Rummy Royal IV

I made another Rummy Royal mat.  This one is #4.  You can see #2 and #3 HERE.  #1 is HERE.

 I was talking with the hubby awhile ago about how it's hard to sell quilts on Etsy because there are just so. freaking. many of them out there.  You really have to have a unique product in order to be successful on Etsy.  Hence the reason I get tons and tons of views on my quiet books every day (well, maybe not TONS), but hardly any on my quilts or quilted growth charts!

He very ingeniously suggested that I sell my Rummy Royal mats.  They are definitely unique, wouldn't you say? The design is completely my own (are ya'll interested in a pattern/tutorial?) and I've never seen anything like it before.  Can you believe that my first Rummy Royal post is the fifth most viewed post of all time on my blog?  (1-4 are giveaways and bloggers quilt festival posts.)

 So I made another one, this time in more traditional black and red fabrics with a totally awesome card print on the back.  What do you think?  I even printed the official rules and sewed them into the backing!  Plus, (at hubby's suggestion - isn't he great?) I added some ribbon so that it can be rolled up and tied for easier storage and transportation.  :)

It's listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

Also, the hubby suggested I list the stockings I've been making for our family.  I have always loved to cross-stitch and created these individualized stockings for us.  We'll see if anyone else likes them as much as he does.  :)  They can be found HERE.

Building Fun!

I have another quilt finish to share!
This one is my Building Fun quilt.  I tried to think of a unique name for it, but the pattern is already named "Building Fun," and that's what stuck in my brain.  So, here it is.  Building Fun:

I made this quilt mostly because I wanted to.  I didn't have any real plans for it, other than to maybe list it in my Etsy shop. 

 The fabrics are Textured Basics, by Patti Young and I won them in a giveaway, which is awesome.  (Hi, Lethargic Lass!)

The pattern is by Geta Grama and can be found HERE.  It's one of the first patterns I pinned on Pinterest and I finally had to break down and make it.  Actually, it's the only quilt pattern I've ever purchased and followed.  (That should show you how much I love it).  Normally I prefer to be inspired by others and design my own stuff. 

It was really relaxing to sit and quilt this with a basic stipple.  And SO FAST!  Also, it washed up really well.  As much as I love unique custom-style FMQ, I should really do this more often.

For the back, I pieced together all of my leftovers with a bunch of white.

The binding is this green dotty vines.  I'm not sure where it came from, but it was the best match from my stash of big cuts, so I went with it.  I think it works.   Of course, it is hand stitched.  :)

In the end, I did decide to list this one in my Etsy shop.  You can find it HERE.
Of course, I had to have a little bit of fun photographing it using the twins' building blocks.  :)

I even remembered to add a label!  I kept it very small and simple, since this quilt will hopefully be sold someday to someone I probably don't know.  

This was so much fun to make!  Now, on to the next project!

This is project #4 from my Q3 Finish Along List.  (Mine was linky #42) Wahoo!

ABC Book Sneak Peak

Hi Friends!
I just wanted to drop in and show you a couple sneak peaks of the new quiet book I am working on.  I just need to take a few more pictures and fix a few of the pages, then it will be ready to post!

This was my July goal for ALOYF (mine was link #25), so I wanted to get a quick post up to show that I met my goal, even if it was just under the wire...

More coming soon, plus a quilt finish!

Linking up!

Do.Good Stitches: Humilty Group Broken Herringbone

It's time to reveal my first bee quilt!  I'm a little nervous about it because I went out on a limb and tried some new things with the assembly and quilting.  Here we go!

First of all, for the month of May, I asked my bee mates in the Humility group of Do.Good Stitches to make me mostly monochromatic Broken Herringbone blocks.  It was so much fun receiving these little packages throughout the month!  They all turned out so awesome.  Here they are all arranged by color on the living room floor:

I knew that I wanted to try an offset layout with half of the blocks on one side of the quilt and half on the other.  After lots of deliberation, I decided to sort the blocks into warm and cool colors.
Here is the warm side:

And here is the cool side:

What do you think?  I wanted something with lots of negative space and offset blocks.  I also thought this might be a genius way to try quilting "echo blocks" in the negative space.  Basically, I quilted the warm colored blocks (which created the echo look on the cool colored side), then flipped the quilt around and did the same for the other side.  This quilt is totally reversible, I love it. 

