Ring Around the Posy Quilt Finish

I am excited that I finally got this quilt finished and on my girls’ bed!  When I saw this spring line from Aneela Hoey earlier this year I just had to make a quilt for my daughters.  The little bunnies and girls reading are just so sweet I couldn’t resist.

When I first started this quilt, I didn’t know what to use for sashing.  I had ordered a layer cake and two mini charm packs of Posy and thought I’d make a simple squares quilt with sashing.  I wanted to use stash fabrics, so after a lot of hemming and hawing about what solid to use, I ended up going with a pretty gray floral.

The reason I went with the gray floral is because I’ve long admired Susan’s quilts on PatchworknPlay, and tried to channel my inner Suz.  If you haven’t seen her quilts before, you should check out her latest finish Ginger Kisses.  She has a gift for picking beautiful fabrics together and it’s always a visual treat to see what she’s working on.

The quilt finishes at 70 x 82, which is too big to hang on my clothesline so my husband hung it up sideways!

I had the quilt top pieced for quite a while, not sure how to actually quilt it.  I ended up going with the decorative wavy stitch on my Janome in a salmon colored thread.  I debated quilting a flower in each of the big squares, but decided against it after it sat around so long, I just wanted to get it finished!  Plus, I like how the lack of dense quilting makes this quilt oh-so-soft and comfy to wrap up in! 

I pieced the back with leftover fabrics.  I just love the way a pieced back looks.  The binding is a pretty pink and white striped—can’t go wrong with a striped binding, right?

I was also organized enough this time to add a fabric label to the back.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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!

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I am linking up the first of my Just Three goals to the Flickr group “A Lovely Year of Finishes.”  I just finished sewing the binding on this morning and am picking up my oldest from school a little early to head to the park for a photo shoot this afternoon (don’t tell her teacher!).

I thought I’d show a few photos of my machine binding process. The first few I bound by machine didn’t come out perfect, but just like with fmq, my machine binding skills get better and better with practice.

I start by just stitching all the way around the perimeter of the quilt about 1/8 from the edge.  It is important to do this while your extra batting and batting are still intact!!!!!!!!  If you try to stitch after you’ve cut it off, you’ll get all kinds of puckers and pulls.  I learned this the hard way.

This little one helped with the binding process.  Just so you know, I cut my binding 2.75” wide.  I can’t seem to get things to line up properly when it’s 2.5”.

Love those Wonder Clips!  I like to just clip the binding onto the back and then mark my 1/4 inch stopping point with a straight pin.  I just sew right up to it and then backstitch.

Here’s what the back looks like after I use a zig-zag stitch to attach the binding on the front. 

The zig-zag stitch is nearly perfectly straight along the edge of the binding.  I find that as long as I don’t stop and start stitching too much or pull on the binding as I wrap it over, the stitches don’t arc.

Here’s what a corner looks like. These stitches are not coming out in the wash!

My first finish of 2013 is this quilt I designed for a Quilt Along that will start later this month.  It’s called “Easy as Pie” and the name says it all!  The pattern uses exactly every piece of a layer cake, has relatively little cutting, and comes together fast!

Quilt Re-Do

This quilt top was finished a week before Christmas.  But I wasn’t happy with the original.

That blue & red sawtooth line seemed to divide the quilt and there wasn’t enough white in that area.

So, after a little seam ripping, I am much happier with the new look. 

The top is made from a layer cake of Wee Folks.  But since I had used all the pieces already, I substituted a brown floral on white from Sew Cherry in the sawtooth row.  It blends right in.

The little gnomes and toadstools are so adorable!  The blocks are pinwheels and stars.

Now I’m not sure what to use for backing and binding.  As usual, there is nothing suitable in my stash…so I’ll need to buy something!

Another baby quilt

Lots of my friends and family are having baby boys this winter.  I’ve made quite a few little boy quilts the past two months.  The latest is a little different than the log cabin quilts I’ve been making.

Of course the fabric is elephants!  The line is called “Bungle Jungle.”  I love the primary colors.  Each sashing strip is from a line by Jenn Ski that I just had in my stash.  The binding is a polka dot on blue by Connecting Threads.  The finished quilt measures 42 x 46. 

I was able to pick up some matching backing fabric at a great price at one of the many Black Friday sales events. 

I used the seams for a guide and quilted a 1/4” inside all the seams.  I like the look of the straight lines across the backing.

Who couldn’t use a ginormous bottle of wine and cute baby blanket to celebrate the birth of baby boy #2????

My daughters sang in church this past Sunday.  Bea stood by Esther even though that meant she had to stand with the preschoolers (which she wasn’t thrilled about because she is in first grade, don’t forget!). 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!  Linking up to Tuesday at the Table and Freemotion by the River.

Orange Peel Blocks

I can cross one of my Just Three Things off my list.  I finished my May Beejeebers Bee block yesterday.  The bee mama requested an “Orange Windows” block made with seaside-inspired colors such as aqua, gray and blue.  I had so much fun picking out fabrics, I made TWO blocks!  I’ve never made an orange peel, but it’s easy and on my list for something I’d like to try myself one day.

I stitched in gray on one block, and green on the other.

