One week one thing.... week one finish

Lots of people are jumping on the "One week one thing" challenge this year. The Quilt Asylum blogged about it here and I decided to give it a try. Anything to start checking things off my list! So this week I challenged myself to finish up the Cross Quilt that I started way back in October for the church youth auction coming up. And today I finished up the final stitches on the binding.

I wanted to take a picture of it right away to share with you. It's a beautiful sunny day in Texas (a bit cold but sunny) so I headed outside with my quilt & my camera. Only one problem.... man is it windy out there! For the life of me I could not get the quilt to stay up on the fence and by the time I have a helper to hold it for me it will be dark. So I came back inside and tried to take some pictures with the quilt laying on the carpet. Lexi found that most entertaining. I snapped about 20 pictures of the quilt on the floor and they all came out crooked & wonky. What I really needed to do was stand on a chair so I could get directly above it, but given my recent knee surgery, I thought my sweet hubby might frown on that plan. I really didn't want him to come home & find me in a heap on the floor (at least I would have had a quilt to keep me warm, right?) This is the BEST shot I got.

Not good. So finally I draped it on the couch & took this shot (with my phone no less! so at least you can see how it turned out...

Most of the binding is stone colored, but I was a bit short. Mom suggested I make one strip of some of the other solids from the crosses so I did. I you look there in the bottom left corner you can see it. Great idea, Mom! Thanks. I really love the way it turned out and I hope it raises lots of money for the kids at church.

Today I am thankful for my church and for the sunshine...

Cross quilt block tutorial

In my last post, I told you that I was making a cross quilt and I shared these blocks... I thought I would tell you more about the reason for this quilt. Every year the youth of our church hold a silent auction to raise money for their mission trips and other activities. The kids and I have had fun coming up with items to donate each year. Last year I made some doll clothes, Steve auctioned off three of his framed photos and Ally donated a certificate for a custom decorated cake. Every year, when donation time rolls around, I think, "darn, why didn't I make a quilt to auction off?" And it's always too late by then.... so this year I decided to start early so I will be ready!

I have been eyeing up some of the cross quilts popping up around blogland. Some are wonky crosses, some not, some print, some solid. I decided to use this block pattern that I found on Pinterest (have you discovered Pinterest yet? So much inspiration there!). I have been using more and more solids in my quilts and decided that this would be an all solids quilt. Well, kind of. Some of my colors are "reads solids" not true solids, but close enough! This is a huge stretch for me, the girl who LOVES prints!

I thought I would take you through the making of one cross block so you can make some of your own! Ready? Here we go....

First off, you take a square and surround it with a border. My squares are all 6" and all Stone Kona Solid. My borders (different colors for each block) are 1 1/2" wide. I played with different dimensions, and this is what worked best for me. After you get the borders on (top and bottom, then the sides) square it up (mine are 8 inch squares).

Now comes the fun! Using a ruler and rotary cutter, cut your block exactly into quarters...

Now you rearrange your blocks. Switch your left and right blocks (both top and bottom). Now move the bottom blocks to the top. Gosh that's wordy... play with it. Your final layout should look like this....

Stitch your top blocks together, and your bottom blocks together. Press your seams in opposite directions so they will nest in the next step.

Now sew the top and bottom together and square up your block! Mine all end up being 7 1/2" blocks. Now wasn't that easy?

Twenty blocks done here... more to go! I have a layout planned but it may end up changing so I won't share it yet!

For those who are following my knee saga (and thanks for your well wishes!) I am healing fine and getting around (slowly!) without crutches. There are some things I need at the store and my Hubby reluctantly gave me permission to go to the drugstore at the corner, no farther! So that is my big outing for the day. I hope you all are doing something fun today!

doll clothes

Every year the youth at our church have a silent auction. The money raised by the auction goes toward their mission trip. This summer they are going to New Orleans for a week. Both Steve and Ally are going (it will be Ally's first mission trip!).

So, I decided to make something fun to be auctioned. Here's the deal. Our church has a large (for a tiny church) group of little girls, ages 5ish to 10ish. And for every little girl who attends worship on Sunday mornings, there is an "American Girl" doll by her side. Seriously. If we counted the dolls our weekly attendance would go way up! So, I decided to make some doll clothes to lure the little girls and their parents! I love this Simplicity pattern & made a couple of dresses with coordinating aprons. Here's the best part.... even though the pattern calls for more fabric, I managed to squeak each dress and each apron out of a fat quarter! I have tons of fat quarters in a drawer doing nothing. I just couldn't resist buying them when I saw them in the store, but I had no real purpose for them. This was perfect!

The pattern makes up quickly. I used a thin strip of velcro for the closures, making it easy for the little girls to dress their dolls. Here's another...

I'm planning to make a few more before the auction in June. Just for kicks, I also made a pair of cupcake pjs from another pattern..

A good way to use up some stash....

visitors

Last night the owners of all of these shoes (& a few more pair!) celebrated Christmas at our house. Everything from dainty small shoes to big boat tennis shoes..... we had the Junior and Senior high kids from church for dessert & a white elephant gift exchange at the end of their progressive dinner. What great kids they all are!

The gift exchange was hilarious.... a day old taco, Justin Beiber poster, Mrs Potato Head, to name a few of the gifts. Everyone was laughing & went home happy. Oh, & they took their shoes with them! But the bright pink ones stayed. They live here. And the black Nikes too... So glad my kids get to be part of such an awesome group!