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!

Sugar and spice and sewing

I am so excited to be the future favorite Aunt (that's right Dawn I said it) to baby Emily who will be making her appearance sometime in November. Of course I immediately started crafting for this little nugget as soon as her existence was announced.

I went back and forth with my sister to figure out a plan for the crib quilt ... I think she underestimated my abilities so I made the quilt she didn't know she wanted instead and she planned to buy the nursery bedding. 

I chose bright cheery fabrics and put in ruffles for emily to play with. 

 

Now I hate making something as beautiful as this and making a bland backing so I chose to make something personalized. 

 

I had enough fabric left over that I decided to make a car seat quilt. I found a great pattern on moda bake shop (http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/02/sophie-car-seat-quilt.html)

I love the ties on the side to keep the little bundle of joy from kicking it off!

Now I know that she will outgrow these quilts but I wanted her to have something small that she could keep so I had the joy of giving her her first Christmas ornament. This was super simple I just got some glass ornaments from hobby lobby, wrapped some scraps around a pencil and stuffed them inside. Top it with a bow and voila!

 

Of course this story has a happy ending which leaves the manufactured (and boring) quilt at the store. She loved the quilt so much she is using that for the nursery and has asked me to make the crib skirt which, of course, will be shown here upon its completion. In short my quilt kicked the other quilts tush and that, my friends, is what we really do this for (if we are completely honest with ourselves).

 

Can't wait to meet you Baby E and don't worry between me and your Aunt Dawn we'll make sure you have plenty of homemade and monogrammed swag.

Ghosts and goblins

I'll admit it, I'm a huge Christmas nut. I often joke that I craft because it gives me an excuse to start Christmas in July. I often get so focused on Christmas I don't give Halloween, thanksgiving, or even my birthday the deference they deserve. This year I say no more!

This year to force myself to give Halloween the fist bump it deserves I have decided to make a Halloween quilt (I mean how else will I keep warm while watching the 13 nights of Halloween?). I grabbed a pattern off of Pinterest (linked below) that is super easy and headed off to Joann's to get fabric (more to follow on that fiasco later).

This pattern is very simple and can easily be knocked out in a weekend. I definitely recommend this if you're looking for a good one to start with. The top is almost completely pieced so I'm working on determining what to do with the back. I've designed a jack-o-lantern pattern that will help me (1) get rid of some scraps (the bins that hold my stash are already about to burst) and (2) not be one of those boring people that makes a plain quilt back. Can't wait to show you all what it looks like!

Quilt tutorial link: http://thelittlefabricshop.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-chevron-quilt-tutorial.html?m=1 

Gifts from the heart

We are coming up on christmas which means it is time to start crafting for loved ones. This year, since my parents are going on a cruise and not inviting me, momma is getting homemade napkins and placemats that will coordinate with her kitchen. I am following a sew along on sewmamasew.com http://www.sewmamasew.com/category/sew-alongs/colorblockplacemats/

Being the bargain shopper I am I took myself to Joanns to revel in their midnight madness sale. I got these adorable fabrics for a steal!


Step one was washing, drying, and ironing the fabric before cutting the pieces. I prefer to cut everything that will be pieced ahead of time so I can spend the rest of my time sewing. Personally I love to pop on a movie (or watch an entire season of desperate housewives on netflix) when I sew so I don't want to take a break to cut more pieces.


I did make a mistake when cutting my fabric though and now have to go back to get more to make one of the blocks. Measure twice cut once right? Well maybe next time I'll remember.


I decided to knock out the napkins first. Hopefully I can have that done this week. then we'll be taking out the placemats.


Keep an eye out and watch as these pieces come together!

A closet full of UFOs

Every crafter hides a secret, maybe its under the bed or tucked away in the basement, mine hides in the closet.

If you were to walk into my home  (don't mind the dog hair) and open the door to my obsessively organized craft room and look into the closet you would find a bin. This bin sits on the highest shelf, its lid covered with dust, and it contains all of the sad unfinished fabric objects (UFOs) that are waiting to be made whole, a crafters lost children.

I came across this bin yesterday when looking for my crochet hook. I pulled out my first quilt, a patchwork of large yellow squares I decided to hand quilt. I've been working on this thing for about 6 years. With any luck it will be done before we re-enter the roaring 20's.

I had to turn a blind eye to the other 2 pieced quilt tops, half of a knit sweater, two partially started emroidery projects, and various other objects. It may seem weird but I swear the quilt looked sad, I half expected it to sing "here on the island of misfit toys". I had to close the bin and place it back on its shelf and pretend I wasn't abandoning them again repeating the promise that I would come back for them for the umpteenth time.

Slowly but surely I am making my way through my bin of shame turning halfling crafts into the sources of joy made with love that they were initially meant to be. In honor of these "lost boys" I am hereby instituting UFO Friday. Choose a project that has been abandoned and every Friday document your progress. With my "sunshine quilt" I am taking it one block at a time, however you keep track of it is up to you but for this project this has seemed to work pretty well.

Look back for photos of my sunshine quilt and its progress to being able to embrace a bed and comfort a person (without risking waking up with needles and safety pins in your skin).

Acknowledge the UFOs and make them whole. Don't ignore them!

The woman, the myth, the occasional hot mess

Welcome lovelies,

As much as I would love to say that I'm an amazingly successful, do-it-all, young business woman, the truth is that I'm a recent college graduate with a useless degree. My day job, which I am fortunate to have, isn't exactly fulfilling leading to a million questions along the lines of "what am I doing with my life". Quick raise your hands if you've been here, to the woman in the back with your hand still down please teach me your ways.

I tried to spend my time figuring out how to be the kind of woman that wears suits to work and climbs stair in stilettos, but I'm just not that modern of a woman. According to multiple sources (including my incredibly wise mother) I have an old soul. I love almost all things lace and vintage. I like doing things old school, writing letters by hand, baking treats from scratch, and even hand quilting.

This blog is about my attempt to meld my vintage tastes in a modern world, about putting soul and love back into everyday life, and a LOT of crafting.

I look forward to growing with all of you!

Elizabeth