Peggy's Quilt

Back at the beginning of November, when I was telling the ladies in That Stash Bee what I wanted them to make for my month, I said that there was a chance I would be using those blocks to make a quilt for my mother-in-law. Well, after seeing a few of the blocks they made I knew that I wouldn't be giving that quilt away. So instead she'll be getting this one.

I was very much inspired by this quilt by Allison of Cluck, Cluck, Sew. I feel like I say that a lot. She really does make some beautiful quilts! To make the blocks, I just used four 3.5" squares of Kona White, two 3.5" squares of my print, and one 3.5"x9.5" rectangle of my print. After laying out the blocks how I wanted them, I added a 3.5"x9.5" rectangle of Kona White between the blocks where it was needed to offset the rows. The finished quilt is roughly 63" square. My MIL is fairly short so I figure that's a good lap size quilt for her.

I wanted to make this quilt with a flannel backing so this grey herringbone sheet from Target was perfect. This is another one that I took to my mom's to quilt and as you can see I didn't do the most perfect job on the quilting, especially as I got close to the edge. But, it's good enough for me. I used a stripey Denise Schmidt binding that I've had in my stash for a couple of years and was seriously doubting that I would ever find a use for it. Glad I finally did!

Pineapple Blossom

October was my month again as quilter for the Imagine Circle of do.Good Stitches. I was inspired to choose the Pineapple Blossom block after seeing my friend Catherine's beautiful quilt that she made with the help of her Brit Bee ladies.

We used this tutorial from Quiltville to make the blocks, using the requirements for a 12" block and colors in a range of pinks, corals, salmon, golds, and apricots along with some low-volume prints. I have to say that I really love how this quilt turned out!

 

Sorry for the bad picture of the backing, but Rog and I ran outside really quickly yesterday when we got home from church to snap a couple pics. The wind was blowing and I was too cold to worry about waiting for the perfect shot!  The blocks we used yielded a few scrap HSTs so some of the ladies sent them along with their blocks. I had just enough to make this strip down the back, which in turn was just wide enough to allow me to not have to piece any more of the backing. Serendipity.

I took this with me to Iowa over Thanksgiving break so I could quilt it on my mom's long arm. So much quicker than trying to do it on my machine. I'm still not that great at it, but these loopy swirls are pretty easy and generally look good even when they're a little sloppy! I was also really glad to finally use that Meadowsweet print for something. I've had it forever but just never seem to find the right project for it, until I used it for the binding. And look, someone even used it in their block, too. I hadn't noticed that until I saw this picture.

Now I just need to sit down and stitch our label on, then send this beauty off to Threading Hope, the charity of choice for our circle.

Imagine Circle Swap

Some of the ladies in our do.Good Stitches circle decided to do a swap for fun and to try to get to know each other a little better. One of the items that my partner requested was a pillow so of course that is what I chose. I love making pillow covers. It is so fun to do a block or technique that you've been wanting to try, but don't really want to commit to a larger project. Plus, I'm a big fan of functional projects and who can't use a few more pillows in their life?

 

I think that paper-pieced blocks are great for pillows. They make such striking designs but are fairly time-consuming so I'm not really tempted to make a quilt with them. The blocks I used are called Star Jumps and were a part of the Desperate Housewives series by Quilt Jane. The pillow finishes at about 16".

 

I had a bit of a fail while making the back for the pillow, though. I had a FQ of this lovely print and knew it would be perfect for the back. I cut the two panels I needed, only to realize that I had cut them a little too large.  So I just whacked some off and hemmed. I didn't realize my mistake until I went to pin them to the front and couldn't line up the pattern. So, hopefully the mismatched design won't annoy her too much! 

I have seen some awesome projects on IG and Flickr that the other ladies in my circle are making, so I can't wait to see what ends up in my mailbox!

Bee Blocks

I finished my bee blocks for November last night, so I thought it was about time for a round-up of the last couple months' blocks. 

Always Bee Learning:

 

October: Windmill Blocks for Stephanie, from the book Modern Blocks, designed by Lynne of Lily's Quilts. 

November: Ocean Waves blocks for Leanne. Tutorial on her blog.

That Stash Bee:

 

October: Rugby Blocks for Katie, tutorial at Teaginny Designs. 

 

November: Crown of Thorns blocks for...me! Pattern can be found at McCall's. 

Imagine Circle, dGS:

October: Pineapple Blossom blocks for me. Pattern from Quiltville.

 

November: Starstrip block for Heidi. Tutorial on her blog. 

Bee {Purposeful}:

 

October: Scrappy Chevrons for Rachael. No tutorial, but here's how I make my flying geese. 

