Puff Quilt!

For my birthday this year, my mother-in-law wanted me to buy myself some fabric and I decided I just had to have this Pure fabric (I especially love the pieces with words on them).  I wanted to make something with colors that would work for a boy.  So I bought some fabric and set it aside, waiting for inspiration to strike.
Well, it did!  I discovered HoneyBear Lane's Puff Quilt and I KNEW that was what I wanted to do!  (Check out her website - she has lots of cute stuff!)  At the time, Heidi had a series of free tutorials on how to make the puff quilt.  I guess her puff quilt became so popular that she decided to make it into a pattern to sell, so it is not free anymore.  Sad.  Lucky for me, I downloaded the tutorials while I still could - Wahoo!  This quilt was a lot of fun to make!  I want to make more in the future - I just need someone to make them for!
Isn't it great?  Don't you just love the fabrics?  I do.

p.s. Sorry about the crappy pictures.  I'm just not home in the middle of the day when the sun is shining.

Major UFO

For my non-quilty friends, UFO means UnFinished Object.


Way back in August, Christina at A Few Scraps announced that she was going to have a quilt-along.  And not just any quilt-along.  A free motion quilting quilt-along.  It was perfect!  Exactly what I needed since I was just figuring out this whole quilt-on-a-regular-sewing-machine thing.  So I jumped on board (except, I never actually signed up - I guess I am more of a stow-away...).
The plan was to make an ugly quilt top using only fabric from our stash.  NO buying new fabric for this one!  So I put together this quilt top:

Looking back, I really should have just used solids for the whole thing.  I LOVE this blue dots/squares fabric, but it is way too busy and now I can't see the quilting designs over it.

I should have used the blue for something else.  I guess I was worried I would run out of solid.  Well, I still have QUITE a bit of it left...

I didn't have enough fabric for the back, but I DID have a ton of totally randomly shaped pieces of heavy duty green "upholstery" fabric that I figured I would never ever use otherwise.  So I pieced them all together for a very heavy quilt back.  (Don't judge too harshly...  It's not like I was planning on giving this quilt away to someone.)

And here's the best part.  At the time, I also didn't have enough batting but I DID have a ton of left over felt from a time when I made a horrible miscalculation and bought about 4 times what I needed.  So... don't tell anyone... but I used felt (also pieced together) instead of regular batting.  This turned out to be one funky, heavy, stiff quilt.  That's for sure.

Here is the final product:

What?  You can't see any of the quilting?  I KNOW!  So here is a picture of the back:

I have officially decided that I am NEVER going to give this quilt away.  I would be too embarrassed.  Instead, I am going to keep it for my own reference.  There are a LOT of flaws - TONS of places where my thread tension was bad, not to mention the fact that I ran out of blue and green thread (which is really hard to see on a green back anyway) and ended up using a whole lot of yellow and red - with no particular rhyme or reason.  And for future reference - I should NEVER use two different colors for the top thread and bobbin thread.

The quilt-along consisted of lots of different types of quilting and it was really interesting to see what worked for me and what didn't.  There were a few surprises - some of the designs I hated seeing on paper turned out great on the quilt, others turned out much worse than I expected.  I am definitely not good at anything that echoes the shape of something, and meandering is still the easiest - although there were a lot of line designs that I think I could use.

With that said, here are a few close ups of designs that I am now able to quilt:

Feathers

Pebbles (these are my good ones)

Sprirals and more Spirals

I really liked this flower and sun, but the thread tension was REALLY bad and I REALLY didn't want to undo all of it.  Another reason I can't give this one away.

Meandering

Square meandering

Scallops.  I didn't like these as much as I thought I would.

Lines.  If you look really closely, you can see the (upside down) treble clefs and stars

Loops

And words...

Since these are backwards, I thought I would show you one of them front the front.  Look closely!

And there you have it!  Now I can start a NEW project.  Yay!

March is Lucky!

Here is the wall hanging I made for March (I'm trying to make my house cuter by making one of these babies for each month - it's a good chance for me to try new skils).  I think it is my best one yet - probably because I decided to try stitch in the ditch quilting and it gives it such a nice, clean look!  I wanted to practice making pinwheels and they were a lot of fun to make.  I think the double pinwheel in the corner is my favorite.
And, yes I realize that three leaf clovers AREN'T lucky.  Oops.  Should have made a four leaf clover.

p.s. The fabric I used for the clover comes from the giveaway I won.  I thought it was PERFECT!

I'm linking up with my good friend Becky today.  Go check out her blog!  It is super cute!

 

I'm also linking up with Clover and Violet, since this project was made completely from my stash!

I love March Madness!