Sandra (at least, I think it was Sandra - correct me if I'm wrong please!!), a member of our group, ordered some Do.Good Stitches labels from Spoonflower (I think?) and sent me a couple.  Thanks Sandra!  Since this quilt doesn't really have a back, I stuck it in the top right corner next to the greens. 

For the quilting, I chose five different skinny filler patterns and quilted them in the skinny sashing of each block.  My original plan was to stitch in the ditch for ALL of those little sashings, but after outlining each block I decided I really wasn't excited about the idea of all that shifting and turning, so I went with FMQ instead.  And then I decided it wasn't worth it to add more quilting once those were done. 
Also, after much debate I chose to use this silver/gray thread because I wanted something that would blend in with the white but still be seen on the gray.  In hindsight, I think I should have used a slightly darker gray for a more subtle look in the negative space. 
What do you think?  Does it need more quilting?  More straight lines?  Different thread color?

This photo turned out a little bit blue - the real quilt is more gray.

I wanted a nice gray for my background, so I ordered a whole bunch and was half way through assembling my quilt tops when I realized I had grossly miscalculated the amount I needed!  GAH!  Since I was too impatient to wait for more to arrive, I went to Joanns and picked up the closest match I could find for one of the sides.  They aren't exactly the same, but it's really hard to tell most of the time.  

For binding, I kept things super simple for myself and just folded the "back" over onto the front and machine stitched it down. 

Now, I really want to know what you guys think about this quilt!  I took some risks and tried an idea that has been floating around in my head.  I wanted something really modern and I think I found it.  However, most of the people I have showed it to so far - mostly family members - don't really like it at all.  Which is fine.  This quilt is for charity - not for any of my family members, so it doesn't really matter if they like it or not.  I like it, and I'm not offended at all if others don't like it.  But that doesn't mean I'm not curious.  What do YOU think?  Love it?  Hate it?  Do you wish I had put all the blocks on the front?  Done different quilting?  Used a different background color?  I'd love to know!
Truth Tea is welcome here!  ;)

And just for fun, a few more shots.  Thanks for humoring me!

I took these two shots in my backyard, and they look kind of cool with the sunlight shining through in spots.

And one shot of it post basting (LOVING spray baste lately), pre quilting.

Quilt stats:

Started: May 2014

Finished: July 11, 2014

Pieced by:  Members of the Humility Circle of Do.Good Stitches

Quilted by me

Finished size: 72" x 62"

Recipient:  Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota

Binding:  Backing folded to front and stitched by machine

This is finish #14 in this quarter's Finish-Along.  (Original list can be found HERE.)

Also linking up with Kelly at Needle and Thread Thursday:



And Alyce at Sew Cute Tuesday:


And Randi at Show and Tell Tuesday:


And Lindsey at Fabric Frenzy Friday:

Finish Along Q3 Goals

Hi Friends!

As expected, I didn't finish too many of my goals for quarter 2 of the Finish Along.  Ah well.  I still get to roll them over, and of course, I have added a few!

Here are the old goals that are rolling over to Q3:

1.  Finish "Deck the Halls"

2. and 3.   Make my twin toddler bed quilts.    I'm using "Cruizer Blvd" and I'm planning to make one Jungle Path quilt and one Broken Herringbone quilt.

4.  Building Fun Quilt.  This one is basted now and ready for quilting.  Wahoo!

5. and 6.  Secret project for family member/Hello Sun Wall hangings.  These are definitely on the back burner right now, but that doesn't mean I don't still plan to get to them some time!

7. 8. and 9. Puff Quilts for the shop (or maybe for new nieces/nephews) using either of these charm packs:

So, I haven't gotten around to taking a photo of it, but I totally bought a layer cake of this fabric!  Love it!  Thanks, Southern Fabric!

10.  More bib sets (or maybe another puff quilt) for the shop.  Probably using some of this:

11.  My Letters Quiet Book:

12.  A Jelly Roll Quilt:

13.  A new quilt for our King bed:

And finally, a new one for this quarter!
14.  Finish my Broken Herringbone quilt for the Humility circle of Do.Good Stitches.  This one is also basted and ready for quilting!

I better get crackin!

Linking up:

A Few Blocks

I have a few loose blocks that still haven't been blogged about and I don't want to forget them!

The first set are BOM blocks for my local quilt guild.  The two bottom blocks are both 3D and they are super fun.

The circle blocks are for Vickey in our Do.Good Stitches group.  They were fast and easy to make, which I think we were all super grateful for.  She is going to cut them all into quarters and sew them back together again.  Her quilt is going to look fantastic.

Thanks for stopping by!