Nana'a Quilt finally done

It's finally done...it took hella long but well I'm sure Nana is going to love it. I'm hoping that she'll get it tomorrow or Saturday. I told her that as I was making this that I was going to have a hard time giving it to her, but in the end I was tired of looking at it and was glad to get it off my table. 

 I named the quilt Ocean Breeze. The pictures are a little blown out because I was in a hurry to get this in the box and rushed to the post office to mail it (made it only by 2 minutes).

The quilt measure 96 x 104 or there abouts. I didn't have time to measure it after I washed it but I pre-washed all the fabric so it should be close to that anyways.

 When my grandparents were here last November they saw some of my rag quilts that I was making for orders. They loved them and wanted a big quilt for their bed. I had already made my grandfather a quilt before, it was actually my very first quilt. It's nice but I have gotten way better since then.

The back. Super simple, 2 big pieces of fabric and strip in the middle to join them.

 They both thumbed through my quilting magazine that I had laying around the house and found a patter in a McCall's magazine. They looked at it and asked if I could make it. Me, being the slightly over confident looked at it and say sure without really paying attention to the actual pattern. I would soon come to regret it later.

In another magazine my Nana found the color scheme that she wanted which is pretty much what you see pictured here. We went out the dinner one night and after dinner we decided to browse the fabric store. They picked some and I picked some and I said I would come and buy it when it was all on sale.

 February rolls around and there is a huge sale and I go and buy everything (little did I know that I would go back 3 times for more fabric) and bring it all home and that's when I really looked at the pattern and said "Oh shit! There are 20 pieces per block and in order to make a king size quilt I'm going to need about 72-81 12" blocks." Only then did I panic.

But I started to iron and cut and chain piece things together and I think it took me about a month of solid several hours a day to get the top done. I send the quilt to a friend and she quilted it for me. I decided on orange for the binding to pull out the orange in the quilt. It's hard to see but it's there and I love it.

I told Nana that my name is already on it so when she dies I'm taking it back....Nana beat me to it and put it in the will for me, lol. Nana's funny. But moving on to the next quilt. It's for a little girl but I love the fabric so much I'm going to make myself a lap quilt while I make her full size one. That is as soon as my machine comes back from the shop.

Gift Giving Projects - DONE!!

So I finally finished all but one my sewing gift projects. The quilt is for a friend who is having a baby girl in early April. Obviously the baby's name is Nadia. It came out better once I figured out how to make the zig zags line up. I followed this tutorial and this one. It is pretty much the same tutorial but one had better pictures in my opinion and it helped when it came time to putting it together. 

It was my first time making this particular pattern and I love it but I think I would love it more with solid colors. I can see yellow, gray, black, and white. But for now I have about 3-4 other projects to tackle and one of them is huge. More to come later on that one. 

The back of the quilt is just a whatever kind of pattern. If it looked liked it would fit I sewed it. I originally thought I was going to have a few more larger pieces but I ended up with two big pieces. I was going to leave them there, but Tim pointed out that it didn't look right/it was missing something. 

 I ended up deciding on putting her name there. It was more work that what I wanted to do and it made quilting it a little harder because I didn't want to quilt over her name. But I figured it out and put some hearts in the other square and called it done. I'm glad that Tim made me put something there because it looks awesome. I'm not sure what side should be the front because they both look really nice but I decided the chevron would be the front.

Next up, the Cover Family. Beth has been saying that she wanted pillows for her couch for a few months no so I thought I could make them.

I don't have a clear favorite but I do like the Cover5 pillow. I thought Cover to the 5th power (mom, dad, and 3 girls). I like it. Beth did too so it's a win - win. 

 Beth has an red, white, and blue patriotic theme to her house so why not add another flag to the collection. I like this one too. It might be time to make a few pillows for my house.

Each of the Cover girls got a name pillow too. They came out really well, I like them. I used Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut collection

 Last but not least is a name pillow for Max's godmother, Christine's daughter, Brooke. It is a very late birthday present that just needs to make it to the post office. I also used Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut collection.

For all the names on all the pillows I used this tutorial.

 On to the next project...Nana's King sized quilt. Eck!! Wish me luck.

Tinker Bell Rag Quilt

Front

I'm not sure what the deal was with Blogger but for whatever reason they wanted me to buy more space on the blog and well I didn't want to so thus the long time since I posted. With that being said, here is the newest small quickie rag quilt.

Close-up

I was out getting fabric for another project and I had Tim with me. He walked by the large scrap fabric and went kind of crazy. He picked about 10 different types of fleece. I was totally fine with this but I need flannel to go with it and it wasn't on sale, so the fleece went in the pile with works in progress (WIP). Handcock had an awesome sale this past weekend and I thought it would be a good time to pair up some fabrics and clean out the closet a little. But who are you kidding, I added about 3 more projects to the pile but whatever.

So I found Tinker Bell flannel fabric (that wasn't on sale but I had a coupon) that matched pretty good. Plus it gave me the chance to use up some fabric from a previous order. I'm pretty please with how it turned out. Got lots of other projects to do as well. Trying to use up what I have but well I know I'm going back to get another couple of yards for a baby quilt I have to make for a friend. Going to dig through the stash but don't think I have anything that will work.

Back

This quilt is also for sale for $25 (plus shipping). The front is Tinker Bell flannel fabric and green flannel. The back is green fleece and patterned fleece. It measures 24x32 and would make a great baby gift, car quilt, or stroller quilt. 

Custom Order #1 - Done

 I'm SUPER excited to have my first custom order done. These are twin sized rag quilts made for two little girls for Christmas presents. The both came out beautifully and I'm really pleased with both of them. The first one is Hello Kitty. The second one was owls.

