Teacher Gifts

Teacher appreciation week was just a few days ago, but our last day of school is tomorrow already! I can't believe it, and I'm not sure I'm ready for being 35 weeks pregnant with three kids home all day every day, but we'll make it through!

I didn't get my teacher appreciation gifts posted here before the end of teacher appreciation week, but these would make great end of the year gifts for the teachers in your life too!



I used Teri's pattern from Pretty in Patchwork Holidays to make these. I also didn't use fusible fleece or fusible interfacing, because I didn't have any. I used quilt batting and sew in interfacing, and they worked just fine. I also used regular elastic for the closure instead of a hair tie. Cute pattern - and these came together pretty quickly! I couldn't find lined notepads, so I used plain white 'scratch' pads instead, but I think they're fine!



For their end of the year gifts I chose to use Poochie Bag pattern, which was fast and easy! I did topstitch around the top of my bag because I love topstitching! I filled these with homemade chocolate chip cookies and a reusable water bottle with those small packets of iced tea. I hope they will find their treats enjoyable!



The best thing about these gifts? All of my kids will have different teachers next  year so I can make these all over again! :)  But I'd love some new ideas - what are you making/giving for teacher appreciation gifts?



PS - How are you all feeling about the new Flickr makeover? I can't figure out how to rotate my pictures which Flickr chose to upload most of sideways. Argh!!!

Modern Half-Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long Block 37

Welcome! If you are just joining us, information about materials can be found here, and here are the previous blocks: Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6, Block 7, Block 8, Block 9, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 15, Block 16, Block 17, Block 18, Block 19, Block 20, Block 21, Block 22, Block 23, Block 24, Block 25, Block 26, Block 27, Block 28, Block 29, Block 30, Block 31, Block 32, Block 33, Block 34, Block 35, Block 36. 

Materials:
8 3.5" squares of Color A
8 3.5" squares of Color B

*note* these are the essential materials for each block, so you can cut several blocks worth of fabric at once to save time!

Create your blocks, following the same procedure as last week. If you need help making your blocks, please see this post. You should end up with 16 2.5" squares. Ready to lay out your block? Here we go!

ROW 1

ROW 2

ROW 3

ROW 4

After you have sewn your squares into rows, press your seams. I like to press odd numbered rows to the left, and even to the right. It helps to use a small piece of paper to number your rows. I like the tiny post-it notes. 

After pressing, you are ready to sew your rows together! Pin, if necessary, but I find that these short rows don't require pinning.

Press one final time, and voila! Another finished block! Only 35 to go! Remember to add your blocks to our flickr group!

Please, if you have questions, email me at knitnlit AT gmail DOT com, or make sure you leave your email address in your comment. I've had several folks ask questions in the comments, but if you are a no-reply commenter, I can't email you back. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Paintchip Quilt

Welcome to my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival! I am so excited to share this quilt with you - it is one of my favorites!



Many moons ago I was inspired by this quilt from Kati at From the Blue Chair. But I wanted more of a random color assortment. I also really wanted to use the wonderful Ombre prints from Simply Color.



I laid out the fabric and figured out that if I cut 2.5" squares, each square would 'read' as it's own color. So I purchased half yards of each color, and chopped them all up!

See previous posts about this quilt here, here,  and here.



I could not be more pleased with how this turned out! I chose to quilt it through every other square using light grey thread. I backed and bound it with Kona Medium Grey - I debated using a print, but decided that the front was so busy it needed a quiet back.

I love this quilt, and sort of (crazily!) want to make another one! I love small simple patchwork, and this was a great project for chain piecing and simple mindless sewing!



I hope you'll stop by the festival and vote for my quilt! :) (Link at the top of this post!) (Now ends our shameless self promotion!)

Modern Half-Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long Block 36

Welcome! If you are just joining us, information about materials can be found here, and here are the previous blocks: Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6, Block 7, Block 8, Block 9, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 15, Block 16, Block 17, Block 18, Block 19, Block 20, Block 21, Block 22, Block 23, Block 24, Block 25, Block 26, Block 27, Block 28, Block 29, Block 30, Block 31, Block 32, Block 33, Block 34, Block 35.

Materials:
8 3.5" squares of Color A
8 3.5" squares of Color B

*note* these are the essential materials for each block, so you can cut several blocks worth of fabric at once to save time!

Create your blocks, following the same procedure as last week. If you need help making your blocks, please see this post. You should end up with 16 2.5" squares. Ready to lay out your block? Here we go!

ROW 1

ROW 2

ROW 3

ROW 4

After you have sewn your squares into rows, press your seams. I like to press odd numbered rows to the left, and even to the right. It helps to use a small piece of paper to number your rows. I like the tiny post-it notes. 

After pressing, you are ready to sew your rows together! Pin, if necessary, but I find that these short rows don't require pinning.

Press one final time, and voila! Another finished block! Only 36 to go! We are halfway done!!! Pat yourself on the back! Remember to add your blocks to our flickr group!

Please, if you have questions, email me at knitnlit AT gmail DOT com, or make sure you leave your email address in your comment. I've had several folks ask questions in the comments, but if you are a no-reply commenter, I can't email you back. 

