Sweet Sewing Shelves Quilt

Hello! Today I'm sharing this super cute quilt I made using Blooms & Bobbins by Melissa Mora for Riley Blake.

I have wanted to make this pattern for a long time. It's a free pattern of Bev McCollough's (Flamingo Toes) site.

It's called Sweet Sewing Shelves Applique Quilt.

It's absolutely adorable and I thought Bloom & Bobbins would look really cute with this pattern!

I love this pretty collection of fabric! such cute prints with stitches, sewing machines, and different size florals. I'm so happy I finally got to make this pattern and with such perfect fabric for it! They were meant to be :)!

Thanks for stopping by friends!

Happy Sewing!

xo Erin

Loyal Heights Basket Quilt

Hello! Today I'm sharing the basket quilt I made using this pretty Loyal Heights fabric by my friend Jera Brandvig for Lecien.

I was so excited to get started making this quilt when I saw the fabric.

I LOVE the colors in Jera's fabric lines and Loyal Heights has the prettiest variety of blues, reds, peaches, blush, greens, cream, tans and white. 

They're are pretty floral prints, some with the most adorable little blue bird, some with fruit, they're are pretty polka dots with the tinest little gold metallic hearts spaced throughout. 

I knew I wanted to pair this fabric with a favorite traditional pattern. I used two different fabrics from the same color group to make the basket. I appliqued the handle by machine.

I loved the selvedges on this line! I've saved them for a small rainy day project. 

I just did free-motion stippling for the quilting. It's my favorite and I always love the way it looks.

I'm really happy with this quilt. I'll be using it as a wall hanging so I can look at it for a long while.

Last but not least, I loved this picture because I love these two baskets together. The colors make me so happy.

Thanks to Jera and Lecien for letting me play with your pretty fabric! Here's a pretty graphic that Jera made ( isn't it pretty!) of the others on the Loyal Heights project tour!

Thanks to you for stopping by, friends!

Happy Sewing!
xo Erin

Strawberry & Birdies Wool Penny Rug

Hello friends! Today I'm sharing a fresh little project I made using Riley Blake wool. I knew I wanted to make a penny rug but I also knew I wanted to make a bright one in my favorite colors.

I love using wool for dolls and stuffed creations. I've used Riley Blake wool for the last dolly I made my youngest girl. That was a few years ago. I wanted to make something a little different this time. I've always admired penny rugs and primitive / folk art crafts. I wanted to try making one a little brighter and one that felt right at home in my sewing area.

I decided to applique strawberries on the tongues of the rug instead of the usual circles. I then added French knots for the seeds. I cut 1/2 inch strips of the brown wool and did an actual weaving for the basket, then sewed it down around the edges to the background wool.

I just used coordinating DMC embroidery floss to sew the pieces down.

I sewed this beautiful mint colored woven gingham from Riley Blake ( using a blanket stitch ) for a backing and to cover my embroidery stitches.

I love the way it turned out! I have a couple more projects lined up using the rest of my wool and I will share those with you soon. It's such a treat to work with wool on these projects. It's fun stitching and adding fabric to make such cute things.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Sewing!
xo Erin

Nautical Quilt

Today I'm sharing a quilt I made using the fabric line Nautical by Caskata ™ Artisanal Home for Riley Blake Designs.

The crisp red, white and blue fabric are a collection of all things nautical.

There's a mariner's compass print in the collection that was really my starting point for ideas when I started making the wall hanging. As you can see in the pictures I made a Mariner's Compass block for the center of the quilt.
I fussy cut mariner's compasses from the red print and added them to each patchwork border point. The patchwork border is a mix of the lobster, crab, and coastal chart print.

The print that has the ships on it is my favorite in all the colorways. It reminds me of the old ships you could tour at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Which, for me, was always interesting as a kid.

I added some Riley Blake Linen as a background for the blocks to mimic sand. We've spent a lot of time at different beaches and my favorite will always be Assateague Island. There's nothing like crawling out of your tent in the morning and seeing wild horses a few feet away.

For the quilting I did a free-motion long stipple to mimic seaweed.

The crabs are a neat print, too. I'm a Maryland girl born and bred for the first part of my life and crabs always remind me of growing up having a crab feast every year ( with LOTS of Old Bay!!! ) so I decided to bind the quilt with the blue crabs print.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. Now I have a red, white and blue quilt and, also, one that reminds me of fun times we've had through the years. A little sentimental but I just can't help it sometimes :)

Have a lovely week, friends!

Happy Sewing!

xo Erin

Linen Geranium Dresses

Today I'm sharing these cute Geranium dresses I made for my two youngest girls. I used Riley Blake Linen in the colors Blush and Aqua and I used the Bouquet Tide print from the fabric line Serenade by Cyndi Walker for Riley Blake as an accent fabric for the pockets.

I'd always wanted to make a linen dress using this pattern and when I had the opportunity to make a project with Riley Blake Linen I knew right away I wanted to pair the two together! Riley Blake Linen is a cotton / linen blend making it really nice for apparel or quilts. It doesn't shift the way 100% linen might.

I love making Easter dresses every year for my girls and I knew making them with this linen would make them just a little extra special.

I used linen for the lining as well. I prewashed the linen and pressed it with just a little bit of Best Press. This linen is pretty soft and not really itchy. It will get softer as it's laundered too.

I love the way the linen worked with the flutter sleeves, really soft but with some structure to them.

I know that sometimes wrinkles are a concern with linen. I, personally, don't mind a bit. And as you can see these aren't terribly wrinkled even though they have been tried on by the girls several times as well as worn for a few photos for this post. As this is a cotton / linen blend wrinkles and scratchy fabric aren't an issue.

 I think they turned out super cute! I love the few pieces of linen clothing I have ( a skirt and a dress) and I know my girls will get a lot of wear out of these sweet dresses.

I love working with linen. I always keep natural linen in my stash for my small projects and quilts. Do you enjoy working with linen? cotton/linen blends? What's your favorite?

Happy Sewing!

xo Erin

Drunkard's Path Quilt

Hi! Just dropping in to add the link for the templates I'm using for these. There's a quick tutorial on my Instagram stories, too, if you've not done curved piecing. It's fun and these are really simple to start with. 

Drunkard's Path Templates

Happy Sewing! 

xo Erin 

Someday Blog Tour

Hello! Today I get to show you a pretty quilt I made using my friend Minki Kim's newest fabric for Riley Blake called Someday. I eagerly said yes to Minki when she asked if I would like to be on the tour. Her fabric is so cute! This line is really pretty with what I think is such a classic combination of pinks and blues with some creams and tans in the mix.

I started the quilt by hand piecing 60 degree diamonds into Tumbling Blocks but soon decided to turn them into 6 pointed stars. I have only used EPP for these in the past but chose traditional hand piecing this time mixed with machine piecing the rows together.

I used Riley Blake's Navy Stripe for the binding and the back is mostly Riley Blake Kisses in Peony with pieces of Someday I had left.

My youngest girl claimed this quilt right away. She loved the blue fabric with the chickens on it. Since we have chickens here at home and blue is her favorite color it was a perfect match!

I couldn't resist taking a picture with that big chicken! I thought it was pretty funny and appropriate with those cute little chicken prints in the Someday fabric line.

Thank you, Minki, for letting me be apart of the fun!

Have a great week friends!

Happy Sewing!
xo Erin