Ten Little Things....Three Little Things

My nephew and his wife adopted two brothers and then promptly got pregnant with yet another boy.  I have yet to acknowledge even the first two children so I've been in the baby quilt business.   I ordered two fabric panels of Ten Little Things by Jenn Ski and then shamelessly stole the assembly idea from  Seams Crazy (who has lots of other lovely quilts as well) who adapted it from the Moda Bakeshop pattern, Jungle Path by Jessica Kelly at SewCraftyJess.   I wasn't familiar with Jessica's blog till I started putting in these links and I see she must be very, very busy now with a sweet little newborn!  Congratulations Jessica!  If you don't already read her blog, do check it out for a picture of the baby and the wonderful nursery Jessica put together for her. 

Anyway, here's one of the two panel quilts I made.  Just one picture.  The other is virtually identical.

I'm still in the midst of quilting the quilt for the newborn and hope to finish it in the next few days.  I've gone way overboard on the quilting part and it's taking longer than it should.

Now I'm going to go link up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and look at all the other quilts and things.  Happy Friday!

Star Surround Flimsie Finish

I kill myself.  Somehow, I was under the impression that Friday (yesterday) was the last day to get this finished.  I sewed like a mad woman, forsaking all household duties and responsibilities.  Finished the last stitch, ran outside and flung it over the deck railing for the photo shoot just as big fat rain drops started falling.  Snap....got it!  Made the deadline.  Back inside to the computer to post and take a last peep at the instructions.  Oh.  Never mind.  Here it is anyway.

The colors are pretty washed out in this picture, kind of a good thing considering how retina searingly bright it is in real life.  Lots of the fabrics read as solids too, though there are no solids in the quilt.  I like the block and enjoyed learning Melissa's technique for making flying geese.  Don't think I really care for blocks this large though.  Mine is 16 twenty four inch blocks and it's huge!  Now to find nine yards of backing fabric that I can buy and still keep food in the house.

Linking up to Melissa's blog for this portion of the QAL.  Thanks, Melissa!

Star Surround Blocks

Posting a quick picture of my Star Surround blocks this morning.  I decided late to join in on this quiltalong and had to rush selecting and cutting fabrics before heading out to spend a couple of weeks with my mama.  Here are my blocks laid out on her front porch.

Mama thinks my blocks are really pretty, especially the two pink and yellow ones on the top left.  She likes pastels.  I like that I'm using stuff thats been in my stash forever.  I think the blocks are prettier than the picture looks.  I enjoyed learning the method for making the no waste flying geese but have to admit I'm a little worried about how they'll fit with the star centers as they were definitely not perfect.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm home now with lots of clean up to do after leaving hubby unattended for two weeks!

Forgot to mention that I've linked up with Melissa at Happy Quilting...of course, since it's her quiltalong!  And Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. And WIP Wednesday, while I'm at it!

Another Little One

Another Friday, another little finish!  I'm really happy to have this one done.  The fabric is a Sandy Gervais line that came out right about when I started quilting and I thought it was wonderful.  So I bought three charm packs, put them on a shelf and looked at them for four years.  For some reason I felt like I had to make a quilt with nothing but those three charm packs.  Guess I didn't get the concept of adding other fabrics.  Slow learner.  So this is it.  From a pattern by Moose on the Porch.  

The full-on shot.

Another drapey shot showing some of the backing.

And all folded up on the bed.  I love the binding and I'm loving using Sharon Schamber's binding with glue method.

Yes, that's a bare mattress.  The sheets are back on now.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

Slow going here.  My main, or most active wip is still the behemoth log cabinish quilt that I'm hand quilting.

I'm enjoying the quilting even though the size and weight make it hard to maneuver on my lap.  A floor frame would help, but I don't want to sit at attention while I quilt.  This is my down time, slouchy, relaxing in front of the tv with hubby project.  The thread color I chose, a subtly variegated yellow to peachy orange, was only available locally in a DMC #5 floss and that's a little harder to needle than a #8, I think.  

So, that's it for now.  Linking to WIP Wednesday on a Thursday.
Oop!  I see I missed the linking deadline.  Oh well!

So, I was looking at the other WIP Wednesday offerings and came across another WIP linking opportunity, Esther's Blog, which I've never seen before and which looks wonderful so I'm linking there as it's still open.  Now, I'm off to spend hours clicking on all the gorgeous thumbnails there!

Small Finishes

I have a couple of small quilts to share today.  First a baby quilt finished in the spring.  Don't remember the fabric or quilt pattern name.  It was a fun, quick quilt.  Waiting for a home.

Here's the back.  This quilt was pieced while visiting my mama in a land faraway where there are no quilt shops.  So I got the backing and the batting at, dare I say it? Wally World!  The batting is bamboo which I liked a lot.  No complaints with the quality of either batting or backing. Like with anything, you just have to shop carefully, I guess.  

I quilted around all the little birds and flowers in the border print which was a pain in the patootie, but seemed to need doing.

And last, I finished the quilting on the foot warmer quilt I posted about last week.

Had a wonderful time handquilting. 