 

November: Flying Geese for Carla, inspired by this quilt by Ashley at Film in the Fridge. 

I just have one more bee block to make for 2013, since all bees but my dGS circle take a break in December. I really do enjoy making bee blocks and am always a little excited when a new month rolls around so I can find out what we'll be making. It's highly probable that I need to get out more...

Churn Dashes

A few months ago, Corey of Little Miss Shabby asked for volunteers to join a new bee that she was starting called Bee{Purposeful}. Corey's church is very active in missionary work and she was looking for a group of sewists to help make quilts that would be auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting the missions program. The group is set up in a similar way as do.Good Stitches in that half of us are "quilters" who each have a month to design, make blocks, and finish the quilt while the other half of the group are "stitchers" who send blocks to the quilters.

Photo courtesy of Little Miss Shabby

We started in August, with a Camille Roskelley-inspired Scrappy Trip Around the World. Corey was the quilter that month and did a fabulous job designing our first quilt!

 September was my month and if you'll remember I chose the Skinny Churn Dash Block. It is always a lot of fun to get bee blocks in the mail so in no time I had the quilt top sewn together. Sorry for the super-bright pictures, but the only chance I've had to take pics lately was after church on Sunday and it was very sunny! But, an exceptionally pretty day so I'm not complaining!



I was very indecisive about how I wanted to quilt this, but I eventually settled on somewhat of an orange-peel design. As luck would have it, the lid for my 12" skillet was a perfect template for marking my lines!



I just used my walking foot for the quilting and it was so easy. I'll definitely be doing it this way again!

For the backing I chose this fun print but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is! I know that I bought it in the sale section at Pink Castle a few months ago because it had many of the same colors that I had requested for the quilt, but other than that I'm at a loss. I hand-stitched the binding this time and as usual, it took forever! I kind of enjoy stitching it on by hand, but it seriously takes me about 2 weeks to finish a quilt that way, so I generally go with my machine. The binding is Kona Ice Frappe which is a pretty minty-aqua.

And this concludes the quilt show for the week! I think that I am finally caught up in showing my finished quilts, and you probably won't be seeing any more this year! I've got one more to finish for dGS once I get everyone's blocks but that's it. I'm trying my best to round up all of my quilt tops and those in progress so I can take them to my mom's at Thanksgiving and give her longarm a workout. Doesn't that sound fun?

Jersey Stars

This post brought to you by the end of Daylight Savings Time.

 Seriously, I think there is something in the air this time of year that makes my normally early-rising kids get up even earlier! Forget that "extra" hour of sleep they were supposed to get this weekend, 4am is apparently when all the cool kids wake up! 

Anyway, onto the quilt...

A couple of months ago, a friend from college contacted me about a friend of hers who was looking for a quilt for her young daughter. Their family breeds Jersey cattle and the little girl loves cows and horses, so the mother was looking for a Jersey cow/horse quilt.  I was excited to help, but also a little nervous about finding any fabric with Jersey cows on it. Most of the cows that are on fabric are Holsteins, you know, the black and white spotted ones? Luckily, I was able to find an eBay seller that seems to specialize in various animal breeds printed on Kona cotton squares and she had Jerseys.

After we agreed on the Jersey fabric, I encouraged my new friend Bec to look at my Pinterest board for inspiration as to the design and color scheme she wanted for her daughter's quilt. She picked out two very pretty quilts, this one for the pattern and this one for the colors.

Many of the prints in the quilt are from the Ladies Stitching Club line by Liesl Gibson. The line came out in 2012, but I was able to find quite a few of the prints at Burgundy Buttons. After they arrived, I found some coordinating prints in my stash and got to work. Bec also picked out a cute horse print by Michael Miller to use on the back of the quilt.

I kept the quilting simple with lines 1/4" from the seams. I really like the colors in this striped print that I used for the binding! The quilt measures 60"x75", a great size for its intended use.

I love the challenge of  a custom quilt order, and am so pleased with how this one turned out! I can't wait to see pictures of little Matilda opening it at Christmas!

A Halloween Quilt

About 6 weeks ago I had the overwhelming urge to make a Halloween quilt. Never mind that my parents were visiting that weekend and half my family was sick including myself. It just needed to be done. So I browsed around a bit and found a few Halloween quilts that I loved, like this St. Louis 16-patch by Darcy at Modern Cozy and this Spooktacular plus quilt by Nicole at Modern Handcraft. But honestly, as simple and fun as these designs were, my stuffy head needed something even easier.

