Elf on the Shelf Fabric

This fall I found Elf on The Shelf fabric online and decided to make some

Christmas projects using it. 

 

My quilt club exchanges two 12.5inch Christmas blocks at our December meeting.  I used the elf fabric in my blocks.  A year ago I took a log cabin block class at Quilted Hearts Quilting   in Millington.  We learned how to use Creative Grids Log Cabin Trim Tool Two, which I used in my blocks.

 

 

 

This trivet for a Christmas present.  I found the pattern in Patchwork Please!

 

The following hot pads were made using Jodi Barrows' Square in a Square technique.

 

This fabric was used on the backs of the trivet and hot pads.

 

  

Lilies Wall Hanging

We recently redid our bathroom. The walls are a light gray and the towels and rug are a rust color. I needed something new to decorate the walls. I found a kit for one of Edyta Sitar's Seasonal Silhouette's blocks at the Front Porch in Frankenmuth.   I used the block as a base for the wall hanging adding a gray batik border and rust flange.

 

I added gray and orange butterfly appliques in place of the butterflies that came in the kit.  Also stitched in stamens with orange holographic thread and used orange rhinestones for the anther's in the lilies.

The bicycle's spokes and rims and the basket were painted with silver ink.

Halloween Hot Pads

Jenny mentioned that she didn't have any Halloween hot pads, of course my stash has lots of fall scraps so I made a pair of hot pads for her and one for myself.

I found the idea for the patchwork top on Pinterest and followed this link.  The quilting on the hot pads is a pumpkin copied from a coloring page.

 

The back of the hot pads came from my stash, mice peaking out from behind pumpkins.

Pumpkin Wall Hanging

The spot next to the phone needed a new wall hanging; the bunnies were looking out of season as fall approaches.  This is the new fall decoration.

The vines are not smoothly quilted but maybe with more practice my free motion quilting will improve.

 

I tries something new with the binding, I added the orange batik flange.  Two types of flanges were discussed online, I chose to go with the flange being sewn on first rather than combining it in the binding.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is my favorite children's book. 

I bought again it for one of my great-nieces, Skylar.

Over 30 years ago, I bought this pattern to make a toy doll for my daughter, Angie.  Since I've used the pattern to make the dog for a great-niece, Audrey.  I used it again to make a caterpillar to go with the book.

 

I found all the fabric I needed in my stash.

He was a fun project, hope Skylar enjoys him.

 

January in the Smoky Mountains

This is the view from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home in North Carolina. 

This wall hanging I made for my sister-in-law Pam's birthday.

 

 

The quilting was done with invisible thread, but seems to show up in the photo. 

The thread painted trees were made with one strand to gray and one strand of

brown rayon thread.

Art Quilt Challenge

During the month of May, the art quilt group I belong to had quilts on display at the Saginaw Township City Hall.  One set of quilts was made with  the ugly challenge fabric (leads to earlier post with my project).

 

 

Francine made "Color Study"  using dye to gradually change the challenge fabric.

 

Linda made "Sunshine", a happy sun face using the fabric.

 

 

 

Jane made "Intrigue" weaving the challenge fabric.

 

 

 

I made "Queen Red Lime Zinnia" using the ugly fabric.

 

 

 

Disappearing Nine-Patch I Spy Baby Quilt

Using up some of my stash and purchasing some dog and cat fabric, I made a disappearing nine-patch baby quilt for charity.

 

The nine-patch blocks had to be arranged in special order so that the completed blocks would be in the same direction. A tutorial here shows how to make the I Spy Disappearing  Nine-Patch.

 

The backing is made up of leftover cat and dog fabric from the front.

 

Striped fabric was used to make a more interesting binding.

String Quilt Blocks

The Millington Quilt Club gives quilts to fire victims in the area.  Faith, who manages the quilts, asked members to make 10 inch string quilt blocks using brights.  I had no problem finding some bright scraps in my stash.

It was fun arranging the blocks. 

 

Considering, I didn't make even a small dent in my collection of brights and the blocks were fun to make; I should make a string quilt for myself.  I think I will put the same color in the center of each block.

Easter Projects

When I saw this fabric on Equilter, I knew I had to make some Easter gifts using it.

I made two tote bags for my great nieces.

 

 

Polka dot fabric was used for the lining. 

 

The bags were big enough to hold some books I found for the girls.

 

 

This is Skylar with her bag.

 

This is Audrey with her bag.

The leftover fabric was used to decorate some kitchen towels. 

 

 

The bunny fabric was fussy cut and appliqued to purchased towels and grosgrain ribbon, eyelet lace and thirty's fabric decorates the bottom of the towels.

 

 

 

 

Easter Desserts

We were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Easter with both of our families.  I made desserts to take to both gatherings.  The first was sugar packed and the second was sugar free.

The Peeps cake was made using a chocolate cake mix and adding Dream Whip and package of dry chocolate pudding mix.  The cake was frosted with

cream cheese frosting made with Cool Whip.

 

The trifle had layers of sugar free angel food cake, strawberries and blueberries and

 a mixture of sugar free cream cheese pudding, a can of crushed pineapple

 and  Free Cool Whip. 

 

 

Queen Red Lime Zinnia Wall Hanging

I'm a member of an art quilt group in Saginaw.  Last fall we each received this piece of fabric to use in making an art quilt.

 

This is my finished project.

 

My first step was deciding I wanted to use the fabric to make a big flower.  In the Burpee seed catalog I found a flower that was both pink and green, so I decided to make a Queen Red Lime Zinnia.  I was going to put a seed packet on the quilt.  I ordered the zinnia seeds from Burpee so I could copy it onto fabric...well when I got my order, the seeds were in a plain wrapper, no photo on the front.  I called Burpee and was told the seeds were not sold in stores so I wouldn't be able to get a packet with a photo.   Luckily I had an old seed package in my gardening supplies.  I scanned it and changed the wording and added the photo from the Burpee  catalog.  So my seed packet is one of a kind.

 

 

The leaves on the quilt have embroidered veins and are three dimensional.

 

The center of the zinnia had hand sewn beads and a border of ric rac.

 

 

For Christmas my daughter, Angela, gave me a set of  Dye-na Flow ink/paints.  I used the green ink to make the center row of petals greener.  In the middle row of petals, I used the inks to tone down the orange stripe in the fabric.  The fabric used in the outside row was colored with the magenta ink.  The inks were also used to add color to the ric rac  in the center of the flower.

 

St. Patrick's Day Pistachio Cookies

Jenny got me the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion for Christmas.

 

I made the St. Patrick's Day Pistachio Cookies to celebrate St. Paddy's Day.

 

 

They turned out well and I will make them again.