Naked bed challenge

IT'S FINISHED!!!
I am so glad to show you my finished quilt. This is the one I am submitting to "Naked bed challenge".

I have used a pattern by Kate Conklin Designs called There's a Square in There. I loved this pattern. It introduced me to a "stack and slash" method of cutting fabric which was a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll give it another try again soon.

Finished size of this quilt is 72" x 72", just right for our queen bed.

I have mostly used Denyse Schmidt's fabric from her Greenfield Hill collection. I've used a lot of white cotton. Normally I go with Kona cotton, but since I needed so much of it, I decided to try a more frugal approach. I bought a king size 100% cotton white flat sheet from Target, and used that for all my blocks and sashing, and another sheet for backing. I love how it turned out and I'm definitely going with this option for my future quilts.

Quilting is quite simple. I got some great ideas from your comments and after reading them and assessing my quilting skills (which are not great) I decided to quilt straight lines through sashing and then do one random square inside each block.  I am very happy with how it turned out and I it fits perfectly with all our bedroom decor.

If you have any questions about this quilt or pattern I have used, let me know. I love all your comments.

Have a wonderful weekend, Svetlana.

P.S.: Right now I'm working on some smaller projects which I hope to share with you soon.

Sew mama sew giveaway winner

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's Giveaway.

The giveaway is closed now I have randomly (pulling a number out of a hat) chosen two winners.

And the winners are:

Annabanana said...Both of your bags are beautiful...if i were you, I wouldn't be able to give them away ! Thanks so much for the chance to win one !

 and   Deborah in Atlanta said...

It would be an honor to win either one of these bags. Lovely fabric and pattern choices.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I will be sending both of you an email to get your addresses so the bags can be on their way.

Again, thanks for participating, have a wonderful weekend.

Svetlana

progress on "naked bed" challenge

I'm really glad that my quilt top is almost finished, the blocks are sewn together, and all that's left to do is just put about 4" border around all sides.

As you can see, I have no design wall, so I had to move furniture and arrange my blocks on the living room floor. Thankfully a computer game kept my 5 year old busy so it was a pretty smooth process.

All sewn together

Its future home

I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt this giant (it is the biggest quilt I have made so far). Maybe some straight line quilting? Any ideas or suggestions? Help pleeeease!!!

Have a wonderful day, Svetlana.

Giveaway Day is finally here!!!

Hello and welcome!!

I'm so glad that our Sew mama sew giveaway day is finally here. I have  two handbags  that will be given away.

Michael Miller handbag / purse

(Melly and Me pattern) Meadow tote

Both bags have  magnetic snap closures, and are made using modern designer fabrics.

All you need to do to be eligible to win one of the bags is leave a note in my comment section at the end of this post. The giveaway is open until May 25th. I will then randomly choose winners, one for each item offered, and post winning comments here on my blog.

Sorry, this offer is for US only, no international shipping is available.

Good luck, looking forward to hearing from you.

Svetlana

No more "naked" beds

So, I finally started working on the quilt for "Get dressed you hussy. Naked beds". The condition there is to make a quilt for my bed, no kid or baby quilts. It turns out that too many quilters make quilts for everyone else and their own beds are "naked".

The thing is that we do have a quilt on our bed right now, I just don't think it fits there.

This was the very first quilt I made, I whined and complained the whole time I was making it, and it really was not meant to be in our bedroom. Some of the fabric I used is too kiddish and colorful,  not really my husband's cup of tea. No, he didn't complain, I just know it's time for some change.

So, here is the fabric I decided to go with.

I know, I know, it seems a little dull (and totally not what I would normally choose), but I think that if I add tons of white, it can make a very nice, modern quilt that even a husband can use without feeling like he's using a girl's quilt. Most of the fabric is from Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hill collection.

I managed to finish 12 out of 25 blocks I need. Some of them are pictured here:

I like some better than others, so I might end up making more than 25 blocks to be able to substitute some.  Or, they might just end up in the far corner of the quilt.  We'll see. I think that I like it even more when I see all 12 of them together. What do you think?

I'd love to hear your ideas and comments on quilting with our men in mind. You can always drop me a note in comment section. I promise to read it and respond to any questions.

Svetlana

Giveaway Day is May 23rd, 2011

I'm so excited. I just found out about Giveaway Day which is sponsored by Sew Mama Sew. It happens on Monday, May 23rd. 

I'll be giving away some of my handmade creations (I can't reveal which ones, yet). I hope you'll stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win.

Have a wonderful and creative day, Svetlana.

My son's patchwork quilt

I have been obsessively working on a quilt for my son for the last couple of days. And when I say obsessively, I mean OBSESSIVELY, to the point of dreaming about it. Am I going quilt crazy?

Well, anyway, here's the picture of what the quilt top looked like after I pieced it all together. 

Sorry I don't have a better picture for you. I just tried putting it down on the floor and took a picture while standing on a chair (very professional, right?).

I had some many fabrics I wanted to use, so I decided to alternate different pattern squares with light blue solid ones. Since I cut my fabric into 5" squares it might have been a great idea to use charm packs and save some time on cutting. Maybe next time.

This is what the quilt looks like after being all finished.

