Just popping in quickly to share our newest WIP of the non quilty variety, baby Nora!
We are already so in love with this little 7 lb 7 oz miracle and soaking up as many baby snuggles and cuddles as we can!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
N is for Nursery
While we are still waiting for our little lady to make her appearance, we finally had a few beautiful days of sunshine this weekend to get some pictures of her finished nursery!
I really could not be more pleased with how it has come together, the perfect mix of DIY, Etsy purchases and store bought items to feel welcome and inviting, yet stylish and pretty and perfectly "girly" without pink from ceiling to floor, which was my hopeful vision all along.
I've blogged about may of the DIY stitchy crafts here and there, like the curtains, the Drona bin covers, and crib skirt.
This view is from the far corner of the room, between the windows and the closet. I was a little nervous about how the alphabet bead board project would hold up, as it is pretty heavy, but the heavy duty wire picture hanger combined with some heavy duty Command strips on the bottom corners to keep the behemoth in place when baby eventually is kicking her legs and flailing her arms during diaper changes, seems to be doing the trick and keeping things in place. The changing pad cover was made using this tutorial, and the basket was made using the Noodlehead Divided Basket Pattern.
I think this is my favorite part of the nursery, the super cozy rocker and paper lantern/tissue pom corner. I envision lots of rocking, feeding and baby snuggles going on here, and lots for baby to look at during those hours and hours. The paper lanterns came from Michaels, and the tissue poms were purchased from FiestaPomPom on Etsy. I had thought of DIYing those poms, but was running out of steam, and this was much much easier! To affix to the ceiling I just used fishing wire and clear push pins cut at different lengths and arranged how I liked.
While this little lady certainly has a plethora of quilts awaiting her arrival, this was the most recent and final quilt (for now) I stitched up for her, of course matching the nursery colors. More to come on this quilt in a future post. The elephant and "N" came from PaperPlanePrints on Etsy. They are 11x14 and after hunting down a few white frames I liked, and using my new favorite tool, my trusty laser level, hanging them was a breeze without nine million nail holes in the wall!
From left to right: 1. Wooden letters that were a gift that I recovered using the same method as the ABC wall hanging 2. Hombre elephant paint chip art a la this tutorial 3. Name puzzle letters that were a gift, and elephant button art from this tutorial
Whew! This nursery certainly was a labor of love, and we can't wait to welcome our baby girl home to this warm and inviting space! Come on baby girl, mommy and daddy can't wait to meet you!!
I really could not be more pleased with how it has come together, the perfect mix of DIY, Etsy purchases and store bought items to feel welcome and inviting, yet stylish and pretty and perfectly "girly" without pink from ceiling to floor, which was my hopeful vision all along.
I've blogged about may of the DIY stitchy crafts here and there, like the curtains, the Drona bin covers, and crib skirt.
This view is from the far corner of the room, between the windows and the closet. I was a little nervous about how the alphabet bead board project would hold up, as it is pretty heavy, but the heavy duty wire picture hanger combined with some heavy duty Command strips on the bottom corners to keep the behemoth in place when baby eventually is kicking her legs and flailing her arms during diaper changes, seems to be doing the trick and keeping things in place. The changing pad cover was made using this tutorial, and the basket was made using the Noodlehead Divided Basket Pattern.
I think this is my favorite part of the nursery, the super cozy rocker and paper lantern/tissue pom corner. I envision lots of rocking, feeding and baby snuggles going on here, and lots for baby to look at during those hours and hours. The paper lanterns came from Michaels, and the tissue poms were purchased from FiestaPomPom on Etsy. I had thought of DIYing those poms, but was running out of steam, and this was much much easier! To affix to the ceiling I just used fishing wire and clear push pins cut at different lengths and arranged how I liked.
While this little lady certainly has a plethora of quilts awaiting her arrival, this was the most recent and final quilt (for now) I stitched up for her, of course matching the nursery colors. More to come on this quilt in a future post. The elephant and "N" came from PaperPlanePrints on Etsy. They are 11x14 and after hunting down a few white frames I liked, and using my new favorite tool, my trusty laser level, hanging them was a breeze without nine million nail holes in the wall!
From left to right: 1. Wooden letters that were a gift that I recovered using the same method as the ABC wall hanging 2. Hombre elephant paint chip art a la this tutorial 3. Name puzzle letters that were a gift, and elephant button art from this tutorial
Whew! This nursery certainly was a labor of love, and we can't wait to welcome our baby girl home to this warm and inviting space! Come on baby girl, mommy and daddy can't wait to meet you!!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Modern Bee: 13 Quilts to Make With Friends {Blog Tour}
Hi all! I am so so excited to finally share more about the book Modern Bee: 13 Quilts to Make With Friends that I had the honor of being a part of!
This book all started when the Mod Stitches Bee was formed just about two years ago, at the end of 2011. Things started just as any bee usually does, Elizabeth virtually gathered 12 quilty friends, some of whom I had known previously, and some I hadn't, to begin a 12 month quilting bee, making blocks each month for one "bee mama" that would ultimately result in enough blocks for each member to put together a finished quilt.
