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. 

Overwhelmed!

In a good way…by fabric!  My cousin is learning to quilt, and we’ve volunteered to test a pattern called Colorblock by Holly at Bijoux Lovely.  My cousin has already picked out her fabric, but I thought I’d make one for Veronica and I am completely overwhelmed by my fabric choices, although I have narrowed it down considerably.

Never in my short-quilting-life have I ever had so many choices!!!  And this is the first time I have enjoyed trying to put different fabric collections together.  The pattern only uses 7 fabrics for the top (not including sashing), but I have accumulated so much great fabric that it’s so tough to eliminate some of the prints.  I have definitely decided to use that leafy print on the bottom left for the backing.  It is one of my first fabric purchases ever—and from Joanns.  It feels thinner than the designer fabric, but I distinctly remember getting it on a half-off red tag clearance sale, so I didn’t pay more than $1.50 a yard for it.  It is high time I used it and it really coordinates well with the other fabrics.

I am overwhelmed in other, not so wonderful, ways.  My husband has been on business travel this entire week, so I haven’t done any sewing. at. all.  My oldest is home on spring break this week, which has mostly been really helpful,  but it also has been crazy…a lot.  Last weekend I finished quilting my Flora quilt, and I cut strips for the binding one night after the kids went to bed.  But when I held it up to the quilt, I hated it.

The quilt has a yellow lattice print border, and the binding against it looks green.  I am really disappointed at how it looks together, so I am just going to use the rest of the border fabric I had left over to make matching binding and leave it at that.  

So, I don’t think I’ve ever shared that I am into my SIXTH year of breastfeeding. Yes, you read that correctly. I am only 34, so I have been breastfeeding 17% of my life.  I know breastfeeding is a beautiful thing, etc etc, but I am ready to have my body back. 

Overwhelmed is definitely the way I have been feeling lately!  I’m hoping to get some sewing done this weekend and have a quilt top and a finish to share next week.  I hope you all have a happy Easter!!!

WIP Wednesday—the lazy edition

I finished sewing the borders onto my Flora 9 Patch Charm Quilt last night, so the top is finished.

I love how it turned out, but somehow I don’t have enough Flora yardage for a pieced backing, and I really don’t have enough of anything to put with it except a white with peach polka dots.  I was feeling quite lazy about hunting around my stash and needed to get a couple items at Target.  $115 later, I came home with some groceries and a few things that aren’t necessities (a couple packs of Easter pencils, a new lamp for Esther’s bedroom) and I picked this up:

The yellows are a pretty good match, and for only $14.99 I couldn’t pass it up.  The Flora fabrics don’t have a stripe or a polka dot, so I think it will coordinate nicely and not look mis-matched.  This won’t be my first time using a sheet for a backing and it certainly makes the process a lot faster. 

I will be quilting this with fmq squiggles.  My walking foot stopped working about a month ago.  It will move forward a few stitches, but then the stitches get shorter and shorter until it stops advancing and just sews on top of itself which is a huge hassle for using the seam ripper.  It kept happening when I was quilting my Tangerine Tango cathedral windows by machine.  I was worried it was my machine, but all the other feet work fine.  I’ve looked into purchasing a new one, but it’s $50.  Not a big deal when I was working, but kind of an expense I’m going to put off for a little while.  So it’s FMQ only for the next few quilts.

I’m linking this post up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Flora Charm Packs

Our local quilt shop is relatively new—it’s only been in business about 2 years.  I shop there pretty regularly, but since it’s on the other side of town, I only go about once a month.  The stock is uber-traditional…think Thimbleberries or Minick and Simpson.  But every once in a while I get a happy surprise:

This past week there was a 25% off everything sale, and I saw some Flora charm packs and picked up two.  When I got them home and decided what to make, two charm packs wasn’t quite enough, so I cut up a few solid charms from my stash of solids from Connecting Threads.  I love them!  The orange was nearly a dead-on match.  It’s called “Carrot.”  The green, yellow, and turquoise were exact matches.  How thrilled I was!   The pattern is from a book called “Simply Charming Fun Fast Charm Pack Quilts.”  It has a handful of patterns and I’ve made several of them and it’s true—they are fun and fast!

I also picked up a pack of Carol Doak’s foundation paper.  The block for Stash Bee this month is a star for a quilt that will be donated to Quilts of Valor.  Last month’s Beejeeber’s theme was “Family Game Night.”  I called Chutes and Ladders but procrastinated until the very last minute.  Luckily there was an extra day in February and it went out in the mail on time!

The block was tedious to make and took a lot of time (some of it sewing with a kid on my lap because it really took a lot of time), but I am pretty pleased with the result.  There are 100 (some fussy cut) 1.5” blocks to make up the board, and then I raw edge appliqued the ladders and slides. 

This block was for Lindsay, who said she likes bright colors.  I aim to please!  When I was at the LQS, I picked up a few fat quarters of some modern-ish floral Maywood fabric, too, to send along with my bee blocks.  Who doesn’t like a little extra surprise?

In personal news, it was a scary week for baby Veronica.  Her bellybutton has never healed right and she is 15 months old.  It continues to get infected and the pediatrician referred us to a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital who saw us the next day.  The good news is that her umbilical cord is not connected to her bladder or intestine, which happens sometimes, but the bad news is the doctor has no idea why it keeps happening.  Apparently this is a very rare occurrence that he has only seen two other times.  So, she may have to have surgery in the future, but at least not right away.  The good news is, while it is troublesome, it’s not cause for serious alarm. 

The sun has finally come out, and the kids are itching to get outside!