Little Man's Mossy Oak Quilt Begins

Work on the Mossy Oak quilt for my little man began earlier this month! I was SO excited to finally get it started. I had planned to make a baby quilt for him, but not having very much experience I started the squares out too big & too many in a row so when I do get it done it'll probably be a twin size quilt. Either way, I'm not really upset about this little mishap since he won't be a baby forever and this way the quilt will get more use.

Here are a few pics from the first days of working on the quilt:

First on the list the day I started work on little man's quilt was to iron out the fabric. I had washed and dried it already so it was in much need of ironing! Do you see my cat Demi who is hiding in the upper left part of the fabric? He was quite insistent on sitting on the fabric while I was trying to take a photo of it.

I first cut the fabric into 5 inch wide strips as far up as I could go with the first ruler length. I then moved to the next strip of fabric in the line.

Here's how the fabric looked once I got the first 5 inch cuts made. This is my cat Emerald (for those of you who don't know) she loves being involved in what ever sewing project I'm currently working on. She sat on the table while I was cutting squares, and more than once I had to make her move so the ruler would lay correctly!

I decided to go with 5x5 inch squares so that I would have less measuring to worry with. I am fortunate to have this lovely mat and ruler which make the job much easier.

This is part of the pinning process. I had to lay the fabric squares next to each other to make sure they were working in the same direction and wouldn't look too awkward next to each other on the finished quilt.

Here the sets are waiting in line for me to sew them together.

These are the finished sets. I did a single stitch and then did a zig zag stitch down one side and back up the other to make sure these squares don't come apart with multiple quilt washings.

Once I had the sets of 2 squares done I started piecing them together in rows. Once I got the first row put together I began working on the second row.

Here are two rows which are pieced and sewn together.

Once I got a row laid out I would pin together the parts which hadn't been sewn yet and did the sewing stuff mentioned above.

I had three great days of quilt work in when I sliced my first finger on my left hand with the roller blade. I was so mad! I saw my finger slip off the ruler just as the blade was coming the but there was no time to stop it from happening. It has taken about two weeks for my finger to heal. I have three rows of the quilt completely done and I plan to start work on the quilt again soon!

Homemaking 101 | Ideas For An All White Quilt

My Grandma Karon and I were talking a few weeks ago about this quilt that I attempted to make awhile back and I was telling her how I was having such a hard time with the fabric and I wasn't able to make it work and was really frustrated with it since it was being so difficult.

Well she told me that she had a bunch of old white sheets...and my eyes lit up! On Pinterest I've found a few white quilts that I just LOVE and I've wanted to make one for my bed when I get married. Today I will be sharing the inspiration photos for the quilt that I really hope to start putting together after Christmas is over. I should be less busy then so that will be one project I hope to start!

Here are the photos...all found via Pinterest, of course! Enjoy!



(photo via Blackbird Designs)

I want to do a ruffled edge for the quilt I make for our bed when we are married. I found this photo and just LOVE it!! Of course I do love ruffles too so that's part of why I want this.

(photo via Pinterest)

I really love the look of this quilt. This is what I am aiming for actually. A bunch of squares pieced together. I LOVE the addition of lace though. I may end up doing this since I have a bunch of random lace curtains which I could use for this. That would be beautiful!!

(photo via Flickr)

I really love the squares lined with a strip between each one too... This was really the original inspirational photo, but I LOVE the lace addition from the one above so we'll see...

(photo via Pinterest)

I do plan to do hand quilting for this quilt. Grandma will be helping me with this since it will be a new experience for me and something I've never done before! I'm pretty excited about that. I think this quilt here is beautiful. If I was going to do hand quilting I would just cut larger squares and do a different pattern in each one. Or so that's what I'm thinking.

(photo via Craftori)

I also love this look too. It wouldn't be too hard to pull off. I think this look is really cool. I've made squares like this before so I could totally do this if I wanted too.

(photo via Pinterest)

This quilt is really different and vintage looking. I really like the look but doubt I will actually make mine like this.

(photo via Marie Elisabeth's Rum)

This is sort of a vintage classic look in my opinion and really what I'd like mine to look like when I get it all done. I like the squares and the hand stitching and the edge is nice too...although I still like the ruffled edge best.

Anyway, this was a glimpse into a future craft project I plan on making soon!

My Keepsake Box | Old Crafts

Yesterday and today I've spent most of my day going through all of my boxes of things for my future home...today I got to my keepsakes. I decided to take pictures so I could share the things on here, but then I decided to split the things up into several different posts since there was SO much in there lol. Right now I'm going to share with you some of the very first craft projects I ever made/did.

One of my very first attempts at crochet. I was probably 10.

I think I've come a very long way since I first took up this hobby. I couldn't even get this piece to stretch out enough so you could see the design that it's 'supposed' to have. I'm not sure why I keep it, but I do. Yesterday I shared the Warm Brown Double Crochet Rug which is one of my latest almost complete crochet projects. I absolutely adore crochet items and love yarn! It is always on my birthday and Christmas list each year! :)

My very first attempt at cross stitch. The blue dolphin was first and then the purple bear was after that. I'm not sure how old I was when I did these.

My aunt always told me that the back of a cross stitch should look as beautiful as the front...she said that for my first one(s) these really don't look very bad. Now they look almost perfect!

Here is another hobby which I still use. I actually have several pieces in the works for my future home...one of which you can see in this post which I wrote back in September: My September Goals. I have yet to finish the project which is in that post, but you can obviously tell I still love this hobby!

One of the first bag/purse(s) that I made.

An inside view. Sorry it's so white...I couldn't get the camera flash to do any better.

One of the very first bags or 'purses' I made. I used to love making these...and as you can tell I had no clue how to put the handles on properly...and I also didn't know anything about raw edges. But I still love this fabric combination! :)

This is either my first or second quilt. I can't remember for sure.

A very messy whip stitch job on the edging.
I used light pink yarn to tack the pieces together.

This was such a fun quilt to make! I really liked having each square with different patterns in them. I think I will have to take a few more photos so I can do a bit more of a detailed post later on! :) I really do love the colors though. It's a really small quilt. I didn't have a lot of the purple fabric so I just used what I had and stopped making squares when I ran out. I really enjoy making quilts and really wish they weren't so time consuming!!

Quilting Woe's

Well, I really did work hard to finish up my quilt by the end of this month. I had the top of the quilt finally put together and decided I should wash it to make sure none of the stitching would come out later on once it was completely put together. Even with all of the seams reinforced with a zigzag stitch I still had a lot more holes than I had hoped for. Now I will have to take a day to go back and mend the top part of the quilt. I think it's time for me to figure out how to thread my serger. At least that way the seams will really be held together well.

It is quite upsetting that all my hard work didn't pay off as much as I had hoped it would. I will for sure be using the serger to make sure that this won't happen once the whole quilt is put together.

Here are a few pictures of the quilt now:

It will probably be awhile before this quilt is finished. The main reason is I forgot I still have to buy the middle stuff (can't remember what it's called) and I haven't really looked to see where I can get that or how much it is. I'm thinking about getting it from WalMart if I can find some there. Not only that, but now I have to fix all these holes so it will be awhile longer before I post the final outcome photo's for this quilt. I will admit I am disappointed, but I know that eventually it will get done.