Paperdoll Block

LINDSAY gets ready for her flute solo...

she likes to paint her TOENAILS while she

sits under the HAIRDRYER!

Don't the bobby pins look real, like you could reach out and pick them off the fabric?  The curlers were really hard to applique, because the pieces were so little, and every single pink pin is embroidered.  The green comb is embroidered.  The red nail polish is appliqued, and outline embroidered in gray.  I love all the detail!

 Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet designed this pattern.  

Wall Hangings

I made these quilt wall hangings about two years ago.

The pattern is "Two Peas in a Pod" by Sweet Shoppe.

I made this one for my grand daughter Maisie.

Rebecca chose the fabric for this quilt. I was with her at Material Girls, she kept loading up her husband's arms with bolts of fabric!   I love the aquas and pinks with touches of orange. 

 The flower stems are made of rick rack.

I put Roxanne's glue baste glue under the rick rack and make sure it is positioned correctly.  Then I stitched each rick and each rack (lol!) with a needle and thread to secure it.

I appliqued the flowers with fusible web and a little machine blanket stitch.  It worked really well!  Do you notice the scallop border on the top?  I did needle turn that by hand.  

I love pinwheels!

This is the wall hanging I made for my grand daughter Neo.

I had a lot of fun choosing the colors myself.  I wanted it to look "sunshiny"!

Lots of yellow, orange and pink with touches of aqua.

I kept imagining Neo lying in her crib, looking at the quilt while she was waiting for her Mom or Dad to get her up.  What would she be thinking while she looked at the quilt........what colors would inspire her......what colors would make her happy?  It's funny what you think while you sew.....

I backed the quilt with my favorite....."Sew Cherry".

Did you notice that I snuck in some pink and aqua rick rack for the flower stems?  My favorite way of attaching a quilt to the quilt rod, is to gently safety pin some ribbon to the back of the quilt.  I tie the ribbon in pretty bows and the quilt is hung.  It is really easy to just remove the safety pins and you can put the quilt on a table, behind the couch or on a bed.

This is a quilt I could make over and over again.

My friend Cindy Paulson, machine quilted both quilts.  She always does a fabulous job!  

Baby Brit Quilt Along, Week #4

Welcome back, we are on week #4!  These blocks are so much fun to cut and sew.  After you've made the first one, you can hardly wait to see what the rest of your blocks will look like with your fabric combinations.

This is my fourth block.

Here are two of Rebecca's blocks.  She thought outside of the box and chose vintage clothing.  You can see buttons and ties, eyelets and tucks in the fabrics.

This is Lindsay's third block.  I really like the red with the green!

Alice from alidizia has joined the Baby Brit group on flickr. 

Jennifer from Project Remnant Redo has joined the group also.

Go and look at everyone's beautiful blocks.  It is always so much fun to see what others create :)

There's still time to join if you're interested. 

 Two more weeks of making blocks.  In reality, all six blocks can be made in one week if you have the time.  The seventh week we will be sewing our sashing and borders, the eighth week we will be machine quilting and the ninth and last week (October 1), we will bind our quilts.  

We will finish just in time for Rebecca to have her second baby (a boy:) due around October 31!!! 

Paperdoll Block

This block reminds me of doing dishes when I was a teenager, and also when my children were given the chore assignment when they were growing up.  If I had pretty accessories like this, it may have been more enticing!

I love how the dustpan matches the apron with the velvet blue rick rack, outlined with 2 narrow little rows of yellow rick rack, all sewed on by hand, rick by rack :)  The red strainer brings back memories, but ours was always white, never a pretty red.
Each of these pieces of fabric was appliqued, using the needle turn method.  Very time consuming, but very rewarding!  Notice the bristles on the bottle cleaner?  The red embroidered lines on the broom took me a while and I was thankful when I completed them!
I love this block, it makes cleaning the kitchen fun!!!

Domestic Diva, quilted!

I wrote about this table runner back in May, here.

It took me 3 months to get around to quilting and binding it.

I quilted in the ditch, and it gave the quilt a "puffy" look.

I think I prefer the look of an all over stipple design.

I just love this Riley Blake "domestic diva" fabric!

Here is the finished table runner.  I wish I had used the red and white polka dots for the binding.  It would have made the divas "pop" more.  I still like it and can hardly wait to get it on my table :)

It's always a great feeling to get a project finished.

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #3

Welcome to week #3 of the Baby Brit Quilt Along, we have made half of our blocks now.  I am so excited to see my daughters' finished blocks.  Remember to upload the photos of your finished blocks to the Baby Brit group on flickr.

I chose this color combination this time.  I sewed the five strips of fabric together.

I may be weird, but I'm excited about these large scraps of fabric!  

I love using scraps in projects.

Remember to cut out all four rectangles using the template, but reversing two of them so that you will have a perfect "x" pattern.

Here is my perfect "x" pattern.

I sewed the skinny light blue strips to each of the four rectangles.

Press the seams towards the skinny strips.

