Modern D9P

Last spring, my friend Jenelle of Echinops & Aster hosted an aqua and orange mystery charm swap. It was such a fun concept that I had to join and was delighted with the 28 pairs of charms that I received from her. I had every intention of jumping right into a project to use them, but somehow they ended up sitting in my cabinet for over a year. 

A few weeks ago I finally pulled them out after seeing this quilt by Kristy Daum of St. Louis Folk Victorian. Basically you make a disappearing nine-patch, but use more of your negative-space fabric than colorful prints in each block. Jenelle's charm pack also included some grey prints, so I added in about the same number of grey-toned low-volume prints from my stash.

 

This is one of the quilts that I quilted on my mom's longarm. I just did a random squared meander, not sure if there is a more official name for it. It was fun, but straight lines and sharp turns are definitely not as easy as loops and swirls! 

 

For the backing, I used this Lizzy House print from 1,001 Peeps and the binding is (I think) Timeless Treasures Sketch in Tangerine. 

 

Yesterday morning when I was trying to take pictures of the quilt, I originally had Wyatt holding it while I had the camera. As you can see, he's still a little short and Jill is a master photo-bomber so I decided to switch places with him. Of course once Carson saw Wyatt taking pictures he had to do it, too. I should use them more often, because between the two of them they took the best pictures that I got! 

I seem to be getting into the habit of making quilts without a plan for them, so I was beyond thrilled when one of my friends from college saw this on IG and wanted to buy it. I have kicked around the idea of opening an Etsy shop or something but thinking about it is as far as I've gotten. Maybe I should?

Handmade Confessions

This morning you can find me over at my friend Palak's blog, Make it Handmade.

I'm today's guest on her fun series, Handmade Confessions, so if you've got a minute hop on over and find out what my deep, dark secret is!

Hopefully I'll be back later today to show you one of those baby quilts I just finished. Happy Friday!!

Random Thursday

What we've been up to lately:

A quick trip to Iowa to visit my parents. It had been over a year since we had been able to go out there so I'm thrilled that we could squeeze in a visit before school starts again. We've been back for almost a week but there is still an unpacked suitcase on my bedroom floor...

 

I can't remember if I posted about it here or just on IG, but the boys were taking care of a swallowtail caterpillar that they nabbed from my garden. They were very excited when it formed its chrysalis, but the timing  was such that we had to take it with us to Iowa to release the butterfly.

It's a boy!

Hopefully we didn't upset the balance of the swallowtail universe too much by moving this guy 350 miles west.

 

While we were there we also made a side trip to Moline and took a little tour of the John Deere Pavillion. I'm pretty sure this was one of the highlights of the trip for my boys, especially Roger. 

 

 One of the highlights for me was finally getting to play around with mom's longarm. That sounded a little odd...But seriously, this was so much fun! She has probably had this machine for at least 10 years and last week was the first time I had used it. I took two baby quilts with me to work on, but you better believe that next time we go I'll be taking some big ones! 

 

Before we left I placed an order with Pink Castle Fabrics and just for fun I bought one of their random fat-eighth packs. I love the little surprise of not knowing what I'll be getting, and I was thrilled with what they sent. I adore that Madrona Road print in front and see that yellow crosshatch in the middle? I recently ran out of it in my stash and the day that I placed my order, I was actually searching online to find more of it because I like it so much. It is called Haybale from Riley Blake and I had it in two colors, this yellow and a cream. I also just used up the last of the cream one in my Modern Maples quilt that I've been working on. Some people become attached to their designer prints...me, I like my blenders. 

 

Speaking of Modern Maples, here is what I've got so far. It has been laid out like this on the floor of Jill's room for about two weeks now. Hopefully this morning I can finish my bee blocks and get back to this baby. But first, I'm going to go make this Blueberry Cake that my friend Cathy just posted. Yum! 

And since I finally remembered to do a random post on Thursday, I'll be linking up with Cindy at Live a Colorful Life!

FAL: The Plans for Q3

Whenever I write these posts about what I want to finish each quarter, I like to think about what I'll be doing at that time of year. The third quarter ends in September, so hopefully we will be well into harvest. Autumn is easily my favorite season. With the warm days and cool nights, the sounds of combines in the fields, and brilliant colors all around, you really can't beat it! 

So what will I accomplish over the next three months? Here's the plan:

We'll start off with the three rollovers from last time...

1. Hometown Road to Tennessee: I pulled this one out the other day and actually finished piecing the top. It is kind of an odd size, though, so I may end up adding borders or something. It has been about 2 years since I started this one, so I would love to finally get it done!

2. Stacked Squares: No progress (and apparently no picture, either) but I'm ready for this one to move on!


3. Diamond Ripples: No progress, but I do have the fabric that I need to finish the blocks, so I have no excuse!

4. Les Amis baby quilt: I salvaged a previous disaster and am hoping to get this finished for an old friend that is due with her first child next month.

5. Modern D9P: I actually just started this one a few days ago after an idea struck for a way to use up some of my charms. I participated in a few charm swaps last year and would rather use them than see them sitting in my drawer, so when inspiration struck I ran with it. Hopefully the enthusiasm continues and this will be a quick finish!