 Then I found the answer at Cluck, Cluck, Sew. I'm pretty sure Allison is one of my favorite quilters so it really isn't surprising that it was her Halloween quilt that I wanted to copy. I love the wonky strips in her design but even that was too much for me, so I made mine straight. Seriously, easiest quilt top I've ever made. I just grabbed a variety of black, white/black, and orange prints and started cutting strips. If I remember correctly, they are all 9" long by various widths. I just threw them all in a bowl and started sewing them in pairs, then in pairs of pairs, and so on. I didn't even worry about making the final columns the same length, just got within 6" of each other and sewed them together to complete the top. I did cut one column in half to add a little interest, but that's it. So quick and easy and full of fun prints. 

I knew that I wanted this to be a good quilt for snuggling, so a flannel back was obviously needed. I had actually folded the top and put it away, thinking that I would browse the sales sections for a while until I found a good deal. Believe it or not, I found a great deal on a set of queen-size flannel sheets at Sam's that matched the quilt fairly well. 

I quilted it with a random herringbone, but would have loved to quilt spiderwebs all over it. Maybe on the next one! The quilt finished at about 68" x 76", a perfect size for snuggling around a campfire. 

My Latest

Well, sort of my latest.

 Not my most recent finish, but the one I had time to finally take pictures of yesterday evening.

This quilt was purely inspired by a heap of scraps sitting on my table. I was making an attempt to work on some QAYG Log Cabin blocks that were on last quarter's FAL list and was becoming frustrated by them. It seems that when I want to make things wonky, it doesn't work, but when I really am trying for straight and accurate piecing, the wonk appears. So, I got rid of that plan and just started sewing scraps together. 

And this is what happened. It was very fun to make, one of those projects that you just keep working on, excited to see where it goes.

I'm not sure where this color scheme originated for me, either in those QAYG blocks mentioned above, or this quilt the Imagine Circle worked on earlier this year. Either way, I'm still not tired of it!

For the backing I used this cute mushroom print from Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods line. I thought it was a nice contrast to the crazy front and as a bonus, I had enough that I didn't have to piece the backing. The binding is mostly the dark grey text print from Sweetwater's Hometown line with a little piece of FMF thrown in. And of course, the quilting is random wavy lines. Surprised? I'll have you know that I've finished three quilts since this one and none of them have wavy lines. Seriously.

This one is listed in the shop. 

The Results: FAL Q3

Well, looking back on my goals for this quarter it appears that I was moderately successful. 3 out of 8 isn't too bad, right? And the fourth is sooo close to being finished that I very nearly included it, too. I'm pretty sure that if one of my kids brought home a test with only 3/8 right I wouldn't be so quick to call it a success! But, I also started and finished several projects that weren't on the list so I can be too hard on myself. Here's the rundown:

1. Hometown Road to Tennessee: No progress. I really thought that this would be the first one crossed off the list since the top was already done, but no. I still haven't chosen a backing for it. I think I'll probably wait and quilt this one next time I go to my parents' house, so maybe I can check it off after the holidays!

2. Stacked Squares: No progress, and still no picture. Just imagine a shockingly yellow and pink baby quilt with highly inaccurate flying geese. 

3. Diamond Ripples: What's this? Another no progress? That's just sad.

4. Les Amis: Finally, a finish! Want to know the really fun part? This was my first (ahem, and only...) sale in my Etsy shop. Such a fun little quilt!

5. Mod D9P: Another finish! You can read all about it right here.

6. Scrappy Log Cabins: Nope, no progress here either. Though they did inspire another baby quilt that I finished at least a month ago and haven't shown here yet. That should count for something, right?

7. Modern Maples: Of course I finished this one! And it is hanging in my dining room as we speak, looking all festive. I love it!

8. Winter Wonderland Sampler: This is the one that is so, so close to being done. I worked on this one the whole trip to and from Iowa, and most evenings while we were there. I really only have probably 20 stitches left, but didn't even take it out until this morning to take the picture!

So there you go...Thank you so much to Leanne for the motivation to finish these projects! To see what everyone else finished last quarter, here's the link. I'm looking forward to a few more finished in the fourth quarter! 

Some WIPs, Some Randomness

I figured that the chances were good that I wouldn't post again tomorrow, so I thought I would combine the two and make a random WIP post. Sound good?

October is my month as quilter for the Imagine Circle of dGS. I always have the hardest time choosing a block for everyone to make! A few weeks ago, I saw Catherine's Brit Bee quilt that she had just finished and knew that I wanted our group to try that one, too.

Wow, I did not realize how blurry this pic was...Sorry!

The tutorial can be found at Quiltville, and I asked everyone to use low-volume prints for the triangles and a scrappy assortment of colors inspired by this:

Source: Color Collective

Our circle is also having it's first swap this fall. I'm excited to get to work on my partner's gift, I just have to actually decide on something! We could list three things we wanted to get, and if I remember correctly I listed a mini quilt, pillow, or a bag to hold my crochet. Here's the mosaic I made for inspiration:

Here is the list of links for each individual pic.

