Camera Strap Cameras

The last shipment of fabric was a very inspiring one for me.  I knew immediately that I wanted a pillow from the Creamy Daisy Mae.  And when I saw the 2wenty thr3e line by Cosmo Cricket, I knew I had to do something with the camera fabric. 

I ended up making some camera straps using this tutorial from Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew.  I left out the interfacing but I think if I make it again, I will add the interfacing back in.  It feels a little flimsy without it.  This was actually the first time I removed my camera strap from the camera and now I can't figure out how to get it back on. D'OH!

These number prints would look great in a baby's nursery but are mature enough to work for grown up projects as well.  The colors in this line coordinate wonderfully with Clementine and Apron Strings Pink from the Bella Solids line.

There are some wonderful novelty prints like the cameras and ticket stubs shown above.

Hollywood Stars (above in petal pink, pavement and clementine) make a wonderful active blender.

Flashbulbs is another great pattern that would work in a wide range of projects.  All of the fabrics in this post are currently available in the shop with several other colors arriving in the next week.  Also, these bundles will be listed over the next couple of days.

Monday Makeover

I have a bookshelf in my living room that I have disliked for many years.  It isn't the greatest quality, although it is sturdy.  Also, in our current home, it acts like a black hole, sucking a lot of the light, and turning one corner into an unpleasant dreary space.

I'm a bad blogger and forgot to take actual before photos but you can see the bottom two shelves here.  Dark, shabby and in desperate need of help.  A few months ago we tried applying wrapping paper to the backs of the shelves but it ended up looking cheap and poorly done.  My husband vetoed painting the back of the shelves.

 But last week I had the idea to wrap some foam core in chevron fabric and slide it into the back.  I got right on it and tested it out on one shelf.  It looked fantastic so I was full steam ahead!

I can't even begin to explain how much better this is in person!  I used the grey and white chevron from the Simply Color fabrics.  The third shelf down used to hold the kid's DVDs and always looked messy.  I moved them to another cupboard and brought some photo albums into the living room.

That clock belonged to my parents and it is destined for a date with a can of lime green spray paint :)  I also dug through my DIY art Pinterest board and made a simple polka dot canvas.

The bottom shelf went from a jumble of toys, games and children's books to a well curated selection of books.  I am so happy I made the time in a very crowded week to tackle this project!

Have any of you been making over an existing piece in your home?  Any interesting uses of fabric?

Friday Finish

I did it!  I had to stay up past my bedtime last night but I finished my postage stamp quilt top.

Unfortunately, it is a cold, dreary, windy morning here and my poor helper had frozen fingers before we could get any great photos.

I will make it up to you when I finish quilting and binding it!  This quilt has been a work in progress since early in the fall.  I used 99.8% scraps.  And most of those were scraps smaller than 3" square.  I originally thought I could get it finished to give as a Christmas gift.  HA!  Then I readjusted and thought I could for sure get it finished for her birthday at the end of  March.  And if I'm being perfectly honest, it probably wouldn't be done now if she hadn't seen it over the weekend and begged me to finish it before her Daddy comes home next weekend. 

I originally planned on finishing it at 48" x 56" but decided to take advantage of being able to go bigger and made it 56" x 64".  It will be her couch quilt and at this size should work through adulthood for her.

She does love it and every day she picks a new favorite square :)  The current plan is to get it basted over the weekend and spend an hour a day next week quilting it until it is finished.  It will be my first time using a sheet as backing and I can admit I am terrified!  Any tips or tricks?  It is a flannelette sheet if that matters at all.

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts

WIP Wednesday

NOTE: There is still time to enter my giveaway at ocd:obsessive crafting disorder and use the code FREESHIPPING at Ella's Cottage  until Friday April 26th.

On the weekend, my daughter realized that this quilt was for her and insisted that I work on it as much as possible LOL.  As a result, I put in about 5 hours and made some major progress.  The goal is to finish the top by this weekend.

