Doll Quilts

The quilt guild I belong to is making doll quilts for charity. A woman in our group is collecting the doll quilts for the needy to go along with some cute wooden doll beds that her husband makes. They also buy a small stuffed doll from the dollar store and give the whole set (doll, bed and quilt) to the needy for the holiday season. The quilts are around a size of of a sheet of computer paper (8 1/2" x 11") or a bit larger is okay too. I made these 9 quilts that I donated and have 6 more that I am working on right now. Here are the quilts that I have made and donated so far:

I quilted a flower, but you can barely see it.

Using up some pink and green scraps. I did a wavy quilting in variegated thread.

Someone donated a few fabric "paper dolls" and some fabric that had the clothes for them. Looks like she started to make a couple of the dolls for using as paper dolls, but gave up and donated it. So I grabbed them because I thought these would make darling doll quilts with dolls appliqued on the quilts. I used fabric Mod Podge to glue the dolls in place and quilted in invisible thread around the doll. I also fused a dress on top of her because she was just in her undies, lol!!! I cut out some butterflies from the leftovers I had used for the backing fabric and added them to the front. I am making 6 more of these doll quilts right now with different dolls and dresses.

3 doll quilts in green and pink fabrics. To make these faster, I didn't make a binding, just sewed right-sides-together, turned, pressed and then quilted them.

Straight quilting on this one.

I was experimenting using scrap strips and scrap batting strips and zigzagging them together to make this quilt.

Same on the front and back.

The bottom quilt was partially pieced leftovers I put together.

The back is the same on the blue quilt, but the pink and green and white quilt I added this zigzag flannel for the back.

Free form wavy quilting.

Leftover pieces from another project I was working on, so I cut them into rectangles for this doll quilt.

More leftover scraps from a project. These rectangles are much smaller like 1 1/4" cut size in width. I added a border to this quilt to make it large enough.

Meander quilting.

All squares in greens with quilted flowers.

Closer look at the flower quilting I did.

I will have more doll quilts to share after I finish making the next batch of them. These are a great way to use up those never ending pile of scraps! It's also a fun way to practice quilting designs and test out color combinations of fabrics too.
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Log Cabin Table Runner & Quilt

I found some log cabin quilt blocks in my UFO box from years and years ago. I had 2 sizes of blocks and so separated them out into 2 piles. Not only were the sizes different, but the smaller pile was brighter fabrics. I didn't want to make more blocks, so the bright log cabins I made into a table runner. The other log cabin blocks were from a group I used to belong to where we made and exchanged quilt blocks. I never did anything with those blocks, so I laid them all out on my floor and used all but 2 blocks, because I didn't want to make more blocks and in order to use them all I would have needed to make more blocks. It will be nice as a baby quilt and I used polyester batting that was a bit lofty, so I did a simple diagonal quilting on it.

Log Cabin Table Runner

Log Cabin baby size quilt

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Bloom Quilt

I finished my Bloom quilt (from Lori Holt's sew along). I did fusible applique and stitched with machine stitches around each flower, leaf and stem. I also set my block differently, added a few butterflies and added a border of applique flowers that I reduced in size. I spent a lot of time making this quilt top and then I let a long arm quilter do custom quilting on it. I am sorry to say I was not pleased with her custom quilting. As you can see from the close-ups, the stitching wasn't what I expected at all. I did tell the quilter and she did refund my money, but that doesn't really fix the quilting problem. Since I did fusible applique there would have been holes left in the fabric if I had ripped it out. I will admit I never used this quilter before (I usually quilt my own quilts) and I never asked to see her custom quilting before having her quilt it, so that was my fault and a lesson learned! She also quilted another quilt with a pantograph and that turned out very nice. Anyhow, here is my version of the Bloom quilt. Overall I do love the look of this quilt.

The quilter quilted a meander around the white in the border, which is okay.

The quilter said she would match thread colors to fabric colors, but she didn't do that in several places and her free motion quilting wasn't the best. I can see where she started and stopped too. If the thread color had matched the fabric this wouldn't be so noticeable. After all the work I put into this quilt top, the quilting sure didn't enhance the quilt at all. 

Not very even quilting around these shapes.