Before I got married, I didn't really get into the whole March Madness thing.  In fact, I'm not even sure when I realized that March Madness was all about college basketball.  WELL.  I've been married for 4 1/2 years now and I've been pretty thoroughly immersed in the world of college sports.  The hubby and I both went to BYU and we are HUGE fans.  This year, I am even more excited for March Madness than ever.  BYU has Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery this year and they are DOMINATING!  We beat San Diego State last night and now we have a good chance at a number one seed in the tournament.  I'm lovin it.

But that's not what this post is about.  I just found out that John at Fat Quarterly is hosting a Modern Fabric March Madness!  How cool is that?  They have chosen 64 fabric lines and will be putting them up against each other for us to vote.   I've already filled out my bracket (What?  I have a lot of free time on Sunday mornings!)  I still can't wait to watch BYU play in the tournament, but I really don't know a whole lot about the other teams - with the exception of a select handful.  But fabric?  That's something I know a little bit about.  And if I don't, well, I can just google it.  I'm curious to see which fabric is the best one out there.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Castle Peeps!

What!?  "Pure" didn't make the cut?  Such a shame.

Another of my absolute favorites that did not make the list...  Maybe someday I will have a little girl to use this fabric on - or maybe I should just make something for myself!

And there you have it.  Go check it out right now!
And GO COUGARS!!!!!

For the Love!

VALENTINES DAY IS ON MONDAY!! Kinda sneaked up on me this year.  But that's okay.  The hubby and I don't really get that into Valentines Day.  We have a tradition... we buy ourselves a new movie on Valentines Day and watch it at home on the couch.  And sometimes I get chocolate, but that's not really a once a year thing for me...  Flowers?  Nah - I can't really keep ANYTHING alive for longer than a day.  Although I wouldn't complain if the hubby was thoughtful enough to get me some every once in a while.
However, this year I did decide I needed to make something to remind us what month it is...
It took a little while to get to it, because I wouldn't let myself work on it until I finished making these:

Whew!
Then I made this (don't worry, I finished it last week so I'm not TOO far behind):

AND I tried binding BY HAND this time around!  I think it looks better - hopefully I did it right.  I washed this little thing because I also tried raw edge applique and I wanted the edge of the heart to fray a little, so it looks a little bumpy.  But it was really quick to make.
Now.  What should I do for March?

On a side note, I guess I did get an early Valentines Day gift this year.  Wanna see it?  Well, okay.  But only because I love it so much:

 Isn't it pretty!  And it's ALL MINE!!  YAY!

Wordless Wednesday: Risk

I finally won a giveaway!

Ever since I discovered the world of quilt blogs and the concept of "giveaway," I have been entering them like crazy.  :)  My stash seems so meager right now and I hate asking the hubby to let me buy more and more fabric, so I try to get it any other way I can.  Well, the people in the quilt blog world are SO GENEROUS!!!  It is amazing.  Some day, I will have to give back to the community.  Maybe I will host a giveaway of my own sometime.
Anyway, I finally won a giveaway - my first one!  And it was a good one!  Diane at Quilty Pleasures had a giveaway on their blog a week or so ago.  She was giving away part of her 9,000 pound stash!  I can't even imagine how much fabric that would be!  I guess it is not that uncommon though (I have a long way to go...).    Anyway, she picked 5 winners to send some of her fabric to and I won!  I was so excited.
WELL.  The package came yesterday and I couldn't believe it!  There was a lot more fabric than I was expecting and ALL of the pieces are at least a fat quarter!  THANK YOU DIANE!  I'm pretty sure you just doubled my fabric stash.  Literally.  The hubby and I had to go to Walmart to buy me another set of drawers (and he didn't even complain about it - probably because we didn't have to buy the fabric to go in them).  I spent the night sorting through the fabric and reorganizing my little drawers.  It was great fun.
I must admit, lots of these fabrics I wouldn't necessarily have picked for myself (I tend to go for the bold, bright colors), but I think that is a good thing because it gives me a lot more variety.  And I love that there are so many browns!  I think the more I look at them, the more I like them.  Yep.  I can't wait to figure out which ones to use first!

So.  Here is my stash BEFORE (I got the first set of drawers for Christmas, by the way.  They are SO nice).

And this is what I found in the box when I came home from work yesterday.  GASP!  That pile is so tall!

I proceeded to organize everything by color and lay it out on my table:

48 pieces!

Here is a closer look:

Pinks:

And my personal favorite:

Whites, Oranges, and Yellows:

The hubby's personal favorite.  He loves ties that look like this.  I think he's kinda weird. ;)

Greens and Blues.  I like the green flowers and the little cupcakes on blue.

And browns.  My other favorite is the one on the far right.

Here is my stash with all the old stuff mixed in with the new!  That's a lot of fabric - at least for me!

The solids wouldn't fit on the table.  It is so hard to get a good picture when I am never home while the sun is up!!!

And there you go!  Now I have TWO sets of drawers (plus the little one for my tiny pieces, charm packs, and thread).  I guess I better go make somethin!