All things new in 2012

There is a lot of newness happening in 2012!!!  First off is my Christmas present from my wonderful boyfriend.  I have been sewing with a Brother that I purchased from Wal-Mart about four years ago.  Look what is coming in the mail soon....

It's a Janome HD1000.  I am so excited about this machine.  I know it's not a high end sewing/quilting machine, but it most definitely will be better than what I was using.  From what I can tell, it has received great reviews.  It should arrive sometime this week!

To go along with my new sewing machine is a new quilting bee.  Melissa at Happy Quilting has started a quilting bee for 2012 and I am lucky enough to be able to participate.  I am excited, nervous, scared, etc...  This will be my first quilting bee.  I can't wait to get started.  My goals for this year long project are to have fun, meet new people, and learn a lot.  I will keep you update on each block.

Hopefully I will be able to post some sewing pictures at the end of the week!  Now I am off to go fabric shopping for the quilting bee.  My stash definitely needs some building!!!

Lindsay

Giveaway at Lavender Quilts!!!

I found a giveaway that has a little something for everyone.  You will not believe what all she is giving away!  Go check it out at Lavender Quilts http://thequiltinggarden.blogspot.com/2011/12/been-looking-for-excuse-for-give-way.html

Missing in Action

I haven't posted in forever!  It's not because I haven't been sewing.  I guess I just got lazy.  I have been enjoying the evening looking at all of the giveaways during the sew mama sew giveaway day.  It has given me just enough of a push to get back in the swing of things.  I am hoping to finish some pajama bottoms for my nieces for Christmas.  I will post some pics when I finish!  I am also working on a scrappy pink baby quilt.  Hope to finish that one by the end of the year!  I may be in over my head :)

Thanks for looking at the blog!

Lindsay

Happy Birthday Little Monkey

I did it!  I finished Joshua's birthday quilt!  I can't believe he turned six years old today.  I am too tired to ramble on, so I will just give you some photos to look at.

this is a pic of me wrestling with this quilt while quilting! 

Here it is! 

 Just another angel.

 Joshua opening the sock monkey that I got him to go with his quilt (he hasn't seen his room at this point)

This is Joshua's first look at his new room.

 This is the minky pillowcase that I made to go with his quilt.

 Close up of the ribbon detail on the pillowcase.  It is the same yellow dot fabric that I used for the binding on the quilt.

 Joshua all nice and clean and under his new quilt.  He loves the new addition to his monkey family!

 Can't you tell?

 Tucked in 

 Look how tired my little man is!!!  He had a great day at school and at home.  :)

I sneaked back into his room and got a pic of his fast asleep.  I love my six year old.

Thanks for looking

Lindsay 

Love me some monkeys

I have been off of work for the past two weeks and man, have I been busy!  I was able to get quite a bit of sewing done.  My co-worker had her first grandson a couple of months ago and I really wanted to make a quilt for him (her)!!!  I finally finished and I can't wait to give it to her tomorrow.

My first zig zag quilt.  I love it.  I found working with the half square triangles fairly easy.

A close up of the monkey.  I printed a picture of a sock monkey and traced it on to my fusible web.  I used the textured brown sock fabric for his body.  I used white for all of the other features.  I think that it turned out so nice.

Here is a close up of his name.  I did a raw edge appliqué and shadowed the name in my quilting.

I love how the zig zags show on the back, even with the Minky.  I did have one pucker on the back, but it wasn't bad enough to seam rip it and start over.

And here is a shot of the binding all rolled up nice and neat.  This fabric is part of a dinosaur line that they sell at Hobby Lobby.  It is not part of the Funky Monkey line, but I thought that it worked well with all the colors of the quilt.

Thanks for looking.  Now I have to get back to finishing my lil' man's quilt before his birthday.

Lindasy

Chuggin' Along....

...haven't posted in a while, but man have I been busy.  I have a lot to share today.  First off, I will give you an update on little man's quilt.  It is coming together beautifully.  

I finally got around to piecing the back of the quilt.  I took this picture before it was sewn together.  I used five Kona solids and the Funky Monkey friends.  I love, love, love those Monkeys!!!  I basted the quilt (with spray like I always do) and started doing some straight line quilting.  I hated it.  It was a total fail.  I did not have a walking foot for my machine and was having a hard time getting the quilt to move under the pressure foot.  I went to my local fabric shop to see if I could pick up a walking foot and they were out.  Frustration and disappointment set in, so I decided to do something that I have never done before... Hand quilting!  I love how it looks.  All of the stitches are not even, but I still think that it looks so cute.  There is only one problem...

