Stitches and Spills: November 2015

Whimsical Fabric and Me is hosting their first ever Mini Make It Mine Challenge! The exciting thing about this challenge is that it is geared towards getting kids sewing! Grown ups can help, but kids need to be very involved in the process. This challenge runs now through December 14, 2015 and the details can be found in this blog post.

The challenge is based around using the Color Me fabric which can be purchased at Whimsical Fabric. Since it's release earlier this year, I have made several projects with it and have quite a few more in mind! There is also a GREAT Pinterest board with a ton of ideas that can be found here. Click on over and check it out.....seriously.

A quilt for the kids to share using the Easy Peasy Rag Quilt pattern from A Vision to Remember.

A super hero cape for my friend's son using the cape pattern from Fuddie Duddies. This cape is a little more work than the free tutorials and most patterns I have seen for capes, but I love the contrasting neckband and the gathers at the top. It is also reversible! Double win!

I was recently invited to a friend's baby shower. She was pregnant with her third son and mentioned that after having two boys and being pregnant with another boy, she didn't really "need" anything. So I used some Color Me fabric to make one of the stuffed animals from Ruby Jean's Closet. This elephant was seriously a naptime sew. It is my second time making an elephant from this pattern and they go together so quickly!

To get ready for the challenge, I volunteered to let my four year old daughter sew the sample project and take pictures during the process. It is really amazing at what kids can do when we give them the opportunity. Here are some pictures of Sister making a sleeping bag for her doll.

Let me start by saying: My name is Jona and I am addicted to hand made blankets.....It's a serious addiction friends! I decided to use some of the blankets as props for the blog tour and then realized just how many we have scattered throughout our home. This is the first quilt I have made in 10+ years, and today's blog tour quilt is the only one I made out of all of the blankets we own.

Now on to the Easy Peasy Rag Quilt by A Vision to Remember. I recently learned about A Vision to Remember during a recent blog tour and fell completely in love with the style of patterns offered. While most of the patterns are rag quilts, there are also patterns for rag aprons, rag purses/bags, and fabric! This shop has fantastic customer service, quick turn around, and the owner is very quick to respond to questions on Facebook. **Be sure to check out the giveaway at the end of this post! You can enter to win a $40 gift card to A Vision to Remember! Good luck!**

This quilt really lives up to it's name, Easy Peasy. It is a surprisingly quick quilt to assemble overall. However, the fabric cutting in the beginning and the clipping at the end are a little time consuming. But with a Netflix marathon, it goes by quickly.

The quilt pattern is only for the squares. I added the blue strips along the top and bottom because I wanted a very play friendly blanket for Brother and Sister to use and we just needed a little extra space. Other than that, I followed the pattern as written.

Now I am usually sewing children's clothes and the pattern and sewing techniques do vary slightly from clothing patterns. The pattern is mainly numbered steps with only two diagrams throughout the entire quilt pattern. However, from the quilt books/patterns I have looked at in the past, this seems to be pretty common. The instructions were very well written and understandable. The font that they were written in, was a little prettier than I like for directions, but it is easily read. Also, since it is all squares and rectangles, there are only measurements and no pattern pieces. Which is a feature I seriously love because I can cut several pieces at once with my mat, ruler, and rotary blade.

It did take me a little bit to get used to sewing with the seams on the outside. It goes against what my hands and brain wanted me to do at first. After a bit, it was easy to get everything sandwiched and sewn correctly. Also, I watched one of the videos put out by A Vision to Remember on You Tube and learned some new tricks to chain piecing and how to use little fabric scraps in between the pieces to minimize thread waste and to speed up the sewing process. Yeah for learning new techniques!

Insert bragging moment: Look how nicely my seams match up! I am never that accurate!

Now, I wanted this to be a fun quilt for the kids to use on a daily basis. And boy did we in just 24 hours. I just love the thought that this quilt will be full of memories and stories!

I have been holding onto these fabrics fabrics for so long and just waiting for the perfect project. This quilt turned out just how I imagined and made a pretty nice dent in my sewing through my stash goal. The backing fabric is what I bought when I was pregnant with Sister almost 5 years ago with every intention of making her a cozy quilt. I am so in love with the Anne Kelle designs and have several different prints. The Color Me fabric is a newer line that I purchased from Whimsical Fabric Shop and I just couldn't wait to put it to use in a fun and different way.

We had fun after dinner one evening coloring the color me fabric. Sister thought this was a great idea.....brother had other ideas about how to spend our family time. **See that door by me?? Hubby installed both china cabinet doors onto my sewing cabinet this week, total happy dance!!**

Whoops! Brother really wanted to color the superheros and would sneak an attempt an second he got. It all adds to the uniqueness of the quilt.

Brother believes that no artwork project is complete without hand prints.

And Brother figured out that my toes are SUPER ticklish! That stinker!

These two are so close, that even though they have their own beds, they are always sleeping in the same bed!

Every morning I try to spend some time doing my devotional and the other morning was especially rough so while the kids played, I pulled out my devotional and journal and started reading. Sister came up with the blanket, her Bible, journal, and a pencil and asked if she could spend some time with Jesus with me. My heart was doing a complete happy dance!