Modern Butterflies

The Maya fat quarter bundle I saw online was calling my name this spring.  I kept looking at it and looking at it, and finally after a few weeks of drooling over it, I just went for it and bought it!  I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the fabric, but I came up with this little lap quilt after using my Kona aqua and a few Alexander Henry crossweave fabrics I had in my stash.

 

Now, I started this quilt at the end of May.  This n That Fabrics is having an Awesome Autumn Challenge and I decided to use these fabrics as my inspiration. 

I cut all my fabrics and made the quilt top (and added a few more from my stash), but getting from a top to a basted quilt sandwich is always a big hurdle for me.

Once I got this quilt basted, it only took two nights to quilt it.  I have to say the quilting I envisioned (and practiced drawing for a half hour before attempting to sew it) didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped.  I did free motion waves vertically and horizontally. 

Now for my favorite part!  I had all these little triangles left over from trimming my butterflies.  I couldn’t just throw them away and my scrap basket is overflowing, so I made some flying geese to liven up the back.  I still have plenty more triangles to make more flying geese…maybe a modern baby quilt?   The other backing fabric is Summersville, as is the binding.  It coordinates so well with Maya and  of course is orange, which seems to be my favorite color lately.

I’m not one hundred percent sure these shapes look like butterflies or more like arrows.  But no matter what, it was fun to make up the blocks.   You can see the other quilts in the challenge on their Flickr Group. 

I used spray basting again and machine attached the binding as usual.

The quilt measures 50” x 57”—the perfect size for a lap quilt.

Baby Elephant Dance Complete!

This quilt measures about 39” square. 

The fussy cut fabric is called Kharma Baby, most of the log cabin fabric is DS Quilts and Metro Circles, and the sashing is Kona ash. I used warm and white batting and the backing is a wonderful fabric from Connecting Threads from their Quilter’s Candy collection. It is light gray with little stars all over it.

I used a zig-zag stitch to machine bind this quilt and you can see it’s getting more and more accurate on the back as I’m sewing from the front.  It’s just taken a lot of practice.  This is probably my tenth quilt I’ve completely machine bound.

Here is a peek of the next project I’m working on.  The fabrics in this one are from the Maya collection. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday!

Broken Camera

I dropped our camera on the kitchen floor with the lens extended yesterday.  I had to order a new camera, so I am short on photos of my quilting endeavors.  We are getting our third Canon PowerShot in seven years.  Granted, we use the camera basically everyday, but still that seems like a lot of cameras.  And our last one stopped working while I was in labor with Veronica.  Seriously, about 3 hours after we arrived at the hospital, my husband had to run to Walmart to get a new camera!!!  All three of our cameras have suffered from the nebulous “lens error” which really just means “broken for good.”  I’m not sure if I’d ever recommend buying a Canon, but we are getting two new ones as part of the Canon loyal customer program.  I traded in two defunct cameras and am getting my husband a nice replacement point-and-shoot and myself a cheap Elph so I won’t feel so bad next time I drop it!

I started a new quilting project yesterday using “Maya” by Leah Duncan, three quilter’s linens (I added one after taking this photo), and Kona aqua.  Is anyone tired of Kona aqua yet?  I’m not!  I’m not tired of Kona ash, either!

And right before I dropped the camera, I snapped a few photos of our yard.  I have painted the front door (color to be revealed once I have a camera to take a photo with). 

We went to a wedding over the weekend and the kids got little goodie bags that included these disposable cameras.  They took all 27 photos in about 2 minutes, but the fun lasted much much longer than that!

We also have this funny looking Pinocchio tomato growing in our garden.  It is one of the few that haven’t been gotten by the squirrels or Veronica.

And here are the first cherry tomatoes which should be ripe and ready to eat by the weekend.