Farm Girl Vintage, Farm Fresh

I went to Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage Retreat last summer, exclusively for a specific group of Instagram friends.

Lori told us what color to bring for the background and the sashing, for the surprise quilt that she designed for us.

The surprise quilt was called "Farm Fresh", and we all oohed and aahed over it!!!

While everyone else was cutting and sewing their fruit, veggies and canning jars, I was cutting and sewing my farm fresh banner.

I would have chosen fabric with more contrast if I had seen the quilt first, but I'm still happy with the results.

Our retreat was held at a fabric shop, so there was plenty of fabric to choose from!

I quickly decided that I would make 4 cans of fruit, 4 cans of vegetables, and a can of honey.

I cut and sewed my 6" blocks of produce, and then took my little blocks to the fabric shop to see what colors and prints would make them pop!

The other day, I finished sewing the tablecloth, and my quilt top was finished!

As I stand back and look at my finished quilt top, I really love all the color combinations.

It's bright and happy!

While I was admiring my quilt, I realized one thing....

Peas aren't orange, tomatoes aren't yellow, corn isn't green, carrots aren't blue, etc.

Look at it this way, my canning jars are opaque, they're candy to the eye!

I'm not really sure how I'm going to use this quilt...maybe there will be a country fair sometime soon, where I can display my beautiful quilt.

Maybe I should enter it in next year's California State Fair :)

Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartman

I've been wanting to make Elizabeth Hartman's "Fancy Forest" quilt for a while now.

I made the baby quilt, which is just one quadrant of the full size quilt.

The little animals are so cute!

I love the process of choosing fabric and prints, it's one of my favorite parts of making a quilt.
 I was able to use the fabric from my stash, except for the background fabric and the black for the eyes and noses.

This is Hazel Hedgehog.

This is Mr. Fancy Fox.

I especially love the 3D looking fabric in this one :)

These are fireflies.

There were a lot of little pieces!

This is Bunny :)

This is Mr. Owl, I hope he doesn't scare the baby, lol!

This is a thistle blossom.

This is my finished quilt.  

I'm going to put minky on the back and quilt it myself.

Search for Elizabeth Hartman's quilt online, there are some really pretty ones out there!

By the way, my friend Joni sent this to me.

It's so true!!!

Cute little Needlebooks

I've made a few of these needle books, I really love them!

You can see them here, here, here, here, here and here.

This is the coolest one I've ever made!

Sometimes when I design a project, I try to force myself to think outside the box.

This is one of those times....the "afro girl" is Cotton and Steel fabric.

The little cherry in the bottom left corner is so adorable :)

You can find the tutorial for this needlebook from Amy Sinibaldi, on my Pinterest board here.

The back has 12 little 1" finished squares.

I tried to "peek a boo" interesting little prints.

I think the yellow hand stitching really compliments the little prints.

I used an unusual pointed antique button for the closure.

I used wool felt for the inside and embellished it with buttons, pins, ribbon, lace and linen.

Here's the second needlebook I made last week.

I use this little Japanese print a lot, I think it's so cute!

I added a sparkly Riley Blake button.

The inside has pale yellow wool felt and I added lot of colorful ribbon and buttons.

These little books aren't difficult to make, but there's a lot of little things to sew on them, so they're a little time consuming.

I think they make a great gift for someone you really, really like :)

I definitely need to make one for myself one of these days!

Little Red

Have you heard of the fabric line "Little Red" by Moda?

I have a "thing" for Little Red Riding Hood, so I think it's fabulous!

The fabric line comes with a panel, and you can find it at one of my favorite etsy shops, stitchesngiggles4u.

I just cut along the dotted lines and made this adorable little doll, her skirt and cape.  

The little quilt is two sided, and so is the pillow.

Isn't the big bad wolf a scream?

I made this little set for my darling little grand daughter who is turning 3 years old.

I also made Lucy Jane this cute little quilt as you go tote bag.

I used all sorts of cute little pieces of fabric from my scrappy stash.

 I bought the pattern from my favorite quilt shop, Pine Needles.

Sandra Workman, the designer, is the owner of Pine Needles, and 

she designs a lot of cute patterns and fabric :)

Lucy Jane really liked her doll and bag, she's a pretty fancy little girl!

We were on our way to get her ears pierced for her birthday, so she was a little too preoccupied to smile....ha ha!!!

Super Hero Cape and Mask Tutorials

It's my grandson's 4th birthday, and I thought he would love a super cape.

Here is the tutorial on my Pinterest board, "Stuff to make the grandkids".

These are not 2 capes.

I'm going to sew them together and the cape will be reversible.

The tutorial has a template for the Superman logo, and it's so easy!

"B" is for Benjamin.

I traced the yellow circle with a plate, and drew the "B" to go inside the circle.

Here's the Superman side of the cape.

Here's the Super Ben side of the cape.

I made a mask to match the cape, so easy again!

One side of the mask is red and the other is yellow.

Here is the tutorial for the mask, and it also includes the template.

As easy as pie, and really fast to make.

Let me know if you make some :)

Cozy Season Mini Quilt

This is such a fun little mini quilt to make!

Here is the tutorial, on Lori Holt's blog.

Even though Lori has a tutorial on her blog, you still need the calendar for the cozy cottage dimensions.

I had so much fun choosing cute little squares of fabric that look like fall, and look at the tree trunk!

The flying geese over the house, they just had to be aqua!

I really enjoy machine quilting long, uneven lines on mini quilts with my walking foot.

It still takes time, but you don't have to measure and the look is organic.

I thought that this fabric from one of Lori's earlier fabric lines was perfect!  

The stripes mirrored the quilting lines.

Lulu quilt

I enter contests sometimes on Instagram, and this time I won!

I won bigtime!!!

I won this pattern by Gigi's Thimble which is made with a jelly roll.

As a bonus, Stephanie @stuphfromsteph gave the generous offer of machine quilting the quilt top :)

Steph even said that she would pay for the return shipping.

I had a jelly roll I was saving for a special project.

Sew Cherry, Lori Holt's first fabric line!

It's my favorite ever!!!

I got busy cut the jelly roll up and went crazy chain piecing.

I had to take a photo of the process, the fabric is so beautiful and so colorful.

I finished sewing all my blocks, 16 of them in all.

To make sure the low volumes and bright colors were evenly placed, I took a tonal photograph.

It looks good to me :)

Here are all the blocks laid out, with the borders, before I sewed them together.
I had to add a few extra pieces, but made sure that they were all designed by Lori Holt.
I don't know if you can spot them...

Yay, I finished my quilt top, I love the explosion of color.

I can hardly wait to get my quilt in the mail.

I'll show it to you when it's quilted and bound :)