Wit Beyond Measure

I finally finished a birthday present for my youngest sister who is a huge Harry Potter fan.  She's a bit of a bookworm and is convinced that she would be sorted into the Ravenclaw house if she was accepted to Hogwarts.  So I made her a Ravenclaw messenger bag!

I followed Jennifer's messenger bag tutorial over on Fandom in Stitches and used the Ravenclaw Crest from their pattern collection for the front flap.  I'm quite happy with how it turned out!  

I just did some simple outline quilting around the eagle, but I dressed up the strap with some fancy stitching!  

 

I used various blue fabrics for the underside of the strap too.

I think my sister should be able to fit a couple days worth of books into this bag.  :)

Cathedral Winows

For my mom's birthday this year I wanted to make her some pillow shams that would coordinate with the quilt she keeps on her bed.  This quilt is full of curves and arcs in soft pastels.  Now, I have done some curvy quilt piecing with the Double Wedding Ring pillow shams that I made last year... but while I was researching curvy patterns I found a tutorial for beautiful Cathedral Window blocks.  This particular pattern is elegant and graceful and yet it is made from folded squares!

I found a great tutorial here by Shruti from the blog 13 Woodhouse Road.  I made 24 squares per pillowcase, and with each square being 4" they were easily combined into queen-sized shams!

Folding and ironing all 48 of those squares proved to be a very time consuming task... I think I watched nearly an entire season of Downton Abbey on Netflix!  But once I had the squares sewn together, sewing the arcs around the colored patches went rather smoothly.

However, not all of the points lined up perfectly, and being a perfectionist I decided that adding buttons to each point would hide any imperfections and add some additional interest and texture.  I found a variety of white and off-white buttons in my stash and decided that the randomness would complement the handmade, patchwork design scheme.

Of course, I didn't realize how long it was going to take to add buttons... sewing on a total of 78 buttons took about 7 hours!  But the end result was definitely worth it and my mom loves her gift!

...and Noel loves them too!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost, Part 5

It's the fifth installment of Fandom in Stitches "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" block-of-the-month quilt!

Here are my finished blocks:

"The White Tree of Gondor" designed by Jennifer Ofenstein

This was by far the most difficult paper-pieced block of the series, to date.  All of those tiny little branches drove me crazy!  The final block is only 7.5 inches square, so you can imagine how tricky it was!

"Gandalf"  designed by Michelle Thompson

"Helm's Deep"  designed by Regina Grewe

Pinterest Project: Concrete Planter

This Pinterest Project was messy, but quite fun!  Inspired by the many concrete planter tutorials on Pinterest, (including this one by radmegan) we made our own using recycled containers for molds.  I used a 2-liter pop bottle and a smaller water bottle.

Once the concrete had set for a day or two I pried off the plastic...

...and I had a rustic-looking plant pot!

It kinda reminds me of a molar... but I think it'll look pretty cool with a plant in it!

Rainbow Monsters!!

I am excited to introduce my newest paper-pieced creation:  Plurp!

Plurp is the first in a series of Rainbow Monsters designed by Elliot and myself.  Plurp is cheerful and bubbly and he's available on Craftsy!  I think he's super cute and would be great for a little kid quilt or pillow.

You can check out more of Elliot's graphic design work here.

Not All Who Wander Are Lost, Part 4

I know, I know... I'm behind with month four's blocks for the Fandom in Stitches "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" block-of-the-month quilt!  Life happens.  But now they are finished and here they are!

"Galadriel's Mirror" designed by Regina Grewe

I couldn't decide which background I liked best... or which one looked more "Lothlorien"...so I made two blocks!  I'm sure I'll find something to do with the extra one.

"Boromir"  designed by Michelle Thompson

"Crest of Rohan"  designed by Jennifer Ofenstein

Doom, Doom, Doomy-Doom, Doooooooom!

Today I mailed off some paper-pieced blocks that I finished for the Fandom in Stitches "Project of Doom Charity Quilt!"

The "Project of Doom" is a Harry Potter themed quilt that was designed by the extremely talented Jennifer Ofenstein.  It is made to look like a bookcase full of wizarding books and magical knick-knacks!

In order to support "The Linus Connection," a charity that makes and donates blankets to children in crisis, Jennifer asked everyone to make a block or two for a "Project of Doom" quilt.

Here are my blocks:

The first two go together to create the Sorting Hat next to a couple of books.

The last one shows Trevor the Toad and a couple more books.

Lots of other people have submitted blocks and posted pictures up on the Flickr group.  I'm excited to see what the final quilt looks like!