the spools {take two}

I decided to start making a new quilt for our bed on Sunday. The thought came out of nowhere, really. I have a list of projects I want to work on and a new queen sized quilt is surely not on it. Oh, well. I just decided to go with the flow and here' s my plan.

Yes, I know, you've seen this quilt pattern before. The quilt I made for my son was based on it. You might remember I decided not to follow the pattern and used my own stack and slash method (tutorial here). I like the way that quilt turned out, but this time I decided to replicate the colors and pattern much more closely.

These are the blocks I have finished so far and I'm totally loving all these bright, beautiful, summery colors together . I'm not doing a stack and slash method this time as I'm using a lot more different fabrics. I work on each block separately, I cut and sew as I go until each block measures 16" x 16". I need 25 blocks for the quilt, so I have quite a long way to go.

I'm hoping to get some sewing done when the kids are in bed. Wish me luck.
Svetlana

Linking up to 

assembly line apple making

Last night I made fabric apples. Aren't they the cutest? I bought this pattern by Retro Mama a while back. After reading the directions and realizing that I had to first prep and hand stitch the stem and the leaf, the pattern was put aside. I just was not in the mood.

A few days ago I realized that these little cuties could make really nice presents for my children's teachers. School is out in a week, so it was time to dig in.

I hand stitched all the leaves and stems while waiting for my kids at their guitar lessons and last night I finally cut all the fabric out.

I made all 8 apples last night while watching TV. I think they look really adorable but I'm so glad I don't have to make any more of them. 8 at one time is all I can possibly handle.

How about you, what have you been up to lately?

simply stripes

You know how people always say the inspiration can be found everywhere, right? Well, I'd like to show you where the inspiration for my newest quilt came from.

My daughter's t-shirt!  As I was doing laundry I was so drawn to these pretty stripes of different widths that as soon as I was done putting all the clothes away I headed straight for my fabric stash.

At first I wanted to go with all solid fabrics and mimic the t-shirt quite literally.  I changed my mind, of course, and decided to use prints for the colored stripes instead. I wanted it to become a child's quilt so out came Walk in the Woods by Aneela Hoey, Woodland by Lecien, as well as some random polka dot and Kona white from my stash.

I cut the strips of different width and my quilt top was finished in no time. I did have a system with the stripes - each color/ pattern as well as the connecting white stripe was the same width (somewhere between 1" and 2.5").

I pieced the back using some more Walk in the Woods fabric as well as Kona white. I did straight line quilting along both sides of each white stripe and bound the quilt using hot pink and red polka dotty fabric. I love how pretty and bright this fabric is, such a wonderful counterpart to the crispness of Kona white.

And here it is, all nice and crinkly after being washed and dried. Aaaah!

Have a wonderful weekend, Svetlana.

 

wip wednesday {05. 23. 12}

My design wall seems to be going through an identity crisis as I'm trying to work on a few projects at once. It's all about HSTs, flying geese, and cupcakes these days.

 

Let's start with the cupcakes, shall we? This block sounds soooo yummy, and it looks pretty delicious, too. What do you think?

I found this block in the newest addition to my ever growing library of sewing and quilting books - Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts. These "cupcakes" are designed by Malka Dubravsky. It's not an easy block, lots of Y seams and fussing around, but I love the final result. I used some of my all time favorite fabrics - Hope Valley and Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt, as well as Essex Linen in black for the background. It took me quite by surprise to see how this black linen looks so brownish when paired with Denyse's fabrics.

This flying geese block is just one of the two I need to make for my Trust Circle of do. Good Stitches bee this month. I did not follow any specific pattern, I was just making it up as I went. I keep thinking it looks like some very upside down Christmas tree?!?!

My poor HSTs are very neglected these days, so no real progress to show for. I am hoping to get my HST mojo back this week, we'll see.

Oh, have you heard? Let's get acquainted blog hop started yesterday. I'm so excited, it's all about getting to know some of the newer quilty bloggers and they'll each share a project, too. How fun!

Wishing you all a gorgeous and creative day, Svetlana.

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday.

sew, mama, sew! may giveaway day

Happy Monday, everyone! Welcome to my sew, mama, sew! giveaway.

I'm really glad you came by.

I enjoy sewing and quilting so I decided to give away 8 fat quarters of some of my very favorite designer fabrics.

There are 6 fat quarters by Denyse Schmidt from her highly desirable collection Flea Market Fancy (the seeds in green and gray are my all time favorite blenders), as well as two other coordinating striped fabrics.

The winner will also get an adorable needle book. This needle book is made by me using the guitar fabric by Heather Ross from her Far far Away collection.

