Lots & Lots of Flower Petal Pillows

So, this project quickly spiraled out of control.

A few days before I was to drive to my mother-in-law's house for Christmas, I had a stroke of genius! I was going to make her a flower petal pillow. I had posted on my personal Facebook account a picture of the pillow I made, and my MIL had jokingly made the comment of wanting one in peach.

So, 48 hours before travel day I am running around town trying to find peach felt. It can't be found! I panic and buy red felt and fabric to match. As a last ditch effort, I try a local hobby store. They have peach felt--but it's the cheap felt sheets. I buy some hoping that it won't look cheap. But now, the peach doesn't match the fabric I bought. So I head back to the fabric store to buy new matching fabric.

The Pillow that started it ALL

But now I have enough to make 2 pillow!

"No Problem!" I told myself. "I'll just use the extra to make one for my sister-in-law who will be at Christmas with us." But there was a problem, because there were going to be two of my SILs there. So, back to the store I went to buy even MORE fabric and felt.

Because this was all 48 hours before I had to leave, and I still needed to work and pack, I only finished the pillow for my MIL.

"No Problem!" I told myself once again. But then I realized if I was going to make pillows for 2 of my SILs, I needed to include the other two SILs.....and my husband's step-mother.

THIS TRULY SPIRALED OUT OF CONTROL!

One of the first ones I made. 

Flower Petal Pillow 

Quickly followed by this one:

Flower Petal Pillow 

It was at this point I realized I needed to go make more, so then made this one:

Flower Petal Pillow 

 And this one:

Flower Petal Pillow

And this one:

Flower Petal Pillow 



But I liked this one so much, and it matched my living rooms so well I wanted to keep it. That meant I had to go back to the store, buy more fabrics, and make just one more.

Flower Petal Pillow 

Right now, my SILs are duking it out on Facebook about who gets which pillow. I am surprised on which ones are going first.







A Year in Review

What a year! It's fun to look back at 2015 and see all the wonderful things I was able to do and create. I made lofty goals--I didn't accomplish them all, but was able to achieve a lot of them. Woot! Woot!

I made this warm denim rag quilt.

MK wrapped in the Denim Rag Quilt

I still fight my daughter over this pink flower pillow.

MK Stole my Pillow!

I had a sew day with my mom and aunt where I started this "A Little Bit Shorter Tall Tree."

A Little Bit Shorter Tall Tree

I completed my Wheel of Fortune Quilt. (And it somehow ended up on my daughter's bed--sneaky little girl!)

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I crossed "Cathedral Window Quilt" off my Quilty Bucket List by making this Cathedral Window Pillow. It sits on a bench in our front entry way.

Cathedral Window Quilt Pillow

My original quilt "Painting the Roses Red" was hung at the AQS National Quilt Show in Grand Rapids, MI. It also won 1st Place at the Utah Quilt Guild's annual quilt show.

Painting the Roses Red Quilt

I finished a Mystery Quilt for my aunt. This was my first foray into all solids. And I'm loving solids!

Blue Mystery Quilt

I FINALLY finished the top for my Fractured Flower Quilt.


Fractured Flower Quilt Top

Once again, I helped organize and plan the Utah Quilt Festival--a 4 day quilting retreat full of quilting and sewing classes, luncheons, vendors, giveaways, and more.

Off to Quilt Fest 2015

I started my Red & White quilt for the Utah State Quilt Guild's Ruby Jubilee. I just want to add boarders to it to make it a bit bigger.

Red & White Quilt

For a Christmas gift exchange at work, I made a personalized bag for my friend.

And I ended the year by making a Perry the Platypus Christmas stocking for my son's stuffed Perry.


Christmas Morning with Perry the Platypus Stocking

I find it so helpful to look over the year and see all I have accomplished. Plus, it's fun to look over all the things I've done and relive the memories. It makes me eager to set my goals for next year. 

A Friday Finish --Cathedral Windows Pillow

I have always admired the Cathedral Window Quilts. They are just so beautiful, delicate, and classic. I never imagined I could make one myself--it seemed too difficult.  Even with my fear of the difficulty level, it quickly found a place on my Quilty Bucket List. I'm so glad I faced my fear and tackled this project.  

