Tuesday, April 26, 2011

One I didn't share yet........

here is a quilt top I shared just a peek of a couple weeks ago, but didn't share the completed top yet........  made from one layer cake of Bliss (the leftovers are going to be a scrappy binding and are already sewn together).  I added a 2 1/2'' white border to it after this pic was taken.   I have enough of the aqua with white dots to do backing in that, but I'm probably going to continue to hoard that material and go with something else.  I might order some aqua Kona instead.......  this was made with layer cake squares cut into triangles, then sewn with it's opposing triangle to make 9 1/2'' squares - then the solid square background blocks are also 9 1/2''.  Easy quilt...... fun and fast!
This one is the second in line right now to get quilted.

Today, I am going to baste this one:

can't wait to start quilting it!


Monday, April 25, 2011

that's better

I did make the centers smaller on the little flower blocks, they look better!

design wall Monday......

First, I'll share what I started working on yesterday:
These are some blocks that are going to made into a baby quilt.  I think they are just so adorable!  Although, I do think that I am going to take the centers off and make them a tad smaller looking at them today.....  I think they overpower the flowers just a bit too much.

I'm sure most of you have heard of the ''Just One Star'' project that Moda is doing.  Well, a month or so ago, I sent in my star:
It killed me not to square it up, but they said not to since they'd be squaring them all up anyhow.

Anyway, when I went to the mailbox on Friday, I had an envelope from Moda in there.  I was shocked and surprised and I tore into that baby!  This is what I found:

What a wonderful surprise!  I have not seen these mini charm packs of 2.5'' squares, OH SO CUTE!  I think I am going to make a table runner from mine possibly.  I haven't seen this line of fabric yet either, and I really like it!  Very cute prints!  Oh, an idea just popped into my head, I think I know what I'm gonna make.......







Friday, April 22, 2011

circle quilt love.........

I am *finished* with the circle quilt and it's bound and washed and wrinkly!  I was 69''x69'' before washing and it's just over 67''x67'' now.  I used 80/20 batting and I like the feel of it a lot.  Nice and light, great drape.










and here is the stack of DS quilts prints I'm going with.  I'm not going to try to get the whole collection.  I keep telling myself that anyhow, LOL.

and LOOOOOOKIE what I found when I was shopping for a new rotary cutter!!!!  AQUA!!!  And my favorite style one too.  My old one is going to go to our summer cabin to stay (where I have my Singer treadle).
The fabric and rotary cutter are parked on my grandma's paper cutter from when she was a teacher before my mom was born and when she was in grade school......  LOVE that thing, SO handy!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

half quilted........

Well, I have the circle quilt half quilted!  I have to do other sewing today, so won't be able to work on it again - probably until Friday when I hope to finish the quilting and sew the binding on.
Here's a little peek at the quilting so far.  This is the first quilt I've quilted where I didn't do stippling, stitch-in-the-ditch, or straight line quilting.  I am very happy with the results so far!


I asked hubby what he thought about doing the binding in either the same fabric as the backing (the black mod-flowerish design from Oz) - or maybe the blue dot Denyse Schmidt for JoAnn's material I got the other day (there is no pink in this quilt, so the pinks are out of the question).  He suggested a solid?!  A solid?  This quilt has not ONE solid on it, LOL.  Should I divert from the plan and use a solid binding?  Or should I use the blue DS Quilts dots?  Or the black Oz print?  I'm leaning toward the black Oz print since I am quilting it in black thread, but the blue dots might be nice........

So, have you heard that the new DS Quilts fabrics are available at JoAnn's online now?  I think JoAnn's is going to be pleasantly surprised at the speed these fabrics will sell out!!!  (And wish they would have ordered ALL the prints in ALL the colors!)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Design wall Monday - I've got one basted!!!

Well, I finally have a place to baste quilts.  My mom cleared out the floor of one of her upstairs bedrooms so I could get some done.  It worked great.  The carpet is clean and has very good padding so I wasn't too sore afterwards!  I am a happy camper!  The quilt I decided to baste first is my raw-edge circle quilt - because it was on the top of the pile and I just picked up the backing fabric for it (a print from ''Oz'' collection for Moda that I got for 40% off!)
so, here is the quilt and below is the quilt in the machine getting quilted!  I have quite a bit more to do (ran out of black thread yesterday, so had to go to town).  I am doing a design of an 8-petal flower in the circles and some free-form leaves in the background.  You can kinda pick out the quilting in this pic......


And then, I just had to pick up some of the new Denyse Schmidt fabrics at JoAnn's.  I had two coupons, so I only got the 4 prints I knew I *had* to have, will get more as I get more coupons :)

Well, hubby just called and said he's leaving work early because of snow.  This is mid April, geez!  I think Mother Nature is getting her seasons mixed up!  It was 29 degrees here this morning when hubby left for work!  Crazy crazy!!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

WIP Wednesday

I made some small adjustments on my lime block for the Bottled Rainbow quiltalong and got it tacked down yesterday.  I'm happy with it, and I think I have fallen in love with the lime color!  So many wonderful prints in this one!

