UFO Files #1: The Patriot Quilt CASE CLOSED!

Case: Closed
Quilt Began: July 2011
Quilt Finished: April 9 2016
Origin: Memorial Day 2011 I went to JoAnn Fabrics for their sale ... big mistake. I found this colonial looking fabric that I absolutely fell in love with so I decided to make a quilt around it ... 5 years ago.

This is a star quilt that highlights the detailed design on the fabric in what would typically be the 'blank space'. I've worked on this quilt over the past 5 years in Maryland, Washington D.C, and it will (hopefully) be finished in South Carolina. In true UFO (Unfinished Fabric Object) fashion, I've been looking at this quilt for years thinking I should finish it instead of working on a new one (a voice I usually ignored). I've been so adamant that I would finish this quilt that is spent a period of time in my car in case I found time to work on it (I didn't). This is the extent of the progression of this quilt
as of June 2011.

A year or so later I made the backing. Last weekend my boyfriend spent the day out of the house and the quilting bug bit. I went up to the craft room and stared into the crafters abyss that is the UFO closet and saw this quilt just begging to be finished. I ironed, sandwiched, and pin based the quilt that day. 

I was getting a little frustrated when I sat down to quilt because the thread kept breaking (it turned out I was using the wrong kind of thread ... whoops!). Once I got the thread situation figured out, got the tension where I needed it, and remembered to put the feed dogs down, we were cooking with grease. At the rate I'm going I should be done with the quilting by the end of the week! I can't wait to close this case and move on to the next project!

So what about you, do you have any UFO's hiding in your crafter's closet or under the bed? I'd love to hear your stories as well. 

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UPDATE: As we've discussed before I have an space issue in my craft room, for the most part this is due to the embarrassing number of UFOs filling my closet. To be completely honest blogging about it was one way to shame myself into finishing this quilt. I now present to you the completed patriot quilt!

Passions Converge

We all have different things that we love, often they have nothing to do with one another. I, for instance, love to craft and just about everything to do with wine. Now I figured out pretty early on that I can craft while doing wine but I started feeling a little bit like an alcoholic when taking the bottles to recycling. So to avoid the scrutiny of my neighbors and to be a little more eco friendly (and to make the trips to the dump a little less frequently) I decided to make use of what is probably one of the more abundant resources in my house, empty wine bottles.

As a result I decided to paint the bottles and use them as house decor. Actually as I'm writing this a friend of mine has offered me his wine bottle collection when he moves out of his current place. SCORE!

These are the wine bottles that I made today with chalkboard paint. A great way to leave a not for a loved one in the morning. And they just look great in the kitchen or on the hearth. They're for sale on my Etsy Shop

Upcycling

I'll admit my motives for up cycling are mostly selfish. We take our own trash to the dump and recycling is a pain (we don't have single stream recycling) to the more trash I can keep out of the can the less often we have to go to the dump.

With the dogs we go through dog food like there is no tomorrow. I also hate the idea of adding more plastic bags to the landfill than I have to. As a result I turn the dog food bags into grocery totes. They are reusable and (best of all) they don't rip when wet! I use Rebecca Nickols tutorial found here.

I like to save them up and then do a bunch of them at a time ... usually when the bags begin to take over my craft room. Here is the haul for today!

They are also available for sale at my Etsy shop.

Fox in the Henhouse

I have learned that silence, while golden, is also suspicious; this is especially true as it pertains to puppies, toddlers, and boyfriends. I was downstairs putting together a quilt pattern while Michael was (I thought) cleaning his gun in the other room. Then what to my wondering ears should I hear but his voice coming down from the vicinity of the craft room saying 'Can I have this?'. I will have to admit I was worried as I mounted the stairs wondering what in the world he could want out of there. When I reached him I found out that all he wanted was some spare cotton fabric to use to clean the gun.

Not only was I able to oblige but I was able to make a dent in my scrap fabric. Especially those pieces that are of an odd material or that lets face it you are just never going to use again. All in all his journey into craft land was successful and the only casualty was the full box of straight pins that were knocked off of the table turning the carpet into a hazard. 

He or She?

News of a new baby is always exciting, even if its a number of months off. It can be hard to wait for pesky little things like waiting to find out if the little one will be a boy or girl; so what is someone like me to do? Whip out the gender neutral fabrics and create something everyone needs, from my limited experience with tiny humans receiving blankets are incredibly useful. Maybe my niece was messier than most but the tiny strip of fabric some people adorably call a burping cloth was never in the right place to protect her or myself from the mess. As a result I ended up draping a receiving blanket over my chest before taking her. Given that I love to make receiving blankets a little larger than usual to ensure maximum coverage.

I can't reveal the embroidery just yet because the gift hasn't been given yet but here's the project I pulled together. 

I also love this project because of how easy it is to do and the fact that it doesn't take a long time to complete

All you need is a yard of flannel and a serger or a serging foot for your sewing machine. Cut your fabric into a square, mark the corner rounding with a cup or bowl and surge around the blanket. If needed or desired you can easily add some personal flavor to the project with some embroidery or appliqué. 

Quilting from the Heart

I've always been of the strong opinion that making a quilt is a labor of love. With the amount of time and energy that goes into a quilt it is hard to not become attached. This particular quilt holds a special place in my book of quilts.

This quilt was made on commission as a gift for a breast cancer survivor. She and her family had participated in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer walks in West Columbia for a number of years and wanted a T-shirt quilt made of their event shirts to giver her as a Christmas gift.

The shape and sizes of the design varied so I needed to get inventive in some instances to make the quilt look natural and consistent. Not one to create a quilt with a boring back I wanted to add a little LB Design flavor to the quilt. The pink ribbon felt the most fitting and as a personal touch I embroidered the survivors name within the ribbon.

I hope this quilt wraps its new owners in love and keeps them in good health and happiness.

The holiday trifecta: A quilter's challenge

As any quilter knows our busy season is upon us. We have 3 major holidays upon us (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the main event Christmas) plus the bonus round (New Years). People may complain that we rush the holidays by having Christmas merchandise in craft stores in August but those people don't know how much work it takes to finish quilted tree skirts, or Santa themed blankets under the holiday crunch.

As I said in my ghosts and goblins post I, like many other crafters, tend to skip over the pregame holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving, and yes, my birthday) to dive headlong into that magical, musical, marshmallow world we call Christmas.

This is also the time of year that we see sales galore at Joann's, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby fill our craft rooms and fabric stashes with material and our pinterest boards go berserk with all the craft ideas while our UFOs (Unfinished Fabric Objects) and WIPs (Works in Progress) languish in the closet where we look at them guiltily. This Challenge lasts 3 months with a bonus month in January if you're a Type A overachiever (which I just happen to be).

The Challenge

Each Month (October, November, December, and January as a bonus). complete one of the following

• Something new
• Something unfinished
• Something scrappy

At lease one of these projects must be appropriate to the holiday in that month.

I'll be posting each of these projects as I complete them and would love to see what you all come up with!

Happy Crafting!