Finishing the 52 Project

Arthur doesn't want me showing pictures of the kids anymore, so I won't be doing the weekly update.  Mom and Dad I will send you e-mails once a month if you like.
Hugs Mara

Changing to Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hello finally got it able to recognize my blog, I had my own address in my URL and so it was looping back to my own blog and therefor not recognizing the blog, or something like that.  Thanks for the help Erin at Sew At Home Mummy.

I also wanted to thank Janine at Rainbow Hare Quilts for letting me know that bloglovin' wasn't feeling any love from my blog and she couldn't find me.  Thanks Janine.

I just transferred all of the blogs that I read on google reader in a matter of seconds, guess how many blogs I follow  151  and I read just about every post, wow, no wonder I sometimes don't get anything done, lol.

Pantone Challenge - EMERALD

For my March Goal and the Pantone Challenge going on over at asquaredw blog, I made a WIP/hexagon/embroidery holder!  My own personal WHE Holder, Crazy heh! But totally functional and a great asset to my moveable sewing room.

Do you like my Hexagon Turtle, this is the first time I have ever embroidered, I think he turned out pretty cute, my own design.

The outside front and back cover and how I quilted, crazy hexagons and in the seam.

The inside, big pocket on left and 3 small pockets on the right

The little turtle flap on the left pocket holds needles and the pocket holds WIP's

A close up of the embroidery thread holder and 3 pocket sections, the top one can hold 2 1/2 inch fabric squares for 1 inch hexagons, the middle pocket section has different sized pockets and the 2 brown pockets are pen sized (one is holding the sewline fabric glue pen, that I just happened to get in the mail today), the third bottom row of pockets followed the lines of the hexagons from the front of the bag so they are a little less than 2 1/2 inches, perfect for the 2 inch hexagons.

I wanted the wool to be free of thread so I quilted the top part to a piece of muslin and then sewed the bottom pocket to the outside and then used MistyFuse to connect the wool and the front of the bag and tucked it up under the bottom pocket.  Then I put binding all around it to make sure it wouldn't move around.

Here's my WHE bag next to my Reversible Sewing Machine Cover that I made last month.

Statistics:
27 inches by 14 inches.

Green:
Emerald Batik
Kona Olive

Brown (my neutral color):
Re-purposed pants (the pockets had that design that you see in the middle of the bag)
Brown Wool (from the days when I thought I would make my own diaper covers, hah)
Timber Herringbone

Blue (my "other" color):
are 2 Kona blues, I don't know which ones, they just matched the water on my turtle fabric.

Some more pictures:

I hope you enjoyed my Pantone Challenge WHE Project, whehhhh.....

Linking to : Such a Sew and Sew March Finishes
           and A Lovely Year of Finishes March   

Felt Sale

Have you been over to Maureen Cracknells blog, she always makes the prettiest things, and she is having a sale on her felt that she uses to make crowns.  Plus not only is she giving you 20% off but if you tell her that you love scraps she might send you a package like this.

Go to her Etsy Shop and use the code FELT20OFF to get 20% off and then tell her you love scraps, and your own little package of happiness will be on it's way.
Keep posted to see what I plan on making with my felt.

March Goal

For my March Goal I will also try to get it done in time for the Emerald Pantone Challenge going on over at a squared w.

So that means March 17 in time for Saint Patricks Day, I am going to make a nice little WIP container/Hexie holder.  I got my inspiration from these 2 blogs, from Quiltscapes and Comfort Stitching, I am looking forward to adding a few more things to my sewing room, yippee.  To go along with my new sewing machine cover that I was so lucky to be one of the winners for the February's A Lovely Year of Finishes, thanks to Shanna and Melissa and one of the shops that is sponsoring Stitches N Giggles.

Getting all of the stuff ready

I got some 2 inch hexagons done today, this will be the front cover

Do I dare try Embroidery, for the first time?

This little spool of Presencia Thread showed up at the door today along with 7 others, this one is in the color Emerald.  I won a gift certificate to Janes Fabrics from Madame Samm over at Sew We Quilt.
Thanks again everyone, lovely, lovely.

9-52

Instead of Pictures this week I am going to show 2 cute videos.

Yes our floor is always this messy, I might sweep and mop and then 1 hour later there is stuff all over the place again, so really I don't do it that often because it just feels like a waste of time.

February Finish-Reversible Sewing Machine Cover

I LOVE MY FEBRUARY FINISH, this is the first time that I have started a new hobby and have kept the first project for myself, I am calling this my first quilting project, even though it is only a cover for my sewing machine, I did a little bit of stitch in the ditch quilting, yippee!

