Magical November - Fat Quarter Shop Quilt Along Maple Leaf Quilt / Aunt Challenge

 Today, I finally get to share this finish.

I'm not so good with secret sewing
and
this one was a "go" and then rescheduled.
(you may have seen it a few days ago - oops)

I'm excited to show this one now!

This quilt is made with Fat Quarter Shop's newest pattern from their 

Classic and Vintage Series of patterns,

Maple Leaf Quilt block.

The Fat Quarter Shop asked if I would make one quilt block for the Maple Leaf Quilt Along, but once I started I couldn't stop.

I had so much fun and my pile of blocks continued to grow.

I made 30 blocks and put a border around them to make a nice lap sized quilt.

My fabrics are Hello Jane by Windham Fabrics and the background is Kona in white

Fat Quarter Shop's downloadable pattern is available for purchase and there is a kit too. 

 Just click HERE. 

The best part of joining Fat Quarter Shop with the buzz about this new pattern

is I was able to make this quilt for my niece and her soon to be husband.

They are to be married next month, thus the name of the quilt is

 "Magical November"

For me, this is another quilt finished for my aunt challenge that was started 

6 years and 6 quilts ago.

Thank you, Fat Quarter Shop for this opportunity to join you and mark another quilt off my list.

Happy Graduation Quilty Gift

It's graduation season!

We have been busy celebrating a bunch of very smart loved ones lately

and

I managed to finish a quilt for one sweet high school graduate.

This is my finish for block 30 in the 

30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days Blog Hop.

I hadn't quilted it for the hop, but now it's finished and gifted to my niece for her graduation.

I don't have a picture of her with the quilt, but this is even better.

She took time to pose with me after the big ceremony.

We are so proud of her and can't wait to watch her cheer next year in college!

She is so brave to be way up in the air when they make cheerleading pyramids.

I'll take this time to show off a picture of my brother (Madie's dad) too.

I'm so proud of him.  He's such a great dad to 5 kids.

This quilt was made with Tula Pink's All Stars - fitting for our cheerleader don't you think?

The finished size is 55" x 65"

I hope the quilt wraps her in comfort while she is off on her college adventure.

For me, this is another quilt finished for my aunt challenge that was started 

6 years and 5 quilts ago.

I'm really behind on this personal challenge.  I guess I'll aim for graduation quilts for the rest.  That gives me a few years to finish the next one.  lol

For the Boys - All Aboard

Jump on board by riding the rail or enjoy the ride of an undefeated NFL football team on my stop in the "For the Boys" blog hop.  There is an abundance of projects to sew up for boys of any age in this Blog Hop created by Madame Samm and hosted by Amy.  I would like to thank these two incredible ladies and Camelot Fabrics, the sponsor for this hop.

A Train Quilt for Brody

The first project is a quilt for my nephew, Brody.  I just had to get one of my Aunt Challenge quilts going. (I have a goal to make quilts for all of my nieces and nephews working my way up from the youngest.)  I saw this picture of Brody online one day and knew exactly what I wanted to draw out for his quilt.


Brody excited to visit a train

 

The Brody Express

Brody is always on the fast track, so this will be the perfect cover if he ever slows down.  The fabric is all Kona solids with the exception of the yellow which was in my stash.  The quilting is free motion and straight line.  The quilting on the engine is curved to make it look round.

Closer to show quilting

I am planning to make one more of these for another nephew and will offer the pattern soon.

If you stopped by yesterday, you've seen this picture.  Weekends in the fall become all about football around here and my hubby and I are big fans of the Kansas City Chiefs. (9-0 Baby!) I wanted to make my hubby something...

Kansas City Chiefs Stadium Blanket

We have been to many football games in the cold and  sat on rock hard bleachers.  So...

Stadium Blanket and cushion, American football style.  Go Chiefs!

A stadium cushion and blanket will make the games much more comfortable.  These are styled with NFL footballs in mind.

A look at the back and the quilting

I stitched this up using Kona for the front and Chiefs fabric for the back.   I quilted lassos to make the quilt look a little like the pig skin.  I did the binding on the machine.  This was a first on a larger quilt, for me.  It will make it a little stronger, I suppose, but I like hand sewing the binding.

Chiefs quilt

It was fun to finally make DH something.  He likes it enough that he took it out to his shop and took pictures of it with a sign he had out there. (Maybe he is tired of being the photographer's assistant)  lol.   I had to enhance the picture for him, just a little.  *giggle*

There are more of these in my future.  I have been asked to make the stadium cushions for some clients and my son is a Tennessee Titans fan and the fabric arrived today for his.  I will find time to properly draw this pattern to share soon.  *UPDATE The pattern is available HERE.

Now jump on board and ride on over to the other blogs sharing projects for boys today:

November 7^th

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

Ridge Top Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks  ME!!

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Meadowbrook

Malinis Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Kris Loves Fabric

I do have a little giveaway for you.  This sweet little panel by Leanne Anderson for Henry Glass Fabrics called God Gave Me You - Little Boys.  Just leave a comment.  If you follow this blog, add another comment telling me you do.  I'll have the winner announced by the 16th, right after this blog hop is over.  Please be sure I can contact you if you are a no reply blogger.  Good luck!  Update:  The winner was Bonnie.  She is going to make a quilt for a new baby with this panel.

