Clover

This is my first attempt at doing the monthly pattern in the Another Year of Schnibbles parade going on in quilting blogland. The pattern for September is Clover, and you can get it here . 

I had some Noteworthy by Sweetwater fabrics that I've been wanting to use, so I used them with this pattern to make a little mat for one of my end tables in the living room. I tried a new technique for quilting it, thanks to my sister for her suggestion and the quilt pattern. She just happened upon a flower quilt design at the same time I was thinking maybe a flower would be a good design for the center of the blocks. But how to transfer the design to the fabric was my dilemma. Lots of people mark their quilts with various types of pens, but I haven't tried any of those disappearing ink pens yet. She told me to trace the design onto tissue paper and pin the tissue paper to my quilt and stitch right through the tissue paper. The tissue paper comes off pretty easily once the design has been stitched. That was an easy method to use so I will definitely do that again.

Here is my little table topper quilt.

And here it is in use on my end table. Now I'm anxious to make another one for the other end table. A different pattern, though. And different fabrics. I don't care if they match. I just want to play with fabrics and quilt patterns. And for future table toppers I'm thinking of doing some reversible ones with fall colors on one side and Christmas on the other so I can flip them depending on the season.

 

It looks so nice here now, but once I load the table back up with two TV remote controls, a box of tissues, my blood pressure cuff, a coaster, and various other "stuff" that ends up here, you won't see much of the quilt. But that's OK. I'll know it's there!

 

Camp Quilt

This I call my Camp Quilt. I just started making it because I bought a layer cake of Moda's Kansas Troubles fabric. I more often tend towards brighter, more modern colors and fabrics, but there is a part of me that also likes this more old-fashioned, darker color scheme too. I made it from this book:
Another Bite of Schnibbles

(It's called Two Percent in the book.)

As I was making it, I wondered where I would use it. I have a lap quilt for my couch, which I use almost every single day. (I'm always cold when I sit still for more than 10 minutes.) I decided I would use it when I go camping. Even in the summer it's often cold at night around the campfire. So I brought it camping with me in June. Well, I don't know what kind of batting I used, but apparently I picked up something that was quite thin. Even doubled up it wasn't very warm outside with the wind blowing around me. Bummer! But still, I love the quilt. I put it over my sleeping bag in my pop-up and it helped keep me warm while sleeping, so at least it wasn't a total loss. I used it again on another camping trip and it did keep me warm that time. I think the difference was that there was no wind on the second trip. Cotton batting just isn't an effective wind break.

Wall hanging

This is a wall hanging I made for my bedroom. The pattern comes from this book: Another Bite of Schnibbles

This book is well written, with clear directions and great photos. Each quilt is done up in two sizes, bed size and wall hanging size. And each quilt is shown in two different color options.

This pattern is called Lincoln. It's about 32" x 32". The colors match my bedroom.

Purple!

This quilt was made from a gorgeous jelly roll from my sister - gorgeous purples and greens. I picked out a simple jelly roll pattern and whipped this up pretty quickly. I tried my hand at machine quilting it, using straight lines. I especially love the border quilting, which has straight parallel lines, except for the small strippy sections in each border strip where the quilting goes perpendicular to the rest of the border quilting.  Nothing fancy, but pretty to look at.

Christmas Quilt

I was inspired to try my hand at a scrappy Trip Around the World quilt in a Christmas theme. I got all the fabrics at a local secondhand craft store. People donate their unused craft items (scrapbooking paper, rubber stamps, dollhouse furniture, unfinished wood pieces, patterns, fabric, etc.) to this store. It is run by all volunteers in the town, and they sell everything very inexpensively. The money goes to support senior citizen transportation in their town. Crafters get to purge their old stash, crafters get to buy stuff to build up their stash at a good price, and seniors get some help - everybody wins. This was inspired by Bonnie Hunter's blog. http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html

Great lap quilt for December and beyond.

Quilting Passion

I have switched my main interest in paper crafting to quilting. I love quilting in part for one of the reasons I love paper crafting - color. I am always interested in seeing how different colors and shades of colors go together. About 4 years ago I started quilting, and I have been learning a lot as I go. The following pictures are some of the quilts I have made in 2013.

Fun with colors - unnamed quilt (I am terrible at coming up with names. Just ask my cats. Boring names, poor babies.)
I saw this quilt on a blog and fell in love with it. I must say, orange and yellowish orange are not in my list of favorite colors, and I don't ever gravitate toward them. But something about this quilt really grabbed my attention. I saved the blog entry in my favorites and would go back and look at it often. Eventually I bought the same fabrics and decided to make the same quilt. I did not use a pattern, but it was pretty simple to reconstruct. I even copied the blogger's straight line quilting on it, since I am not good at free motion quilting at this point, and straight lines are best for me to work with. The fabric on the front is all from the Simply Color line by V and Co., whose blog I stole this quilt from.
Here is her blog: http://www.vanessachristenson.com/2013/04/v-and-co-reverse-hopscotch-done.html

 

For the back, I decided to play with my growing collection of gray fabrics. I was going to make a quilt using different shades of gray and black fabrics, but how many lap quilts does one person need? So I figured I could piece the backing and the quilt can be reversible. Since I had lots of leftover squares from the front of the quilt, and the colors all looked so good with grays, I incorporated them into the backing as well.

