I haven't been feeling too sewy this month. It has taken me all month to get this candy cane stocking finished for my baby. The pattern is by Under the Garden Moon. I made the stockings for the rest of us about two years ago. I like having ones that I made so that as we add to our family I can make coordinating stockings for each person. 
I do have a Christmas quilt in the works. It just needs to be quilted and bound. Hopefully I can get it done by next week.
I made some burp cloths . I love these kind made out of cloth diapers. They are so absorbent. I made some bibs at the last minute too, but for whatever reason the picture will not upload. 
The other thing I made for her was this kitten quilt. The pattern is from American Quilting in Orem. I love how it turned out. I think I need to make one for my baby girl!
Here is a close up of the cats. I embroidered the faces and then appliqued them using a running stitch and black floss.
I just can't stop making bibs out of my scraps, which is a good thing. My baby is now eating solids and if she doesn't like it (think canned mashed beef) she spits it out. Really can you blame her? Would you put that in your mouth? I have made about 10, but I feel like I need at least two a day if not three. I like making them because they are a quick project that I can actually finish. Finding time to finish anything lately is rare, so these are perfect.
I finally finished binding this fun nursery rhyme quilt. I've had the binding on for about two weeks, but just didn't get to actually stitching it down. I love the fun fabric!
I hope you had a Happy Halloween. My kids loved trick-or-treating.... well, 2/3 of them did. One of them fell asleep half way through, wrapped in daddy's coat. Maybe next year. I guess it's not so fun if you don't have any teeth to eat the candy.
I've actually been working on this quilt for a few weeks now. I've just done several other things in the process. This is Black Diamonds by American Jane. One of the stars is easy to see, but there are two other stars on either side of it. I'm loving the fabric as well, which is Snippets by American Jane. The black is just a random black with white dots that I can't remember what line it's from right now. These are the first four rows. There are 18. This is not quite a quarter finished. When I make quilts I like to do a block or two completely finished before I start chaining. This time I'm doing a row. Piecing blocks is my favorite part but I don't love sewing rows together. Since you can't see the patter until you sew rows together I decided to do this a row at a time. I chain a row and then sew it to the others. Hopefully that will make sewing the rows together more exciting! 
We're not football fans around here. In fact, watching football for me is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Don't get me wrong, my husband and boys all love to play sports, it's just that we don't like to watch other people play them (except there is nothing as entertaining as watching your 3 or 4 year olds play soccer). In high school and college I did go to sport games. I probably didn't see much of the game, but I had a great time socializing with my friends though!
Here we have Hey Diddle, Diddle, Little Bow Peep and part of The Three Blind Mice up in the left corner. 
I love Humpty Dumpty. He's probably my favorite on here, Hickory, Dickory Dock and you can see the top of Little Boy Blue's head. 
Here is the Old Woman in the Shoe. 
I've been busy sewing binding on. I actually kind of like binding. It's relaxing and when you are finished, you are finished with your quilt! There's a reward when you are finished. 
Now I have two to bind..... and quite a few cats to finish. Good thing there are new things on tv. 
Next iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto the back of the fabric you are going to be using. Then cut a generous quarter inch around your shape. You want to make sure you leave enough space for the tighter edges.
Place the cardboard shape in the middle of your starched fabric when the starch is still wet. Carefully iron the fabric around the cardboard shape. You will want to clip the inside curves. 
Keep the cardboard inside the fabric until the starch is completely dry, then carefully remove the cardboard. Now you have the shape you need and your seam allowance stays under for you.
Next lay your pieces out on the background fabric and pin in place with applique pins. 
Stitch using your favorite applique method. 
Now, this method is certainly not the only way to prepare to applique. However, I think it is the easiest way to have a nice product that does not have raw edges. 
I told him it was for my blog. He asked if I'd be taking pictures of every shop we were visiting. I told him we would be, but then I forgot because I was too excited to get in and swoon over the fabric options not available closer to home. Yes, I did drag my husband and three kids into the quilt shops with me. Don't worry, they love Broadbent's because they have penny (OK let's be honest....nickle) candy. They went to stock up on root beer barrels while I went to see what Broadbent's had to offer. 
