birdies

I was into making little bird ornaments in the last few days. 

 

Major birdie making, as you can see. It was a perfect way to use up some of those very last precious scraps :)

I actually made 43 birdies all together. So yeah, I'm about as "birdied out" as one can be.

But, they are fun to make and I would highly recommend giving these cuties a try (tutorial here).

Hope you have a very lovely rest of the day. Svetlana

blogger's quilt festival

Hello, happy Monday to you all!

Have you seen all the amazing quilts already submitted to Amy's Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival?

I decided to join in and submit my daughter's Pinkie Pie quilt.

I questioned my sanity many, many times as I worked on this quilt. All those 4410 1" finished squares made for a very tedious, quite boring piecing process.

Once finished, however, I was really happy I persevered and finished the quilt as my daughter loves it and enjoys having it on her bed. And that's what it's all about, at least for me. I love making quilts for the ones I love, no matter how crazy they may be (the quilts, not the people) :)

I'm submitting this quilt to bed quilts category.

Have you joined  Blogger's quilt festival? There's still time to do so if you did not already. We would all love to see your wonderful creations. Svetlana

nellie

Meet Nellie, my friends.

Isn't she the sweetest? Nellie the Skellie arrived at our house a few days ago all the way from Canada (you can order yours here).

This was her last night, before all the cutting, and sewing, and stuffing happened. I'm not sure whether to make the pumpkin dress or not. Truth is, as much as I like the finished Nellie, I did not particularly enjoy making her. It seems toy making is not in my genes. Also, we still can't agree on whether she is a boy or a girl??? Considering we named her Nellie, it's pretty safe to say she'll stay being a girl :)

Nellie has a big job ahead of her. You see, thanks to my lack of enthusiasm for all things Halloween, she and these two pumpkins are our only Halloween decorations. We'll have plenty of candy, though. Which is definitely a step up from one Halloween night a few years back, when my children were little and I was sleep deprived all the time, and I forgot to buy candy and had to give granola bars to our trick-or-treaters.

Do you have any fun Halloween story? I'd love to hear it. Svetlana

Linking up to AmandaJean's Finish it up Friday.

in the works...

I'm planning on being a busy bee these next few days. I even have a plan, and a list. Well, I make lists all the time, to tell the truth, but I never stick to them :( 

This time, however, there are only three things on my list and I'm beyond excited about each of them.

My number one priority arrived in the mail yesterday. Seriously, how cute is this skeleton??? Must, must, must work on it tonight.

I also had the sudden need to turn leftover blocks from my Pink Bricks quilt (which I made way back in April) into a baby quilt. I don't know what the rush in my head is since these blocks were happily sitting around for months, but when the idea strikes, one must listen, right?

And then there's Rachel's new Penny Patch quilt along. OK, so the quilt along is for the beginners, but I really love her quilt and can't wait to make my own. 

 

I started pulling some fabric from my stash, these two quilts being my main color inspiration, but I still need to tweak this pile and definitely add a lot more low volume fabrics. I'm hoping to achieve a nice vintage look, any suggestions?

Wishing you all a very lovely rest of the day. Svetlana

pinwheels pillow {plus a tutorial}

Look, I made yet another pillow. I'm seriously turning into a crazy pillow lady :)

I used a heavier, home dec weight fabric for the backing (tutorial on how to install a zipper here).

I then bound this pillow cover the same way I would a quilt. Oh, I don't think I can ever get enough of scrappy projects and striped binding.

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Now, I thought it might be fun to write up a quick tutorial on how to make this pinwheel pillow cover in case someone would like to give it a try. Here it goes:

You will need nine 5" squares of light colored fabric and nine 5" squares of brighter, more saturated fabric. 

Take one light and one darker colored fabric square, place them right sides together, and sew all the way around using 1/4" seam allowance.

Press, then cut diagonally in both directions as shown in the picture.

Press the seams towards the darker fabric, arrange in the shape of a pinwheel, and stitch together.

 
Trim your pinwheel to a 5.5" square. Make 8 more 5.5" pinwheels using the same method.

Arrange your pinwheels in a pleasing manner. Cut six 1.5" x 5.5" rectangles from the sashing fabric to join three pinwheels in each row. Then join rows using two 1.5" x 17.5" strips of sashing.

Attach fusible fleece to the wrong side of your pillow top and quilt as desired.

Make your preferred quilt backing (I usually install zipper closure - tutorial here). Cut fabric for your binding to measure 2.25" x 80", use the same method of attaching the binding as you would on a quilt.

Give your pillow top a good press and stuff using an 18" pillow form.

Fun, wasn't it? And pretty quick, too.

Hope you enjoyed this quick tutorial. Please let me know if you have any questions. Svetlana

16 patch {a finished quilt}

Hello, happy Sunday to you all!

