My diaper bag!

Well it's getting time to start making some baby stuff! April is going to be here before you know it, and I'll have a new little one to snuggle. I can't wait!!!

As soon as I had this Terrain fabric in my hands, I knew that I had to make my diaper bag from it! If it looks familiar, it's cause it's made like my FQ bag, which I just love! lol

The white swoop there is a big pocket, one on each side. Big enough for a changing pad. And as you can see, I forgot the bottle holders on the ends!! grrr....but as I will be nursing, I wont need bottles for awhile yet.

See the zip? That's my purse! So I don't have to carry one around also. I don't need a lot in my purse, my wallet, keys, sunglasses. I don't own a cell phone, but there are pockets on the inside of the big bag...see the orange in the photo below? those are pockets, lining both sides.

(Sorry for the fuzzy photo) The pockets are big and small, enough for cell phone and baby paraphanalia. LOL

I also made a few burp cloths yesterday.

 

Simple, easy and quick!  Made from some darling flannel! And the backing is some stretchy, soft, knit looking stuff (teehehe...very technical there huh ), the one on the right below.

So, it's a start! I am still hoping to make some diapers before baby gets here. I have at least 3 quilts to choose from, and my good friends on the Q&N are making me a special one :) Clothes I'll leave to those who know what they are doing. LOL.

I love homemade baby things!!

I'm linking up with Jenna and QuiltStory!

Have a great day all.

A couple of finishes...

Yah! My two little quilts are done! I've worked on both these earlier last year. So it's nice to have a few UFO's now finishes.

My butterfly quilt. I made this for a Q&N challenge we did.

Measures around 36"x 29". Perfect for a newborn.

 

 I think it would be perfect on the wall above a little girls crib. Here's an upclose of the quilting and the cute polk a dot binding.

 And the backing. Just used this all over butterfly, with a bright spot for a label.

And here's my Sunshine walk in Central Park. I posted about this quilt when I did my DP16 patch tutorial on Sew We Quilt.

It measures at about 40" x 40".

I quilted it using diagonal lines on either side of the seams. Going thru the blank squares.

 

I love how it turned out!! Here's the back. I used the same butterfly fabric. With a color spot for my label.

Whew, 2 down....a billion to go ;)

Have a great day all.

a New Year Goal

Hello all,
I don't make resolutions. But this year I've decided I REALLY need to make a goal to get some of this quilted!

Look at this stack! It's only about HALF of what I have, that needs to be quilted. How did it get this bad??

Four years ago I joined the Quilt and needle forum. It had just started up, and I followed them from another site that we had all been on together. Jess is the owner of the Q&N. Before I started hanging out with these Gals, I would sew some things here and there. Hand quilt a quilt, and give it to one of my kids, or put it on the bed, or whatever it was for.

After the Q&N started up, I started testing patterns for Jess and her Mom, Connie. Jess and Connie taught me A LOT about quilting. I had been a self learner, getting books from the library and eventually reading things online. But testing for these two gals, showed me different ways and methods of doing things. And I got totally hooked on quilting. Much more so than in the previous 14yrs!!

For the past 4 yrs, I've tested all the mystery quilts Jess has made (that's 4 or 5 a year). I started setting the quilt tops aside, as my hands were starting to hurt me and I didn't know why. Just holding a needle and sewing was very painful though. Then I found out I have fibromyalgia.  I've taken meds for it, but the  numbness in my fingers persisted. The Dr said it's probably my ulna nerve, and I have to have a quick, easy op in order to fix it.

Well, that op hasn't happened yet....And a year or so ago, I started making my own quilt patterns, and piecing my own tops, runners, baby quilts, etc. So that also added to the pile of tops I was making testing patterns....it's easy to see how quickly my pile grew.

So, this is the year of quilting for me! A goal that I need to start doing. I am now teaching myself to machine quilt. And having a lot of fun!!! I know I need to get a walking foot, but I sew on an old treadle, and am not sure if I can find one that fits. I have to start researching. I don't think I will do much FM quilting, unless I get bored with the straight line quilting I am doing now. We shall see.

