Christmas Stockings

Christmas Stockings for the newest members of our family.

Loralai is wearing the festive headgear. My son, Chris, has taught her many cool things.

Sasha is WAY too dignified to hold treats on her nose or wear silly hats.

These 2 are twin sisters and both are rescued dogs. They have found COZY and HAPPY homes.

I picked a license plate for each of their stockings and pieced a house blocks and a tree blocks for each of them --from my "2014 License Plate Quilt" pattern. (Available on Etsy here.)

I sketched out a rough plan on paper then cut a muslin stocking. After basting the tree, house and license plate in place I used selvage strips to complete the rows.

To finish the 3 sections I used a long selvage and folded it to measure 3/4" and ironed to create an edge to sew. Then it was laid over the raw edges of the rows and I sewed down both sides of the strip.

The letters were appliquéd by machine after using Heat 'N' Bond Lite to secure them.

The house for Loralai has my son, Chris, with his dog in the doorway. So cute!

I had loads of fun picking out cool words for these stockings. I put cars in this one.

This is how I added the long strip to cover all the raw edges.

Loralai is the Princess so she gets to have crowns and the word Princess.

Sasha has "Magical Dragons" and "Hocus Pocus" plus "the Berenstain Bears".

All these selvages came from the fabrics I bought this past summer during the Row By Row Experience. Such a fun summer of shop hopping. 

Happy Holidays!

2" charm square swap---My Charming Lap Quilt

This quilt (46x46) began with a charm square swap at the Curious Quilter. I signed up to swap 800 2" charm squares--100 to 8 different quilters. This involved cutting 100 DIFFERENT fabrics into 2" squares. I made 8 sets to swap, one set to keep and the last set of 100 I divided in 2 and sent them as "newbie" gifts to quilters just beginning their stash.

I arranged my set of 100 squares into a 10 x 10 square and sewed them together. For the back of my block I cut a 2" strip of white for writing my name, city and brief description of the swap. I then quilted my block to the labeled backing fabric.

These charms are from Liane B., Aurora, CO.

There were a bunch of Halloween prints so I arranged them together on the diagonal and then put all the 30's prints together in one corner then filled in the rest.

This lovely set are from Barb K., Macungie, PA.

These went together effortlessly. I started with the yellow and built around it.

These charms are from Brooke L., Grinnell, IA.

These were challenge for me. There were a bunch of dark fabrics and then a few whites that really popped--not to mention the one electric pink and electric blue that refused to blend. 

This is my progression. After I made changes I took a photo. It's really hard to know when you are "done" rearranging the squares. Some squares get swapped as I'm sewing the row so these photos may not be the final arrangement.

This set is from Connie G., Boise, ID.

This set had several duplicates. She sent 102 squares but there were 7 sets of duplicates. I worked with these by stringing them on the diagonal instead of trying to hide them. I think it makes the block interesting. The large bunch of black/white prints here are fun too.

These little beauties are from Nina T., Boras, SWEDEN.

Nina says Swedish quilters buy American quilt fabrics but there are many here I've never seen before. I started to arrange these with the ONE and only purple square in the center surrounded by white then colors. But my favorite square that she sent was the red with tiny grey mice so I made it the focal print and sent the purple square to the corner.

This little square was two sided!! I hadn't realized until I was flipping them over to sew. I chose to use the lighter side with the big flowers because you can still see the shadow of the print on the flip side.

I liked the Snoopy square with the pink background so I built this block from that starting point. 

These squares are from Mindy R. from Sherman, TX.

Rene T. from Waddell, AZ sent these stripes and plaids.

And last but not least is the block with squares from The Curious Quilter herself

Mary W. from St Paul, MN.

Mary actually sent 139 squares instead of 100!

 She sent several conversational prints. I like the gnome.

Mary's extra squares were incorporated into the back of her square.

This is the back with all the labels on each block.

Thanks to all the swappers for making this fun Charming Lap Quilt possible!

Double Sided Mug Rug gift

This 2 sided mug rug is a gift to Mary the Curious Quilter who hosts the Charm Swap. She does a lot of work to sort all the quilters who want to trade charm squares. I'm trading 800 charm squares with 8 quilters (100 each) and I sent 2 newbie gifts of 50 squares each to new quilters. Mary has a tutorial for making a mug rug on her site.

Find 5 faces in this mug rug. 

See the Grinch acting like a leaf?--"Leaf me alone!"

This side was fun!! Note the newsprint fabric at the bottom. Under the STOP sign is part of the weather map. I used the part of the map where Mary lives. :)

This mug rug was made from 1 1/2" squares of fabric set 7 x 10.

To make this mug rug I arranged all the squares on my cutting mat.

Then sewed all the vertical seams while chain piecing.

(Alternate the seams, pressed in then out.)

All the squares are hooked together. 

This is what Bonnie Hunter calls "webbing" the quilt.

Now I sew the horizontal rows.

I used a cardboard template to fussy cut some parts of the design.

Yes this makes my fabric look like swiss cheese!

This is the flip side before sewing.

Webbed.

Front and back ready to layer with batting and quilt it.

Easy and quick project--not to mention FUN.

This is what I did Saturday morning before company came....instead of cleaning house.:)

These are the 100 fabrics I cut up for the charm swap. Each of my 8 swap partners got a set of these.

I have my project in mind already for the charms I will be receiving. Stay tuned...

Scrap Happy Purse

This Scrap Happy Purse was designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg.

Her Crazy Mom Quilts blog is amazing. 

To begin this purse project I cut little pieces from all the fabrics I pulled out for

Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt that will begin late November.

Quilting straight lines 1/4" to 1/2" apart.

Side 1.

Side 2.

A fun fabric peeking out.

The handles were purchased at Joann Fabrics.

I also put 2 magnetic closures instead of just one.

This green lining fabric is leftover from the back of my Celtic Solstice quilt.

The remaining scraps went into this small project. 

It's just a court house steps block with flowers cut free form with pinking sheers.

These 2 projects are a test to see if the fabrics chosen for the mystery quilt will play nicely together.

I'd say the answer is yes!

2014 License Plate Quilt

2014 License Plate Quilt

35" x 58"

These are the 34 participating states plus one Canadian province in the

 2014 Row By Row Experience.

I collected one from each state either by:

1. going into the store

2. calling the store on the phone

3. buying at the online store

4. trading with out of state friends

5. having my sweet relatives get them for me

and

6. the "ROW X ROW GAL" plate was purchased on eBay

I personally went to shops in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario.

Suzzie's Quilt Shop was the first shop I visited on July 1st when the row by row began.

Most of the fabrics in the quilt were purchased this summer at various shops while I was collecting free row patterns and purchasing the license plates.

Thank you to all my friends and relatives that did some extra driving to visit some amazing quilt shops this summer and help me collect patterns and plates. I've been having so much fun sewing the rows together. Rumor has it that next summer all 50 states will be participating in the Row by Row!

The back of the quilt has a large version of the 

"Polkadot Garden" by the Cloth & Bobbin, Narberth, PA.

This quilt is an original design. The houses and trees are foundation pieced.

It can be made in different sizes really easily.

I'm thinking about writing the pattern and selling it on Etsy.... Stay tuned.