Amanda

Star Wars Quilt

October 15, 2015 by Amanda 25 Comments

My Daughter, Ella, pieced this Star Wars quilt! We are a total Star Wars Nerd Family!! This quilt is such a great beginner quilt because it teaches a few “tricks”, it is simple to piece together, and yet it looks a little more complicated than just sewing squares together. This pattern is the same pattern I used for my Luckie Girl Quilt. Click HERE to download it.

This is such a fun quilt because you can use a variety of theme prints and really show them off. And it can be sewn in a few hours!!

I had my quilter quilt “retro” inspired shapes and stars. It’s my favorite quilting yet!

We put cuddly orange minky on the back and it’s the perfect quilt for watching all 6 episodes of Star Wars with!!!

Filed Under: quilt, star wars Tagged With: quilt, star wars

Happy Birthday Baby Mufasa

October 13, 2015 by Amanda 2 Comments

Happy Birthday Mufasa! We celebrated Baby Mufasa’s 1st birthday! How fast does time fly! He used to be so small and fluffy!!!

He used to fit inside a zipper pouch!

I made him a little birthday hat and he HATED it! He acted like he was going to die! Poor thing!! But he looks so cute in it!

My daughter and Mufasa share the same birthday – so we had quite a party!! The cupcakes were for her, and most of the gifts 🙂

Even though he’s a big boy now, I’m going to keep on calling him Baby Mufasa 🙂

For more up to date coverage on Mufasa’s antics, follow us on Instagram!

Filed Under: bengal, cat

Happy Haunting Halloween Quilt

October 5, 2015 by Amanda 23 Comments

Isn’t Halloween the best time of year for quilting? I get so excited over orange and black and cats and bats! I can’t have enough quilts! I am so in love with this line from Deena Rutter called Happy Haunting by Riley Blake Designs. It is everything Halloween should be!

This quilt sews together fast and YOU get to pick the layout of each block.

This quilt is also best put together with a friend. Tina from @emilyannskloset and I got together this summer for a Coast to Coast Kitty Quilter Retreat where we sewed about 15 hours each day for 4 days!

Let’s get started!

Finished Quilt 55″ x 55″

Supplies:

fat quarters or quarter yard cuts of Halloween prints

1 yard sashing

3/4 yard outer boarder

fat quarters for applique

1/3 yard for background blocks for applique

Heat n Bond Lite or Heat n Bond Lite EZ Print Sheets

Applique pattern, click HERE

1/2 yard binding

3 yards backing

FOR THE BLOCKS

Begin by cutting the fabric into the following categories:

2.5″ squares

2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles

4.5″ squares

4.5″ x 8.5″ rectangles

just keep cutting from a variety of fabrics until you have a sizable amount.

Now the fun begins – don’t lay it out! Just be totally random! The goal here is to create 8.5″ blocks by using a combination of 4 patches, strip sets, and larger rectangles. Below are a few examples, the combinations are endless! Just be creative!

Each time we finished a block we hung it up on a clothes line and said “No, THIS is the cutest block!”

For the finished quilt you will need 20 total pieced blocks and 5 applique blocks. We even made a block that was all 2.5″ squares!

APPLIQUE

For the applique background squares, cut (5) 8.5″ white squares. Trace the applique onto heat n bond lite or use the Heat n Bond EZ print sheets. Iron the heat n bond to the wrong side of the fabrics and cut out the shapes. Peel off the backing paper then press in place on the white squares. The spiders have ric rac stitched onto the block and the legs are stitched with black thread. Top stitch around each image.

Once all the blocks are finished it’s time to sash. I love that Tina choose black and white gingham to sash her quilt – it gives it a cozy country look!

FOR THE SASHING

Cut (20) 2″ x 8.5″ strips

you will need to piece the next sashing strips to give you the following measurements

(6) 2″ x 46.5″ strips for the horizontal rows

(2) 2″x 49.5 strips for the sides

Sew the 8.5″ sashing strips in between the blocks forming horizontal rows. Then add the horizontal strips along the top, middle rows, and bottom. Press. Finish by adding the 2 side strips.

