For The Journey Not just the destination…

Finished vintage sheet quilt!

Yay! I finally finished my blue/green vintage sheet quilt (quilt #3). Thanks for all the feedback on the border, but I decided to just skip it and add the binding. For the back, I pieced a row of the three solids together with another vintage sheet. I think I used about 15 different sheets in the end.  These photos were taken after it came out of the wash. It looks wrinkley, but it’s very soft.

Vintage Sheet Quilt - Front

Vintage Sheet Quilt - Back

My friend Karla and I are hosting a baby shower for our friend Marisa. Since Karla is handleing all the food and having it at her place, I told her I’d handle the invitations and decorations. I found a little scrapbooking store around the corner from me and quickly made up these invitations.

Marisa's Baby Shower Invitations

During our recent travels, my laptop has been just stuffed into a backpack or a duffel bag.  It needed more style and protection.  I made this padded, zippered laptop sleeve and tested it out on our Ireland trip. It worked well, but I forgot to include room for the power plug.  Next time…  So, is it a bad thing to have a Windows-running Dell in an apple laptop sleeve? :)

Apple and Pear Laptop Sleeve

What crafty goodness have you been up to?

Before I moved from the US, I collected a bunch of vintage sheets – yellows for a different quilt and blues and greens.  Last year, I made half of the blocks for the Candy Bar Road quilt with the blue/greens, but got bored of my fabrics and set it aside. Yesterday, I pulled it out again, feeling inspired to *just* finish it, and saw that I had enough blocks done if I reduced it down to a baby quilt.  It’s no longer the Candy Bar Road pattern, but it’s a lot closer to being off my Work in Progress list.

Now I need some help… It currently measures to 36 x 36 inches, but I would really love to add a border to get it up to atleast 40 by 40 inches.  I have these 6 fabrics I haven’t used yet, or I could repeat one of the solids – blue, green, or purple – since it’s already pretty busy.  I’m thinking of the bottom left fabric as the backing with the green or blue solid as the binding.

So what do you think?  Which of the fabrics do you think would look best for the border, backing, and binding?

I love the idea of Handmade Holidays, making or buying handmade gifts to give, but the doing is always the hard part. With our recent travels, it was a little tricky, but I did squeeze in some time to make 3 small items.

My friends with babies have mentioned that burp cloths are hard to find in Belgium. I would love to make baby quilts for all the showers I go to, but since I’ve only completed 2 quilts in the past 5 years, it doesn’t seem likely. I’ll stick to quilted burp clothes instead – they’re a lot easier to make. For this set, I used Marcus Brother’s Metro Blues and did a top-stitching in a star pattern. Hopefully, the baby boy will arrive soon and enjoy them.

This little tree is what I sent my partner for Lisa’s Ornament Exchange. I had originally planned to buy some kind of Belgium-themed ornament, but my partner requested handmade. My recent paper-pieced tree blocks inspired me to make a Christmas tree ornament. The yellow buttons at the top are in place of a star.

I always feel nervous giving handmade items for Christmas because they’re not as fancy or professional as something I could buy in the store. But, I thought my Mother-in-law, a crafter herself, could use a tote to take to her quilting classes and workshops. Of course you can’t take a store-bought tote to a quilting class, so I made her this one using Robert Kaufman’s You Got the Notions fabric. It’s lined with some Ikea bird fabric and has a little extra detail to the pockets and sides.

Did you make or receive any crafts this holiday season?

When I got back from the US and collected my mail from my neighbor, she looked at me kind of funny. We get by communicating on minimal French, but I’m sure she would have loved an explanation of this package…

What a clever reuse of packaging! It was from my ornament exchange partner at Cathie’s Corner. I sat there in awe of how she fit the ornaments through the tiny opening at the top. Finally, I had to email her to ask how to open it. She hinted to me to peel back the name label, and I discovered a door cut into the plastic. I think this may actually be the coolest packaging I’ve ever received.

My partner’s craft specialty is a drawing style she calls Tangles. She made me 3 ornaments featuring her tangles, and one for me to put together myself. She’s posted a tutorial on her blog – you just need 4 cardboard circles, a piece of ribbon, some glue, and a little bit of folding. I really liked her ornaments and immediately hung them up on our bookcase (no tree this year).

Thank you, Cathie!  They’re fantastic.

• Cathie’s Tangle Ornaments (8 photos)

Remember the tree quilt I’m doing for my month of the Another Quilting Bee 1? I made a test block, sent out the fabrics, and finally got the block tutorial posted online. It’s my first time writing a quilt block tutorial, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

• Tree Quilt Block Tutorial