Crazy Love Set

I wanted to wait to blog about the Crazy Love quilt and pillow I made for Jennifer Paganelli until after she blogged about it~ after all, its her amazing designs!! All I can say is put on your sunglasses as this is one vibrant collection. Everyone who saw it in my sewing room had a jaw dropping reaction~ its truely stunning! The amazing thing is that this is one fabric line where all the fabrics look good together. There are some color defined groups~ like the brown, fuschia, tangerine, purple, yellow or green, but they all intermingle and when put together make an eclectic gypsy~bohemian~70's look that is so different from anything else out there. It does match with her Honey Child, Queen Street and earlier collections really well. 

I decided after a couple of days of thinking about it to go with a random patchwork pattern that I make so often. I really love that design for large prints as it is showing off the prints rather than the pattern. Since a few of the prints were large scale, I fussy cut some sections so it looks like more fabrics then there really are. I pre cut my usual (plus seam allowance) 8x8, 8x6, 8x4, 6x6, 6x4 & 4x4 plus large square in the corner is 11x11 because I really wanted to feature that design completely somewhere. After that I just played with the colors and patterns to get a pleasing mix and sewed it all up and backed it with fuchsia minky. For the pillow, I did a log cabin variation and started with a square in the corner and kept adding on different width strips to get a finished size of 16x16. I tried to mimic a crazy quilt using my different stitches on my Viking, here's a closeup

I used iron on batting to keep it simple, then used the pompom trim and backed with fuchsia minky & voila we have a crazy, eclectic set for anyone who wants an adventure in color

Crazy Love comes out in March~ can't wait to play with it all again. Can you imagine the amazing crib bedding this would make???

A Very Southern California Christmas

Adult Table outside

The spread

With 95 year old grandma & great grandkids

My last minute skirt

I can't complain about the weather we had today in Manhattan Beach at my brother's house with lots of family. It was about 73 degrees, clear and sunny. We had an outside BBQ of tritip and shrimp with incredible sides, cakes for dessert and amazing appetizers. Normally the weather isn't THAT nice for Christmas, but this one was one for the books~ just gorgeous!! I had originally planned on making the Painted Portrait blouse to wear by AMH, but I must have measured myself wrong as it came out way too big~ I'll try to alter it another time! I made this skirt last minute from the Barcelona pattern from Amy Butler using the Clippings fabric from Loulouthi. There is a basic A line with zipper option that took about an hour to make. I skipped the lining and just hemmed it all up, love how it came out and intend to make more. What a beautiful day! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

 This scripture was read at my church recently and it reminds us that we must celebrate the free gift God has given us in Jesus. The best present we will ever receive! Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!

Quilted Patchwork Purse Gift

I get to have help sewing from Christina one evening a week and I have found out that she LOVES bicycle fabric, so I thought this Munki Munki fabric would be a great basis for a project. I decided to do a patchwork purse, so I pulled from my stash (l-r): more Heather Ross flowers, Lizzy House' Foliage and Pearl Bracelets from Outfoxed, Anna Maria Horner's Maybe from Innocent Crush, Wildfield from Valori Wells Wrenly & Loulouthi Hugs & Kisses. I lined it with Hugs & Kisses and inside pockets (not pictured) in Maybe. For the back I took a smaller portion of the stripwork and made a pocket. I enjoyed hand quilting a heart around the 'bicycles i've loved' words as well as down some of the strips. I used a rust colored embroidery thread from Anna Maria's thread collection. Hope she loves it!

Handmade Crazy Love Birds

I really love the bird tutorial I found from spool sewing to make these little birds. They are great for small pieces of fabric scraps as the finished length is apx 5". I had some scraps from my Crazy Love quilt that Jennifer blogged about recently and wanted to make ornaments, but I decided not to attach a string as I really like mine on my windowsill

You can see the one I originally did on the far left with Honey Child. They make great stocking stuffers or cute topper on a gift! I just machine sewed the bottom shut, but you could fancy hand sew it! I'm working on a few handmade gifts, not too many as I only have a few days left!! Made some pj pants for myself last night out of some flannel and am still wearing them at 12:30pm right now. Its a cozy day here in southern CA!!

Crazy Love Tee

I made progress on my Crazy Love quilt over the weekend and LOVE how its coming along! I usually applique a design from a favorite fabric onto a tee shirt. I couldn't decide which one from Crazy Love, so I decided to make a patchwork block to applique. I started with a 1 1/2" square and kept adding different size strips around the center until it measured approximately 5". I ironed wonder under to the back and fused it to the tee and then used a decorative stitch from my machine with a flower motif to attach to the tee permanently. It looks great with my green sweater and jeans!!

