Bento Box Quilt For A Special Boy

My sister gave birth to her very first little one on May 1st making me a Tante (aunty) for the very first time! Yay, so exciting and to celebrate I want to make him his very first quilt.

I've been looking for the perfect pattern or idea for a boy's quilt for quite a while and when I saw these photos for a Modified Bento Box I sort of fell in love with it *grin*. So much in fact that when I started digging through my fabric stash I had my ipod in hand so that I could consult with her photo to match up similar colors LOL.

So far I've cut all of the center blocks out but since I don't have a pattern to give me exact amounts of fabric to cut I'm sort of just winging it when it comes to how many strips of fabric I will need. I didn't want to cut too many just in case I don't use them all so I may have to stop and do some more cutting before I get to the end but I'd rather do that then end up with a bunch of three inch strips I don't need later.

I had planned to spend the entire morning sewing away but my daughter seemed to have other plans and ended up pulling me into a little sewing project of her own so this is about all I got finished today :) I think I have about a month and a half to finish though so that should give me plenty of time to finish it... should being the operative word as I have been known to be a bit of a procrastinator. I just may end up at the baby shower with bright red blood shot eyes from pulling an extreme all nighter to get it finished in time. Let's hope not though! *grin*.

Hugs,

Rosina 

Her First Quilt

The quilting bug has caught hold of my seven year old daughter and she is working on her very first doll blanket :)

I am totally thrilled! She has been watching my mom and I craft since she was a baby and I can tell that she will soon be a full time member of our sewing circle *grin*. She's hand sewing all of the pieces together and is amazingly quick now that she has mastered how to tie her own knots and is no longer stabbing her fingers constantly :)

Thankfully for now my scrap bag will satisfy her every need for fabrics but I know there will be the day that she will want to shop just like her mama at the fabric store. All I can say is poor hubby's pocketbook! LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina

Quilt As You Go ~ Quilt-Along Round 2

I'm super excited because I got asked to participate in round 2 of the Quilt As You Go quilt-along that is being hosted by the fabulous Heather of A La Mode Fabric!

There are sooo many ultra talented quilters participating and I can't wait to see how their blocks shape up. We get to do free motion quilting on the squares, one block at a time in any design we like so I'm looking forward to trying out the free motion foot that I actually bought for my machine a couple of months ago but have been to scared to use *grin*.

When I was in the city yesterday I stopped by the fabric store and picked up 2.5 yards of a gorgeous 50% organic cotton and 50% bamboo quilt batting that should be enough to complete a queen sized quilt. It is so incredibly soft it's unbelievable. It's nearly a shame to have to quilt it inside the layers later LOL.

I definitely have no shortage of scraps either. My scrap bags runneth over *grin*. We're making Wonky Log Cabin blocks and I have tons of shorter pieces for most of the block but I'm hoping that I can find enough larger scraps for the outer edges of the blocks as I think we're supposed to end up with a 14.5 inch block. I just might have to cut into some of my good stash!

I'm hoping that tomorrow I will be able to get a couple of blocks sewn together after we finish up our schooling and chores in the morning. If I get them done I'll share with you how they turn out :) I can't wait!

~ Rosina

Nothing but Nets

This is such a selfless and amazing act of kindness that I just had to share this with all of you. The following entry is copied from Amy of Inspireco with her permission and it shares about one womans mission to create a quilt, raise awareness and provide for those in need. Please read it, join in if you are able and share it with others.
~ Rosina

A couple of months ago Crystal of A Little Bit Funky felt the nudge to do more with her blog than just write and share...She felt like she was being led to use her blog as a catapult for showing God's love. I want to share her story with you. I hope you are as moved by it as I am.

Crystal had the brilliant idea to make a quilt, a magnificent quilt, to offer as a sort of raffle in exchange for mosquito nets purchased for those who desperately need them in Africa.

She contacted sweet Jody from Fabric Shoppe...and told her what she was on a mission to do...Jody almost immediately offered to donate ALL of the fabric Crystal would need to make the quilt. Think about the generosity in that offer...that's a lot of fabric to send to a stranger with a promise to make a quilt to benefit a charity. Crystal cried in the parking lot after she read that email. And then a friend offered to pay for the batting and the shipping. Everything was coming together so well and Crystal was so excited to get started.

In Crystal's own words:

"God is responsible for all of this coming together. God loves all people. God loves Africa...and all those sweet people who are suffering from something that is SO easily helped..."

"To me...each piece of fabric in this quilt stands for a family or person...or BABY...that together we can help...and this may sound crazy...but if you are one of the many who have told me of plans to adopt from Africa...the net you buy just may save YOUR future baby. Crazy cool, right?"

Malaria kills over 1 MILLION precious people PER YEAR!!!

