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

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!!!

a sweater pillow....

who knew that you could take a goodwill sweater for $1.50 and make a pillow cover out of it?

ME....that's who....  :) thanks to the internet there are tons of ideas and tutorials floating around.

simple enough.....

make a few simple cuts

find an old pillow or get one at the thrift store for .25 cents

sew a few straight seams down the sides of the sweater you just cut the sleeves off of.  i didn't even measure it,  i just eyeballed it for the seams....

sew all the way around and leave a small opening to insert the pillow form.

pin the opening and whipstitch it closed.

here is the finished whipstitched seam....

and you get this

cute but boring.... you can see in the picture at the top of the post that the pillow insert i used has a dimple in the middle.  had i left it as is, it would have looked weird as pillows usually are pouffy in the middle.  so i took some of the scrap sweater fabric 

tied a knot in the end of it....

twisted it around and sewed it into a rosette.

i found a button in my jewelry armoire.  you know how you get a new piece of clothing and it has an extra button and usually some extra yarn attached to it?  well i throw all of those into my jewelry armoire  and have amassed quite a collection of buttons....do you do that too???

anyway i sewed the little button on to the rosette because it was looking a little like a pair of folded socks and it needed a little something....

i added another button on the other side of of the pillow so that i could tighten the thread to achieve that dimple...

 and a super cute pillow. So soft and cozy for winter....when it needs to be washed, i plan on just throwing it into the washer and dryer.  you could probably put a zipper or a button closure on it if you wanted to but i am all about the easy way to do things.  in fact, if you use a sweater that has a button down front or a cardigan, you have a built-in opening....

remember those sleeves i cut off of the sweater?  they're going to be turned into a pair of 

boot socks like these....two projects from one thrift store sweater.  gotta love that!!!  

now go search your closet for some old sweaters, or if you can't bear to part with any of them, hit up the goodwill or salvation army.  look for great colors or design, (cable and chunky knit designs look fabulous as pillow covers), and you will be helping out a couple of great organizations....and getting some custom decor for your pennies...

now get out there and make something amazing!!!