Posted in do. Good Stitches, quilt squares, tagged do. Good Stitches Charity Bee on March 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Happy to say as of right this very minute, I’m not only a stitcher for do. Good Stitches Charity Bee, but also a quilter…yahoo! July 2013 will be the first month I get to design and quilt. It’s very exciting. In the meantime, how about I show you my recent squares…
October 2012
November 2012
WE TAKE A BREAK FOR DECEMBER!
January 2013
February 2013
March 2013
Fun Fun!
♥ Robin
Posted in do. Good Stitches, quilt squares, Random Projects, Tutorials, tagged do. Good Stitches, Let's Get Crazy Quilt Block, Messenger Bag on July 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Last year, around this time, I had to bow out of my stitching role for the Love group at do. Good Stitches. At that time, my schedule was overwhelming and something had to give. I missed it and signed up again at the beginning of this summer. It took a little bit to find an open spot, but I now have a new home in the Grace group. Exciting! This is what I love about being part of a charity bee: It’s pretty easy to find yourself repeating the patterns and blocks you know. Being involved in this sort of quilting bee pushing me to explore things I wouldn’t normally do. This month is just that type of situation. Totally not my style. Nothing I would normally do. However, very enjoyable. Happy to be a small part of an extraordinary effort. And best of all, it’s for charity. Love that!
Let’s Get Crazy Blocks {Tutorial}
In other news, finished a messenger bag.
I’m still working on my ‘iHeart Cute Bots’ messenger bag & my lovely granny squares.
Perhaps the most exciting news of the week, I have under cabinet lighting. Hooray for me!
♥ Robin
Posted in Bags, quilt squares, tagged Granny Squares, Messenger Bag, Ruffled Napkin on July 18, 2012 | 6 Comments »
You can’t help but love them; messenger bags that is. And how about adding some linen iheart cute bots in pink to sweeten the pot? Yes, please! Not to mention the bag is in dark jean, oh my! Personally, I just love putting together things I can’t stop looking at. And just once in a while, I get to sneak all my sewing goodness to my office. And sew ALL DAY LONG! Today was one of those days, until I forgot to pack my cutting mat and seam ripper. My heart dropped when I discovered my mind had failed me, once again. Oh well. I work with quartz counter tops, so I thought I’d just cut right on it. Not only did that not work, I’m pretty sure my brand new blade is now dull. I guess I shouldn’t mess with 93% quartz, ever. Counter top, fine. Rotary cutter, not so much! I did manage to cut with some scissors and a basting pin to rip my accidents. That gave me about 2 hours of sewing time before I was completely over it. I’m spoiled, what can I say.
Here’s what I managed to do:
Exterior Bag {View of the Back}
Ruffle {Front Flap}
Last week, I also stitched 4 new granny squares. In gray, LOVE!
Also met Malia’s children and gifted the butterfly wall hanging and drawstring bags to her kids. My hubby also made Lanea a hand crafted necklace out of purple heart wood. I didn’t even know he could do such a thing. I hear everything is loved. Happy, us!
Lanea {With Necklace & Drawstring Bag}
And, Malia was able to find some time to sew with me, hooray. She made her first ruffled napkin. Happy, Malia!
It was a full week of sewing. Happy, me!
♥ Robin
Posted in Bags, quilt squares, Random Projects, Scrap Projects, tagged Butterfly Wall Hanging, Drawstring Bags, Granny Squares on July 5, 2012 | 3 Comments »
I’ve been sewing a bunch, it feels. And I can tell by the look on my husbands face, I’m right. Thank goodness this weekend is all about getting out of the house. A mini vacation for our family is what’s in store and we’re going to a resort. Oh baby! I’m so ready…
Last week, I finished Lanea’s wall hanging {original post, here}. She has a younger sister and two younger brothers and I couldn’t leave them out of the gift giving. I hope they can find some use out of a fun drawstring bag. They each picked their own fabric for a more personalized touch. And let’s see, yes, I’m still looking at my unfinished granny squares quilt. I must, I tell you, finish those darn squares! I think I only have 8 more to go. Must finish {banging my head against the wall}.
Lanea’s Corner {Wall Hanging}
Personalized, Drawstring Bags
My official work in progress, Granny Squares
I think I’ll do a tutorial for the drawstring bags, they were really cute.