OUTER BOARDER
After sashing add the outer boarder. I don’t measure at this point – do you? Cut (6) 3.5″ x WOF strips for the outer boarder. You will need to sew them together end to end to have enough length. Sew the side strips on, square up, press and then sew the top and bottom strips on.

I had my friend use her long arm quilter to sew swirls all over the quilt, even through the applique. I LOVE it! I am totally in love with this quilt. I cut the striped fabric on the bias for the binding. Striped binding is my absolute FAVORITE!!!! I had such a wonderful time putting this quilt together with my friend Tina. Isn’t it fun to sew with friends and family!!!

Filed Under: FEATURED, Halloween, Heat n Bond, patterns, quilt, Riley Blake, Therm O Web

Caturday Sew Along October

October 3, 2015 by Amanda Leave a Comment

Welcome to the Caturday Sew Along! I love cats and sewing!!! I know a lot of you love sewing with your fur babies too! Each month I will post a cat themed quilting project that we can sew together. Post your progress on Instagram and tag it with #caturdaysewalong. For October choose any variation of these three projects that use a cat silhouette and SPOOKY applique. Click the links for the patterns.

This Spooky mini quilt measures 20″ square and uses 2.5″ squares to complete. It’s such a fun way to use up those Halloween scraps you’ve been saving!! Click HERE for the tutorial.

This larger version measures 44″ x 60″ and it uses 5″ charm squares for the center. It’s my favorite Halloween quilt. Click HERE for the tutorial.

If you find yourself pressed for time but still want to sew something SPOOKY, try this quick pillow tutorial! Click HERE

Filed Under: appliqué, cat, caturday sew along, FEATURED, Halloween, Heat n Bond

Spooky Mini Quilt

September 30, 2015 by Amanda 14 Comments

I love Spooky Sewing! Halloween is such a fun time of year and the fabrics are so amazing! This mini quilt pattern is inspired from a larger pattern I created. You can find the pattern for the large version on the Riley Blake Designs website. The fabrics are from last years and this years Riley Blake Designs Halloween fabrics. They are purrrrfect for Halloween!Supplies:

scraps of Halloween prints

fat quarter or equivalent for applique

2/3 yard for backing

1/4 yard for binding

batting

Heat n Bond Lite EZ print sheets

This small version measures about 20″ square. It would make a great pillow too! Begin by rummaging through all your scraps and cut 2.5″ squares. You need 100 total. There are 10 rows of 10. I did mine totally random. I just grabbed 2 fabrics and sewed them together.

I paired all the fabrics then sewed those pairs with other pairs, leaving 10 pairs out. Once you sew the 2 sets of 2, you have strips with 4 squares. Pair those up to give you 10 sets of 8 squares. Then add the reserved pairs to the ends. This was the fastest way I found. I lined up the rows the best I could. I tried to avoid having 2 like fabrics touching. Press all seams.

To add the cat applique, click HERE for the cat and HERE for the Spooky. Print them in reverse. I like to use Heat n Bond EZ print sheets – no tracing!!! Once you’ve got your applique ready, iron it into place and stitch around it with black thread.

All that’s left is the quilting! I quilted orange swirls.

Add the binding and its done! This might take a while if your cat decides to have a nap on it!!! I love it so much!!!!

Filed Under: appliqué, cat, FEATURED, Halloween, Heat n Bond, Riley Blake, Therm O Web

Kids Can Sew! Sizzix Doll Quilt

September 30, 2015 by Amanda 2 Comments

I love getting my girls involved in sewing! In fact among the requirements for leaving home to go to college are: 1. you must be able to bake a pie from scratch 2. you must be able to successfully make the family roll recipe 3. you must be able to construct a quilt start to finish by yourself! I’m proud of my teenage daughter as she has mastered all of these skills. Sally is 7 and we are beginning to sew on the machine. She LOVES it! I like projects that she can do most of the work; this one is perfect!

I love using the Sizzix for cutting because she is too young to use the rotary cutter. This way, she gets to “cut” out her quilt. She choose all the fabrics and the Sizzix die. The triangle worked great because it was easy for her to follow.

