Mixing it Up!

This mini quilt will soon be hanging in my office at work.  My whole career has been with housewares retailers and it will be just perfect in my office.  Baking is one of my favorite things to do and I cannot wait to put this one on display.The super awesome mixer is the Geometric Mixer pattern by Kristy Lea of Quiet Play.  The bowl and kitchen crock  are also Quiet Play patterns.  The birthday cake block is designed by Lori Holt from A Bee in my Bonnet as part of her Quilty Fun patterns.

The background is from Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis Textiles.  She prints directly on Kona Cotton fabric and it is all fabulous.  I’m so happy with how the blue fabrics pop off that pale background.I tried to connect each block with the fabric choices used in the other blocks.  The yellow spoon in the bowl is the same as the spoon in the crock.  The blue of the cake stand is in the mixer and the cake filling is the color of the mixing bowl.  I love how the whole thing came together. I adore the border fabric and I am proud of the very intentional binding that I did with the directional aspect of that fabric.  It took quite a bit of planning and numerous Wonder Clips to keep it all in place.I used this Cotton + Steel Cookie Book print as my label.  It tied everything together so well.

Next up…..

I’m still working on my sewing area so the actual sewing has been pretty limited but I started a baby quilt using the Varsity line by Sweetwater.  The background is Wavy Stripe by Tula Pink in the True Colors line. It’s adding so much movement to the blocks.  It’s turning out just as I imagined.

Speaking of my sewing room redo – I’ve got some more reorganizing to do before a full reveal.  I’m looking forward to it’s completion.  In the meantime, I’m sneaking in some sewing anytime I can get the sewing table cleared off.

Happy Sewing!

Snow Cute!

I’ve been contemplating participating in a Sewalong that is happening over on Instagram. Lori Holt, of Bee in my Bonnet, is have a Quilty Little Christmas Sewalong where she posts the photos and instructions for some of her awesome blocks on Instagram. You participate by posting your progress and using the assigned hashtag (#haveyourselfaquiltylittlechristmas). I had been putting off joining in until she posted the quilt label, which was a sweet little snowman. Then she separated the snowman sewing from the rest of the sampler quilt. I’m a sucker for snowmen and knew I needed to start sewing along. I picked my fabrics – background, body, scarf.

Three of the aquas, and the two texty stitch prints, are from Lori Holt’s line Polka Dot Stitches. It’s an older line but you can still find bits and pieces online at this etsy store.
Her photos and directions (#mrsnowmansewalong) are very clear and I got the first block put together.

I used that block as a placement guide for the other three. I wanted to make a table topper so I played with placement of the four blocks.

All facing the same direction would be awesome for a mini quilt, but not what I was going for. One facing each direction meant you wouldn’t have to worry about how it looks from each place at the table. It’s cute, but it just didn’t feel like what I wanted. That’s when table runner popped into my head and I knew that was where I needed to go. I flipped the direction on every other one, with a 2 1/2 inch strip in between, so that both of the long sides were the same.

Those strips are Hollywood Sparkle Damask by Riley Blake. Yum! So sparkly and gorgeous!

I zigzag stitched on the arms and eyes and hand stitched the nose using backstitches and cross-stitches.

For the back I used this sparkly snowman fabric that I got a Joann’s last year. It’s a directional print so I put a polka dot stripe across the back so I could split up the snowman fabric and have them facing both directions.

I did my new favorite wavy quilting and I love how it all looks, especially bound in that aqua polka dot from Riley Blake.

I still need to add the buttons on their bellies but it’s super cute as it is so I may never get that far with it. This is going on my coffee table for the season since I barely ever go into the dining room. I want to see it all the time and it’s a great incentive to keep that table clean and mail-free.