Great Granny {the tablerunner}

Earlier in the year I won this copy of Lori Holt’s book on Red Pepper Quilts.

I like a lot of the patterns in this book and I’m happy to have it as part of my home library.  In January we remodeled our bedroom, and sadly our dresser has been “decorated” with an old bath towel on top to protect the surface from the TV and other electronics stored there.

But that’s all about to change!

I’ve been planning this tablerunner in my mind for several months, knowing I wanted to choose fabrics that would look sophisticated and pop out against a black background.  Slowly I built up a pile of potential fabrics and this past weekend I finally started cutting the squares.

The cream is Essex linen, and a lot of the fabrics are scraps, hooray!  The first seven blocks are sewn and squared up, just seven more to go.  The squares finish at 1” and it takes me about 75 minutes to sew one (already cut) from start to end, so this is all I’ve been working on the past four nights.

Hopefully I will have a finish to share soon!

Festival of Strings Part II

Last Friday when we were cleaning up the sewing room, Esther found a bag of Halloween fabric cut into 2” strips and some squares.  I had cut these almost 3 years ago and never sewed any together except one block.  We sewed all afternoon on Friday.  Esther learned how to press the blocks and she arranged them all on the design wall.  Then on Saturday she sewed a few of the blocks together herself on my sewing machine!  I had to keep reminding her to watch the fabric feed through the machine, but overall she did a great job lining up the fabric with the 1/4” foot.  So this is her quilt as much as it’s something I made.

I’m thinking of having this one professionally quilted with some kind of cute Halloween pantograph.  It’s the perfect size for the couch and will certainly be finished by this Halloween (I think)!  It only took 3 years and a determined four year old to get the top done…

Linking this to Stitched In Color’s Festival of Strings.  Take a look, there are lots of beautiful quilts to admire!

Another baby quilt

Lots of my friends and family are having baby boys this winter.  I’ve made quite a few little boy quilts the past two months.  The latest is a little different than the log cabin quilts I’ve been making.

Of course the fabric is elephants!  The line is called “Bungle Jungle.”  I love the primary colors.  Each sashing strip is from a line by Jenn Ski that I just had in my stash.  The binding is a polka dot on blue by Connecting Threads.  The finished quilt measures 42 x 46. 

I was able to pick up some matching backing fabric at a great price at one of the many Black Friday sales events. 

I used the seams for a guide and quilted a 1/4” inside all the seams.  I like the look of the straight lines across the backing.

Who couldn’t use a ginormous bottle of wine and cute baby blanket to celebrate the birth of baby boy #2????

My daughters sang in church this past Sunday.  Bea stood by Esther even though that meant she had to stand with the preschoolers (which she wasn’t thrilled about because she is in first grade, don’t forget!). 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!  Linking up to Tuesday at the Table and Freemotion by the River.

Finished Quilt Top

My husband was on travel for work the past week.  It was quite an experience taking care of three kids ages 5, 2, and 7 months singlehandedly for a week.  On the last night, after returning from the pool, I gave the kids a bath and was mentally patting myself on the back for being the most  awesomest mom in the world—all three kids had had a bath every day since my husband left, when my eyes rested on the toothpaste sitting on the sink counter.  I couldn’t remember the last time they had brushed their teeth—2 days ago?  3?  Oh well, I did a pretty good job!
I didn’t get any sewing done last week (or much sleep for that matter—thanks, Esther), but last night I finished up my sister-in-law’s quilt top and I think it turned out quite nicely.  I can’t find my measuring tape anywhere since my kids spirit them away every time they see it to play doctor, but I estimate it finishes around 60” x 68”, the perfect size for a couch quilt.  I am going to piece the back and have 3 or 4 blocks left over to include in the back, but I can’t get started on that until I find those leftover blocks.  I guess I need to straighten up my sewing room!

I love the way the quilt came out, and what I love even more is that every single fabric came from my stash except the 4 fat quarters of knitting-themed fabric I bought as the focal point for the quilt.  I think I might use solid black for the binding. 
Up next:  I have 2 more UFOs to get out of the way that are close to completion and then I’m going to get started on Crazy Mom Quilt’s star quilt from the MBS new book Fun Fresh Treats.  I ordered that book and the Farmer’s Wife book 2 weeks ago and have been ogling them every time I nurse my baby (which is still a couple of times a day, so I get to look at them a lot)!).