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Earlier this week I was putting away some fabric and noticed a stack of Out to Sea that has been sitting in my stash for a while.  After I made this quilt , I fell in love with the collection and bought a whole bunch of it.  Of course I liked it so much that I didn't do anything with it until this week. I used the baby size of The Betty Quilt pattern .  When I wrote the pattern I made the twin size version and have been wanting to make the other two sizes, and I had just enough time to squeeze in the baby quilt this week.   The backing is the dark pink anchors and the binding is my favorite print from the collection.  And I made sure to get a few mermaids into the quilt.   I used Quilter's Dream Puff batting for the first time and I really love the texture it gives the finished quilt.  It is fluffy, but still feels substantial without being bulky. Finished size: 42" x 51" Fabric: Out to Sea by Sarah Jane Batting: Quilter's Dream Puff Since my scrap bin...

The Pretty Playtime QAL has finished up.  I have spent some time expanding my block into a wall quilt.  It is currently in the started-hand-quilting-but-got-distracted phase of the project.  Hopefully I can share finished photos soon. Now that everyone has posted their blocks, make sure to stop by and check them out. Week 2 - Erin from  Why Not Sew? Week 3 - Wynn from  Zakka Art Week 4 - Anorian from  Samelia's Mum Week 5 - Amy from  Diary of a Quilter Week 6 - Renee from  Sewn with Grace Week 7 - Jemima from  Tied with a Ribbon Week 8 - Amanda from  Jedi Craft Girl Week 9 - Debbie from  Happy Little Cottage Week 10 - Tina from  Emily Ann's Kloset Week 11 - Erica from  Kitchen Table Quilting Week 12 - Kristyne from  Pretty  by Hand Week 13 - Heidi from  Fabric Mutt Week 14 - Brigitte from  The Family Hearth Week 15 - Lorrie from  Sew Mod...

Last week I was sorting through the closet in our guest room where we keep a stack of spare pillows, and a question occurred to me: why do I have all of these old, musty pillowcases when I could have new, pretty pillowcases?  I have also been wanting to make pillowcases for my bed, so I decided to make a whole stack at once. I apologize that these photos aren't great.  It turns out that taking photos of pillows is not easy, especially when all of my photo helpers are at school.  The two above were made with the Fox Tracks print from Bluebird.  I LOVE this print.  It's my favorite color and I love the floral.  Good thing my husband doesn't mind sleeping on a flowery pillow. Then I made one from Hatbox, two from Anna Maria Horner, and one from Lizzy House's Constellations.  These were all 1 yard cuts that I had sitting in my cupboard that I really love, but wasn't sure when I was ever going to use.   I really like this pillowcase tutorial if you ar...

For the past few years I have been making quilts for my nieces and nephews as they have turned 8. It seems like all of the kids were born in groupings and in the past year 2 nephews and my daughter have all turned 8, they are keeping me busy! This quilt is for our nephew Aiden.   He turns 8 this month and that is the age in our church when kids are baptized.  We are going to miss his baptism because of a conflict, so this one is going to have to go in the mail. I used the backing fabric for the color inspiration and went with a variety of blues and greens. The quilt top is made up of 3.75" finished half square triangles so this involved a lot of trimming!   I cut my binding strips 2.75" wide which is what I have been doing more and more often.  When I first started quilting I always used 2.25" wide binding strips, then moved on to 2.5", and now I am preferring 2.75".  One thing that I like about the wider binding is that it seems to be easier to make a nice, cr...

While I have continued to post, things around the blog had gotten a little out of date.  I hadn't updated the Quilt tab in almost a year, oops!  That has now been updated, as well as adding a tab for my patterns  and updated the header.  I have also added a couple of quilts to my Etsy shop .  They are minor changes to the blog and shop, but they took me forever so I am posting about them! Sorry if things have been a little quiet here. With the kids home for the summer, there wasn't much time for sewing, but these cuties are back to school so once I get the house back in order, I will be back to quilting!

The pillows in our family room get a lot of use.  They get slept on, jumped on, thrown, crawled over, etc. and every year or so they need to be replaced.  The other day when I suddenly had an evening where I had finished all of my current projects and wasn't quite ready to start anything else on my to do list, I made a couple of pillow covers. This one uses scraps from Allison Harris ' Hazel collection that I had leftover from making this quilt .  I think that this collection has such a fun and happy color combo.  I used some larger scraps for the back as well and this pillow cover finished up at 20" x 20". The back has a zipper closure that I made using this method .  I have tried a few different closure methods, but this is the one that I keep coming back to.  And then I made a second pillow cover using leftovers from this quilt and this quilt .  I made the mistake of not measuring my pillow form before I made the pillow and there is now a 14" pillo...

Whew. Guys, writing patterns is no joke. I have been wanting to write up a pattern for this design since I made this quilt a few months ago but I knew that I needed to change how the quilt was constructed. With the help of my lovely pattern testers, and after lots of hours of staring at my computer screen, The Betty Quilt Pattern  is now ready on both Craftsy and Etsy .   I thought that this quilt would work great as a twin size quilt, but I also know that not everyone wants to make a twin size quilt, so the pattern is available in Baby (42" x 51"), Lap (60" x 68"), and Twin (68" x 93") sizes.   My version is twin sized and uses a combination of Cotton + Steel Basics and Printshop prints and RJR Cotton Supreme Solids.  Since the RJR Solids coordinate with Cotton + Steel prints, they work together nicely.  Also, Printshop is probably my favorite C+S collection ever. It is printed on unbleached cotton and it is dynamic and versatile.  This quilt is for...

The winner of the giveaway from Lark Cottons is . . . Congratulations!  Watch for an email from me. Thank you everyone for entering the giveaway and showing your love for Lark Cottons !