Vintage Blue Quilt completed!

Remember I showed you this quilt I started? Last week I finished the vintage blue quilt. I'm absolutely thrilled with it and know my mother in law will love it too. It is backed with white flannel so I know she'll appreciate the warmth! Can't wait to give it to her at Christmas! I'm thinking I'll wrap it up this week so it won't get used or dirty ;)

All the blue fabrics date from the 1940's to late 1960's. Most were all scraps that were in a tub found in my Grandmother-in-law's attic. I'm glad to put them to use! The stitching & quilting I did were simple double lines to mimick bead board. I thought it would add to the 'vintage' feel of it. I also binded it with navy/white polka dots.

Jackson & Jaxson

I'm coming to find out that Jackson/Jaxson is a very popular name these days! Here are 2 quilted playmats I've recently made in the past few weeks.

Sneak peek!

First off I'm so excited to say I've sold my first quilt ever on Etsy!!! Yesterday I got to send my EatPrayLove quilt to it's new home in KY! It's kind of helped motivate me to actually try and finish the book. I'm really not this bad about finishing books....I just can't get into this one but I'm really trying! I'm no quitter, so just out of my nature I'm determined to finish!

I'm so excited to get to start working on the Cancer Sucks quilt this coming week. I know I have a few more blocks coming in the mail this week so I'll start piecing the quilt this week. Mimi has some awesomely talented family from Tennessee & Alaska who have sent some gorgeous blocks. So here's a sneak peek of what you'll see in Mimi's quilt!

a little blue

Onto my next quilt! it's for my mother in law for Christmas. She LOVES blue. She collects old cobalt blue dishes & serving pieces and glassware. Blue is her signature color. Her Mom/my husband's grandmother gave me a tub of vintage fabrics. It mostly contained scrap pieces, some 2" X 2", some as much as a fat quarter. Come to find out most of it was HER mother's fabric stash, so my husband's GREAT grandmother. Genealogy is also a big hobby in the family, Dee- my Mother in Law flew to Norway this past summer to do some family research if that tells you anything about how much of a hobby it is! So obviously the importance of family heirlooms runs high on her list, I thought I would use all the varying shades of blue scraps belonging to her mother & grandmother & make them into a quilt for her.
My one catch is not having enough fabric to do the binding, and I'm pretty set on using navy blue with white polka dots. So now I'm on the search for true VINTAGE navy with white polka dots. Shouldn't be too hard to find hopefully!

I'm also considering backing the quilt with flannel, which makes me nervous..I've never quilted with flannel. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? Should I not be concerned? I haven't decided if I want the quilting to be stippled or stitch in the ditch quite yet... decisions, decisions!

Fall Decor

Here's a NO SEW project I did yesterday during naptime! I should have taken pictures of what I did, but honestly I wasn't sure how it'd turn out!

Materials I used:
a straw wreath left in the packaging
burlap cut into 2" strips (1/2 yard or so)
straight pins
aubergine cotton fabric
1 stem of silk leaves/berries
1 stem of fall mums
1 cut of upholstery fabric cut into 3" wide X 25" long strip

hot glue

scissors/rotary cutter

First I cut the burlap into strips & wrapped the wreath in the burlap & pinned in place.

Next I took my long strips of burlap & starting at the top made loops trailing down. I think I used 4 or 5 strips of burlap for the portion of the wreath I did. Frayed edges look really great- so don't bother on making clean cuts.

Hot glue the silk leaves & berries in.

Cut out leaf shapes with the deep purple fabric. Imperfection is key here ;) It gives it a more rustic look. Glue them in with the leaves & berries.

Glue in your 3 flowers.

Make a bow & attach to the top of your wreath!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Love this fall weather we're having, it makes me want to decorate!

The Pong Quilt Tutorial

I made my oldest son a nap time quilt this past week. It was a fairly quick & easy quilt and a scrapbuster quilt too! I love finishing off bits of fabric....just so I can go fabric shopping again :) That's my favorite part!

So why is it called the Pong quilt? My husband said it reminded him of The Atari game- PONG. I thought it ended up looking like a graph chart...my oldest pointed out the letter "i". So maybe it's a graph chart quilt. or a 'dot the i' chart. or the pong quilt. Or a route 44 quilt. that was my magic number in figuring out the math. Ha! Either way, I love the colors & my oldest now asks for it at nap time. I'll do anything for him to continue taking naps!

Here is how I made it:
The finished quilt came out to 43" X 60"

8 X 4" strips of varying colors (I liked the solids for boys) by 44" long. I used 2 fabrics twice.
3 yards of a solid fabric (62" for the back & 9 strips of 4" X 44" for the front)
1/2 yard of contrasting fabric for binding
1 3/4 yard of batting

First I cut my contrasting colors of fabric into 4" strips X 44".

Then same with the solid grey (this ended up being 9 cuts 4" X 44"). Oh how I love Kona Cotton.

Next, I didn't want stripes all the way across the quilt, so I cut 4" X 4" blocks out of each colored strip & separated the square & strip by grey fabric.

Here's my math on each strip:
Red dots: 4" X 7" strip, 4" X 4" square -> which means I needed a 33" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Stripes: 4" X 25" strip, 4" X 4" square -> which means I needed a 15" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Navy Blue: 4" X 11" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 29" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Green: 4" X 36" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 4" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Red dots: 4" X 28" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 12" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Orange: 4" X 32" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed 8" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Multi colored dots: 4" X 18.5" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 21.5" strip of solid grey to make 44"
Navy Blue: 4" X 10" strip, 4" X 4" square -> means I needed a 30" strip of solid grey to make 44"

I first pieced each individual strip. Square, Grey Strip, solid strip.

Then pieced accordingly with a solid grey strip between each colored/grey strip combo.
The front was a pretty easy, quilt front to put together. The backing was solid grey & I quilted it with my walking foot in long strips about 3/4" apart.

Dad's quilt finished!

I finished my Dad's quilt last week & it looks great! He was absolutely thrilled with it. I gave it to him Saturday at the family birthday party & he loves it! Funny thing, he actually doesn't want to use it, but wants to hang it up in his place in California.

I surprisingly finished 2 quilts last week, so this last friday night I took the family & we went for a mini photo shoot with the quilts. Just so I could get them photographed in all their glory :) There is a great historical area close to our house with train tracks & a vintage train. Of course my 2 little boys always enjoy it!


Happy 60th Birthday Dad!!!