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!

WIP: Storm at Sea Quilt Top

Here it is!

I finished my Storm at Sea quilt top awhile back.  I think it turned out awesome!  I pretty much love it.

All of the blocks were paper pieced using freezer paper - that's probably why everything matches up so well.  I like paper piecing.

Look at all those seams!  This quilt is going to be HEAVY.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it next.  So far it measures about 39 x 48, which is definitely not as big as I want it.  I've got a bunch more of the egg shell fabric, and I knew all along that I was going to add a border of some kind.  But that's about it.  I have no idea what kind of border to add, or how big to make it.  I've got a little bit of each color left over, but not enough to make another row.  Decisions, decisions.
Luckily, it is almost December and I am well into making Christmas gifts at the moment.  I think this one is going on the back burner until January.  Of course, if you have any awesome ideas about how to make it bigger, send them my way. :)

For more about the progress and inspiration behind this quilt, go HERE and HERE and HERE.

Linking up!

Sparkle Punch and Jigsaw

I finished these a few weeks ago for a friend who is having twin boys!

I've been meaning to try out Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch quilt for awhile now.  I was so excited to finally have a good excuse to give it a go!

Most of the fabrics used in these quilts was given to me by a neighbor who was trying to clear out her stash.  I was more than happy to oblige!

I quilted swirls in the stars and wavy lines in the negative spaces.  I love the crisp, clean, flat look of a brand-new, unwashed quilt. 

Here it is washed and crinkled!

The back is another design I've been dying to try for awhile.  I think I like it the best!

The squares mimic Rachel Griffith's "Scruffily" pattern.   The text print and the cars print are flannels, which makes the quilt nice and soft (although a little heavier and the blue flannel created lots of lint that stuck like crazy!).  I kind of like using flannel for backing. :)

And here is my Jigsaw quilt.   I used matching fabrics for this one.  I wanted the twin quilts to be different, but matching.

Silly story.  So I was lamenting the fact that I still don't have a walking foot for my Bernina when I discovered my little buttonhole foot.  It's got rubber grippies on the bottom of it for holding the top fabric in place while feeding it along at the same rate as the feed dogs on the bottom.  That's sort of like a walking foot, right?  SO I quilted all the straight lines in this quilt with my silly little button hole foot. :)  I had to stop every 3 inches or so to reposition the foot when I ran into the edge of the little hole.  Not sure if it was worth it, but at least I now I know. ;)

I used a medium loft polyester batting on these because I wanted them to be a bit puffier than normal.  However, although I loved how this quilt looked with the straight lined accenting the puzzle pieces, I decided it was a little bit TOO puffy in a sort of loose fabric kind of way.

So I added a little more quilting inside the pieces (I had to do this with the stars as well).  Here it is all finished up:

I used THIS tutorial for creating a raggy binding.  I used flannel for my binding so it would rag even better.  I kind of wish I had slowed down a bit and focused more on getting everything lined up perfectly.  There are some sections where the binding is skinny and some where it is fat.  It's not very consistent, but I think I will try raggy binding again.  It was fun. 

Mostly because I used my special rag scissors my mom bought me for Christmas awhile back.  I cut the raggy sections on BOTH quilts in like 20 minutes and my hand wasn't even a little bit sore!  I have GOT to try these out on a full rag quilt someday!

 And here is the back.  Same as the other quilt back, but with reversed fabrics.

I hope the recipient likes them!  I'm really excited to meet her baby boys.  Plus, I was really happy to have an excuse to make baby quilts.  They are so quick and easy, compared to the big quilts I have been working on lately!  Plus I get to try out new designs I have had my eye on.  :D

Blogger's Quilt Festival: The Fandango Quilt

Hi!  Welcome to any newcomers visiting for the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

This is my entry this fall:

I call it my Fandango quilt.  Because I made it with Kate Spain's Fandango fabric.  I'm super awesome at naming quilts. 

I made this for my in-laws who are amazing people.  I wanted to make them something special for their anniversary.  I searched and searched for the perfect fabric and I love what I ended up with!  This quilt is on their bed right now (it's a BIG one) and it matches their bedroom perfectly!

Sorry about the funky pictures.  That's what happens when you finish the quilt hours before you plan to deliver it...  Don't we all do that now and then?

I quilted this quilt using a modified quilt-as-you-go method.  Basically, I broke the quilt down into 5 sections, quilted them, and then attached the sections by machine on the front and by hand on the back.

I love that I was able to quilt such a big quilt with such freedom!  I chose to quilt swirls in all of the frame boxes.  For the full boxes, I echoed the design of the fabric.  I think the back of this quilt looks so cool! 

The binding is scrappy, using leftover fabrics from the front.  I pieced four extra blocks into the back, with the rest of my light solid and some darker solid. 

This quilt was a ton of work, but I loved every minute of it!  It took a long time to complete, but I knew my in-laws would appreciate it.  And they did!  They sent me a super nice thank you card the day after they received it.

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  91" x 76"

Quilted by: ME!

Techniques used:  Regular piecing, modified QAYG quilting, bound by machine

Best Categories:  Bed Quilt, Home Machine Quilted Quilt

Festival #: 248

Now go check out all the other fantastic entries!

Sneak Peak: Baby Boy Quilt Tops

I've been itching to make a couple of baby quilts lately.  Well, it just so happens that a really good friend of mine is having twin boys!  Wahoo!  So while my husband was in  Chicago/South Bend for some sight seeing/football last weekend, I spent my nights and naptimes working on a couple of quilt tops.

I have them finished, but I have no idea if the recipient reads this blog or not, so I only am going to share a couple of sneak peaks.

I am all ready to baste, quilt, and bind.  These are going to be super cute! 

Stocking Advent Calendar

About a year and a half ago I snatched up this "Ready Set Snow" charm pack (on sale!) by Me and My Sisters (I pretty much love all their fabric) with the intention to make some kind of Christmas advent calendar out of it.

I searched and searched looking for a cute idea and finally found THIS tutorial and decided it would be perfect!

And here I am, over a year later, with a finished (if not somewhat nontraditional) "advent calendar."  I ironed every single piece to freezer paper to make the cutting easier, and I used No Sew Heat and Bond  to attach the numbers (I even printed the numbers onto the Heat and Bond paper so I didn't have to trace anything).   I figured if I was going to make 24, I might as well take lots of shortcuts.  :)  There was lots of handwork (cutting and turning things inside out) done in front of the TV with the Hubby watching football and such.  I think that's why it went so quickly.  I could work on it pretty much anytime.  Even though I had to do each step 24 times.

I used ric rac and baby clothes pins for hanging.  Aren't they cute?

Now I just need to figure out what to put in them and where to hang them!  I'm so excited to have them ready early for Christmas this year.  Last year I was so busy having two babies around Christmas time, so I plan to make up for all the lack of Christmasy things this time around!  :)

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: