A quilt for ME - over a year in the making

I first posted about this quilt waaay back in February of 2011.  And then again here, and then when I finally finished the quilt top back in April of last year, and one more time when I finally got the darn thing basted while I was nine months pregnant.

I guess since it is the largest quilt I've ever made - a queen size at 90 x 108" - it makes sense that it took me forever to finish it.  Plus, the thought of quilting this beast made me exhausted just thinking about it, so I put it off for a long time.

But once I sat down and got started - it wasn't quite as tough as I had led myself to believe.  I went with my standard, all over loop-de-loop free motion pattern.  This quilt definitely gave me a lot of practice!

I backed it in a whole mess of pieced vintage sheets and favorite fabric remnants.

Aside from being pieced with lots of my favorite fabrics (Nicey Jane!), and sashed with one of my favorite vintage sheets, my favorite part is that our whole family can cuddle up under this giant without anyone's toes poking out the end :)

Big Tee Tiny Tee

One of my ongoing projects this summer is to try to keep up with my crazy little growing-like-a-weed Phoebe's wardrobe. 

I've been making her these incredibly quick and simple tops by using Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern (a must-have for making clothes for kids), and these retro vintage shirts that have been thrifted - or in the case of the Pippi shirt - was actually MINE in high school.  Eeeks!

I love sewing using up-cycled clothing because you get to finagle around your pattern pieces to take advantage of things like already sewn cuffs and hems.

With these shirts, I first disassembled the original shirt and cut off the neck ribbing to reattach at the end.  I positioned my pattern pieces to center the graphic on the front, and to keep the cuff ribbing on the sleeves so I wouldn't have to finish them later .  Then I just sewed it up according to Rae's pattern, and shortened and attached the neck ribbing.  The whole thing seriously took about 20 minutes.

And even though Phoebe has no idea who Pippi Longstocking is....

.....I think she embodies her character pretty darn well.

My Preciousness

I don't usually join online quilt-a-longs, bees, and the like, for a couple of reasons.  A) Ever since having children, my sewing time has dropped drastically.  B) I don't like to be held to time constraints when sewing.  I always have a million projects going at once, and I hop between them constantly.  So with A and B going on, I'd never finish anything in time for deadlines.

However, I found Kelly's, My Precious quilt-a-long, so easy and relaxed that I decided to join in the fun.  The basic guidelines?  You can sew whatever you want - it doesn't even have to be a quilt - but you have to use your most precious, hoarded fabric that you'd never dream of cutting into.

Success!  I was in desperate need of a small purse or clutch to stow my wallet, phone, etc. in for when I go out sans children.  And my super precious fabric of choice?  Meadow print in olive from Heather Ross' line Rabbits and Racecars (even though I had previously cut into it a little bit for my kitchen rug project).  I went with the Curvy Clutch pattern from Michelle Patterns.

Why is this fabric my absolute favorite?  The color simply rocks my face off.  I love that bright olive with the hints of orange, pink, and yellow flowers.  And let's face it - those random little turtles and chipmunks are pretty darn cute.

The Curvy Clutch pattern itself came together really nicely - my only issue is that I think that the sew-in interfacing that I used was too thick.  It was a beast to turn, and there is one area on the interior where the interfacing does buckle outward a little bit.  I'd definitely go with something more lightweight next time.  I went ahead and lined it with Wildflowers in brown from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs line. 

Even though my olive meadow print is now down to scraps, I'm glad that I finally took the plunge and made it into something special.  I'm sure I'll enjoy it much more than if it was still sitting on the shelf.

Check out what my other fabricaholics most precious fabrics are, and see what they made out of them on the May link-up page!

Scattered Stars quilt

Remember this bundle of fabric?

Well, that led to this sketch...
 

Which led to this quilt.

This quilt has kept me pretty busy.  The construction of the stars went rather quickly, but cutting and piecing all of those little extra pieces of fabric that offsets them from one another took forever!  And since I have yet to construct a design wall, I would lay everything out on the floor, and then the cats would promptly dive bomb into my array of perfectly placed little quadrangles.

Isn't that Flamingo solid just fantastic?

I quilted it by first outlining all of the stars, then throwing in some extra star outlines in the larger areas of negative space.  You can't really tell from the photo - but I went with an orange thread that looks fantastic on the pink.

The back is a Jenean Morrison print from her California Dreamin line.

And the most difficult part of this quilt is yet to come - shipping it off to it's new owner!  It's hard not to fall in love with each completed quilt :)

How many points are in 4 dozen cupcakes?

I had a cupcake order of 4 dozen cupcakes for a bridal shower this past weekend.

Red velvet and vanilla with swiss meringue buttercream.

It was actually a bridal tea party, so the flowers were modeled after some of the blooms on the teacups they were using.

The whole house smelled delicious!

It was pretty much torture for this baker who is trying to stick to her Weight Watcher's diet!