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When I made this quilt for my daughter, I knew that I wanted to make an equivalent for my son.  We were in Sew Modern a few weeks ago and I let Jonah pick out the fabric.  He loved this Ed Emberley octopus print and I thought that would be perfect. Both quilts are backed in chocolate brown Moda Snuggles fabrics, they are both made with bright colors, both bound in a striped binding, and they are both about the same size.  I knew that I wanted to do something simple for Jonah's quilt so that I didn't chop up all of those cute Ed Emberley prints into tiny pieces, so I drew my inspiration from here . It is quilted with straight lines about an 1.5" apart.  When I showed the quilt to my son he said, "Oh, those are my favorite animals."   I have been meaning to make my son a pillowcase for a while, so I thought I would make each of my kids a pillowcase to match their snuggly blankets.  I used this tutorial and they were fun and easy to put together. In retrosp...

Things around here are slowing down a little bit project-wise, which is good considering that the holidays tend to be a little crazy.  I am really a one-project-at-a-time kind of girl, so it is nice to get back to that. Current : I spent the last week working on a super fun, easy quilt for my two year old.  I am currently finishing up the binding so expect a post later this week about it (if I am not too busy shopping, ha ha), but here is a little peek. A camera case for my husband.  We got a small camera because it was difficult to lug the SLR everywhere, so my husband requested that I make a case for it.  I am using this pattern .   Upcoming:   A few small Christmas projects.  I haven't really decided what to make yet. A secret quilt to be revealed in a month or so.  I am very excited to be working on this! Scrap quilt.  The scrap bins are completely out of control. I am looking forward to digging out my old + and x blocks and putting a qu...

A few days ago I received the most perfect pillow in the mail from Lindsay .  It had been one of my favorites from the group and I am so happy that it is mine now!  Lindsay did a wonderful job combining my love of triangles with some of my favorite colors and fabrics. I have been trying to get a photo of the pillow for the last couple of days, but it has been unusually gloomy in LA.  And since my apartment tends to be dark to begin with, it has been impossible to get a photo of the pillow in its new home.  So I had to employ the use of my little assistant and the light on our very ugly balcony. And as much as I love the front, the combination of the front with the fabric on the back is just inspired.  And the zipper is pretty much my favorite color in the whole world. Lindsay also included some pretty extra fabric in the package and she made her own pillow form since the size of the cover was a little rectangular. I love, love, love this swap and I am so glad th...

No more big quilts for a while!  This one really took it out of me.  It is for my youngest sister Kelly for high school graduation (she's graduating a little early).  I am happy with how it turned out and I am happy that I made it, but after just finishing a queen sized quilt and then making this bigger-than-twin sized quilt, I am going to be sticking to lap sized and smaller for a little bit. I have been hoarding this stash of Habitat by Jay McCarroll for a little while and I am hoping that this was the right time to use it.  Kelly told me that she likes maroon and black and turquoise and doesn't really like pink or bright colors.  There is some pink in the quilt, but hopefully it is acceptable :)  I have discovered that I have a really hard time making something that doesn't have pink in it. I have been photographing quilts lately on my neighbor's fence (when they are not home, of course, since I haven't asked permission), but this quilt was too big for t...

Jenelle over at Echinops and Aster posted today about a curated collection competition going on over at Sew Lux .  Putting together mosaics is the perfect thing to do during my kids' naps (and they actually napped today!) so I couldn't resist. I am normally a fan of cooler colors, but I love all of these prints and the chilly weather has definitely drawn me to these autumn colors.  I am going to call my mosaic Autumn Evenings. If you haven't already checked out the competition, you can find the details and linkup  here !

I had originally planned on turning my EPP rose star project into a mini quilt, but then I realized that it would be a great size to use in combination with  this tutorial .  Since I used a 2" hexagon in the center, my rose star was a little under 14" so it made a GIANT basket.  I keep my fabric upstairs in my closet and I sew downstairs in my dining room, so this is going to be perfect for ferrying fabric back and forth. The tutorial is pretty easy and it resulted in a very useful basket.  I definitely think I will be making more of these in the future (although probably smaller).  This one is about 15" tall and 15" in diameter.  I wanted to make sure it would stand up okay on it's own, so I used Thermolam on the exterior and Pellon 808 on the lining fabric.  It is a little floppy when empty, but when it has fabric inside it stands up nicely on its own. I also made another iPad case using this pattern .  It is headed to my sister's house since sh...

When I decided to participate in this bloghop, I was at a little bit of a loss about a photo to use for inspiration. It would have been great to use a photo from our recent trip to Hawaii, but pretty much all of the photos are of my kids.  Then I realized that I do live in a fun place so I might as well take a photo of something that I encounter every day. I live in Los Angeles about a mile west of Beverly Hills.  It is an amazing place to live with lots of things to do, the occasional celebrity siting, and beautiful weather.  It is not, however, a place with much color.  There is a lot of gray (concrete) and brown (smog).  So I was delighted to be out for a walk one day when I looked down Santa Monica Blvd. and notice that there is a little color there.  I plugged my photo into the   color pallette builder  and got a pretty result. There is definitely a lot of concrete here, but there is a blue sidewalk and a painted curb and palm trees...

I took a little break from my Habitat quilt last night to watch the election results and work on a new project.  My husband recently bought an iPad mini (it is awesome!) and, while we did buy smart covers to go with them, that doesn't protect the back of the iPad.  Knowing my kids, they needed a little extra protection.  I bought this pattern (which is also awesome!) and modified it to fit the iPad mini size. I figured that while I was making one, I might as well make 2.  The extra is listed in my brand new etsy shop .   I have made progress on my twin sized Habitat quilt.  I have almost completed the straight line quilting and I am going to do some pebble quilting in the solid diamonds.   My only other WIP is a stack of fabric that I have already cut for my son's quilt.  I am really looking forward to getting to work on it so I am using that as motivation to get finished up with this Habitat quilt!

November is my month in the do. Good Stitches Wish Circle.  I was having trouble deciding which block to choose, but then I saw this tutorial at the Moda Bake Shop and I thought it would be perfect. Since my last quilt was really girly with lots of pinks and purples and oranges, I asked the group to make blocks with boy-ish colors. This block was really fun to make and I definitely could see myself doing an entire quilt.  It is pretty easy and I love the look of the finished block.  I am looking forward to putting this quilt together in a few weeks!

I was able to finish my Habitat quilt top this afternoon.  Finishing the quilt top is always the hardest part of making a quilt for me; there is just so much fabric and all of those exposed seams . . . sewing those big pieces together at the end is probably the only part I don't really like. The finished quilt top is a VERY generously sized twin, it's about 80x90".  Wowza.  I had to add a column and a couple of rows to the pattern to make it big enough, and that made it a little too big.  But bigger too big than too small I guess. And just a reminder . . . voting is still going on for the Totally Groovy QAL and I would LOVE your vote.  Mine is #9 and looks like this: And voting has begun over at the Blogger's Quilt Festival .  If you haven't already checked it out, there are some beautiful quilts here.  My quilt is entry #4.

I was very excited to come home last night and find a package from the UK waiting for me.   Moira  made me a beautiful tote and key fob as part of the Mouthy Stitches swap. I just love the cheerful exterior: and she used one of my all time favorite prints for the interior: She also made this adorable key fob: I have really gotten addicted to participating swaps.  It is so fun to participate in a group of people who are working hard to make something thoughtful for someone else :) My partner, Patti , also received her package yesterday.  I love the snowy pictures she put of the tote on her blog.  I am really wishing we had something resembling snow here right now, it is supposed to be 90 degrees in Los Angeles on Monday!