Jelly Roll Race Quilts

In the past week a couple people have mentioned my blog to me, which reminded me that I do have a couple of faithful readers - thank you to them!

I know it seems that all I make are cakes, however the last few months I've busy making quilts as well! I have recently discovered Jelly Roll Race quilts. They are the quickest, cutest blankets around. Jenny from Missouri Star Quilt Company has a great tutorial on You Tube.

The this was my very first jelly roll race quilt. It was kind of a spur of the moment purchase. I was in our local quilt shop, with my kids, when I saw the jelly rolls and they happened to be 20% off. I had been wanting to make one for a while and so right then and there I decided to pick one out, go home and sew it up. I was very excited!

I actually kept this blanket for myself and I love it!! I like to put borders on them. It just finishes them off and makes them a little bit bigger.

This quilt got all my kids excited about jelly roll race quilts - honesty I think they just like the name!

My daughter wanted to make one, so we went to the fabric store and she picked out the one with the most pink.

We are using hers for a picnic blanket.

I have a couple more jelly rolls, and when I get them sewn into quilts I'll show you!

Mine Craft Quilt

For my nephews birthday, my sister-in-law planned to redecorate his bedroom. She asked if I would make a quilt for him. She had found one she really liked and wanted me to make him one similar. It was just simple patchwork, using the colours from Mine Craft, with a nice wavy quilting design. I didn't think it would be that complicated.

I had gotten the top all sewn together when, unfortunately, we had water issues in the basement. Since the basement was out of commission I had to set up my quilting frames in the living room which literally took up the whole room. That was the least of my troubles - all of my supplies, for all of my hobbies, were packed away in boxes in the garage. There was no hope of finding my quilting needles or my good thimble. (Luckily I did have a thimble that didn't get packed away, but it wasn't the best.) Since our fabric store closed there is no place that sells sewing supplies. I did finally find a little sewing set at the Dollar Store (I was pretty desperate) that consisted of a bunch of needles, a couple of thimbles and a seam ripper. For $2. The thimbles were completely useless, as was the seam ripper, although I didn't need that. It was the needles that I really wanted.

So I got to work quilting - sitting on the couch, because there was no room in the living room for a chair, using Dollar Store needles and a thimble with very shallow pits. Hardly ideal quilting conditions! I broke 7 needles quilting the first row. I was frustrated, to say the least! When the weekend finally rolled around, the kids and I drove into the city, took in my sister's basketball game (they won!), and went to Fabricland. I bought some real quilting needles and a decent thimble!

After that things went smoother, although I was so behind schedule I was worried I wasn't going to get it done in time. I talked my husband into helping me. I was shocked that he actually agreed! It took him 10 minutes to do 4 stitches, which was long enough for him to decide that I was crazy and that I really needed to invest in a quilting machine. Those 4 stitches were pretty nice though!

I did get it done, but I didn't get it done for his birthday. That was okay though, since his room wasn't ready yet.

I made matching pillow shams as well, that I machined quilted on my sewing machine.

We took it over to them the other evening and my nephew was just so excited to have a Mine Craft quilt! Seeing his smiling face made it all worthwhile! It will be fun to see his room when it is all put together!

Froggy Rag Blanket

Quite a while ago, not long after my kids went back to daycare, one of the daycare workers asked me where I got my daughter's frog blanket. She said her daughter absolutely loved frogs and she had been on the lookout for a froggy blanket for a while. So, fast forward a few months and I come across my scrap frog flannel. Now the thought had crossed my mind a couple of times to make her a blanket, so when I found the flannel, I thought - why not!? It is always nice to know you are appreciated and she has been so good with my kids, and has given my daughter some hand-me-downs and it is Christmas time! The perfect time for random acts of kindness, as my dad reminded me!

I didn't have very much frog flannel left, but luckily I did have 4 or 5 different kinds, and I used them all! I also had a couple meters of bright green with flowers that I had bought forever ago because I loved it. I used it to pull all the frog flannel together and make it a more little girly. It was a good thing I had that flannel stashed away, otherwise I wouldn't have had enough fabric to make a blanket!

It took me a little while to figure out a pattern with all my different squares. When I did finally did come up with something I was happy with, and I can't believe I'm admitting this, I sewed it together wrong! Somehow the whole pattern was shifted off center and I just don't know what happened! I laid out the top, laid out back, flipped over the the back squares, and moved the top over, sandwiching in the batting. My oldest was helping me, but I was monitoring him closely. There was one time when the boys were driving their trucks over the squares on the floor and they mess up a bunch of them but I thought I had it back together properly. I guess that might explain the last couple of rows, but it certainly doesn't explain the rest of it! Clearly I should not have been sewing and probably sleeping instead! Once the pattern was laid out I was just concentrating on one row at a time and by the time I noticed it was wrong it was almost done and too late to correct it. I didn't have time, or energy to seam rip the whole thing and honestly it turned out fine anyway. So if anyone asks - that is how I planned it!

It is hard to see, but instead of doing the traditional X across the squares, I only sewed across it once and turned each square to create a chevron quilting pattern. (Which also might of contributed to my to troubles - but I thought it would look neat - and it did!) My squares were only 8 inches so I thought it would be enough to hold the batting.

The back...again, I can't explain what happened to the pattern - the blue diamond should be in the middle...

I left it at the daycare for Rachel before Christmas and between sick kids and holidays we haven't been back yet. I did get a Facebook message from her, though, and she said her daughter loves it and takes it everywhere she goes!

Little Misses!

One of my good friends had a baby girl a couple of months back, and so I decided I was going to make her a blanket. After some consideration I decided to make a large rag blanket. It didn't very long, just a few evening. Even snipping the seams went quick since I bought spring loaded scissors! What a great invention.

The top...

and the back...

and up close!

I also bought Mr. Men flannel a while ago that I'll have to make that into something. It was just too cute to pass up!

One More Quilt Completed!

I am happy to say that I have finally finished Anthony's Mickey Mouse quilt! It took me longer to quilt then I thought it would. I had a really good start on it in the spring, but then summer happened and it sat untouched for a couple of months. But it is done now, and just in time for the cold weather. I forgot how my basement looked with out quilting frames taking up all the room!

And, on his bed... please notice the amazing bunk beds!

This up coming week is all about cupcakes, and then Anthony's Christmas stocking takes priority.

And on a completely unrelated topic -- Tomorrow is the start of Pumpkin Pie Blizzard month! Which reminds me, I need to cook those pumpkins for pumpkin pie!