Hubby Helps

I just had to take this photo of my husband! I was taking pictures of a blanket I finished and he was looking over the start of my Crazy Love quilt and had an opinion! One of the patches had the pattern sideways and he said he preferred all the prints facing the same direction. I see his point, but I like them in different directions in the random patchwork as that is part of the randomness. Tom is amazing in construction and creating as he's remodeled 3 houses for us. I value his opinion and am glad he cares~ but cute boy, I know what I'm doing! :)

Crazy Love Peek

I just about fell over yesterday when I received this package from Jennifer Paganelli!!! Its fat quarters from her entire new line coming out in March called CRAZY LOVE. I have been waiting for Girls World Vibe to come out and hadn't even seen images of these fabrics yet! (I stalk her blog looking for peeps of new stuff!) I think what I love most about this line is the intricacy of the patterns and the (of course) super amazing color combinations that Jennifer is so famous for. This line is true Jennifer style with a 70's nod, but in incredible, electric colors. The orange fabric in the middle picture thats in the middle was hard to photograph on its own it is so electric!
I get to be part of a project with Katy from I'm A Ginger Monkey, Heather from Olive and Ollie and Toni in making projects introducing Crazy Love. If you love this line and Jennifer Paganelli (who doesn't??), then be checking back on my blog and the other amazing sewists blogs to see all the goodies we're going to make out of this amazing fabric!

Scrappy Star Block

This one was a doozy, but so much fun! It took me a few tries to get the chevron piecing correct. I didn't understand how to do it, so jumped in and was fine until I realized that I forgot the part in the directions that said draw a line for half from the left corner & the other half from the right, so all my chevrons were going the same way. An easy fix, just redid those parts. This block did remind me, however, why I don't do many star blocks as I inevitably cut off some of the points and I don't want to go back and fix it! Luckily, this block is so busy that if you aren't looking for errors, you won't see it. I love the slices I got from some of the fabrics~ like Santa and the cookie. I squeezed in Anna Maria Horner's Needleworks fabric slicing it a bit bigger so you could see the motif. Onto block 5. It's not too late to start the quiltalong!

Fireplace Block

I'm on block 3 in the 12 days of Christmas Sampler Quiltalong . I wanted a 'chair rail', so I used Sherri Berry's "Have a Sheri Berry Christmas" fabric for that part. The wallpaper is Jennifer Paganelli on the top, Polly Stripe, on the bottom Luca. The wreath medallion is also from Jennifer, Karen. It was too small on its own, so I used a snowflake print from Countdown to Christmas by Sweetwater with pinking shears to give it a cute edge. Stockings with scallop are from Bonnie & Camille & with check Tanya Whelan (red) Michael Miller (green). Of course, Joel Dewberry for my wood mantle and wood floor! I don't know which fabric the flame is, I got it from my LQS & its a scrap. I really love how it came out! Looking forward to making the others.

Ahh Vacation!

We just got back from Cayucos, CA for Thanksgiving break and it was amazing as usual! The cousins got to play for hours on end at the beach & the sunsets are amazing. I'm ready for Christmas now! :)

Gorgeous Girl's Room!

These are photos Sarah shared with me of her daughter's new room. I made the pillows for this day bed set up. You can see all the pictures of the pillows here . Isn't that wallpaper amazing??? What a perfect match! Her daughter is going to have such a wonderful bed to daydream, sleep and hang out on. Thanks for sharing, Sarah!

Fancy Santa Block

I finished block 2 and I'm so very behind, but I am enjoying the process! I called this fancy santa because I thought his jacket and belt looked fancier than usual. The buttons are from the same cathedral windows fabric from Alexander Henry. I'd like some continuity in the sampler blocks. You can find this quilt along on Sara at sewsweetness blog.

Quilt from Recycled Crib Bedding

The best of Jennifer Paganelli fabrics

Marie in blue from West Indies

random patchwork twin size

patchwork sham to match

I was given an exciting opportunity recently to take a crib skirt from a previously made (not by me) crib set and make it into a quilt. Amanda contacted me because she had seen my work on Jennifer Paganelli's blog (thank you, Jennifer!) and thought I might be interested in taking on this project. I said, 'yes, yes, yes!!!!' couldn't wait! The print from the skirt is Nicole in blue from a discontinued line called Mod Girls. There was also a fitted sheet in the Eliza Stripe that she wanted to incorporate, but since I had some that was brand new, we decided to use my stash for that.  I pulled from my extensive JP stash to get all the colors from the main print including Bell Bottoms, Flower Power, Pretty Please, So St Croix, Poodle,  Queen Street, and West Indies. The backing is Marie from West Indies and the binding & sham ruffle is the Eliza Stripe. I free motion quilted in Aurifil thread using a variegated fuchsia thread in a scroll pattern. I hope Amanda and her daughter enjoy it as  much as I enjoyed making it for them! 

