Pinwheel Beach Bag

Finally finished this beach bag that seems like I've been working on all summer. 

This is a pattern by Clover and Violet called Sophie.   Clover and Violet - The Sophie Beach Bag If I had it to do over, I would have paper-pieced the pinwheels because some of my pinwheels' points are off. It looks ok from a distance, but of course, I notice my mistakes.

What I liked about the pattern was the little pouch that attaches by snaps to the inside. I can keep small items in the pouch and larger items in the beach bag.

I'm going on one last beach trip up to Lake Erie so I am going to use my new beach bag for that trip.  Linking up to Sew Mama Sew.Sew Mama Sew Community Match  

Cushion for Motorhome

We purchased a new motorhome last Fall. The table comes off and converts to a bed for another sleeping area. Well, what they gave us for the cushions were 2 small pieces that you place together and then put a sheet over them. We had 2 people sleep on it so far, and both people said the sections kept lifting up. Not a comfortable night's sleep. So I decided to make a cushion to fit.

You can use either side. I had the patchwork fat quarters from Fat Quarter Shop - Mill Book 1892. Plus I had the backing Grunge fabric. My camper fabric is brown, tan and beige. This matches good enough because I didn't want to buy any more fabric. The foam was pretty expensive because I had to have 5" deep. I could only find it online. The width was exactly right, but my husband had to cut the rounded corners with a 8" hacksaw. It worked ok. The cushion is nice and stiff to sleep on, now.  

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

Crazy Mom Quilts

Baskets

I made these baskets for my Easter dinner way back in April, but never blogged about them.

I followed this tutorial by Amy Smart. She's so talented (and Smart)!
http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2015/03/fabric-basket-and-fabric-eggs-tutorials.html

I made one for me and one for my Mother who was coming for dinner. They looked very cute at the end of my table.

My Mom chose the pieced basket on the top to take home. The bottom one is a cheater print. This fabric is Whitewash by Moda and I just love it. I gotta say I love just about everything Moda.

So here's just another Spring-time photo of my baby, Lucky, passing by my tulips that are long gone in my backyard.

Have a great Summer and Happy sewing & quilting!
Inquiring Quilter - Wednesday Wait Loss

Tshirt Quilt Finished!

This is my project since about January - tshirt quilt for my nephew, Sean. Sorry the photo is not the greatest. I took it on our pool table.

Sean graduated on Saturday, May 30 and I gave it to him then. My sister asked me to make this for him back in the Fall. When she showed me a photo of a tshirt quilt, it looked easy. But this was more work than I envisioned. First of all, I wasn't even thinking about interfacing the back of the shirts. But that was easy enough. Then to make sure the blocks are centered. Sometimes that's a little difficult because some of the shirts have a lot of space and some have very little.

I basically followed a pattern in a "Quilts 'N More" magazine I had. I think it turned out ok. Sean seemed to like it.

Here's a close up of one of the blocks. I think this block turned out pretty nice. The Spirit Band was one shirt and the C Band was another shirt. I just added more of the blue tshirt to the sides of the C Band and than added it to the Spirit Band shirt. The corner blocks are set on an angle which I kind of liked.

The quilting gave me some trouble. First I quilted in the ditch. And then I decided to quilt a crosshatch. Well, I used the quilt guide from my machine and I ended up with wavy lines. So I picked out a good bit of those. Then I decided to draw the lines on. I should have done that from the beginning. Oh, well, trial and error. 

One thing I learned about some of these tshirts. A few have what I call "paint" on the shirt. After sewing through a couple, I finally figured out to sew up to the paint part, backstitch and cut the thread. Then jump over the paint part (such as this Spirit Band above) and then begin sewing again. 

I'm glad it's done and presented to my nephew! 

Here's a couple more photos.

This is a XL Twin size quilt so it should fit his college dorm bed. Or can just be used lounging on the couch.