Once she had chosen all the fabrics, I ironed Heat n Bond Lite to the wrong side of the triangle fabric. Then I let Sally loose with the Sizzix Fabi.

I cut a piece of white fabric the size she wanted. She positioned the triangles and I pressed them in place.

She sat at the machine and I had her practice sewing 1/4″ seams along the triangles. If she messed up, not to worry, the triangles would be fine. This was such good experience. She got to where she could start and stop and lift the presser foot and cut the thread all by herself!

Once all the triangles were stitched around, I used Spary n Bond to baste the quilt together. This allowed for easy quilting and no messing with pins! I wanted her to do all the quilting. I put the walking foot on and showed her how the machine can “sew by itself” and all she needed to do was steer the fabric, not push or pull it. Once she saw how fun this was she was off! I encouraged her to do random lines all over. I love how it turned out!

Mufasa was quite a helper, he slept the entire time behind the sewing machine!I let her sew the binding on, and I helped with the corners. I then let her use the binding clips and clip the binding all the way around. Finally we got out the needle and thread and did some hand sewing. She did pretty good. I helped with the hand binding so we could finish sometime this year!

It’s the perfect size for her American Girl dolls and she is thrilled that she made it herself! Do you sew with your kids? Sally is excited to begin a new project!

Filed Under: appliqué, FEATURED, Heat n Bond, sizzix, Therm O Web

2015 YW Camp Anchored in Christ Re-Cap

September 28, 2015 by Amanda 24 Comments

Get ready for the worlds longest blog post! I didn’t know how else to get all the information in, so here goes! I am our Stake YW Camp Director. We have stake camp every year and we have about 85 girls who attend. Our camp is Tuesday through Saturday. We camp in cabins. The 4th year girls go on Monday, hike 10 miles and camp in tents the entire week. I have uploaded a file to dropbox to share with you – it has pretty much every file I printed for camp: itinerary, song book, packing list, etc. CLICK HERE

LEADER TRAINING

We begin planning camp as soon as camp is over – so 1 year our. We begin having meetings with our Level Leaders and YCLs in January and meet each month to plan and train. Our camp is in June. Here are some of the things we go over:

The purpose of camp.

Certification

Responsibilities

BACK TO CAMP NIGHT

Each year we have a “Back to Camp” night which happens sometime in the spring. This is when all the girls and leaders come together. We have treats, skits (from the Stake Leaders and YCLs) and we break up into levels so the YW can meet their level leaders. They play get to know you activities and decide when to have their Pre-Camp level party.

Our theme was nautical and we took every opportunity to have fun with this! In the dropbox file you can find our leader skit “The Love Boat”. We wrote a saga that we kicked off at this meeting and then carried it on every night at camp. Each of the Stake Leaders had a “character” and we had nightly drama that would get resolved. It was so much fun and the girls LOVED it!!! We also taught them a short dance to “Sea Cruise”.

wood anchor sign 5

At the Back to Camp Night we had all the crafts on display so the girls could get excited.

PRE CAMP PREPARATIONS

yw camp anchored in christ LDS girls camp 4
I made each of the Stake Leaders a covered composition notebook to use throughout the planning process to keep track of camp stuff.

I made each of the Stake Leaders a messanger style bag so we could keep our clip board and other items handy.

Each leader going to camp received a notebook with all the camp information in it.

All cruise ship staff need a logo clipboard! I stenciled the logo on with craft paint.

The Stake leaders had matching shirts for each day. This totally helps the girls locate us and for us to locate each other. I suggest bright colors!!

THE LANYARDS AND BUTTONS

We decided instead of giving out random handouts and toys and candy that we would focus our money and efforts on lanyards. The stake leaders each helped sew 100 lanyards. The colors coordinated to what each level’s theme was. And each lanyard had a laminated name tag. Then the button making began. I ordered 2000 button kits and began busily designing graphics for each one. My friend Brittany helped me out big time. Together, along with our kids, we got all 2000 buttons made! yw camp anchored in christ LDS girls camp 18
We gave out buttons for Everything! KP, fire starting, mini classes, nightly themes, nurse, the 4th year hike, etc.

