Blogger's Quilt Festival: Why, Hello!

Welcome new people!  Welcome back old friends!

Last year I felt bad that I never thought to share these little minis as part of Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival.  So I'm sharing them now, even though I made them almost a year ago.  Because they are still one of my most favorite projects EVER.

This is my entry in the "Wall Hanging Quilts" category in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Check out the other wall hanging quilts HERE.
Check out the whole festival (it's amazing, people) here:

Actually, this is a set of 13 wall hangings.  Those of you who have been here before have probably seen them already.  They were SO much fun to make.  I made these for my sister who lives on her own and is always looking for new, cute things to decorate her house with.  She has always been a sunny person to me.  She's always happy, she loves yellow, and her favorite thing to say is "Why, hello!"  (in various accents, of course).  So when I discovered April Mae's "Hello Sun" block of the month quilt along I just HAD to play along (she has now made these into patterns - you can buy them HERE).  Instead of making one big quilt, I made 12 minis - so that my sister could switch them out each month.  Then I designed the extra wall hanging for her to keep up all year long and tie everything together.  Here they are!

First, the big one that I designed:


All of the minis together:


And some close-ups of each wall hanging:

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:


I love these because each month is different, yet they all follow the same theme.  I even made another set for myself.  :)


Beginning Nov. 1st, you can vote for your favorite quilts in each category!

Thanks for visiting!  Now go check out all the other entries. 

Why, Hello!

I've been DYING to share these with you!
I discovered April Mae's Hello Sun Quilt Along back in October and decided it fit perfectly with the block of the month I was looking for.  So I made a couple for myself.  Then it came time to start thinking of Christmas gifts and I was in charge of finding something for my sister.  She requested something to decorate her apartment with and it still took me a week or two to realize I could make her these darling sun blocks.  My sister loves yellow and these blocks just seemed to fit her personality perfectly!  So I got to work right away.  I posted a sneak peak of the block backs awhile ago, but other than that I have been waiting kind of impatiently to finally post the finish products.
Here they are!

This is one of A's favorite things to say:

The whole set all together.  I had a really hard time giving these away!  I just wanted to keep them for myself!


January

February
I kind of love this text print!

March

April
I used fleece for the cloud.  I wish I had thought of it earlier.  I would have done the same for March...

May

June
I'm a little surprised, but I think this one is my favorite.

July
I like how the frayed edges look like waves in the water.

August

September

October

November

December

To make these mini quilts, I fused the background fabric onto fusible fleece (very carefully), then iron appliqued the pieces down.  Then I did the embroidery, basted a back to each one, and stitched the pieces down.  I used April's easy method for stitching the pieces down - I love how forgiving it is, and how CUTE it looks!  Perfect for these designs!  Then I sewed the borders on "quilt as you go" style and bound each mini quilt by hand (usually while watching a show with the hubby) - I think they look a lot nicer bound by hand. 

I added little hanging tabs on the back of each mini quilt.   
I think the backs look kind of cool with the images reversed. 

The backs are all made from scraps of yellows.  I didn't have very many pieces that were big enough for backings, so I pieced 12 log cabin blocks.  The mini quilts measure about 10 inches square.

For the big one, I added two layers of batting to the sun and letters (Trapunto style), to make them puff out.

And there you have it!  I made a set for myself, but they aren't mini quilts because I had already fused heavy interfacing onto all 12 of my background pieces, making it too stiff to quilt.  So mine will look very similar, only they will be going in a frame, rather than being bound and hung.

Quilt stats:

Started: November, 2012

Finished: December 18, 2012

Fabrics: Nearly all from the stash!  Lots of scraps.

Finished size:  10 inches square

Recipient:  Sister A for Christmas

WIP: A Bit of Yellow

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts, so I can't show you much for awhile, but I can probably show you these yellow blocks I made.

Let's just say I was inspired by Jennifer's Scrappy Stash Quilt Along or something like that.  :)  Anyhow, I made a bunch of yellow/orange log cabin blocks.  They each measure about 11-12 inches square at the moment.

Hopefully they will turn into something else soon!  Thanks for visiting!

Busy Busy Busy

Wow.  I have a lot of little finishes lately.  Back when I was teaching, it would have taken me months to do the same amount of sewing related things I've done in the past two weeks.  And I have two babies.  Am I doing something wrong?

I suppose most of these projects are fairly small.

I made this super cute block:

I've been looking for some kind of block of the month that I could use as interchangable decorations each month.  I'm a little late in the game, but I found this Hello Sun quilt along and I kind of love it.  I've also been looking for a good excuse to try this method of applique.  Maybe I will make all the blocks into a quilt someday.  And it was fast.  Once I made my panel of yellow, the whole thing came together pretty quickly.  Thank heavens for Heat and Bond. :)

I printed THIS little subway art to go with it.  I've got the other 11 stashed away for future use too.  SO easy.  I love it.

I also finished my growth charts.  You can see more of those HERE.

Then I started working on my stocking advent calendar thinking I would just work on it here and there over the next month or so.  Whoops.  I FINISHED it!  I still need to take some pictures and write a post about it though (maybe tomorrow?).  It's super cute.  I think I finished it so fast because there was lots of handwork to it - LOTS of cutting and turning fabric inside out and stuff.  I could do that in the evenings while I watched TV or football with the Hubby.  Thank heavens for Freezer Paper. :)

 

AND I made two blocks for my Storm at Sea quilt.  These were test blocks to check my cutting measurements and learn how to do freezer paper piecing.  I think I've about got the hang of it.  They take a little while to make, but they are fun and should keep me busy for awhile.

Linking up: