Tag Archives: gifts

LMP+QG April challenge: Peanut the Elephant

Posted on by
3

My friend Cait and I are making a project every month from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  You can see past projects here.

Originally Cait and I were going to make the Summer Breeze picnic quilt but as the days wore on and neither of us had chosen fabric for it, we decided to trade with May and made Peanut the Elephant.

These instructions were especially frustrating and while I felt like I as winging it a lot of the time, she came together in about 3 hours and I love her.  As did my friend Rose.  She is half of the band Vandaveer who played here on Saturday.  She came into town earlier in the day and stopped by the studio while I was working on this little girl and fell in love. So, of course, I had to give it to her.  After she left I embroidered Rose’s name on this girl’s haunches and gifted it later that night.  I hope she is well loved!

I made her from fabric I’d had in my stash for a very long time and a Denyse Schmidt print.  I really like that the trunk is gathered at the end.  I don’t like that I used nearly a whole bag of stuffing and she still wasn’t stuffed enough.  I only sewed on the dark part of the eyes and gave her some eyelashes.  She is awfully cute!

Not only Rose but three other people fell in love and asked if I could make them one.  Looks like a have more small stuffed elephants in my future!  Be sure to check out Cait’s lovely wee one.

Next month’s project: Summer Breeze picnic quilt.  I picked out the patterned fabrics, I just have to decide on the background.

For Silas.

Posted on by
3

I am all about spreading the quilting love.  When my friend Ashley mentioned that she had a quilt all cut out but that she didn’t really know what to do next, I really wanted to sew with her and see if I could give her some guidance.  That, combined with a mutual friend from church that is having a baby in May, we decided to make a baby quilt together.I was inspired by Handmade by Alissa’s Queen Baby Quilt but we made ours with log cabin blocks.  I grabbed my scrap bins of blue, green, brown, and grey/black and we went for it, making two each.  We then surrounded it in Kona cotton in slate (love that color!) and I threw together a back and quilted it in straight lines that walk around the blocks.I thought that simple would be easy but as it turns out, all that negative space was hard to deal with!  The basting had to be redone a couple of times and shhhh… there’s still a few puckers and shifts in it.  But a good run through the washer and dryer does wonders!Erin and her husband Austin are excited to welcome their baby Silas in just a couple weeks.  I met them through my friend and coworker Philip, and now we all go to church together (occasionally) and are in a small group.  They are so very, very graciously letting me live with them right now in a time of transition.

I don’t always get very personal on my blog but things in my life have changed a lot in the last few months.  I ended a long term relationship and am learning a lot about myself.  I’ve been surrounded by wonderful friends and I am especially thankful for Austin and Erin’s support, their prayers, and all their encouragement.

So back to the quilt, Ashley and I finally gave it to them at a picnic this week and it was received with many squeals, hugs, and thanks.  It was just the reaction we were hoping for.

The front, as I mentioned, is scraps set in Kona cotton in slate.  It’s backed with more scraps and a geometric print I bought at JoAnns a couple years ago, which coincidentally, Erin made curtains out of at the house!  I quilted each block with a square spiral in different color thread and echo quilted the blocks with walking lines in a pale blue/grey thread, it’s bound in Amy Butler’s oxford stripe from the Belle collection, and simply labeled.

I can’t wait to show off pictures of their little guy bundled up in this quilt!

Don’t let my silence fool you…

Posted on by
2

I have been very busy around here. I sent off a quilt today that I’ll be able to show off next week and I’m feverishly quilting a baby quilt for a friend’s shower this weekend.

After these two I have no impending deadlines but that doesn’t mean I don’t have lots of things I want to finish! I’m sure a springtime finishing challenge will pop up in blogland somewhere and I intend to join. How great would it be to enter into summer with a clean slate?!

Christmas weekend.

Posted on by
1

This Christmas was pretty nice.  It’s wasn’t as snowy and awesome as last year but it was a weekend filled with sleep and cooking and a couple new things.

Saturday night I made pretzel rolls

and used them for sandwiches with sauteed sausage and onions and they were delicious!  The pretzel bread was so easy, I want to make them all the time.

Having started them the night before, I baked  no-knead pumpkin rolls on Sunday morning that were so good.  The recipe made 17 rolls; so what if I ate two for breakfast yesterday and today and one for dessert?  There’s no time like the holidays to be a fat kid :)

For Christmas dinner I made garlic schmeared rosemary chicken, butternut squash risotto with sage and bacon, crispy parmesan asparagus sticks, Martha’s trusty baked macaroni & cheese, and garlic pull apart bread (based on this recipe).

The risotto didn’t really work, I think it just lacked seasoning and I wish the squash had been more finely cut.  The asparagus wasn’t very good either.  I didn’t get pre-seasoned Panko breadcrumbs, which might have made the difference.  But all in all, the deliciousness of the chicken, bread, and pasta made up for it!  And I was pretty proud of myself for making three yeast breads in 24 hours!

