Moving to CO!

I'll be moving out to CO next week, I'm so excited! My girls live there with my ex-husband, so I'll be moving out there and looking for a job. My husband will stay behind for now and pay for my roommate rent while Im out there, and then he'll move out there once I get a job and we can get a place. I can't wait to be able to see my girls more often than just twice a year.

So my sewing will have to be put on hold for just a little bit. I did, however, finish up the mug rug and poochie bag pieces for my swap at swap-bot.com. I'll post pics as soon as I get a package together for my swap partners to mail out. Then it's packing and driving to CO. I'm so excited!!

Disappearing 9 patch

I love the disappearing 9 patch square pattern! Im using this pattern to make my 13 year olds quilt with mostly blue fabric, with some pink and brown fabric to go with it. I will also be using this pattern to make my best friend a quilt for her baby that's due soon. I purchased a charm pack with 42 5" squares for the baby quilt, which will be so much easier than all the square cutting I did for my daughters quilt.

Here's the fabric Im using for my daughter's quilt, and one of the squares I put together.

Very easy pattern to put together!

I rescued a basket from being thrown away today! My mother-in-law was going to throw out this basket and I whisked it away and said this will be a perfect scrap basket for my fabric scraps! I've been looking for something other than a plastic bag to put my scraps in!

So I was browsing through some quilting blogs last night and my cat Fritz apparently decided I wasnt paying him enough attention so he jumped up onto my desk and made himself right at home!

Thanks! Just the view I wanted to see. Silly cat.

Poochie Bags and a drink!

Worked on a couple of sewing projects today. I started out with making a poochie bag for my mother-in-law. She has so many bags for everything you can think of, so I thought "why not? Let's give her yet another bag!". She loved the black squares fabric so I put these fabrics together to make her bag:

I used the blue fabric for the handles, the black and white flower fabric for the bag lining and pockets, and the black squares fabric with the flowers and butterflies for the main fabric.

When attaching your handle straps together to make a longer strap, do NOT do what I did: CAUTION this is the WRONG way to sew your handle pieces together!

Yeah, I knew better than to start sewing before I had my caffeine this morning! Good thing I had extra fabric.

Because Joanns sells their fabric quarters in 18"x21", I had to cut my fabric 10 1/2" x 9" instead of 10 3/4" x 9" - I dont think it made a huge difference, but why does Joanns fabric only give us 21" off the center cut? So strange.

After a few seam rips, I finally got it right and am excited to make more! I top stitched the pocket 1/4" as well as the top of the bag 1/4" all the way around. I think it gives the bag a more finished look.

Finished bag measures approx. 9 1/2" x 9 1/2" and 4" deep. My mother-in-law wanted a large depth on the inside for whatever she decides to use this bag for. I think I prefer the 2" deep bag size.

I also made a crochet hook holder in the purple flower fabric that I used for my zipper pouch. I made a fabric button in the same fabric as the lining, and will post pictures of it tomorrow after I get the button sewn on.

I ended up with a huge headache today which only got worse when bending over my sewing table. Im not sure where it came from, but it hit hard and fast. So I end the day with a nice fruity drink and some relaxation time.

Until next time!

New fabric and a zipper pouch

Today was a fabric shopping day! First I headed over to Sears to see if they carried any darning feet in-store, my store does not, so Im going to have to order it online. Just pushes my top stitching practice out a few more days, and in the meantime I have plenty of projects I want to work on.

Then I headed over to Joanns and Sew Much Fun quilt shop for some fat quarter fabric. Bought a nice selection of fabrics to make some potholders (to practice top stitching), zipper pouches, mug rugs, and poochie bags. I joined a couple of swaps over at swap-bot, the first is a mug rug swap (which will be my first mug rug but I hear they are addicting!!), and the other is a poochie bag swap. I am excited to make my first mug rug and poochie bag!

Here is today's fabric purchase. My favorite <3 is the purple flower fabric which I used to make myself a zipper cosmetic pouch with.

Im going to use the brown rooster fabric with the brown circle fabric to make my first mug rug. And I've already picked out a few fabrics to make my first poochie bag with!

Here is my zippered cosmetic bag I made for myself this evening. It was a very fast project to work up, and is my first ever sewn zipper project! I will certainly be making more of these! I used the warm and natural batting I already had on hand instead of buying the fusible fleece, and it worked just as nicely since the fabric clung to it very well. Not buying the extra fleece left more money for more fabric ^_^

The inside lining of this pouch is the same fabric I used for my daughter's edging in her fun and funky quilt =) The two fabrics go very well together with a purple zipper to match.

Im having so much fun getting back into sewing! Next on the list is the poochie bag with some of the black patterned fabric I purchased. Stay tuned!

If you read or have read my posts from 2008 you will see that I had started my daughters Fun and Funky quilt (aka Spring Fever pattern from Fourth & Sixth Desings) and had completed 5 squares and cut all of her fabric into strips before things were packed up for the move out of Cali. Those squares stayed packed up for the next 3 years... until last week!

Im amazed at myself at how quickly I finished her quilt top, complete with borders! Here's a picture preview of the progress of the quilt starting 3 years ago..

Finished today, folded and set aside until Im ready (and practiced!) at finishing it with batting, backing, and binding it together.

And I will leave you with one more picture. You can see throughout my blog that my cat Fritz very much enjoys being in the middle of my crafting and sewing space. So I leave you with this most recent photo of Fritz doing what he enjoys most, sleeping on my fabric.

MommaChelle Quilts is back! It's been a few years, and much has changed over those years! Divorce, moving to a different state (and coast!), getting re-married, finding myself again.

I've been doing a lot of sewing for my girls, and recently pulled out those old quilting squares and started quilting again! Im still a beginner, make quite a few mistakes, and learn along the way.

I invite you to journey along with me as I create more quilts, learn new techniques (like free form quilting), follow along with my first baste and binding, and more. I like to start out big and jump right into it, but Im learning that I really need to work small and go from there. I wanted to immediately create twin size quilts for my 3 girls, and while the quilt squares are going well, it's a big project to start with. I still have to learn the best way to baste the 3 layers together (pinning or spray? on the floor or on the wall?), make my own binding strip, and then machine bind the edges.

Yeah, maybe I'll make a few potholders before I attempt to finish this twin size quilt I started 3 years ago for my daughter!