Finished Botany Quilt

I know I promised these pictures days ago, but this has been a drill weekend, so Shaine has not been able to make it home before dark to help me hold it up and take a decent picture outside. I ran out to the backyard to snap this one before the sun went down.

It was made using this tutorial from Piece N Quilt. While I love my finished project, I now wish I hadn't opted out on the ric rac! I used contrasting brown thread to quilt, which looks cool on the brown back, but stands out a bit TOO much on the front. Ahhh well, I like it anyway, and it's staying here with us!

See? Aubree loves it already!

Binding trick!

Now, I am sure I am not the first to think of this and do it, I have seen pictures of people using the leg of their extension table to do essentially the same thing... However, my extension table doesn't have a leg on the front right side, and I never thought of another way to do it. When dealing with a larger quilt, my binding tends to sort of pile up and as a result the nice fold I ironed into it gets messed up and its hard to keep it straight and even while sewing. So, while ironing the binding I prepared for this quilt, a light bulb went off! I had an empty spool that I saved for some reason... I grabbed it and started wrapping it and secured it with a pin as I continued to iron, and roll... iron, and roll.

Then, when I started sewing, I took the pin out, and slowly started to unroll it. Maybe the heat from the iron helped it, but it stayed nice and pressed, and was much easier to handle!

Plus, I even knocked it off the table a few times, and it barely unrolled at all. This will help immensely, because now I can prepare my binding when I prepare and press everything else, and keep it nice and rolled while I do the quilt top and quilting and it will still be pressed and ready when I need it!

What I get done when the hubs is gone...

Usually it isn't much, but I have seen some great tutorials lately that I just had to try!

First, it was the Magic Baby Quilt I found over at Piece N Quilt. I used the Botany Jelly Roll that I still hadn't decided what to do with it. I still have to add a border (I plan on doing mine a bit different than the tutorial, but I just haven't decided yet), then of course quilt and bind it, but here it is so far:

Then with the leftover strip pieces, I made this coupon clutch on MBS by Julie of Jaybird Quilts. It was SO easy, and fun to make. I am making another one to send to my sister :)


And speaking of my sister, she just started her new job at the bakery about two weeks ago, as a cupcake maker. She asked me to make her an apron, because she didn't want to pay 20-25$ for something I could make for alot less. Here is what I threw together yesterday:

That's an applique I did of a cupcake on the bottom right. Not the greatest, but it was my first attempt, and it was freehand (no pattern or stencil). She saw the picture this morning and loves it! She wants me to make her a skirt with the same fabrics LOL (I planned on making a reverse second apron for her in case she loses one, the dogs get it, forgets to wash it, etc, with the blue as the main part, and the pretty brown batik for the borders!)