And, I got some 'bricks' cut out from my Monaluna FQ bundle:
I love the prints in this one.  Although, I don't think the bright blue one with the daisy's really 'fits', so I might leave that one out when I make the quilt so it's still boyish (I'd like to make a baby boy quilt......)  My plan is to make a stacked coin quilt, but with staggered stacks instead of lined up ones.  A baby quilt I'll actually be able to FINISH because I have room to baste a smaller quilt! LOL.  I am still looking for somewhere to baste my larger quilts.  Our shop has large enough floor space, but it's dirty cement down there.  I'd need something to lay down on the cement (and some knee pads!).

Monday, April 11, 2011

A sister quilt to my hunter's star.....

well, this is a quilt top I finished quite some time ago.  It is made from one layer cake and a very small amount of yardage.  This one is going to go on my second couch since it's a 'match' to my Dandelion Girl Hunter's Star quilt.  I just need to quilt it (if I can ever find a place big enough to baste it!)

and here is the backing I pieced with the bonus HST"s from the top :)

Design wall Monday - another teaser!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

raspberry, lime, and pink



I am just sailing along with my ticker tapes!  This bottled rainbow quilt along is FUN FUN FUN!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

yellow block and a pillow start......

I finished the yellow block for the bottled rainbow quilt along, and I love this one too!  I had way more yellow than I realized and wasn't able to use it all!  I will have a great selection of yellows for someone who maybe has another color I don't have - maybe the eggplant that I have next to nothing of........
I used the blanket/applique stitch again and some I did with white thread and some I did with yellow rayon embroidery thread.  I love the mermaid's, but also love the 'tickets' from Punctuation, the little owls, the wavy stripe from Oz, and of course the KJR ribbon flower :)  The small floral above the pair of mermaid's is a chunk from my grandma's stash, had to include that!

After I worked on the yellow block, I started working on a project from the Moda Bake Shop.  The cathedral windows pillow cover.  I have the background done (not re-pressed yet after stitching together), I just have to choose what charm pack I'm going to use.  I might use a WeePlay, but I will have to audition a few to decide for sure.  I still have a bunch of Dandelion Girl - maybe I should use that since that is the quilt on my couch now (as well as a HST Dandelion Girl pillow).  That's probably what I'll go with now that I think about it.........

Can you tell that 'work' has been slow for me this week?  I feel guilty when hubby comes home from a long day at work and I've just been sewing and dinking around!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Red and cerise

My red and cerise blocks are done for the bottled rainbow quilt along........  I do still plan to do it QAYG, I am just going to hand-quilt this (I think! LOL)
I love how both these turned out.  I am using a blanket applique stitch and using coordinating thread.  For the cerise block,  I used rayon embroidery thread since I have about 100 embroidery thread colors, but only maybe a dozen or so all-purpose thread colors.  I think I'll use the rayon for all the rest of the blocks too :)  It's finer and seems to hide a little better......

I think I'm going to work on the orange or yellow block today.......

Monday, April 4, 2011

The party and some recovery sewing.......

The party Saturday was a huge success!  We had 15 soup contest entries and all were amazing!


There was jambalaya, gumbo, frog leg, turkey noodle (with homemade noodles!), baked potato (yum, my second favorite!), spicy pork (my 3rd choice!), Italian sausage (mine), ''bacon of the sea''(a bacon/seafood chowder), and my youngest son made ''Chipotle sweet potato corn chowder''.  Bacon of the sea and the chipotle chowder ended up tying for 1st place.  I made the decision to split the winnings and give each half of the 'pot' (there was $70 in the pot, so each got $35), and then Connor got the trophy (because the person that tied was a friend of my nephew, and I didn't know him so didn't want to send the perpetual trophy home with him since I didn't know if it would come back next year!)  Anyhow, it was a great time, we had our friend Tom play music for the night.  He plays a mean blues harmonica and his guitar isn't too bad either.
Some stayed well into the night, I think it was close to 2am when everybody was gone (and the two that stayed because they had been drinking decided to turn in for the night).  We slept in, and hubby spent the day Sunday on the couch recovering, LOL.  I was a good girl, so I felt good Sunday and decided to start my ''bottled rainbows'' quilt blocks!  I finished 4 'frames' (pink, cerise, lime green, and red) and cut the scraps for my red frame.
the cerise frame - I went with mitered corners and black background.....
and my red block!  I  just l.o.v.e. how this turned out!  I just have these spray basted down, today I am going to sew them down - I think I am going to use red thread and an applique stitch around the edges of the scraps.  I am going to do quilt-as-you-go also and then hand-stitch with black perle cotton about 1/4'' outside the background in the red frame.  I will post pics when I get that done!