Dear Jane-ing

(One of my doll quilts was featured in a top five favorite list over on the doll quilt swap blog.  How fun is that!)

Believe it or not, I’m working on my Dear Jane blocks. (I know, shocker!)  It’s slow, but eventually we’ll get this thing done :).  Summer has been so busy, running my kids around, that I haven’t had much time for sewing or much of anything else!

Here’s a block I worked on yesterday.

I only had a little bit of the fabric left to make the second block, and I was worried that I was going to run out.  Luckily my sister had a bit more of it she would send to me if I needed it.

Amazingly when I got done piecing the center there were 2 strips left over and they were the perfect length for the outside borders.

Here are the scraps I had left…nothing big enough to do anymore piecing with.  I couldn’t believe it worked out just perfect!

I just love it when things like that happen!

Ready for the New Year

I love the week between Christmas and New Years.  It's such a quiet time after all the busyness of getting ready for Christmas.  Christmas has come and gone and left us with such a happy feeling of family and gift giving.

Everyone is playing with their new toys.  And I have time to get organized!  Something about that new year approaching that makes me want to clean up.

I haven't touched the Christmas tree and decorations yet.  No, I went straight to work in my sewing area. 

I've gone through every drawer, cupboard, and container and boy does it feel good to have everything where it should be and to throw things out.

I even got the little quilts that I have received from swaps out of the cupboards and hung on my wall where I can admire them. (other little quilts I have received are displayed elsewhere in my home)

I went the day after Christmas with a friend up to L.A.  Her best friend's Mom passed away and left an amazing sewing studio with an amazing amount of every type of sewing tool and supply.  Her daughter invited us to come and take whatever we wanted.  So I came away with tons of fabric and rulers and such.  So cleaning up my sewing area was also to make room for all the new goodies!

I am looking forward to bringing fabric and tools to our little local quilt group to share the wealth!  We have a lot of beginning quilters who could use some supplies.

And for Christmas my wonderful husband gave me a Cricut.  For those who don't know, it's an electronic paper cutter that cuts shapes (of all kinds...animals, flowers, letters, you name it!) out of paper from 1/4 inch to more than 12 inches tall! Miss K and I have been having a lot of fun with it already.  I've also heard you can cut vinyl (home decor) and fabric with it too (with a fusible we backing.

  Miss K's Design!

So I had to make a little room for the Cricut (seen in the first picture above) and clean out some drawers in my sewing cabinet for a paper cutting station next to my sewing machine.

Now I'm all ready to sew and craft in the New Year!

Berry Cherry from Rebecca!!!

Look what came in the mail today!

I received my Doll Quilt Swap 4 quilt from Rebecca. How lucky am I?!

Not only did I receive such a wonderful quilt, but she included this gorgeous book that I know will be so fun to browse through for inspiration! It's full of wonderful projects that I can't wait to try.

She picked out the best fabrics for me for the doll quilt. I love red, and there's lots of it. I love the white stitching on the red fabric. And I love the color combination of the red, yellow and green. The cherries on the front, and the strawberries on the back make it extra fun and delicious to look at.

I always like a touch of black too, so the binding and the little bits of black in the log cabin fabrics really sets it off.

How fun that Rebecca commented on my Pay It Forward post back in July. She received the stuffed heart I made so I already had been introduced to her before. I was so excited to see that she was my swap partner. She wrote me a super nice note and I couldn't be more pleased!

Thanks Rebecca! I love it.

This and That

It seems like every once in a while there just needs to be a "this and that" post.

My swap partner received my DQS4 quilt! I am so lucky! She is the most gracious and kind woman. I'm so glad my quilt ended up with her. You can read her post about receiving it on her blog. I'm so glad she likes it. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive!

My kids are back in school. (Yay for them and me!) Today is the second day. Everyone seems happy for the most part. My daughter can get herself worked up, but overall she's doing well, and hopefully she'll get into the groove of school quickly. I'm hoping that starting on a Tuesday will be better for her. Usually we start on Thursday, and since they only go 2 days before the weekend, it can be hard on Monday again.

We walked to school and home yesterday and to school today. I love the exercise, and the kids enjoyed it, but I don't think they can keep it up. It takes us about 25 minutes, and it's uphill all the way there.

As for me, I cleaned the house, chatted with friends on the phone, and went out to lunch with a friend the first day. Today I helped out at the school library for a couple hours, then I jogged home. I just don't have as much patience for walking (when I'm by myself) now that I've started running.

