Greek Cross Quilt

This past weekend I showed my cousin how to do machine binding and used this quilt as demonstration.  I started it last year as part of a quilt along.  I got the top done, but never went any further.

I’ve seen a few quilts with black/white binding so I thought I’d give it a shot on this quilt.  It looks fab!

I had a few crosses left over (actually I found one more after I’d already made the back) so I put them in a scrappy backing.

Some of the backing fabric is a DS Quilts print and the pink is a cheap Joann’s fabric that I got a loooooooooooooong time ago when it was on clearance.  It has glitter in it.  This quilt truly is a WIP!

I used my quilting bar to try to quilt straight lines.  For some reason, though, the quilting bar seems to go on the right which dictates that the quilt has to be squished under the arm instead flowing of out the side.  I tried to use the quilt bar backwards, but that wasn’t as successful as I hoped.  The binding is a black/white floral print from Bernatex.

This cute little fox fabric is my favorite block.  The finished quilt measures 44 x 70.  The background fabric is Kona ash.

Now, here is the quilt my cousin made!!!

I am a bit jealous of how fantastic her quilt turned out.  Look at her first time ever FMQ!

I am linking this up to WIP Wednesday.  Have a great Wednesday!

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.

Just Three For August

I’m linking up to TraceyJay’s “Just Three” linky party.

Here are my goals for August:

1.  Finish up Esther’s Across the Sea quilt—made last year.  It’s basted and ready to  go.

2.  Finish up Bea’s floral coin quilt.  It’s also basted and ready to go.

3.  Make some bibs for a friend who is having a baby boy later this month with some stash fabric (of course!).  She lives in Turkey so I need to get these in the mail asap.

I hope to get all these projects out of the way within the week. 

The winner of the book Pretty Little Potholders is

#6 SUNNY!!!!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Trying New Things Thursday

My new thing is the churn dash block.  I’d never made one until this morning.  I saw a few examples in the Charmed Prints Quilt Along Flickr group and thought I’d give it a try.

The four blocks included in the quilt are star, pinwheel, diamond, and Greek cross, but a few people pointed out that switching the corner hsts will make churn dash blocks, so I decided to give it a try.  I started working on the layout of all the blocks and can’t wait to get the sashing sewn on.

Ronnie had a trying new things first today, too.  Her big sisters love to paint, but since she’s not even a year old yet, she’s never gotten to participate—except meddling in their paints and making a grand mess of the kitchen floor and windows!  So I sat her up in her highchair with some fingerpaints today and she LOVED it!

By the end there was more paint on her clothes and high chair than on paper, but it was worth it for all the smiles (plus, less paint all over the kitchen)!

I’m linking up this post to Trying New Things Thursday on Happy Quilting.

Charmed Prints QAL

Do you start with fabric or start with a pattern first?  I definitely start with fabric!  In fact, you might say I have a little too much.  I joined the Japanese Charm Swap here on Gen X Quilters which was a lot of fun.  Then when a charm pack quilt along came up, I thought the pattern was unique and that I’d give it a go.  But then I got stuck.  I didn’t know what fabric to use (I didn’t feel inspired to use the Japanese charms), and I certainly didn’t want to buy any considering what the shelves in my office look like!

The quilt along started quite a while ago, but I only got my game on during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I’ve made all the “special” blocks for the pattern, a few extra in fact, and I did *ahem* place an emergency fabric order on Fabric.com on Wednesday—butterflies and hearts!-- so I have two more pieces coming my way that I am going to use for a few additional special blocks, but for the most part, all the hard work is done. 

It took a while for the inspiration to hit, but I started with two blocks, picking fabric from my stash and fussy cutting the centers before I got on a roll.  I just picked things I thought Esther (my middle daughter) would like, and then she helped pick out fabric she liked, too.  Her older sister Bea has gobs of quilts I’ve made for her, although she feels a little miffed whenever I’m working on something not for her!

