Quilt finished!

I finally finished my mom's quilt (well, actually a month ago, but studying means I can't always post things immediately), and she loves it!  Here it is:

I tried to take a picture of the back to show off the quilting lines, but I don't think it worked that well:

And here it is in its new home, my mom's couch!

I'm so glad that it's finally done :)  

New study / laptop bag

When I saw this bag (here) on Sew Mama Sew, I knew I needed it.  That exact bag.  So I found all the fabrics on the internet, purchased them, and put together an identical bag!  Not super creative, I know, but it just came out so great.  AND it was the first warm, sunny, beautiful day in a while, so I took my new bag outside, and took lots of pictures of it!

It has this great foam-lined pocket in it that's just the right size for my laptop :)

But of course it's not filled with a laptop, but with some study materials.  Which it happens to be the perfect size for as well!  I've been bringing my study stuff back and forth from work in it all week, and I think it looks a lot more professional than my other study bag.

I love taking pictures in the sun!  They come out so much better than my awful indoor, poorly lit pictures.  

Quick little purse!

I decided to make a quick bag today, so that I would have something new and spring-like to carry around this spring!  I used up some of my Echo fabrics that I worked so hard to find on the internet :) It's a pretty simple bag - just a small fold in the front where you can't quite see that I put a little of the upper fabric inside.  I like it a lot though!

You can just see my study materials peeking out from behind the purse on the chair!  I had to move them off my table to do my sewing.  Totally worth it!

Overnight bag!

I've been eyeing the Simplicity 2274 pattern ever since I saw this bag on one of the many blogs I read (here). So I bought the pattern (here) and started searching for the perfect fabric!  It took about a month, but I finally decided on Lizzy House's Outfoxed fabric:

And this is the completed bag!

I'm so happy with how it came out.  The foxes and hedgehogs are adorable, and the little occasional bunnies added a little extra cuteness!  And the best part about using a fabric line - all the fabrics match!  In that picture it's already full - I was going home for the weekend, so I stuffed it full of enough clothes to last three or four weekends so I could have lots of choices once I was separated from my closet.

And of course I couldn't go anywhere without my study manual!  I think the bags look good together:

Potholders for Jenny!

When my aunt Jenny saw the potholders I had made for my grandpa's birthday, she requested a set as well, and I was happy to oblige!  So since this weekend was a holiday and the whole family got together, I finally finished her potholders, and here they are:

I think they're pretty cute.  She said she likes orange, purple, and turquoise, and I think I was pretty successful in finding fabric that had at least two of those three!

New fabrics!

I just love buying new fabrics, because it's always fun to imagine what I'm going to end up doing with them!  These mostly all came in the mail within one or two days of each other because I went on a massive shopping spree, although I did buy the first set at the store.

These are going to turn into potholders:

These are going to turn into a travel bag:

And I don't know what I'm going to do with these!  Surprise awaits :)

And here's a nice big view of the stack, taking advantage of the first time I've ever seen the sun in this spot!  I love when spring comes:

Updates!

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I've had a series of very exciting (sarcasm) events in the past few weeks, but also because I'm still in the middle of some unfinished projects.  So here's where I am:

On my earlier quilt, I've made my quilt sandwich, and am just waiting for the right time to quilt it together!

On the quilt for my mom, I've finished 4 of the 6 fabrics:

And have two fabrics left:

In other news, I made this tree out of the crayons leftover from my crayon art activities:

And I made hamantaschen!

New fabrics!

I bought new fabrics!  Well, actually, I bought some new fabrics, and my mom bought some new fabrics which I will be using to make an awesome quilt for her!  Here they are:

These ones are just so pretty - I don't actually know what I'm going to do with them yet!

These ones will shortly become coasters for my many mugs!

 

And these are the fabrics my mom picked out for her new quilt! She really likes batiks, which is nice, since I don't usually pick those for myself.  So I'll get to work with something different.

Aaaand I couldn't help myself, I got started on it already, even though I'm not done with my previous quilt yet!  I cut all my 5''x5'' squares, and turned one set of squares into triangles.

And then I started making chevrons!  Also my new rotary cutter is in this shot - I love it already; it has such a nice smooth cut :)

Teapot!

Over the summer, I took a ceramics class with my mom (yes, I'm aware that it's currently February and that summer was 8 months ago).  Well, my teapot was only just kiln-fired on the last day of class, so I had to go back after the class ended to glaze it and make it all pretty.  And pretty it is!  Check this out:

So gorgeous :) I can't wait to serve tea in it!

