Elf on the Shelf

Well, it's Christmas time, so I have 2 Christmas quilts for sale in the shop. After selling my big grinch quilt on my etsy site I was encouraged to make 2 more.

First I made a smaller grinch quoll to put up on the site then I came across some seriously cute fabric that I just couldn't leave behind!

Here's the grinch!

And then....

Both of these quilts are currently for sale in my Shop

Candy and Quilting!

So on my fabric buying spree from my last post I also ended up with two different candy novelty prints. I was originally going to put these two prints together but I decided that they were cool enough just on their own! So I'm going to make two different large rag quilts. I am finished the first and have all the pieces cut for the next! So I present to you a large candy quilt! What could be better for a summer picnic!?! Now for sale in my shop.

Monstrously Cute!

Recently we took a trip to Wisconsin to visit family and on the way back my parents wanted to stop at an Indian restaurant for dinner. Right next door to the restaurant was a fabric store...now I thought the store would be closed as we were in a different time zone but it turns out that Michigan City is on a different time zone than the rest of the state to accommodate commuters to Chicago...what luck! I only had 15 min to shop as the store was closing but I ended up with serval great finds including some Monsters Inc. fabric. I made this super cute quilt and now it is for sale in my store!

Purple is my Favourite!

I have finished the second of the batik quilts from the Hawaii fabric haul. It's a purple, and blue and pink combo....really what could be better than that? I am really happy with the way it turned out. I would love to keep it...but alas, I have to sell some of them to pay for my new sewing machine! So it's for sale in my store!

Wash, Rinse, Repeat!

So 3 of the 5 quilts I have sold in my etsy shop have been Strawberry Shortcake! So I figure why mess with a good thing! For the time being I have made one more, but this one is much bigger and could fit a bed.

Next on the agenda, finishing a Thomas the Train quilt for my boss's grandson!

Beautiful Batiks

Although I usually post about quilts that are licensed and in some cool retro fabric, or have something to do with a story book, I do make other quilts as well! Recently my parents were in Hawaii and my mom found a great deal on Batik fabrics. Batiks are hand dyed prints that come in a wide variety of beautiful prints. So my mom brought me back ..... Close to 15 yards of fabric...haha! I bet the people at the airport were surprised to see that going through the luggage scanner.

So I had enough fabric to make about 4 batik quilts. I have made two tops already and I just finished quilting the first one. I have the other batik top still to quilt and hopefully it will be up in the store shortly!

Also, did you notice I figured out a way to put a handy link to my store right on the side of this blog!

So now I only have about 6 more tops to quilt :P

Branching Out!

As you may remember a few years ago I made a Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for a friend of mine who was having a baby. Well, that started a frenzy and I ended up making over a dozen of them. The quilt is so cute and great for either gender but I got sick of making them.

Fast forward to much more recently. Using some scrapes of fabric I made myself a little square quilt to put in the car seat for my daughter when we traveled. I loved it so much that I made one for a friend of mine who had a baby right after me.  She also got a lot of use out of it and suggested that I list one for sale in my shop....so I made a small Very Hungry Caterpillar for the shop.

It's a two sided quilt and is currently for sale in my etsy shop.

Etsy

All you need is a Happy Thought!

Recently I discovered some great Tinkerbell fabric at a local store and it followed me home! How could I pass it up? It was pretty and pink and all the things I love! I'm already thinking of when I can have a second baby and I think I would like to do a Peter Pan themed nursery....but if its another girl Tink would be good too!

I have already made one quilt and I have fabric to make another! This one is currently for sale in my 

Etsy Shop!

Down a sunny dirt road, deep in bear country...

Live the Berenstain Bears! When I was growing up I LOVED the Berenstain Bears! I can still remember my Dad reading them to us as kids. In fact when I started teaching one of the very first things that I did was go buy a bunch of these books. When I was reading them to my kindergarten class a very smart little girl patiently waited all week as I was reading the stories and then she finally asked me , " but where is hunny bear?". I had no idea the bear family had grown since I was a child! Now there are 5 bearskins a dog and a cat! Needless to say I had to update my collection.