The best news?  I was thinking I’d need to go through and cut a bunch of charms from my stash.  Then I remembered that when I first started reading blogs, I entered a giveaway and WON!!!  It was the first giveaway I’d ever entered, and I was a bit skeptical.  But then a package came in the mail containing two charm packs and a layer cake!  I still have one of the charm packs.  I’ve looked at it enough that the paper band holding it together is missing now, so I’m not sure of the name, but the colors are pretty and, more importantly, even though it’s not totally matchy-matchy with my special blocks, a little white sashing is going to make them look great together!!!!  My special blocks have some lavender in them, so I’ll need to augment the charms with a few purples, but other than that, I’m ready to go on to the next step, making the quilt top, the directions tba on Tuesday.

I’m linking this up to Love Affair With My Brother this week.

Greek Cross Update

It took me a while to get the blocks finished for Esther’s birthday quilt, but I finally have them all squared up and ready to sew into the quilt top.  Originally I planned to do 4 x 5 blocks, but I have a bit more than 20 blocks…27, so I think I’ll do 4 x 6 instead and put the remaining blocks on the back.

Here are a few close ups of my favorite blocks.  Esther picked the tiny pink hearts on white fabric (the middle block in the top row) because she wanted plenty of hearts in the quilt.

Fox in the henhouse:

Deer and toadstools:

Toadstools on pink:

Foxes:

Hedgehogs and hearts:

Aren’t those hedgehogs cute?

One quilt finished, and progress on another

I finished this quilt as a gift for my cousin’s son.  He turned three recently and I made him this quilt:

It is the first plus quilt I ever made, and it was inspired by this quilt by SOTAK Handmade.  I didn’t want to cut up a bunch of squares to sew them together again for the long part of the plus, so I contacted Holly of Bijou Lovely when I saw her plus quilt on her blog.  She kindly explained the math to me, so I was able to cut just 3 pieces for each plus instead of 5.

The back is pieced with two pieces of soft flannel and my custom fabric label from Spoonflower.

It worked out nicely and I am definitely doing this design again with some Amy Butler and Heather Bailey fabrics I have earmarked for this project.

I am also making steady progress on my second Greek Cross for the Across the Sea Quilt Along.  I didn’t wait for all the directions to be published before I finished my first version of the quilt, and this time it looks like I won’t follow them to the t either.  Esther wanted a lot of heart fabric in her quilt, so I am going to end up with lots of leftover cross blocks after I add in the fabrics she specifically picked last time we went to Joanns together.  There were a few she picked from the rolled up fat quarter bin.  I am going to piece the back and incorporate the extras, but I’m not going to follow the quilt along directions for the back because of that.  Oh well, I plan to make one more version with blues and greens, so maybe I will actually do it the way it was planned by the lovely ladies who set up the quilt along.  Here are some of my fabrics:

I am using some cute deer, hedgehogs, mushrooms, polka dots, and of course those foxes!  It was supposed to be for Esther’s birthday, but with my 2 week sabbatical from sewing, it looks like she’ll be lucky to get it on her bed before the weather snaps.

Addictive Quilt Along

I joined the Across the Sea Quilt Along.  I am in love with this quilt!  At first I wasn’t totally sure I wanted to commit, so I decided to make a baby size quilt with some random cute Connecting Threads fabric I got on clearance. 

I also decided to use various background fabrics for each cross just to make it a little brighter and kid friendly.  It came together so fast and looks so adorable, that I immediately got to cutting out pieces for two more Greek cross quilts!  The next two I am making are tweaked a little in size to make it a little easier for me cutting it out quickly. 

Esther is turning 3 next week, so I am going to make her a quilt using the fabrics on the top right.  I bought those little foxes just for her.  They are a Monluna Anika print.  I am going to use Ash for the background.  And I plan to make one more in a combo of Denyse Schmidt’s new lines pictured above on the top left.  I am going to use Aqua for that background.  And the bottom left…these are some prints I ordered online (with the exception of the blue floral and red tile above it).  They are from a few lines (Amy Butler & Heather Bailey mainly) and I can’t wait to make something with them!!!