Thank you for visiting and

Have fun,





Hexipop Swirl, My day in the "Be a Hexie Queen Blog Hop"

Today is my day to participate in "Be a Hexie Queen Blog Hop."  There has been great anticipation for this day.  Not only to show what I've completed, but to complete it.  It  has been a non-stop hexifest here at the cabin.

Welcome to my blog and thank you to Madame Samm and Debby for making this blog hop happen. You are both incredible cheerleaders.  Thank you to our sponsor Connecting Threads.

With out further ado, I present Hexipop Swirl.  

Hexipop Swirl hanging out at the castle.

This 70 inches of wonderful hexiness is made of 331 English Paper Pieces.  I hand pieced every one and have the scars to prove it.  (See previous post)  lol.

 

I foundation paper pieced the center and worked out from there.

This is how the pattern came about - colored pencils and hexie graph paper from Printable Paper.  I decided to make the quilt hexigon shaped for some fun, but I was thinking of those great big lollipops when I was creating the pattern.

We have a little park here in Dodge City with fairy tale play things which include Cinderella's coach and a castle.  Since we are princesses and queens  in the hop I thought I'd do a photo shoot there.

I pieced the back to make it as colorful as the front.  Those 60 degree triangles almost threw me for a loop, but with help from hubby and his calculator, it worked out perfectly.  My binding is pieced to match each side.

I quilted using one of the decorative stitches from my machine.  It really worked well with the walking foot.  I swirled from the center to the outer edges.  (That's not real clear, is it?) If you click on the pictures, you will see a larger picture which shows the details.

Wait, that's not all, believe it or not.  I managed one more hexie project, but this one is ALL by machine.  giggle, giggle.  This picture shows the vibrancy of the colors on the quilt.

This quilt is a gift to my niece, Maylie, so I made her a 12 x 22 inch pillow to match.    The flower petals are two sided and made to flap around. 

 

Maylie had her very first day of school this week and I bet she'll be ready to snuggle with her new quilt for a nap.  She will love the bright colors and she is so stylish that a Hexie quilt is perfect for her. (Yep, I'm a proud aunt)

Thank you for stopping by.  Please visit the other Hexie Princesses that are posting today.


Day 6: Tuesday, August 27

We Shall Sew

Life@RuffHaven

Pieced Brain

Den Syende Himmel

Creatin’ in the Sticks (you are here)

Meadowbrook

Sandra Kaye Designs

Let’s Patch it Up

Sew Many Yarns

Around the Homestead

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much? 

 

 

 

 

I love Hexies and plan on making many more hexilicious projects soon. 

Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Norma Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

 

 

Happy Birthday to my sweet daughter.  I love you! 

 

 

Butterfly Rag Quilt

This beauty was made with Simplicity pattern # 2935.  This is the third quilt in my "Aunt Challenge."  I made this for little Kenlee.  She is going to put it in her butterfly bedroom.

Butterfly Rag Quilt

She's so cute

A closer look at the stitching

The quilt was made with 3 layers of flannel which made the fringe really fluffy.  I used the handy stitches on my sewing machine, Janome MC 6600P , to stitch her name and decorate the body of the butterfly. 

This isn't the easiest pattern to follow, but it sure turned out cute.  I will have to make another one of these now that I have one under my belt.  Kenlee sure loves hers.  She gave me a big hug!

Giving is such a wonderful thing,

Linking up with:

Rag Quilt with a name

My little niece is the recipient of this little rag quilt.  She is a year old this weekend.  It is cuddly with pink, purple, and green turtles and elephants.  3 layers of flannel fabric and her name is appliqued on a diagonal down the quilt.

Rag Quilt with a name

Applique ready to fuse

Closer look after blanket stitching

Stitching used to hold flannel squares together

I'm working on a quilt for all of my nieces and nephews.  I'll call it my "Aunt Challenge."  I love the flannel rag quilts, but will branch out with different types of quilts as I work through the older kids.  I now have the two youngest ones set up with quilts from aunt Carla. 

Actually, I have delivered the next one also.  But that's another post...

Personalized Flannel Rag Quilt

I've been so excited about my new sewing machine (Jamnome 6600) and all of it's stitches and needed a project to play with them.  You can imagine how excited I was to find a tutorial about a rag quilt and using my new machine stitches.  I found the instructions over at Patricia's Dogwood Lane Rambles.

My nephew was born in January and this aunt hasn't even been able to see him, but today I am going to put this in the mail to show him some love.

I cut 3" and 5" strips of flannel and used 21 strips on top, 21 strips in the middle, and 21 strips for the bottom.  Once I laid the strips out, I decided to add a little dark blue to give it more color.

When all the strips were cut, I laid them out where I wanted them.  The top strip of every row then had to be pressed to put a crease in the middle to give a straight line to follow when putting those fancy stitches on the strips.

I had a lot of fun coming up with designs for little Will's quilt.   I sewed the strips together with 1/2" seams and sewed around the outside at 1/2" with a triple stitch (one of the neat new stitches on my machine).   I clipped the seam allowances about every 1/4".  I've washed this rag quilt 3 times so far and think I need to go one more time.   

Baby Quilt

Finished size: 40" x 60"

I have a lot of nieces and nephews, imagine the possibilities... lol