birthday party this weekend. There is only 1 birthday boy, but I thought, what fun is a cape without someone to be your sidekick, so I made one for his sister. They are personalized with their initials.

Velcro closure for easy-on and off. Made from half vintage and half M & L fabric.

Cool finds

I haven't been posting many of my finds on my blog, but I have been finding a few really cool items. We have a great little used bookstore near our house and I go there often. I try not to go too much because I find too many great books. However, I was glad I stopped in a few weeks ago because I found these beauties. I have them listed in my shop right now.

This one actually sold a few minutes after I listed it. It is a beautiful fairy tale book with very unique illustrations. I almost couldn't part with it, because I love the style of the illustrations. However, I have a ton of fairy tale books that I don't read, so I thought I would just list it. I hope I don't regret selling this one.

Remember this old toy? I loved my Spirograph. I filled paper after paper with these crazy drawings. They never looked as good as the ones on the demo though. I found a bunch of these at a church rummage sale, but I held back and only bought 1.

Triplets!!!

Here is a set of quilts made for a set of triplets soon to join our church family. I collaborated with a couple of girls from the RH quilt group to make these quilts. They were based on patterns from Quilting for Peace. (Now I know what kind of crafting books I like!) The blue quilt on the left was largely done by Gioia, but I contributed the binding and the backing.

Amy and I worked on this pinwheel quilt together. It was fun to do a quilt that required a lot of piecing. The end result is stunning, but it was a lot of work to figure out the pattern.

What ties all three quilts together is the fun yellow backing that they all share. I got this from a vintage sheet found at one of my estate sales. I really love this sheet and am happy that it is going to quilts that I really love and may even see around sometime.

The third quilt is a simple strip quilt, but it was fun to find fabrics that complemented each other. Most are from my stash, but one of the fabrics is from Amy's Nana Norma fabric. A couple of these quilts use fabric from ladies who are no longer with us, but we feel that they would be happy that their fabric contributed to these happy little quilts.

Labor of Love

I got this pattern from my Quilting for Peace book which I received for Christmas. It has been the best crafting/sewing book I have received to date. I think I have already attempted 3 other quilts from this book already and it's not even the end of February. One thing I love about quilting is the fun of putting together different fabrics and making a pleasing whole. I also enjoy using fabrics and sheets that I have gotten at estate sales and giving them a new life. Finally, I just love the fact that I'm making a quilt which is something that can be used for years after I have sent it off to it's recipient. This particular one is dear to my heart for many reasons. First of all, I love all of the fabrics and materials in it. I am so happy with the way they all came together. Second, I quilted it using free-motion quilting on my machine which is a new method for me, but one that I have been wanting to try for a while, and I believe it will be something I can attempt again. The final reason is that it is for an amazing girl that I just met recently, but whose courage and bravery in the face of great adversity astounds me. If you want to read more about Meghan's story, you can find out here. My hope is that my flower garden (that's what I'm calling this one) will be able to brighten up her days.

My first quilt

I know I have quilted many quilts, but this is the first one I've done with my own pattern and materials. The layout of the quilt using dark/ light squares quilted in triangles. The greatest thing about this quilt is that every single bit, down to the thread is all thrifted, vintage and secondhand. It was all headed for a landfill and it has been rescued. I think I could get addicted to this. Most of the flowered patterns are vintage sheets that I got from a vintage sheet square swap.

Here is the almost finished quilt hanging on the line. I couldn't wait until the binding was finished to take pictures of it.

Here is the back of the quilt. It is a little bit off at the bottom. I"ll have to work on that. I think the bottom fabric pulled away a bit from the top 2 layers as I was quilting it. Otherwise I am really happy with this quilt.

#22

We got 2 1/2 quilt backs out of this large king sized sheet. For those of you who are bored with this pattern, I am mainly recording the quilts for our records, not because I think they are really all that interesting to look at now that we are into our 20th quilt with pretty much the same pattern.

Refuge House #18 &19

More quilts and more vintage sheets. The exciting thing about this batch of quilts is that we completed them in 1 month, 2 nights of quilting and putting them together and a few extra days of me sewing the bindings and washing them. We are getting really good at this. Manna and Amy sewed a few of the bindings on these quilts and Shelley, Lidia and Manna put most of the tops together.

Lidia's quilt

Lidia is one of the members of the RH quilt group and we decided to make her a quilt to take to special places. This one is complete with batting and hand stitched binding. Another cool thing about it is that she said she used to have sheets like the one we used for the backing. I have to say it looks great. We are improving our skills.

My new (old) suede shoes

Here are the estate sale shoes that I was writing about on FB. I love everything about them--the slight lift of the heel, the suede texture, the warm brown color, the fact that they slip on even though they have a strap--and most of all--the fact that I got them for $2 at an estate sale.

Here's another view along with the crocheted rug I made from leftover scraps from our RH quilt sheets. I still need to perfect my technique. One side was a little wonky, but I was too lazy to rip it out and redo it.

After too many months of listening to a drippy faucet, we finally got it replaced. I love our new non-drippy faucet that actually fits our sink, looks beautiful and saves water. What more can you ask?

crocheted rag rug

Here is my little rag rug in process. I've been working long and hard to get this far. First I cut my leftover vintage sheet scraps into continuous strips and then I brushed up on my crochet skills using the book Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting and Crocheting. I also used a few online instruction pages. I have seen a few of these rug ideas online and was going to try to attempt the round rag rug as seen on VintageChica, but I don't think I'm ready to crochet on the round yet. Then I stumbled across a plain straight pattern on CrazyMomQuilts. It was perfect for what I wanted to do, so there is my attempt. I am working on it slowly as I watch Survivor, Lost, movies...etc. It's pretty nice to have a portable project that also uses my scraps.

Spiderweb quilt blocks

Here are the first four blocks made for my spiderweb quilt from this tutorial. It has been pretty fun trying my hand at piecing and using a template. As you can see, some of my blocks don't quite match up. I'm still beginning, but overall, it's not too bad, and it's fun using up scraps of my vintage fabrics and leftovers from RH quilts.

Last haul before Lent

I managed to get a picture from my haul. From the ads it didn't look promising, but as I am giving up estate sale shopping for Lent, I figured that I had better just get out there one last time. The first place I hit was a moving sale. It turned out to be someone's grandparents moving out. They had awesome antiques, sewing supplies and a few vintage tablecloths. I piled all of it into a box and they asked $5. THAT'S WHY I LOVE YARD SALES!!!

I spent less that $20 at the 4 sales I went to and I came back with loads of vintage fabrics, some clothes for Jacob and a few really cool odds and ends that might appear in my shop. I wish I had pictures of the places I went to. One was a real dive, but the piles of vintage fabric were incredible.

If you have not gone to yard sales or estate sales, I encourage you to get out there at least one or two weekends a year. It's fun to see what people have out there, but if you really want to get the good deals, you will have to go more often than that.

RHQ #7 and 8

More quilts. I took #7 to NM to hand sew the quilt binding. That's the one that looks like autumn. Hand sewing the binding is a nice touch, but not worth the extra effort when you are sewing 30 plus quilts. I really like the brightness of the squares in #8 and the daisy patterned vintage sheet is one of my favorites. The scraps of that sheet became the binding for quilt #6. Quilt count to date:10