I had a hard time getting started on this block.  Walmart was sold out of compasses (which the tutorial required) and in the midst of canning over the weekend, I lost the one I borrowed from my neighbor’s son.  Luckily I found it!

Warning:  Lots of photos ahead!

a cute Japanese turtle print

yep, that’s Full Moon Forest

not just umbrellas, beach umbrellas

seastars and…frog eggs???  I don’t want to say what I think this print really looks like.

pearls

bubbles and a print that kind of looks like a sand dollar

one of the newest from DS quilts and Salt Air waves

Salt Air whale tails and another DS quilts fabric

And then, DRAT, I noticed I didn’t stitch around the whale tail peel.  As soon as I finish that up, these blocks will be in the mail to you, Karen.

Linking up to TNT Thursday.

Winner!

Esther picked the winning name this morning.

Congrats, Joyce Carter, I have emailed you.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day.  My husband and kids got me the prettiest flowers and a gift card to Joann’s.  I spent the weekend doing fun things like canning strawberry jam with my bff and finishing the quilting on my Aneela Hooey quilt.

And the kids helped make the most delicious peanut butter cookies (if you count spilling flour all over the counter and floor and licking EVERYTHING as helping).

The recipe is here, and I followed it exactly except I used a 1/4 cup to measure out the dough instead of a 1/3 cup.  I highly recommend this recipe!!!  The cookies tasted great and every batch came out bakery perfect.

{Just Three} Goals for May

Last month I missed the linky for {Just Three} due to a husband on travel and very limited computer time and was really bummed.  I just returned from vacation last night and—yay!—the linky party is still open!  Here are my goals for May:

1.  Finish my twirling around quilt.  This one is basted and ready to quilt, I just need to get some time and get it done.  The picture is an old one, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

2.  Finish my granny squares quilt.  I started hand-quilting it and I’m not sure if I like it or not.  I think I need to get more done to decide, but I’m pretty sure I’m committed now and won’t be ripping out the stitches.   Again this is an old pic.  I have twenty squares already joined in a quilt top, backed with a DS Quilts pink floral print.

3.  Make my bee block for Beejeebers.  This one looks relatively easy, so I should be able to cross this off my list quickly.  The photo above is courtesy of Linzsews.

Here’s to a great month of sewing…and finishing!!!

This week’s finishes

I have two finishes for this week.  I finally put the binding on this quilt and blogged about it here.

And then I made a special little fishy mat for my daughters’ room.  They have an ant farm (which has lasted much, much longer than the 5-6 weeks as stipulated in the directions—more like 4 months now).  The deal was they could get a betta for their room after all the ants died.  It looks like that is never going to happen, so we went ahead with our fish plans.  (ps.  If you ever get an ant farm and the ants happen to be harvester ants which can bite/sting, tell your babysitter NOT to let the kids go to their room without supervision.)

I used just various fabrics from my stash.  The solids are quilter’s linen (not really linen) by Robert Kaufman.  I got a rainbow of colors from Fabric.com a few weeks ago and have been trying them out.   I didn’t measure it, but the finished dimensions are about a foot square.

I fmqed all over (because I still have not bought a new walking foot) and binded and backed it with el cheapo fabric from Joanns that I bought when I was first starting out sewing.  The quilting is done in light pink thread, but it pretty much just looks white against the top fabrics.  My oldest daughter wanted to know what all those squiggles are supposed to be.  She thinks they look kind of like coral, so I told her that’s what I was aiming for…lol!

We got a new fish on Wednesday, dubbed him “Feather Fin,” and he is doing well, enjoying his much more spacious home.

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts today.

Flora Charm Quilt

Last week I finally put the binding on this quilt made with Lauren and Jessi Jung’s Flora.  I used two charm packs I bought at the LQS and supplemented what I needed with solids from my stash and the border fabric purchased at Hancock’s of Paducah during an online sale.   The finished size is 61 x 77 and the pattern came from the book Simply Charming by Moose on the Porch Quilts.  It is one of the first books I bought and think it’s so great for a beginner.  I’ve made 3 of the patterns in the book since I first started quilting.

I had a little trouble deciding on the binding.  The fabric I purchased online looked more greenish than yellow, and I wasn’t happy with the look.  So, I put the quilt in a pile in my sewing room for a week or two while I decided what to do.  I almost purchased the green lattice print from this collection since I have a thing for striped binding and the lattice is the closest thing to stripes in Flora (there are no polka dots either).  But my practical side won out and I ended up binding it with leftover fabric from the border.  I like!!!  And it was free!  The backing is a striped sheet from Target. 

My fmq is getting a lot better, and I completely machine-bound this quilt using Kaelin’s machine binding tutorial.  I have done it a couple of times, but this is the first time it’s turned out nearly perfect.  It literally took about an hour to make and attach all the binding.  How cool is that???

I really love Lauren and Jessi’s style and color choices.  I have a massive cache of “Hideaway” and I can’t wait until their new line “Birds and Berries” comes out.  Here is a preview courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop.

I love how the colors are similar to the other collections, but I really am excited about the purple added to the mix.

I am linking up to Quilt Story today.