♥ Robin
Posted in quilt squares, Quilting, Scrap Projects, Tutorials, tagged Granny Squares, Granny Squares Quilt, Scrappy Granny Squares on April 4, 2012 | 2 Comments »
I’ve jumped on the bandwagon with this quilt, thanks to a tutorial by blue elephant stitches. It’s granny squares and I”m going scrappy! I intended to have this particular quilt {in another design} entered into Rachel of Stitched in Color’s Scrap Attack and admittingly, I didn’t finish in time. Honestly, I didn’t even start it prior to the due date. Originally, I wanted to do a mod mosaic design, but it wasn’t settling with me. At first, I kept telling myself, get going! Sew darn it! But, I didn’t. That was a clear sign that the design didn’t motivate me. I resolved to gazing at all the fun and amazing quilts being uploaded on her flickr group. Once the celebration started and official quilts were being showcased, the granny squares were calling my name. Now I can celebrate my procrastination, because really…this quilt is so ME! It reminds me of my grandma, allows me to use a modern element with all the white negative space, and showcases my super sumptuous fabrics. You could opt to simplify the color scheme, but I wanted color. Lots of it. At this point, my imagination tells me that if a box full of color crayons got the flu and puked, this would be the result. However, I do have a plan. The colors are pulled from my favorite piece of artwork that is hanging in our living room. This quilt will share the same room and hopefully fill the space with some modern and colorful country. And the squares are really fun to make! But I’m, quite possibly, the most excited about my quilting plans. I’ve decided to follow direction from Elizabeth of Oh, Frannson’s Orange Peel Quilting. ACK! I can barely handle it. It’s going to be FABULOUS! Here’s the progress, minus a few squares I’ve made since.
Scrappy Squares
Initial Progress
Scrappy Granny Squares
Oh and if you’re curious, here’s my color inspiration…
{please excuse the terrible photo}
So there you have it, my Scrappy Granny Squares Quilt in progress. I’ll be stitching up a few more squares tonight. This top will be finished very very soon and end up at about a full/queen size. Plenty of room for some TV snuggling!
♥ Robin
Posted in do. Good Stitches, Family, quilt squares, Quilting, Scrap Projects, Tutorials, tagged Mod Mosaic Quilt Blocks on January 11, 2012 | 15 Comments »
In spending quite some time pondering ideas for a new quilt for our living room, I think I have the golden ticket! My hubby built me a really nice shelf/quilt hanger and I’ve just been using quilts I have at home for display. None of them are quite right and I’ve known a new project would be under way. But what?
Last year, I was excited to participate in do. Good Stitches {a charity bee}. One particular month, Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson was the quilt designer and I was lucky enough to be a stitcher. I fell madly in love with her mod-mosaic quilt blocks and had fun creating two of my own to contribute.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Oh yessiree, I’m ecstatic to make my very own for our living room display. This will be quite a bit of work, but I’m in no rush. Rachel at Stitched in Color is hosting a Scrap Attack Quilt Along and I think this will be a good opportunity to hold myself accountable for a completion date at the end of March 2012. I’ve never needed help keeping motivated, but it will still be fun to be part of a scrapping community. Speaking of scraps, I’ll be using various fabrics from my 2011 quilt orders and a few other projects. If you’ve ordered a quilt from me, you’ll probably spy your quilt scraps. And since most of my quilt orders are from sweet friends, this will end up being a sentimental quilt.
Luckily, I’ve been hording my scraps, in desired colors, just for this project. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough scraps for a queen size quilt , so I’ll cut into my stash. And since I always order just a little extra to stash away for my personal projects, I should have enough.
There’s a particular piece of artwork above our television that I love. I’m pulling all the same colors from my scraps and their larger counterparts that are stashed away. I’m going matchy-matchy, which I normally hate. However, since it’s a mosaic design with multiple contrasting colors, I think I’ll love it. To be sure before I pour a lot of hard work into a large quilt, I did a sample square. And baby, I think I’m in love.
Love is a funny thing. Sometimes you just know it’s the one. And sometimes you “think” you know it’s the one, but then it’s not. Do you know what I mean? So I turned this mod-mosaic square into a pillow and will hang out with it for a while to be sure. If I keep stealing glimpses from it, then I’ll proceed. If not, I’ll keep searching for another scrappy design. I’m 99.9% sure this is it!
Artwork & Coordinating Fabric
Fabric Scraps from Past Projects
{Larger Stash Pictured Above}
Scrappy – Mod – Mosaic Pillow
Imagine this square as a queen size quilt. Hard work? Absolutely! Worth it? I think, oh yes! And onto some super-duper cuteness, we got a puppy! She’s a golden retriever mix. And do you notice she’s the same color as my flooring? So on purpose! Wow, I did not realize a new puppy would be such hard work. I’m like seriously exhausted! We are house/crate training her. We’ve been very diligent and consistent with her training {thanks to inspiration from Cesar Millan}. Surprisingly, she has learned so much in just 5 short days. Luckily, I am taking her to work with me and hopefully that will lend to a very sociable and obedient dog. At least that’s the plan.
