Fishy Friends Quilt - Used My Cricut

Here it is all finished! My second quilt kit from Quilts For Kids.

My First one is HERE.

You can kinda see the quilting stitches on the front of the quilt... see the waves along the border?

What a cute little Crab!! He's definitely my favorite!

Okay, here comes TONS of Photos :-)

Here's the little sew on label they send with the kit for you to sign it and name your quilt.

I guess it's kinda like a little tracking device too, or it can be if the child who gets your quilt goes online and tells the story of how they got it and how they felt, then you can see who it went to because your name's on there, but online it's mostly just quilters who tell their story of making it.  Whew! That was a run-on sentence if I've ever seen one!

I'm not sure how often this actually happens, Downy's website has TONS of stories written by Quilters and Receivers of Quilts. But do they ever find the other person who made/received the quilt??    I don't know.

Here's a close up... I was really glad that everything worked out right so the waves were perfectly on the edges...

Okay, so now your wondering exactly what this quilt has to do with the Cricut right?!  It's gotta be the cutest way to make a template EVER!

These Cute Little Guys are from the Life Is A Beach cartridge. I just love the fishy kiss lips and is it just me or does that little one look kinda evil?

Crabs and Waves are from the same cartridge.

There might be an easier way to do this, but I was having a difficult time outlining the fish when it was just cut out of cardstock- they kept moving around on me!  So I used Freezer Paper and ironed it on there to trace around.

I'm using one of those purple disappearing ink fabric markers, one problem.... It kept disappearing TOO FAST!!! I had to re-trace those suckers like 3 times before I was done stitching!

I lifted up his little mouth flap so I could get the smile line drawn on there.

Here's that creepy evil fish again.  Can you see in the background the puffy fish that's already sewn?  First I planned out where I wanted each one to go, but I ironed them on and traced them one at a time, then I just filled in the spaces with bubbles.

I had to go out and buy this nifty presser foot, called a darning and embroidery foot, from a local sewing machine store.  The photos actually make my quilting stitches look pretty good, but this baby has a lot of imperfections... I guess that just gives it character! 

Other than a sample block to practice on, this was my first go with free-motion machine quilting.  I am way happy with the way it turned out regardless, and I'm sure it will make some little kid out there who's suffering happier for having it.  Okay here's the finished product again...

In case you were wondering, which you probably weren't, Yup, I'm already almost finished with the next one. It isn't a kit from them (Quilt For Kids), I just bought some fabric to make another one that I will hopefully have finished this weekend so I can send them back together.  I LOVE making things for other people, mostly I just love making crafty things, but I have no need for a baby quilt around here so it's nice to have an excuse to sew... :-)  
(Let's not think about all those OTHER sewing projects I have half-finished lying around here! I'm having too much fun with this!)

Jean Quilts - New and Improved!

I have been saving old jeans for over 10 years now in hopes to make a jean quilt, well I finally did it! But not for myself, I made 3 full size quilts for Christmas gifts last year and 1 small lap quilt for my 3 year old son.

Something about old, used jeans made into quilts makes me think... Cabin. Antique. Old Fashioned. Most of all, Outdated. So I wanted to give it a fresh spin. I know I'm not the first person to make jean quilts into rag quilts, but I haven't yet found anyone who has done them using a quilt block pattern like I did. Have a look...

This one is a Log Cabin block with contrasting top and bottom borders. Two of them have a soft fleece backing.  I really like the look of the frayed jeans on the outside edges! What do you think?

The other two are camoflauge sweatshirt fleece which is super soft on the inside,(which happens to be in the middle of the quilt so you can't feel it), and kinda canvas like texture on the shown side. Oh well. It looks good right?

This one is just a diagonal pattern, not a quilt block experiment... :-) With Fleece also.

I did try something different, though I'm not sure it worked out very well. I put squares with handles on them from men's jeans. You know the loop on the side of Men's carpenter jeans, I was hoping they would make carrying handles for folding the blanket and carrying it places.