One of my goals for Christmas day was to learn how to crochet granny shapes (hexagons in this case).  I pinned this photo on Pinterest months ago so following the tutorial, I made a couple and I love them!

I’m just using some Bamboo Ewe yarn I got with coupons at JoAnn’s and I thought I would stick with these same four colors the entire time but I might throw in a couple more along the way, keeping the grey outer ring a constant.  Three down, only 78 more to go!

Remember the photo I posted of the wrapped books I received and were saving for Christmas morning?  Well I eagerly opened them and spent a couple hours just flipping through the pages.

My dad so kindly got me The Break Baker’s Apprentice, Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, and The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt so I can join in on the quilt along next month!  I’m so excited about all these things.  I was really inspired by a sentiment Amanda talked about when we met at the Sewing Summit.  She talked of her desire to live a handmade life and I absolutely want to do the same thing.  Any small thing I can quilt to use around the house, making more of my own food, using my hands to knead bread and mend things; that sounds like such a rewarding life.

Oh and of course, how can I forget that I finally joined Instagram!  I love seeing everyone’s photos from there but hate that you have to have particular Apple products to use it.  I have a Mac but nothing else that would work, until Friday when Marcus brought home an iPad, a year end gift from his boss!  I won’t be carrying it around with me so I’ll only be posting things around the house but I still get to “like” and comment on other people’s things.  My name is @kaitcetera and you should follow me!

With new toys comes the creation of new things to use with them.  I noticed the hunching problem when using it while sitting down so following Betty Crocker Ass’ tutorial, I made a handy iPad rest!

The fabric was one of the only home dec fabrics I have in my stash (Amy Butler Imperial Fans in forest from Nigella), and definitely the least “girly” one.  Marcus and I have a bit of an argument about what’s manly :) I bought 5 or so yards of a wood grain fabric I fell in love with a few years ago and used it heavily in his quilt (and lots of other projects) but he insists it’s not actually manly at all. I want to make an iPad case but he said he wanted it to be black and purely functional.   What’s the fun in that?

So instead, I finally made a lined drawstring bag from Jeni’s wonderful tutorial!  It really was so simple and the fabric combinations are endless so I’m sure there are many more in my future.  I used fabric from my stash: an unknown floral print, the aforementioned wood grain, a yellow DS Quilts print, and an off-white twill tape for the pulls.

Previously unbloggable #2

Posted on by
Reply

I made this quilt for my dad.  I’ve been quilting for over 8 years and have never made my parents anything!  (Don’t worry Mom, yours will come!)

Me and dad in Thailand this past March at the elephant park.

When my dad helped me get to Utah this fall to attend the Sewing Summit, I knew it was time for a big thank you.

This quilt is using the Modern Crosses pattern from Susan Beal’s Modern Log Cabin Quilting.  I didn’t think white was the right color for my dad (what bachelor washes quilts as often as they should? :) so I went with Kona cotton in navy.  I dug through my blue, green, brown, and yellow scraps for the crosses and binding.

It’s backed with a plaid from Denyse Schmidt’s Picnic and Fairground, some Katie Jump Rope bandana in brown, an unknown green vine print, and more Kona navy.  He seems happy with it and I hope he gets many years of warmth from it.  I love you, Dad!

(Thanks Greg for helping with the pictures!)

Previously unbloggable #1.

Posted on by
2

I love making quilts as gifts for people.  If only it wasn’t so hard to keep it a secret! (Warning, this is a picture heavy post.  I’m in love with this quilt!)

This one was especially hard to not talk about.  May I just say this is one of my most favorite quilts of all time.  It’s for Taylor, my best childhood friend and I started it, ahem, two years ago.  She began hinting pretty hard that she wanted a quilt from me so I asked her if, theoretically, I was to make her one, what her favorite colors were.  She responded with “lavender and paisley.”  Few things could better describe Amy Butler’s Love collection, which I’d already bought for her quilt!

I based the pattern off of Amy’s Sexy Hexy quilt pattern but I didn’t want the hexagons that big, nor did I want to applique the center hexies.  I had the fat quarter stack above to make the quilt out of and some coordinating solids so I figured out how big the hexagons would have to be to make the best use of the fabric.

As you can sort of see from the above picture, I sewed two sets of three strips together

and using a Super 60 ruler, cut the sections out:

3 full and two halves from each set, resulting in the sections for two full hexagons, one with the purple on the outside, one with the light blue on the outside.  I sewed three sections together and after laying them out on my design wall,

sewed the hexagon halves into strips and the strips together to make the quilt top.

The half sections were then sewn into full hexagons

and used on the back (that’s a lot of seams meeting in the middle!).The rest of the backing is a couple of the prints from Love in flannel, and small sections of the fat quarters I didn’t use on the quilt front.

