Black and White Heart Quilt for Amanda

Happy Friday! I have another finished quilt to share with you today, and this one is extra special!


This Spring I had the privilege to help put together a quilt for my dear friend Amanda. She got married in May and a group of us wanted to make a quilt special for the occasion! A few of us were originally supposed to attend, so the intention was to give it to her in person, but the universe had other plans. Instead it was a big box of happy mail!


We decided to make heart blocks using a tutorial by Alison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew. You can find it here: Making Heart Blocks in Multiple Sizes. We made 10" blocks and groups of 5" blocks. We kept it to black and white for the colors, which is very much Amanda's style. Above you have see the blocks I made for the quilt!

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed blocks: Anna, Amanda Jean, Beth, Brianne, Christina, Deedrie, Emily, and Jacey.


I waited until all the blocks arrived and then figured out a good layout and how many more blocks needed to be made to get it all together. I really love the little groups of small blocks!


Christina Lane of Sometimes Crafter graciously did the quilting! She used this beautiful starry, swirling quilting design which I think fits the quilt and Amanda very well.


Around here no quilt can be gifted without a big drawstring bag to match! I love doing this especially for quilts because they can be stored in the bag too, so it's fun when it matches!

This is the laundry size bag from my pattern which can be found here: Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern.


For the backing and binding I kept things really simple. Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in black by Robert Kaufman and a black solid from my stash for the binding.

It's always special to make a quilt specifically for someone you love. This quilt was a pleasure to make along with friends, for our friend! The best kind of making.

Happy Quilting!

Keep on Turning Quilt

Photo used with permission from Quilts & More magazine. ©2020 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Happy Thursday! Today I have a finished quilt to share, that I made this past Spring.


This quilt pattern is available as a PDF download in my online shop here: Keep Turning Quilt Pattern. It includes six different sizes! The quilt in this post is the "Small Throw" size.


The pattern for this quilt was originally published in the Fall 2020 issue of Quilts & More Magazine.


As I mentionted, I made this quilt this past Spring, shortly after we started quarantining. It was a nice distration to work with some nice rich, Fall inspired colors. That season also make me want to reach for more textured fabrics, so I choose Essex Linen in Natural for the background fabric. The prints are a mix of new and old from my stash.


Photo used with permission from Quilts & More magazine. ©2020 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

This quilt can be made with jelly roll strips, fat quarters, or yardage. You can really just use what you have! Especially since we can't easily get to the store these days, sometimes it's nice to have some projects that are adpatable. I challenged myself to only use what I had on hand already when making this quilt!


One of the fun things about using things you already have, is that you get to discover new fabric pairings. I've been holding onto this backing fabric for nearly 10 years, and it ended up going perfectly with the binding I chose which I just picked up last year! The backing was just waiting for it's moment, and it finally came together in this quilt. I don't use a lot of brown these days, so it was really nice to use it up.


The quilting on this is extra simple. I wanted to do as little quilting as possible so that the linen would get all soft and a bit fluffy. Ideally I would have emphasized this even more by using wool batting, but I didn't have any on hand. I guess I felt like I needed extra comfort while making it, which resulted in a pretty cozy looking quilt if you ask me!

Happy Quilting!

Hello Friend Quilted Pillow

Happy Friday! Today I want to share a recent pillow project!

As soon as I saw this Hello Friend Pillow Pattern* by Berene of Happy Sew Lucky, I knew I had to make it for my friend Jacey. She says this a lot, and it immediately made me the of her. Plus it's just a really cute, fun design. She recently bought a teal sofa, so I chose the letter color first and then pulled fabrics around that. This floral print from Daisy Chain* by Annabel Lowe Wrigley was just the thing, and I knew she liked it. Win!

Since the top itself has a lot of piecing and seams, I kept the quilting pretty open. Just a bunch of random diagonal lines.

I knew I wanted to bind the pillow for a little extra pop of color. This purple/pink Widescreen* print by Carolyn Friedlander was a great match!

I finished it off with a simple envelope pillow closure for the back. I used one of our favorite prints from Weekends by Erin McMorris.

This was a really fun pillow to make. It had been a while since I did any paper piecing, and I really enjoyed it. Plus it's fulfilling to make gifts for family and friends. <3

Want to make one too? Find the pattern here Berene's shop here: Hello Friend Pillow Pattern*

Happy Quilting!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

July Monthly Report

Happy August! It's time for July's monthly report. See past reports here.

I actually did a fair amount of sewing this month! Mostly small projects, but I finished a quilt top (that I can't share quite yet) and finished/gifted a quilt. Felt good to make some progress on a few things.

I needed a pick me up the other day so I stitched up this summery tiny drawstring bag. This size is so cheerful and cute, it might be my favorite. Popsicle fabric is from Sugar by Erin McMorris. Pattern is my Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern.

I also made the largest size in the pattern, the Laundry size. It's my favorite way to gift quilts. Will share the quilt soon!

Another finish this month was another bed for George bunny. I have a few beds I bought for him years ago but I can't get a hold of anymore. So I used those as a guide to make my own pattern. I made one for him last year and promptly cut out more. It's such a great use for my sweatshirt fabric scraps. And he seems to approve!

I made more masks this month, mostly for Michael. He prefers this style mask. I am still partial to the fit of the Craft Passion mask. I used Dana Willard's tutorial, which can be found here: Fabric Face Mask with Ties. The ties are knit fabric cut into 1" strips and pulled to curl it up.

Another thing made in mass quantities was scrunchies! These were made with another tutorial of Dana's, you can find it here: How to make a Scrunchie. These were really fun to make and they're really comfy to wear. I mostly used off cuts from quilt backings which was satisfying. I made sure to make some that match my masks, so I can coordinate. :)

To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I track my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track here. Here is how I did in July:

July Fabric
Used up: 14.25 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: -14.25 yards
Year to date: -8.5 yards

July Yarn
Used up: 0 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: 0 yards

Year to date: 0 yards

I'm finally in the negative!! So happy. I didn't bring in any fabric this month, which helped. And all those finishes added up! Hoping to keep it up the rest of the year.

Thank goodness for our garden this year in particular. Going out in the morning and evening to check on it's progress has been something good to look forward to every day. I'm growing strawflowers again this year and my handful of plants have been quite productive!

Baked something new this month too, English muffins! I've made this recipe by King Arthur Baking a few times now. I think it could still use some tweaking, but over we like it! They're fun to make. Although will be easier to make in the winter when it's not so hot and humid!

Please enjoy this photo of George bun lounging in his basket. The basket is his current sleep spot of choice. He routinely wakes up and licks it, which is pretty adorable.

Have a great month!