Candy Girl

I finally completed my daughter's quilt. I found the pattern on Pinterest. It is called Candy Girl from the Janelle Wind Collection. This quilt took me a very long time. It was a lot of hand stitching, every flower and petal. I changed the border a little by adding strips of colors. It is very bright. My only complaint is it turned out a funny size. Instead of a regular twin size it is really short. It is somewhere between a throw and a twin at 52" x 66.5".

I also used Minky on the back. It costs more but it makes the blanket so soft and the kids love it. I used it on my son's baby blanket also. I expect these blankets to last a very long time. Two kids down, two to go. I have the fabric for the next quilt and this one will probably be for a double bed. Pattern also seen on Pinterest.

Baby Clothes Quilt

I finally finished my son's quilt with the help of hiring a long arm quilter to finish it. I really liked how it turned out and will maybe do one for my girls too. Not until the next baby grows out of some clothes though. I gave away almost all my baby girl clothes because we thought we were done at 3 kids. Oops :)

I backed the quilt with a brown minky fabric that is too die for! I recommend it for all quilts even though it costs a bit more. I made the quilt dimensions so I would not have to piece the backing. It comes 60" wide so   the quilt ended up being about 56" x 80". A little smaller than the normal twin quilt but oh well.

Today I began cutting and laying out my next quilt. I bought the fabric by Red Rooster called HeartStrings because I loved the collection. I had to pick out a pattern for it and ended up choosing the Sweet Starlet Pattern. I'm not exactly sure about it yet, so I'm hoping it grows on me. It will be a lap size quilt. 

Loose Ends

It's been one of those weeks where I have a lot of half done projects and anxiously trying to finish them all up at the same time. I am the type of person that hates having lose ends, so I actually do finish most of what I start. I've been meaning to make this toothbrush holder for traveling that I found on Pinterest. I think it is a great idea since I have been sticking them all in one ziploc bag and of course this is reusable! 

It took me approximately 5 minutes max. to make this since my sewing machine was already out. I used a hand towel instead of a washcloth since there are 6 of us, but a washcloth would have worked too. You can see some of my sewing lines. I made 7 pockets and then sewed a piece of ribbon on it to tie it together. Easy right? 

This was an extra towel I had laying around and I really didn't see the need to make it pretty, but you could get a nice decorative towel and really jazz it up if you wanted.

With a little ironing, my son's quilt is ready for batting, backing and quilting. I'm really hoping I can make a huge dent in this today at naptime.

I have also been gluing down the beadboard inside my cupboards, which I am totally excited to finish and post before and after pictures of! 

While I've been tying up loose ends my kids have been enjoying their sensory table filled with water and toys. I made this table for my 3 year old's birthday in April before I started the blog. I will have to make a new post about it because it is one of the coolest presents we have made for them and all the little supplies to go with it. Winter will be a lot more fun this year!

Baby Boy Clothes Quilt Part 1

I took a break from my Cricut for the last few days so that I could work on my son's baby clothes quilt. I put a pretty good dent in it this weekend.

I had already sorted out his clothes and cut each one apart removing seams and collars to make it easier to make blocks. This week I cut 209 4-1/2" squares. I used this size because I have a plastic block that makes it so much easier. My hands were a little sore after all that! My basic supplies:

After all the squares were cut I needed to cut the fusible interfacing for the backs to stabilize the stretch, thin material. I purchased 7 yards of Pellon SF101 from my local quilt store.

This fusible interfacing is applied using a LOT of steam. I placed the Pellon on the wrong side of the fabric and then applied a damp press cloth. The iron was set at highest heat and I pressed each part of the block for about 10 seconds. I also kept my iron filled with water to create more steam.

The cutting and steaming took me two nights to finish. My hands were pretty sore from all the cutting and then the steam wrinkled them all up.

Piles of Pellon and fabric squares.

After ironing Pellon to fabric. This is only a third of all my squares.

Yesterday I laid out all of the squares on our bed. I wasn't really picky I just wanted the colors to go diagonally across the quilt and not just have a random order. I didn't realize what I was getting into laying them all out. I didn't want to lose my order so I had to sew all of the strips together that night so that we could use our bed. My bed is on the opposite side of the house from the sewing table so it was a lot of walking back and forth, but I got them pieced together. Today I will finish ironing the seams and sew the strips together.

I did 19 squares by 11 squares. I will also add a 1-1/2 and 5-1/2 border all the way around. My size should turn out to be 58" x 90". The backing I want to use is 60" wide so I wanted to keep it under that, although it will be close with no wiggle room.