Patriotic!

First, I DO know that the 4th of July is over.
Second, this is not for me.
Third, my mother has a thing for flags & red, white, & blue.

This is for her birthday, which is July 22nd, and I know that she has been wanting a patriotic something or other. My mom has been asking my dad to put a flag in our yard for... oh, my whole life, basically! She made herself a throw pillow that was red, white, & blue when she was at my house, but I wanted to add a little something to it. She found this tumbler pattern on YouTube that she liked, but I didn't feel like buying a template, so I just used 3" x 4" rectangles of scrap fabrics that I have left from projects. Some of the fabrics are from this quilt, and others just came along the way! I'm happy with how it turned out, I just hope that she is too! I had use two different fabrics for the binding, but it's all good and navy. Muslin is the backing, and I machine quilted in straight lines and used my Janome walking foot (used these instructions). Why have I never tested this foot out?! It's awesome!
By the way, I checked out the first season of Lost to watch while I bound it (I'd never watched one episode) and now I'm a bit weirded out. Didn't people love that show? Maybe I'll like it if I keep on watching..? I don't know. My favorite series at the moment is Doc Martin. Sarcasm & British accents? Yes, please. Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but what else is new!?
~Rachel

 

 

Minecraft Steve Quilt

This is the quilt I've been giving sneak peeks of! A few months ago, my husband and I went out with another couple to eat sushi, and of course, we talked about our jobs and what we like to do. My friend asked if I'd be willing to make a quilt for her 10 year-old son. Of course, I said I'd be happy to, and we worked out all the details later. This is another commissioned quilt and it came with a small TNT pillow, a regular sham, and she eventually wants curtains. Now, I had NO idea what Minecraft was, so I had to do some Googling to figure out what to do. She sent some pictures and I knew the basics of what she wanted!
From what I could tell, Minecraft is super pixely and I wanted "Steve" to look that way on the quilt. I got out my graph paper, did some math, and figured out my measurements. The fun part was coloring in the hundreds of squares (seriously, I like to color)! The hard part was how long it took to make, I like to just go and go until a project is finished, but this one took a while because I couldn't take a lot of shortcuts because of my color placement. The background was simple and fast though. The little TNT pillow was fun to do, I cut the letters out with my Silhouette and stitched it all up. The blue cloud sham was made with leftover squares from Steve's shirt. All-in-all, a totally different project than I ever thought I'd do!
So, go search Minecraft if you don't know what it is, and then you can tell me if I captured the pixelated and squarish look I was going for. I tried to quilt this one by myself, but I had to rip out stitches, and I HATE ripping stitches out of quilts, especially when the thread is CLEAR. So, I called up my quilter lady and she happily did it for the standard rate. I'll be happy when I don't have to pay for quilting anymore! She did a fabulous job and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Even if it is some computer game that I'd never heard of :) I really just hope they enjoy it because that's what it's all about! Want to learn more about what it is? Go here! Anyway, I had to wait to post it, because she just came and picked it up and I thought she should see it before I plastered it all over the blog. Don't forget to contact me at littlebitsofeverythingqce@gmail.com if you'd like a quilt of your own!
~Rachel

I tried to quilt it on my sewing machine. It took two hours (watching Tomb Raider) to pin the whole thing. Eventually it didn't work out though, like I mentioned above...

 

 

 

 

Pixel clouds!

 

Hope he enjoys this one!

 

 

 

Marriage!

I have a thing for pillows (among other things), maybe because they are simple and quick to whip up, but at the same time they can make a room feel different-just with a little color! So here are a couple more simple pillows, they are another version of Mr. and Mrs., just because I feel like I know a few people getting married soonish!I'm definitely a fan or marriage, it's the best thing I've ever done. I've been thinking about it a lot this week, and about how fast the time seems to go when you really like your spouse. Don't get me wrong, we are still human and get on each other's nerves at times, but usually there is a pretty happy feeling in our home.  One example of why I like my Handsome so much is: Saturday night I'm shot because I've been staying up late working on projects, patterns, or just folding laundry to an audio book. I don't even remember how it happened, but I zonked out on the couch around 7 or 8 o'clock that night, and didn't wake up until 6:30am. That never happens to me, I always brush, floss, take out contacts, and scrub my face before bed. Well, when I woke up, I'm disoriented and look around. I spot him on the floor asleep with a blanket, and he had tucked me in and given me a pillow too. At that moment (mind you, I'm usually very grumpy in the morning) I felt such a rush of gratitude and love for this person that happened to find me. Later he told me that he just didn't have the heart to wake me and didn't want to leave me downstairs all alone. I was happy all day and his back hurt all day, poor guy. So now that I've gotten all sappy, I shall stop! I made these by randomly chopping and piecing fabric, and by cutting out letters with my Silhouette Cameo! I love that thing, it's so handy!
 For an update, I'm working on another pillow sham right now that matches a quilt, and that will be unveiled soon! My Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Tutorial should also be getting close. I just need to wax on, wax off. But then I get distracted because I'm having the opportunity to design not one, but TWO nautical quilts for someone! I must say I love nautical and so I just ordered a bunch of very adorable fabric from Hawthorne Threads.  Now that you know a little bit about what I'm doing, how about a picture of the pillows that made me ramble about marriage?! And a fabric sneak! Enjoy!
~Rachel

In my Etsy shop here!