Pouches

So after I made some zippered pouches back at Christmas I knew I wanted to make more! My LYS wanted some new varieties to sell, so I made some for them. Since then I've made some special requests for customers, and worked on refining some different things about them. I think I've pretty much got them the way I want them, so now I am going to experiment with different sizes-big enough for large projects and some smaller notion sized bags. I am enjoying getting better at zipper installation! :)

Modern Half-Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long Block 35

Welcome! If you are just joining us, information about materials can be found here, and here are the previous blocks: Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6, Block 7, Block 8, Block 9, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 15, Block 16, Block 17, Block 18, Block 19, Block 20, Block 21, Block 22, Block 23, Block 24, Block 25, Block 26, Block 27, Block 28, Block 29, Block 30, Block 31, Block 32, Block 33, Block 34.

Materials:
8 3.5" squares of Color A
8 3.5" squares of Color B

*note* these are the essential materials for each block, so you can cut several blocks worth of fabric at once to save time!

Create your blocks, following the same procedure as last week. If you need help making your blocks, please see this post. You should end up with 16 2.5" squares. Ready to lay out your block? Here we go!

ROW 1

ROW 2

ROW 3

ROW 4

After you have sewn your squares into rows, press your seams. I like to press odd numbered rows to the left, and even to the right. It helps to use a small piece of paper to number your rows. I like the tiny post-it notes. 

After pressing, you are ready to sew your rows together! Pin, if necessary, but I find that these short rows don't require pinning.

Press one final time, and voila! Another finished block! Only 37 to go! Pat yourself on the back! Remember to add your blocks to our flickr group!

Please, if you have questions, email me at knitnlit AT gmail DOT com, or make sure you leave your email address in your comment. I've had several folks ask questions in the comments, but if you are a no-reply commenter, I can't email you back. 

Wonky Paint Chip Challenge

Our guild is doing bi-monthly challenges this year, and our first one was a paintchip challenge. We all chose a paintchip and had to make something with at least two of the colors on the paintchip. We also had to make our project wonky.

Wonky is really hard for me - I like nice straight lines and clean angles! But I was determined to participate! I chose a purple paintchip (there were not many left when I got to choose, and I had just gotten the purple Stash Stack Club from Pink Castle Fabrics and I'm not a big purple person, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to use some of that purple fabric up!). I really like wonky stars, but I had already made a wonky star quilt, so I chose a wonky log cabin block.



I decided to use all of the shades of purple from my paintchip. I chose a scrap for the center of the block, and built around it. I trimmed sides slightly wonky after each round, and kept going until the block was big enough for my pillow form.

For the back I knew I wanted to use letters from the book Word Play Quilts. I love the idea of putting words onto quilts. Since I knew I was making a pillow, and my center fabric was chairs, I thought writing 'sit' on the back of the pillow would be cute. I plan to use the pillow in one of our chairs.



I used two different shades of Kona grey on the back as well. I quilted both sides of the pillow with straight lines - the front has vertical lines and the back horizontal. I inserted a zipper at the bottom of the pillow cover.

I really really like this project! I was very hesitant at first, but I think it turned out really well. It was also my first time to make a quilted pillow cover and I really like the texture and sturdiness of it. I will be making more!

Upcoming Classes at Madtosh Crafts

May classes start this week! Join me for these classes:

Beginning Top Down Socks: May 3, 17, 31 4-6 pm

Gelisomina Aran Sweater: May 4, 18, June 1, 15 11-1 pm



Springtime Bandit: May 4 and 25th, 2-4 pm



Baby Gift Wrap Sweater: May 25 and June 8 11-1 pm

Blocks of the Month - FWMQG

My guild, the Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild is doing a block of the month challenge.  The board members (myself included) are each choosing a block for the month and presenting it to the members. So far we have made these blocks:





Both from the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop Book



Wonky Pinwheel Block



Scrappy Block



Another Star

Along with these blocks there have been some that didn't make the cut! These are my 'not quite' blocks - the ones I thought we might do that just didn't come out good enough.



Triangle Wheel - can't get the block to lie flat



Octogonal Orb Block - this one failed because we tried to size it down to 12.5"



Mod Mosaic Block - too messy looking - needs to be planned out more


Whew! I'm planning on using my 'failures' on the back of the quilt - I'm sure I'll have a few more!

Modern Half-Square Triangle Quilt-a-Long Block 34

Welcome! If you are just joining us, information about materials can be found here, and here are the previous blocks: Block 1, Block 2, Block 3, Block 4, Block 5, Block 6, Block 7, Block 8, Block 9, Block 10, Block 11, Block 12, Block 13, Block 14, Block 15, Block 16, Block 17, Block 18, Block 19, Block 20, Block 21, Block 22, Block 23, Block 24, Block 25, Block 26, Block 27, Block 28, Block 29, Block 30, Block 31, Block 32, Block 33.

Materials:
8 3.5" squares of Color A
8 3.5" squares of Color B

*note* these are the essential materials for each block, so you can cut several blocks worth of fabric at once to save time!

Create your blocks, following the same procedure as last week. If you need help making your blocks, please see this post. You should end up with 16 2.5" squares. Ready to lay out your block? Here we go!

ROW 1

ROW 2

ROW 3

ROW 4

After you have sewn your squares into rows, press your seams. I like to press odd numbered rows to the left, and even to the right. It helps to use a small piece of paper to number your rows. I like the tiny post-it notes. 

After pressing, you are ready to sew your rows together! Pin, if necessary, but I find that these short rows don't require pinning.

Press one final time, and voila! Another finished block! Only 38 to go! Pat yourself on the back! Remember to add your blocks to our flickr group!

Please, if you have questions, email me at knitnlit AT gmail DOT com, or make sure you leave your email address in your comment. I've had several folks ask questions in the comments, but if you are a no-reply commenter, I can't email you back.