Quilt Along Block 1

I finished the first block from Sew Sweetness' 12 Days of Christmas sew along! I am extremely behind in all the sewing, but hopefully most will be done before Christmas. I used the new Ruby scallop fabric for the truck base, Alexander Henry fabric for the wheels, presents and Santa. I omitted the door and machine stitched Santa after making the truck so he doesn't look squished in the truck.  Hopefully #2 will get done quicker.

Little Apples & Ruby Tote

I decided I needed a small tote bag to carry & keep my current Bible study materials in. I'm studying Beth Moore's Psalms of Ascent every other Tuesday~ I highly recommend it! I fell in love with Little Apples by Aneela Hoey & ordered the charm pack to drool on it for a while before the yardage became available. Ruby by Bonnie & Camille is another 'must have' & I noticed how great they looked together, so I decided to make a quilted tote bag out of the charm packs & then ordered yardage when it came out for the straps and inside pockets. The interior is from Bliss, a previous Bonnie & Camille line. I used interfacing for the interior & batting for the front and back with straight line stitching. Super easy & cute! :)

Patchwork Crib Bumper

I had the pleasure of working with this fun color combination of plum, turquoise & tangerine. Tegan chose mostly Joel Dewberry fabrics from his newest Heirloom collection as well as Aviary 2 & Modern Meadow. Jennifer Paganelli's West Indies Chandler in brandy was a great match for the plums in the Damask, Crosshatch Dots (Hoodie)  & Patricia Bravo's Moroccan Nights (zig zag stitch fabric). A great group of patterns to capture a baby's attention! I also made a patchwork and minky blanket and a skirt, pics of those are on my flickr page.

Sew Fun at Home

I have so much fun working with lots of bright colors for my customers, but my home already has the fall colors of wheat, olive, chocolate and deep red. My husband won't let me change it all out as that would be a huge undertaking, so I've struggled to get the fabric designs I love into my home. I recently found the Thomas Paul fabric that's on the pillow at fabric.com & thought it worked well with the bird theme & color scheme already in place. I pulled together the caramels, chocolates and saffrons from recent collections from Sandi Henderson, Joel Dewberry, Jennifer Paganelli, Anna Maria Horner, Michael Miller & Moda. I used one voile to see how I liked it mixed in, and it works well. That particular color is really hard to find, but it matches well with Sandi Henderson's Fresh Cut Flowers in maize. My living room is finally ready for fall. I have some fabric pumpkins in the making and if I finish them before the end of fall, I'll post about them! :)

Halloween 2011

Having a 16 & 13 year old makes costumes tricky! No more Jack Sparrow and Cinderella, no complicated costumes to sew. Dylan decided on an undercover cop (no sewing!) & Holly wanted to be a Domo. I'm not sure how to describe a Domo, but her shirt looks exactly like one, just google it! Actually Dear Husband, Holly & I all worked on it cutting out everything, ironing edges under & satin stitching all the way around the outside. The teeth I just did a regular zigzag stitch. She does have shorts on, but will opt for leggings tonight. Off to get the house ready for 15+ teenagers tonight. Our house is the food/starting off point for my kids and their friends. Hope you have something fun planned! :)

Purple, Lavender, Plum, Lilac

What ever shade you like of purple, its probably represented in the pictures above. Suddenly, lots of people want purple & I'm glad to see it! My bedroom used to be purples.

Laura Ashley House Party plum

This Laura Ashley fabric was my bedroom inspiration and I made a whole cloth quilt with this on one side and a quilting weight cotton on the other. Just love it! Someday if we ever have a guest room, it will be purple so I can use all the components from my former bedroom. :)

The top picture is a finished closeup of a patchwork and minky blanket~ notice no quilting~ just patchwork on one side, minky on the other. I backed it with lavender minky fleece. The second pic is a quilt I finished with Tula Pink's Topiary print on the back. I love the Bungalow Stripe in kiwi by Michael Miller for the binding. I'm almost out, then its gone! I enjoyed combining the plums and lavenders with limes. I scroll quilted with lilac thread. The next picture down with fabrics scribbled out is a future baby quilt. There are some similar fabrics, but each one is unique in their own way. I'm glad we have a better selection out there for purple. Not enough in my opinion, but who knows what's ahead??