Here she stitched up the stem and into the leaf and back up the stem, leaving a gap on both sides of the stem, She should have at least stitched back down the stem instead of leaving a gap. There are other places on this quilt I could point out too, but you get the idea, Make sure you see a long arm quilters work BEFORE having her quilt your quilt, especially if it's custom quilting! You pay more for custom quilting and you should expect a quilter's best work.

From a distance I love the look of this quilt. 

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Sewing Machine Covers

I needed a couple of sewing machine covers for a couple of machines I have that were cover less for too long! I had made a few blocks from the Splendid Sampler Blocks that were sewing related applique blocks and so decided these would be perfect one cover. I did a Mystery BOM from Deana's blog, Dreamworthy Quilts in 2014, and thought I should use some blocks from that BOM to make the other machine cover. I actually made these 2 machine covers double sided, so that when I pick them up I can just put them back without having to determine what side it the front. That way they look different once in a while.

Pat Sloan from the Splendid Sampler is having a contest using one block right now, so I am linking my cover there. I did use 2 blocks, so maybe I will be disqualified? I thought I would share them in her linky anyhow. I enjoyed making all these blocks and the sewing machine covers too.

I used 2 blocks from the Splendid Sampler to make this side of the sewing machine cover.

This is the other side of the cover. It is a block from Deana's Quilter's Garden Mystery BOM.

This block was also from Deana's Quilter's Garden Mystery BOM. Dresden rotary cutter.

The other side of this cover is the same Dresden rotary cutter in different colors.

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Enlarged Sweet Pea Saddle Bag

I made the Sweet Pea Saddle Bag by Blue Calla Designs recently and loved the bag, but knew I needed to enlarge it for myself, so I enlarged it 25%, but could have gone to 35% larger because I had to leave out a couple of things I normally carry. This great pattern is also a FREE pattern, yippee!!! Here is the enlarged Sweet Pea Saddle Bag I made, with some extra pockets I added too.

I did not add the tassel on the front bottom of the bag as in the instructions. I am not that into tassels, lol!!!

Batik exterior fabric.

Side of the bag.

I added a large slip pocket on the back of the bag for my keys and more.

I also added a divided slip pocket inside. The pattern has instructions for the zippered pocket inside, but I also needed a pocket for a pen and paper, so I added a slip pocket. All my crap fits inside, but I did have to leave out a couple of things I normally carry, so I could have enlarged the bag another 10%.

Inside the bag when empty.

Cross-body style bag with an adjustable strap is my favorite style bag!

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Sweet Pea Saddle Bag & Ramona Mini Hipster Bag

I saw these 2 free bag patterns online and wanted to try making each one. The Sweet Pea Saddle Bag is a free pattern from Blue Calla Patterns and the Ramona Mini Hipster is a free pattern from Swoon Sewing Patterns.

 I was drawn to the Sweet Pea Saddle Bag because I love this style of bag. I wanted to make one first and see if the size was good for me. It's a smaller bag and while most women would like this size bag, I need something a bit larger for all the stuff I need to carry with me, so I will enlarge this pattern to suit my own needs and make this one again! I do love how it came out.

I made this bag with an adjustable strap.

I had a Southwest button cover, so I attached it to the front of this bag.

I added a Chicago Screw to each side of the bag. This is the first time I ever used Chicago Screws. I heard they were easier to install than rivets, so I bought some.

Inside is a zippered pocket. I used blue gingham for the lining.

The back of the bag you can see my main fabric better here. I love this fabric, but only had a small amount of it, so I had to use a different fabric for the flap and the strap. But all the blues worked so well together you would have thought I chose these fabrics on purpose, right? LOL!

Next is another blue fabric bag, the Ramona Mini Hipster by Swoon Patterns. This is a small bag and great for those women who love small bags. I have this one in a gift shop for sale right now.

This bag has 2 fabrics sewn to create an interesting design on the front and back. I added a fancy zigzag stitch over the seams.

The bag has a top zippered closure. On my zipper pull here I used a small key ring to make it easier to grab a hold of for zipping.

Here is the zippered top closure.

I used a pale green print for the lining and the bag strap. There is a hint of this same green in the blue fabric print on the outside of the bag. Again, I didn't have enough of the fabric to make the strap, so chose another fabric that went well with the fabrics on the exterior and then carried the same green into the lining too.

The strap is adjustable.

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