Purple Patchwork Cargo Duffel

In the midst of summer, and all it’s fun, I whipped up a Cargo Duffel among other things I have yet to blog about.

I absolutely love it! There will definitely be more of these.

I did make a few changes, which are:

– I used 2 layers of cotton batting in all the pieces of the main part of the bag.

– Linen was my interior fabric, no canvas.

– I added 10 inches to the strap length, I prefer a longer strap.

I also made a matching triple zip (which I made 2 inches longer than the tutorial) for the inside. I used my snap press to attach it to the inside of the bag, that way it can be removed. My secret sister I made it for requested lots of pockets, so I needed to improvise 🙂

I also used a baby corduroy for the bottom of the bag, I really like how this turned out. I really feel like it added more to the bottom, and hopefully it won’t wear out as fast as quilting cotton.

I’m telling you, this one was a little hard to give away. But, she absolutely LOVED it, so that made it much easier!

Maggie’s Quilt

I finally finished a quilt this year… feels like it took forever.

I used the Summer In The Park tutorial by Missouri Quilt Company.

It was really quick, and easy. My favorite part is the scrappy binding, that will definitely be happening again!

In fact, I’m thinking it would look great in brights & low volumes, or maybe even super bright jewel tones (throw in some of that radiant orchid while we’re at it).

I did stippling for the quilting, not very dense at all. This may have been my fastest quilting too, did it in one afternoon!

The back is quite boring, just using up some leftover brown, and a light brown floral.

Even though these colors aren’t my first choice, the lady I made it for loves it. Yay!

Double Sized Bargello – FINISHED!

This beauty has been mostly done for a little while now, but since it was a gift I just had to wait to post about it. I absolutely love giving a homemade gift!!

I followed the Bargello pattern in the book ‘Stash-Buster Quilts’ by Lynne Edwards, but did some adjusting. I doubled the width and length of each piece/row in the quilt, so ended up with less blocks and a different final dimension. For my first bargello, I quite like it!

This book is pretty cool, I originally bought it just for the Japanese Folded Patchwork Bag pattern, it’s an amazing looking bag (still need to make one).

The top for this was put together when I was on the retreat back in September. It was done in 2 days! A new record! And who doesn’t love a good scrappy stripe through the back??

Also, I did the quilting with both red and grey thread, doing the red on the prints with red and the grey on the prints with white/black. I really really like how it turned out, I’m definitely doing it again!

10th Anniversary National Conference 2013

So, in my spare time I sell Thirty One products. Yes, I love them and I love what I do.

With that being said, I went to my first National Conference and it just so happened to be Thirty One’s 10th Anniversary!! SO FUN!

My husband and I decided to fly out a day early to do some tourist-y stuff. It was the first time my husband and I flew anywhere together (in 8 years…). Apparently we’re more home bodies than I thought.

There were so many people at conference… a little overwhelming at times. Can you find my husband??

We went to The World of Coca-Cola. My husband loves soda, and well I’m all about some Cherry Coke, so this was up our alley.

This place was very cool, lots and lots of eye candy!!

We also tried tons of different kinds of soda. The best one I tried was from Japan and had carrots in the photo, and the worst was one called ‘Beverly’ from Italy (SO GROSS).

I was soda-d out after trying so many flavors!

I also finished another preemie blanket my first day there. Nothing better than finishing a knitting project on vacation! There will be a pattern coming soon, it was super easy. Notice how it looks like another quilt block (similar to my 4 Square Preemie Knitted Blanket)? The thought has crossed my mind to do a whole bunch of 18inch knitted blocks that look like traditional quilt blocks. What do you think?

(Back to conference)

One of the best parts about conference was meeting some of the ladies I met while I was there!! New friends are the best!

Did you know that in Atlanta the fire hydrants are silver?? Yea, that’s right, Silver!

We got back home this past Sunday, and all week we’ve been busy! I love summer and all the fun things I get to do with my family.

Just two nights ago my baby boy and I went out picking green beans, which was fantastic on it’s own, but as I was handing them to him to put in the bowl he said ‘thank you’ just about every time. It was such an awesome experience!

Wow, sorry that was such a rambled up jumble of things, but that’s kinda how this summer feels! I do have a few projects to share, and some goal setting to do, so hopefully there will be a little more time for blogging this week.

Happy trails!

And, it’s a Plus Sign Quilt

That snippet I showed you the other day was a little preview of this beauty:

It was a gift for a good friend back home who is having her first child.

I think I am still in a little shock that I got it done in about 4 weeks, yea that’s right 4 weeks!

The backing is super cute, it’s Michael Miller’s Giraffe Love Grey.

I even had time to hand stitch the info onto it, wash it and everything. I think I was the queen of having to hand stitch the binding on in the car on the way to whatever shower I was going to, and this would only work if my husband was making the trip with me. lol.

But no, this one got wrapped in a box and everything!

Of course, I had to take a few shots of my baby with it. Maybe I need to make him one now too.

So, even though I only got one of my goals done for May, I feel like I kicked sewing in the butt last month!!

Edited to add:

Quilt Stats:
Size: 56″ square
Quilting: about 2″ grid offset 1/4″ of seams
Total time from start to finish: about 3 weeks
100% cotton fabric, thread, & batting

Outdoors Quilt, a Thank You

Remember that awesome gift that a friend of my Dad’s gave to me?

It was a Singer Featherweight, a dream gift! (I can’t believe I haven’t photographed it yet!)

Well, I finally finished this baby quilt for his son as a thank you for such an amazing gift. I hope they love it!

What do you think?

I had fun using up scraps and making it off center, kinda wonky and all. It felt very good to not follow a pattern, no ‘rules’.

Mother’s Day Pillow

What better gift could I have given my Mom on Mother’s Day besides her king-sized quilt that I ran out of thread for while quilting it? (more is on the way)

Well, a pillow to match of course!

I started making the hexagons for these once the quilt top was complete. I wanted to be sure that the scraps were really scraps and not needed for the quilt. I sewed them together by hand, then machine quilted them onto a 17inch square.

It was hard to give this to her, I wanted to keep it for my house! The back may be my favorite part oddly enough. It’s just strips left over that I made into an envelope back. Oh I love it.