Today I've got some errands to run, but hopefully I can work on some unfinished projects. I'm excited for some more dedicated sewing time and to get back to my Dear Jane Wednesday!

Hope today finds you well!

Doll Quilts

I was visiting Nettie's blog where she wrote a post about doll quilts. She was mentioning that it took her a while to "get" doll quilts. But that she has "finally fallen in love" with them. I started posting a comment, and it started to get really long. So I decided I'd better just write a post here since I discovered I had something to say on the subject.

When I began making quilts 14 years ago I started with small wall hangings, or in other words, doll sized quilts. My first book was Little Quilts All Around The House, by Berg, Von Holt, and Johnson. My copy is very well worn from all the hours I spent looking through it. The copyright is 1993, and it was 1994 when I was first bitten by the quilt bug. As I look through the book I see that I have made several projects from its pages.

I loved the antique look, and the miniature size. And I loved decorating with them. But the truth is, most of the things I made I gave away as gifts. I guess things never change.

As the years passed I started making bigger quilts: baby quilts to twin size. The only queen size quilt is the one for my bed that I haven't finished. The biggest project that I am still working on is the Dear Jane quilt, and there again, the blocks are small, 4.5 inches finished, although there are a lot of them!

So when I started blogging and I discovered "doll quilt swaps" on the Internet, I was immediately drawn in. My first swap quilt is on it's way to it's new owner, and I'm excited to hear when it is received. And I'll probably hear tomorrow about my partner for the next swap I'm doing.

A doll sized quilt is quick and easy to put together (once the design is decided upon!), and you get to experience each step in the process of making the quilt. I'm excited to be back to making doll quilts!

Doll Quilt Swap 4

My swap quilt is ready to be mailed with this cute little birdie and some homemade cards! I'm anxious to see how my swap partner likes it! And I'm anxious to be on the receiving end too! The quilts have to be mailed by September 1st, so not too much longer to wait! To check out all the lovely quilts that people have made for the swap you can check out this link. Lots more will be posted there in the coming weeks, so check back after Sept 1 to see them all. This swap has been lots of fun, and my first swap to participate in. I'm already signed up for another one, as you can see on my sidebar. Lots of fun!

Piecing Batting

I cannot throw away the strips of batting that are left over after cutting off a piece of batting for a quilt. The pieces are too small for a baby quilt, yet it seems like such a waste to throw them away. Lately I've been using up my batting scraps pile by piecing them together so that they are large enough for a baby quilt or wall hanging. It makes me feel like I'm saving money and using what I have. And that's a good feeling.

Maybe there's someone out there that hasn't tried piecing together batting for a quilt. So I thought I'd share what I do.

I lay the pieces next to each other so that they are overlapping by a small amount.

Then I lay my ruler over that small double layer and cut a straight line all the way from one end to the other.

As you can see you end up with your two sides with a nice straight edge for sewing, and two small strips that are to be thrown away.

Next I take the two pieces to my sewing machine and choose a large zig zag stitch. I butt my pieces together with them centered under my foot, and guide with a hand on each side to make sure it is feeding evenly.

When you're done sewing, your batting is ready to use in your quilt. And no one will ever know that the batting inside is pieced.

But my secret is out...yes I pieced the batting for my DQS4 quilt. And now on to the quilting!

Doll Quilt Swap Update

Here are the "circles" I was telling you about. They really ended up being hexagons (or umbrellas really) for my doll swap quilt--"A Day at the Beach." I'm trying to decide if I should add some embellishments. As you can see I added beads to the umbrella tops. I'm trying to decide if I should add beads, ribbons, or anything at all to the water's edge.

Here are some beads I was trying out, but I'm just not sure about them.

I got up in the middle of the night to rescue some tulle I had in a bag to throw out. I thought it might just be the perfect thing to use, or some organza type ribbon. Any suggestions? I might wander around JoAnns to see if anything jumps out at me.

Hmmm, maybe I could do some quilting with some decorative/metallic thread? Now there's an idea! So many possibilities to explore. I hope I can sleep tonight!

Doll Quilt Update

Got my triangles sewn together and now I'm working on my squares. Does it remind you of anything? Maybe this will help...



I'm going to send a little bit of the beach to someone that might not get the chance to visit it very often. I hope she likes it!

Next I'll be working on circles...