I got a walking foot today!!!  I have already tested it out and it works amazingly well.  I did a happy dance for all to see because I was so excited.  So the dilemma is whether or not I should machine quilt little man's quilt.  I would be a lot faster and would probably look a little better.  I'm going to sleep on that.  

I will leave you with a few more pics of what I have been working on lately.  

This quilt is for my co-worker's new grandson.  I used some of the scraps from the Funky Monkey quilt.

Here is the sock monkey appliqué I put next to his name.  I am in love with this little Monkey : )

Here is the fabric for my next project.  I was commissioned to make a baby quilt for a friend.  I will finish this one next week!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  I will try to not neglect the blog and give updates more often.

Lindsay

a start and a finish

First of all, I need to let you know that there is a giveaway going on at Our Busy Little Bunch

Isn't that the cutest fabric!?!?!?

Now...  I have finished lil' monkey's quilt top.  I am waiting on the backing fabric to come in to see if I will be able to roll it up and put it through my machine. (fingers crossed)!!!  The top is 66" x 77".  He has a full size captain's bed, so the quilt did not have to be long at all.  I just need it to tuck down on the sides about 3 or 4 inches.  I am very pleased with how it has turned out so far.


Here is the backing fabric that I am going to use.  I am probably going to piece the back with some solid red and maybe some of the other bright colors found in this fabric.

I am ready to start my next two projects as well.  Unfortunately, one of the baby quilts will you use the monkey left overs, so you will be seeing some more of those cute faces.  The other baby quilt in the works is for my brother in laws family.  I will be using Riley Blake's Sugar n Spice in the pink and green.  You can find the tutorial here  and some examples of the quilt below.

This is actually the first quilt that I made!!!

I made the same quilt for a coworker of mine.  Isn't Maci sweet!!!

I will show progress of all the quilt projects in the near future.  Wish me luck!!!

Lindsay

Giveaway at Happy Quilting

Melissa at Happy Quilting is giving away a fat quarter bundle of Kate Spain's Flurry!!!  I love the idea of starting on a Christmas quilt!  Go check out the giveaway here.

Progress!!!

I have made some progress.  It is slow going because I can only work on this quilt after lil' monkey is in bed.  I have 30 blocks completely put together.  All I have to do is square them to 11.5 inches.  

This quilt is already making my life a little difficult.  I originally bought a pattern that was going to require 99 blocks to make the top, so I thought that I would use a little math and adjust the pattern to better suit my needs.  I worked the numbers so that the quilt would use (30) 12 inch finished blocks.  Well, lets just say that my math must be a little rusty because my blocks, when squared, are 11.5 inches and will finish at 11 inches square.  No biggie though.  I am still in love with this quilt.  I am going to need to make 12 more blocks to finish.  Here are a few photos of the progress (excuse the photo quality, as it is night time at my house) :)

Here are the cut pieces laid out on my bed.  I am a little OCD and needed to make sure that all the prints were distributed evenly before sewing together!

(excuse the messy side table crap.  It's clean now.  Geeze, the things you see in pictures after you've already taken them!!!)

Here is where I stand tonight.  I have 10 blocks squared up with 20 more to go.  Then, when the rest of my fabric comes in, I will finish the last 12 blocks.

This is one of my favorite blocks so far!!! 

Hopefully I will have more progress to share in the next day or two.  Thanks for listening to me ramble :)

Lindsay

Here goes nothing!!!!

I am excited to be starting a blog! (and scared, nervous, and terrified) ;)  I am fairly new to quilting but I have fallen in love with it.  I made my first quilt about two years ago.  It was a rag quilt that I made for my little sister.  I wanted to quilt but was intimidated by the idea of quilting and binding, so I opted for simplicity of the rag quilt.  I have grown so much since then, and I am pleased to say that I am not afraid to quilt and bind anymore!  Since I am starting this blog to share, I thought I might start by showing you all my current project.  It's a secret, so if you know my little one, don't tell him!!!  My lil' monkey was watching me "window shop" fabric on the internet one night and he saw this fabric.  He said, "I want a monkey blanket"!!!  I got a huge smile because I love this fabric.  His birthday is in September, so I decided the perfect gift would be a quilt from mom.  

 Moda's 5 Funky Monkeys fat quarter bundle from the FatQuarter shop.

I had to start cutting them last night.  I just couldn't wait any longer!!!

This is the pattern that I am using.  You can find it here at Cluck Cluck Sew.  I purchased the PDF format.  I am going to have to alter the pattern a little.  Once I printed the pattern, I realized that it was going to take 99 blocks to make the top of monkey's quilt, not counting the borders.  I altered the sizing so that the top has 30 blocks before adding the borders.

I will keep you posted on my progress.  I am thinking (hoping) that this quilt goes together quickly.  Wish me luck.

Lindsay