This work in progress was inspired by Red Pepper Quilts.  This quilt popped up in my Pinterest feed, even though it is several years old.  Such a good example of why I love Pinterest :)  With these two projects taking up a significant amount of time, I did NOT get any of my chevron tops quilted :(  But I did get one basted!  Baby steps :)

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

MASTER LIST

Design Stage
My husband's Mario quilt
Strips of pink quilt
Strips of blue quilt
Lap quilt for my youngest
Escape Artist for my bedroom
Pillows for my MIL
Blind for kitchen window
Ticker tape cushion for bedroom
Blue/red/green disappearing 9 patch quilt
Comma triangles
Nolan's quilt
Harper's big girl quilt
K&J's quilt

Piecing Stage
Lap quilt for my oldest
Floral patchwork quilt
Damask apron
Matching dresses for oldest and her doll
Patchwork pillow
Big stack of crayon rolls
pb&j quilt
Ticker tape cushion for living room

Quilting Stage
Blue/green chevron
Black/white/pink chevron
Black/white/blue chevron
Patchwork pillow
Little apples quilt

Done
Purple Chevron
pb&j cushion cover

Impromptu Pillows

As soon as I unpacked my bolts of PB&J from Moda I knew I would be making a pillow out of the Creamy Daisy Mae.  Normally it takes me months to get around to actually doing these little projects, but for some reason the urge hit me to just do it yesterday. I spend so much time working on quilts that I sometimes forget how nice it is to just start and finish a project in the same day!

While I was at it, I pulled out a pile of strings left after trimming yardage and made my first string pillow.  I searched for tutorials on Pinterest, read through a few and then got to work.  I really enjoyed making this and have already started dreaming of making a string quilt like this one.

The Daisy Mae pillow is self backed and the string pillow is backed with Grunge in Picnic Blue.  They both have hidden zippers inserted following this tutorial.

Do you have a favorite string quilt?  Any plans for the PB&J line?
Thanks for stopping by!
Leigh Anne

PB&J Giveaway!

I'm hosting a giveaway on ocd:obsessive crafting disorder  As part of the giveaway, get free shipping from Ella's Cottage with the code FREESHIPPING

Friday Finishes

 In my chevron haze of last week I actually managed to completely finish one of them.  I always forget how hard it is to find a collection of different purple fabrics in the same hue.  I ended up mixing two different ones for this quilt.  A lilac purple and an eggplant purple.

The background is Kona Ash.  It's quilted with white thread on either side of the chevron seams.  Using white thread was something I debated but it created my favorite part of this quilt.  The back!

It's backed with Simply Color Ombre in Eggplant and the quilting really pops thanks to the white thread.  I bound it with the coordinating leaf print from Simply Color.  This quilt was delivered to a local shop today!

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

New Fabric in the Shop!

This week I got a big shipment of fabric for Ella's Cottage.  A selection of prints from both PB&J by Basic Grey and 2wenty Thr3e by Cosmo Cricket.  They are both awesome collections so I am going to devote a post to each of them individually.

First up: PB&J.  As a scrapbooker I have been familiar with Basic Grey for years.  But I honestly didn't realize that there was a corresponding fabric collection for each paper collection!  And although I loved their patterns I didn't buy a whole lot of them.  They didn't really fit my scrapbooking style.  But as fabric, I am love with them.

The solids always have such a wonderful dimension to them.  They feel a little distressed, a little vintage.  And the best part is that the colors in this line work well with other lines.  The yellow coordinates wonderfully with Comma, for example.

I am not generally a fan of floral prints.  But these ones are amazing.  I have yet to see a photo do them justice.  My sofa will be receiving a pillow in the Creamy colourway ASAP!

There are a variety of geometric prints in this collection which is a really nice offset to the larger scale prints.  This photo shows Raspberry Jam (top) and Hip Fab (bottom).  These don't have a distressed look to them so they are great for the stash.

Bag of Chips is a great basket weave pattern that you can't go wrong with.

Last but not least, is Thermos.  Thermos is a wonderful patchwork alphabet print.  I can see a lot of baby gifts and nurseries featuring these!

I fell in love with these fabrics as soon as I unpacked them and immediately started cutting into it to make a quilt.

Before long, I had a wonderful collection of 3" squares just begging for some chain piecing.  Stay tuned for quilt pictures :)

PB&J is now listed in the shop by the yard.  Bundles will be up shortly.

WIP Wednesday

I did it!  I finished four chevron quilt tops this week, and one of them got turned into a finished quilt!

The purple and ash one is completely finished and ready to head off to the local artisans shop.  It's backed in Simply Color Ombre in Eggplant.