In fact, there are 10 new cases of malaria every second.

Every 30 seconds, a child in Africa dies from a malaria infection. A child that is no less precious or loved or held dear by his parents than our own children.

By buying ONE net a family of four can sleep under an insecticide-treated bed net, safe from malaria, for four to five years.

&

The benefits of bed nets extend even further than protecting those sleeping underneath them. The insecticide woven into each net makes entire communities safer – killing and repelling mosquitoes so that they can’t go on to bite others who may not be protected by a net.

Although $10 for a bed net may not sound like much, the cost makes them out of reach for most people at risk of malaria, many of whom survive on less than $1 a day.

Just think...to us $10 is a couple of latte's...a movie...a shirt...a lunch out...a CD...a couple of magazines...any number of frivolous things that we all throw money at...can I challenge us all to give those up for a day...or a week or a month...and give a net or two or three instead?

Let's help Crystal show God's love to people in Africa.
Each net you buy is ONE entry into the raffle to win this quilt!

And as a special little touch...to help you remember what this quilt represents...she added this cute little tag. :)

Go buy a net by clicking HERE.

The winner will be chosen NEXT FRIDAY the 23rd!! So every net bought by Thursday the 22nd at midnight will count as ONE entry.

Now...pretty, pretty, PLEASE...go BUY A NET...and spread the word!!



(Feel free to copy this post to your blog. Email it to friends. Make a difference today.)

New Obsession

Okay I admit it... I am utterly obsessed with quilts and every time I see a new pattern I just want to try it out *grin*. I've had this bright and cheery stack of fabric waiting to be turned into something fabulous and Oh Fransson's great New Wave Quilt is just begging to be made with it! LOL.

Photo courtesy of Watch Meesh Run via Flickr

I think it's going to look fabulous with the strikingly bright pinks, greens, blues & yellows dissected by the white sashing. Oooh so yummy *grin*. I need to get my hands on some template plastic tomorrow or find something around here to use so I can get started!

What sewing projects do you have on the go right now? I'd love to take a peek :)

~ Rosina

Hexagons on the Hoop

Thought that I would share how I'm doing with my little hexagon quilt :)
I had originally intended to give it to my daughter for Easter but with all of the bunny goodness that I ended up making for her I thought that I would hang on to the quilt and give it at a later date so that her brothers didn't think she was getting spoiled *wink*.

I found the most vivid fuschia colored linen to finish it with. I just LOVE the color and I'm absolutely smitten with linen right now so I just had to buy it *grin*.

I pinned the hexagons to the linen with some quilting safety pins I had to keep it as smooth as possible so that it wouldn't bunch underneath as I shift the larger piece of linen around and now I've got it on my hoop so that I can start to quilt inside the hexagons :) I've decided that I'm going to do a little bit of free hand embroidery inside the green linen hexagons and put 'love mama' and the year and so on for her to. I can't wait to get a little more time to work on it, it's going to be so cute!!

~ Rosina

Coming Together Nicely

I thought that I would share an update on how L's little hexagon dolly quilt is coming along. I think I'm actually going to get it finished in time for Easter and have time to spare! There's only a handful of them left to sew together and then it's on to the binding, backing and so on :)

I'm actually amazed at how well all of the little hexagons fit together. I was slightly terrified that if any of them were off in size at all that it would throw the entire thing off but it's quite forgiving! I've had a few that are a couple of millimeters to long or short on one side or the other but they just sort of work in to the next hexagon without any fussing. So if you were thinking of tackling one similar to this I say go for it! *grin*

L's been eyeing up my craft bag as I've been whisking it in and out of cupboards, under fabric piles and skulking in shadows with it to catch little moments to sew on it during the day. LOL. She knows that I'm up to something but can't figure out what :)

It did get her excited about doing some fabric pictures and she put together this one using some of my scraps. She spent the morning cutting out shapes and stitching them on to the fabric until she had a story to go along with it. So cute! I think I'm going to have to get some more hoops for her or we could just switch out the fabric every time she wants to do a new one because she's already cutting out pieces for a new one :)

~ Rosina

1 Hex, 2, Hex, 13 Hex?

I just love my little rainbow of hexagons :)
So colorful yet so confusing *grin*. I can definitely understand now why I needed to number each of them before starting to sew them together! I had packed them with in the truck today when we headed into town but quickly realized that I couldn't just pull them out one by one to stitch them together and to top it all off I had actually forgotten which way I had arranged them the other day on the table for the finished look. Apparently I'm suffering from short term memory loss these days :)

My little pattern indicated that I was definitely not to sew them all together in a straight line but in a zig zagging sort of pattern. So number 1 was stitched to number 2 and then number 13 was attached to number 2. I'm just whip stitching them with a bright green thread because I thought that it would look fun since some of the stitching is going to end up showing a bit on the front side anyways. I've got 5 together so far and I'm going to do a few more tonight and then I'll show you how I'm progressing again :) I must say it's a fun little project!

