Farmhouse Lane quilt is quilted!

I finished my Farmhouse Lane quilt, by Lori Holt!

I have been wanting to make this quilt since 

Lori's book "Vintage Farmgirl" came out.

I'm pretty excited about how my machine quilting turned out.

I machine quilted swirls with petals.

I used the same fabric for my binding 

as I did for the little pink border.

I used a crosshatch machine quilting pattern for the border.

Unfortunately, I was trying to sew one direction

and then tug at the quilt and pull it so that 

I could go the opposite direction.

I didn't realize it, but by tugging at the quilt, I bent something on the needle shaft and had to take it in for a $150 repair!!!

It usually costs $120 for a Bernina update, oil and clean, etc,

but this one cost more.

On the bright side,

 it was repaired in two days instead of two weeks!

When I was sewing the crosshatch design on the border,

on my newly oiled, cleaned and repaired machine,

I just went one direction, cut the threads and

moved it over 1 1/2" to sew the next line.

I bought this fabric about 3 or 4 years ago, and it's very pink, 

not the corral that it shows in the photo.

My next quilt to work on at Farm Girl Chicks,

is the Scrappy Haystack Sampler quilt.

I've got all the Haystack blocks sewn, just

need to sew 13 12 l/2" blocks from the book

Farm Girl Vintage.

Thanks for following :)

Needle Book

I made this little needlebook for a sweet friend of mine.

The pattern is by Amy Sinibaldi of Nana Company.

Amy designs for Art Gallery fabric and she made this tutorial in October 2011.

My friend is a modern quilter, so I tried to make this book as modern as I could, 

even though I added vintage buttons and rick rack.

Here's the inside, the theme is green :)

The little patchwork squares are 1" finished, all Denyse Schmidt fabrics except for the teal one.

I hand quilted the back and the spine of the book, 

giving it more of a "zakka" look.

You can see the other needle books I've made

here, here, here, here, and here.

The tutorial can be found on my Pinterest board here. 

Thanks for following me and I hope you are inspired to make a needlebook :)

Farm Girl Chicks

I moved from northern California, to Arizona last June.

I met Nedra in Gilbert, and we have been fast friends since!

We took a day trip to Payson Arizona, 

and went to the Copper Needle.  

It's a fabulous quilt shop where we met Gina, the owner.

Nedra invited me to a quilting group called "Farm Girl Chicks", 

at Quilters Oasis in Mesa.

The rule is, you can only be working on a Lori Holt project.

Oh boy, is it ever a fun group, and right up my alley!

I love Lori Holt :)

There's laughing and sharing, more laughing and laughing again!

Ooohs and awwws at everybody's beautiful creations.

Last week, Becky Parzy came to our group 

and showed us some of her beautiful quilts!

Here is Becky's version of Lori Holt's "Quilty Fun" quilt.

Becky said that she thinks it's much more interesting if you piece the back.

She always makes beautiful labels too :)

 Here is Becky's version of her Penny Pig quilt, 

from Lori Holt's "Farm Girl Vintage" book.

She used the Farmhouse Lane setting found on Page 128, and substituted Penny Pigs for the Farmhouses.

You can see Lori's quilt here.

Here's the back of Becky's Penny Pig quilt, really cute!

 Here's Becky's Farm Girl Vintage quilt, so beautiful!

Becky said that she chose the border fabric and used the color scheme from the fabric to choose color choices for the blocks.

Such gorgeous machine quilting!!!

Notice the little printed borders that Becky added?

Very original :)

Lori always says that she loves it when someone makes one of her quilts "their own".

Becky had a couple of extra blocks which she added to the back.

Here's Becky's version of Lori's "Spelling Bee" quilt.

 I took closeups so you could see the individual blocks.

 The back of her Spelling Bee quilt.

The label :)

 I'm not sure what this quilt is called, but it's lovely!

 Becky has also made some really beautiful Tilda dolls.

 Becky and her friend designed this sweet heart conversations quilt.

 ...and this pillow to match.

Nancy (in red) is the awesome and incredible and darling 

host of our Farm Girl Chicks group.

She is also the heart and fun of the group too!

Nancy grew up with Ellen (white and blue), they have been best friends since childhood.

Ellen is good friends with Becky, that's how we were able to have Becky come to our group and do the trunk show.