The handles work great for folding it, but these suckers are HEAVY, so not great for carrying this bad boy! Oh well, gave it a shot...


And here is my first completed Jean Quilt I made for Ethan. It is very small. I was getting the hang of sewing the jeans and experimented with using seams and lining them up to make lines and visual interest.  You could say this mini quilt was my "test block" for the other quilts.  Oh, and my first time using bias seam binding...so ignore those imperfections!! :-)

Using the Seams on blocks was a big mistake! Way too difficult to sew through, especially in a rag quilt!

But Ethan's handles work perfectly on his tiny quilt and he loves carrying it around! Ahhh, what a nice compliment it is when my children enjoy using something I made for them.


Here's a few close ups of my homemade binding... Jeans. I actually didn't bind it the traditional way since it is a rag quilt.  I just cut strips of jeans, sewed them together, and sewed them along the back edge of the blanket. No folding over or anything! Easy! And looks great too!

Lastly, I didn't know ANYTHING about quilting when I started these projects, so I used my VERY SOPHISTICATED quilt drawing program "Paint"...lol. Here's how I planned out my patterns for the Log Cabin and I think the other one is a variation of the Log Cabin called Courthouse Steps.

I'm trying some more linky parties!

Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage

Quilts for Kids- Sponsored by Downy

I made this quilt from a kit that was sent right to my door by an organization called Quilts for Kids. They are a wonderful group of people that make handmade quilts and deliver them to children who have been hospitalized for various reasons from illnesses and disease to injuries and broken bones.


The kit they sent (which you can request online) came with all the fabric you need most of it already cut. They supply you with a quilting pattern for which the fabric was cut to size and a Downy label to name your quilt and sign your name.



There are a few requirements when you make it, like it must be machine quilted within every 2 inches or so. I had a lot of fun with that part, designing the pattern for the quilting lines.



I especially like how the diagonal lines look in the outer borders.



In my opinion, the backing fabric they gave me was cuter than the front and I like the way it turned out best.




I named it Rails 'N Tails- which was my mom's suggestion.



I'm just glad that my quilt will go to a child in need of comfort, and hopefully bring a smile to their face. :-)

If you want to learn more about Quilts for Kids visit their website:

www.quiltsforkids.org

This is a video from their site, it takes a while to load, but it's worth it.



Oh- and I already received my second quilt kit from them!! I can't wait to get started! I have a really neat idea for using my cricut with this one too!

Utah

So we made it to Utah in one piece...mostly. Besides the fact that my kids got a total of 3 hours of sleep for the night! We took a short nap during the day, but they were soooooo cranky! We are staying here for the whole month of May so we had massive amounts of luggage and carry-ons, but we got through the plane ride with minor hiccups.

I am a little sad that I couldn't bring all my scrapbook stuff with me, now I can't participate in 365 Cards challenges. :(

Of course I didn't come down here empty handed!!! I brought my sewing machine! Yeah I know I'm a little crazy, carrying on a sewing machine, but what am I supposed to do to keep me busy for a whole month??? Besides, I am totally addicted to sewing right now, I have like 8 projects I am working on right now: a dress shirt for Ethan, a jean dress for Em, a couple laptop bags, and maybe a skirt, bermuda shorts, and baby doll tee-shirt. I'll have my work cut out for me, but I'm excited!!

I'll post pictures as I finish stuff!!

Scrapbook Day- 4/18/09

I recently went to a scrapbook day hosted by our Creative Memories consultant. I'm not very productive at those things, it's just too much fun talking!! But I did manage to complete this one scrapbook page. I entered it into the page contest, but didn't win. Hope you like it!

This layout goes along with a couple others I have already made about EmmaLee's 1st birthday, thats why I didn't think it neccessary to include that many pictures.

I made the button tree and backstitched the trunk and limbs. I also made tons of French Knots along the middle border. I love to sew on my pages! It took a while but I think it's fun to play around and especially when I'm really happy with the result.