The girls went crazy for these buttons and by the end of the week their lanyards were completely full!

Our camp shirts were amazing! One of our counselors is a fashion designer in LA! She rocked it on the design!!

WELCOME ABOARD!

AT CAMP

You can download our camp itinerary if you want to know how everything plays out. I will touch on the highlights here.

Upon check-in each girl received her lanyard, camp shirt, and a banana. Here is a list of the themes for each level – they were all to choose a theme based on a ship/

1st year – The Good Ship Lollipop

2nd year – Noah’s Ark

3rd year – Sea Cows

4th year – the Black Pearls

YCL – the SS Minnow

Each lanyard and banana coordinated with the theme.

Every morning, we would meet for flag and have breakfast. After breakfast each level would have scripture time where their leader would give them assigned scriptures to read. We found this was more productive than just having the girls read at random. After, the YCLs assigned to each level would share a 15 minute spiritual message. This was a great opportunity for the YCLs to connect with their levels. During this time the level leaders would meet in the lodge for a “Staff Meeting”

yw camp anchored in christ LDS girls camp

From there the day would progress: hikes, first aid, certification, swimming, rock wall, canoes, crafts, archery, and BB guns were all in the rotations.

SHIPS & ANCHORS

We take very seriously the #1 purpose of YW camp, “to draw closer to Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.” During the day we had what we called “Ships & Anchors”. These were mini classes taught by the Stake YW Presidency. Each class was taught 4 times and the girls would rotate. These were amazing! It’s hard to put it into words. When you are up in the mountains, talking about spiritual things in a small group miracles happen and testimonies are strengthened. Of course each girl received a pin that related to each class.

CAMPFIRE

Our campfires start out fun and silly with LOTS of singing and our Love Boat Saga Skit.

We pretty much wrote each nights skit during dinner. I loved our characters! I was Destiny, the girl who was on the cruse to find LOVE!

Then we sing our theme song as a transition into getting spiritual. Each night we plan a different spiritual presentation. The first night we kicked off our 1 year campaign to memorize The Living Christ. Each of the stake leaders memorized a portion of The Living Christ and recited it. In between sections we had musical numbers that coordinated. Next year at camp we will all stand and recite The Living Christ together. The following night we had 3 speakers talk about a scripture story that pertained to water/boats. They were all amazing! Another campfire activity was that we handed out envelopes with questions inside. Each girl was to go a little ways off and read the question and write some answers – these were pondering questions. At the bottom of the paper it directed the girls to go to one of 5 groups. Each stake leader was assigned a group and we went to a location and had a discussion. We each were assigned a nautical flag. Have you ever read the meanint of nautical flags? Total gospel parallels. We came back to the campfire and each level sang a song they had prepared. The final night is testimony meeting.

DEVOTIONALS

Following campfire each level goes with thier leader and has a devotional lead by their leaders. These can be some of the most impactful moments of camp.

EVENING ACTIVITY

Because no one is ready to go to bed at 9:00 pm and they are all a little spiritually drained, we host activities in the lodge every night. Since this years theme was nautical, we treated these activities as ports of call. Each night we stopped somewhere new! Here are all the places we visited:

Tuesday night – Hawaii

We decorated the lodge like a luau. We welcomed each girl with a lei. We had fresh pineapple juice and coconut cookies for refreshment. We had a few YW who hula perform and teach everyone some dances. We had a “friendship” dance where at the end, you would partner up, exchange leis and that would be your SOS sister for the week. We change our secret sisters up each year. This year we didn’t want them secret, we wanted the girls to get to know each other. So we created SERVE OUR SISTERS. The YW were encouraged to make things at camp and give their sister. This is such a nice change from buying lots of junk and bringing it to camp.

Wednesday night – Mexico

We decorated the lodge to look like a Fiesta. We all wore Mexican dresses and we had 2 pinatas, churros and chips and salasa. One of our counselors is a Zumba instructor and she taught the girls some fun zumba dances.

