Finish, Goal Check-In, and New Goals

The capri sun tote bag for my 17 year old daughter is complete and she couldn't be more pleased!

 It is made completely to her specifications - 4 foil bags wide by 3 tall.

 Nice sturdy zipper to close it with.

 For some reason, I just love the inside of this bag!

 From the side.  I placed the foil bags on the side, to give a little bit more width to the bag.  They do not quite go all the way to the top, but T is fine with that.

 For some reason, blogger decided to put my photos up not in the order I designated so sorry if this post appears a bit disjointed.  I did not finish sewing together the squares for this blanket.  I started them but ran out of time.

My new start for February as soon as I get it on the loom.

 This is the warp for my new scarf.  It measures 3 feet and there are 122 ends.  The scarf will have fringe, 4 inches of even weave followed by a row of leno lace and then several rows of danish medallions and another row of leno lace.  The center of the scarf will be a twill and the other end of the scarf will match this first end.  WHEW!!  I hope it all works out.  This will be the first time I have figured out the whole thing from start to end - the math for the warp, the design, the colors - everything.

 These are the squares.  I only got a few of them sewn together, but at least I worked on them!

 This loom I had hoped to tune-up in preparation to get it warped.  I would like to make a table cloth for our table and this one is wide enough to make a piece of fabric that will not need to be pieced.

 This is the yarn that I have chosen to crochet my sewn squares together with.  I love the lime green!

Here is a WIP that has been languishing around for literally years and years.  It is call Summer Breeze Bag (I think) and it was part of a KAL in a Yahoo Group I had been in.  All I need to do is sew it together - I am thinking to use something to make the sides a bit sturdier, so will be experimenting this month.

I did not complete my goals for January:

Make up one mug rug:  No

Sew squares for quilt:  I did get a few of them done

Tune-up floor loom:  No

Warp table loom with own scarf design:  I did design the scarf and measure the warp

Finish Capri Sun Tote for oldest daughter:  YES!!!

New goals for February:

Finish Summer Breeze Bag

Get scarf warped and started

Tune-up floor loom

Sew all the squares together for the quilt

Make up one mug rug

To see many other projects and ideas, click on the buttons on my sidebar.

Blanket for a new little cousin

We had a new little boy born to our family late last year and I made this for him.

 We saw him in December and he is sooo cute.  He lives in Canada so we haven't seen him since, but I have seen pictures and he is growing like a weed!

 I just love this fabric-so perfect for a little boy!

 Usually I do the embroidery by hand, but my machine can do it also.  I programmed the name and date in and went to town.

 I also added all our names :o)  This embroidery is just ok.  The next one I do will be done by hand.  I like that MUCH better.

After sewing the front to the back and turning it.  I added this specialty stitch all the way around.  I love variegated threads - they are so fun!

Check out Tami's for more finished objects.

Another Quilt

Another quilt in progress!! After the last two, I finally got up the nerve to work on the T-shirt quilt I had been wanting to make for my husband. His birthday is coming up and I needed a gift for him. He is an avid runner and just can't bear to part with any of the shirts that he gets with each race, so I bravely chose 12 of the older ones to use. I ran all but 1 of these races with him so it's kind of a memory quilt of us (before kids :o) also.

As I was uploading I kind of got them out of order, but here is the top pieced without a border.

First I chose the shirts that I was going to use, cut off the back, sleeves and collar and ironed them flat.

Then I attached interfacing to the back to add stability and cut each shirt into a 15"X15" square.

This is the fabric I chose for the sashing, border, backing and binding.

The quilt top is a little farther than you see here - all the quilting has been done and the binding is ready to be attached.

I will be working feverishly the rest of this week to get it finished as his birthday is on Sunday. We are having everyone over to celebrate the February and March birthdays - there are 4 of them - on Sunday and I have some great ideas on how to package it.

By the way, the quilts brought in a respectable $115 for the 4th grade quilt and $125 for the 2nd grade quilt. Not bad!

More works in progress at Tami's.

1st Grade Class Quilt-FINISHED!!

I can't believe that this one is done also!! I finished around 12:30 this morning and dropped it off at school at 8:30. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I think the kids were too. They were all trying to find their own squares!! It was pretty cute.

This is the front. I had so much trouble getting those white squares to lay flat and be even, but it was worth it!!

I pieced the binding and hand sewed it down on the back.

This is the back. I don't think it shows off the quilting all that well, but I had sewn around each square - all four sides - with not too much puckering this time. I think this shot also shows the binding a bit better.

My label - I just wrote on the back in permanent marker just like the kids did on their squares :o)

Such a sweet little quilt! I'll let you know what it goes for at the auction.

See more finished objects at Tami's.