 The other thing that I have been working on quite a bit lately is a custom quilt. Honestly, I was a little worried at first because the customer wanted a Jersey cow and horse quilt for her little girl. For those of you not so knowledgeable on cattle breeds, the ones that are usually on fabric are Holsteins. Jerseys are hard to find! But eBay came to the rescue with Jersey cows on Kona, and my customer picked out a couple of fun quilts for inspiration. The horses will be on the back. Here's what I've got so far:

 

 I haven't done too many custom orders, but I really love the challenge of combining the customer's vision with my own style. This has been a fun one to work on! It needs to be shipped to Australia by Christmas, so I'm trying to get it done as soon as possible. 

The other things keeping me busy aren't quite as exciting...All the kids and I have been sick for almost two weeks but I think we're finally on the mend. And somehow I've gotten suckered in to being the Treasurer for the PTO at Wyatt's school. It's fun getting to spend time at his school and actually be around grown-ups, but October is a very busy month with PTO activities, not to mention that our crops are ready to be harvested! Crazy times for sure! 

So, if anyone has tips on getting babies to take breathing treatments without screaming or shipping boxes to Australia, be sure to let me know! Hope you all are doing well!

Waterfront Park Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago I bought a fat-eighth bundle of Violet Craft's latest line Waterfront Park. Amanda always has the best bundles in her shop Westwood Acres and I find the fat-eighth ones irresistible. They're a great size to use for one or two baby quilts and not feel like you are breaking the bank or have loads of scraps left over. 

I have been wanting to try the Log Cabin HST tutorial by my friend Natalie since I first saw it a few months ago. So I decided to combine the two and see what happened. Turns out, it was a little chaotic, but after looking at it a bit longer I really like it.

 

I decided to use this calm Ikea print for the backing as a counterpoint to the busy front. Kona Cerise just happens to go really well with the colors in this line, so it was an easy choice for the binding. And of course my go-to wavy quilting was another given. Straight lines echoing one of the diamond shapes would have been cool, too, but what can I say? I like the waves.

If I get a little time today, this one will probably be going in the shop. Have a great day!

WIP Wednesday

I feel like my WIPs are taking over the place, so that must mean it's time for a list, right? Every time that I do this it turns out that I don't really have as much going as it seems and I calm down a little. I guess that's a good thing! Or else I just have a bad memory!

 

I started this quilt a couple of weeks ago and finished the top on Monday. I'm using the rest of my Chicopee left from this quilt, plus Essex Linen in Natural. I love it, but I'm having a hard time deciding what to do for the back. For now, it's been folded up and put back in a WIP bin. 

 

This is another quilt that I started a few weeks ago to use up some odd triangle scraps that have been hanging around for too long. This is one of those that I really liked at first, then hated for a few days. But after having it stuck on my design wall in the dining room for about a week, I decided that I do like it and may even hang it somewhere once it's done. It has been basted and is just waiting for me to quilt it. And speaking of design walls...can you see where a certain little mouse named Jill keeps tearing little bits off of mine? It's a good thing she's cute.

 

Have you ever had one of those projects that you were so excited about and knew it was going to be so incredibly cool once you finished it, only to absolutely hate it? Yep, that's how I feel about this one. 

I have had the Geese in the Forest pattern sitting around for quite a while now and keep changing my mind about how to use it. I also had a bag full of scraps from my Modern Maples quilt so I decided to combine the two, fully expecting some scrappy Autumn masterpiece to emerge. Sadly, it just didn't happen. I was looking forward to hanging this baby by my desk, but now it's in a drawer somewhere. I think that if I had just switched the pieces and kept the background white with scrappy  "trees" it would have been much cooler. 

 

I also need to finish this guy. I just need to choose the background color and get to it. If I can get it done in time, this one will be my contribution for 100 Quilts for Kids.

 

I bought a fat-eighth bundle of Briar Rose and coordinating solids from Westwood Acres a few weeks ago and have been patiently waiting for the right quilt to come to mind. I had fun making some Lemon Squares blocks for a bee mate last week, so I decided to make a few more out of that lovely bundle. And the bonus? I should have enough Briar Rose left to make another baby quilt so I can play around with them again!

Churn Dash blocks from my Bee{Purposeful} ladies are slowly coming in, so hopefully I'll be able to work on this quilt in a week or two. Should be a fun one!

I also have two more finished baby quilts that I just need to take pictures of and I still have quite a few things on my FAL list that aren't finished either! Looks like my list wasn't as short as I was hoping...