Well…. I know that I said that I was only going to work on hand quilting my lonestar quilt and I said that I was not going to start another project before this one was finished, I slipped up.  I really wanted to get out my sewing machine and work on something different.

For my birthday, I acquired a pattern to make a Teddy Bear.  I have always wanted to try making stuffed animals.  I decided that this was going to be a great thing to do. How hard could it be?

I had some left over scrap gray minky fabric that was calling my name.  It really wanted to be used.  I also had some gray polka dot fabric left over from the baby quilt that I had made Abigail.  Over the course of a couple of days I managed to make a cute little bear.

This was the first stuffed animal that I have made.  The bear turned out cute, however, minky fabric is so hard to work with.  Next time I should probably make this bear out of cotton fabric only.  The pattern called for the same fabric to be used on the entire bear, but I think that the two toned look is much better.  It also called for me to embroider a nose and a mouth.  I tried that but decided that I did not like the way it was looking, so I took it out.  The eyes are sparkly buttons that I had found in my button stash.

I gave it to Abigail and she calls it her “Carebear”.

Here is a picture of my little helper that insisted that she sit with me.  I did have a lot of fun trying to put this bear together and I am quite pleased how it came out.

I feel like I have been working on this quilt Forever.  This is one of those projects that I began over 15 Years ago.

When I was younger and I mean much younger, I would spend several weeks at a time in the Arizona White Mountains with my parents and siblings.  My Grandmother had a house up there and we would spend time with her during summer vacation. This was long before I had any adult responsibilities.  It was when I spent time with her that my love of crafting began.  I learned how to paint, Crochet, and began to show an interest in sewing.  There was not much to do, but read, watch TV and work on projects and craft.  Oh yeah, there was always fishing, but I thought it was gross and smelled funny.  I would put on old Classic movies and work on some sort of project instead.

It is strange how we remember the oddest things.  For this project, I can remember going to the local drug store in that small town of Springerville and picking out this particular quilt kit.  I remember thinking how fun it would be to put together a lone-star quilt. The drug store had quite a variety, but I liked this one the best.  I think it is the pattern that was intriguing, not the colors.  My Great Grandmother used to make quilts.  I can still remember sitting next to her and watching her hand quilt squares.  I was always intrigued by the process.

After purchasing this quilt kit, I think I tried to start on this project by hand sewing the diamonds together.  Since this project has taken me forever, I am sure that I got frustrated with it and decided to put it away for a while.  As years passed, I acquired a sewing machine.  It was then, sometime in High School that I picked this project back up again and began to sew the diamonds together.  I soon lost interest and put this project away again.

After college I purchased my own home.  I finally had a room that I could dedicate to sewing, crafting, and anything else that I wanted.  I can remember getting this quilt out yet again, and this time I took out my machine and sewed the 8 large diamonds together.  Since this is my first quilt ever, I had a really difficult time getting all the seams to line up.  Thus it is not perfect.  I have definitely learned a lot over the years while trying to put this quilt together.

A few things that I have learned:

1.) Do not do a lonestar quilt as your first quilt ever. It has proven to be a bit challenging and I am surprised that it has not discouraged me from doing another quilt.

2.) When quilting, it is important to be consistent with how you are stitching the top together.  Machine stitching and hand stitching both makes for some tight and some very loose seams.

3.) Consistent Quarter inch seams are VERY Important.

4.)Watch YouTube videos or read directions when putting together a quilt kit.  It will help in the long run.  After the fact, I have found easier ways of putting this particular quilt together.

Two years ago in August, while I was pregnant with Abigail, I decided to get this project out again.  I think I was cleaning things out, and needed space for the ton of baby items that I had acquired.  I also decided that I had a lot of time on my hands, just waiting for her to come, that is why I got this project out again.  It was at this time that I discovered that all that was lacking, was the backing, and a few pieces on the front to finish the quilt top.  I went to the fabric store, picked out coordinating fabric, stitched it together and hand basted the entire quilt.

I thought after she was born that I would have plenty of time, to hand quilt the top.  I was soooo wrong.  It is amazing how you really have no time to do these things with a busy child.  It is now two years later.  I am still working on hand quilting the top.

Now that Abigail is almost two years old I decided that it is time to finish this quilt once and for all.  Now that I am finally moved into a new place in Oregon and I have a proper area.  I can spend time quilting.  Abigail will entertain herself for a while, and she is taking some naps, so I am able to quilt a little during those times.

My new goal for this quilt is to have it finished before Thanksgiving.  I have also decided that I am not going to start on a new quilt until I have this one finished.  I think I need to work on one thing at a time.  We will wait and see how that goes.

My latest project was to make shoe bags.  I had all of my shoes in see-through plastic bins, but when trying to pack all my clothes and shoes for moving, I realized that these tubs take up way to much space.  I then decided to make bags for my shoes.  This way I had a fun project to do, as I really had the itch to do some sewing, and these bags were going to be useful.

It has been a while since I have posted anything.  I have been so busy lately that I have not had the time for any craft projects.  My English Flower garden quilt is coming along, however, I have begun yet another project.  After the Holidays I noticed that I have accumulated a lot of scraps from previous projects that I have completed.  While searching online I noticed that people use their scraps to make some pretty neat quilts.  This is just what I have decided to do.  One of the gifts that I received from Christmas was some Omnigrid square templates.  They came in about 4 different sizes. I have decided that this was the perfect project to test them out.

I first gathered all my scraps and began to piece them together.  I have put like colors together so that the finished quilt does not look to crazy.  When completed I’ll have one quilt with pinks and purples, another with Yellow, orange and Red, then a final one with Baby/child related themes. I then used the Omnigrid Templates to cut squares with my rotary cutter.

Here is a picture of what I have completed thus far.  I am thinking that I will purchase a contrasting color to go with all of my squares.  I will do some sort of sashing.  The Missouri Star Quilt Company has a bunch of Daily Deals from time to time.  I think I’ll wait till one comes up, and then purchase a Jelly Roll.  I am sure that I can put something together with that.

It will be nice to have a lap quilt with all of the scraps of projects that I have completed.  It will serve as a great memory and be useful at the same time.