1st grade class quilt

Almost finished with the first grade class quilt for the auction! The border is on and here it is being pinned to be quilted.

I measured each white square to be exactly in the center of a colored square - 1" border on all sides - then I used safety pins to pin in the center of the square and on each corner. Then I put pins on the seams between each colored square and also in the corners. where four squares meet. It took more than 3 hours and boy was it back breaking work!! I had to pin it while it was on the floor!!
It turned out that all those pins were not enough. The white squares that the kids had decorated were still slipping - sometimes as much as 1/4" as I was sewing down the side. I fixed this "little" problem by using straight pins every 1/2"-3/4" as you can see in this photo. I pinned these as they were going through the machine. Each time I came to a pin, I took it out and placed it in the square below.
Quilting this on my little machine, was not easy, but it is done now. The binding has been attached and is being sewn down by hand now. Should be complete soon :o) It will be great to be done with this!!

See more WIPS at Tami's.

Finished!!!

Well, here it is in all it's glory! The 4th grade class quilt finished last night. It will be auctioned off on March 3rd and the proceeds will benefit our elementary school.

Each child in the class made a square, as well as our teacher (his is the bottom right as we are looking at this picture). It worked out perfectly with 5 rows of 5 squares.
This is the back. The binding is the same fabric as the sashing and borders and I hand sewed it down. The quilt has a very nice weight to it.
My little sweetie's square! The opening bid for this quilt has been set at $75 - I hope someone bids on it.

There are a few errors on this quilt, but overall I think it's pretty good. As I mentioned before, this is the second quilt that I have made and I just kind of made it up as I went along. I'll let you know how it fares :o)

More finishes at Tami's and other fabulous fiber arts here.

4th grade class quilt

This quilt is moving right along. It is my second quilt - the first one was made in a class using a pattern from a book. This quilt is just a simple one that I put together on the fly.

It is pieced and now the quilting is done. I can honestly say I have done my best, but I am not all that pleased with how it looks. Overall, I think it's "O.K.", but as you can see there are quite a few wrinkles/pulls in the fabric.
Here is a closeup. I unpicked and re-sewed those areas where I thought I could do better, but left those areas where I knew I couldn't fix them.
I matched the bobbin thread to the fabric on the back, but chose a variegated thread for the front.
All that's left now is to hand sew down the binding which I started doing last night. I hope to have both quilts completed by next Tuesday so that they can hang in their respective classrooms for a few days before the auction. Wish me luck!!

See Tami's for more WIPs.

4th Grade Class Quilt

I finally got all the squares designed by the kids. As you can see, there is a wide variety of styles and tastes.

I tried many different ways to put them together. I wanted to balance the very colorful with the less colorful - the tanks and guns with the rainbows and peace signs - the minimalist with the total coverage squares. I came up with a layout that seemed to accomplish all these things.

This is the top 5 squares sewn together. It will be the top of the quilt.

The next 5 with sashing in between the rows.

Third row. I am not sure now why I took these pictures at each row, but I really like the progression of the quilt. This is my second quilt - the first one I made in a class.

All the squares sewn together with the sashing.

At last.....with a border. I really like the dark sashing and border - I feel like it frames the students' work quite nicely.

Next is putting all the layers together, then quilting it, and finally putting on the binding. Whew!! Quite a bit left. Then there is the quilt for the first grade class :o)

Class Quilt WIPs

I have two new, big WIPs. Class Quilts! One for my son who is in the first grade and another for my daughter who is in the fourth grade. These will be auctioned off at our school auction to raise money.

I decided on a fairly easy juvenile quilt for the first graders. I chose four fairly bright fabrics and cut out pieces that are 10 1/2" X 10 1/2".
I chose this white fabric for the kids to design and cut squares that are 8" X 8". Each student drew a picture on a square. These are sooooo cute!! You can see some of them in the photo above. We have 23 students and so far I have 12 squares - I go back after school on Thursday and again on Friday at lunch to have the rest of the students design their squares. The quilt is 5 squares by 5 squares and we have two teachers so it works out perfectly for the teachers to each design a square as well!

Yesterday, I pieced the big colorful squares.

This shows what my idea is. Next I will sandwich the quilt top with the batting and the backing. Then I will sew the students' squares to the top as shown, through all layers, creating a semi "rag quilt". I hope it turns out cute!! I think I will use up the leftover fabric from the colorful squares for the binding. I will keep posting as things move along.

The fourth grade quilt will be a more traditional quilt. I already have 16 squares made and will go in to their class on Thursday at lunch to get the rest. This quilt will have sashing between the squares and a border.

Wish me luck!! These have to be completed before March 3rd. YIKES!!

For more WIPs, check out Tami's blog.