April 30, 2013

{Recent Projects}

Well it's been a little while since I posted, mainly because I've been busy working on a few different projects! I'll try to get them all re-capped here on the blog!

1) First, a quilt I just finished a week or so ago! This is for a good friend of mine that I've known for YEARS who is expecting a little girl in a couple of months!

Her & I have been pen pals for probably about 10 years, and in one of her letters she mentioned that they were doing a "jungle" theme in her nursery! I saw this fabric at Joanns and thought it would look really cute!
Her baby shower was this weekend, and when she opened the box up; she mentioned that this is the same fabric she had seen and picked out for some other items a friend of hers was making for the room! :)

Some may call it a coincidence, but I think it's a God thing! :) Just reminds me that what I'm doing is somehow more important than just a warm blanket.

I'm calling this pattern "interrupted chevrons" :) I loved all the coordinating colors, but also really wanted to highlight the CUTE main fabric. 


{By the way, I'm realizing that I really should IRON these puppies before taking pictures! I always fold them up while I'm sewing the binding, which is the last stage, and then they get these horrible creases in them!}



2) One of my next projects was a DIY, rather than a quilt! I had been really hating our address letters, because they were tiny, hard to read, and just plain BLAH.

BEFORE:

 I had seem some different Pinterest inspirations, and this is what I came up with:
AFTER: 

I love that it's so much bigger, brighter, and CUTER! :)

3) Another cute DIY I did was inspired by, or should I say requested by a friend of mine from church! She was putting together a baby shower for a mutual friend of ours, and when I asked how I could help, she asked if I'd make a cute fabric banner to hang up for decoration!
I had seen these around a bunch on pinterest, but hadn't ever tried to do one of my own; but boy I'm glad I did! I think it turned out super cute, and it was SO simple! (Maybe I'll try a tutorial on it soon!) I'm considering adding this to my Etsy "arsenal". :)
I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of it hanging up at the shower, but needless to say, I was proud of it! :) Can't wait to try others in various sizes and materials! 

4) Next project was another DIY, this time for our kitchen!
The BEFORE:
This is how we kept track of the dishwasher status (which is important when you have different people loading/unloading/starting the dishwasher all the time--this was a step up from always having to ask "is the dish washer clean or dirty?", but still not quite practical or CUTE enough. :)

I was inspired by some different Pinterest posts that used scrabble letters, but rather than having to rob from our game, or order new letters, I raided my collection of left over letters from the "Love" project I did in our bed-room last year, and this is what I came up with:
The After:

 Much cuter, if I do say so myself! :)

5) And last but not least, a quilt I finished just last week; a custom commission by my sister for her friend who is due with a little boy in the near future:
We checked her baby registry and saw that she had a kind of nautical/whale theme going, and we found this cute whale themed fabric at Joanns to use for the backing! The front is just coordinating solids & patterns, with some personalized embroidery!










Then as a surprise, both to the recipient, and my sister,  I made some cute "extras" withe leftover whale material!




 Overall, I'm really happy with how it all turned out! For the burp cloths, I just used the multiple layers of flannel/cotton, rather than the diaper core I had done before. I just wasn't as happy with how those were looking after I was finished, and I think these turned out super cute! I may consider adding additional layers inside to add extra absorbency, but I need to test it.

Well that's it for now! I'm working on another quilt to sell (sneak peak pictures going up on Facebook today), and then I have three custom projects to work on after that! :) Phew, keeping me busy, but loving every minute of it!

:) Until next time...