A trip to the library

About a week ago I started taking the girls to the public library again.  When my oldest was little, we went nearly every single week to story time.  For one reason or another, we stopped going when my youngest was born.  While browsing the kids’ shelves for books, this one caught my eye.  With “quilt” in the title, it was right up our alley!  (Actually, there are a surprising amount of quilt themed books in the children’s section.)

After reading the book to my girls, Esther asked if I would make her a Mooshka quilt.  How could I refuse!  The fabric came yesterday.

I’ve got a good start on my design wall (and a Hungry Caterpillar quilt in the works, too).  When I called Esther in this morning to see it, she told me that the black leaf fabric is not in the Mooshka quilt.  Smart little girl!  I couldn’t help add in some fabrics that aren’t in the original.  Maybe I will take them out.  I’m not sure.  Esther said it would be okay if I keep them in.  I also included some fabrics from Julie Paschkis’s Chickadee line to make it a little easier on me to have variety throughout the quilt.  I am going to leave those in.

I couldn’t resist getting these pretties along with the Mooshka fabric.  It’s called Painted Summer by Lida Enche for In the Beginning Fabrics.  I have a not-so-secret obsession with hummingbirds, really birds in general.  If you’ve never seen the movie The Big Year, I highly recommend it!  It made me see birdwatching in a new light.

This is my newest hummingbird feeder for the front porch.  So far we’ve had three different visitors.  If you don’t have your hummingbird feeders up, now is the time!

Pinwheels

In honor of spring finally showing herself around these parts (sorry people who just got snow), I wanted to make a bright and cheerful quilt using Happy-Go-Lucky.  I started with a layer cake and subtracted out all the red fabrics.  Added a few 10” squares of Ruby to make up the difference.  And sashed it in a red Vintage Modern print.  I think it all adds up to bright and cheerful Bonnie & Camille medley!

This blue pindot and floral is my favorite block of the bunch.  Not the most flashy, but it has a classic, clean look I am drawn to.

I did learn something about making pinwheels from constructing this quilt top.  I didn’t pay attention—or rather I thought I was paying attention and I wasn’t—to the direction of the darker print in each pinwheel.  Next time I’ll get it right!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  Have a wonderful day!

Parade of Elephants {plus a giveaway}

The giveaway is now closed.  The winner was #144 Scrapatches.  Thank you everyone who commented!!!!

Thanks for visiting today!  There are lots of wonderful stops on today’s schedule for the April Showers Blog Hop and it is raining mug rugs!  I have a parade of elephants to share.

I made four mug rugs—one for each daughter plus me.  The fabrics are all sorts of scraps I had handy and charms from a low volume swap.  The pattern is from the Patchsmith on Craftsy and is very affordable at only $1.99.  She has lots of patterns to choose from (I may have gotten more than one…).  The backing is a cute cherry print so they can be reversible.

Don’t forget to check out all the other great mug rugs on the hop today!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10th

Hayley @ Mrs. Pickles

Karen @ Sew Much 2 Luv

Mélanie @ Les passions de Cliodana

Cindy @ Quilt Doodle Doodles

Jamie @ Busy Bee Quilts

Judy @ That Other Blog

Regena @ The Distracted Domestic

Amy @ Domesticity and other Ponderous Things

Denise @ My Whittle Adventures

Heather @ a Reformed Heath'n

Marica @ ~Englating~

Much thanks to Erin at Sew At Home Mummy for helping organize and cheer on all the participants, and a big thanks to Madame Samm for all her hard work!!! 

Now for a fun giveaway!  Leave me a comment to be entered to win two mini charm packs of the Boo Crew by Sweetwater from Quilt Taffy.  What would you make?  I’ll be using mine to make a tabletopper for Halloween this year.  Do you think that’ll be enough time or will I be working on it at midnight on October 30th?!?

International entries welcome.  Followers can have a second entry—just let me know you follow!  Have a wonderful day!

Potluck Churn Dash

This quilt came about through two extra churn dash blocks I made last month for Stash Bee.  A friend had a baby girl, and originally I thought I’d make her a star quilt, but then I got to thinking I’d use these blocks to make something bright and colorful.

I started with the orange and aqua block and put the other one aside to use for something else.  I decided to use some of my Denyse Schmidt fabrics for the other blocks.  Rachel at Stitched in Color is hosting a Shelbourne Falls Contest, so I incorporated a few of those fabrics into it. 

