Quilting Journal

The subject of quilting labels got me to thinking about quilting journals. Does anyone keep a quilting journal, and what kinds of information do you write down? At one time I tried to keep a journal and at least have a picture or drawing of my planned quilt and for some reason I stopped I am thinking about starting one up again maybe this time use a binder and keep all of my notes and plans with pictures.
Here's a photo of the journal layout I came up with in Excell.

I was thinking for each project having a second blank page to add photo's or fabric swatches. Here's a link to my PDF for my Quilt Journal. This is my first time linking a PDF Hope it helps. I am planning on using this on all future projects and filling it in to the best of my abilities on all of my older projects. What do you think?
Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

Quilt labels

How many of you add labels to your quilts and what information do you include?
Only as of recently have I added "Handmade by Olivia 2013" on a small corner in the back of my quilt but the many other's that I've given away as gifts through the years have no labels what so ever. I saw this neat idea to easily add a little label to the back corner of your quilt and that's what I've been using on my most recent quilts.

Here's how I did some of mine this year.
First I square up one of my corners(this is after you have finished quilting but before you add your binding)

 Then I take a 5" square of fabric that matches my quilt (not necessarily the backing) and fold it diagonal. I then cut from my batting scraps a triangle that will fit inside my folded square. Next I embroider on what I want my little label to say below I simply put "Handmade by Olivia", I didn't add a date to this one because if I give as a baby quilt it would be nice for it to have the baby's birth year. Kinda not sure if I shouldn't have just put 2013 after all that is when I made it. What do you think?

 Anyway's so next I just sewed about 1/8" away from my edge just enough to tack it down, since when I add the binding I will sew ¼" all around; firmly sewing it down.

I kinda figure I could hand sew a date if I wanted to add the year. What do you think? What kinds of information do you include in a quilt label? How important do you think labels are?

Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

A baby hounds-tooth quilt

Lately it seems everyone is having a baby. I usually try to have some small quilts on hand, at least one girly and one neutral or boy made from my scraps. This time however with several girls in the works I needed to make some quilts fast. I did a quick sketch and pulled some fat quarter bundles from my stash that were reserved for just this occasion.

To make the hounds-tooth pattern you need 2 or 4 fabrics, this is for my easy version I have seen quilts with more but it would take some care and planning.
Next you'll cut 2¾" strips I used one fat quarter of each fabric (make sure you have enough to cut out matching 6½" squares).

 Next sew pairs of strips together...

 Iron them open...

 Now sew these two strip sets together. Sew on both sides to create a fabric tube.

Next we cut our 6½" squares. One way to do this is with your regular square ruler. using the diagonal line down the middle you can place that on your stitch line and cut.

 Or if you have the quilt in a day 6½" triangle square up ruler it works perfectly.

From the fat quarters I got 3 blocks from every "4 strip set" giving me a total of 18 blocks from my 4 fat quarters. As you can see below from that strip set two of my blocks are identical and one is different you'll need equal amounts of each block type to complete the quilt.

To get equal amounts you simply need to flip your strip set over so for example fabrics A and B are on the top for half of the triangles you cut and fabrics C and D are on the top for the other half. We have to do this because the fat quarters only give us 3 blocks per set since it's an odd number  we have to flip the set to make it even. If you are working with yards of fabric you might get 4-6 blocks out of your set and need not worry. I would open up your blocks and make stacks to ensure you have a even amount.

 Next I cut 6½" squares out of my four fabrics with the other fat quarter bundle. You can get 6 squares from each fat quarter.

I used only 4 squares from two of the fabrics and 5 squares from the other two fabrics below is what I had left.

Here's my layout. As you turn your stripey squares and match up your fabrics the design easily begins to fall into place.

And here's the finished quilt! This ended up being 34"square.

 Here's how the back turned out. I ended up using those leftover squares plus some other additional fabrics to create this pieced back.

Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

Chevron yoga mat

Wow it may seem that I am finishing things quickly but some of these projects have been in the works for a while so I am not really that fast. Besides I like to take time and make things that are quality not quantity. Today I have finished my chevrons quilt (which I had intended for it to be a yoga/stretching mat) the final dimensions are 23½" x 51". I wanted this to actually be longer but since I was using scraps I went as far as they would take me. I am also thinking now that nicer weather has come our way this would be a nice sunbathing blanket perhaps the perfect fit for a lawn chair or chaise out on the patio.

Without further ado here is my quilt... these first pictures are before washing the quilt.

 I did a close up to show the detail of my machine binding I did.

 This shows the back, I used more of the scraps here.

These next photos are after I washed my quilt, it adds such a charming look to the finished product.

 here's the back again. I almost love it more than the front.

What do you do with your scraps? What kind of scrappy patterns are your favorites?
Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

Another sewing bag, this time for my niece.

I made my niece a sewing bag for her birthday she is only seven but has taken quite an interest in hand sewing. Her bag is very girly in pink with a splash of yellow here's how it turned out...

This bag is so much fun to make in different fabrics. I can't wait to make more.
Thanks for reading♥ Olivia

Sarah's Quilt

Finished in time for her birthday here is Sarah's Quilt...

This has been a big project; as many of you know it's a lot of work making a queen size quilt(this one 90 x 90"). This quilt is made up of two blocks(shown below) alternating. I wanted to use the "puss in the corner" block since this was a quilt about cats and I liked the simplicity of the design since my fabrics were busy.

This is also the second largest quilt that I have attempted to quilt on my home machine. I stumbled upon a tip to not sew in the ditch but instead about ¼" away and this worked wonderfully for me. I used a foot that was symmetrical on both sides so no matter which way I went on either side of my ditches my stitches were the same distance apart from my fabric seams.

Here's a shot of me quilting.

This is by far the best quilting job I have ever done by machine; I had virtually no puckers.

I tried taking the best pictures I could, really hard to photograph such a large quilt and try to get some nice natural light. It's amazing what a yellowed glow you'll get from just turning on your ceiling light and how much brighter your whites are when you turn off your lights and use the natural light from outside.

 As you may notice my backing is peiced with all the leftovers from the top of the quilt.

Thanks for reading♥ Olivia