my cousin asked me to make him a quilt for his old roommate that was expecting a baby girl.
of course i said yes, and when i found this pattern in a book my grandma gave me, and this elephant fabric, i knew exactly what i was going to do!
everything went together super smoothly.  basically, i cut & pieced the entire top in one day in the amount of time big fish took to play (with commercials)
my grandma did the quilting for me, and then once the binding was sewn on, it was on it's way to my cousin to send to his roommate!



the thread used was a blue/brown variation, matching the blue elephants almost perfectly!
it really popped against the solid brown back.
i do have to say, i'm really feeling the bright colors versus the usual "baby" pastels that i've used in the past.
times are a changin!
a whole lot more photos of this quilt on the blog, plus some teeny tiny matching socks: http://toothpasteandorangecat.blogspot.com/2013/05/bright-between-friends-junior-elephant.html

i've had to type kaleidoscope out so many times since this quilt top, you'd think i'd be able to remember how to spell it by now.
hm. nope
i had all this cat fabric FOREVER... at least since i did the cat lovers swap in 2007. sheesh!
when i started my stashbust project, i pulled all this cat fabric aside to eventually be used for something... and then i stumbled upon this tutorial, and knew it was what had to be used!  originally it said to use paper for the back, but since we have a giant bolt of muslin, i opted to use that as well.


and the back, to show  how it was pieced on muslin.


as usual, larger & more photos on my blog post! http://toothpasteandorangecat.blogspot.com/2013/05/black-white-cats-kaleidoscope-quilt-top.html

so i messed up this pattern, but still like how it turned out in the end!
instead of looking like tetris "t" blocks, the colors were supposed to alternate in the centers with the large cherries on the outsides the entire time.
oh well.  it's a functional quilt top that still looks good to me!



more/bigger pictures over on my blogpost here: http://toothpasteandorangecat.blogspot.com/2013/05/hopscotch-cherry-quilt-sorta.html

more stash busting progress.  yay!
i can't remember if this was a pinterest find or a craftster find.  either way, i love this pattern!
it was originally going to be one quilt top, but since i couldn't imagine a 3x6 block quilt, i split it in half and made two.



more photos (and bigger too!) including the projects these fabric were originally from on my blog: http://toothpasteandorangecat.blogspot.com/2013/05/winnie-pooh-holiday-ribbon-block-quilts.html
pattern designer ryan walsh: http://www.ryanwalshquilts.com/

i am in LOVE with how this quilt pattern turned out!

originally i was looking at a pattern with three colors in it, but my scrap piece of the third fabric was not anywhere near being big enough.
i cruised through my pinterest and found this two color pattern that was fantastic.
i slacked off on my march stash busting quilt top until the very end of the month, so i was thrilled by the ease of this pattern.

it was originally meant to be one entire quilt top, but i decided to break it in to two smaller quilts so that the humanitarian aide at my parent's church would have a little bit more to go around.
if i had planned that from the get go, i would have reversed half the blocks so that the diagonals went the opposite direction.  
regardless, i still think it is cute as ever, and it was nice to finally have some boy-ish quilt tops to add to the donation pile!

more penguin-ey goodness and bigger photos over on my blog! toothpaste & orange cat

[NOT]

this stash bust project actually turned in to a whole quilt, and it's super cute!
i purchased the darlene zimmerman "fat cats" template a few years ago (if you've been reading my blog, you'll note that this is a common thing.  purchase.  hoard.  finally use) and when i got this idea, it came to excellent use.

eat cat was pieced in to the fabric (which i would NOT do again if i was to repeat this template pattern) and then the ears were zig zag stitched down (not pieced in to the white)
all kitties were a different green fabric i had in my box of wonders, and back was also pieced from the same green fabrics to add some pizzazz

looking back, i probably should have used a little bit darker gray for the whiskers & tails, but i still love it a whole lot!
i'm sure my mom will want me to make her one of these quilts sooner or later...  next time i'll enlist some wonder under and make sure all my backing blocks are the same size right off the bat
more green cats, detail shots, and jibber jabber to not clog the craftster-sphere on the blog: toothpaste & orange cat  
thanks for stopping by!

this was my stash buster quilt top for february... can you guess why?
i've had this charlie brown fabric for i don't even know how long... probably purchased simply because it was cute... but no definite use.
not entirely sure what pattern i was going to use for it, i decided on the hexagon/triangle pattern i used for a baby shower quilt last year and loved. (eeyore quilt)

the pink fabric was actually a ton of yardage that i had purchased as a table cloth photo prop when i was getting my AA in 2009...  so that's been around for awhile too.
looking at the finished product, i can see how super busy it looks using charlie brown & snoopy all over, but i think it's super cute!

basically, this has become a "go to" baby quilt template for me now.  love it!
more of the charlie brown quilt over on the blog: toothpaste & orange cat

don't mind me, just playing craftster catchup
i did this quilt a few years back (oh... just 5 years ago lol)
when beginning my stash busting voyage for the year, i found that i had another set of the same quilt on it's way to getting done
originally this one was supposed to have a pink stripe across the top and bottom, but i had apparently cut the strip to short so it got to match the other one

it got a little wonky at the bottom, but i love it anyways.
and hey, i got all the black & pink blocks going the same direction!

a few more photos and such over on the blog: toothpaste & orange cat

part of my 2013 goal is to make one quilt top a month using my stash of fabric.
the quilt tops i don't have a personal purpose for will be donated to my parent's church to go towards humanitarian projects.
apparently they will do the rest if the tops are supplied to them (makes it easier for me!)
so as far as this quilt goes, it has been cut out for at least four years.
it was originally intended for an old friend from high school as a baby shower gift.  well, that baby is four now and i still had the pieces.
the pinwheels went together super easily, and i would totally do another quilt like this, minus using a 1/8" seam allowance.
idk why i decided to do that way back when.

bigger and more detail pictures on the blog: right here
thanks for taking a peek!

so this year my younger sister has turned from star trek enthusiast to super hero obsessed.
for christmas this year, i made her a purse (since she didn't have one in the first place) to suit her needs.
thanks to joanns having all of the awesome fabric selection, this is what resulted!
front side (thor is the favorite)

back side

inside zipper

zipper open