A Hive Crash in honor of Queen Lisa

The Queen of my Stash Bee hive this month is Linda.  Linda had to abdicate her throne due to helping a friend.  We did convince her to at least tell us the color scheme she had in mind so that we could send her some scraps or a fat quarter.  She plans on using lime green, pink, coral, and yellow.  I found a few medium sized sized scraps and will send them along.

In addition, one of the suggestions she gave us for for what to do instead of making her a block was to crash another hive.  When I saw that one woman is making a quilt for her 3-year-old daughter, I knew that was the one for me.  She specifically encouraged novelty fabrics, and you novelty fabrics are my favorite!

I went through my I Spy scraps and didn't find much pink, the lucky little girl's favorite color.  But there are some fun novelties here, with butterflies, rainbows, bananas, and penguins.  And those red dots with the bananas are actually hearts.  She is hoping this quilt will be the springboard for bedtime stories and keep her daughter occupied and IN BED!

I've had a really great time in the Stash Bee and plan to be back next year.  It's fun getting a small taste of lots of different blocks without committing to an entire project. 

Panda-monium!

It's finished!  After making the penguin pillow for Munchkin's birthday, I decided to get rid of our horribly bulky couch cushions and make a menagerie of animal pillows.  Panda was first up.

The pattern is a free one from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Pattern PDF is here, and there is also a YouTube video tutorial.

I used Kona solids in black, white, plum, asparagus, and celery.  My background is darker than the sample from Fat Quarter Shop because I didn't feel like that one had enough contrast.  I really like the contrast with the plum.

This is a 20" pillow and I used a pillow insert from Ikea.  I use the envelope pillow method by Crazy Mom Quilts.  I am careful to always label my quilts, but I didn't think about labeling pillows until I had a comment from Paige of Quilted Blooms.  Since I use a back on the quilted part of my pillow, she mentioned marking directly on the back with micron pen.  And so I did!

Since I've had a few people ask what other animals will be apart of my menagerie, here is a sneak peak of the next one:

Panda was goal #5 on my list of 4th quarter goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.  This was also my November One Monthly Goal for the OMG goal-setting party currently hosted by Elm Street Quilts (goal setter #23).

Pink!

All the colors for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge have been given out, leaving the last 2 months of the year for catching up and/or finishing projects.  Here are my pink butterflies, originally meant for July.

I've got one with dark pinks and one with light pinks.  It's interesting how different they are!

I now only have red and yellow left.  I pulled scraps earlier this week, so I'm at least heading in the right direction!

OMG November

I made my son a penguin pillow for his birthday.  It was a lot of fun to do and I really like it.  I have decided to get rid of the oversize cushions on our couch and make a menagerie of animal throw pillows instead.  First up: Panda!

My son is currently crazy for pandas.  I'm using the Fat Quarter Shop's free panda-monium quilt pattern.  Here is the head:

Oh no!  Panda doesn't have a body!  Don't worry, he will!  My one monthly goal is to complete this panda as a 20" pillow. 

One Monthly Goal has moved!  Elm Street Quilts is the new host, and I'm linking up for the fabulous One Monthly Goal (OMG) goal-setting motivation and awesomeness!

Superman!

Munchkin seems to be particularly found of superheros these days.  I had a book called Playful Hoodies out from the library.  It's instructions for turning hooded sweatshirts into all kinds of different costumes--good for Halloween, plays, or just dress up.  One was a superhero.  Which made me think that I, who cannot sew clothes to save my life, might actually be able to make Munchkin's Halloween costume.

I started with a blue fleece sweatshirt/pullover that I got at a kids' consignment sale. Though the inspiration came from a book on hoodies, I used a "regular" sweatshirt for two reasons--it was what I found at the sale, and the hood is not relevant for superman. 

Next I made the S.  This is made of felt.  Now is probably a good time to note that the superhero sweatshirt in the book is a generic superhero.  The color scheme is not that of any superhero I am aware of.  The emblem is meant to be the first letter of the child's name and there are templates for all 26 letters.  I chose to use Superman's colors, so any violation of copyright is mine and does not stem from the book.  If you compare this S to the real Superman S, you will see mine isn't actually quite right, because I was following the generic template.  But I was going for recognizable, not authentic.

I decided to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween, partly because I had a polka dot dress and party because I really just needed to make ears to complete a costume, so it took up very little time.  I did end up deciding (the night before Halloween) that my shoes needed bows, so a few minutes with a youtube bow tutorial plus some hair clips meant I was in business.  I'd say I spent less than an hour making my Minnie costume.

And here is my favorite picture from Halloween, after trick-or-treating, when he decided to wear my ears.

I am super pleased with how the Superman costume came out and he loves it.  The only thing I had to buy was the sweatshirt and I got that at a consignment sale, so it was much less expensive than buying a costume.  It's just a sweatshirt, so he can wear it whenever he wants.  We were at the park today and he had it on and it was neat to see his cape fluttering behind him when he was on the swings.

Making Munchin's Halloween costume was on my list of Q4 goals for the globally hosted Finish Along (#8 on my list).

OMG I have a completed top!

My OMG for this month (goal setter #46) was to finish piecing the top for my niece's I Spy quilt.  I asked my brother & sister-in-law over a year ago if I could make a quilt for Verona's big girl bed, whenever it is that she moves into one.  I wanted an I Spy similar to the one I made for the bed in Munchkin's room when I was pregnant (predates blog).

This one is twin-sized and has 192 I Spy squares.  My brother and his family will be visiting the day after my niece's 3rd birthday, so I really want to get this completed before that visit. I'm so pleased with it, and can't wait to have it completely finished!

I'm linking up with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for the October One Monthly Goal completion party.

Jammin' Jelly Roll

I think it was last summer that I found a really good deal on a mini jelly roll.  I had just discovered the Fat Quarter Shop's Shortcut Quilt Series on YouTube, and I looked at both Jelly Roll Jam and Jelly Roll Jam II patterns.  I went with Jelly Roll Jam II.  This jelly roll didn't have as much variety in prints as most do, but I'm still pleased with how it turned out.

 At a recent Project Linus meeting, a fellow volunteer (blanketeer!) showed me a quilt that she quilted with a continuous circle. I had been wanting to try that and thought this one might be a good one for it. You can kind of see it from this picture.

 It's easier to see from the back, if you can forgive the terrible picture:

And here's a close up of the center:

I liked this way of quilting and think it's pretty likely I'll use it again in the future.  It went rather quickly, and since the actual quilting is my least favorite step after layering, quick is good!  And I'm happy with how it looks.

In case you are wondering, that backing is brown fleece.  I back almost all my Project Linus quilts with fleece (no batting).  I really like the overall weight and it gives it such a snuggly feel.  It's also easier to layer and let's face it, it's cheaper.  It allows me to do more donation quilts over all.

This was on my list of Q4 goals for the globally hosted finish along.  (It's goal #15 on my list.) I'll also be linking up with Julie at the The Crafty Quilter for her monthly "Hello 2016, Goodbye UFOs" monthly linkup.