BOTTLE COZY

Beginning of one of several water bottle cozies I'm making for grandchildren. They love that Boppa gets small ones from Costco, fills cooler with ice and puts it on deck so kiddos can get their own. Usually they have me write their names on with permanent marker and I'll draw something that represents them. Someone showed a tutorial for making these in a shorter version. Like them taller so will keep water cooler longer. Cut front and back and layer of batting each 9 inches wide and 5 inches tall. If add extra batting might need to add 1/4 inch to each measurement. Use insulated batting if wish. Put front and back right sides together and then layer on batting. Leave opening about 2.5 inches and sew 1/4 inch seam around--put opening on bottom, not like I did! Trim and clip corners, then turn. I used closed forseps to push out corners. Sew opening shut. Bottom is just a strip 2.5 inches by 6. I did cut two layers of batting for it. 2.5 x 2.5.

After sewing that and turning it inside out, I butted one end up to bottom of main part and zigzagged them together about 1 inch from side, then sewed other end of bottom, too...had to scrunch it up a bit but it worked out ok. Sorry picture showing it under foot is so fuzzy.

Zigzagged sides together so didn't have to do any hand sewing.

Finished product next to forceps. Got forceps at local pharmacy for just a few dollars each.

Bottom sewn this way makes it easy to remove cozy from empty bottle.

Each child will be able to pick their own materials next week when we get to see them. Adjust measurements if want to use it for larger bottles. Would work for re-usable bottles, too.

BASKETS SEWN TOGETHER

It's not real clear in this picture because the green sashing blends a lot with my grey/green carpet, but all baskets are now sewn together and just waiting for a red inner border and black wide border with baskets, flowers and leaves. Those are my sweet hubby's toes--he said not to include them but one of my all time favorite things is the feet and hands sticking out from under/behind/beside people's quilts!! Gotta look through my stash for an inner border...can we say p poor planning, but it's really a scrappy quilt and was made from what was on hand--obviously, I have a LOT on hand! :)

BASKETS IN BLOOM PANELS

These are sections of the Baskets in Bloom quilt. I wrote about making baskets blocks and borders in April. Once the panels are sewn together, there's a red inner border and then black borders go on. Getting really excited about having it done and planning to have it longarmed as don't think my shoulders would survive fmq this large. It's about 61 inches square. Happy with how it looks so far. So many hours of work and a great feeling of satisfaction to be this far along. Trying really hard to finish up some ufo's!!

Hopefully, it will be a complete top sometime this week. Getting a bunch of cherries tomorrow (YUM) that will require a lot of pitting and other work, so that's the first priority, then this.

REVELLING IN WONKINESS!

This is my first truly wonky block. I've done wonky stars before and love them, but Frauke Schramm: http://www.quilthexle.blogspot.com/ inspires me to try something bolder. Her header quilt is just stunningly beautiful to me! This block is for a scrap bee at Sew Fresh Fabrics:
http://sewfreshfabrics.blogspot.com/2011/07/is-it-july-already.html They provided all fabrics in the block except the white/black floral. We could use them anyway we wanted as long as end results were 12.5 x 12.5 inches. Started out just making a pinwheel center. small green border and two different flower sides with green corners and was going to just continue until it was the right size, but then something just hit me--HAD to try something wonky. The more that got added, the more I wanted to add and it just needed to be wonkier and wonkier. It's probably not that crazy to many, but it was so much fun and now a whole quilt of wonkiness is crying out to me! I've told myself that has to wait until at least three finished quilt tops get sandwiched, Baskets in Bloom quilt gets assembled and quilted and Supernova gets done, too. Being organized and disciplined isn't my forte at all!

Didn't get a picture of first part of block, but this shows most of the original exercise. Next two show more of the progression. I wanted to leave the pinwheel pretty much intact since I was pretty happy with my points!!

The blocks will be made into a quilt for Magaret's Hope Chest--a really lovely way a lady and her daughter have chosen to honor their mother/grandmother who was killed during a senseless purse snatching. I truly admire their ability to forgive and try to help those who ended up killing Margaret Herrema, their families and now others impacted because of imprisonment of a family member.