They are all the sweetest ladies!!!

To add to the enjoyment, we had a baked potato bar for lunch with every single topping you can imagine!

This group is the highlight of my month!

I hope you enjoyed all the trunk show :)

Around the world blog hop

I was asked to be part of the "around the world blog hop" by Greg Jones of grey dogwood studio. Greg and I have similar tastes in quilting and have become online friends. I am a great admirer of his creativity and originality. He is definitely one who thinks outside the box!

I am going to share my creative process with you and reveal some of my thought processes.

1. What am I currently working on?

For the year 2015, I am going to create a list of quilts I have wanted to make, but have put on the back burner.

Right now, I have many projects I'm working on.

Appleicious is a cute apple quilt from Lori Holt's book, Quilty Fun. I have the apples and leaves cut out, but that's all I've completed so far....here is a photo of the fabrics I'm using.

"Spell it with Moda", an alphabet quilt, which was a free pattern. I pinned all the letters to a board on Pinterest. I've made the first six letters.

I'll be starting this cute pattern by Heather Bailey, a Christmas gift for one of my grandaughters.

In January, I joined the "Handmade birthday club".

Every month, as long as someone in the group has a birthday, group members will make and send a small to medium handmade item to the birhtday girl. In total, you will be gifting 11 handmade items and during your birthday month, you will be receiving 11 handmade items! How FUN! If you're interested, it's hosted by susannahkate.com
I also joined the "Modern Instabee" virtual quilting bee, which I found out about on Instagram. Each group consists of 12 members, who all choose a month. We pick our bee blocks out of the book "Modern Bee" by Lindsay Conner. My month is October and I requested the Stacked Windmill block. I told the group what colors I want and I'm receiving really pretty blocks in the mail :)
A couple of months ago, I was invited to join the Bees Knees Quilting Bee. The bee has their own blog where we post the blocks we've made.
Besides all the projects I've listed, I have some table runners that need to be quilted.

2. How does my work differ from others?

I am skilled in many different techniques. I enjoy hand embroidery, needle turn applique, paper piecing, hand quilting, machine quilting, heirloom sewing, and garment sewing.
I sew dolls, stuffed animals, Princess dresses, bags and smocked dressed for my grandchildren.
I have a goal to design quilt patterns, which I'll begin doing in January. I want to sew quilts and/or table toppers in every possible color scheme and style. I especially love bright, happy colors and children themed fabric such as Sarah Jane, Aneela Hooey, Tasha Noel and Heather Ross. I am also an Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Pam Kitty and Lori Holt fabric hoarder.

3. Why do I create?

Creating gives me an immense feeling of contentment and satisfaction and joy. When I see someone snuggling a quilt I've given them, or a grandchild wearing something I've made for them, I feel happy. When one of my grandaughters was visiting us recently, she put her baby doll to sleep beside her in bed. I noticed that she covered her doll up with a mini quilt that I had sewn for her. I was delighted that she was using the gift that I had made for her with love.

4. How do I work?

I have a beautiful sewing room that my husband designed for me last Christmas, along with an incredible Bernina 750 QE. There are two links on the right side of my blog where you can view photo if you're interested. The room's all setup, I can work for an hour, a day or into the evening. I don't have any Quilty friends to sew with and I don't belong to a quilt guild. Most of my sewing is done solo while watching Netflix or listening to music or talks. I plan on joining a quilt guild in January.

Now I want to introduce the next two bloggers on the Around the World blog tour!
These two talented quilters will be sharing their stories with you next Monday, November 10.  Be sure and visit them, their blogs and their stories are fabulous :)

Renee at Sewn with Grace has a common love with me for all of Lori Holt's "Quilty Fun" creations.  Renee quilts and knits and every week she has a Sunday Scripture post which I really love :)  Renee's work is beautiful with a true vintage feel, hop over to her blog and see for yourself.

Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts finished the "Spell it with Fabric" quilt, it's absolutely gorgeous!!!  She began the Texas Quilt Along which has a huge following and was a big hit!  Cristina not only has a love for quilting, but also for cooking, baking, reading and crochet.  Look at her blog and see all of her awesome creations. 

Thanks for visiting me on the "Around the World" blog hop :)

Needle book with tutorial link

I made this little needle book for my friend for her birthday :)

I really think it's the cutest one I've made!