But I have started on that pile!

I am almost finished with my third baby quilt! Next I want to do a few of my wall hangings. Then maybe I'll be ready to move on to a bigger top. Here's what I've been sewing on lately.

This is my butterfly quilt, I made as a challenge on the Q&N forum. I think it would look soooo cute above a baby girl's crib, hanging on the wall.

And here is my Sunkissed Walk thru Central Park quilt!

 

It just needs a binding and it's all done. I love it!

Looking at these pictures, you can see why I need a walking foot. I know it will help with the bit of puckering here and there.

Wish me luck. lol. It will be nice to see some more of my quilts on the walls and beds by the end of the year.

Toodle-o for now.

 

Fabric in this week

Howdy Folks, hope you're having a great weekend. If you are not, and are sitting around bored, there is still time to buy Jess's new mystery pattern!!

The gals on the Q&N forum are having fun doing up the mystery and talking about it on the forum. We share pictures, tips, advice and lots of OOHHS and AAHHHS. We would love for you to join us. You can buy the pattern here.

With money I got at Christmas for fabric, I bought 5 yrds of Terrain, by Kate Spain. I LOVE her fabrics! They are so rich and vibrant. These are the ones I bought.

I used part of them to do the mystery quilt (I was a tester). And I have 2 yrs left over for whatever. I see a DIAPER BAG in my future ;) LOL, so I think that is what these fabrics will become.

I also won on Sew Momma Sew's blog hop/giveaway's that she does twice a year. I won from Crafts Buds blog. A great couple of gals, they always have something interesting to look at. Lindsay was so sweet. I was one of 4 winners, and she asked me if Heather Ross was a favorite of mine or not. When I admitted that I liked some Heather Ross fabric, I wasn't too thrilled with the FQ's she had for one of the winners. So she happily looked around my little blog and found some FQ's in her own stash, she thought I'd like, and sent them to me instead.

How cool is that?! Here is the lovely FQ's she sent me.

The two on the right have already gone on my butterfly quilt....I haven't taken a picture yet. But it is now ready for quilting.

I want to thank you all for being friendly followers. I love reading your comments and knowing that I am helping some of you out with my tutorials.

Here's hoping the New Year is better than ever!

Another home made Christmas post

Hello everyone, Bumping around blog land this week, I've been seeing a lot of 'hand made Christmas'  posts. I love seeing all the goodies people make their loved ones.

So here is my hand made post :)

My oldest son loves drafting and engineering drawing type stuff...layouts for his trains, trains, buildings, etc. So I made him an art bag to hold his drafting supplies.

It has space for paper, pencils, rulers, calculator, erasers...and zips up to keep it all together.

I made some pretty pillows for dd's tree fort.

Sigh~ I know, my pillow forms aren't as big as the cases...I'm terrible at math. lol

And for my youngest son, he wanted a cape.

It's  reversable. And can easily slip on and off over his head.

 

He loves it! 

I'm not the only one in the house to make hand made things though. My dd and youngest made us all some cute cards. And my oldest made things out of wood for us. I have a picture of just two of those things though.

This is a pinball machine he made for his sister.

He plans on putting some electronics in it, so that it keep score.

And here's a nice little box he made for me. I keep it on my sewing table.

He's doing so good with his woodworking!

I love getting hand made gifts, how about you?

Have a great day all.

 

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

No matter how you celebrate the birth of Christ.

I hope the rest the year is filled with peace, love and happiness.

Thank you for being friends, and visiting my blog from time to time. 

I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

The Wedding Ring tutorial

.Hello everyone, hope you had a fabulous weekend. I finished my sewing gifts for the kids, yah! Will post pictures of them soon. But for today, I thought I'd walk you thru a wedding ring block, to show it is't not so scary as you might think. There are a lot of little pieces that have to be cut out using templates, but if you go slow and steady, they come together fairly well.