Here's a peek of the back.

So, I'm linking with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at What a Hoot.  

Thanks so much for looking.  I'd love if you'd leave a comment!

WIP Wednesday - Piecing a Back

Most of yesterday was spent doing this...

piecing a backing for this...

Again, hard to get a good shot due to space and light, or the lack thereof.  Here is a closer crop.

This is a big quilt (84 x 102) that requires 9 1/2 yards of fabric for the backing.  I already had 8 1/2 yards of a hideously bright yellow  that never worked with anything and it finally occurred to me to turn it over and use the back side. Perfect!  A little searching turned up this bird panel

that I bordered and pieced in to make up the difference.  The yellows worked so well together and it looks really cute.  Isn't it fun when things work out that way?  You'll have to take my word on the cuteness since it's pinned  to the floor right now and covered with batting.  I'm taking a break to post this before going back and starting the dreaded pin basting.

My ambitious plan is to hand quilt this.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Thanks for looking.  

Night Storm - A Guy Quilt Finish

A guy quilt, possibly for one of my stepsons who seems to appreciate handmade.  The pattern is Night Storm by Jean Ann Wright taken directly from the Marcus website using the exact same fabrics by Laura Berringer. Obviously, there isn't an original bone in my body.  Here is the back.

Why didn't I place that strip off center or at least more off center than it is by accident?

I had a dreadful time quiting this on my new machine, complete with thread breakage, eyelashing and tension problems galore.  I finally finished it on my old Kenmore with the six inch throat.   No eyelashes, no thread breakage no little thread dots on the back.  Go figure.

That  being said, there are two good takeaways from this quilt experience. I basted it with Elmer's Washable School Glue.  No pins or fumes and the layers held together great despite all the manhandling involved in getting the thing quilted.  For more info on glue basting check out the Quilting Board.  If you aren't familiar with this site do give it a look.  It's a wealth of information and quilting encouragement.

Next the binding.

See how nice and sharp my corners are?  Okay, I guess binding should be the same width front and back, but one thing at a time.  I used Sharon Schamber's glue basting method and it was so easy;  fiddly and time consuming, but neat and precise with no pins or clips to get in the way. 

I'm going to link to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday and go finish burying the billions and billions of threads caused by all my stopping, starting and thread breaking. 

WIP Wednesday - Hand Quilting!

I've been wanting to try hand quilting for a long time and figured big stitch might be a good way to get my feet (or fingers) wet.  Have to say I'm loving it.  This is the small project I've started on, a chevron quilt made from a tutorial at Bee Square Blog that uses rectangles instead of half square triangles.

It's a small lap sized quilt that I plan to give to my mama.   Something to cover her little feet when she's lying down watching tv.  I used some really old stash fabric, which made me happy. For the atual quilting I'm using a variegated embroidery floss which doesn't specifically state that it's colorfast, but the colors are close so I don't think it will make a difference.

Here is the full quilt, again in dark house rotten photo mode.

For some reason I thought it necessary to add setting triangles which was a good exercise in doing a little quilt math for me, but which caused odd, floating, unattached rectangles at the top and bottom.  It's okay.  My mama loves me and she won't care.

Linking with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and going to make myself sick with envy over all the gorgeous things other quilters are making.

Design Wall Monday...Cheating

Here is my next project.  Isn't it pretty?  Hope to get started on it this week.

And here it is sitting all pretty in the bag on my kitchen table.

Kind of hate to take it out of the bag.

Linking this slightly cheating post to Patchwork Times.

Easy Street Finish

One of our local quilt shops is closing in September.  The owner is retiring I think. Anyway,I took advantage of the going out of business sale and finally got the outer border on my version of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street.  Please excuse the rotten photo.  My house is covered up with trees and it is just dark all the time.

After walking past this quilt on my living room floor about a zillion times I've decided the turquoise or aqua or whatever it is was a mistake.  Should've gone with green like the quilt store employee suggested.  But I'm not changing.  It's done, done done and I'm on to something else.

  

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Hand Satin Stitching Flower Appliques

These little flower shapes were cut for fusible applique.  Of course, I goobered that up so they didn't adhere properly.  I didn't think to machine stitch them down till after the piecing was done and this quilt is too big to be maneuvering around like that.  The fusible stuff on the back makes a booger to sew through, too.  On the bright side, it's pretty & cheerful and there are twenty blocks which makes for plenty of mindless tv stitching and quality time with my hubby.

I'm also so glad I selected a picture where my seams don't line up!

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A Few More Blocks

Got a few more blocks done over the weekend.  This should be going quickly, but I tend to be a plodder and mistake prone.  Still liking it though.

Colors are lighter and brighter than they appear but this is the best I could get without flash on a cloudy, rainy day.  Hope the sun peeps out soon.

Linking to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday and looking forward to checking out everyone's work.

WIP Wednesday

Just finished the test block for my new project and I liked it so much I had to post...for the first time in months.  So here it is:

Yummy batiks.  I think I'm going to like this quilt.  Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced where there are all sorts of gorgeous things to see.