getting more sewing done...

and i am getting way braver...i actually tried to piece a quilt block.

or a whole bunch of quilt blocks....

16 of them to be precise.  

if you are an actual quilter and you are reading this, avert your eyes right now.  

because i am no expert...

but i have to say, i am not completely unimpressed with myself.

i didn't think that I would ever be able to do something like these blocks.

even the thought of doing something like them intimidated me enough to think i could never ever pull it off.  but i have seen so many graphic and colorful quilts on pinterest and i was intrigued by them. but it took months and months to even think of attempting it.  and you know what, it wasn't that hard.  

i should have figured that part of it out just by reading the blogs of people that actually know what they are doing when they quilt.  they make lots and lots of them. and rather quickly too.  so it must not be as tedious as i thought it was.  and i was right.  it really doesn't take that long.  i made 14 of the blocks on saturday and sunday.  the most time consuming thing is cutting the fabric.  the sewing of the fabric actually goes really fast.

i am still working on how i want to put the blocks together.

this quilt was another pinterest inspiration.  all i did was sew pieces of scrap material on top of each other in a block with no rhyme or reason.  if i liked it, i sewed it on top of the last piece. 

the quilt is small, about 26 x 36 inches, so i will probably just hang it on the wall.  it's a little heavy too, because of all of the layers of fabric in each block.

i used lace, crocheted scraps and flannel along with vintage sheets and cotton fabric.

i even used a scrap of super soft fleece.  i just love the houndstooth pattern and it's so soft, i just want to pet it all of the time...

and speaking of graphic, i found a great graphic print at joann's for the backing

the edges of the fabrics were all sewn with raw edges so there are loose strings everywhere....

but i think it adds to the quirkiness of the quilt.

it's very colorful and funky.  

 i am still working on the quilts for chemo and have completed 9 of them.  i have a couple more to make and when lisa comes back to michigan in early may, we will take them to the center.  i gave one to my friend who just started her chemo treatments and she was very happy with her quilt.  she wrote me a beautiful thank you note and said that the quilt was a big hit at the chemo center and everyone commented on it.  i can't wait to deliver these.....

i really love the colors in this quilt.  it's hard to believe that they are all thrifted bedding....

this one is still in the binding stage.

each of the quilts have a tag with an inspirational quote on it.

we wanted to make some more masculine quilts for the men too.  i think that while this one doesn't scream "macho man" it's at least a little less feminine that the others that i've made...

back soon with some pictures from photo shoots that i have done recently....
little teeny tiny babies...  :D

busy, busy, busy...

well, i have completed 5 quilts in the past couple of 

weeks....quilts for chemo is on it's way.  

i love the way this one turned out.  it's a very simple pattern and striking in it's simplicity.  and in a homage to my vintage sheet collection, the backing is a vintage sheet.  the color is perfect and i love that it is lined up circles...

i used a black and white stripe for the border and it is a great addition to the modern feel.

i'm keeping this one but my friend lisa has sworn me to will it to her if something happens to me.... :)

these are the ones that i am donating to the cancer center...

now i know that some of these are similar because of the fabrics but i did change up the designs and and mixed the choice of fabrics in the different quilts.  the strip quilts are very easy to make because the top of the quilt is sewn onto the batting and backing at the same time.  

i actually started  

this one on monday morning and finished hand sewing the binding on that evening.  i would say that i worked on it for a total of about 5 hours.  super quick and easy....

this one was the first time i pieced a quilt.  when i cut the vintage sheets for the first quilt i made, i cut a lot of the fabric into squares.  this one is not very fancy but it went together rather quickly too, much to my surprise....

i did use some coordinating fabric that i had to border the quilt and the backing is a vintage sheet.

it's not perfect as you can see in the quilting stitches, but it's supposed to look a little handmade, right?
this one was a little different.  i found a pattern that looked easy so i used it to make this quilt out of flannel fabric.  i love how soft it is and the bright colors are very happy.  it's smaller than the others but still big enough to be an adequate lap quilt...

i also experimented with curved corners....really easy using a cereal bowl...

see that quilt stand in the background?  i got that at goodwill for $10.  it just needs a good coat of paint. that will happen soon, hopefully.
we have also been busy mounting our tv over our mantle.  we have gone back and forth about whether or not to put it there and the biggest hold up was the fact that we didn't want to mess around with trying to wire the cords through the wall where the chimney was.

 so i found this on pinterest that shows how you can make channels to run the cords through and not have to drop the cords into the wall.  it's brilliant and we have adapted our own design.

 it has taken a few days (okay, more than a few) because we have to keep adapting..... and we

have to wait until the new longer cable cords that we ordered get here, but hope to have that done soon.

because i am sick of the mess....

please don't judge.... :)
the channels will then be covered like this.

in a way that we will be able to pull the top slat off if we have to access or add to the cords at a later time.

the long range plan is to build built-in bookcases on either side of the fireplace.  i need to find a cheap easy way to do that too...i'm keeping my eyes open on pinterest for that because i know that i will find something i need.  i love that place....
i will be sharing more of this project soon....

another quilt....

I started another quilt last week.  actually, i started 3 quilts last week.  it was a busy week to say the least. my friend lisa came back to michigan from her new home in minnesota and spent a few days with me sewing and painting.  she brought a bathroom cabinet over for me to show her how to paint and fix up.  more on that later.  

i have been making a few vintage sheet quilts and i decided that i wanted to try something more modern and clean looking.  i decided that i wanted to try a circle quilt after seeing tons of them on pinterest.

it's totally sensory overload there and i was inspired to try my hand on one for myself. 

in a nutshell, i zig-zagged some circles onto some gray squares.  

so this heap of fabric was cut into circles.

because i am so incredibly lazy ingenious, i pinned eight layers of fabric together, placed a cereal bowl on the top layer and traced a circle. 

i cut them out all at once.  

and because i am so lazy ingenious,  i only screwed up a few of the circles...(that'll teach me).

then, i pinned the circles to the squares and laid them out to see how i wanted the placement to be.

after determining that, i sewed the circles to the each square.  

i got a little decorative with some stitching because i thought it would be too boring if i didn't.  

(it really wouldn't have been)

i only did this on about 7 of the circles.

 it does look cool, though...

 i used white fabric between the vertical rows of squares...which i didn't take a picture of.  

 lisa had a great old sheet in her stash that i thought would be awesome for the backing and she was generous enough to let me wrestle it away from her.  

right now i am hand stitching the binding on and will share a picture of the completed quilt when that is finished in the next day or so. 

we (lisa, my daughter shannon and i) decided that we would make quilts for the local cancer center.  it is the same center that don went to when he had his chemotherapy 7 years ago for colon cancer.  he told me that when he would get chemo, he was always cold.  i thought that with all of the vintage sheets that i have  i would make lap quilts for the patients. 

i started two of them last week too...

 a pretty flannel quilt 

 and a patchwork quilt using some of the vintage sheets...

 i asked lisa and shannon to help out and we are in the process right now of matching and cutting more fabric and bagging it up in sets to start making "quilts for chemo"....

more updates soon!!!