 I got all my templates from the Benni Harper's book "Quilt Album". She makes a beautiful Wedding ring quilt, with lone stars on it. Here is the quilt I made from this book (this picture doesn't have the border on it).

Here are the pieces you will need for one block.

A block : 16 'A' pieces (you can use as many different colors as you like)
B block : 8 'B' pieces, 8 reversed 'B' pieces
C block: 8 'C' pieces
D block: 4 'D' pieces
E block: 1 'E' piece

First you lay out your A pieces, in the color scheme you want. Or you can do totally scrappy ones. You will need 4 A pieces sewn together for unit A. You will need 8 A units for one block.

The pieces are slightly curved on top and bottom, and are a tiny bit larger on the bottom then the top. Easy to piece together.

Next you add one B piece and one B reversed piece to either side of your A units. Making sure you put the straight side of B, to the unit A.

Easy so far, yes? :)

Now you need to add a C piece to both sides of four of the A/B units. Piece B and rB are convex curved, whereas piece C is concave curved (I think I have those right. lol).

Lay four of your pieces so that the C piece has the curved pieces in the right place. You see the pointy tip of piece C is pointing out.

Find the middle of the curve of piece C. I like to fold my piece in half, and give it a pinch. That way I have a crease that goes away easily and no marks. And the middle of piece B. After folding, open them both up and match the middle marks up. Pin it. Gently pull the edges of piece C to fit the edges of piece B. Since they are curved, they are a little stretchy. And pin! Pins are important in this block.

Sew all the C pieces to the B pieces. So you have 4 units like this.

The next step is to sew one of the A/B units (the four that doesn't have piece C sewn to it) to either side of piece D.

Again, fold piece D in half lengthwise and pinch the side so that you have your halfway mark. The halfway point of the unit is the middle seam. Pin the middle points together.

Gently pin the edges together, working your way from the middle to either end. Pins are the key to this block! Your A/B unit piece will be a little bunchy, after it's all pinned, but that's ok.

 

Sew, using a 1/4" seam. Press the seam towards block D.

Now find the middle of the other side of the D piece, and pin it to the middle of your A/B/C unit.

And again, gently pull the ends around and line up the edges. Pinning all the way. Maybe every half inch.

 

Sew 1/4" seam. and Press towards block D.

Now you have 8 units that look like this.

You will be sewing them to piece E, like this.

Find the middle of one side of E, folding and pinching. Pin your unit to it, first the middle.

Then along the edges towards the end. Your pinning will end at the seam line between pieces B and C.

It's ok that piece E is bunched, just gently pull the pieces when you are sewing, so the bunches aren't in the seam.

Start with your needle right in that seam between pieces B and C. Go forward a few stitches then take a back stitch. Sew just until the next B/C seam! Take a back stitch and stop.

Add another unit to the next side. Making sure you stop at the seam line.

So that your unit looks like this when done with the second side.

Fold the unit, matching those two C pieces. And pin it. Then sew 1/4". As this curved angle (the two C pieces) are slightly different than the rest of the unit, I find it easier to sew these pieces on in two stages.

Add remaining sides in the same way. And TA-DA, a wedding ring block.

My tips:

Use pins, lots of them. It really helps to keep your curved pieces in place. Taking the pins out as you come to them.

And sewing the units to piece E in two stages..sewing the C pieces seperately from the rest the unit really helps get that angle right.

Making a whole quilt with these blocks, you'll make a bunch of these rings, then you sew them together using more E pieces and half E pieces. Just remember to find the middle and pin, then pin out to both sides.

I hope my little tutorial is helpful to any of you who are afraid to try it due to the curves! Let me know if you don't understand something. I love to help.

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Linking up with QuiltStory and SewHappyGeek, Thanks Ladies!

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Copyright D. Lucas, 2011 This is my tutorial. You are welcome to use any of my tutorials for personal use. You are not permitted to use my pictures or my words without linking back to the original and giving me credit for them.