Broadbent's has lots of QuiltSmart. I had done my Christmas Lone Star Quilt before Broadbent's started selling it and wished shops around there sold more QuiltSmart. Of course just as I was getting ready to move they started selling it. I love traditional quilt blocks and love any short cuts I can find to make them. I had been eyeing this Apple Core pattern online for awhile now. They had the pattern there. I did promise myself I won't start it until my double wedding ring is finished though. 
I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law does not read this quilt blog... however, just in case I'll just show the fabric for this cute quilt. I ended up getting the pattern and the fabric to make the one I saw. I made the first block and it turned out really cute. I may need to make one for my baby girl........
One thing I've noticed since I had a baby girl is that there is tons of cute baby boy fabric and patterns out now! When my boys were born there was very little boy fabric and it wasn't that cute. American Quilting had several darling baby boy quilts and lots of fabric. I was very tempted to make another baby quilt for my 3 and 6 year olds! I also loved this Puppy Love pattern. I'm really, REALLY not an animal person, but I think this turned out so cute. I'm going to have to think about it.
I had hoped to have this quilt finished to show you today. I'm having a hard time getting the right tension on my machine though so I had to unpick quite a bit of quilting, which is never fun. The pattern is Sweet Cheeks by Thimble Blossoms, although I didn't do the circles with the flowers. I put them on and it looked too busy with the fabric I chose so I had to peel them off.
My last post inspired me to start another hexagon quilt. This time I'm making my shapes into diamonds. I figure one jelly roll will make 20 diamonds and that should be enough for a baby quilt for my granddaughter.... that I'm expecting in 20-30 years. I figure that's about when I'll get this project done. It's been fun to work on though. I like to work on projects when each block is different. I think I just like variety! I used hexagons with 1 inch sides. 
I found the tutorial for these capes on Puking Pastilles. The capes are reversible. Superman on one side and Batman on the other. The boys love them. 
They had a great time running around in the yard.
Then we had to go back inside because Superman needed a diaper change. 
I entered entered the contest The Quilted Fish was having to guess where she was. In all fairness it wasn't too hard. We live in the same state and she was vacationing here so it wasn't too hard. In fact, the very first clue I knew where she was but I didn't put in a guess because I got distracted by my children and then forgot... I made extra sure to guess the second day and I was the second winner!
Aren't they darling? I love the yo-yos in Giddy Bloomers and I love the huge daises in Whoopsy Daisy. I feel like I've been given permission to make more girly quilts now that I have a girl. YEAH!!!! Thanks Amanda. It was a very generous prize!
My project of the day yesterday was this car seat blanket. I've seen two people at the stores since our baby was born who had them and I was curious. I have always had a problem with the blanket in the car seat falling out. It's usually when I'm trying to herd the kids into the store and it falls out in the parking lot. Then it gets dirty and gross. Hopefully it's not raining. I decided to make one myself. I used Timeless Treasures Strawberry Field. for the fabric with a meduim pink ric rac. It was pretty easy to make. We haven't left the house (or the front porch) today because my oldest has the stomach flu. I can't wait to try it out though!
I was finally able to finish my Flutterby quilt. I ended up having to take my Pfaff into be fixed. It seems to be working well now though! Hopefully it will keep it up. 
We have tons of big trees in our yard so everywhere I take pictures there are shadows. I'm not a great photographer in any way. I really like the colors in this quilt. I really like the way it turned out. Now it's off to the wash to make it wrinkly and soft!
I am currently trying to finish quilts I have already started or quilts I have fabric for. My goal is to not buy more fabric until I use what I already have. Because of this I pulled out my vintage Christmas quilt that was about half way done. I finished the blocks and put them in order. I had noticed that in the pattern there were blocks that were only half blocks on the sides. I rarely read the whole pattern when I make quilts. I figure out how to do the blocks and then just do the rest on my own. Well.... maybe I should start reading the whole thing. I threw some of the scraps away. I am trying to eliminate scraps that are not really big enough to use. Oops! This time I needed them to make the half blocks on the side. I was able to rescue some (others had just left on their way to the dump). Fortunately the trash can in my sewing room is just used for dryer sheets and fabric.... nothing gross. Hopefully this will make me read the whole pattern before I start tossing things. 
You can see the half blocks on the end of the second row. What you can't see is that they are pieced with fabrics or the same color, but not exactly the same fabric. The pattern used this too. 