6. Scrappy Log Cabins: I made these two QAYG blocks with some of the scraps from the twin girl quilts I made at the beginning of the year. I would love to turn them into something, whether that be a baby quilt, machine cover, table runner...anything really. I like them too much to have them shoved in a drawer.


7. Modern Maples: I have all the pieces trimmed and ready to sew together. Hoping to get this one finished so we can enjoy it this fall! Thanks to Debbie for the motivation!


8. Holiday Sampler: I really can't remember what the real name for this one is supposed to be. I've got two of these cross-stitch projects that I haven't touched in months. I only have one more row to go on this one, so hopefully I can get it done before December. I plan to take it in the car with us when we go to Iowa next week, but that never seems to work out for me. Cell service is sketchy at mom and dad's though, so maybe I'll be able to stay off my phone and work on it!

So...8 projects. Go big, right? Thank you so much to Leanne for the motivation to actually finish some of these!

Stars Made with Flying Geese

 

I thought I would write up a quick post detailing the blocks I used to make Levi's quilt. Mostly for my own benefit since my trusty little notebook is always getting scribbled on by the kids. Try not to be blown away by the professionalism. I used two block sizes, 12.5" and 6.5" unfinished which are pretty standard dimensions. 

I used the no-waste method for my flying geese. You can find several tutorials for it with a friendly Google search, but the one I used is here. These are the requirements for a scrappy star using three different prints within the block. If you wanted the star to be all one print, use the same one for B and C.

6.5” Blocks:

Fabric A: (1) 4.25” square for the flying geese

                   (4) 2” squares for the block corners

Fabric B: (4) 2 3/8” squares for the flying geese

Fabric C: (1) 3.5” square for the star center

12.5” Blocks:

Fabric A: (1) 7.25” square for the flying geese

                   (4) 3.5” squares for the block corners

Fabric B: (4) 3 7/8” squares for the flying geese

Fabric C: (1) 6.5” square for the star center

 

So there you go. Make sense?

Levi's Quilt & a Minor Freak-out

 

Roger's brother and his wife recently welcomed their third child into the world. so naturally a quilt had to be made. Levi is their third son, bringing the grand total of Lovelady boys in this county to 6. They won't go to to the same elementary school as our kids, but our high school better be prepared! 

 

I comment quite a bit that I love star quilts, but that I don't enjoy making them. This is true, but making the star points out of no-waste flying geese rather than stitch-and flip points is much more enjoyable for me. I'll do another little post with my block dimensions for anyone interested. 

Levi's quilt was very much inspired by this quilt by Allison of Cluck, Cluck, Sew. I left the quilting pretty simple with a diagonal crosshatch and a little outline of the diamonds between stars. And this leads to the freak-out...

 

For most of my quilting I don't bother with actually marking the lines but this time I needed to. I know lots of people use Hera markers and love them and I'm sure that I would, too, if I ever remembered to buy one. So the last three quilts that have been marked have gotten the Crayola treatment. And two out of three have washed out with no issues whatsoever. I thought that it had worked on Levi's quilt, too, until I inspected a little closer. See that pink line up there? I used a dark grey marker on the quilt, but this pink residual line was only left on these two prints. It had already gone through the dryer when I noticed it, so I sprayed it with an OxyClean laundry spray, then ran it through a soak cycle in the washer with a little powdered OxyClean thrown in for good measure. Thankfully it all came out because I didn't have much time before we were taking it over to see him! 

 

I was feeling the love for Denyse Schmidt with my backing and binding choices, wasn't I? I would say the vast majority of my stash basics come from either her, Lizzy House, or Riley Blake. What about you?

ETA: After a few comments, I thought it might be best to stress the fact that I used a Crayola washable marker to mark the quilt, not a crayon.

Max's Quilt and Q2 FAL Update

I remember writing the post detailing my plans for the 2nd quarter of the Finish-A-Long, and remarking that July seemed so far off. Well, it's here even if our weather doesn't seem like it! We have had so much rain lately, and today I think our high is only supposed to be about 75. A drastic change from last summer with no rain to be found and record highs! You'll not hear me complaining though.

So, how did I fare this quarter? I had seven projects on my list and am pleased to report that I finished four of them! I think that I had commented to several people that if I had finished two I would be happy, so four is fabulous! 

1. Max's Quilt: One of the quilts that I finished was for Max, though I haven't taken any real pictures of it. It is simple patchwork of green and yellow squares to match his brothers' quilts. I added a few orange fabrics into Max's and I think it kind of gives it more of a 70's vibe than what I was really going for. I backed it in a simple blue flat sheet. Super easy backing, especially since my kids won't use flat sheets on their beds. Weirdos.

2. Chicopee Herringbone: I'm so pleased with this finish, thanks to the help of my Always Bee Learning friends. I seriously use this quilt almost every day and don't let my kids use it!



3. Constellations, Baby: I believe that when I made my list, all I had left to finish on this one was the binding, so this was probably the easiest finish! Still looking for a home for this one, but I do love seeing it all folded up in my cabinet.



4. Imagination, Squared: Another fun finish for the Imagine Circle of dGS, I shipped this beauty off to Threading Hope last week.

So, 4 out of 7....not too shabby! I suppose the other three will find their way onto my 3rd quarter list. Now I need to go digging around and see what else I can put on there!