Shamrock Table Topper

Good news! I was able to fix the tension on my machine and I spent my Sunday afternoon making this.

It was a perfect, beautiful day, and after we came home from church, the boys went out to play in the backyard and the hubby and baby took a nap.  I seized the moment and pulled out my machine, in spite of the fact that I could hear my Grandmother's voice in my head saying "Every stitch you stitch on Sunday, you'll have to pick out with your nose in heaven." She used to tell me that when I was a teenager and I'd call her on Sundays and tell her I was sewing.

After weighing my options, I decided to make a table topper.  As I mentioned before, I got the shamrock pattern at my quilt guild, and after a little bit of online searching, I found the pattern.  If you would like to make your own shamrock, HERE is the link to the pattern. After making the shamrock, I sewed on two inch borders, in a log cabin formation.  I repeated the same fabrics used in the shamrock (minus, of course, the fabrics used in the piece I made at guild). Then I spray basted the front, batting, and backing together.  I used a walking foot to outline the shamrock, and then I did straight lines at 3/8" intervals. I used some left over Riley Blake chevron to make the binding and I love how it turned out.  I did a double fold mitered binding like in THIS tutorial.

Snowman Quilt

The snow is melting and its time to break out the spring decor.  Each spring its hard to say good bye to our favorite Snowman quilt.

This quilt was made by my mother-in-law.  I never met my mother in law.  She passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm in 2001, before I ever met my husband.  She had a few quilts in progress when she passed away, and this snowman quilt was one of them.

In 2005, my husband and his siblings finally divided up her estate, and we were lucky enough to get two of the quilt tops she had been working on.  This one was almost complete and she even had the backing for it. A few years later, I got the idea to finish it for my husband for a Christmas present.  There really wasn't much left to do on it, so I can hardly take credit for any of it.  After finishing up the few loose ends, I picked out a binding fabric, and sent it off to be quilted. I'll never forget the look on my husband's face when he opened it up that Christmas morning. Its definitely a treasure for our family to have something that she made.  You can't snuggle up in it without thinking of her.  Quilts truly are a handmade treasure. Each November when the weather starts to get chilly, we pull it out and snuggle up with it all winter. Its nice to have a little piece of my mother-in-law's handiwork in our home, and a blessing to see my boys snuggle up in something she made.

Paper Piecing

Happy Friday! The weekend is just around the corner and the husband has already booked our weekend with finishing up a bunch of random DIY projects.  Hopefully I'll be able to sneak some sewing in and finish up my Swoon blocks.

I stayed up late last night finishing up my paper piecing project for quilt guild.  This is the first time I've done a paper piecing project and I love it! I can definitely see more paper piecing in my future. My poor little shamrock has one leaf that doesn't quite belong.  That's the leaf I pieced at quilt guild with scraps they had available. It adds character, right?

My plan last night was to sew the block, and then turn it into something. Perhaps a hot pad.  Or small table runner.  Maybe even a little pillow. This block is small, measuring roughly 5 1/2" by 5 1/2".  However,  just as I was finishing, my machine started having tension problems.  Hopefully I can get it worked out without having to take it in. I hate being with out my sewing machine!

Kitchen Sink Light (and a few other things)

A few weeks ago I fell in love with this kitchen re-style post from The House of Smiths.  I love that she painted her cupboards white (that's on my to do list!) and I absolutely fell in love with her backsplash subway tile and the light above her sink.  When I found out that the light was the OTTAVA light from IKEA and it was only $30, I knew I had to have it. I had some extra money from selling a bunch of our old stuff and my mother was in town for the weekend...a perfect combo for shopping! I picked up a couple other things including some fake plants and a new soap pump.  I'd been wanting this soap pump from Target for the past few months and they finally had them back in stock this weekend!  I also snagged this stinking cute mirror for my dining room at Home Goods. There's nothing like freshening up the house just in time for spring.

Here is what the kitchen window looked like before, with basic lighting.

And here it is with the new light.