Once the quilt was 3 x 3 blocks, which was a good size for a baby quilt, it didn’t feel right to me.  Was this going to be the ugliest quilt ever, or just colorful?  At this point my husband gave it a thumbs down and I decided I’ll just go with my original idea to make a star quilt for my friend’s baby and keep this one, just in case it doesn’t turn out like I had hoped.  I added another row of blocks to make it a little bigger so my youngest daughter could use it on her bed.

A lot of the fabrics are Denyse Schmidt, with a few Anna Maria Horner and an Amy Butler print thrown in.  The back is an AMH print from Innocent Crush that all my daughters really love.  I pieced together the rest of the back from leftover fabric.

The quilting is a criss-cross on the diagonal—I marked it with masking tape and used 50 wt. pink Aurifil thread.

The binding is a Notting Hill print.

So, is it an ugly quilt or just colorful?  It has a vintage vibe to it that I really dig, but I honestly don’t know!

quilt for my dad

Last month my dad got really sick and had emergency surgery and a pretty long hospital stay.  He kept telling me how much he liked the quilt I made for my mom for Mother’s Day so I took the hint and made him his own quilt.  It’s about 65” x 76”, the perfect lap quilt size.

The fabric is mostly PB & J, a new line out and a lucky win for me on Deborah’s lovely blog Simply Miss Luella.   I won a layer cake, and then I happened to have a jelly roll that I bought during a Moda Sample Spree sale so I was able to make the 2.5” cornerstones out of that.  The sashing fabric is perhaps my favorite DS Quilts print ever, a nice gray with white circles.

To make the quilt I took out all the floral layer cake squares and then substituted in a few 10” squares from my stash.  I thought my dad wouldn’t like any flowers, even if they are pretty!

The quilting is a decorative stitch on my Janome.  I was really at a loss how to quilt this one.  I thought my dad would like minimal quilting.  The thread I used was awesome!  On top I used a 50 wt. gray variegated thread from a Tula Pink Aurifil set that was a gift from my friend Svetlana.  The bobbin thread is a 50 wt. dark blue from Aurifil.  I have never sewn with Aurifil 50 wt. thread but I can tell you my sewing machine really appreciated it!  I usually use whatever is on sale from Joann’s.  With the better thread I got absolutely no thread nests!!!  The machine ran so smoothly.  I think using the Aurifil really made a difference.

My husband didn’t like the backing fabric I picked so I mulled it over for about 10 seconds and decided to go with what I had in my stash, which is an old Moda Minnick and Simpson Wiscasset Bay blue paisley that I bought when I first learned to sew.  It’s not really my taste but I thought it fit this quilt pretty well and I didn’t have to buy anything, which is a plus.  I don’t think it’s too feminine.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts’s Finish It Up Friday.  Have a great weekend!

Make It Modern March Sponsor

The Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring an amazing prize for members of the Make It Modern quilting bee on Flickr.  The winner for March is getting a fat quarter bundle of Bonnie and Camille’s newest line for Moda, Happy Go Lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How sweet is this fabric?  And how sweet is the Fat Quarter Shop for being such a generous sponsor?!!?

The Fat Quarter Shop has a seemingly endless array of fabrics, thread, patterns, and a huge sale section that I frequent every chance I get.  I love to stock up on great deals on everyday fabric basics like this one--only $6.30 a yard for Annie’s Farmstand dots on red…

and get a few yards of fabrics that might make perfect backing fabric for a project I’ve got in the works.  Like this…

At $5.38 a yard, these Cabana Blooms Tiles would make an bright and bold statement on the back of a quilt.

What I am waiting with bated breath for is Sarah Watson’s newest line that should be available in stores in early April.  It’s called Indian Summer.

Yes, I am totally psyched about this newest line of fabric and have already very conveniently signed up to be notified when the fabric is available for sale.  The Fat Quarter Shop lets you sign up your email address to be notified as soon as it’s available.  How convenient is that?!!?

The Fat Quarter Shop was the very first online shop I purchased fabric from back when I was in a sock monkey phase and needed lots of Erin Michael’s Funky Monkeys and Monkeyin’ Around fabrics.  I’ll tell you, the Fat Quarter Shop had them all!  I’ve been shopping with them for about 7 years now, and every experience has exceeded my expectations---through the roof! 

The Jolly’s run a very professional, yet fun, fabric store.  And their generosity to bloggers and quilters everywhere is unparalleled.  Thanks, Fat Quarter Shop, for making March a month to remember for one lucky winner!!!