Reversible Utitlity {Apron}

"An apron is just a cape on backwards!"

I NEVER wear full aprons.  They are usually too long for me, so I decided to make a half apron with the second apron kit I had in my stash after I made the first one for my grandmother.

  I had to keep it for myself so I can have warm memories of my grandmother. She is an important person in my life. You can read more in my POST HERE.

I don't generally use an apron in my kitchen, so I thought a utility apron for my studio would be more practical for me.

  I figure I can slip scissors, rulers, or various other notions I need while 

working at my cutting table or long arm. 

Not to mention my phone to take my quilty photos for Instagram!

Of course, I had to make it reversible like my grandmothers!!

 Have you ever tried to take a photo of yourself modeling an apron?

Let me know how you did, because this was the best I could do!

Reversible Christmas & Everyday {Apron}

 "There is no saying no to Grandma's cooking!"

When Amanda at Jedi Craft Girl posted that she was destashing two apron “kits” with these Matryoshka dolls on them, I instantly yelled "BABUSHKA!" out loud and typed "ME! ME! ME!" on her post.

The reason I had to have them is that our family is of Polish descent and I grew up hearing my grandmother calling the stacking dolls she had in her family room babuskas, which means grandmother in Russian and some parts of Poland.

When Christmas rolled around, I knew that I wanted to send her one of the aprons with some cookie mix in a mason jar. 

 I found reversible instructions on Riley Blake’s website.

The dolls are just adorable and festive for Christmas. 

I also think she will love the cherries on the pockets on the "everyday use" side.

As for the second one? 

 See the details HERE.

 I had to keep it for myself so I can have warm memories of my grandmother. 

She is a pretty important person in my life!

Lancer Spirit {Auction Quilt}

"Go, Fight, Win, Stand Up and YELL!!!"

If you have followed me long enough, it has become a habit of mine to find and make what I call School Spirit or Pride quilts.  I love to donate a quilt to each of my sons' auctions in their school colors.

Part of the fun is finding new patterns to use and I lucked out when I stumbled upon this pretty simple pattern at Riley Blake's School Spirit Quilt HERE.

I tried to use most of my stash, but it was getting a "muddy" feeling that felt forced, so I made a quick run to Joann's Fabrics.

 This is where I'm supposed to tell everyone that hubby picked out some of the important fabrics.  Insert rolling eyes emoji and saying "oh yeah...like I wouldn't have found them myself....."

This year, I finally braved the school logo for the first time and made a layered applique.

I will admit here and now that the embroidery was intense to design and execute with my multi-positional hoop.  The love-hate relationship with my machine and software saga still continues.

When I bought the fabric, I really wasn't sure what binding I would end up choosing.
 I had to use both the blue and green dotted fabrics to cover the entire perimeter.

I've learned through the years that it isn't always prudent to overdo the quilting.

To get a nice texture without spending hours, I did a free-motion quilting straight line quilting.
I'm not sure what to call it, but you can see it is almost like giant horizontal oval bubbles, of a sort.

I had to add a printed label to the minky quilt backing.  I can't help myself.

Quilt Stats:
Measures: 54" Square

Pattern: School Pride by Riley Blake

Fabrics: Joann Fabrics

Quilted: Freemotion on Handiquilter Avante

It did a little better than the School Spirit Twister Quilt and took a lot less work (other than the logo) and I hope even the smallest amount of money goes to the operation budget of a very small and wonderful school!

Superstar {Quilted Pillow}

 "Don't listen to them, you're a superstar!"

In January, a package arrived from Riley Blake Designs.  I was surprised to see the fabric bundle, until I remembered I had signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild 2017 Fabric Challenge with Riley Blake. 

The fabric line is called Creative Rockstar.  I really do love the two colors of Orange and Aqua/Teal, but  I felt like I needed another color to balance them.  However, I really didn't want to use more fabric than they sent.  I had presented a secondary challenge for myself. 

I knew I wanted to play with the words of the fabric line and the word star kept nagging at me. 
Then, I remembered that I had designed a star pattern a few years ago for my boys' bean bag cushion in their room that might work.

 I didn't want to make a mini because I'm really into making small quilts that are functional in my life, so settled on making a quilted pillow cover.  I set aside two of the fat quarters they had sent for the back of the pillow and then started with my star center...crossing my fingers I would have enough. 

 

I started adding colors strips around it.

At first, I tried to be very specific in my color choices and strip widths.

But then it became very improv and fun because I only had a bit left.  I even miscalculated the amount of fabric I had set aside for the binding and had to make it scrappy also.

The quilting was simple, I outlined the stars as best as I could, since the outer widths started to vary greatly.

Then I added my hidden zipper backing and scrappy binding.

Quilt Stats:
Measures: 18" square
Pattern: Superstar (still writing up the pattern)
Fabrics: Creative Rockstar by Riley Blake Designs
Quilted: Straight line outlines on Babylock Symphony

The pillow now lives in my chair at my desk in my studio.  It didn't win the challenge, which made me very happy that I didn't spend more money on fabric AND I have a functional project for myself!

Button's Fox {Quilt}

"What does the fox say?"

This quilt is everything to Button right now.  

It all started with a trip to Target for some school supplies in August.  

He spotted this coin purse he HAD to have!

When we got home, he asked me if it was possible to make a Fox quilt.  I instantly thought of Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox pattern and knew he would love it.

As soon as I showed it to him, he went shopping on my pre-cut shelves and pulled out this Fat Quarter Bundle with Moda Bella solids I had bought at Quiltcon 2015.

He then proceeded to follow me around with it.
 Even if he was at school, I would find the bundle sitting in strategic places where I would find it.
He was getting kinda creepy...so I bought the pattern.

 When I finally showed him the pattern instructions?
He started to camp out in my studio to make sure I was working on it.
I was even scolded for texting.

I worked quickly and had almost all the blocks done.  But then he wasn't happy it wasn't a "rainbow".  I would make more blocks.  Then we would go a few weeks without addressing it because he couldn't decide on more colors or less colors or the layout.
 He once told me that he "wasn't in the mood right now" like a fickle artist.

When we both finally agreed on the final layout, I got to work piecing it all together.

And then I ran out of the Essex Linen Background.  I just needed the bottom 2.5" border strip.
We were also at a standstill because he couldn't decide on a backing.  After spotting a backing fabric on Amazon suggestions while I was ordering a client's fabric selection, I made up my mind quickly to get more fabric and choose the binding for him.

Quilting decision? Simple.
He liked the wood grain free motion I had done on a clients Hazel Hedgehog quilt.

The chevron binding ended up looking like a really interesting diagonal stripe.

The Riley Blake orange played really nicely with the Cloud 9 foxes.

 

Button was so thrilled about the finish, that he was in charge of his photo shoot.

His assistant: Holding some of the weight of the camera for him.

Other than the few photos of him and a few sneaky shots of the quilt....

He decided who, what, where he was taking photos of his quilt.

Photo cred to my oldest son since I was working hard as an assistant.

He even had to give some lens time to his pal, Fox.

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 50" x 72"

Pattern: Fancy Foxes by Elizabeth Hartman (O'Fransson)

Fabric: Moda Fabrics Bella Solids, Robert Kaufman Essex Linen Flax, 

Cloud 9 Foxes, Riley Blake Chevrons

Quilted: Free motion wood grain on HQ Avante

It has probably been the most exasperating and, yet, wonderful quilt journey I've been on recently since he was so enthusiastically involved.

I can't wait to see what journeys his fox friends and quilt will be going on with him in the future!