Christmas Presents 2013

The gifts have all been given, so here's a quick post about the handmade gifts I made this year!

A handful of kitchen towels, made using this tutorial.



I made my own fabric covered buttons too!



A couple of scarves, one sewn and one knit.





And one block that never materialized into a finished gift! :)



Wishing you all a happy 2014!

Christmas Star Quilt

I did it! I finished this quilt before Christmas!



I finished it several days ago, but the weather has been so overcast and gloomy lately on the days that I've been off work, I haven't wanted to take pictures. The only reason I was able to take photos today is because I'm home with a sick kid sleeping on the couch. I tricked the sun- it knew I wasn't supposed to be home today!



Lots of straight line quilting, because I still keep talking myself out of free motion quilting on a "real" project. Those practice sandwiches are piling up though!



Now it's back to the mad rush of finishing the handmade gifts I have planned! The list keeps getting "amended" each day we get closer to Christmas... Happy Holidays Everyone!

Another Speech Bubble

Sharing another block from my Speech Bubbles collection at My EQ Boutique. I think the "official" name of this block is Question Speech Bubble, but when I look at this block in my head I'm thinking "HUH?"



I made this block 12" x 12", but the best part of My EQ Boutique is that you can print the patterns you purchase at any size you like! Templates, foundation patterns, rotary cutting charts- you name it! Just type in your finished size and the program adds the seam allowance for you.

There's a sale going on at My EQ Boutique today only-- spend $30, get 30% off with code MYEQB30. Go check it out!

Speech Bubbles Blocks

I have some exciting news to share- I'm designing block patterns on My EQ Boutique! The Hi block below is part of my first foundation pieced collection called Speech Bubbles available here.



Here's a little preview of the collection:



If you haven't seen My EQ Boutique before, you should totally check it out! You get to download the software for free and then you can print the block patterns from the site at any size you want. So even though I made the Hi block above at 6", you could choose to make it at 12" (or 5"... or 8.75"... whatever size you want!).

You also get to pick whether you want to buy individual blocks or the whole collection (at a great price!). There are several free collections you can download to try it out. I highly recommend!

There's also a flash sale going on right now at My EQ Boutique! Use code Friday13 for 25% off your purchase until 11:59 pm EST September 13th.

Archery (and a free pattern!)

I settled on a design for my arrow blocks...



It screams "Valentine's Day!" a bit more than my original vision for these arrows, but we can enjoy it for a few more days!



I did some simple outline quilting around the arrows and heart. I thought about adding more straight line quilting to the background, but after trying out a few lines I decided it was too busy. If you look closely you can still see the little holes from the quilting I ripped out. I tried steaming them with the iron and it helped, but the holes are still visible. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them??



The arrows and the heart are all foundation pieced. I drew the arrow in EQ7, and I'm sharing the pattern with you! You can download the pattern here. The finished size of the block is 8" wide x 5" high. Make sure when you print the PDF that you have Page Scaling set to None. If you use the pattern, I'd love to see it!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!