Scrappy Patchwork Pillows

We're welcoming December and that means it's time for another Minis and More Parade!

Between preparing for the holidays and enjoying time with family and friends many of you made a sweet pillow from the free Scrappy Patchwork Pillow Tutorial on Sherri's blog.

This cute red pillow was made by my friend Mary.  She can be found writing posts for her blog Needled Mom.  Mary used some great red fabric scraps and added her own twist to Sherri's tutorial by using leftover HST's to create the center of her pillow.  This pillow will have a home on Mary's couch near her new Christmas tree skirt. It's adorable Mary!   

Patty from the blog Elm Street Quilts made this sweet pillow.  She added some great Christmas themed embroidery.  I love the aquas, light greens, and reds that she used here to make it such a fun, festive pillow.  If it was mine I think I would just leave it out all year long! Patty was the recipient of the Minis and More prize last month.  Congratulations Patty!

   

My Scrappy Patchwork Pillow top is made with the Modern Background fabrics lines called Ink and Paper by Zen Chic for Moda.  I really wish I had more of these great fabric lines.  I was tempted not to use them at all, but if I don't, it really doesn't help me by just sitting there, right?  Once I decide if this will become a pillow or a mini it will have a place in my family room.

And as always, don't forget to see the other half of the Parade on Sherri's blog, A Quilting Life! 

With everyone so busy with all kinds of holiday festivities, Sherri and I thought December would be a nice month to rest, enjoy the season, and gather fabrics and projects to prepare for the new year ahead!

So in the month of December, we won't be making a project.

  

Our next Parade will be on February first and we'll let you know what project or pattern we will be featuring in that Parade on our blogs at the beginning of January.

 Are there any particular projects you'd like to see us feature in upcoming Minis and More Parades?

Leave a comment and let us know! We'd love to hear from you!

     

Be sure to check in at the start of the new year to see what we're working on next.

If you'd like to join us and participate in the Minis and More Parade with fun patterns and monthly prizes, we'd love to have you!

Simple make the next project, then email one of us with a picture of what you made and we'll put you in the Parade. 

Leave any questions you might have about participating in the comment section and we'll get you more information.

Have a wonderful holiday season and we'll see you again soon!     

Lulu

Lots of Christmas sewing has been happening at my house!

There's finally a chill in the air here in Florida and it's time to think about the holidays!

I've got plenty of holiday mini quilts at my house and I'm sure you agree there's always room for more mini quilts, but I've been thinking that I'd like another throw sized quilt that we can use while watching Christmas movies on the couch or playing games in the family room this winter.

Jelly Roll quilts are always a favorite of mine, so I was eager to try out the new pattern called Lulu by Amber Johnson of Gigis Thimble Quilt Patterns.

With one Jelly Roll of The Cookie Exchange fabric by Sweetwater and a coordinating fat quarter I was able to make this entire quilt!

Amber's new Lulu pattern uses every strip in the Jelly Roll and I think that's my favorite thing about it.

It's always difficult for me to choose which pieces of fabric should not 'make the cut' for a particular quilt and with this pattern that's certainly not a problem.

Lulu is a super efficient way to use a Jelly Roll with hardly any fabric left over!

I love that all of those cute low volume fabrics in this line found a home in this quilt too.

The Cookie Exchange does include lots of lighter fabrics, so this was a great match up.

The few Jelly Roll end pieces that I have left will find their way into my holiday scrap bin to be used in my next Christmas scrap quilt.

Simple but fun piecing make this pattern appropriate for a quilter at any experience level.

I was happy to able to whip this one up pretty quickly and I'm hoping to have it ready for the holidays!

We're doing some renovations on our home and we're going for lighter and brighter.

Lulu will fit in with our new decor very well with the bright festive colors of The Cookie Exchange!

I especially love the aqua in this holiday fabric line and it should go with the new paint colors in our house.

Speaking of cookies, I think I might make a batch before everyone gets home.

Thanks for stopping by to meet Lulu! 

Sugar Pine Stars - A new pattern

I've got a brand new quilt pattern to share with you today!

Last week my friend Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life introduced one of her new patterns called Sugar Pine Stars.

