Soapmaking with Friends

 I had some work friends come over and make soap with me the day we got out for Thanksgiving break. Everyone did a great job and they all turned out great! I had 3 colors and 3 scents to choose from. The darker yellow did end up darkening quite a bit into brown, due to the vanilla fragrance oil, which was expected. I love the bright greens and dark reds! I made a plain no-color/scent batch to give to my mom for Christmas. It's fantastic for washing fruits and vegetables from the garden or market. 

Leaf Square Quilt

I used some inspiration from browsing Pinterest to create my own layout for this quilt. I used a Riley Blake 10" square pack (it took a few pieces from a second pack) and some leftover white fabric from the Nantucket bolt I used to make the ghost quilts. 

The back has fall leaves. 

I was afraid this quilting would look too Canadian, haha! It's hundreds of maple leafs. 

Before longarming 

Before I decided to add the borders to increase the size, it was fairly simple and made in one evening. 

 

Snowman Door Signs

I have a work friend who asked me to design and cut out door sign kits for her friend group to make. My sister happened to be visiting the weekend I made my practice ones, so she painted one with me. They turned out so cute and her friend group was thrilled! 

Black and Pink Quilt

 I made this quilt top last summer and was finally able to finish it! I used black 108" wideback to finish it. This was made with a pack of 2.5" strips I got from Joann fabrics. 

Bee Garden Quilt

Over the summer I found the most gorgeous bee inspired fabric from Moda, by Gingiber. I have been following a tikoker who challenged herself to make a quilt every week in 2025, and saw she kept using the same pattern over and over, so I decided to try that! I don't think it was the best design to show off the fabric, but I still love it! The pattern is called Nightingale by Brittany Lloyd at Lo and Behold Stitchery. It's almost a king size, with the additional rows I added around the basic pattern. I used a cute meandering bee pattern to quilt on my new longarmer, an Amara 20 with Pro-stitcher. 

Chapstick Keychain

I've been struggling with what to do with my leftover scraps from longarm projects, and saw this idea on TikTok and had to try it! It was very simple and I was able to make 5 with the bit of fabric I had left over from a project, and then 5 more from another. So cute! 

The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt

I found the cutest book called, "The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt" by Riel Nason and wanted to make a mini quilt for my 2nd grade classroom kids to snuggle up with while reading the book. I went ahead and made 2 more for the other teachers I work with. 

 

I knew I wanted blues and whites patchwork fabric, and finally splurged and got a new fat quarter bundle from Moda called Nantucket Summer by Camille Roskelley. I pulled out all of the fabrics I wanted and made 2 quilts with 6" squares and 1 with 4.5" squares. I also bought a few yards of their beautiful blue floral, called Lake Blue Somerset, and white, Nantucket Summer Cream Sail, for the backings. 

It was fun laying out the fabrics in a way that showcases the special fabrics inspired by the book.

Each quilt measures right at a yard, so they're not big, just enough to sit on, or for a kid to wrap around their shoulders. 

Unlike the book and several patterns I saw online, I didn't want a black appliqué ghost face in the center of mine, so instead I quilted it on my longarm with ghosts. You can see in the photo below they're subtle enough to not scream "Halloween" but still so, so cute! 

Elsie Mae as a Quilt!

 My Elise Mae Wall Hanging (16x20)

I went to a class hosted by the Stone House Quilters Guild in Manassas and learned how to do these cute animal wall hangings! We started by bringing a 16x20 photo of our animal, and lots of fabric! We traced the parts for each chunk of fur several times, eventually putting it on a teflon mat with stick-and-stitch paper. Once I got home, I was able to quilt the fur using my sewing machine. I love it so much! I longarm quilted the background on Nantucket Lake Blue Somerset fabric leftover from another project I'm working on. 

Hello Fall Sign

Here is a simple door sign I made for Autumn. The circle is 18" from Michaels, and I used my glowforge to cut the letters onto black painted wood, and engrave/cut the wood for the bottom. Then, I wired some Eucalyptus at the top. So simple and gorgeous! 

Candle Making for Autumn

 My friend group wanted to make wooden dough bowl candles for fall, so I got together some ingredients and we made a fun night of making candles and simmer-pot potpourri sachets. 

First, I laid out all of the ingredients: nutmeg (whole nuts, not the powder), mini orange putka pods, green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, dried apple slices, whole allspice berries, lemon peel, star anise (whole pods), dried oranges, dried rosemary sprigs, whole bay leaves, whole cloves, as well as the muslin bags, wooden bowls, and fragrance oils. 

We heated up the wax and set up our candles. Our bowls held about 12 oz. of wax, and we put three wicks in each. While the candles were cooling, after about 15 minutes, we added the top decorations. 

I didn't get a picture of mine, but here is one of my friend's candles and bag of potpourri. We slipped everything in a small plastic bag so it would look cute until it was ready to use. So precious! 

This is a simple and fun activity with not a lot of prep, aside from purchasing the items, and cleanup takes hardly no time at all! 

Americana Plaid Quilt and bags

 I am so in love with this Americana by Lori Holt for Riley Blake fabric. I used the fat quarter bundle to make this gorgeous pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew called Picnic. 

After putting the blocks together, the quilt top is turned diagonally and the corners are trimmed. I only got turned around once while sewing the rows on. 

Here it is after binding. When I bought the fabric bundle, I went ahead and purchased the background fabric as well that coordinated. So cute! I used navy blue binding that I had leftover from another project. 

I had some extra fabric leftover so I made these pouches for iPads, tc. For whatever reason I am still having a really time making perfect makeup pouches. I will get it eventually, but for now these diagonal zippered ones are much easier and pleasant. 

Half-Hexagon Quilt: Winged Medley

A friend and I went to a Quilt Show hosted by the Stone House Quilt Guild in Manassas, Virginia. While we were there she bought a cute fat quarter bundle by Riley Blake called Winged Medley. I told her I'd make her a quilt, and we decided on a half-hexagon design.

I've never made one before, but it didn't seem that hard. First, I cut out pattern pieces using clear acrylic on my Glowforge. Then, we laid out the fabric in the way she wanted, and I cut out the pieces and sewed them row by row. 

 The trickiest part was making sure the fabric was directionally correct. I didn't want any upside-down birdies!

 To make it a little bigger, I added a row of floral fabric around the outside edge. I like to do that to most quilts to help ensure the top is even and sized correctly. 

This was one of the first projects I quilted on my longarm, and I was so nervous! I used a floral design, and it turned out beautifully! 

Flag Quilt

 Over the summer I saw tons of the cutest flag quilts on TikTok, so right before July 4th I decided to make my own. Unfortunately, the fabric I ordered didn't arrive in time, so I decided to take my time with it. First, I cut out all of the strips and blocks, and then randomly put them together. After making all of the flags, I laid them out in a way that limited similar fabrics touching as much as possible. I used my Sashiko to "hand-stitch" the rows to add character and help give it a vintage look. 

A lot of examples I saw used denim or other blues between the flags, but I decided to go with a bright white. I was a little afraid the flags would blend in, but they were just different shades enough that it wasn't a problem. 

I wanted a really loose, fluffy quilting to not take away from the hand-stitches, so I'm glad I waited until I got my longarm to finish it. The wide-back fabric I got came from a shop close to my mom's house that we checked out while I was visiting. It turned out to be perfect! 

I used a pre-purchased navy blue binding to finish it, and then went around the edges with my Sashiko using red thread to pull it all together. 

And there she is! As always, I think about giving it away but will probably just keep it.