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!

Sweet Squares Baby Quilt

My husband’s coworker has a little girl last month. You know I have a thing for Aneela Hoey’s sweet fabric lines, so this quilt includes Little Apples, Sherbet Pips, and Walk in the Woods.

Oh how I love the foxes, mushrooms, and little doggies!  The girl on a swing is my favorite image from all her lines.  It reminds me of my daughters so much!

One of my favorite things about this quilt is I used all stash fabric for the entire thing.  I had these little dogs from Pampered Pooch by Moda just sitting on my shelf for years.  I’m glad they’ve finally found a purpose!  The pink fabric with stars was a clearance fabric from Connecting Threads.  The finished quilt is 36 x 42 inches.

Of course the whole thing is machine bound.  You can see how straight my stitching is getting on the back.  Practice really does make {almost} perfect!  Something I learned this time around about straight line quilting is to increase my stitch length to 4.0.  I read that somewhere online and would have never tried it.  Usually I do 3.2, which I thought was pretty long, but the advice was spot on.  The stitches look so much better longer.

Have a fantastic day!

Come What May

May is my month for the Stash Bee.  I am calling my quilt “Come What May” for that reason and because it is kind of an “improv” type of quilt, I am just sewing together the blocks willy-nilly as they come in the mail and will see how it turns out.

Here’s what it looks like so far.  I’ve received blocks from Tanya, Miki, and Jenelle.

I also finished up my Aneela Hoey quilt.  The binding/borders are a little wavy, but it’s in the dryer right now and I’m hoping to get some better (less wavy) photos of it tomorrow.

I really like this pattern.  It’s by Sew Bittersweet Designs and uses 2.5” squares, so it would be a perfect scrap-buster.  I am so into scrap quilts right now, how about you?  I’ve spent every spare dime I have buying scrap packs on Etsy the past few weeks.  It was a great way to get some designer fabric I’ve never seen in real life.

I stippled all over this quilt with gray thread from Connecting Threads.  The back is Kona Ash, the borders are Alexander Henry Heath in a dark pink, and the binding is gray with white polka dots. 

If you look close, the fabric isn’t white, it’s the pale pink square dots from Sherbet Pips.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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!!!

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate…

If you have a preschooler, I am sure you’ve been singing that song recently!  I saw this beautiful tablerunner which referenced this tablerunner.  I tried my best to make my own--they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

When I saw those cute little pumpkins, I knew I needed to make myself one.  And my sister-in-law asked for a fall themed tablerunner measuring exactly 13 x 33 inches, so I made her one with a border that fits to her specifications.  Ours is a little longer, probably 11 x 42 inches.

My husband wasn’t a fan of the taller pumpkins, so I think if you are going to make one, you would want shorter and squatter pumpkins.  I just joined together scraps and then made 4 small squares to make a snowball block.  I made the 4 snowball-making squares various sizes for each of the pumpkins.   Bea was even able to sew the diagonal line on each square!  She really loved helping.

Although I personally like the crazy pumpkins, I think they look better with vertical piecing.

I went with one of my smaller labels for my sister-in-law’s tablerunner.  I wrote my name and the year on the label.  This is the first time I’ve used an indelible quilt marker.  I have two larger labels with my name on them, but because this runner is kind of smallish, I wanted to use something size appropriate.   I have a few charms left from a Grand Finale pack and think I might make a few more of these.  They fun, fast, and easy!