I did simple straight line quilting and used leftover fabric for the binding.

And here it is, happily covering his bed and coordinating with a pillow I made for my son a while ago. I think they go together really well and I just love the embroidery (it's a picture my son made, he calls it a Pajama Guy).

Svetlana

Teacher appreciation gifts

We have just ended teacher appreciation week at my girls' school. And, as I've mentioned before, I decided to make mug rugs as presents. Here are two new mug rugs I haven't shared with you yet.

What can I say? I love sherbet pips fabric. 
I was also looking for some mugs. I was excited to find red and white mugs that featured blackboard speech bubble. How appropriate. The girls were really glad that they could write messages on mugs (white chalk came with mugs). And here's what the presents looked like, ready to be taken to school and given to their wonderful teachers.

I think they turned out pretty good. Any thoughts?
Have a wonderful weekend. Svetlana

Charming stars matching pillows

I'm pretty new to quilting and so I keep finding new blocks and quilts I'd like to make all the time.  I have decided to try out as many blocks and techniques as I can, but I did not want to end up with a closet full of unfinished blocks. And since I realized that most of the finished  blocks end up being  at approximately 12-14 inch square, all I needed to do is add a matching border and, voila,  I could turn them into  pillow covers.
And that's exactly what I've been working on lately.

Here's a picture of my newest blocks turned into pillow covers:

                                          
 
I used the same fabric for both pillows since I wanted them to match, and to be different at the same time.

I found this block  here . It was not that difficult to do and it came together quite quickly. The finished block measured 14 x14 inches.

 My second block was found here . Unlike the first block, this one took much longer and I had to be very careful and precise with all the points. (My seam ripper was never so busy before)
The tutorial was really great. It suggested not to use directional print, which I followed with MOST, but not all of my fabric. And look at what happened when I tried to put it all together

Ooops, I just had to redo those two blocks and then it looked like this:

The finished block measures 12.5 x12.5 inches.


I framed both blocks with matching white kona fabric to make them into 16 x16 inch squares. I used the same blue and green polka dot fabric from Denyse Schmidt's new collection for the back of both pillows, inserted zippers and finished both with the same red and white polka dot fabric.

Thanks for stopping by. Svetlana

Single girl pillow

Single girl quilt  by Denyse Schmidt was on my to do list for quite a while. I really, really liked the way it looked, but all those little templates and curved background seemed a little daunting to me. Then I came across this wonderful quilt in making  http://www.flickr.com/photos/55654695@N06/5529630792/in/faves-sotakhandmade/ and I knew it was time for me to give it a try. So, out came my kona solids and here's what I came up with.

There were two reasons I decided to go with a pillow. First, when I'm trying something new, I try not to commit to a huge project, and second, I don't really need another quilt.

I went with a  zipper closure and did a row of patchwork for the back. Nice and simple, and it helped bring a little color to the other side. 

I do like how this pillow turned out. It's much bigger then my usual pillows (finished size is 24 x24) which makes it a more interesting addition to our living room.  As for the pattern, I thought the instructions were very clear and easy to follow.  I already bought another Denyse Schmidt's pattern, hoping to start on it soon.

Until next time, keep making wonderful things.
I'd love to hear your comments, Svetlana

Ticker tape

One day, while browsing different quilting blogs, I came across this ticker tape quilt
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4131/5018217018_c70600b583.jpg  All I can say, it was love at first sight. I just loved how happy and really unique that quilt looked.
Of course, I had to try that technique, but since I knew better than to commit to make a whole big quilt, I've decided to try it out on a mug rug. Here's the picture:

I really liked how it turned out, and since I had already managed to collect quite a few scraps of fabric, I decided to go for a ticker tape quilt. So, with a lot of excitement and trepidation (I'm known to start and then not finish projects) I dove right in. This is what my first and second block looked like:

 
I enjoyed making these blocks a lot. Each one measures 17x21 inches and I've decided to join 6 of these blocks plus a nice thick border. Here's the picture of my quilt top:

I machine quilted around each block and then hand quilted around a few fabric scraps in each block. I used orange and yellow striped fabric for binding. The whole quilt measures 47x58 inches. Here' s the final picture

 

All in all, I have enjoyed making this quilt tremendously. I hope you like it as much as I do and give this technique a try. If you have any questions, let me know.

Svetlana

Plus patchwork pillow

I wanted to make a Plus pillow for quite a while. I saw a few pillows and quilts on Flickr and I thought it was a great way to add some nice, happy colors to my living room. I really like how it turned out and it fits with the rest of my decor perfectly.

I have to say that trying to take a few pictures of this pillow was almost more fun than making it.

 

As soon as I focused my camera on the pillow, Lola, our wonderful cat, jumped in,

and made herself nice and comfortable, and then ....

my daughter started snuggling her. I smile every time I look at this picture and even though I didn't end with the picture I set out to make I like the final result much more. Isn't it like that with many things in life?

Later I managed to make a few more good pictures.

 

Back of the pillow

Another detailed picture of the front, I used some of my absolute favorite Amy Butler, Moda, and Heather Bailey fabrics and quilted it with straight lines. What do you think? I'd love to hear your input.
Svetlana