Ocean Waves Quilts

Donna's birthday gift.................

I keep forgetting to post this. My friend Donna loves tulips. She recently had a birthday. I wanted to make her something handmade to go along with her birthday gift. I bought this pattern eons ago, and then recently "found" it again. Amazing what you find when you are doing a winter "clear out"........ It usually happens if I watch a "hoarding" program on tv

 

Anyway, I  hand appliqued the tulips, then hand quilted it. The border is a woodgrain fabric to simulate a frame. It's kind of hard to see it up against the deck where I took the pic. You can tell my photographer wasn't home, lol.
 It was fun to do, and great to have a project to do "on the go". So much of my sewing now is done by machine. I do miss the handwork though!

I have been working on some hawaiian wedding ring blocks, there are 40 blocks, and I am working away on them...they are made with gorgeous teal, blue, aqua and green fabrics from hawaii. I plan to work on them on our "super bowl sunday" sewing day, so stay tuned..............

easy 1/2 square triangles...........

Remember I showed you the quick and easy half square triangles? This was a result of making some of those , putting them together with a solid, voila a baby quilt! I had some leftover blocks, so I made a second baby quilt, using the winnie the pooh fabric as an alternate square. It came out cute too, and as soon as I can find the picture, I will post that one too.

Patrick lose Block of the month......................

 I am doing a block  every month for my sister as well. This is one of the blocks I made up for my her  stand. She can hang this one up when somene in the family has a birthday!
I have been doing the "Patrick Lose block of the month"  This was a cute one, something different, a polar bear. It's fun to just do a small block at a time, instant gratification.

 

We got quite a lot of snow yesterday on Cape cod. Nice to be in and cozy, and have lots of things to work on. Stay tuned......................

More WOW bags..............

I showed you previously my Wow bag that Kathie made for me. The one above was made for one of her daughters who likes "Vera Bradley type bags. I LOVE the combination of the two prints. This one has the polka dot lining for the duffel bag!

Below, is the lobster bag Kathie made for her other daughter, who had the lobster theme at her recent cape cod wedding! The bag on the bottom is done in a "Paris" them for Kathie's new daughter-in-law!

These are the coolest bags! I love mine, and look forward to using it for a lot of different occasions. What a great gift these are, you could make them for just about anyone. YOU could....lol....not saying I could, because I hate making bags, but I sure did like getting this one;)

Easiest ever half/square triangles.................................

I saw this method on someone's blog, and couldn't believe how simple it is. It is a real time saver, so lets see if I can explain. You take two squares of fabric, place them RIGHT sides together. Sew with a  1/4 " seam all the way around. Then you simply make two diagonal cuts with your rotary cutter, and voila!!!!

Now, the size of your original squares, determines what size half square triangles you end up with. For
 example, the demo above, I used a 12 1/2" square, so each half square triangle finishes out to 6 inches.
It was so easy, and much faster than other ways I have tried. Good luck!

I am a copy cat..............

I saw this "baby wipe case" in a fancy dancy baby store. I thought it was cute, but ridiculously expensive. I made this for my niece and her baby. I basically used a fat quarter and some leftover batting. I made a case, put velcro at the top to be able to slide the pack of wipes inside. Then I cut a hole with pinking shears where the wipes dispense. Add a small piece for the cover, an elastic band and a button, and you have a "baby boutique" wipes case! A "stylin" baby for the cost of a  fat quarter!

It has been so nice to sloooow down a bit. I have gotten some time in the sewing room. I have a baby quilt to show you, and I need to take pictures to show you the easiest way I have ever done half square triangles. Maybe it's only me who hasn't seen this before...but in any case, I will take pics this afternoon to show you how it's done.

I talked to one of the snowbirds last night. I miss those Florida" ladies of the evening".! I can't wait till I can become one of them:) Maybe I can start a Florida "ladies of the Evening" group!  Stay tuned.......................

Christmas gift...out of hiding..............

I really enjoyed making this wall quilt for my husband Bill. I wanted to make a keepsake for our hawaiian vacation, and wedding. I transferred all of the photos to fabric, then made a" bookcase"
 out of wood grained fabric. The pictures are all "framed", and cut at alternate angles to make them look three dimensional on the shelves. I made "books" out of fabric strips, and wrote titles on them pertaining to our vacation.

My bouquet was made of my favorite flowers, hydrangeas, so I also made a vase of 3d flowers to go on it. It was a project that took quite a lot of time, and especially since it was a secret, and I never worked on it when he was around! He was very surprised, and now we have it hanging up, where we can dream of hawaii every day!

I have some more Christmas gifts that have been in hiding, so stay tuned, I will post more soon............Barb

WOW bag..............

This is the coolest bag, that Kathie (ladies of the evening)
 made for me! Not only is it in my favorite color, but it is the coolest thing. It's like a transformer for quilters. It looks like a perfectly innocent tote bag, then you reach down inside, give it a tug, and it becomes a large duffel bag! Think quilt shows, or shopping trips. The bigger part is actually big enough for an overnight bag. Kathie made several of these for gifts, I hope she will share the other pictures with us. What a great gift these are. The fact that Kathie made a bag is an amazement in itself, let alone 4  of them,  because, like me, she HATES making bags! I love it, what a great idea.

 I am getting ready to put in a few hours sewing! I hope you all have a very happy new year, and have some great sewing projects to share. I am knee deep in gorgeous aqua and blue and green batiks, for my "Hawaiian wedding ring" quilt. I am also starting a baby quilt today, made  with pinwheels. I found the coolest easy way to make pinwheels, If it works as well as I think it will, I will share the method with you all....so....stay tuned!