Do you see what I see?

Jeanette and I have been doing blocks of the month since last January. It would have been nice to put these side by side, but - can you tell the difference. Just by looking at the top I can tell which is her block and which is mine.

Jeanette sews to perfection and often I don't really try all that hard to make my points match up and my pinwheels perfect in the back. This is my new goal for this year, to make my stitches as perfect as Jeanette's.

As soon as you see the back, you can tell that she put more care into her construction. To be fair she doesn't have 3 kids pulling on her as she sews but I am going to see that my points match up better this year. It's my late resolution. Perfect points.

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Around the Corner

This is a great wall hanging made from the Around the Corner block. I wish the colors were brighter but when I went to mess with the photo it just looked weird and orange. I have this up in my living room and I love the colors. It feels really warm to me. I made this when we were buying the house. I figured we couldn't move into a new home unless we had a new wall hanging. Strange logic, I know. But there it is, living proof that I won't pack or move until I have a new wall hanging.

New Curtains, okay I copied

Well, Dahlia didn't like the pillow but she liked the curtains. Dahlia pulled the curtains off the wall last week and bent the curtain rod. It was a cheap metal rod that just bent in half under the weight of a swinging monkey of a girl. So I got a big 1 inch thick dowel from Lowes and replaced it with that. I took the curtains, washed them, ironed them and sewed ribbon all over them. I copied the idea from Maddie's curtains, they aren't exactly the same but I liked the effect. Took about 15 minutes, now that's an EASY project.

Easy Pillowcase with French Seams

I was up at Fiddlesticks today, one of my favorite shops, and picked up a kit for a Valentine pillow. It had directions for the roll tube, something I haven't done before. So I brought it home, thinking this is going to be a snap, the pieces are already cut and it should sew together in just a few minutes. Well.......20 minutes later i'm still looking at the instructions trying to figure them out. The instructions say things like: "fold the fabric in half" well, which way? So after a while, I did figure it out, and it did sew together pretty quickly. I hope Dahlia loves it when she gets home. So really this should be titled:

Easy (if you know what you're doing) Pillowcase with French Seams

Aprons

I needed a new apron, i've been wearing one that my Grandmother made, forty or fifty years ago. I used that apron as a pattern to create two aprons. It took two half yards of contrasting fabric to make two aprons, and now my daughter and I can cook together with our matching aprons! (Thanks for the fabric Nat)

A Valentine

"Love"
The first for this year, a classic wall hanging. This was made using the "Love is in the air" charm pack from moda (thanks Nat!)and some solid pink and yellow batiks. The white, well I couldn't find my white fabric, so Snoopy is made out of a Lands End no-iron pinpoint shirt (sorry Steve, i'll replace it). There wasn't a pattern for this, I got the idea because of MT and wanted to create a Snoopy, I was looking at the Peanuts fabric that is interspersed with the charm squares, there was one Snoopy holding a Woodstock. So I sketched it out, created a pattern (pattern available!) and began the applique work.
I made two of these, one went to MT and the other I delivered to Bec because i've been wanting to surprise her with something for ages! Look back over my blog, she always leaves such thoughtful comments, I really wanted to give this to her. Okay, so even though CJ was outside, I duct taped it to her door (sorry if that causes problems), took a picture and ran (well not really ran, that just sounds dramatic). Happy Valentines a bit early!

Corn and Beans

I'm working on a Civil War reproduction quilt and I came across a book of quilt blocks, some of which I wanted to incorporate into the quilt. The blocks need to be 12x12 so the quilt blocks in the book are exactly the right size. I started cutting up the Union Square, but there were so many pieces that I quickly moved on to the corn and beans block. I cut pieces for four blocks. They sewed up pretty quickly once the pieces were cut, I laid out the different sections and took a photo, to remind myself when I made the other blocks so that I didn't have to keep refering to the instructions. So once the block was sewn up and trimmed, it measured exactly 11x11. Wow! That's a whole inch off! It's still a beautiful block but now i'm faced with putting a border on them to get to 12 inches or just hoping there will be another project later in life where I can use them. I can't decide.