Girl's Night, the results!

We had our girl's night at Rebecca's house.

Rebecca has a 2 year old daughter named Maisie, and a baby boy  due at the end of October ♥.

Lindsay came.....

.....she has three children, Bridger is 7, going into first grade, Kennedy is almost 5, going into Kindergarten, and Charlotte is 2.

....and Kimalee came,

Kim has a 20 month old daughter named Reagan.

Unfortunately, Mabulane and Vanessa weren't able to make it.

Everyone chose their color combos that I had precut, and I showed them the project.  We made the lunch bag tutorial by Ayumi, from the Pink Penguin blog. This was one of the first projects that I pinned ("random tutorial" board) when I first started Pinterest.  I have wanted to make this bag for a long time!  Ayumi did an excellent job with her photographs and directions.

We did a lot of sewing......

And a lot of pressing......

After about 3 hours, we were finished!

I bought this Amy Butler fabric at the last minute, because I thought I was minus one kit.  Aren't the colors beautiful?  Unfortunately I forgot to take a closeup.  I liked the fabric so much that I bought more to take home and make another bag :)

Lindsay chose the cute pink gingham elephants, with yellow fabric and pink polka dots.  Reminds me of bubble gum!  (I don't know why!!!)  It is so cute.

I love Kim's too!  She chose the yellow Japanese print, with an alphabet cover.  I always like red fabric with white polka dots.  It is adorable.

I love this bright pink fabric with flowers, and I have the same cover as Lindsay's, the yellow with pink polka dots.

We had a great time and it was fun to complete a project in one evening.

I took some pictures of my bag during the day, with better light.

Notice the word "hope" on the handle?

The inside of the bag itself is completely lined.

The bag opens up nice and wide at the top.  You can use the bag to carry your embroidery with you, your hexagons that you are handstitching during children's soccer practices (ha ha!), and Lindsaymy suggested using it as a makeup bag. There are so many things you could use the bag for.

I hope I have inspired you to make one of these bags, they were a lot of fun to make.  It would make a great gift too!

Girl's Night

My daughters and I are going to have a girl's night.  I chose a sewing project for us to work on.  Here are the fabrics I cut for everyone from my fabric stash :)  It is so much fun to go to my shelves and pick out fabric for a project.

They don't know what we'll be doing, it is a surprise!

It is something I pinned on pinterest and have wanted to sew for a long time!

I have three of this color combination :)

I will post about our girl's night and finished projects on Monday.

Stay tuned.....

Happy Birthday America!

I love this country, Happy Birthday America!

Quilt Along

We are going to have a quilt along.  Do you want to join?  
I hope you do :)

The quilt along will be from the "Victory Garden"quilt pattern, by Busy Bee Quilt Designs.

Our version of this quilt, is "Baby Brit", sewing six union jack blocks.  The finished quilt will measure 56" X 62", big enough for a lap quilt or generous baby quilt or great wall hanging.

We are going to start on Monday, August 6.  That will give you plenty of time to choose your fabric.  

Here is the schedule:

August 6:  block #1

August 13:  block #2

August 20:  block #3

August 27:  block #4

September 3:  block #5

September 10:  block #6

September 17:  sashing and border

September 24:  machine quilt

October 1:  bind the quilt

My daughters Rebecca and Lindsay will be joining the quilt along.

I started a Flickr group where you can upload the photos of your blocks so we can all share and comment on each other's lovelies!!

The name of the Flickr group is Baby Brit, and my username is cynthiahorst.

Fabric requirements:

Blocks:  5/8 yd. each of six different fabrics.

Sashing:  1 yd.

Border:  l l/4 yd.

Backing:  3 l/2 yds.

Binding:  l/2 yd.

You will also need to purchase the pattern.

Here are the fabrics I have chosen for my quilt.

On August 6, I will post a full tutorial for the first Union Jack block, so that you will easily be able to follow along.  It is important that you purchase the pattern, because I won't be giving measurements in my tutorial.  

I sure hope you join my "Baby Brit" quilt along, it will be a lot of fun. 

It can be your way of celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee:)

You don't even have to use reds and blues.  Be creative in your color combination, think outside of the box!

Let me know if you want to join, I can hardly wait!

Slide Show

I have always liked Terry Atkinson's quilt patterns.  The cutting instructions are simple and easy to follow.  I have made the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern numerous times and have recommended it to beginner quilters.  I saw this "Slide Show" pattern at the quilt shop and envisioned lots of possibilities!  I wanted to make a quilt to match the colors in Lindsay's (my daughter) craft room.  She decorated her craft room in red and mint green.  I will have to blog about her craft room soon...

I added stars in the corner, because I love stars :)

It was a lot of fun choosing the fabrics fore this quilt.  Do you notice how pretty the machine quilting is?  Thank you Cindy Paulson :)

This is the time that I used white as a background in my quilt.

I was able to choose large prints for the squares, so I was really careful in choosing the fabrics.  The same prints were used in the little squares.

I bought the green floral for the back, but used leftover pieces of the prints I used on the back.  I always think it makes the quilt more interesting.  

I hope you have been inspired to think about making a Slide Show of your own :)

Mini Granny

I have been dying to make a granny quilt but haven't had the time.  Instead, I made a mini granny table topper.  I have a large Ikea box with small scraps and another large box with large scraps.  Not to mention all the other fabric I have, but right now I will concentrate on my scrap boxes....lol!  I rummaged through my box of small scraps and cut l l/2" squares of reds, pinks, blues, greens and yellows.  I wanted  an  orange block but unfortunately, I don't have many orange scraps.

It takes 26 squares of colored fabric for each block, and 25 squares of white.

I love my design boards, I really really love them!  I used the tutorial from Lori's blog.  I also made two large ones which I use a lot too.

I think I only had to duplicate one print, I have a lot of scraps!!!

There is something so satisfying about cutting pretty fabrics and sewing them up, especially in miniature!

Something else I find very satisfying while I'm cutting and sewing, is chocolate :)

.....and more chocolate, until.......

.....all the chocolate is gone!  Yes, this bag of m & m's was my friend while I constructed this mini granny.

Yeah, all of my blocks are done, little mini 6 " blocks.  They are so cute and I enjoy looking at each and every print and remembering what I used them for.  Kennedy's dress, Lindsay's bag, Comforts of Home quilt, Christmas table topper, rainbow charm pack swap, swoon quilt, Rebecca's quilt, the farmer's wife quilt, Bridger's baby wall hanging, and on and on and on......the journey of a quilter :)

It almost looks like lace, doesn't it?  Now I am going to trim the blocks, leaving a l/4" seam allowance on all four sides.

This is my larger design board.  I love it and I use it a lot!

Now the blocks are ready to be attached using l " sashing.

I see more memories in the squares :) 

The quilt is pinned and ready to quilt.  I am going to hand quilt it, so it may be a while before I finish it as I have so many projects going at the same time, and I keep adding new ones.  I will get everything finished, it makes life more interesting when there are so many things to work on :) 
I am going to hand quilt this little table topper (25" square) with colored embroidery thread to match each block, in an outline stitch.

I love it, it's really colorful and happy!
By the way, I didn't make a dent in my box of small scraps...lol