SO PRETTY!

For my first "quilting" project, not really a quilt but I did make my own binding and I want to share 2 really helpful little things that I found.

1. Making bias tape out of a fat quarter, I made 9 yards!

1 1/8 strips cut from a "tube", get the directions from here (opens in a new window)

2.  A Printable Bias Tape Maker, .5 inch (I did this, but will do the) 1 inch next time.

Pinned the free printable to my new IKEA ironing board

and with my little helper we made 9 yards of .5 inch double fold bias tape!

I used the Missouri Quilt Co. sewing machine binding tutorial, I just skipped the part about how to make binding since I had already done that, but I might try her way sometime soon, because it looked really easy.  She said for fun to have the binding stitch on the front of the quilt done in different type of stitch than the normal straight stitch and I thought what a great idea.  So I picked the J stitch off of my machine, it reminded me of waves (i.e. turtles swimming in water) and I didn't have to worry about it being a perfect straight line, sweet.
Space to put in a close up picture of "the stitch" later when we have sun again.
I love Turtles and I have a whole Pinterest Board filled with turtle ideas.  A wonderful lady named Roxanne sent me a turtle mug rug and some extra fabric, so I just had to make a matching turtle sewing machine cover.  And next month I plan on making a turtle pincushion (you can find it on my pinterest board) and a matching hexagon holder made with, what else, turtles!

A close up shot of the slit I made at the top for the handle and of course the turtles.

It's a Reversible Sewing Machine Cover, showing inside flipped out.

 A totally cool thing about my Cover is that I made it Reversible and used a little bit of Re-purposed material (see next paragraph).  When you flip my cover off you can put it under the machine, because on the back side I have made pockets, 1 for scraps and all of those clipped strings, 2 for my scissors that my kids keep hiding, 3 for my future turtle pin cushion.  I got the idea from Pinterest, where else, Joy at How Joyful has a tutorial although I did mine a little different, of course.

 I was going to use ties with cut out hexagon buttons to hold it but I made the sides so large that it really doesn't need them.  I used some left over brown wool and a pair of brown pants that I ripped a whole in the, well let's just say when I bent over I felt some cool air (I don't know how long I had it there but my husband spotted it as we were walking up the stairs and this was on a day after I had gone to the outdoor market with hundreds of people around) and timber herringbone from Surly Sheep.  I also used 2 different Kona blue colors and I wish I could tell you the names but I bought a whole bunch of blue's at one time and they didn't come labeled, so they are blue.  Also I used Emerald green batik fabric that worked perfectly in matching the sea turtles in the fabric that Roxanne had sent me.

I hope I don't offend anyone in saying this is my first "quilting" project, but oh my I can't wait to see how I do "quilting" on my home machine with a larger project, this one was plenty large for me!

Tell me, if you are still reading, do you love it as much as I do, or am I really turtle crazy?
 
Linking to a Lovely Year of Finishes

Get Your Hex On, March

Hello Fellow Bee Girls

This is my block that I sent in the mail last week you should see your package soon.

I only have 2 rules
   1.  The only green you can use is the one I provided if you have more Kona Olive in your stash, then you can use it.
    2.  The vespas need to go in a certain direction, half of you got vespas going right, they need to be on top, and half of you got vespas going left and they need to be on the bottom.

Otherwise you can do whatever you want, a whole block of hexies (only 16 whole and 4 half) or shapes, if you want to do hexies on the side that is fine also.
The vespa measures 3 1/4 by 2  1/2, use 1/4 seams
I cut my hexagons as 2 1/2 blocks and this will be helpful if you do a full hexie block like the one on the right in the above picture, because you don't want to trim until you finish.

Not trimmed seeing what direction to go

Trimmed and sewn to bottom white piece of 2 1/2 x 6

 Colors you can add from your own stash are blue (as long as it looks good with the rest of the fabrics provided), grey, white or black.  You can make it pretty much any way you want.

If you have any questions let me know.

Finished size from left to right 8 1/2 and up and down 10 1/2 if you do all hexies like the top right picture then it might come out as 10 1/4, this is fine.

Mostly 1 inch hexies, since I cut the fabric at 2 1/2 but I leave the size up to you also.

If you are not in the Bee but would like to "Get Your Hex On" and do some hexies then stop on over at Stacey's blog The Tilted Quilt, she is in the process of filling a 3rd bee group, a load of fun.