Finish It Up Friday: Schnitzel and Boo Tula Mini

I was so excited to get my partner's information for the Schnitzel and Boo Swap.  She seemed pretty much my quilty twin, so I decided to just make something that I would love to receive.

On the long list of designers that we had in common, Tula Pink was right on top.  And I just happened to have been hoarding a pile of Tula from my time working at a fabric store.  I pulled a fun pile of all my blues, purples, and teals, yellow for a pop of color, and added in my raccoons.  She also loved Anna Maria Horner, and I needed some navies, so I added the feathers and coordinates.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the block I would make.  I've loved minis where the blocks make secondary patterns where they meet, so I scoured the internet.  At first I thought I would do nine blocks that were six or seven inches square, but then I found this block and decided that it would look cooler with just four blocks.  Also, the center would be perfect for the raccoons if the block was bigger.

I went a little crazy with the quilting.  When it's such a small space to quilt it's pretty tempting to quilt all the little spaces to death, which I did.  I only left the raccoon alone because I couldn't figure out how to quilt them.  And once it was all done, I thought it looked nice without quilting.

And here's the mini I received.  My partner saw that I loved Latifah Saafir and when she looked into her, my partner fell in love with the Big O quilt.   I love the idea of passing on quilt inspiration!  She did a really great job; it's bright and graphic and has my favorite Carolyn Friedlander print all over it!  Can't wait to figure out where I'm putting my mini wall so I can hang all my new minis.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Leanne for TGIFF!

Friday Finish: Instagram Mini Swap!

I spent a lot of time being a mini swap avoider.  I just didn't get the appeal.  I would join fabric swaps and block bees, but why would I want a mini?  (It's not like I enjoy quilts and have an abundance of blank walls in my house.)

That was until I saw all the awesome things that were being made during the second round of the Schnitzel and Boo swap.  Seriously, every single mini was awesome and I wanted them all.  But it was too late for that swap, and while I was being sad, the IG Mini Swap started up.  I signed up immediately!

After a stressful wait, I finally got my partner's info.  I was a little bummed, because she wasn't one of those super active Instagrammers.  I worried that I wouldn't have enough to go on, but I started pulling together some ideas.

My partner liked aqua and gold, triangles, asymmetry, and her website looked very clean and modern.  So I pulled all of my gold and aqua fabrics, added some gray for good measure.  I went with a cream for a background color, because the white just looked to harsh.

I sketched out a doodle of this, then cut triangles out of paper that were the size that I wanted.  I laid that triangle on the fabric and cut 1/4 inch past the paper triangle, stitched them together in rows and was shocked that it seemed to work.  There are a few spots where I lost triangle sides, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I bought some heavier gold and aqua thread with the plan that I would background quilt in white and then do some hand stitching in color, but once I had the mini basted, I just didn't like that idea anymore.  Instead, I went with wavy lines over the whole thing, mostly with the white, but with stripes of the gold and aqua threads here and there.   When I was done, I realized it was wind blowing over mountains!  Aw!

Now this mini has a home on the wall in my partner's sewing space.  It perfectly matches her wall, and it looks very happy there.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Val for TGIFF!

Friday Finish: Pebbles on the Beach Mini

I have totally fallen in love with needle turn applique.  I've always loved a good hand stitching project, and these projects have turned out a lot easier to do than I thought and I can stitch shapes that I like without having to deal with machine sewing curves.

Our guild (Seacoast Modern!!) had a mini swap with another guild.  The theme was a "Sense of Place" which completely threw me for a long time.  I seriously would try to figure out what I would make, brain would turn to mush, and I'd avoid thinking about it with a different project.

Then, I bought a copy of Savor Each Stitch by Carolyn Friedlander.  I was completely hooked by this book; great projects, a good read, and pretty colors.  So I tried to see if one of the minis in the book would apply to the swap challenge.  One of the best thing about the seacoast is the beach, and one of my kids' favorite things to do is find pretty shells, rocks, or sea glass, and Aerial Grove kind of reminded me of pebbles lined up on the beach.

So I pulled a rainbow of scraps and started stitching them down to my "sand" fabric.  I had thought to put them upright as a center column with blue ocean to the right and green grass to the left, but it just looked to busy, so blue ocean won.  I used lighter colors close to the sand to get a waves crashing effect.   Then I quilted it all over with a wave pattern.

And of course, you need a label.

Once I finished that mini, I started right up on one that I would get to keep.  I think in the new year, I'm going to start work on a whole quilt of needle turn, as my big 2015 project.  

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Quilt Matters for TGIFF!

Here, Let Me Distract You With A Cute Pouch!

So I really intended to do some sewing on my Flying Geese quilt, but totally got a headache, which lead to caffeine, which lead to an urge to stay up late and make something where I don't have too think to much.

Anyway, I bought a bunch of zippers to make pouches for kids stuff.  I got big ones, like 22" to make bigger lunch/car trip pouches, and small ones to make "quick, my children are out of control and need a quiet distraction" pouches.

I think this will be exactly what I use it for.

After much searching the internet for decent free pouch tutorials, I decided on the Open Wide Pouch from Noodlehead.  Seemed really easy to make, and the kids can actually see what's in there without having to dump everything out.  (Though, they will probably dump everything out anyway.)

Look how many cars fit in there!  We could have a Restaurant Table Grand Prix!

The pattern called for a 10" zip, but I had 9" and 22", so I just used the 9" and shortened the bag an inch.  I also cut the corners on the bottom a little smaller, but the rest is the same.  It was really quick too, so I managed to finish before my caffeine crash.

I love this little fox!  Glad I saved at least one from the corner trimming!

The bottom is pretty awesome. 

And while I had all those little bits of pretty scraps around, I figured I might as well make another pin cushion.  Plus, my cup of tiny strings was full, so it made just the right amount of stuffing for this little guy.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday!

Mini HST Quilt

While I was procrastinating, I my have made the tiniest quilt ever.

 

 

Even Australian Outback Playmobil dude is shocked by how tiny it is. 

 

 



I used this tutorial by Whip Up, and started with 2" squares that finish to a half inch. It's kind of crazy, but yielded the cutest pile of 1" HSTs. 

 

 

Not sure what to do with it. Maybe I'll just throw it up on the sewing wall and keep it safe until we bring out the dollhouse. I'm sure the dollhouse family needs a wall hanging.