Rag dolls and Quilted Storage Boxes

Amazingly, my husband and I have 11 grandchildren now!!!

We have 2 grandsons and 9 granddaughters.

I was thinking about what I could get them for a little Easter gift.

I was looking through my magazines and found an adorable little doll pattern in this magazine, it's Issue Eleven.

Look how cute she is!!!

I made my first one for a granddaughter who loves purple.

She took a while to make, I'd say about 3 hours.

I decided to make them all at once instead of one at a time.
I thought that would make me feel like I was getting more done, and it did!

This is what the hair looks like before the head's sewn together.

I just sewed the felt hair onto the flesh colored broadcloth, and sewed lines down each one to look like strands of hair.

These are all the dress pieces, I chose each color and print according to each girl's likes and personality.

I was thinking about making each little doll a quilt...but then I remembered the quilted storage baskets in this book.

I thought the fabric basket would be better, because I could make 11 of them, including one each for the grandsons.

The baskets could be like a bed for the little dolls, and the boys could use theirs for storage.

I wrote a tutorial on the baskets here.

I made the baskets with my 3 l/2" wide scraps.

This saved me a lot of time, because the strips were already cut.

I worked really hard every spare moment I had, and finally completed my little dolls in about 10 days.

They look like their watching a movie or something, lol!!!

This little doll is for Reagan Clara, she's 4 years old.

 Her favorite color is purple and she has blonde hair.

I made her basket out of prints, and there are all sorts of peek-a-boo  designs.

There's a dog, a bird, Little Red Riding Hood, an elephant, and so on...

This is Kylie Violet, she's 2 years old.

Kylie loves pink and anything pretty and feminine.

I made her basket in pink and mint green, to match her dress.

Every doll has some of the fabric from her dress, in the basket.

This is Kennedy Grace, she's 7 years old.

Kennedy's favorite color is green, so I made her a green basket.

This is Maisie Louise, she's 4 years old.

Maisie loves pink and purple.
 I used a Mary Engelbreit print for her dress and her basket is pink.

Maisie has a cat named Abby, so I used a Japanese print with cats and birds for the lining.

This is Neo (nay-oh) Kimberley, she's 4 years old.

Neo's favorite color is purple, so the doll and the basket are purple.

I don't have very much purple fabric, so this was a challenge!

This is Lucy Jane, she's 1 l/2 years old.

She's a cute little blonde toddler, so I made her doll and basket in soft  pinks.

This is Isabel Louise, she's 1 month old :)

She has no idea what she likes, so I made her doll and basket in Heather Ross fabrics to match her baby blanket and burp pads.

You can see her baby quilt here.

This is Paisley Louise, she's 10 months old :)

Paisley also doesn't know what she likes yet, so I gave her doll an orange dress and basket.

I really love orange, it's a happy, bright color.

The lining of Paisley's basket is a cute little Japanese print that I hope she will enjoy looking at.

This is Charlotte Leigh, she's 4 years old.

A lot of people have said that this is their favorite doll :)

Charlotte loves strawberries, so there are strawberries on her doll's dress and her basket is pink.

This basket is for Benjamin, he's 2 years old.

His bedroom is decorated in red and aqua, so those are the colors that I sewed his basket. 

The lining is a Japanese print with lots of cars.

I'm putting some Matchbox cars in his basket.

Last but definitely not least, is Bridger, who is 9 years old.

He is our first grandchild.

Bridger is getting a selection of Artemis Foul books in his basket.

He's also getting a copy of the book Wonder.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all of my projects, they are a labor of love.

Snapshots QAL, sewing machine

I'm sewing the Snapshots Quilt Along, it's sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop.

The pattern for the sewing machine was available on February 15.

I used my Alpha Bitties to sort out all the little pieces.

If you are interested in getting some for yourself, you can find them here.

Here's my sewing machine.  I'm using mostly Bonnie and Camille fabric for this quilt, from various lines.

The red fabric in the sewing machine isn't Bonnie and Camille, but the rest is.

Here's my cake block from last month.

I think they look pretty good together :)

I pinned all of the Snapshot QAL information on Pinterest.

There is also a Facebook page devoted to the Snapshots QAL.

It almost feels like a virtual quilting bee, there is lots of excitement about this quilt :)

I'm looking forward to March 15 when the "kettle" block is available!

AYOS and a little bit more - February

I loved February's parttern, it was Fig Tree's Mini Jumping Jacks.

I chose Pam Kitty fabrics because they're bright and happy.

