Another log cabin quilt!

It seems that lots of people are having baby boys this December or January, so I’ve been working on some quilts for gifts and just finished this one up last night.

Now you may have noticed that this quilt looks a lot like my past few baby quilts.  I really have a thing for log cabin and am a serious creature of habit.  I didn’t use Kharma Baby for the fussy cuts this time—this fabric is Alexander Henry with an assortment of jungle type animals.

The log cabin fabrics are all from my stash (which surprised me that I had enough blue and green) but I relied heavily on DS Prints and used the coolest dark blue with egg shaped dots for the binding.  It frames the quilt nicely.

Esther enjoyed being the quilt holder!  The finished size is 41.5” square which was a tad large for her to hold up.  The sashing is Kona ash.

I used up the rest of the dog and frog fabric in my stash to piece the back.  The colors go perfectly with the front and this quilt is going to a little boy who has two older sisters, so he needs as much blue and green as possible to balance out all the pink!

I free motion quilted squiggles with contrasting green thread from Connecting Threads.  I made a set of  flannel bibs to give with the quilt. 

My stash bee block for November was sewn and mailed in the nick of time.  The points lined up perfectly.  Last time I made this block there was a little hiccup at one of the intersections.  Making all the different bee blocks this year has helped my piecing skills immensely.   I’ve tried some things I never would have tried without being in the bees and every new experience has helped me figure out a new skill.

A package from Connecting Threads coming in the mail today or tomorrow.  I’ve been stalking the tracking info.  I ordered a tool called the Angler 2 for sewing hsts and can’t wait to try it out!  Hope you have a great Thursday!

Quilts at the Table

A few days ago my daughter and I whipped up a set of pretty placemats to go with some dishes we got for one of our relatives for Christmas.

Most of the charms are from Connecting Threads and a few are from my stash.  They were so easy to put together, just 3 x 4 charms.

The plates are not actually Christmas designs.  They are more Mediterranean looking and can be used all seasons, but look great with the Christmas fabric.

The mats consist of the top, batting and backing.  So to keep it all together, after turning the layers inside out, I sewed 3 evenly spaced lines around it to hold everything together, which is an idea I got from Svetlana (thanks!).

The fabrics are pretty.  I love that cute deer!

Here are the placemats all tied with a ribbon and ready to be put in a gift bag with her new dishes.

And I finished up my November Beejeebers block last night.

This block is called Cherie’s Carpenter Star and it’s made of a jillion hsts.  A few months ago this block would have reduced me to tears, but I’m happy to say that this one turned out A-okay and is exactly the right size, a first for me!  The bee mama asked for bright colors, so I hope orange and teal fit the bill.

I’m also getting ready to bind another baby quilt. This has got to be my fifth log cabin jungle animal-themed quilt.  I guess I will never tire of making log cabin quilts.  I just love picking the fabrics and chain sewing the blocks together.  It’s so easy, fast, and fun!

Hope everyone had a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving.  I’m officially done all my Christmas shopping (a few days before Thanksgiving even) and now I’m ready to sit back and enjoy the next couple weeks, hopefully making a few things from the book Pretty in Patchwork Holidays.  Come back on December 3rd—I’m giving away a copy of the book and a fat quarter bundle of Christmas fabric!

Linking up to Tuesday at the Table.

Apples and Mugs

 

Have you seen Lori Holt’s Row Along?  There is a Flickr group with some amazing photos.  I love to just scroll through and see what fabrics everyone has chosen.  The fabric I am using is just from my stash.  It is hopefully a good mix of retro and modern fabrics, which is my favorite kind of quilt.  The background fabric is Kona ash.  I’d probably have used white if I had any.

It was so fun piecing the mugs and apples.  I starched the heck out of everything and I think it really helped reduce any distortion at the seams, which can be a big problem for me sometimes.

There are 6 rows posted at this point, but I’ve only made 4 so far.  I have loved every moment of this project, from picking the fabrics to the cutting the little one inch blocks to sewing the blocks into beautiful rows.  I’m looking forward to making the butterflies and flying geese over Thanksgiving break.  Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Seeing Straight

Have you ever heard someone say, “If you can sew a straight seam, you can make a quilt”?  I can make a quilt, but I can’t seem to sew straight lines very well!

I attempted to quilt this with parallel vertical lines.  I followed the edge of my walking foot to try to make all the lines evenly spaced, but they are neither perfectly straight or evenly spaced!

