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 

Sewing... Sort of

Hubby came home last night just in time for another day of being without power *grin*. I think he was seriously thinking he should have stayed on the boat where he had lights, tv, and a fully functional kitchen LOL. Hopefully this isn't going to be the winter norm of storms and darkness!

I had hoped to get more done on my holiday table runner this morning while Daddy and the kids played but I only made it half way through the blocks before everything shut down. I was chuckling to myself as I was sewing because I'm sure a serious quilter might cringe at how I was sewing my corner blocks on :) This time instead of marking a line down the center of each one I just pinched them making a crease to follow and I actually haven't pinned anything together since starting... I just love to break the rules *grin*.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to actually finish them.
For now I'm just enjoying being able to check my email and fill some pots full of water for tomorrow morning just in case we wake up in the perma dark again *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Piecing Pinwheels

I'm getting closer to finishing my holiday table runner and I'm loving all of the red :) The pinwheel blocks have gone together quite well although I did have to put my seam ripper to good use and pull a couple of them apart to adjust the centers so that the points aligned better :)

I decided to modify my pattern just a little though after running across this really cute peppermint twist table runner :) So I just finished cutting 48 little squares in a tan linen to place on the corners of my pinwheel blocks to round them up. I know what I'll be working on tomorrow *grin*.

Happy sunday!

Hugs,
Rosina

Frozen

I just got off the phone with my husband and the poor guy has been freezing his butt off up at the head of Knight's Inlet :( We have some wicked arctic outflows here right now and the frozen temperatures have made it so cold that they've been running their oil stove and two heaters just to keep warm on the tug.

Here I thought we had it bad. When we woke up this morning the windows in the laundry room which is the furthest room from the woodstoves actually had thick ice growing on the inside of the windows! The temperature is at -10 with the windchill bringing it closer to -18 but poor hubby figures they are about twice as cold :( He might get a chance to come home for a couple of days tomorrow due to the weather so I'm hoping he does so that he can get a chance to warm up!

The kids and I made a few mad dashes outside today to gather firewood, go to the mail and visit my mom but I think we are all quite content to huddle indoors *grin*. I woke up feeling very festive and thought it would be nice to have a new Christmasy table runner for the coffee table in our family room. I have seen some very lovely runners lately and really love the pinwheel style quilted ones so I've started cutting out and marking 4 inch squares of red fabrics to sew up and cut into my dual colored blocks :) I just need to find some white cotton in my stash and I'll be ready to start piecing it all together tomorrow.

Hope things are warmer for you all *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Pretty Potholders

Look at the gorgeous potholders that arrived in my mailbox yesterday :) My lovely swap partner ended up being from right here in Canada and I just LOVE what she created for me. The cute little quilted christmas tree is actually made with same fabrics that I used for my partners potholders! Great minds must think alike *grin*.

I adore the stitching on this potholder, the way it created hills and valleys around the little squares of fabric... so crazy creative!! It actually reminds me of a game of pac man *grin*. They are perfect for my kitchen as it is red and the polka dot binding is just fantastic :) I don't think that I can bear to use them though in fear of staining them so I think that I'm going to use them on my coffee table for resting a candle jar on. That way I can enjoy them all throughout the holiday season and they won't get any pot roast or pie stains on them *grin*.

Along with the potholders came this super cute little felt christmas tree decoration to. Again more stitching so lovingly placed all over it. It will be a perfect addition to the handmade ornaments that the children and I have made for the tree :)

Thank you so much Val!!!
Hugs,
Rsoina

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

Vintage Find

I hit the jackpot!!
On my last visit to the thrift store I hit the mother load of vintage sheets *grin*. As I rummaged along the racks of bedding, tablecloths and fabric remnants I couldn't find anything but worn out bedding and kids sheets but there at the end of the isle was a bin full of sheets that had been deemed worthless and were a quarter of the cost of the rest of the ones hanging.

I nearly passed it by but thought what the heck... one little look won't hurt. Good thing I did :)

I just love the bold colors and big flowers and they are going to be perfect for quilt backings or maybe even a funky quilt top :) Now I just need more!! LOL.

My mom surprised me with this great little mini ironing board today to. I've been running back and forth from the table to iron pieces for my QAYG quilt and this is going to be perfect to set up right beside my sewing machine. I'll be able to cut, iron and sew all without moving. Plus the backside of it is so yummy with it's retro flowers and gaudy orange LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina

Farewell Summer... Hello Fall

Today was officially the last day of summer but I think it left us well over a couple of weeks ago. September 1st brought rain, clouds, cool weather...



and today we officially started to burn the wood stoves again.
Hubby cleaned both of the chimneys last weekend making sure they weren't clogged with any soot from last winter and he and the kids spent the morning filling all of the wood boxes to the top.

For now we won't really do a lot of burning but just enough in the mornings to take the chill off or to warm up the house after a couple days of repeated rain which really brings the temperature indoors down. I'm looking forward to snuggling on the couch under my blankie though and watching the fireplace crackle *grin*.