~ Rosina

Hexagon Quilt

Okay so I know I said that I was going to be working on the dress I'm making for my daughter, but somehow I got distracted. I came across the cutest pattern for a hexagon quilt and now I'm making it *grin*. Wait though I've got a good excuse! It's top secret so it's a good thing she doesn't read my blog but I'm going to make it doll sized as an Easter present for L :) She's going to love it!

I've never made a paper pieced quilt before and of course the directions are quite vague but I'm pretty good at improv :) So right out of the starting gate I'm already breaking the pattern rules LOL.

Apparently I was supposed to be using loose paper hexagon pieces that you then baste onto the fabric but I'm totally not into all that basting so I broke out the freezer paper which is instant sticky paper when you iron it onto fabric!

I've got all 39 of my little hexagons cut and their freezer paper centers affixed and I'm just finishing up ironing all of the seams down and to make sure that I don't accidentally iron to far over the paper I've been ironing with my cardboard tracer inside. It's working out beautifully but I'm quite thankful that I'm not making a queen sized quilt top or anything with these little guys! I'd be ironing and clipping forever :)

~ Rosina

Thrift Store Find ~ Hankie Quilt

I knew there was a reason I was collecting vintage ladies hankies :)

Check out this super cute hankie quilt! Each of the squares had a different hankie sewn on and then embellished with bits of ribbon and buttons. So easy and what an inventive way to use them up :)

They were asking $40 for it so I left it to be discovered by another thrifter *grin*. I've got a few hankies with little lacy trims and embroidered flowers and some of the more plain jane ones but I'm definitely going to have to keep my eyes peeled for more and put this on my future project list :)

Here are some great vintage hankies that I found on Etsy :)



1. Exquisite vintage petit point 2. Vintage valentine hankies 3. Vintage handkerchief hanky 4. Vintage embroidered rose 5. Vintage hankies 6. Embroidered elephant in polka dots 7. Embroidered flower vintage french 8. Valentines day 9. Vintage printed hankie

Maybe I won't have to wait until I can find more at the thrift stores with all of these great hankies just waiting to be snapped up on etsy *grin*

~ Rosina

First Blocks Done

I started cutting my first blocks today for the paintbox quilt :)
I had to do a little improv with the instructions as they call for 2 1/2 inch strips of the solid colors but I only had yardage in the solids and the patterned fabrics were supposed to be 10 inch squares but of course mine happen to be in strips so I'm working all the blocks in reverse *grin* It's all working out though :)

I decided to go with the classic blocks since they are the easiest to assemble and sew together in just a couple of minutes.

So here are the very first two in contrasting colors. I can't wait to get some more sewn up! I just love the bright color combination :)

~ Rosina

A Paintbox Quilt

I've had this great jelly roll of quilting fabrics stashed away in my craft cupboard for a couple of months now just waiting for some inspiration to hit me with an 'aha' moment and I've finally had it!

As I was doing some craft blog surfing the other day I came across a quilt called a 'Paintbox' quilt and I love it. It actually looks like the the scrappy version of it is put together very similar to a log cabin quilt but I have to delve into the instructions a little closer to see if I'm right or not :)

So I hit the fabric store this afternoon and picked up some quilting cotton solids in fun bright colors because you know it's all about fun! *grin* I'm not sure if it'll be enough to finish but I definitely have enough to get started.

Set 1, originally uploaded by Little Bluebell.

Above is a sample of what the classic squares look like with 2 of each block created to contrast each other. This is going to be fun :)

~ Rosina

Heirloom Dresden Block Quilt

There is something so incredibly peaceful about hand sewing. I don't get to spend a lot of time experiencing this as pretty much all of my projects are done on the sewing machine! I have to say I'm envious of you ladies that crochet, knit or embroider for the majority of your time as you can take it anywhere. When was the last time you saw someone using their sewing machine at the bus stop or waiting outside their child's art class?! LOL.

This is one of my grandmother's quilts that my mother was so fortunate to be able to save before my grandmother was moved out of her home many years ago. I love the playful feel you get from all of the colorful fabrics and isn't the dresden quilt block just fabulous?

My grandmother belonged to the Women's Institute in her time and with the help of her fellow members they hand stitched hundreds of quilts for charity and hospital residents :) My mom has told me that she had spent many hours ironing pieces for her quilts and joyfully stitching them together, loving every moment of it.

This quilt isn't finished yet, just the top is completed and we actually have the backing that she had purchased to go along with it. I hope to be able to complete it in her memory. Perhaps I'll get the chance to create one of my own one day to... all by hand :)

~ Rosina