Our girl, Kona ♥
♥ Robin
Posted in Holiday Projects, quilt squares, Tutorials, tagged Christmas Pillow, Wonky Star Christmas Pillow, Wonky Star Tutorial on December 18, 2011 | 3 Comments »
We needed more storage for the boy’s board games, so I sifted through our hall closet and got rid of pillows, blankets, and anything we weren’t using. I found a pillow insert that I thought would be perfect for a Wonky Star Christmas Pillow. It measured 19″ X 13″. So, my quilted pillow top is 20″ X 14″. I prefer to stitched the front & back of the pillow together with a 1/2″ inseam for added strength. That’s why I’ve added an inch as opposed to 1/2″. The directions for the wonky star are here.
20″ X 14″ Quilted Pillow Top
20″ X 14″ Overlapped Back
When you sew the back panels onto the quilted top, you’ll have them facing each other. You can see that I don’t fold the individual panels completely over to one side, this is to save fabric. Just surge the unfinished edge and call it a day. Sew the two overlapped panels on with a 1/2″ inseam. Then, surge the edges to prevent fraying. If you don’t have a surger, zig-zag stitch as I have. Carefully, trim off the four corners. Flip over and hope your pillow insert fits!
Wonky Star Christmas Pillow
Chubby
I’m being stalked today. Apparently, Chubby wants to be photographed too!
Happy Stitching All!
♥ R
Posted in quilt squares, Quilting, tagged Extreme Team Quilt, Space Invader Quilt on November 30, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I’m so happy to be quilting for my boys! In spending so much time quilting for everyone else, I’ve been convicted to quilt for our home. Luke and Cheyenne are best buds and worst enemies, so it would come to no surprise that they love completely opposite things. Luke (9) is A.D.D. to the max and needs constant activity to keep him busy. He’s an extremely gifted, natural athlete and has enough bravery to scare any mother half to death. He’s been begging me to make him a coaster with dirt bike fabric. I know, coaster? Well, it started with our oldest, Isaac (12), borrowing mine and I eventually made him his own with a fun squid print. So naturally, Luke wanted one too. Yes, I’ll make sure to also make him a coaster, but I thought I’d go big and really surprise him for Christmas. I found the Extreme Team line by Michael Miller {love him} and I bought enough for a twin size quilt. Since the boys are growing so fast and thus will need to upgrade their blankets within a few years, I didn’t want to make anything to intricate. I felt using 10 1/2″ squares would be perfect. He’ll be able to enjoy the large prints and it’ll be easier for me too. I made quite a few different squares for interest and I really like how it came out, totally boy! I’ll be sashing the squares with 2″ finished sashing in yellow or…? I was completely committed to yellow but now that I have it cut out, I’m not so sure. I think I’ll swing by the fabric shop one more time for a quick meander before I stitch the top together.
Luke
Extreme Team 10 1/2" Squares
Contemplating Yellow Sashing
Next, I’m working on a Space Invaders quilt for Cheyenne (9) who is my computer tech savvy, A+++ smarty pants. That being said, he won’t dare ride a bike for fear of falling. Yes, he’s my calm and cautious sweetheart. I’m positive Cheyenne is the greatest lover of video games that ever existed. If it was up to him, he would have no time limits and be able to game all day, every day…scary! So naturally, when I saw Elizabeth Fransson’s recent post, I completely freaked out. And yes, the space invader fabric was completely sold out online. I emailed about 15 different etsy shops that had made items from my favorite space invaders print. I lucked out and found a wonderful etsy shop that was selling space invader placements and happened to have extra yardage to sell me. What a score!!! I’ve also picked up my Kona solids for the magnified, pixellated space invaders and I’m so ready to have fun with this quilt! It’s not like me to copy another quilter, but this time I can’t help myself. I just hope I can finish this one before Christmas!
Luke & Cheyenne {Camping}
Space Invaders
So there you have it…my {WIP} for the month of December! And trust me, these aren’t the only projects on my list…yikes!
♥ R
Posted in do. Good Stitches, quilt squares, tagged do. Good Stitches, Triangle Quilt Square on May 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
And so they are done. Thrilled to have them mailed off yesterday while May 2011 still exists. What a miracle! I really loved making these squares.
Simple.
Triangle Squares in Turquoise
♥ R
Posted in do. Good Stitches, quilt squares, tagged do. Good Stitches, Triangle Quilt Square on May 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There’s been a lot of modern quilting based around bottled rainbows, so why not a box of crayons? Melanie with Texas Freckles is our do.Good Stitches quilter for the month of May. I love her instructions: Pick a color from the “crayon” list, make ANY 2, 12.5 unfinished squares in just that color, and you’re done. Oh Melanie, I could kiss you! After seeing a few creations by my fellow stitchers, I decided on a simple triangle block in turquoise. A quick and painless project, which I need right now. Here are a few other squares that helped me make this choice. They are just so good!
Twee ✁cut to pieces: Grey
little cumulus: Black & White
Stitched in Color: Orange
TipToeTango: Turquoise
Did you notice I haven’t sewn mine together yet…
♥ R
