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I have been wanting to make a pillow for our living room for a while.  For the most part, we are not throw pillow people.  They get thrown on the floor and dirty, but I wanted to have a big giant pillow to use for the couch.  I bought the refrigerator magnets pattern from Oh, Fransson! when it came out so I thought that this would be a good time to try it out. The pattern is great (I love her patterns).  But I did not enjoy making the letters.  It was pretty tedious and I don't think I could make a whole quilt with letters, so I am glad I tried it out on a pillow. I was a little puzzled about what I wanted the pillow to say . . . I eventually decided to use the title of one of my favorite hymns:  And for the back I used this Dwell print that I got at Joann's on clearance.  I had already started the pillow top without know what I was going to use for the back, so when I saw this print I had to get it. I did more pebble quilting on this pillow (so much easier on a smaller projec

I spent last night sewing the binding onto June's do. Good Stitches kaleidoscope quilt while watching the Olympics opening ceremonies. I wasn't sure how to quilt it, but I decided that this would be a good chance to do some free motion quilting since I have been trying to branch out from straight lines.  I did pebble quilting in the gray areas and left the colored triangles unquilted since they are pretty small and I wanted them to stand out.  This is the first time I have done pebble quilting and only the 2nd time I have done free motion quilting (although I have been practicing) so I was pretty happy with how it turned out (although it is definitely nowhere near perfect). For the backing I used a Free Spirit solid called Hot Rose which I LOVE.  I knew I wanted to use a solid for the back since the front is so crazy.  I showed the quilt to my 4 year old daughter and while she liked the front, when she saw the back she asked why all quilts aren't hot pink.  Good question. I

Since I just started this blog a few months ago and I have been quilting for a couple of years, there are several quilts that I have not yet blogged about. I am still in the middle of finishing up the kaleidoscope quilt and I won't be ready to share that for a few days, I thought I would share a couple of the quilts that are in my kids' room. My 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son share a room.  My son is in a crib-converted-to-toddler bed so I haven't made him a twin sized quilt yet.  Right now he is using this quilt that I made for his first birthday using Pooches and Pickups from Laurie Wisbrun.  I really love these fabrics and I think they are perfect for a little boy. My daughter has 2 twin sized quilts that she switches between.  This one was inspired by this Denyse Schmidt quilt. I am debating whether or not to make coordinating quilts for them using Out to Sea  from Sarah Jane when it is released.  I am not sure how much longer these two will be sharing a room,

The winner of the Groove quilt-a-long pattern is . . . Congratulations WandaM!  I will send you an email so that I can get the pattern to you. I had some time to put together our very first quilt top from the Wish circle at do. Good Stitches. This is the first time I have ever sewn with blocks that someone else made and it was kind of weird.  The quilt is a little bit crazy, but I think it's cute.  I am hoping to get it basted tonight so I can get the quilt finished.  I am so glad that I was able to get involved in this group , it is really fun!

When I was in college I lived in this old, old, old house in a basement apartment. The place had a tiny kitchen, a tiny living room, and an even tinier bedroom, and it also had a little storage room that was filled with all kinds of treasures. There were abandoned clothes, forgotten textbooks, and an iron. I was not much of an ironer, but when I moved out of the apartment I took the iron with me. I got married shortly after that and the iron traveled with us to LA. But until I started sewing two years ago, I had never really used it. It is old. And when it was new it was cheap. It has this part where it looks like a label was ripped off so I think someone might have actually stolen it from a hotel. So while the iron works ok, it smells a little weird and I feel like there must be something better out there. So my question to you is . . . what should I get?    This Oliso TG1600 smart iron pro has been on my Amazon wish list for a while but it is EXPENSIVE and it only has 3 stars so I

I am so excited to get started with this quilt a long.  If you are looking for a new project, this is definitely a fun, different pattern that looks like a lot of fun.   I have a copy of the pattern to giveaway.  If you are interested in participating, just leave a comment on this post telling me what colors you might use for your Groove quilt.  I think the best part about participating in a quilt along is seeing how many different ways the same pattern can be made!  I will pick a random winner on Sunday night. Pile O' Fabric  has partnered up with  Carolina Patchworks (Emily Cier)  who is an amazing quilt designer and writer. She wrote  Scrap Republic ,   Quilt Remix , and  Pixel Play  (coming soon). You can see her work in  Modern Blocks , and she is one of the 16 Iconic Quilt Designers in the newly released book,  We Love Color . For this Quilt Along we will be using Emily's  Groove Quilt Pattern , which Emily will be offering at a discount for all QAL participants. It mi

A few weeks ago, do. Good Stitches set up a swap for all of the circle hosts.  I have never participated in a swap, so I was excited but a little nervous.  I decided to make a sewing machine cover using this pattern from Empty Bobbin.  I have had it sitting around for a while with the intention of making a cover for myself, but it was pretty far down on the priority list. I was initially inspired by the colors in  this quilt  and I decided to make some string blocks using similar colors.  The pattern came together easily and I was happy with how everything was going.  Until it came to cutting the holes in the cover to make it deeper (I don't know what they are called).  I totally cut them on the wrong side.  I was so sad.  I remember thinking, "That doesn't really make sense, but maybe it will make more sense once I cut them."  Ha ha, nope. Oops.  Maybe I could have made it work, but I didn't think I would be very happy with the results so I decided to start over

After spending 10 days in Hawaii, then having my Mom visit for a week, and then heading to Utah for a week for my brother's wedding, I am finally home.  And after getting home we have been undergoing to major changes to our diets after reading this book: in hopes that this will help my daughters eczema (which is terrible).  I really like the ideas in the book and I think it will be much healthier for all of us.  It has only been 4 days now, and Harper's eczema already looks better.  I was worried because my kids are picky eaters, but they have actually really taken to eating healthier!  Yay! Since I knew that our new diet was going to take some adjusting this week, I wanted to work on something fun.  A couple weeks ago we had dinner at my aunt-in-law Judy's house.  She was admiring my giant patchwork tote  so I offered to make one for her.  These bags are really fun to make; I love digging through my scrap bin and using little pieces of some of my favorite fabrics. I didn&#