The orange fabric with the flowers by the blue dot is Flower Sugar.

I used a text fabric for the sashing just because I love text fabric!

I love this color combo, it's the traditional Union Jack colors.

I'm Canadian and this used to be our flag until 1967 when Canada was 100 years old.

I used to draw this flag all the time in Elementary school and it was really hard to get the right dimensions because the lines are different widths.

This block should have had a yellow dot, so I'll be turning this one into a real little mini mini :)

Here are my little blocks :)

Each one measures 8 l/2" X 9 l/4".

I used an older Flower Sugar pattern for the back, and a black and white houndstooth to match the text sashing.

I machine quilted in the ditch, around the sashing and each jumping jack block.

The finished quilt is 21 l/2" X 29 l/2".

I really love it!

You can see the parade of other quilts like mine at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion.

Quilt Guild Name Tag

I finally joined a guild, the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild.

I went to a meeting in January and it was great sharing a common interest in quilting, seeing other's projects and hearing quilting tips.

I made myself a name tag :)  I got the paper pieced pattern here.

I have a MQG name tag board on Pinterest.

I included all the things I love:  paper piecing, hand embroidery, Heather Bailey, American Jane and Heather Ross.

I wrote a new quote on my chalkboard for Valentine's :)

I smile every time I walk by!

Rebecca's table runner

I made a table runner for my daughter, and she wanted it to match her carpet.

Here are 3 separate views of her carpet...

These are 5 of the colors swatches that she sent me. 

I chose them for the main colors of the table runner.

I chose this color for the sashing, it matched up to Kona avocado perfectly!

I went to my local quilt shop and matched the color swatches to all the bolts of fabric.

I bought a half yard of each piece, and a yard of the Kona.

I cut 5" squares of the 5 main fabrics and cut some of them in half.  

The sashing strips are l l/2" wide.

I used a pattern that I got from my favorite quilt shop, Pine Needles in West Jordan, Utah during one of their quilt shop hops.

I put a 5" strip of some pretty "Liberty" style fabric on each end, with some matching rick rack.

I love how happy and bright this table runner is.

I backed it with leftover pieces.

It looks great on my black dining room table and shows off the photos of 2 of my sweet grandchildren, Maisie and Benjamin.

What I've Been Working On

My daughter received a Samsung tablet for Christmas over a year ago.

I told her I would make a case for it and finally got around to making it....

I'm not quite that pathetic, her tablet was lost for about 6 months.

One day her little one year old was playing in her bedroom and pulled out the tablet from between the cushions of the chair.

My daughter had looked there so many times, I guess it took the right touch :)

I wanted to make a vintage case, and found this adorable little Japanese print with 1950's style stuffed animals, perfect!

I don't know if she likes it or not, but I LOVE it :)

I chose a cute polka dot for the top of the holder and a teal colored zipper.

This is the back of the case.

Don't you just love those little vintage animals?

Can you tell how much I LOVE it???? Lol!

I've made this tablet case many times, just in different sizes.

Here is the link to the tutorial from Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts.

Liz has excellent tutorials :)

I really like the aqua gingham lining!

 The inside pocket has a polka dot lining.

This is such an easy case to make, I recommend it.

I'm very fortunate to belong to a virtual quilt bee, The Bees Knees a Quilting Bee.

April Rosenthal sent me this fabric with her new pattern, and I put it together and sent it to her.  

The colors and prints are so interesting :)

I'm working on lots of projects right now, but they just aren't complete enough to show you yet.

Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next Monday :)

Modern Instate - December & January

I finished up my Modern Instatebee, Hive 11 membership.

It was a great experience, I was sent 10 beautiful blocks and made 11 blocks every month for others.

(One of the ladies dropped out of the bee after she received all of her blocks, which was disappointing)

December's block was the Stacked Windmill, it was the most popular block.

The hive member chose red, aqua and gray, with Kona white for the background.

January's block was Trellis Crossroads, this is the first one I made.

There are 30 blocks in the quilt, so the hive member said that she would love 2 blocks if we had the time.  

She has 4 young children and works full-time as a teacher.

I thought that anyone with that work load and who is also a member of a quilting bee, and is very nice (Ha ha!) deserves at least 2 blocks!!!

She didn't want any reds, pinks or browns, and loves purple.

It was a little difficult not choosing any reds or pinks since they seem to be the colors I have the most of, and I don't have much purple, but I did my best :)

These blocks look really great together, with their bright, happy colors!

I loved this book, I highly recommend having it in your library.

They sell it at Joann's, need I say more?