 

 

 

Abe Lincoln Sign

Haley has gotten me on a sign kick! I have so many that I want to make, but I'll be moving soon and it's pointless to decorate at this point! Anyway, I couldn't resist dragging out my husband's miter saw to slice up a couple of boards for this quote from Abraham Lincoln. He said, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right." How can you not love that? I love it when famous people who have made a difference trust in God, and this is a perfect example. Everything that I used for this project was already on hand, some boards that Linwood hadn't burned in our fireplace this winter, wood conditioner, stain (dark walnut by Minwax), some Valspar paint (Statuesque), and some finishing paste by Minwax.
I love my silhouette more every time I use it! I measured the size the boards would be when I put them together and decided on a font. Then I cut the letters, peeled off the extra vinyl, and applied it to the stained, dry surface. I tried to make sure every letter was pressed down well, I didn't want paint all up under my lettering! With my last sign it didn't much matter, it was supposed to look worn through. This one  though, I wanted to be crisp and precise. After making sure the lettering was pressed down as well as I could, I went ahead and painted on a layer of the Valspar. I never know if you are supposed to wait for it to dry or not. I try... and then give up shortly after. I don't want to wait around, I want to see what I made! So this is how it turned out in the end, after it all dried, got sanded, wood pasted, and I antiqued with Annie Sloan dark wax.
~Rachel

 

 

 

 

Easter Table

So, Easter... Already? Okay! I haven't gotten to switch up my decor much and I'm just totally skipping St. Patrick's day so I decided to just try for Easter. I like to try and remember the real reason for it and not just think about how gorgeous my Easter bunny is! Haha, but really, I love the new life and new beginnings and churchy part of Easter! It's kinda like a spring cleaning for the soul :) So in the spirit of all that, I made a quilted runner and redid my dining room table for the occasion. I used some blocks that were a mistake and got kicked out of another quilt for the center an then quilted it with straight lines. I love line quilting, but it is not so fond of me.. Oh well, I'll probably keep trying to do it anyway! Here are some pictures!
~Rachel

The Evolution of a Home

I don't know about you guys, but my house and decor is always changing I usually have a moment every couple of months where I just start moving things around and pulling things out of old boxes and re-using old decor. This is probably why I don't throw old decor away because I never know when I'm going to "re-love" something. Any who, after purchasing our king bed,we were left with an extra queen bed. My family all recently deserted me and moved to Washington state. (I'm not bitter or anything...) and I wanted to have some sort of guest room for them when and if they ever decided to come visit me! So we decided to move our old bed into Scarlett's room. This means I had to change a few things up! I will be making some new decorative pillows for her bed eventually but for picture purposes I used the ones I made this past weekend. Scarlett's room is pretty dang small so everything kind of looks crammed in there but oh well it will do! It's not like she sleeps in there any way.... Yes she is still in my room in a porta crib I just can't transition her yet! She's much too cute ! So here are some updated pictures of her room that is all beautiful and pretty for when ever she does move in!

Little Crochet Details (master bedroom makeover part 1)

My husband and I moved into our new home about 6 months ago since then it has been a work in progress to decorate and create some individualized spaces for our three children. So far the only room that is complete is Scarlett's (seen in other posts). I was working on the boys room but I'm just not feeling it so in the mean time I am moving forward with the master bedroom! We painted this room back in July and I LOVE the color (Abalon by Frazee). Devin added a chair rail and eventually we will add some bead board as well, but for now this will do! Yesterday our new bed arrived! And by bed I mean mattress and box springs. An actual headboard of any sorts will also have to wait.. But, we did get some lovely white bedding! Thanks to Home Goods! And some simple white sheets! I spent last week adding a little crochet detail to all four of the pillows. This is a pattern that I kind of made up by combining two different stitches. I wanted to go for somewhat of a shabby chic feel. I'm pleased with how they turned out! More posts on this room to come this week! Stay tuned!


-Haley

Quilting As Art (pt. 2)

Since Haley already covered this, I'll just throw in my 2 cents too! I have a little half bath downstairs and it is mostly purple stuff in there. I can never find artwork that I just love so I used a tester block that I made. I need a different frame so the whole block is actually visible but this is what I came up with! I embroidered on the bottom "Powder Room," in case you can't tell it's a bathroom from the large toilet hanging out in there!