I found out my best friend was pregnant shortly after I had my first baby and was thrilled she was going to be having a baby boy. So natuarally I made her a quilt out of this fabric. But I had enough left over to make a second quilt, this one for a baby girl!

So down a sunny dirt road deep in the world of Etsy is my newest quilt!

Going once, Going twice ..... Sold!

I had my first sale on etsy just 48 hours after opening my shop! I was thrilled I sold a Strawberry Shortcake baby quilt. This quilt was made with fabric that shows the old, original, vintage Strawberry Shortcake not the new somewhat sexy version!

I had the opportunity to visit a wonderful "cottage " this summer ( it was more like a mansion on a lake ) and in town there were two wonderful quilting stores. I found a lot of great finds including this panel. I bought 2 so there will be a second one listed shortly!

I love these 80's retro cartoon prints.....now to fine Rainbow Brite fabric!

Shop, shop, shop

So being off on maternity leave this year has allowed me a little bit more time for quilting! In between feeding and sleeping and playing, of course. Recently I have been eyeing up some new sewing machines in order to further expand my hobby....however my hubby, is not so sure of the cost involved in this! So he suggested to either put our daughter in baby modelling (which I will not do) or sell some of my quilts.  Now seeing as I have a large number of quilts, that I keep around because I like them and wonder if I will one day use them, I decided to go with the later option.

I have had an Etsy account forever, to fuel my fabric buying habit! But recently opened up a store. I listed 2 items and sold one within the first 24 hours! So I listed two more...at this rate maybe I will be able to buy a new sewing machine! Here is a link to my store Fabricated Quilts!

So come on over and check out some of my quilts that are now for sale!

Etsy

A lot of things happen....

A lot of thing happen in 10 months, like having a baby.  In September my husband and I were thrilled to find out that we were expecting our first baby! It was a long 10 months full of sleeping and other joys that accompany pregnancy and finally our little girl arrived at the end of May just a few weeks ahead of schedule!

In the time that I was pregnant I did very little quilting.  In fact I think I only made 2 quilts.  One for our little girl, and one for my twin brother who had a baby just a few months before us!

So I lost my beautiful sewing room turned into a beautiful nursery.  Here is the quilt for our little one.

So pretty!

I even expanded my horizons and made matching drapery!

Pretty nifty eh?

Hopefully now that our baby is here I will have a little more time for quilting...ha! I have got a few projects on the go so more to come shortly!

Feeling Optimistic!

I got this fat quarter bundle online from The Fat Quarter Shop when I was ordering a bunch-o-fabric for my summer quilts.  If you order over $200 the shipping is free...so of course I had to do that! I saw this bundle that was put together by Rachel Griffith who has her very own very cool quilting blog.  I loved all the patterns and prints that she put together.  So I found a very cool pattern to go with this bundle and VOILA you have quilt #8!

Quilt #8 - Rachel Griffith "Bloggers Choice" bundle

Christmas in August!

Well, even though it is not even close to Christmas time I couldn't help myself.  Dr. Seuss came out with a new line of fabric in the theme of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"! It is one of my favourite books and I thought it would make for some awesome Christmas presents.  So I ordered just a small sample of the fabric collection so that I could see what it looked like. I have made one little quilt so far but I think I see a few more of these in my future!

Merry Grinchmas!

Quilt #7 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2,688

The next project is one that I have been thinking about making from the minute I laid eyes on the pattern.  The only problem is this quilt happens to have 2,688 pieces! I knew that this would be a time consuming project so it was perfect for my summer of quilting.

This pattern is from the "fine arts" series designed by Emily of carolina patchworks and comes with a number of famous paintings.  I selected "Starry Night" by Van Gogh because it is my favourite!

So here is a picture of all the little  pieces (they alone took over 3 hours to cut!)

And so it begins....

 And several days later I finished!!! As I was ironing it I found a mistake (I'm sure there are more than one...) but for the number of pieces this quilt took I thought 1 wasn't bad :P

I have not quilted this quilt yet...I am debating getting it professionally quilted. I think I want to hang it in my master bedroom and I might want it to look more fancy than what I can do.

