I'm a Chef!!!!

Check out the Moda Bakeshop!!!  I AM A CHEF!!!  

I am pretty excited in a bit of a geeky way :)

(I kinda feel like a cool kid) ....LOL!!! :D

SLMQG Pillow Swap

In June the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild had a 20" pillow swap.  I couldn't make it that night, but last night there was a "make up" swap.

I had a mini charm pack of Coma and cracked it open to see what I could come up with.

A granny square formed itself on my floor ;)

I added in some extra green and orange and black to get my square to 22".

(Can you guess what the exterior text fabric is?)

For the quilting I did an orange peel fmq.

Ta da!!!  A cute sofa pillow :)

For the back I used Half Moon in black. 

Here it is being all cute on the guest bed.

The sad news is that no one else brought a finished pillow to swap :(

I brought my pillow home to wait for next month :) 

...or maybe, I'll just keep it!

xo

Half Honeycomb Haul-It-All

The other day when we were taking in quilts for our local quilt show (The Peteetneet Quilt Show) a lady on the committee came in with the CUTEST bag ever!!!  I asked her about it and she told me that it was made with half hexagons.

Well, my mind raced and raced until I could get home and make one for myself.  Would I use my JayBirds hexy ruler?  Hmm.... WAIT!!!  I have a Honeycomb pack of Happy Go Lucky!  That would work!  Right?

So, I sliced the hexies in half and arranged them all pretty like ;D

Then I sewed them in one giant continuous row, pressing after each seam was sewn.

...being sure to line each one like in the below picture ;)

Then I squared each end of the LONG row of braids and divided the LONG row into thirds. (If I had ended up making it into a table runner, I would have just divided the LONG row in half)

Next came the sewing into rows :)  ...and quilting it.... and then turning it into the CUTEST knitting bag ever! ;D

See :)

One large pocket for "stuff!"

One zipper pocket for other "stuff!"

For the full bag tutorial click HERE

Technicolor Pincushion

Since market is under way, I can go ahead and show you some of the things I have been working on with Emily Herrick's new fabric collection TECHNICOLOR!

I have to say that these colors and prints are SO much fun!!!  I can't wait until y'all can get some of your very own to play with :)

This is a little pincushion that I made for a dear friend of mine :)

I used the tutorial over at Moda Bake Shop by Kim Niedzwiecki {gogokim.blogspot.com}

So much fun!  So cute!  SO so fast to make!!!

Triple-Zip Pouch American Jane Style

What is that saying?  Better late than never?

Well, due to many different mishaps (most of them in my head) my mom's Mother's Day gift didn't get finished until Tuesday :/

I decided on the Triple-Zip pouch from A Quilter's Table.  The tutorial can be found HERE.

I have made one of these before for myself.  You can read about it HERE.

My mom loves the 1930's reproduction fabrics.  Especially the red, blue and yellow ones :)

I thought this little pouch would be perfect for all of my parents little weekend getaways.

***I modified the pattern a little bit this time around.  I used heavy fusible Pelon instead of fusible fleece.   I also made the whole thing wider.  The original pattern calls for the pieces to be cut at an 8" width. I increased all widths to 10" (my tooth brush gave me trouble getting into the original).  I also added a 1/2" to the main exterior fabric length.  The measurement I ended up using for the main exterior print was 10"x10".  Other than that, I used her tutorial to the the letter. ...oh wait, I did finish it off a little differently than she recommends.  You can see what I did on my previous Triple-Zip Pouch :) ..blogged HERE.

Delicious Wishes Table Runner

First off, let me wish all y'all mothers out there, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

:-)

For my birthday I received two generous gift certificates for Gracie Lou's in Salem, Utah.

One of my purchases was a fat quarter bundle of Delicious Wishes by Jane Nielson.

I decided to bust into it to make my mother in law a table runner for Mother's Day.

I had so much fun taking pictures, that I posted WAY too many, as usual ;D

Some days the sun and the trees are just too pretty :)

I decided on a swirly fmq to go along with the candy like theme of the fabric. 

Each granny square is different.

I really want one for myself :)

Now to decide what to make for my mom.