While we were getting started, Lindsay had the awesome idea to turn our bee into a book! She documented our quilting journey, and not only describes how to create each of the 13 different blocks and resulting finished quilts, but also provides information to start and run your own virtual quilting bee! Lindsay really is one talented lady, and has a gift for writing, as Modern Bee reads like she's talking to a friend, giving helpful tips and pointers to someone she's known a lifetime.
This is a picture straight from the book of my contribution, Trellis Crossroads. I love the look of quilts using blocks turned on point, but usually they require block trimming and adding sashing, and I wanted a design that would come together with just the blocks themselves, no extra work for quilt assembly, and after working through a few design possibilities in my head, this quilt was born.
This was my test block, and as you can see, the trellis design comes together quite simply by sewing together the blocks of each each row and then each row into a finished quilt.
I cannot say thank you enough to the wonderfully talented quilters I had the pleasure of working with, and of course to Lindsay, as without her this book would not be!
And of course no blog hop is complete without a giveaway! To enter to win, click here to complete the Rafflecopter form for your chance to win a Modern Bee gift bag* filled with sewing goodies from Coats and Clark, FreeSpirit Fabrics, Olfa, Pellon and Timeless Treasures!
*Winners will be randomly selected after October 18, 2013 from all comments received. If the winner lives outside of the U.S., they'll win a Modern Bee e-Book of instead of the gift bag.
Be sure to follow along with the remaining stops on the Modern Bee blog tour for book reviews and more sneak peeks from many of the book contributors!
Modern Bee Blog Tour:
Wednesday 10/9: Ellison Lane + Diary of a Quilter
Thursday 10/10: Katie's Korner + Pat Sloan
Monday 10/14: Quilting is My Therapy + Hot Pink Stitches
Tuesday 10/15: Live a Colorful Life + Craft Gossip
Thursday 10/17: Craftsy + Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
Monday, October 7, 2013
Watermelon Seeds: Completed Quilt
Just popping in (still pregnant!) with one more quilty finish before the little lady makes her appearance! I'm not sure how many more finishes I have in me before d-day, the basting kills me! After basting this little guy on the kitchen floor I felt like I'd just finished an hour long workout in the pre-preggo days. I'm hoping to squeeze in one more finish for the babe herself before she is here, but I may have to enlist the hubby's help to baste that puppy.
This is a super special quilt that needed to be finished, as its for a dear friend who is also expecting a little girl. She's been my pregnancy buddy and the go to for when weird things are happening that only another expectant mom wouldnot be grossed out by understand. She just passed her due date this past Friday, so I'm counting on her to go first and tell me the good, the bad and the ugly first hand...although maybe going in with no expectations is the way to go.
Anyways, back to the quilt. Her little lady's nursery has lots of bright pinks and greens, so when pulling fabric for this quilt, these prints just sort of made a stack all on their own. These prints remind me of happiness, sunshine and summer, which describes my friend to a T. I don't think I've ever seen her without a smile on her face, so I'm expecting her daughter to naturally be the same.
I've had this simple rail fence zig zag quilt on my "to try" list for sometime now, and it certainly didn't disappoint. The quilt top came together so quickly, as in just a few hours on a Saturday while the hubs was working, thanks to strip piecing the prints/white fabric, and then cutting squares from there. I sort of just figured it out as I went, but I found this pdf tutorial after the fact explaining the process. I cut my strips at 2.5" wide, so this exact quilt would be even easier if you had an extra Jelly Roll laying around with precut strips!
This quilt is off for a good tumble through the washer and dryer for a proper crinkling, and then it will wait for my friend's little miss to make her appearance!
This is a super special quilt that needed to be finished, as its for a dear friend who is also expecting a little girl. She's been my pregnancy buddy and the go to for when weird things are happening that only another expectant mom would
Anyways, back to the quilt. Her little lady's nursery has lots of bright pinks and greens, so when pulling fabric for this quilt, these prints just sort of made a stack all on their own. These prints remind me of happiness, sunshine and summer, which describes my friend to a T. I don't think I've ever seen her without a smile on her face, so I'm expecting her daughter to naturally be the same.
I've had this simple rail fence zig zag quilt on my "to try" list for sometime now, and it certainly didn't disappoint. The quilt top came together so quickly, as in just a few hours on a Saturday while the hubs was working, thanks to strip piecing the prints/white fabric, and then cutting squares from there. I sort of just figured it out as I went, but I found this pdf tutorial after the fact explaining the process. I cut my strips at 2.5" wide, so this exact quilt would be even easier if you had an extra Jelly Roll laying around with precut strips!
This quilt is off for a good tumble through the washer and dryer for a proper crinkling, and then it will wait for my friend's little miss to make her appearance!
Quilt Stats
Name: Watermelon Seeds baby quilt
Pattern: Zig Zag Rail Fence on point (kind of like this tutorial)
Size: 41" x 43"
Fabrics Used: Various fuscia/grass green prints from stash and Kona White
Backing: Amy Butler Love print and leftover strips from the quilt front
Binding: Random pink dot fabric found in my stash
Quilting: All over loopy FMQ
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