I was thrilled to test this beautiful pattern for her a few weeks ago and I'm so happy that I can show you my version today!

This is the lap size Sugar Pine Stars quilt that I made with Bonnie and Camille's Little Ruby fabric line and some Vintage Picnic for the border.

I love how the two lines look together!

 When I was finished piecing the quilt I was so excited about it that I ordered some backing and binding fabric right away, so I could get started on the quilting.

This border fabric wasn't the one that I had originally planned to use here, but once I put it next to the quilt I decided it had to be the one!

Because of the small flowers, I had bought it for use as a backing fabric, now I think its got to be my favorite border ever!

My family agrees!

Sherri's combination of solid and pieced star blocks and Irish chain blocks makes a beautiful quilt.

I don't think I've ever made an Irish chain quilt before, so I was excited to give this one a try!

It was fun to see the chain sections forming as I made the blocks.

With only twelve blocks in this quilt and lots of strip piecing, it came together much faster than I would have thought.

I made mine really scrappy, using different prints for all of the star points and centers, but I stuck with reds and pinks for the fabrics in the chain blocks.

Sherri made her full size version in reds and greens with low volume background fabrics, perfect for the upcoming Christmas season.

 You can see Sherri's holiday version in her Sugar Pine Stars blog post and the Sugar Pine Stars quilt pattern is now available in Sherri's etsy shop here.  Both paper and PDF form are available.

This quilt has sky-rocked to the top of my to-be-quilted-list!

Minis and More - The Simple Patchwork Bag Parade

This month's Parade is so much fun!

Rather than a mini quilt, Sherri and I decided to feature the Simple Patchwork Bag Tutorial that can be found on Sherri's blog A Quilting Life, so everyone could enjoy the free pattern.

It's a sweet, simple bag with so many uses, especially now that the holidays are here!

These two Christmas themed bags were made by Karen.  Karen used some leftover Holly's Tree Farm scraps for her sweet bags.  She says they're the perfect size to put some goodies in to give for the holidays. How adorable!

Patty made some great bags for game pieces, that would certainly make great holiday gifts!  She has a cute tutorial on her blog that she used to create her game piece bags.  Don't forget to check out the bag event that Patty is hosting on her blog Elm Street Quilts right now.

My bag was made by combining two different mini charm packs of Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic.  I used both the Ink and Paper fabric lines.  My drawstring is made from long random scraps that I've been collecting and making into twine.  You can read more about my sweet bag in my blog post.  This bag was so quick and easy!  I definitely need to make another!

And I know you all are wondering about next month......

You're in luck!

We're featuring another free tutorial by Sherri!

This time we're making a Scrappy Patchwork Pillow!

Photo courtesy of Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.

A few days ago I was looking at some options for our next project and I ran across Sherri's Tutorial.  I thought it would be perfect.

We've never done a Pillow Parade before and it's a quick and easy project so you can get it finished in a busy holiday month like November. 

Sherri liked the idea too!

Just like the bag featured in this month's Parade, this scrappy pillow would make a great gift, holiday decoration, or something that you'd love to have in your home.

I know I have some scraps of my favorite fabric lines that want to save and this would be a great use for them!

I can't wait to see your pillows!

As always, don't forget to send in a picture of your project to me or to Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life to have your picture shown in the Minis and More Parade and to be entered in the drawing for our monthly prize!

Everyone is encouraged to join us!  We'd love to have you!

Last month's winner was Brenda at The Quilting Nook.

Be sure and go over to Sherri's blog today to see the other half of the Parade.

See you soon and happy sewing!

I love this sweet little bag!

I'm sharing my finished Simple Patchwork Bag with you today!

This cute bag was our Minis and More project for the Parade tomorrow.

I got mine finished early in the month because I was so excited to make and to use this sweet little bag!

This fun, easy to understand tutorial can be found on Sherri McConnell's blog,  A Quilting Life. 

You can get to it quickly by simply clicking this Simple Patchwork Bag Tutorial Link.

I made mine by combining a few mini charms from both the Paper and the Ink Modern Background Paper fabric lines by Zen Chic for Moda.

I love how they went together!

For my drawstring handle I used some twine that I've been making off and on with  some long scrap pieces that I'm collecting.