At QuiltFest, I took a class on making Cathedral Window quilt by machine. I made a small sample....and there it sat in my WIP pile for months. 

Not anymore! I made a pillow!

 

Instead of sewing these blocks by hand, I used a blind hem stitch to stitch down the "flaps." So much faster than hand sewing. 

 

I'm so happy with how it turned out. It finished at 17" square....and I put in an 18" square pillow so it is EXTRA poofy.

One more project to cross off on my WIP list. It is such a good feeling to finish up these UFOs! (UnFinished Objects.)

Linked up with Show Off Saturday here.
Linked up with A Lovely Year of Finishes here.

A Friday Finish -- Denim Rag Quilt

Just in time for tomorrows baseball game, I have a finished Denim Rag Quilt.

Denim Rag Quilt

I used a total of 221 - 5" Squares. And I still have about a million more 5" denim squares plus all my other denim cut-ups. I'll be sewing denim forever.

I had never made a rag quilt before, and found it was rather fun to do. I didn't worry about accuracy or quilting. I just zoomed through it. If I make another one, I'll make sure to sew a 1/3" seam allowance instead of the standard 1/4" seam allowance. All the tutorials said to increase the seam allowance, but I raced through this and didn't even pause to think about changing the seam allowance. Oh well.

Denim Rag Quilt

MK saw me taking pictures of this and immediately tried to snuggle into the quilt. She wrapped it around herself and said "Oh! This is so cozy!" I was having a hard time getting it away from her to take more pictures....but that's ok. I think she makes a pretty great model. 

Denim Rag Quilt

So happy to have this completed. We'll be taking this to the baseball game tomorrow. Depending on the weather, we could be wrapping this around ourselves or we could be laying it on the grass to sit on.

Linked up with TIGFF here.
Linked up with Link-a-Finish Friday here.
Linked up with A Lovely Year of Finishes here.

A Friday Finish

Finally! I finished my Wheel of Fortune Quilt, and am so happy with how it turned out.

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I can't even tell you how many times this project has been on my "I'm going to finish it this month" list only to be set aside for something else. My label on the back even has the date of July 2014--that's 10 months ago.

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

The quilting took a lot longer than I anticipated. I used a walking foot for everything. There were a lot of starts and stops with ends to bury. A LOT!

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I received the best compliment when I showed this at guild meeting on Wednesday. A lady was astonished by the quilting and asked me if I quilt for others as well. I explained I quilted this myself on my Bernina, and do not quilt professionally. 

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

I'm so happy to have this one done. It's now sitting on our living room couch as a cuddly blanket for TV time.

Linked up with Link-A-Finish Friday here.
Linked up with TGIFF here.
Linked up with Show Off Saturday here.

Friday Finish - A Flower Petal Pillow

I finally got my sewing machine back and just had to SEW something. So I sewed up this fun Flower Petal Pillow.

Flower Petal Pillow

I found this adorable flower pillow on pintrest and followed the pin to the easiest tutorial on V and Co. (It's actually a guest post by Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew. And with a name like Allison, you can't go wrong. haha.)

Flower Petal Pillow

It was so simple to make, and the tutorial is easy to follow. It took me only a few hours. 

Flower Petal Pillow

My daughter thinks it is for her because it's pink. She tends to commandeer anything that enters the home that has pink on it. 

Flower Petal Pillow

When I can pry it out of my daughter's clutches, I will have a fun pillow to brighten up my new home.

Linked up with Show Off Saturday here.

Anything Goes Monday Guest Host: A Year in Review

Welcome to this Guest Hosting of Anything Goes Monday. A BIG Thank You! to Marelize for sharing her special linky party with me.

And since Anything Goes, I figured it was that time of year for a "Year in Review."  Is it too early for this?

I was hoping to have some fun Christmas and Holiday crafts to show off at this point, but with my recent move I haven't had time to do my Christmas Crafts. I still don't have a Christmas Tree nor have I unearthed our Christmas decorations yet: They are still buried in our storage unit.

I started off my year with good intentions. (Don't we all?) And as the saying goes....the road IS paved with Good Intentions.