Colorbrick quilt top!

One of the blogs I like (Stiched In Color; quilt along here: http://www.stitchedincolor.com/p/colorbrick-beginners-quilt-along.html ) did a quilt along (almost 2 years ago, but no worries on my end), and although I clearly missed the chance to quilt along with the other internet quilters out there on this particular project, here is my completed quilt top!

It's massive (for me) - this picture is of it on my full size bed, and you can't even see the sides since they hang off the bed.  I tried a few different angles to see if I could get the whole quilt in:

This is a close up of the edge so you can see the frame I put on the bricks.  And the next picture is the quilt turned sideways on the bed to see the bricks and the frame:

Also I have to say I have fallen in love with chain-piecing! Although the quilt along said to cut all the short sashings between the bricks to size, I just left one long sashing and chain pieced the bricks to it, then cut it up, as pictured below:

And last but not least, a picture of my workspace (read: dining room table) in the middle of the process.  As you can see, my iPhone is prominently placed so that I can respond to text messages mid-sew (on one occasion I forgot to take my foot off the pedal while I went to read a text and had to rip a few mis-sewn seams).

Fabric Turtle!

My friend's birthday was on Monday, so as a gift, I made her a birthday turtle!  It was so easy and came out so cute:

Just four pieces of fabric cut into spherical triangles (sorry, math background coming through - I don't know what else to call them), a circle, and a few sets of fabric feet and head and tail.  Next time I make one I'll take pictures of the process!

241 Tote!

Pretty much everyone is making noodlehead's 241 tote - now including me!  Here is my take on the pattern:

 
So gorgeous!  I'm pretty proud of it.  It's a gift, though, so someone else is going to get to enjoy it as well.  And here are some action shots of me using fusible interfacing for the very first time!

The second one, you can't tell, but there's fabric under that towel.  And it is being fused like a pro.  In the first picture are the pieces after I interfaced them.  I had been putting it off for a few days, because I was nervous about using fusible interfacing, but it worked great!  Now I don't need to be scared anymore.

If you want to get the pattern, this is where I got it from:
http://www.noodle-head.com/2011/03/241-tote-pattern.html
It was a great pattern, really easy to follow.  And it came out so beautifully in only a few hours!  

Better photos!

I figured out where to take better photos:  my kitchen!  It's the only place in my apartment with adequate lighting.  So be prepared for me to update all my prior posts with new, better lit pictures!!

Crayon Art II

I made more crayon art!  It's so fast and easy :)  And I think this one's really pretty:

I really like how her skirt is blowing in the wind. I feel like it tells a story somehow :)

I want to make one in green/yellow and one in orange/red, since this one is in purple/blue.  I haven't quite figured out who I'm going to put in those two, though!

Drawstring bag!

As I was browsing the internet recently, I found a great tutorial for a drawstring bag that looked like I could do it in about 20 minutes or so.  So I just made it! And it looks spectacular - check it out:

Yeah that's the Grammy's in the background.  Adele just won something yay.  Back to the bag, though - I love these fabrics together.  I have yet to decide what I'll be doing with this cute little bag, but at least I know it'll look cute with whatever is inside it!

From this...

To this...

In only a few minutes!

If you want the tutorial, it's right here:  http://incolororder.blogspot.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html

Oven mitts!

One of the nice things about gifts is that I get to use fabrics that I wouldn't pick for myself.  Mostly primary colors - red and blue especially.  I just would rather use green, purple, or orange, or a different color that comes out of red or blue, like pink or teal.  But it seems slightly limiting to never use those colors.  Luckily, I have two gift giving occasions coming up!  I won't say who in case they find their way here before said occasion.  But they'll find out soon enough.  So here is my first gift, oven mitts:

I think they came out spectacularly!  Its a blue and red pattern on the outside, lined with red.  The shadows in the picture make it hard to tell, but the red on the inside perfectly matches the red circles on the outside.  That only took 2 hours at the fabric store (Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA , for those who are wondering) to get right.  And I quilted the fabrics together with two layers of insul-bright batting on the inside, to protect from the heat!  

And here are some higher quality pictures!

This is them hanging on my kitchen wall, with my first potholder under them:

And this is them, all on their lonesome, chilling out on the wall:

I went SHOPPING!

Today, I did something exciting.  I went shopping!  Look at all the pretty fabrics I got:

Stay tuned to see what they all turn into!