The little red car with 2 little faces in the windows, and I backed it with a piece of linen and hand stitched around it.

Have you ever shopped at Anthropologie?

It's one of my favorite stores!

I save the ribbon handles from the shopping bags and I used one to trim the bottom of the cover.

I stitched on 3 little mother of pearl buttons and used an unusual diamond shape, antique button for the closure.

Inside the book are 2 pages of felt.

I added many different little adornments and scalloped the edges of the felt for more detail.

The back of the book is made of 12 little 1" squares and I hand stitched them all.

See the hen in one of them?

The inside lining is little dogs, a 30's print.

I know my friend loves dogs :)

If you would like to see the other needle books I've made from this tutorial, you can see them here, here, here, and here.

 You can find a link to the tutorial for this cute little needle book, here on my Pinterest board named "random tutorials".

Handmade Birthday Club 2014

It's Holli's birthday this month, she's in our handmade birthday club.  It's my birthday this month too :)
I'll show you all the gifts I receive later this month.

Holli said that she has never made a needle book for herself.

I made this cute little "Zakka" style book.

Don't you love the teeny weeny little cherries?

I love the Norwegian style little boy that I fussy cut, also.

I used an antique button for the closure.

I made a little patchwork on the back cover and hand quilted it.

The loop is a hair elastic :)

You can find the tutorial for this needle book here on my Pinterest board, "random tutorials".

I used a pale yellow piece of wool felt for the pages.

I really love all the little details.

This needle book is really small but a lot of time and thought went into making it, I sure hope Holli likes it!

Lined Fabric Basket Tutorial

I love scraps of fabric and I love fabric baskets.

I made a pink scrappy fabric basket, and am sharing the tutorial with you.

I used the "quilt as you go" method.

I found the tutorial for that on Pinterest, here is the link.
I'm plannig on making Amy Butler's Weekender Travel Bag using this method of quilting :)

Thank you "Oh, Fransson!"

I cut a piece of muslin (or any other fabric you would like for your backing - it won't show) and a piece of warm and natural batting, 13" X 17".

I added scraps of fabric, following the tutorial above, for "quilting as you go".  

Here's my completed piece of quilting.

I trimmed the above piece and subcut it into 4 rectangles, measuring 6" X 8" each.

I cut another piece of muslin and warm and natural batting, 

8 l/2" X 8 l/2".

I quilted it and trimmed it to an 8" square.

This square will be the base of the basket.

Next, sew all four rectangles together, using a l/4" seam.

You will have a square of pink quilted scraps :)

Sew the base (8" X 8") to the square.

Now cut your lining, an 8" square, and 4 rectangles, 6" X 8".  

I also cut Pellon interfacing in each of these measurements and ironed them to the wrong side of the lining.

I used this Pellon, which adds lots of body to the basket.

I sewed the rectangle lining pieces together and formed a square.

I sewed the 8" X 8" base to the square, making sure to leave a 6" opening to allow for turning.

I left the 6" opening in the middle of the seam.

Keep the lining with the right side in the middle, the wrong side out.

Place the quilted piece inside the lining piece so the right sides are together.

Line up the edges of the basket so they are even, and pin.

Sew around the top of the basket, using a l/4" seam.

Remove the pins and turn right side out through the opening in the lining.

Press the top edge, and top stitch on the outside.

Now you just have to close the opening in the lining.

You can pin it like this and slip stitch the opening closed by hand with a needle and thread.

Another option is to pull the lining away from the quilted basket and sew the opening closed by machine.

I chose this method :)

My completed basket!

I love it!

You can really make it any size you want.

This basket is square, but you could make a rectangle one too.

I added some pink fat quarters to my pink fabric basket.

I took a photo of my basket from every side so you can see the different patchwork.

You don't have to use your basket for fat quarters, you can use it for all of your pink scraps.

I have a lot of pink fabric!!!

 Could it be because I have 7, soon to be 8 grand daughters?

Maybe I just love the color pink :)

This fabric basket was inspired from the quilt book 
"Sunday Morning Quilts".

They suggest making a basket in each of the colors of your scraps.

Wouldn't that be fun?

This book would be a great addition to your library,
you can buy it here.