Making that twine can be addicting!

And so is making these little bags!  They have so many uses.

If you are interested in making any kind of bag this holiday season, I want to mention that one of our Minis and More Parade participants, Patty of Elm Street Quilts, is having a bag event during the next few months. Her second annual Bag It Event will give you lots of inspiration to have a handmade holiday this year.  Be sure to check out Patty's fun event including bag ideas and prizes too.

Speaking of prizes, don't forget to send in your Minis and More Parade picture to Sherri or to me to have your project entered in the Minis and More Parade tomorrow and to be eligible for our monthly prize!

Last month's Parade prize winner was Brenda from the blog The Quilting Nook!  Congratulations Brenda!

See you  back here and on Sherri's blog A Quilting Life for the Minis and More Parade tomorrow!

Welcome October!

Happy fall!

We're looking forward to some cooler, crisp weather and what better way to celebrate than to show you the beautiful fall projects that were sent in for this month's Minis and More Parade!

Sherri McConnell did a wonderful Fall Placemat Tutorial at the end of August that we used for the featured project for this month's Parade.

We'll start with Mindy's two wonderful placemats.  She made one with cute pumpkins and the other with little leaves.  I love that she used fall colors and that she has some pops of aqua and green too!

Our next beautiful entry is from Vickie. She added the fall leaves on both sides of her placemats and she used a quilt as you go method to get them quilted and ready to use quickly!  They are adorable! 

And now here's mine.  I was planning on using fall fabric scraps and while I was sorting through them, I came across these leftover squares that I had already sewn together for another project.  I decided to incorporate them into my fall tabletopper.

The Parade for next month will feature another cute free tutorial from Sherri!

I remember when she did her original post about it and I'm so excited make a few now.

You can find it by clicking on this link to Sherri's Simple Patchwork Bag Tutorial.

Photo courtesy of Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.

I was think this adorable little bag would make a wonderful holiday gift or even a sweet hostess gift for Thanksgiving or any other gathering that you could be attending.

And you just may need to make a few for yourself too!

When you're finished with your bag, take a picture and send it to Sherri or to me and we'll be sure it goes in next month's Minis and More Parade.

 With each Parade entry you're eligible to win the random drawing for the monthly prize.

Last month's winner of some newly released precuts was Mindy!

I can't wait to see those cute Patchwork Bags! 

Let's get ready for fall!

Hello everyone!

Who's ready for fall?

I know I am!  The kids are back in school and the fall decorations are coming out!

Last week I was in a home improvement store and they had lots of big boxes in the front ready to be unpacked and unloaded.  I thought the boxes contained items for the tropical storm that is headed this way, but no.  The boxes were labeled "fall" and employees were working on their seasonal display.

So that means we can get out our fall quilts!

I'm happy to tell you that our project for next month has a fall theme.

It's a fun fall placemat tutorial that Sherri wrote and posted to her blog yesterday.

It's adorable!

This picture was taken by Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life.

This would be the perfect scrappy project to use up all of those fall fabric pieces you can't seem to part with in your stash.

My plan is to make one into a great table topper for a little table in my living room.

I'm not sure I could let anyone use it as a placemat and possibly get food on it....

It's just too cute!

So when you go over to Sherri's blog to see the other half of the Parade, be sure to look for the fall placemat tutorial in Sherri's post from August 31.

Thanks so much Sherri for providing such a sweet free tutorial!

In other Minis and More news, I'd like to announce that the winner of last month's Minis and More prize was Mary from the blog NeedledMom!

After today's Parade Sherri and I will draw a winner from this month's entries.

 Mindy sent in this gorgeous picture of her Handmade Mini pattern for today's Parade.  Handmade is a mini pattern by Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms.  Mindy used Little Miss Sunshine fabric and she changed the pattern a little by setting the spools on their sides.  The embroidery she added is lovely!  I noticed that Mindy has received lots of compliments on this mini and I can definitely see why!  

To view the rest of the Parade of Handmade Minis visit Sherri McConnell at A Quilting Life and don't forget to look for the free tutorial for next month's project too.

