10 Fabric Postcards (9 Coneflower with Bee & a Sunflower) + Hot Air Balloon Over My House

I made these fabric postcards quite a while ago and never shared them. My good friend asked me to make 10 coneflower postcards with bees after she saw the one I made and donated to the Wish Challenge at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show earlier this year. Then she changed it to 9 plus one sunflower postcard. So here they are.

Seeing balloons in the air over my house is a common site, but I don't always get

 the balloon aligned this good! I took several shots to get the Zia to show in the center. This is a Rainbow Rider hot air balloon. Rainbow Rider has several balloon designs and they sell rides in them. I have never been up in a balloon and not sure I ever will? Guess I have a bit of a height phobia, especially being exposed all around me like that. I'd rather be on the ground watching them fly by.

Pin It Now!

The Berlin Round Bag

I made this bag awhile ago. It's the Berlin Round Bag (by Folk Art Factory). Debbie asked me to test her updated instructions, which I did. 

I chose a wool for the bag, which I washed and dried first. This reminds me of the canteens from years ago. It is a fun shape to be round. I used webbing for the strap because the wool was way too thick to fold under twice for making a handle.

The bag has a zipper pocket across the front of the bag, slip pockets inside the bag and I added an additional slip pocket on the back of the bag with a magnetic snap closure too.

The bag measures 10" in diameter.

I divided this pocket so it had 2 pen pockets on the left.

I quilted the bag too as you can see here.

The additional slip pocket with magnetic snap closure I added to the back of the bag.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purse #181 (2023)

I made this purse several months ago, but apparently it got lost when posting, so here it is now.

A panel that I added strips around to make flap larger.

Pin It Now!

Fabric Case Holders for Circular Knitting Needles

I made a couple of circular knitting needle holder cases several months ago. I wanted to try the pattern out and then make more for all my circular needles. I recently made more (but haven't photographed them yet) and I sewed a label on the back of the new ones with the needle size, so it makes it easier to identify them. I could get a few of the same size circs in one case, but a couple of sizes I do have several needles, so make have to make a few more. I will share those as soon as I get photos taken.

Circular knitting needle cases. These are great to make to use up small amounts of fabric too.

With the circular needles inside.

I used this pattern that I bought on Etsy.

Pin It Now!

Sew Powerful Purse #180 for 2023

I finished another Sew Powerful purse. I made this flap using the tiniest scrap pieces and quilted and added embellishments on the flap. The main body pieces was a donated piece that was already quilted, so I just had to sew the purse together after making the flap and cutting out the rest of the pieces for the purse. I wanted to try some decorative stitches on the webbing strap and liked how it came out, so I did different stitches and different thread colors on a few more straps.

Scrappy Quilted Flap using tiny pieces for fabrics. I added embellishments like buttons, mesh, vinyl scraps, yarn that I couched and bits of organza ribbon scraps.

Mostly batik scraps were used.

Back of purse showing the quilted fabric and the full flap.

I added decorative stitching on the webbing strap with a variegated thread. Turned out nice! I stitched other straps in different stitches and different colored threads and webbing to use for other purses too.

Pin It Now!

Myrtle the Turtle Quilt & Lovey, Leo the Lion Lovey, Ellie the Elephant & George the Giraffe Lovey Teethers

Lisa, from Around the Bobbin has designed 2 NEW patterns for baby gift giving. Myrtle & Leo is a pattern that comes with a turtle (Myrtle) and a Lion (Leo) applique that you can add to the simple baby quilt, PLUS, you can also make what Lisa calls, Lovies, which are a bit of flannel or Minky fabric that attaches to a silicone safe teething ring, to go with the quilt. Each pattern comes with 2 silicone rings, but you can certainly buy more of just the silicone rings too.

The second pattern is Ellie & George. Ellie is an elephant and George is a giraffe. These are lovies in the shape of each animal, rather than appliqué. Can be made using flannel or Minky for a soft cuddly feeling for baby.

I tested all of the lovies and the quilt too.

Don't forget to use the coupon code OHBABY for a 10% discount off all silicone baby patterns now through Sunday, Nov 19, 2023 (midnight CST), as well as a free silicone ring refill (includes 2 rings) for every silicone baby pattern purchased!

I chose to add Myrtle the Turtle to the quilt that I tested. I made my quilt and turtle using flannel fabric that I already had on hand. I am on a mission to use up what I already have. So I used more than the 2 fabrics that were called for in the pattern. I had just enough of the plaid print, so I went with the yellow, purple and pink that are in the plaid print to create the quilt. Then used a lavender flannel for the binding.

Myrtle the turtle is so cute! I can see using this appliqué on other quilts too that I make.

This is the Myrtle lovey. How sweet is that scalloped edge? The silicone ring is looped through elastic, so you can wash the lovey or the silicone ring.

The back of the quilt I used polar fleece and quilted it with a variegated thread. This was the first time using a polar fleece as a backing. I didn't use any batting as it was thick enough. It turned out nicely. I wouldn't back anything larger than a baby quilt to quilt using my domestic machine, since I don't have a longarm machine.

This is Leo the Lion lovey, again I used flannel that I already had.

You can add Leo or Myrtle to the quilt and both are included in the pattern.

Ellie the Elephant is a lovey in the elephant shape. The ear has a crinkle paper you can add to it if you want a texture for baby. And the tail is supposed to be made with narrow braided elastic, but I didn't have enough elastic, so I used some yarn that I braided instead.

George the Giraffe is another lovey that comes in the pattern along with Ellie. The main is made of ribbons and the tail I used a ribbon yarn that I braided instead of the elastic.

Ellie & George make such cute lovies. I may also use them for appliqué on another quilt. I will get more mileage out of these 2 patterns that way, lol!

These are all quick projects to make for that baby in your life. I made the quilt in one day. Lisa's instructions are always spot on too! So grab your discount while these are on sale (scroll up to top for code).

Head over to Lisa's blog to see all the tester's versions too. Only myself and one other tester made the quilt, but there were lots of lovies made. And you can see how some of the testers and Lisa used Minky on these lovies too.

Pin It Now!

Flannel Quilt Donation for Project Linus

Many years ago I sewed squares of flannel together into squares. The idea I had was to make a Twister quilt using the leftover scraps of flannel I had from making pajamas for myself, my daughter and my grandson. Well top sat for years and a few months ago I decided to take it to my Project Linus (PL) group and have Barbara, our longarm quilter, quilt this so I could donate it to PL. It was extra big, since I had planned on cutting the squares into Twister squares and resewing them to create the twister quilt. Well, since PL always needs the larger quilts, I thought this would be a good one to donate. 

Barbara quilts to a Minky backing and folds the backing of the Minky fabric to the front as a faux binding. It works well and can all be done by machine that way. I had to place a part of the quilt onto the cutting table at the PL group to photograph this. The lower right corner is the printed floral Minky backing.

Here is a closer look at the Minky backing.

You can see a bit of the quilting pattern used here.

One more Pl donation finished!

Pin It Now!