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.

Two finishes

I finished up two quilts this past week.  The first is this flannel WIP from a few years back.  After a run through the washer and dryer, it looks almost as good as new.

I think it might be my favorite quilt I’ve made, even though while I was making it I wasn’t sure how I felt about the funky fabrics and bright solids.

The purple backing and striped binding really make me love it even more.

The final quilt measures 63 x 78 inches.  It is made from Joann’s flannel and doesn’t have any batting.  It’s a good weight without being too heavy.  In this photo of the binding you can see how I machine attached it with a zig-zag stitch.  I highly recommend this method.

I’ve got another finish from last weekend.  Here is a sneak peak and I’ll be posting about it later this week.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Quilting by the River.

Bea’s first quilt

It’s finished!  Bea sewed all the squares in rows and sewed all the rows together.  Then she tied all the floss at each block intersection.  I sewed on the binding.   It measures 38” x 46”.   The fabrics are all from Joann’s, has no batting, is backed with soft pink flannel, and is bound with pink and white striped fabric from Connecting Threads.

We had a little trouble getting a good shot because “someone” was being very helpful by playing peek-a-boo.

Bea created this tiny label that I sewed to the front  bottom corner of the quilt.

It’s  says:

To Ron

From Bea

July 2012

and is very decorated and written with fancy letters. 

I foresee a lot of quilts in Bea’s future!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

And the heat rolls on…

The weather has been unbearable, and I’m a summer person!  We have spent a lot of time at the pool , but most of it in the air conditioning.  So Bea finished sewing her quilt (made with 8 inch squares) and we decided to tie it.  This was my first time tying a quilt, too, so it was a learning experience for both of us.  We used craft floss for tying.

It was great practice for a six year old who doesn’t know how to tie shoes yet!  We opted to use some light pink flannel solid from my stash for the back and didn’t put in any batting to make it ultra light.  Maybe the weather was getting the best of us.  She can’t wait to put on the binding so she can post a photo of it to my blog. 

Oh, and I did state that I would make Friday a special day by posting some of my thrift store “finds.”  Here is where I keep most of my thread.

It’s an old printer’s drawer.  The handle is up top.  It held characters that aren’t all part of the English alphabet‘

Since I painted my sewing room, it’s attached a little differently to the wall.  My husband drilled a big ol’ hole right through the middle of it.  I guess he didn’t understand that I thought it was kind of antique-y and not to be altered.  Oh well, it still is cool and holds a lot of thread (not quite enough as it is,  though).  But for $5, I sure do like looking at it on the wall.