While they all did the manual labor outside I took to my sewing machine and got a couple more blocks for my quilt as you go quilt finished :) I actually managed to tear myself away from my underwear making so that I could get back to what I had originally been doing *grin*.

I really do jump from project to project at lightning speed and could seriously use a task master cracking the whip behind me to get some of my unfinished projects done! Sometimes I think that blogging helps because I feel the need to show you all what I've been doing LOL.

I haven't quite decided if I'm going to give this quilt to my daughter for Christmas or I'm going to keep it for myself yet *grin*. I do have a whole stash of fabric that I bought for a special one for her so I'm sort of leaning towards keeping for myself. It would be so bright and cheery folded on the bottom of my bed :)

What projects are you working on right now? I'd love to stop by and see what you're all up to!

Hugs,
Rosina

QAYG ~ Color Therapy

I'm very pleased with how my Quilt As You Go blocks are coming along. I managed to get two more of them sewn together amidst the piles of scrap fabrics that are accumulating at breakneck speed on top of the kitchen table *grin*.

Sewing them together is a real breeze but this project has completely confirmed what I have long feared about myself but have never dared to admit....

I am absolutely HORRID at matching colors together *grin*.

Seriously I never go to the fabric store for a project unless I have a very clear idea of what colors or patterns I want to buy because being confronted by a sea of colors boggles my brain entirely! It must be quite funny for my mom or whomever might be with me on a day that I have no idea of what I want because I wander down the isles with my eyes darting over the rows of fabric like a panicked rabbit being chased by wild dogs LOL.

So maybe this project might prove to be a good therapy tool as it's forcing me to sift through total color overload as I rummage through my scraps. Either I'm going to get the hang of it or I'm going to need a serious cheater card as to what fabrics I should be putting together.

Take that strip of green linen on the top of the bottom block in the photo above. I thought it was a good idea before I stitched it to the rest of the block but now I'm thinking it wasn't such a good idea *grin*. Oh well, to late now!

Three blocks down and quite a few more to go....
For better or for worse *wink*.

~ Rosina

QAYG ~ Block 1

Okay so I was hoping to have two blocks for the quilt along finished to share with you tonight but I actually only got one done :) Oh well, one is definitely better than none! Right?

I think I just might have thought a little to hard about how I was going to put them together *grin*. So much for mindlessly slapping strips of fabric together! It actually took more time than I thought it would but it could be that it was my first one though and I wasn't quite sure what strip sizes I should use. I ended up using a range of widths from 1.5 inch to 3 inches.

I'm not sure if the 1.5 inch strips are to narrow though. What do you think? Should I use those teeny tiny ones like the green polka dot one and the orange apple print above it or should I go with the larger sizes?

To finish off this block and bring it up to the 14.5 inch size that it should be I'm going to surround it with white strips on each side. I think that it will give it a nice clean look in the end and not so crazy busy to the eye *grin*. I'll update you again on it when I get a few more finished :)

~ Rosina

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

Project Quilting

I thought you might be wondering what has happened to all of my crafty posts as I seem to be focusing on the nature challenge everyday.

My craft projects are here... somewhere... perhaps behind the mountains of thread and fabric scraps that seem to be surrounding me right now *grin*. My little shop is booming right now and subsequently it has kept my very busy this week! Definitely a good thing but it has cut into my own creative time :)

I did want to share a link to Project Quilting that is happening right now over at Kim's Crafty Apple. Every other Sunday they will be posting a quilt block challenge where you create anything that is small, like a doll quilt, tea cozy, table runner etc. with that block and then share it with all of the other participants that are playing along :) They are currently doing the Shoo-fly block and I had really wanted to play along this round but it is due this Sunday and I just know I won't be able to get it done in time. So now I will have to be on the look out for the next challenge! I wonder what block they will choose next :)

In the meantime I think I've just about caught up on all of the orders and if I'm lucky I'll get a break over the weekend so that I can get some of the neglected housework done *grin*.

~ 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

Flickr Favorites ~ Hex Mania

1. Hexagon Quilt , 2. Grandmother's Flower Garden, 3. hexagons, 4. hexitis macro

I'm having a serious case of hexagon envy! *grin*. I thought that I would oogle some of the other hex projects happening on flickr and came across so many beautiful quilts. Oh my! So colorful and so many variations :) I also stumbled across a really interesting tutorial on how to do an invisible ladder stitch for binding quilts. I just might have to try this out :)

I've finished ironing all of my little hexagons for L's little dolly quilt and I ended up cutting out four new ones in a solid green linen that I had so that I can do a little freehand embroidery on them. I'm not sure if I will stitch her initials or little flowers or what yet but now that I've added them I've got the option to make it a little more personalized for her :)

Have your own flickr favorites and want to play along? Visit Mitsy over at Artmind to join in the fun :)

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