 Here is the twin sized Owl rag quilt. I really hope that the girls like their quilts. For both quilts I used flannel for the top and fleece for the back. Even though the fleece doesn't "rag" it gives it that heavy quilt feeling that I totally love and think these girls will love as well.

 On another note, since posting these two quilts I have another order for 4 more quilts. I'm working on two of them now, waiting for fabric from an ebay auction for the 3rd, and on the hunt for fabric for the 4th quilt. The two that I'm working on now are also for girls for Christmas. One is the Hello Kitty one that is picture above and the other is Sesame Street, which I think is going to be adorable!! Can't wait till that one comes together and post that one.

So if you are looking for warm handmade quilt for Christmas contact me and we can iron out the details for you and/or you loved one. Email address araponi817@yahoo.com

Just need to come up with a name for a shop....any suggestions??? :-)

Giant Ruler - 6 Foot Growth Chart

Being military we move every 3 to 4 years, so as the saying goes "Home is Where the Air Force Sends You." It is very true. Max will not grow up in the same house from birth till he leaves for college, I mean he is already in his second house. But as I have gotten older and more aware of what goes on around me I realize that I'm very much a home body. I feel the most comfortable in my house.

But as much as I enjoy moving around and getting to see and experience different things I have always liked the idea that my kid would grow up in the same house for most of his life. I always liked to see the growth chart on the wall or door frame, but that isn't possible for us. So I when I saw this idea on pinterest here and here I knew I wanted to make my own version of it. The only thing was I didn't like that all of these were painted and I didn't like that. 

So I started with a 6 foot board. It took me some time to figure out how I was going to do the measurements etc. Each mark on the board is an inch and the board will sit 6 inches off the ground and goes as high as 6 1/2 feet. 

Tim showed me how to use the router, and after some practice lines I was off. It took a while and the lines are not perfectly straight but I think I'm okay with that. It looks homemade and vintage in my opinion. My next issue was how I was going to do the numbers. If I painted them on I don't think it would have look consistent enough for me. So I have a silhouette cutting machine (which I love btw) and after a couple different sizes and heights of numbers I found the ones that I liked. I traced them on the board and I routed those in there free hand. It was like coloring with a power tool, kinda neat. :-) 

Once the numbers were done Tim gave me is blow torch (scary I know) to burn the inside of the numbers. The flame was a little big and I burned a little more than the number in some areas but again, it's homemade, and I sanded as much as I could so it looked even from number to number.

My stain color is light oak. I wanted the ruler to look like a real ruler and the ones I remember in school were a lighter wood and I think if I used a darker stain the number would have gotten lost.

Thoughts on this project
I want to make this again, in fact I have already bought another board because I know what I would change. First a disclaimer, I'm not OCD but I really think the lines need to be perfectly straight. I also think that the lines need to burned as well and I think the stain should be a touch darker. I need to leave the stain on there a little bit longer.

I think I would give myself a B+ on this project, I really like it but I think it could be cooler (and a little more perfect) if I make the above changes. When I make the second one I'll take more pictures to post and show the process a little bit better.

First Custom Order!

I have only been sewing for about 5 or so years. By no means do I consider myself an expert at sewing but I would say I would be at the intermediate level. I have mostly made quilts and such for gifts for family and friends over the years but I have never been paid to actually make a quilt for someone else.

A few days ago I made this post about Max's Thomas blanket that I more or less threw together, or at least that is how I felt (it was really easy) and I got comment asking how much I would charge for 2 twin sized blankets. I had no idea what to charge, no one has ever asked me?! I did a little research and made a few phone calls and came up with a price.

That evening off I went to the fabric store to get the fabric that was chosen for this woman's (Kelly) two girls. Kelly chose flannel cotton. I have never sewn with flannel but after doing some more research that is the recommended fabric to use for a rag quilt. Who knew? I always just used cotton and fleece for the backing. I still plan on using fleece for the backing as it is soft and heavy enough. I think these are going to be my best ones yet. Let the cutting begin. I hope to have these done in a week or so and I will post pictures when I'm done (I already got Kelly's permission to do so).

Super Excited!! Thanks again Kelly!!!

The Finished Epic Mommy Madness (EMM) Mini x 2 (VERY pic heavy)

 I just realized that I have not posted the pictures from my finished EMM Mini that I made for Beth and I. I finished these back in July and had all intentions of taking and posting the pic but well, life got in the way. If it makes you feel any better I just mailed Beth hers about a week ago and we did EMM in June. Again sad I know, but then again she had forgotten some of the stuff that happened so it was a good laugh for her and I. I'm glad that she enjoyed it.

I bought the book semi-premade from Elise Joy. It gave me a good basis, but next time I think I'll just do my own, but it was a great start for my first, very large mini album. Totally finished it was over 2 inches thick. The book is 4x6 and I did add some of my own paper from my stash.

Opening page, found this quote at the last minute and had to put it in.

The history of EMM, really just how it became to have this weekend. 

What we had to do in order to have a girls only weekend.

Text picture that Beth sent me before I arrived.

Our semi-tentative plans for the weekend.

What I was bringing to see Beth

FB posts prior to weekend.

The EMM weekend begins.

One of my toll receipts.

Epic-isms

Full bleed pictures, love these.

One of my favorite pages, love the STL Flag, the Arch, and the US flag. 

Added the ticket right to the book.

Another full bleed picture. I heard this one made the wall at Beth's house. 

Full bleed picture = LOVE!

A note to Beth.

We have plans to do this again next year, it is just a matter of when we are going to do it. June might be the option again since Tim will be leaving in July and Beth's husband will come home shortly before that. So who knows, maybe this time the kids will be included. We'll have to wait till next year to figure that out.