I hope that they fix me a yummy breakfast tomorrow!

It is also my hubby's birthday Sunday too.  We decided that Mother's day trumps his birthday because we can celebrate his birthday all week long!

Hobo Bag with a Paganelli Flare

Monday was my friend Marianne's birthday.  Our birthday's are just a week apart. :)

She loves purses and bags and I have been itching to break into my Crazy Love fq bundle I got for my birthday.

A year ago I found this Hobo Bag by J Caroline Creative (the pattern is HERE.)

It is a simple, DARLING pattern!

I even added a super secret zipper pocket ;)

(a little Shore Thing peek-a-boo)

I will be making this bag again!

New Ironing Board

One day last week I woke up and determined that I was going to buy a new ironing board.  My old one hangs on the back of my family room door and is very inconvenient to use :/  I have a portable one, but it is just too small.

Well, before I headed out, I thought that maybe I should try to post on Facebook and see if anyone has an ironing board that they aren't using. [I am a firm believer that anything you need is probably just sitting around in your neighbors house, unused and wasting away...you just have to find the right neighbor ;)]

GUESS WHAT??  I was right :)  Within a few minutes, one of my neighbors messaged me about her annoying, unused old ironing board :)  Ta-Da!!! :D

I popped over and grabbed it :)  It didn't have a cover anymore, so I needed to make one.  No problem!

I dug through my old upholstery fabric and found this fun red gingham.  I threw it in the wash on HOT with a teaspoon of Synthrapol (BEST STUFF EVER!!)  I used a few layers of left over batting and a top layer of Insul-Bright.  I popped on some elastic and we were through! Right?

Not so much :(  My elastic wouldn't hold the cover on tight :/   So, I did the next best thing :)  Yarn and some really ugly sewing!  But hey, It works ;)

Cathedral Window Pincushion

Do you like my pincushion?

I saw this picture of a CUTE stack of cathedral window pincushions on IG by Michelle @ilikeorangetoo 

(THIS picture is in her flickr photostream)

Michelle told me that she used THIS tutorial over at My Go-Go Life by Kim.

Kim's tutorial was AWESOME!!  My little pincushion came together in a snap!

I am planning on making a BUnCH more of these fun little guys :)

Annette's Pillow

*** If you are looking for Operation Sunshine click HERE :)  Thank you!!!***

Last fall, my friend Annette's mother passed away. [This is my non-sewing friend Annette]   For Christmas, Annette hired me to take apart one of her mothers quilts and make pillows for all of the grandchildren.  Blogged HERE

As it turned out, there was one block too many.  One block that didn't belong to anyone in particular.  I held this one back to make a special pillow for Annette.

With all of the wedding madness, I didn't get around to it until Tuesday :)

I used left over hst's from THIS quilt.

I had the exact right number of hst's to make the border :)

I had to toss in a bit of fun fabric to make the border fit ;)

The back is an envelope closure.  

The pillow is 18".

Triple Zipperd Pouch

A while back I saw THIS tutorial on A Quilter's Table.  If you have been following me for long enough, you know that I have a thing for zippered pouches.

Debbie's tutorial was really clear and easy to follow!  My brain wouldn't understand the last little bit of instructions, so I just modified.  It is very frustrating that my head is so slow sometimes :\

I ended up using a method that I usually use to finish off a zippered pouch.  It worked like a charm ;)

THIS tutorial (step #4) shows very well how I finished the pouch. 

(BE SURE THE MAIN ZIPPER IS OPEN for this part)

On one side of the main zipper, I had the large interior lining(wrong side out), on the other side, I had the exterior and all of the zippers(wrong side out).  I left a 2-3" opening at the bottom side of one side of the lining so I could flip the bag right side out through it.

I didn't have any fusible fleece, so I used heavy fusible pellon, like I normally do.

I used the pellon for the lining pieces, but will not do that the next time I make this bag.

I also trimmed the largest lining piece down to 12" from the 12.5" called for.  Next time, I will likely leave the lining piece the same and increase the main exterior fabric by a 1/2 inch instead to 13".

I am SO excited to use this little beauty on my much needed quilt retreat weekend!

Cabin Fever, HERE I COME!!!