Lindsay helped me quilt this beauty on her long arm machine Ursula in a lovely feather pattern with pale blue thread.  It’s bound with one of my favorite prints, water bouquet in midnight and labeled.

The day after I finished the quilt, Taylor’s dad asked me to make her one for Christmas.  What perfect timing!  That left me more time to work on another quilt I will get to show you soon.  Taylor received it from her dad the other night with exactly the reaction I could hope for,

I just wish I’d been able to see it first hand.

I hope you get many years of warm comfort from the quilt, Tay!  I love you, friend.  Hope you don’t mind I put this picture up here :)

The tale of two minis.

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been really wanting to finish things lately.  I have a couple full sized quilts that I’m excited about but they’re just taking so much time!  So, what’s simpler?  Minis of course!  These have been sent off and received so I can finally blog about them.

This one was made as a thank you to someone who has been supporting me, most of my life, really.  I’ve known Dan since I was two years old, he’s the dad of my best childhood friend.  He commissioned me to make two quilts this Christmas and I included this as a little bonus for him to say thanks.  I based it off a picture on Quilt Dad’s blog (for a project in the current issue of Fat Quarterly) and I used a Basics by BasicGrey for Moda charm pack, something I got from Quilt Dad in our mini swap!  (Thanks John for making this quilt happen!)  It’s backed in a print I’ve had forever, a different colorway of the print I used to back my houndstooth quilt, and bound in dark brown.  The label reads “Thank you, Dan. ♡ kait”

For some reason I see this quilt belonging in a study, a room with dark woods and lots of books.  I have no idea if Dan has a study but he strikes me as the kind of person that would, and that’s the feeling this mini quilt invokes in me.

The second mini is for my friend Corrie, just because I think she needs it :)  She blogged about how she doesn’t have any art hanging on her walls at work, a place she’s been for over three years.  So when I pinned this quilt on Pinterest and she repinned it, I looked through her boards to find colors she seemed to like.  Picking out some blues and greens from my stash, I whipped it up for her in a day.  I didn’t even think to follow the link and find the original tutorial for the block so I just figured it out.  However, if you’d like to make your own, the tutorial is here!  The only thing I did different is started out with 5″ squares which resulted in a 7½” block (charm pack friendly!).

I decided to make it two blocks wide so I could use some of the batting samples we got from the Sewing Summit, and a fat quarter for the back.  I used various blues and greens from my stash for the ribbons and the grey background is Manatee by FreeSpirit (what I used for my Single Girl), it’s backed with a couple Amy Butler prints from my stash, it’s straight line quilted with zigzags, and bound in an olive green from my stash.  I hope she enjoys it!  I love surprising people with little gifts :)

I’m here, I’m here!

Posted on by
Reply

Sorry it’s been quiet around here lately.  I have been a busy little sewing bee! Usually things slow down after the craft faire but this year is different.

I did the math and I have to finish a quilt top every 12 days for the next three months to finish everything on time.  That’s a lot of quilting!  I think I can do it though, half of the projects are pretty straight forward and the other half are already started.  I hope to take a big load up to Lindsay’s next month.

Here are a couple things I’ve been working on…

Krankies craft faire.

Posted on by
2

This year’s craft faire was awesome!  There were 40 vendors and it was a huge success. I sold two quilts (this one and this one), an apron, and almost all my tea wallets, zip wallets, and tissue holders!

I also got more interest in teaching sewing classes so I’m going to try and do that in February or March.

The wishlist of things I’d like to get with my profits is long, but a walking foot, a roll of batting, and the makings for both a larger project wall and a light box are definites.  Oh, and a crock pot!  And maybe a stand mixer, finally.

Now it’s time to get cracking on some quilts!  I have 7 to finish by the end of March.  Can I do it?  I say yes!

A quick check in.

Posted on by
5

Things have been so busy in life recently that I’ve hardly had a chance to write about any of it!  I wanted to quickly check in and show you a mini quilt I made for a Post Sewing Summit Swap (my first online swap ever!) that I’m really happy with. The swap was for either a mini quilt or a zippy pouch and I went with a little of both!  I’ve wanted to make a dresden plate for a while now, especially after seeing Katherine’s beautiful quilt so that what I went with.I wanted to make something snowflake-ish but I only had that tiny piece of snowflake fabric used in the middle of the mini dresden.  I dug through my cool color scrap bin and using Elizabeth’s tutorial on Sew Mama Sew, came up with this.It’s backed in a print from DS Quilts’ Picnic and Fairgrounds, the white is linen from my stash, it’s quilted in a meandering pattern with white thread, bound in the leftovers from this quilt, and I used a label I made through Spoonflower for the first time!I’m also sending along a zippy wallet from Noodlehead’s pattern, a half apron from Alexander Henry print, and a travel tissue holder.  I hope my partner likes what I’ve made her, and I can’t wait to see what I receive in the mail!