To enter the Minis and More Parade for October, just email a picture of your completed fall placemat project that you made from Sherri's fall placemat tutorial before October 1 to be included in the drawing for next month's prize.

See you soon!

The Minis and More Parade Holiday Edition

Here's what you've been waiting for, the Christmas in July Minis and More Parade!

Yes, it's August now and back to school is just a few weeks away for my kids, since we live here in Florida.

I can't believe it!  We've had a great summer, but wow has it been hot!  I'm always happy to have summer arrive, but I'm usually not sad to see it leave.

Looking forward to cooler weather, we have our Christmas in July Parade today!

Hopefully you baked some Christmas cookies and thought snowy thoughts as you sat inside in the air

conditioning and worked on some holiday related projects or gifts!

This Jingle project belongs to Patty of Elm Street Quilts.  She used some red Kate Spain scraps and her own Chunky Alphabet Pattern to create this cute mini.  Patty even drew the holly leaves freehand and added some extra batting underneath to make them pop!  Beautiful!

Mary from the blog Needled Mom sent in this cute Popsicle table runner inspired by our Minis and More Parade a few months ago using the Mini Popsicle table rummer pattern by Fig Tree and Co.  Mary used bright summery colors and she sent in a picture of the cute back of her table runner too!  

Mindy made an adorable Joy Mini for her Christmas in July Parade entry. Aren't the packages great?  I love the fabrics she used, especially the aqua and the light green border.  She's got a head start on the holidays!  Beautiful Mindy!

 And now, even though I didn't get it done in time for the Parade I'm going to show you what I've been working on for Christmas in July. Although it's not done, you're getting a quick peek anyway because I really wished I would have finished it and I'm so excited about it!  Using some leftover charm squares that I had from previous Christmas projects, I made a few wreaths using the Mini Cheerio pattern by Camille Roskelley and hopefully soon I'll get them and a few more into a mini quilt. 

The September Parade will feature the new Handmade Mini pattern by Camille Roskelley.

Sherri and I think this will be a super fun project!

It includes the possibility of some embroidery at the bottom which looks like fun.  I've never tried to embroider much of anything before, so I'm excited to try my hand a something new.  The Handmade Mini would be cute without the embroidery too if that's just not your thing.

I borrowed this picture of the pattern is from Camille's shop called Thimbleblossoms and you can find the Handmade Mini Pattern in her shop by clicking here.  Right now, she has both the PDF and paper versions of the pattern available.

Send in those pictures of your Handmade Mini to Sherri or to me before September first to be in the Parade and to be entered in the drawing for next month's prize!

Now don't forget about the rest of the Parade on Sherri's blog A Quilting Life.

I can't wait to go over there and see what everyone else has been doing during Christmas in July!

Acreage Blog Tour

This summer I've been having a great time sewing with a brand new fabric line that will be released in September.

It's from Moda designer Shannon Gillman Orr of Eva Blake's Makery and its called the Acreage Collection.

Today is my stop on the Acreage Blog Tour, so I finally get to show you what I've been up to with these fun, cheery fabrics!

Acreage has such great prints with adorable fabrics featuring clothespins, different types of flowers, and of course my favorite fabrics in the line, those amazing bikes!

And they come in so many beautiful colors!

Using the largest amount of Acreage fabric that I could in my quilt for this blog tour was important to me, so something bigger than a mini quilt was a priority here.

I love mini quits, as you know, but I wanted this one to be big!







The pattern that I liked the most that would put the pieces of fabric that I had to good use was the Schnibbles Domino pattern by Carrie Nelson.

But as much as I love Schnibbles patterns and as much as I wanted to make the Domino pattern, since it's one that I'd never made before, it just wasn't large enough to include all of my Acreage fabric.








So, with a little help I changed up Carrie's Domino Schnibble pattern.  My version is larger in size and the placement of the fabrics is different than Carrie's, which gave me the ability to use as much of those cute Acreage prints in my quilt as possible.

As far as the background goes, I really wanted to make the bright Acreage fabrics stand out, so I decided a dark background was the way to go.

Acreage paired up really well with Moda Grunge, which happens to be one of my all time favorite backgrounds to use.  It adds a textured look to the background without standing out too much.  