So I'm going to hold off on it for right now and see if I can practice some more free motion quilting designs on some smaller quilts first.

So here is the final project for now!

Quilt #6 - My favourite so far!

Ohhh ohh I'm half way there!

I will post quilt #4 and #5 of the summer together because they were both made by request for a family member.  My sister-in-law requested a Dr. Seuss quilt of her very own as a gift for a friend who is expecting a baby as well as a new quilt for her master bedroom.

So here is the Dr. Seuss quilt!

Dr.Seuss Cat in the Hat - Quilt #4

And the quilt for the master bedroom was made with fabric called "calypso swing".  I started with these fabrics because she liked the colours and choose some nice coordinating fabrics so that the quilt wouldn't turn out to be too "girly". After all, my twin brother also has to live with this quilt!

Once the fabric came in I spent hours trying to find a patterned that would be just perfect .... but with no such luck.  Finally, I decided to try to make my own pattern.  It is very simple but if I do say so myself I think it turned out awesome!

Pretty in Pink - Quilt #5

Do you see prime hiding in the corner? He seems to always find a way into the picture!

Vintage at it's finest!

During my quilts of summer project I started to quilt some of the tops that I had been saving.  This one in particular I was saving because it was one of my favourites and I wanted to wait until I became more confident with my free motion quilting.  I bought this pattern from Carolina Patchworks a long time ago and it was the first video game pixel quilt that I made.  It turned out really well and I couldn't be happier.  I have made a few of these cool video game quilts and hope to one day use them to decorate the basement. Next on the list of video game quilts to be made, Pacman!

Quilt #3 - Super Mario Bros.

BIGGER is BETTER!!!

Maybe for my 10 quilts in 9 weeks challenge I should have selected some smaller quilts to do :P  But instead I have saved all my large quilting projects for the summer.  This is a quilt that I think I am going to keep for myself.  I have now made a few different versions of this Dr. Seuss quilt but this is by far the biggest!

This was actually the first quilt I completed this summer even though it is the second I am posting.  I was just so excited about how well the other one turned out I had to post it first!

Dr. Seuss has already released a series of fabric for "How the Grinch stole Christmas", which I have on order and will be picking up this weekend! And coming soon is fabric from the book "The Lorax" which I love!!! And the fabric will be coming in two different sets of colours, brights and earth tones.  I have a feeling there will be a-lot-o-Seuss in my future!

Quilt #2 - Big Cat in the Hat

Isn't it pretty?

10 quilts in 9 weeks!

My goal this summer was to make 10 quilts and read 10 books in 9 weeks. I never get to read or quilt quite as much as I would like during the school year.  So the summer is a great time for me to finish up books or projects that I have started and never quite got around to finishing.  I also have a few larger quilt projects that I haven't started because I know how time consuming they will be.

So here is the first of ten quilts I have to make this summer. It is made using Buttercup fabric by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda.  I originally got this fabric for a different project and ended up changing my mind at the last minute.  Luckily for me is matches my new sewing room perfectly! So this I made this quilt to hang up behind my sewing station and I am very happy with the way it turned out!

Quilt #1

In the beginning....

When I first started to make quilts I would only make the quilt tops.  I really liked getting the material, cutting it all up and making it into something pretty! But I really knew nothing about actually "quilting" a quilt.  I used to just sew the front, batting and back all together and then bind them.  So the first batch of quilts I ever made were not actually "quilted" at all!  

I then started to try to quilt them on my tiny little Kenmore sewing machine and quickly realized that this was not the tool for the job.  After visiting my sister over the holiday break one year she took me to her local fabric store which also sold a variety of sewing machines.  It just so happens that a free motion quilter was on sale and it practically followed me home!  When I got home I practiced on several pieces of scrap material and then finally got up the nerve to try a real quilt.  Below is my first ever quilting attempt!

 

 

This quilt turned out to be patchy and bunched up in places but it found a good home.  I choose this quilt because I had actually made the top out of some left over material. The material was bought for a different quilt entirely so this was a good practice run.  I call this quilt the little sister...to it's much bigger and more detailed sibling which has found a good home in my living room!