Thursday night – Florida, Disneyworld

This night each of the stake leaders dressed up like Disney Princesses. We had each girl choose a princess and we broke into groups and practiced a little routine to the song that goes with the princess. Then we made a big circle and performed in the center. The girls love Disney music! We had made buttons of each of the princesses with origional artwork and each girl got a button from her princess.

Friday night – party

Friday night is kind of a free-for-all.

BEDTIME ROUTINE

Each night the stake leaders hike up and down the camp to sing good night songs to the girls. This year we created a newsletter to hand out, much like you would receive on a real cruise. Here is a sample of one of the editions:

POST-CAMP

Sunday night following camp we all meet together at the church and we present each girl her level award. The church used to have actual certificates. Now, I just create them. They also receive a charm that coordinates with our overall theme and with their level. We watch the slide show and have refreshments.

Conclusion

Camp is such an amazing experience for all who participate. I hope some of our ideas help inspire you to plan a meaningful experience for the Young Women you serve. I love hearing from you so feel free to comment or email me 🙂

Filed Under: girls camp, young women

Blend Fabrics Luckie Girl Quilt Pattern {free}

September 8, 2015 by Amanda 4 Comments

I am so excited to share this pattern with you! I love theme prints and I am always trying to find ways to make quilts with these wonderful theme prints I collect. This pattern is super fun, it’s a perfect beginning quilters, and it looks a little more complicated than just sewing squares together. The fabrics are from Blend Fabrics Luckie Girl Collection. I am head over heals for these pink, turquoise and gray boots and horse shoes!! I am sharing this PDF pattern with you for FREE! Just click HERE!!!

The boots are the cutest!!

I made this quilt as a graduation gift for a sweet gal who grew up riding horses and competing in Rodeo. She’s off to college in Idaho.

I hope you have as much fun making this quilt as I did!

Filed Under: Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, patterns, quilt

Spooktacular Halloween Towels and Pillow

September 7, 2015 by Amanda 10 Comments

Kids are in school, mornings are cool and crisp, and I can’t get enough Halloween sewing!! These projects are super quick and easy. The images used for the applique are fussy cut from Blend Fabrics Spooktacular fabric line. I love these big bold Halloween designs!

For the towels…

Supplies

1 yard toweling for each towel, or a finished tea towel

1/2 yard ric rac

Heat n Bond Feather Lite

Desired fabric

Begin by selecting the image you want to applique on the towel. Cut a piece of Heat n Bond slightly larger than the image. Iron it to the wrong side of the fabric.

Cut out the image.

Even up the toweling and sew a rolled hem on both edges.Peel off the backing paper and press into place. Top stitch around each applique piece. Add ric rac or other decorative trim.

These would make great gifts for friends or teachers!!!

For the pillow….

Supplies

quarter yard cuts of the 3 fabrics

1/2 yard ticking for back

Heat n Bond fusible fleece

Zipper

Applique pieces

Heat n Bond Feather Lite

2 .5 yards black pom pom trim

20″ Pillow Form

Begin by using the method explained above to fussy cut each of the potion bottles. Use the cutting guide below to cut each of the 3 fabrics.

Applique the bottles to the center piece

Next, sew the strips together using 1/4″seam allowance. Press seams to one direction.

Cut a 20″ square of fusible fleece and iron it to the wrong side of the pillow front. You can quilt the pillow at this point. I added some straight line stitches along both sides of the seams.

Baste the pom pom trim around the pillow, starting and stopping at the bottom center of the pillow and curving the corners.

I like to put zippers in my pillow backs. For instructions on how to do this, click here.

Sew the pillow front to the pillow back, right sides together. making sure to leave the zipper partially open. Turn right side out and insert pillow form.

Filed Under: appliqué, Blend Fabrics, FEATURED, Halloween, Heat n Bond, pillow, Therm O Web

Spooktacular Eve Big Block Quilt Pattern

August 15, 2015 by Amanda 7 Comments

I LOVE Halloween fabric!!! When I met Spooktacular Eve by Blend Fabrics it was Love at first sight! These patterns have a fun vintage feel which makes them timeless! I didn’t want to cut into the fabrics too much so I created this Big Block quilt pattern just for you!!! It’s a fast and easy way to show off those bold prints!