My favorite block is this butter yellow version with the bird in the middle.  Every single piece of every single block was made from scraps only, which I’m kind of proud of.  I almost cracked on the last green block and used some fabric from my stash, but then I pulled myself together and looked through my scraps one more time to find two strips long enough for the last two sides.  Victory!

The binding is this great Loulouthi stripe I had in my stash.  And the backing is a SSI yellow swirly fabric I bought in my early sewing days.  It’s not something I’d probably buy today, but I’m glad to finally have a use for it! 

The finished quilt is made of 42 9 1/2 inch blocks and measures 54” x 63”.  It will be gifted at Christmas to relatives visiting my great aunt.  She asked me to make a quilt for them.  Hope they like it!

Linking up to Ellison Lane Quilt’s Scrappy Stash QAL.  Thanks, Jennifer, for putting together such a fun project!

Polaroid Quilt

This summer I participated in a very cool swap for little Polaroid blocks on Debbie’s blog A Quilter’s Table.   Then a bee mate, Lindsey, very generously sent me dozens of little blocks after she caught the Polaroid bug, too. 

This quilt measures 45” x 51”, hopefully just the right size for a three year old’s lap quilt.  I used three different Kona solids (chartreuse, marine, and ash) for the background fabrics and a cute frog print I won in a giveaway for the border—thank you, Leona!

I just love the little dogs on the back, although for the record I am a cat person.

My favorite part of this quilt is the little boy’s name appliqued on the front.  It was kind of a last minute solution to not planning the number of Polaroids I would need to make the columns even and then coming up short.  One of the most difficult parts of the quilt planning was picking “boy appropriate” pictures since little things sometimes escape my attention.

I was kind of undecided as to how I would quilt this one, but I ended up going with just fmq squiggles which is always my go-to choice.  Since I’m gifting this quilt I wanted it to look its best and not do too much “learning” on it.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts.  What have you been working on this week?

Donuts and Doorways

First, a little WIP Wednesday.

I have 42 blocks for the Scrappy Stash QAL sewn and squared up to 9 1/2 inches.  I’ll be working on it more tonight and hopefully can get it done within a week for the linky party.

I saw on Debbie’s blog A Quilter’s Table that she would be posting about donuts yesterday, so we made some in the morning since my oldest was off from school and we were just hanging out.  When I went shopping last week, I picked up a tube of biscuits so I could make donuts like my mom did when I was a kid.

This method of donut making is fun for the kids, too.

There’s really nothing too it.  Just heat veggie oil on high.  Divide each biscuit in half so it’s not so thick, pinch out a hole, and brown on both sides (it only takes about 4 minutes).  Then cool on a few paper towels and let the kids cover them in cinnamon-sugar.

A few hours later, after we ran some errands and before going to the polls, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and had donuts a second time and hot chocolate.  So yesterday was definitely a donut day! 

I have one last thing to share.  When I first started the Scrappy Stash QAL, my scraps were a hideous tangle of fabrics smooshed in a basket.  I gave it some thought, and since I don’t have any free shelf space in my sewing room, I decided to go with a hanging shoe holder to organize everything by color.

I would have preferred clear plastic, but Target didn’t have much selection and after sorting everything and hanging it in place, I am really pleased with the organized result.  It was a pretty inexpensive storage solution.  I think I read this idea in Sunday Morning Quilts, which has a pretty comprehensive section on scrap organization. 

Have a happy Wednesday!  We might have snow on the way this afternoon, which we are all really excited about.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday and Tuesday at the Table.

Advent Quilt Part 1 of 3

A few days ago I finished up the first of three Advent quilts I plan to gift to my daughters on December 1st to make the holiday even more special.  I found the Sheri Berri panel on Ebay and bought three of them because as soon as I saw the fabric, I knew I had to make each girl her own.

The quilt measures 36” x 54” which is a pretty respectable size for girls ages 6, 4, and not quite 2 yet.  I am envisioning us all snuggled up on the couch under our Christmas quilts watching a holiday movie together!

The back is flannel from Joanns.  I am heading there tomorrow to pick up two other prints for the backs of the other quilts so the girls can tell them apart.  Joanns flannel is on sale for $2.99 a yard plus there’s a 25% off coupon out there.  Same with rotary blades—a 5 pack is only $16.99 and you can use the 25% off coupon for those too.  I love these deal days because now I never need an excuse not to change my rotary cutter blade. 

Here’s the progress I’ve made on the Scrappy Stash Along so far.  16 blocks and much much neater scraps.  Joy!

Have a quilty weekend!  Linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Charm About You.