Clearing Off the Longarm

Don't you just love Pinterest?  I pretty much go on there every day.  The "problem" with that is, I find too many craft projects that I want to make!  Can you relate?

This July, when the weather was too hot to go outside, I decided to (somewhat) clean up my sewing room.  I decided that if I wanted to start any new quilting or sewing projects that I had to finish up at least some of the things "in the pile."  You know that pile, the one with the half-finished quilts and other items in it?  

So I pulled out this pink and brown quilt that I had thrown into the pile in 2008.  Yup, for real.  The quilt top been sitting in the sewing room for 16 years!  I had worked on this quilt for 2-3 years and when the top was done, I didn't really even like it anymore.  

But I quilted a simple stipple stitch on it, mostly to just get it done.  And actually, I kind of like it now that it's quilted.  :)

Once I got that done, I was on a roll!  

I finished this red striped quilt, too!  For this quilt, I wanted to quilt roses on it, to go with the pretty red flowers in the fabric.  I found a rose free motion pattern in one of Pat Sloan's books, so I practiced doodling it on paper for a week or so.  Then I free-style quilted the roses in my quilt.  I just love how it turned out.  I am going to keep this quilt.  One of my goals is to have a quilt in every color.  :)

As soon as that quilt came off of the longarm, I picked up another one.  This sage green quilt is an Irish chain that I am making for my daughter, for her birthday.  It was actually supposed to be for Christmas last year, but let's not mention that.  LOL

I quilted some chunky daisies on this quilt.  It looks really cute and adds so much interest to a somewhat plain pattern.  I can't wait to finish it and give it to her.  :)

And look at this - another quilt getting done!  This quilt is a Chandelier quilt made with greens and flowered fabric for one of my friends.  She loves gardening and I'm hoping to have it all complete to give to her on her birthday in a few months.  

For this quilt, I free-styled big flowers, similar to the daisies, only bigger.  It has a slight whimsical look to it, and the flowered quilting really adds to the interest of the quilt.

So... where are these 4 quilts now?  Well, they're in another "pile," ready to be trimmed and bound.  But I promise myself that I will finish them up soon!  I have some new quilt ideas that I'd like to start.  :)

 

Nurses Zippered Bag

Last week my sister came to visit and wanted to learn how to make a zippered bag.  So we went into the sewing room to pick out some fabric and zippers and I showed her how to quilt and sew one.

To demonstrate making the bag, I picked out this sweet nurses-themed fabric and worked on this bag for my daughter, who is a travel nurse.  I quilted half-inch straight lines on the front and back and then added the zipper.  I found some blue starred fabric to coordinate and added a tassel to the zipper pull.  

To embellish, I added a small crocheted flower and a button to match.  

What fun fabric do you have that you'd like to make a zippered bag out of?