My quilting mojo seems to have left me for now. Every time I sit down to sew I want to work on smaller, quicker projects and quilts simply don't do it for me these days :(

I did, however, manage to push through and finish this 16 patch quilt. The combination of aqua, navy, gray, and white, with a touch of black might be my hands down all time favorite color combo.

I used Erica's method to make these quick 16 patch blocks and sashed them with Kona Ash. Oh, I can't even tell you how much I love the old time charm of these blocks.

I decided to go with some simple straight line quilting since I wanted the quilt to be nicely soft and squishy once washed and dried.

What have you been up to? Any fun projects in the making?

epp coffins ...

Yesterday was one of those absolutely glorious, sunny, 60-something degrees beautiful autumn days, so we decided to take an 1.5 hour trip to the apple orchard/ pumpkin patch/ corn maze place.

Now car trips, however short they may be, mean some hand sewing for me. I usually epp scrappy hexagons, but yesterday I worked with these "coffin" paper shapes instead.

I had no idea what to use them for at first. After a while of playing around with the layout, however, I came up with this lovely flower idea. 

I think these creepy little coffins make for perfectly sweet flower petals, don't you?

finding our way through the corn maze

Hope your weekend was lovely, too. Svetlana

paper piecing

I never thought I'd say that but I've been doing quite a lot of foundation paper piecing over the last few weeks and actually loving it!!! You see, I tried paper piecing about two years ago and I found it incredibly frustrating and tedious, totally not worth my time so I dropped it and never planned on getting back to it again.

And then, a few weeks back, I was invited to join a paper piecing group on Flickr. There are six of us in the group and we're all making two blocks for each person. So, once everyone settled on their theme, I slowly started working on some of the blocks.

I used sew-ichigo pattern to make this enamel coffee pot. It was not that complicated and I just love how amazingly perfect this Nordika print is.

Feeling all happy and courageous from my enamel coffee pot lovely result, I then decided to tackle a more complicated pattern - Sonia (Artisania)'s little hedgehog. Isn't he the sweetest?

And then I gave this hexie bee (free pattern by Amy - badskirt) a try. Her wings ended up a little lopsided, but I'm planning on making another one soon and hopefully that one will be less wonky :)

I also made this little paper pieced house (based on Kerry's tutorial), which I promptly turned into a little mug rug of sorts.

And then there's this yummy looking strawberry block by sew-ichigo. Can you tell I'm a huge fan of Kerry and Penny's work? They are the best!!!

Well, I'm off to work on another paper pieced block. This time I even made my own pattern. I'll let you know soon how it all went.

Happy weekend to you all! Thanks for reading. Svetlana

tote bag

Yesterday I was on a mission to make myself a new tote bag. Nothing too fancy, just a simple and practical tote bag inspired by some of the vintage looking bags I found on Pinterest. 

Oh, I can't even begin to tell you how much I adore this combination of gray/ white gingham linen with this wonderfully vintage looking fabric by Denyse Schmidt. Totally not my usual "me".  Maybe that's why I like it so much???

The thing I like the most about this tote bag is the addition of lace as well as the handmade tag. Love, love, love how much character and uniqueness little details like that can add to such a simple project.

Don't you just love when things work out exactly the way you pictured in your head? I'm sure I'll be making more of these totes soon. I think they'd make great teacher presents this Christmas :)

Thanks so much for reading. Hope you all have a very lovely rest of the day. Svetlana

strawberry love

The resistance was futile! Seeing all the wonderful strawberry pincushions popping up on Flickr and IG over the last few days made it impossible for me not to give these little beauties a try.

And try I did. I made nine!!! strawberry pincushions over the weekend. Nine!!! I simply could not stop.

Larger strawberries are based on this tutorial. I didn't follow the instructions for the leaves, though. I just cut out my own shapes out of wool felt and stitched them to the strawberries. It took a few tries, but I'm happy with the way they turned out.

I used this tutorial to make my smaller strawberries. Aren't they the sweetest? I decided to stitch little polka dotty bows (got them at Joann's) next to their ribbon stems.

I'm thinking I have enough strawberry pincushions for now ?!?!?!

How was your weekend? Hope you had fun. Svetlana

randomness...

After what feels like an eternity of not working on any quilt whatsoever (it's only been two weeks, to be precise, but you know what I mean :)), I finally started a new quilt last night.

I pulled these lovely blues, whites, and grays in record time and decided to go with a classic 16 patch block - I just love the simplicity and old time charm of these blocks.

I'm using Erica's tutorial , her strip piecing technique is so quick with very little waste. I finished 10 blocks last night, I need just 14 more before I decide on the sashing, yay!

Can't wait to see them all on my design wall. But, before I do that, I have to do something about all those small wips, plus some homeless finished projects, on my wall. 

Can you tell I've been into paper piecing lately? And pink, I love pink so very much these days :)

And seeing Lola enjoying all the quilty goodness.