Quilt #24 - Picnic and Fairgrounds Patchwork

I ordered some of Denyse Schmidt's fabric that is at JoAnn's (DS Quilts).  Since I live in Canada, I ordered some fabric off of etsy from this seller (http://www.etsy.com/shop/cmjacobs?ref=pr_shop).  I absolutely love the fabric and decided to make a patchwork quilt for my grandma's birthday.  The catch?  When I started making the quilt, I had 2 1/2 days to complete it.

I had to get some binding from the store and I found a yellow fabric that matched quite well.  Since there isn't too much yellow in the quilt, I thought it was a good pick.  I chose blue minky for the back to keep the quilt bright.

I wanted smaller squares and cut them at 4" - a little small considering my time constraint and my quilting choice (straight lines on either side of the seam).  The rush and effort was worth it - I just love this quilt.  I ordered all 21 FQ and didn't use even half of each FQ, so I think I'll be making another quilt, maybe one to keep.

Drawstring Bag with Liner - Rainbow Style

The story of this bag begins with me seeing a cool blog about a bottled rainbows quilt (http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2011/02/bottled-rainbows-ticker-tape-quilt.html).   I ordered Kona solids to make the quilt and knew I had a little extra.  I also wanted to make a drawstring bag for toys for a trip.  I googled bags and came up with this website: http://www.sewretrothebook.com/easy-as-pie-lined-drawstring-bag.html

I decided to add the twist of course of creating a rainbow outside rather than just one piece of material.  The piecing of the outside of the bag was the easy part.  With everything else I encountered problems.

The inside I used blue polka dots.  The front and the back were made in a flip pattern so that the colors match on the side and back.

I hate following patterns and that's part of the reason I had some problems.  The biggest difficulty was stitching the liner to the outside - the front kept stretching.  The second liner and third time through, I had success. 

Turned out pretty cute!  Now that I know the tips and tricks, I might make another one sometime.  With hedgehogs perhaps?

Wedding Guestbook (Scrapbook Accordian Style)

So I mentioned before that my brother-in-law is getting married - Su and I decided to make a cute guestbook for him.  It's a little accordian photobook which I've made a couple times, just a little fancied up.  The ribbon holds the book closed and each end has got a bigger paper covered foam piece to make the book look cuter.

The book has lots of space when opened - all the white space is for quests to sign.  We put little flower stickers on some of the triangle pieces so that it wasn't all white.  You could alternatively put pictures (or just use this idea as a photo scrapbook).

I could make a whole tutorial on this - there is an art to making these babies look good (comment below, and if there is interest, I'll make more detailed instructions).  The biggest piece of advice?  As with all scrapbooking, I believe the final product is only as good as your paper!  The covers for this book was made with sparkly flowers and all the paper was part of a pack (meaning all the prints looked good together).  What is more - the paper is double sided, so the back is just as cute as the front and the photos or white space for signing could be extended to the back.  I worked very hard on the measurements and it turned out perfect, the crookedness in the pictures is only an illusion.

A Wall-e Cake Extravaganza!

My daughter LOVES Wall-e! The problem is, Wall-e is in the past and his merch is a little hard to get your hands on.  Just when I had given up on a Wall-e party, I passed the a party store and discovered plates, napkins and a tablecloth in the clearance section - YAY!  So, we had princess party hats instead, but I decided to try my hands at a Wall-e cake.  Thank-you Google images!

Talk about epic!  The head is made out of paper (which was super complicated) and I used three 8" cakes for the body and feet.  The treads are liquorice.  How was this cake received?  My daughter had been talking about her wall-e cake for a week, so I'm glad he turned out.  Everyone else thought it turned out great too!  How long did it take?  I don't want to think about it - nor do I like to think about how long many of my other crafty creations take...

Cards with the Cricut - for all occasions!

To go along with all the homemade gifts I've be making, I had to make some cards.  The cricut and paper supplies only sat on the kitchen table for 2 days.

I've taken separate pictures of each card and will list the cartridge used.

A Thank-You Card - used the Paisley cartridge for the turtle and the Sample cartridge (came with the cricut) for the word Thanks.  I end up using the cursive cut-out and the one shown for many of my cards.

A Birthday Card - I used the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge for this card - I love this cartridge! You can also make a card that fits the cut-out exactly for a card as seen below.

Fits perfectly! (just by selecting the same size)

A Baby Card - The chick is from the Create a Critter cartridge (sooo cute) and the flowers in the background are from the Paisley cartridge.  I wasn't sure about the Paisley cartridge when I bought it, but the "buttons" selection allows you to create all these cute flowers and circles that are perfect to add the final touch to the background of a card.

A Wedding Card - Slightly odd, but my brother-in-law is getting married and loves fish, so a fish wedding card is what he gets.  The fish and fishbowl are all from the Create a Critter cartridge, just fiddling with the sizes and flip function.

A Birthday Card - The frog and mushroom are from the Paisley cartridge, but the saying is actually from the Birthday Bash cartridge.  If you couldn't tell, I love glitter paper :)

Quilt #21 - Hedgehogs in the forest

So, I went to check out a quilting store a little bit out of town because they were having a moving sale.  Of course, I didn't get anything that was on sale, but I made a couple of good finds.  One of the finds was this super cute hedgehog material with some matching fabric with mushrooms and caterpillars.

Of course, I knew it was destined to be a baby blanket - this one is for my nephew to be.  I orginally made another quilt previously (<a href="http://craftymama-cradke.blogspot.com/2011/05/quilt-3-blanket-that-started-it-all.html">Quilt #3</a> - red, black and white), but I thought it might be a little too flowery for a boy.  Then I was off to another quilting store to find some fabric to match.  I already had the red fabric, but picked up the black (which matches some mushrooms) and the orange for the binding.

The fabric color choices (especially the black), were pretty bold - I was unsure how the blanket would turn out in the end.  However, when the blanket was all finished with the binding on, I was very happy with the results!  I love each blanket I make even more than the last.

I had some brown minky left over from another project, and put it on the back (again unsure - black & brown?), but I think it turned out very nice.  The brown looks great with the crazy orange binding.  I must say, the ladies at the quilt store had no idea what I was doing, but at the time of purchase of my fabric, were pretty interested in the destiny of these cute hedgehogs!

Another quilt finished!  I haven't posted too much lately, because I've been working on some pretty large projects which are almost finished.  I have two more blankets to hand stitch the binding on (one is my queen size 94" x 94") and also a set of pillows to make.