Espresso was the color of Moda Grunge that I chose.  It sounds kind of brown, but it really looks more gray and black.  

 It made the Acreage fabrics pop and that's what I was going for!

It's even what I used for the binding!

I do love using any kind of white fabric as a background, but I try to think out of the box as much as I can and give other background colors a try. 

The big, bright buttons that highlight Shannon's fabric were a fun addition!

After I completed the straight line quilting, putting buttons in the same colors as the Acreage fabrics in the center of the Moda Grunge seemed like a good idea, so I went with it!

I figured I could always remove them if I wanted to, but I love the look and how they go with the breezy feeling of the fabrics.

I don't remember ever adding buttons to a quilt before and they weren't part of my original plan, but I love how they look against the Moda Grunge and how they pull the whole thing together.

Making this quilt with Shannon's Acreage fabric was a fun summer project for me this year!  I had a great time with it and I fell in love with all of the beautiful prints in the process.

You'll be sure to see more of her fabrics in my upcoming projects when I can get my hands on more
Acreage fabric!

Don't forget to visit the other stops on the tour to see more creative projects using Shannon's new fabric!

Monday July 4th Sally Keller of Sally’s Angelworks

Monday July 11th Anna Marks of Crazy8Farms

Monday  July 18 Brooke Sellmann of  Silly Mama Quilts

Monday July 25th Melissa Shields of Quilting Room with Mel

Monday August 1 Michele of Island Life Quilts  You're here right now!

Monday August 8 Jayme Christensen of Finding Sweetland

Monday August 15 Briawna Hugh of Purple Poppy Quilts

Monday August 22 Peta Peace of She Quilts a Lot

Monday August 29 Lani Padilla of Simply Fresh Vintage

Monday September 5  Loryn Litchty of  Sweet Sassy Strong

Monday September 12 Jemima Flendt of  Tied With a Ribbon

Monday September 19 Anne Boundy of Said with Love

Monday September 26 Staci Barrett of A Vintage Fairytale

Monday October 3rd Blog Tour wrap up by Shannon Gillman Orr of Eva Blake’s Makery

Star Bright Mini

Happy Fourth of July weekend everyone!

I just popped some watermelon flavored cupcakes in the oven to take to a cookout tomorrow and now I have a few minutes to show you the details of my Star Bright Mini Quilt that you saw in yesterday's Minis and More Parade.

This is a fun pattern!

 I love how the corners of the stars form some different secondary patterns and that the star corners actually form the same star in the middle of the quilt.

Sherri has a large version of this quilt that I love, and the fact that the corners of the stars form other stars is the reason why I like it so much.

Someday I'd love to make that one too!

You an find both the mini and the large versions of Star Bright in Sherri Mc Connell's Etsy shop here.

As I mentioned yesterday all of the fabrics in this mini came from my stash and I was happy about that!

I was hesitant to use the Boathouse binding at first.

I wasn't sure if it would be too busy, especially considering the patriotic text background that I used.  

But now I think the binding really goes well with the red and white text background and I'm happy with it.

Oh, and I was able to match up the pattern all the way around the binding.  I love it when that works out!

  

This quilting pattern is new to me and I think it looks great here.

I'd seen something similar on lots of flag quilts the last few weeks and I liked that it was simple, but yet it would give me interest and movement to the quilt so I gave it a try.

I drew and cut out a template, copied it onto my quilt once with the purple disappearing pen, then I quilted on that line.

For each line after that I just used the edge of my walking foot and ran it along the line before it.  

Every few lines I would use my template again to get my quilting lines back on track because I found that my quilting lines were gradually getting a bit straighter and what I liked about this pattern was the wave.

I'm definitely using quilting design again soon!

If you didn't catch the announcement yesterday, Sherri and I are hoping that more of you will participate in out Minis and More Parade each month, so we'll be giving monthly prizes now hoping that you'll play along with us as we make more mini quits and projects throughout the year!

The August Parade will feature free choice Christmas projects or any gift or project that you've made during the month.

Just send me an email or send one to Sherri from A Quilting Life with a picture of your project and a link to your blog if you have one and we'll include you in our Parade and our prize drawing.

I can't wait to see what you sew this month!