courtney rebecca

My goal for 2013 was to finish 4 quilts. I ended up finishing one twin size for Jason, making 3 baby quilts, and making 4 tiny quilts for mug rugs. I would call that Mission Accomplished! The first complete quilt I made this year was a very special one for a little girl named Mila. Our friends Aaron and Erin are missionaries in Russia, and they had their first baby this year! She is precious, and though we haven't gotten to meet her yet (failed trip to Texas in December... stupid ice storms.) we love her so much! I used Moda's Simply Sweet and backed it with pink minky. Bound it with red and pink polka dot fabric from Simply Sweet. I can't remember if I used fat quarters or a precut charm pack, but I  think it was fat quarters. I seem to remember cutting out these pieces. The next quilt I made was for a very special little boy! My best friend Cayce had her first baby in July. I was absolutely thrilled to get to deliver this quilt in person. It was amazing ...

I've been falling a bit behind on my goal of making something new once a month this year. Jason is in Texas this week to attend Summit at ACU, so as soon as he left, I got busy sewing! I pinned this tutorial a reeeeally long time ago (26 weeks ago to be exact, thank you Pinterest for knowing that) and I finally decided to try it. I picked out the fabric for the skirt a long time ago too... June, I think? Whenever I took that quilting class, I picked it up. And I've had this tank top for YEARS (probably since high school) and it's always been too short. Perfect project for it! This tutorial would have been really easy if I had a sewing machine that worked well with elastic thread. Alas, I have a Brother, which has a drop-in bobbin, which makes it a nightmare to work with elastic thread. Awesome. I decided to attempt it anyway, and gave up on my Brother after about 30 minutes of frustration. Luckily! I still have the Kenmore that my cousin gave me. It has some bobbin i...

I am so proud. After over a month of working on it (off and on), I finally finished my first quilt! For some reason I was having anxiety about quilting and especially binding it, but it ended up being totally fine. I don't know why I was so worried. It turned out great! Mission accomplished... he likes it!

I took my first sewing class a year ago. I really wanted to learn how to sew, but even more, I wanted to learn how to quilt. My grandma, Tutu, made a lot of quilts when she was alive. She even taught my older cousin Michelle how to quilt. By the time I had any interest in learning, Tutu was too old to teach me. Or I at least assumed, because I never asked. Tutu passed away two years ago this month, and I am finally learning how to quilt. I have to believe that she would be proud of me! I took an Intro to Quilting class yesterday at this adorable local fabric store, Fabric Bliss. I've taken two other sewing classes there, and I absolutely love it! Today we made a tiny little quilt called a "mug rug." I couldn't believe that it came together so fast! We only did one block, but we pieced it all together, did the batting, and did the binding. So now I know how to do everything I need to do for a large quilt as well! I think the tiny quilt turned out pretty cute. It...

Happy day after Mother's Day! I hope you got to enjoy the day with your mom, or if you can at least talk to her on the phone. I'm writing this the week before Mother's Day, but I plan to Skype with my mom, and my mother-in-law will be in town staying with us! I really wanted to make something for my mom and mother-in-law this year. I can only make so many random things for myself, so I love getting to make things for my family! Sorry family, expect homemade things for Christmas and birthdays this year... I'm having way too much fun to stop! My Mother-in-law Karen has a Kindle Keyboard and a Kindle Fire. Conveniently, both devices have almost the same dimensions. Sweet! So I made her a soft case for whichever one she chooses. Jason went to the fabric store with me and helped pick out the fabric. He specifically wanted something purple. We picked the outside fabric first, then had a bit of trouble finding a coordinating fabric for the lining. When Jason saw this...

I've been working this year on making something new with my sewing machine every month. Last night I decided to make my item for April, and it ended up being WAY easier than I thought it would be! Everything I learned in a recent zippered clutch class at Fabric Bliss made it easy to put together this  little case. I got a Kindle Touch for Christmas and I absolutely love it. I have a leather case with a light already for it, but I was always worried about getting the leather case scratched up when I put it in my purse to carry around. I had seen a lot of cute soft cases on Etsy, but I was pretty sure I could make it myself. Turns out, I really could make it! It took about an hour and a half. I was shocked I was able to make it so fast. I love that it fits so snugly and I don't have to worry about my Kindle getting scratched up. And it's super cute! It's polka dot on the outside and a really cute grey houndstooth on the inside. There's padding to make it extra sa...

So I've been doing well with my personal goal of making 1 new thing each month. I think it's going to get even easier, because earlier this month Amazon was having a great sale and I got this: I had been using a sewing machine that I got from my cousin, but I dropped it right when I got it and it messed up the bobbin. Jason figured out how to fix it, but it would break periodically, usually in the middle of sewing. So I bought this beauty! It's a Brother CS6000i computerized sewing machine. It's the same one I learned on when I took classes at Fabric Bliss, so it's super easy for me to use right away. Over Spring Break, I've been working on my first project on this machine, and my project for March! I decided that I needed a Euro style pillow for our bed. But I wanted it to have texture. So I got on Pinterest and found some tutorials for a ruffle pillow cover. I read a bunch of them and used a hodgepodge of what I learned from them to make my own. I hav...

I took my first sewing class today. Please pardon the ridiculous pun used for the title of this post. I had so much fun! I learned SO much today, and I'm so happy that I got to take this class. It was a three hour class and we made a tote bag! We learned all about the sewing machine, so I'm hopeful that I will be able to learn how to use MY sewing machine too. It seems like it may be a bit of a pricey hobby, but I really enjoyed it today. I'm hoping when we move into our new place I can set up a little crafty type of station with my desk in the living room. Here is what I made today!