This giveaway is open worldwide (domestic as well as international entries welcome) and will be open until May 25th at 5 p.m. PST. I will then announce who the random winner is by Sunday, May 27th.

Here's how to enter:
* leave a comment on this post
* to get a second bonus entry let me know that you are my follower, or become one and then let me know

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful rest of the day, Svetlana.

*************************************************************

UPDATE**** and the winner is 

 

DebMay 25, 2012 04:19 AM

Been a follower for ages.

Congratulations, Deb. I'm sending you an eamil.

strings of color {finished}

All finished, done, no more strings of fabric all over our family room! Yay!!!

I started this quilt thinking it would make a nice picnic blanket. I loved that I could use up some of my scraps and I decided to use dark colored strings for the middle of my blocks simply because I thought dark color would hide picnic stains better. Just being practical here!

As soon as I had some of the blocks on my design wall, my middle daughter "suggested" that we really did not need another picnic blanket and maybe this quilt could be hers? So, it became hers, of course.

There was absolutely no hesitation when it came to choosing fabric for the backing. We bought this adorable kawaii sheet quite a while back and I promised to use it as a backing for her next quilt.

I did some straight line quilting, and bound the quilt using pink washi fabric which I think adds a perfect finishing touch.

I'm submitting this quilt to Bloggers' Quilt Festival which starts tomorrow, May 18th over at Amy's Creative Side.  The Festival is open to everyone and will run for two weeks, so hurry and get your quilt in, too. I can't wait to see all the wonderful talent and inspiration that will be showcased.

scrappy coasters {tutorial}

Last night I played with my scraps and made these fun QAYG coasters. You know how much I love bright, happy colors, so this project was pure heaven.

Each coaster measures 5.5" x 5.5". Would you like to make some of your own? Here's a tutorial.

What you'll need to make one coaster:
fabric scraps - any size, any color
batting - at least 7" x 7"
thermal fusible fleece - I got mine from JoAnn's
fabric for the backing - at least 6"x 6"

Let's start, shall we? First, let's make the main top part of the coaster. I decided to do QAYG (quilt as you go) style patchwork using my scraps, trimming them to the size I needed.

Take your 7" x 7" batting piece, place a scrap of fabric on it, quilt it using straight lines. Your first scrap of fabric is attached to the batting base now.

Now add another scrap to the already attached fabric (right sides together), sew using a 1/4" seam, flip over, press, and quilt using straight line stitching.

Keep adding and quilting more scraps of fabric until your whole 7" x 7" base square is covered.

This is what my square looked like.

Now trim your patchwork square to measure 6" x 6", cut the 6" x 6" backing fabric (I used some leftover Echino I had on hand, but any regular quilting fabric will do), and 5.5" x 5.5" fusible thermal fleece. The fleece is cut 0.5" smaller than the front and back of the coaster to ensure less bulk in the seams.
Note: if you don't have thermal fleece, you can just use regular fusible fleece, or even another layer of  regular batting will do.

Place fusible fleece on the wrong side of your coaster back. Center in place, iron to attach to the fabric following manufacturer's directions.

Now place top and bottom parts of the coaster on top of each other, right sides together. Pin in place.

Sew all around the coaster using a 1/4" seam, make sure to leave about 3" opening on one side for turning the coaster. Trim the corners.

Turn right side out, use pencil to make sure that your corners are nice and pointy, pin the opening closed and top-stitch 1/8"around the whole coaster. This top-stitching will sew the opening closed as well as give the coaster a nice finishing touch.

Ta-da!!!! Your coaster is now finished!!

Any questions? Let me know.

Wishing you all a nice and creative day, Svetlana.

baby sparkle punch

I wanted to make a quilt for a friend of mine who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. And, since I love the look of wonky stars but never really made a quilt using just this one block, I decided to give Sparkle Punch a try.

Did you know that Sparkle Punch really starts out with the same layout as a Plus Quilt would? How cool is that?

I decided to use pink, green, light blue, and gray print fabric for the stars and Kona white for the background.

 

I loved that there was no precise measuring required, it's the wonkiness that makes these stars so charming, after all. However, making this quilt top was more time consuming than I expected - it's all that pressing and trimming after each seam.

But, time consuming or not, I like how it turned out. I think it would make a very nice baby boy quilt, too.  Just in different colors, of course.

 

I pieced the back using some coordinating fabric from my stash. I did some simple straight line quilting and finished this beauty off using pink and blue fabric for the binding.

Finished size of this quilt is 40" x 40". If you are interested in making your own Sparkle Punch quilt, you can find fantastic instructions by Elizabeth Hartman here.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day. Svetlana