While travelling the road paved with my Good Intentions, I did manage to accomplish a few things in 2014.

• I created more pinwheels for my pinwheel quilt here and here.

• I did a short series of Quilting Tips & Tricks.  It was a lot of fun, so I've decided to bring it back in the New Year. 

• I made some soft cuddly animal pillows for my nieces and nephew you can read about here.

• I tested this pattern for Esther and finished my own Honey Honey quilt. 

Babco Unlimited - Honey Honey Quilt

• I got a new sewing machine! (Well, it's new to me even if it was well used loved by my mom.) Ya-hoo! I didn't realize how much I was fighting my old machine until I started sewing on this Bernina. What a difference.

• I helped organize the Utah Quilt Festival--a 4 day quilting retreat full of quilting and sewing classes, luncheons, vendors, giveaways, and more with my mom and aunt.

Me and Mom -- Quilt Fest 2014

• I made these super cute and comfy slippers.

Slippers

• I designed my first quilt and finished it within 4 weeks. It was chosen as 1 of 8 quilts our guild will send to the AQS show in Grand Rapids, MI.

Babco Unlimited - Paining the Roses Red Quilt

• And I'm so close to finishing my Wheel of Fortune Quilt. I hope to have it finished by the end of the year.

Wheel of Fortune Quilt

• My biggest event this year (and the reason I didn't get more quilting done) is I moved this year.  I moved from this little white house to this bigger blue house.

Which means that my old sewing space of a table crammed between the couch and the dinning table, an ironing board across the room, and my leaning tower of fabrics has a new home.

Old "Sewing Room"

I get a REAL sewing room. As in a room JUST for me and my sewing and crafts.  So far, it's just a room with bins and boxes. But it's MY room with bins and boxes. Never thought I'd be so excited about a sewing room. I did manage to set up my table...that's it so far. I haven't even set up my sewing machine on said table yet.

New Sewing Room

Seeing all that I did accomplish this past year makes me itch to write my goals for 2015. But I'll spare you that long goal list today.

I need to do something to help get us get into the Christmas Spirit and soon. It's just 10 days away! My new house doesn't have a fireplace to hang stockings, but I already have experience with that.

In years past, the kids and I have made a fireplace out of construction paper for Santa to use. Santa is pretty amazing and magical, so he can totally make use of this. Even if I don't know where any of our Christmas decorations are, I do know where the construction paper is.

Babco Unlimited - Christmas Fireplace

(Picture from Christmas 2012)

So, what about you? Have you been crafting/sewing up a Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa/Holiday storm? Or have you been working on something else?

Now's the time to show off what you have been working on.

An InLinkz Link-up

A Finished Quilt

I did it! I finished this quilt the night before my deadline, and I couldn't be more happy with it.

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This little lady bug makes me smile.  I found it in my stash and had to piece him in somehow. 

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This is only the second quilt I have free motion quilted myself. I admit, I was very nervous about ruining my wonderful quilt top with my beginner quilting skills.

When it came time to quilt my borders, I was at a loss. I searched out inspiration on pintrest and found a few quilting motifs I thought I could manage.

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

I had to improvise with my thread choices. I had planned on using the same green variegated thread all over the backing. But when it came to quilting the white churn-dash border, I couldn't get my tension right and the green kept pulling up to the top. It was so distracting. (And frustrating!) 

I finally threw my hands in the air and quilted both sides with white thread. I was under a deadline and didn't have time for this nonsense. Now, when I look at the backing, I love how it turned out. 

Babco Unlimited - Painting the Roses Red Finished Quilt

This is a horrible picture taken by my mom, but here you go. I brought my completed project to my guild meeting last week. 

Painting the Roses Red

And guess what? It was selected to be part of our guild's entry to the AQS show in Grand Rapids, MI. The Quilt Show has a category called "The Ulitimate Guild Challenge" you can read about here.
I was beyond shocked my quilt was selected to be 1 of 8 our guild entered into this National Quilt Show.

Linked up with Anything Goes here.
Linked up with Let's Bee Social here.
Linked up with Needle and Thread Thursday here.
Linked up with TGIFF here.