 

 

Fun cards

I am working my way through the July kit by Simon Says Stamps. This kit has some fun papers  and a nice set of stamps. I've been adding a few of my own embellishments like the fun twine.

More sweet cards from SSS June kit

Here are some more card I made with the Simon Says Stamp June kit. There isn't much left of this kit now, just some odds and ends and strips of paper. I really enjoyed this kit and look forward to digging into the July and August kits.

The idea for the first card above was shamelessly CASEd from a card made by Kristina Werner on the Simon Says Stamp blog. (Her card is in the top row, second from the right.)

On the bottom of the stamped birdcage are some crystals. I dabbed them with dots of Star Dust Stickles which came in the kit. (It doesn't show up well in the scan.) 

Sweet cards

I subscribe to a monthly card making kit from Simon Says Stamp. I made these two sweet cards tonight. Most items are from the June, 2012 kit.

Wedding Card

I need a wedding card for this weekend, and I put this together. The patterned paper is from a 4x6 pad by Die Cuts With a View.

New Cards from PSL

I have been working with a set of Club Scrap paper called Assembly Magic from their 2011 Retreat. It contains two purples, green, brown and black cardstock with some text weight printed paper that has very cool designs. These cards were created for Club Scrap's Summer PSL (Pro Scrapbooking League), where scrappers and cardmakers join into teams and have a friendly competition to create scrapbook pages and/or cards. I have been having a lot of fun with this paper. Here are a few of the cards I created this week. All stamps are from Club Scrap also.

Spirelli cards

I was using my Spirelle die from Spellbinders to add something different to this card.

Then I made this card.

Lots of fun, and easier than it looks. Winding the floss around the circle die is very quick and easy. This was all done on Club Scrap's Blossom kit papers.

Rosette card

I used my new Tim Holtz rosette die and made these rosettes. The paper is all from Club Scrap's Generations kit. The stamp is a Club Scrap unmounted stamp from 2004.

Holly Berry House stamp

I went to the CK Convention last weekend. I bought two stamps from Holly Berry House. This is the smaller stamp. They are designed for layering. You stamp the same stamp on multiple sheets of cardstock in various colors, emboss in black, and then cut out the different layers. Put them together with foam tape. Add a little bling - I used Swarovski crystals here - and you have a really cool creation. I will put it on a card. I just didn't get that far, with all the cutting and assembling.

Necklace

I made this necklace. I bought the Celtic knot pendant which has blue/green colors in it. Then I looked for similar blue and green beads to make the double-strand necklace out of.

Birthday card with rosette

This is a 6x6 card. Rosettes are all the rage in papercrafts these days. I tried my hand at this one. The card is made with Club Scrap's Common Threads kit. Under the rosette I put a Spellbinders Nestabilities circle; I added glitter to it for some sparkle.

Birthday card

Here's a birthday card for a 14-year old boy. He loves the color orange - he's a Syracuse Orangemen fan. This design comes from a sketch challenge on Club Scrap. Club Scrap Card Sketch Challenge
The blue and orange paper comes from Club Scrap's Artifacts kit, the gray is from a very old kit called Extra, Extra. I used two different embossing folders on the orange paper and swiped a little white ink across the raised paper. I used a gear stamp from a Club Scrap kit called Time and Space and embossed that in black ink around the edge of the gray card base. It looked too plain without something on it. The number 14 is die cut from a Sizzix set that my sister just gave me for Christmas. Great number set! I like the sentiment I stamped inside (also from Club Scrap) which says, "Remember, you'll be this age for only one year, but you'll be AWESOME forever." Great sentiment for a teenager.

Baby Boy

I made a baby boy card for a friend who had a new baby born into her family.
Cardstock is SU. Stamp set is SU, A New Little Someone. Striped paper, unknown.
Had some trouble with the rub-on letters for Welcome. Tried it 3 times, and this was the best I could get.

ZipStrip - zipper pouch

I made this cute little zipper pouch for a birthday gift. The pattern shows decorations of either oversized ric rac or buttons. I liked them both and couldn't decide which to use. So I put buttons on one side and ric rac on the other! This zipper pouch is about 9 1/2" x 7 1/2". I'm a fairly new quilter, and I don't do any other sewing, so this is a bit of a challenge. But the directions, by Terry Atkinson, are extremely easy to follow. I would recommend her patterns to anyone interested in making anything from large shopping  bags to small zipper pouches for cell  phones or glasses. http://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/

Jazzy Musical Card

Here is a fun card I made to wish someone well. This is for our choir to give to the person, so the musical theme is appropriate. I used wood mounted and unmounted stamps from Club Scrap, All That Jazz kit. They are very cool images, fun to color in with markers, or leave plain.  The paper is from Club Scrap also, various kits. On the envelope I colored the images with markers. On the card, I used glossy white cardstock and applied alchohol inks from an applicator to create a plaid effect using a technique I learned from the Tim Holtz website (timholtz.typepad.com.)