Kitchen Shelf Quilt Finished

I finished my paper pieced Kitchen Shelf quilt this morning. I have to say that I am very happy with it. I outlined quilted all of the blocks and then did some simple straight line quilting in the negative space. I use the words "straight line" loosely. haha, hehe! I know it's a bit wobbly but I'm okay with that. I'm trying to stop picking apart all of the "bad" things I see in my quilts. It's hard. I am probably my own worst critic. Oh, but what if I'm not...and that's why I point out all of the mistakes first, I guess.What's up with that?
I think I'm going to baste my Granny Squares quilt this weekend and make some strawberry pincushions. How about you? What are your weekend sewing plans?

xo Erin

**info for the patterns for the Kitchen Shelf quilt can be found here & here**

Prettified Pincushion

After I calmed down from button making yesterday (yes, I made more!) I made the Prettified Pincushion from Ayumi's book Patchwork, Please. I love how it turned out. I definitely will be making another one during the Zakka Along hosted by Debbie and Lindsey. But I had to make one now, too, because they are just too cute. This one is a little "lumpy". I used leftover batting pieces to fill the pincushion. It's okay, but I think I'll get some walnut shells or even just some polyfil for the next one. I have used rice in the past to fill pincushions too. I love the weight it gives them. What do you use in your pincushions (if you make them)?

 

and 28 Buttons Later...

...I still want to make more.

This whole button thing started with me wanting to make the Prettified Pincusions from Ayumi's book Patchwork, Please in which you can use fabric covered buttons. Well the pincushion was temporarily abandoned last evening for a trip to the store to get more buttons to cover.

My husband actually asked what I needed all of them for. I said I needed them for pincushions. He asked how many pincushions are you going to make. I said maybe 2. Then he looked at all my buttons and laughed a little. He's stopping by the store today for a few odds and ends. I asked him to pick me up some more buttons to cover. hehe.

::Buttons::

Just having fun making fabric covered buttons today...that's all :)

xo Erin


: : : : : : : : : edited to add : : : : : : : : :

 This is the kit I used to make the buttons.

Modern Mini Challenge ~ Free Bird

I'm linking up my Free Bird quilt with Ellison Lane's Modern Mini Challenge. I was a little hesitant to enter because, seriously, have you seen the gorgeous quilts that are entered? But then figured what the hay! My little Free Bird is in celebration of Independence Day. The gingham reminds me of Fourth of July picnics. The birdie is staring at the fireworks in the sky. Didn't you know birds like fireworks too?!!! Happy Summer-time!!!!
Thanks for visiting!
xo Erin

Kitchen Shelf Progress

Happy Wednesday! I worked some more on my kitchen shelf quilt. I had to piece together enough background fabric for the space under the mugs. I have used up every little scrap I had of this Kona Ash. I could have ordered more and waited but sometimes I say to myself..."Hello, this is what quilting is...use what you have...make it work". It's easier to listen to myself when I can't run 10 minutes up the road to a local quilt shop like I used to be able to do. I think I'm going to make the shelf a little slimmer. Maybe shave off a 1/2 inch. It's bit thick. I didn't look to see what the pattern in the book suggested. That would have been smart, huh? I followed the pattern "loosely" because I included blocks that aren't from the book. So never really looked at the actual measurement for the strips and background pieces. I have to add a thin background strip that I pieced together also to each side. Then I have to decide how to quilt it. I hope to have it finished this weekend but we are having friends visit. I think there will be some camping and fishing happening so we'll see how much sewing I can do from now until then.

ETA ::  The mixer is from a pattern I made and there is a tutorial for it here. The teapot is from Piece by Number and the pattern for that is here. The rest of the patterns are from the book Cups and Saucers by Maiike Bakker. I bought mine from Amazon. It's a really great book for paper piecing and cute kitchen quilts / placemats / etc...

Fun Sewing and a Free Bird

This weekend I started paper piecing these blocks to make a kitchen shelf quilt. The mixer is my pattern ~ free here, the teapot is a PDF from piece by number, and the rest are from Maaike Bakker's Cups and Saucers book. I forgot how much I love paper piecing, especially with yummy fabric!

I made this little quilt last week. I like to call it Free Bird, in celebration of Independence Day (coming up next month). After making it I thought it still needed a little something, but it's simplicity has grown on me and I rather like it this way.

Hope you are having some sewing fun!
xo Erin

Hope Valley Twister Finished

YES!!! I finished my quilt and do I ever love it. I decided to quilt 1/4 inch on each side of the diagonal seams in one direction only. Very minimal, for me, but I like it. I didn't have enough Hope Valley fabric left to bind it with so I used some Flea Market Fancy grey eyelet/sprouts. I love it! Did I already say that?  I don't usually wash wall hangings but figured I'd give it a go. The quilt isn't perfectly squared, it's a bit wobbly. I really wasn't as gentle with side background triangles as I should have been.

I'm going to hang it in my kitchen for now.  Just not sure which direction I like best. Stripey block in the top left or grey? What do you think?

WIP Wednesday ~ 6/5/2013 :: Hope Valley Twister Top, Cutting Mats and a Winner

I got my Hope Valley Twister blocks put together! I went with making a wall hanging. I think I'll revisit the pattern and make a bigger quilt sometime. I love the look of this block. I started putting the whole blocks together using a y-seam and quickly decided, since there were so few blocks, to take them apart (in half) and sew them together in rows. Much better :)

I feel like my WIP list is manageable now. I have 3 flimsies. I have my on-going hexies and Grandmother's Flower Garden. So comparing my huge list from last year. I've either finished, changed or used most of those WIPs. I think I'm in good shape and can maybe even start a new quilt!

In other exciting news, I got a new rotary cutting mat yesterday. Okay, maybe that's only exciting for a quilter. I really needed one. My old one was in sad shape. Michaels had a 50% off coupon so I used it for my mat. Let me tell ya how nice it was to trim up my Twister top on the new one...it was nice.

And last but not least the winner of Lori Holt's Bake Sale Rolie Polie from Fat Quarter Shop is Tracy! Congratulations Tracy and thank you Fat Quarter Shop!!