I didn't take a photo of the three strip piece of fabric this time, but I sewed it between the two rectangles.  You can look at week #1 and week #2 to see the photo tutorial for this step.

The last step is adding the long red polka dot strip between the two rectangles.

The block is complete! 

 I get a thrill of seeing the pattern come to life :)

Here is Lindsay's block, I think it is stunning with the rich yellow, contrasted by the soft blues and greens :)

I bought my sashing when I bought my fabric for the blocks.

That was a mistake, because now that I have some of my blocks made, I see that if I have too many polka dots.

Now is the time to start thinking about the fabric that you want to use for sashing.  I took my blocks to my local fabric shop and laid them on the floor.  I auditioned different fabrics next to them to see what looked best.  I have finally figured out what I am going to use and will show you when I am ready to sew the sashing.

Happy sewing, I am excited to see your photos on Flickr!!!

Paperdoll block

As promised, I am featuring one of my paperdoll blocks today.

This is one of my favorites......what am I saying?  How could I ever choose a favorite paperdoll block?  They are all so adorable!

I love the apron, it looks like one my grandmother would have worn.  I have a lot of red in my kitchen so I made the mix master and the spatula red.

Look at the design on the gray fabric, it really looks like a cookie pan.  The fabric that was used for the chocolate chips has little dots on it, so it looks like chocolate chips.  On one of the blocks, I had to  satin stitch the chocolate chips!

The electrical cord on the mix master is tiny black rick rack, embroidered with white thread.

I love how the trim on the oven mitt matches the apron, and I also love the pyrex measuring cup :)  All of the little details are incredible. Each fabric piece was appliqued using the needle turn method.  

If you are new to "paperdoll block" Friday, you can look at the other paperdoll blocks here and here. 

I will feature another paperdoll block next week :)

Water Bottle Apron Class

Sew Katie Jean, the quilt shop in my area, has been open for a year.   Katie is celebrating her one year anniversary.  Each day of the week, she is having one of her instructors teach a mini class.  My day was today, and I taught the "water bottle apron" class.  I found the pattern and tutorial at Bee in my Bonnet.

Here are the little aprons I made.

These are the darling sisters who took my class.  From left to right, they are Sarah (9 yrs.), Beth (12 yrs.) and Abby (11yrs.).  They were so excited about learning how to sew!  First I taught them how to press, because that is a lost art.  They were such sweet girls, and I had a great time.  You can tell by their smiles that they did too!  

Teaching young girls to sew is very rewarding. They are like sponges, clinging on to every word you say.  I think it's really special when young people are eager to learn how to sew!

Baby Brit Quilt Along, week #2

If you haven't joined the "Baby Brit" quilt along yet, it isn't too late.

Once you get the fabric cut, these blocks don't take very long to sew together.

Week #1's tutorial is here.

You can upload the photos of your blocks onto Flickr, on

 the "Baby Brit" group HERE.

I am so excited to see your finished blocks, that I can hardly contain myself :)

This is the color scheme I chose to sew together this week.

I never throw away these scraps, they can be used to cut squares for another quilt :)

I have all four rectangles cut out.  I am really careful to cut two rectangles and then turn the template the other direction and cut two more rectangles.  I would be so upset if the crosses didn't match, I would have to buy three more pieces of fabric, and Material Girls is in another state.  I can't just get in my car and drive there in 5 minutes like I used to be able to do!

The skinny light blue polka dot strips are ready to be sewn onto the rectangles.

The light blue polka dot strips are sew onto the rectangles and pressed towards the light blue polka dot strips.

I cut the edge of the three strip flush with the edge of the ruler so it will be straight.  Notice how the bottom long edge of the fabric is even with the horizontal line on the cutting mat.

I cut the two strips I needed and have a long strip leftover which I will put in my scrap box.

The two strips are ready to sew between each of the two rectangles.

The long red strip of fabric on the left is waiting to be sewn next.

The seams are always pressed towards the skinny light blue polka dot fabric.

Now it's time to sew the long red strip to the two rectangles.

My second block is complete, it looks similar to true Union Jack colors.

I am so excited about my daughters' blocks!  They are part of the reason I began this quilt along.  

Lindsay went to Material Girls quilt shop and chose her six fabrics.

I especially like her greens and gold, and blue houndstooth.

One of the most enjoyable parts about making a quilt is choosing the fabric.  I love to see what different people choose.

Here is Lindsay's finished block.  It is really beautiful.  

I was so excited to see the photo in my email!

This is Rebecca's block, very original.  This is what she said,

"I decided to try something a little different to get a more vintage look (hopefully) and to repurpose some fabrics by using clothes to make these blocks.  I used two pairs of pants, a dress, a nightgown, and two shirts. It took a few extra hours to cut the strips out of each article of clothing and make sure they were the right measurements, so it definitely added some time to my first block.  I think it is worth it if you have some favorite clothes you want to keep a piece of, or if you want to work in some of the details of clothing into the quilt, such as buttons, pockets, or pleats.  Or just for fun."

We will see you next Monday for week #3 :)