One is white on black

One is black on white

And the last one uses two of the Simply Color Ombres: Lime and Aqua It's unlikely that all three of these tops will get quilted in the next week and that is fine by me!  This was like a chevron binge and I'll be happy if I don't do another one for a while!  But I am going to try and get at least one of them quilted and bound this week.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

The grand list (which has grown this week by the way :0 )

Design Stage
My husband's Mario quilt
Strips of pink quilt
Strips of blue quilt
Lap quilt for my youngest
Escape Artist for my bedroom
Pillows for my MIL
Blind for kitchen window
Ticker tape cushion for living room
Ticker tape cushion for bedroom
Blue/red/green disappearing 9 patch quilt
Comma triangles
Changing pad
Nolan's quilt
Harper's big girl quilt
K&J's quilt
pb&j cushion cover

Piecing Stage
Lap quilt for my oldest
Little apples quilt
Floral patchwork quilt
Damask apron
Matching dresses for oldest and her doll
Patchwork pillow
Big stack of crayon rolls
pb&j quilt

Quilting Stage
Blue/green chevron
Black/white/pink chevron
Black/white/blue chevron
Patchwork pillow

Done
Purple Chevron 

Friday Finishes

Last November I was contacted by a lady who was interested in a quilt listed in my etsy shop.  She was pregnant with her first child and they were not finding out the sex.  She loved the colors, the pattern and the fact that it could work for both boys and girls.

Unfortunately, this quilt sold before she was able to purchase it.  She asked me to create another in similar colors/patterns. I set to work pulling fabrics from my stash, got approval from my client and got cutting!

 I was able to pull in some of the fabrics from the original quilt but still created a one of a kind piece.  It is bound in a patchwork binding (my favorite!).  The backing is the small multi colored polka dot which is strongly represented on the front.

I'm really starting to enjoy the disappearing 9 patch pattern.  It's quick to make but results in an interesting pattern, full of movement. These quilts are also the inspiration for my husband's patchwork pillow. 

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts

WIP Wednesday

More finishes this week! Although perhaps I should be more bashful about that. My finishes were not WIPs before this week {blushes}. I loved my patchwork pillow so much that I decided to make two more.  In my defense, I needed two more pillows to take to the artisan shop this weekend!

Then I moved onto the pile of chevron quilts I have planned and begun cutting.  One ready to be basted/quilted.

Just 3 more to go!

Today's plan is to baste/quilt the purple chevron and start on the next chevron quilt in the pile.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced   There is tons of amazing inspiration over there!  Be sure and check it out.

It's also time to get a formalized list going for my WIP Wednesdays.  I'm sure it will shift and change and grow over the coming weeks but at least it will be at my fingertips.

Design Stage
My husband's Mario quilt
Strips of pink quilt
Strips of blue quilt
Lap quilt for my youngest
Escape Artist for my bedroom
Pillows for my MIL
Blind for kitchen window
Ticker tape cushion for living room
Ticker tape cushion for bedroom
Blue/red/green disappearing 9 patch quilt
Comma triangles

Piecing Stage
Lap quilt for my oldest
Little apples quilt
Floral patchwork quilt
Blue/green chevron
Black/white/pink chevron
Black/white/blue chevron
Damask apron
Matching dresses for oldest and her doll
Patchwork pillow
Big stack of crayon rolls

Quilting Stage
Purple chevron
Patchwork pillow

Well that ended up much longer than I expected.  Guess I better get sewing!

WIP Wednesday

I actually have a finish to post in this WIP Wednesday!!  I quilted and bound my oliver + s quilt this week.  It's backed in a flannel coordinate and it's super soft.

I lightly quilted it on either side of the seam lines in both directions.  It's much softer and more traditional than my normal style but I quite like it.  Finishes at 40" x 40" and it's destined for a loca artisan shop.

I got a hankering over the weekend to finish something for our house.  I had a pile of 4" squares cut and ready to assemble into this disappearing 9 patch pillow so I got to work and cranked it out.  It is actually a gift for my husband (that was supposed to be for Christmas LOL).  I made a baby quilt last year in these colors and he really liked it.  I used the wavy line stitch on my machine to quilt it.  It's backed with a grey print from the Comma line for Moda (for sale here) and has a hidden zipper.  It currently is my favorite pillow on the sofa.

Progress was made on my postage stamp quilt.  I assembled the top two rows, completed a few more blocks and made the binding (completely from binding scraps!).  I'm trying to do a little work each day on this one.

I also managed to make another patchwork top for a pillow cover and do a little work on rocking chair cushions for my sister.  Those have a deadline, as she is expecting her first baby the end of this month.  Need to get those finished ASAP!

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced