Christmas Joy

This will be the last quilt that I finish this year.  I'm calling it "Christmas Joy".  It was a gift for my 8 month old granddaughter.  I machine quilted it myself.  I hope that someday she will enjoy having a Christmas quilt from her Grandmommy.  I know she will grow out of it size-wise, but it could be wall-hanging later on if she wants.  I haven't decided if I'm going to make getting a Christmas quilt into a tradition or not.  We'll see what next year brings.

Blue Lagoon

I actually finished binding this quilt the day before Thanksgiving, but I got so busy that I forgot to post it or even take a picture of it.  I gave it to my youngest son for Christmas.  It was going to be a "housewarming" gift for his new apartment, but since it was so close to Christmas I just decided to wait.  I named it "Blue Lagoon" after the fabric line that the 2-1/2 inch strips came from.

My cat, Dusty, is photo-bombing the picture.

Little Quilt for my Cats

I have two cats.  One is solid gray and the other is a black tortie.  They both like to camouflage themselves in matching blankets and covers.  Earlier this year I had my black and gray fabrics out in a heap on the loveseat in my sewing room.  The cats LOVED to get on the pile of fabric and nap, so I decided to use some of those fabrics and make a quilt for them.  I thought a simple 'puss in the corner' block repeated would make a good cat quilt.

They have an old shipping box that they like to lay in like a cat bed, so I'm going to drape this in the box.  It might make the box a little more comfy for them, and it should definitely make it look less like I just have an old Amazon box sitting around on the floor for no reason.  Hopefully it will be a win-win situation.

2017 Moda Project - Finished Quilt Top

So this year our Moda group decided to the Quilter's Patch quilt as our project.  I did a few blocks and decided that I didn't really like it that much, hated making the blocks, and didn't want to finish the quilt as patterned.  So I came up with my own design to use the blocks that I had made, and made a few more that I liked to go with them.  This is the finished top.  The original quilt had a greenhouse in the center, so I am calling mine "Inside the Greenhouse".  It is approximately 42 x 50 inches.

A New Purse for Camryn

My youngest son (who is 20 years old, btw) told my that his girlfriend said that she needed a new a purse.  I was wanting to make something for her, so I volunteered to make one for her. As far as I know it will be a surprise for her.  Her favorite color is green and she wears a lot of dark colors.  My son says that she will love it.  I hope so. 

New Cat toy

I made this cat toy a few months ago out of some scraps of left over quilted material.  You know, the edge that gets quilted by the long-armer that is just backing and batting.  I sewed it into a tube and stuffed it with plastic Walmart bags.  It took Cleopatra a while to warm up to it (as is the case with a lot of cat toys), but now she pounces on it, grabs it, and kicks it like crazy, which is exactly what I intended her do with it.

Autumn flowers

This year I signed up for the Flower Guild at my church.  That is the group that arranges the flowers that are on the altar.  I had never really learned to arrange flowers, but I have always wanted to learn. My friend Harriett said that the Flower Guild really needed some more people and she would teach me.  We arranged the flowers together several times and now it is time for me to start doing it on my own.  My first time will be in mid-November, so I am doing a little practicing at home.  I really like how these turned out.

Butterfly blocks for Moda

Our blocks for this month were butterfly blocks.  I didn't really like the butterfly block that was in the book, so I decided to make my own.  There are 8 inch blocks, just like the ones in the book, but they look very different.  These are the last blocks I plan to make for the quilt before I start assembling the quilt top.  Almost done with this quilt that I wish I had never started.  Hurray!

Scrappy Heart Quilt

This is a quilt top I made using some of the left over fabric from last year's Moda quilt.  I had an idea for a quilt made from a jelly roll that involves stripes and hearts.  I wanted to try out the heart block first on some scrap fabric before I started on the actual project with my jelly roll.  The project will use all of the jelly roll strips so there is really no room for trial and error there.  This isn't the same pattern as the hearts and stripes quilt, but it uses the same heart block.  Because, you know, once I had made the trial run heart block, I had to use it in something.

"Baby Blocks" Christmas Star

Here is the finished quilt top from the previous post.  I made a slightly narrower border than what the pattern called for, because it fit the width of my fabric better.  I didn't want seams in my border and the border fabric I was using was not 42-1/2 inches wide, it was only 41 inches (not including selvages).

The quilt top is 40-1/2 inches square.  Plus it will fit better onto the backing fabric as well.  I will still have a problem if I decide to have it long arm quilted, but I will probably quilt it myself, either on my regular machine or by hand.  I'm still deciding on that part.

Scrappy pot holder

I needed something to work on today, so I made this scrappy little pot holder.  It is made from cut-away corners on my Moda quilt from last year.

I saved a lot of cut off corners from that quilt.  I'm not sure what all I will end up doing with the rest of them.

Christmas Baby Quilt

I decided to make a Christmas quilt for my baby granddaughter for her first Christmas.  I saw the "Baby Blocks" quilt in the most recent issue of BLOCK magazine, from Missouri Star Quilt Company, and decided to give it a try. 

My problem with the pattern, as it is presented in both the magazine and the tutorial, is that the directions that they give don't actually produce the quilt that they show in the pictures.  The instructions say to use 4 jellyroll (2-1/2 inch) strips of fabrics to make one single strip set.  Cut 16 2-1/2 inch strips from the strip set and use them to create the four blocks that make up the center of the star.  The pictures used in the magazine and on the tutorial use way more than just 4 fabrics in the center.  That makes for a different look in the finished quilt. 

I decided to make the quilt following the actual directions given.  I used two red fabrics and two green fabrics to make the strip set, alternating the red and green in the strip set.  The pictures below show the basic options I came up with for the center of the star using the blocks that one strip set would actually create.  (I am sure there are a few others that I didn't think of.)

 Four blocks with green corners oriented toward the center.

 Four blocks with each block oriented in the same direction.

Four blocks with the red corners oriented toward the center.

I like the look of the red corners oriented toward the center, so that is the layout that I decided to go with.  I am still working on getting it sewn together, and it still needs a border, but I thought I would share these layouts in case anyone else was interested in what it would look like actually following the directions.

Layers of Charm - Moda Extra Project

This month our extra project for the Moda group was the Layers of Charm Quilt Pattern from Fat Quarter Shop.  I used a layer cake that I bought a few years ago called Healing Hearts.  I picked out a nice red to coordinate with the fabrics.  I wanted a color that was in the fabric, but would also give a good contrast to all the fabrics.  It is a super simple project.  You just add a five inch flippy corner to 36 of the fabrics in a layer cake, then sew them together in such a way as to create the diamonds.  No border or anything.  Of course you could add one if you wanted to, but the pattern doesn't call for it.  It finishes 57-1/2 inches square, a nice lap-sized quilt.

Dance of the Dragonflies fabric quilt

When I went to visit my mother-in-law in New Jersey last month, I visited a quilt shop up there.  I bought some jelly roll strips and fat quarters in the Dance of the Dragonflies fabric line.  In the past, when I buy fabric while I'm out of town, I never actually make anything with it.  So this time, I wanted to go ahead and make something out of it.  There were 12 jelly roll strips, 4 FQs, 1/2 yard of one fabric and 1 yard of another fabric.  This quilt was the result.

A few more Moda blocks

This year our project for the Moda group was the Quilter's Patch quilt by Edyta Sitar.  I did a few blocks and then decided that I really didn't like making the quilt.  The instructions were bad, the pieces were small, the flower blocks didn't really look that great, etc. etc.  So, I quit making them. 

But since I had already made three of the flower blocks (delphinium, cosmo, and daylily) and the cat block, I wanted to do something with the blocks I had already made.  I dreamed up a much smaller quilt that will use the blocks that I have already made (some of them slightly deconstructed) and a few more blocks thrown in as well. 

This month we were supposed to make 3 flower pot blocks and the segments of the watering can that go in the border.  My alternate quilt design uses 8 flower pots and the watering can as a complete block, so I made them to show at the next meeting.  We were also supposed to do part of the rake and one other flower block, but I don't need them, so I didn't do them.  The only other blocks I need are the butterfly blocks.  I don't like the ones in the book, so I plan to make different ones, but I will wait until the butterflies are assigned before I make them. 

Once I picked the book back up to make these blocks I remembered exactly why I stopped making them in the first place.  As far as I'm concerned, this is an awful book.  I will never buy another book or pattern by Edyta Sitar again.

Scrappy Mountain Majesty

Our guild project for July was the Scrappy Mountain Majesty quilt by Bonnie Hunter.  I didn't finish it in time to show at guild this month, but at least I will have it for next month.  The original was done all in scraps, as you can imagine from a Bonnie Hunter quilt, but I decided to do mine a little less scrappy.  The blue is all one fabric and the yellows and oranges are 7 different fabrics, a quarter yard of each.

On the night of the guild meeting when we were given the project, my husband and I took a walk after the meeting and there was a really beautiful sunset.  It gave me the idea to do the quilt in sunset colors.  The dark blue and the sunset colors formed a split complimentary color scheme, that I thought would work out well for a little color theory practice, as well.  I got my trusty Color Play book by Joan Wolfrom, and headed to the quilt shop to pick the fabrics.  I wanted to be as true as I could to the split complimentary color palate. I picked tone-on-tone fabrics in blue, and orange through yellow and went to work.

I originally intended to use a different layout for the blocks. My first thought was to do the layout that she calls "Mirror Image Mountains", but when I laid the blocks out in that design it seemed too busy.  I rearranged them into this layout, "Zigzag Mountains", and I liked it a lot better.  Keeping the blue fabric together seemed better to me.  It looks a little less like mountains at sunset, maybe, but I still like it better this way.  My son, the graphic designer, says that it makes him think of the sunset reflected on water ripples, like on the ocean.  Sounds good to me.

I think it turned out pretty nice.  It is not the sort of thing that I normally do, but I am happy with it none the less.  I'm not sure yet what color thread I want it quilted in or what design.  But at least the top is finished.

Patriotic bag

I know that it is after the 4th of July, but I wanted to go ahead and make this bag anyway.  I figured that I can use it until the end of July at least.  I actually got the idea for the bag around the 4th of July, and I went ahead and ordered the fabric.  I didn't want to wait about making it, because I was afraid I would forget about it by the time next summer rolled around.  I tend to do that with projects, I buy the fabric, don't work on it right away, and then either forget about it or lose interest in making it.  I didn't want that to happen this time, so here it is, my new patriotic bag!

On the Go

I finished the binding on this quilt on our trip home from New Jersey.  It is the finished product of our "Little Apples" Moda extra project from a few months back.  I decided to call it "On the Go" because of the fabric with the roads and vehicles.  I plan to donate it to my church's blanket drive this year.  We give the donated blankets to the Child Advocacy Center here in town.

Charm Square Star baby quilt

This is a quilt design that I came up with to use the rest of my charm squares from the Checkerboard and Diamonds baby quilt.  It is a very simple star-in-a-star design using half square triangles (made from charm squares) and from charm squares trimmed down to 4-1/2 inch squares.  I think it will make a nice baby quilt for a little girl.  My cat, Dusty, is photo-bombing the picture.

The pattern is available here for free.  Enjoy.

Cascades pillowcase

I made this pillowcase from the leftover fabric from my Cascades quilt. I was going through my sewing room, trying to find project boxes to put my upcoming projects in.  I found that the leftover fabric from my Cascades quilt was still boxed up and hadn't been put into the main stash yet.  I saw that I had plenty of fabric left over to make a pillowcase, and since the quilt is a twin-size bed quilt, I thought it would be nice to have a matching pillowcase.  So today, I stitched one up really quick. 

I think that in the future I will try to remember to always buy enough fabric to make a matching pillowcase or two when I am making a bed quilt.  I think it looks really nice to have matching pillowcases on top of the quilt.  The trick will be remembering...

Jellyroll heart block

My latest quilt design idea involves jellyroll strips and heart blocks.  I wanted to test out my heart block design and sewing instructions on some scrap fabric before I cut into my jellyroll, so I made this sample.  I think it turned out really well.  The piecing went together quickly and easily, so I think the project is a go.

Moda Quilt Matching Pillowcase

I made a pillowcase to match my 2016 Moda quilt, Finding Mickey.  Ironically, I guess, the pillowcase doesn't have a Mickey Mouse to find.  It is made from the same fabrics as the backing and both borders, none of which was Mickey Mouse fabric.  I guess I should have used the Mickey Mouse fabric for the accent piece or the outer band, but I don't know if I had enough fabric for that anyway.  Oh well, it is a matching pillowcase, none the less.

Moda Extra Project - Latin Lady

Our extra project for our Moda class this month was the Latin Lady quilt by Villa Rosa Designs.  (It is also our guild project for next month.) I decided to do mine in Kansas Troubles fabrics.  It uses the majority of two charm packs.  I used two different charm packs - Favorites and Aunt Purdy's Parlor.  The yardage was from a different Kansas Troubles collection, but I don't even know which one.

I plan to piece the backing from 9 different Kansas Troubles fabrics and then quilt it myself on my home sewing machine.  I plan to use this quilt as an everyday sofa quilt to cuddle under.  I think it will be a good size for that at 51 x 64 inches.

Checkerboard and Diamonds

This is my latest design creations.  I am currently calling it "checkerboard and diamonds" because the center is like a checkerboard and it is surrounded by diamond-esque squares on point.  The center is made from a Moda candy (or mini-charm pack) of 2-1/2 inch squares alternated with white 2-1/2 inch squares.  The squares on point are charm squares, set on point with white half-square triangles.  The border is from yardage.  All the print fabric is from the Colette line by Chez Moi.

New quilted bag

I made this bag from fabric that I had in my stash.  It uses the same pattern as my Not Quite Giant Jellyroll Bag, except this time it is not giant and it doesn't even use 2-1/2 inch strips.  I also added a flap and button closure to make it more like a purse, which is my intended use for it.  I have to stop making bags with this pattern.  It really isn't fun.  I'm not sure why I decided to do it again.  Oh well, at least I have a new purse!

Pot holder swap

For our May meeting, my quilt quilt is having a pot holder swap.  Everyone is supposed to bring a homemade pot holder, and we are going to have some sort of creative way to swap them, not sure what that is going to entail.  I made mine out of an orphan block I had laying around.  It has a layer of regular quilt batting and a layer or Insul-bright inside to make it heat proof.

One of my quilting friends found a cute little picture on pinterest that says that there are no mistakes in quilting - only pot holders.  I think that is good idea!

Finding Mickey - 2016 Moda Quilt

Here is my finished Moda 2016 quilt.  I decided to call it "Finding Mickey" because Mickey Mouse is hiding in every row of the quilt.  It is pictured on my queen-size bed, but it is intended for a twin-size bed.  I finally finished the binding on it while I was waiting at the hospital for the birth of my first grandchild.  She was born a week ago, but I just got a day at home.  This quilt is a little more "boy-friendly" (I avoided using flower prints and pink) than my little granddaughter may want, but I also have a "girl-friendly" floral twin-size quilt that she can use if she prefers.

Moda Extra Project

I worked on this one Tuesday and Wednesday.  It is the extra project for our Moda class this month, Aneela Hoey's "Little Apples".  Well, technically it is a variation on our Moda extra project.  The original was larger (51" x 59-1/2"), used a whole layer cake, and didn't have a border.  I had half of a layer cake left over from a previous project and decided to use it (This one turned out to be 43" x 51-1/2").  I was planning to put the border on the whole time, but it really looked busy without it.  I think adding the border helped.  It isn't beautiful or anything, but I think it would make a good "dragging around blanket" as my dad call them.  Plus, since I wasn't going to do all the blocks for this month, I thought maybe I should at least do the extra project.

Moda quilt block for April

I really liked the way this block looked so I decided to make it.  It is the only one that I made of the 3 we were assigned this month.  I am not planning to make any more of the regular blocks for the quilt this year.  I just don't enjoy doing them.  I might try making one or two of them as larger blocks, but I just don't want to do any more toward making the original quilt.  I will figure out something to do with the blocks I have made already, but I am not going to slog through the whole quilt.  Hobbies are supposed to be fun, and for me, this quilt isn't.

More grand-mommy sewing!

Yesterday I spent my sewing day making cloth wipes.  My son and daughter-in-law are planning to use cloth diaper and cloth wipes on the baby once she gets out of the absolutely newborn stage.  The picture at the top is a dozen flannel two-ply wipes that finish at 8-1/2 inches square.  The bottom picture is three smaller wipes that I made with the scraps of leftover fabric.  They are 6 x 8-1/2 inches.  I thought they would make nice face wipes.

I pre-washed the fabric in baby detergent and hot water to preshrink it and soften it up.  Then I cut out 9 inch squares.  I sewed the squares together using a 1-4 inch seam and my walking foot, leaving about a two inch gap for turning it right side out.  I turned them right side out, and then top stitched about 1/8 of an inch or less from the edge all the way around to close up gap and secure the seam.  Hopefully they will work well.  Some things I have read say they need a few washings before they really start working well.

Some grand-mommy shopping

I did a little shopping yesterday for my soon-to-be-born granddaughter.  I didn't want to give the bag (featured in the previous post) away empty.  I hope the mom-to-be likes it.

Cat block for Moda class

I just barely got this one finished in time for class today.  I have been so stressed trying to get my assigned sewing done this month.  In fact, so much so that I didn't get it all done.  We were assigned 3 blocks for this month and I only did one.  I just am not feeling the quilt this year.  All the small pieces on so many of the blocks (not this one) are just not fun to work with.  I keep waffling back and forth on whether or not to continue with it.

Not Quite Giant Jellyroll Bag

Our project for this month's quilt guild meeting was the Giant Jellyroll bag from Shabby Fabrics.  We were told to go to the Shabby Fabrics website and print off the free pattern.  I did, but apparently, I didn't do it the correct way.  I clicked on "download free pattern" and it opened in the browser window.  From that window, I clicked "print."  It would seem that if you want the pattern to print at the correct size, you have to actually download the pattern and open it in Adobe.  Make sure it is set to 100% scale and then print.  So mine ended up a little less than "giant".  Not that it was really that big to begin with.  It would have been nice if it had been a bit bigger, like the original pattern, because I was making it for my daughter-in-law to use as a diaper bag, but I'm sure it will be fine.  Here is a picture of the inside with two nice, big pockets.

I think I might try again to make it with the right size pattern.  Not sure what fabrics I would use.  I think it would also be nice if you put pockets on the outside as well as the inside.  You wouldn't bother with jellyroll strips for the outside if you were doing it that way, though.  Unless you were going to cut the exterior pockets out of jellyroll strips.  That might work.  I would have to measure.

Green Day!

Here is the finished product, hanging on my living room wall.  I really like the color of green in it.  It is machine quilted with variegated green thread.  I went with the name "Green Day" because I like for my quilt names to have musical references and St. Patrick's Day is the day when everything turns green!

St. Patrick's Wall Hanging

Yesterday I made this cute little wall hanging for St. Patrick's Day.  This is a picture of the completed top.  I layered it up last night and quilted it today (on the sewing machine).  The binding it attached and ready to be turned, but I won't work on the binding until my next road trip.  But hopefully it should be ready to hang on the wall by St. Patrick's Day.

Lilah's Rose Garden

Here is a picture of the finished quilt that I made for my soon-to-be granddaughter.  Her name is going to be Lilah Rose, so that is why it has an "L" in the center.  The picture was taken today at the baby shower.  I still need to make a label for the quilt, but I am waiting until I can put her birth date on it.

Second Moda block

So many small pieces in this one.  The smallest patches are cut at 1 inch square.  If I was going to make this block again, I would scale it up two or three times bigger.  It would make a pretty wall hanging if you did that.  I'm not sure about continuing to make the blocks at the given sizes when they have all these little pieces.  It was not fun at all.

First Moda Block (Half of February assignment)

Yesterday I worked on my blocks for the Moda Class.  This year we are doing the Quilter's Patch quilt from Edyta Sitar's book by the same name.  I still have another block to do before we meet this month on the 15th.  It took all afternoon to make this one block.  There are so many small pieces.  This is a 12 inch (finished) block, just for the record.

I am doing mine in batik fabrics instead of the Laundry Basket fabric that the original is in.  I am trying to follow the same color scheme, though.

Valentine Place Mats

This month for our quilt guild project, we were supposed to make a heart table runner.  I didn't really want to make the table runner, because it was too big for the table that I use a table runner on.  So, instead of making a table runner I wouldn't actually use, I decided to use the elements of the table runner to make a couple of place mats.  I had to do a little figuring to translate it into place mats, but for me that is half (or maybe more than half) the fun.  The finished place mats are 13 inches by 16 inches.

I also did something new, for me, when it came to quilting them.  I free-motion quilted them using my regular home sewing machine.  I had never actually done that on a project before.  Anytime in the past, when I had tried it on a scrap, I always ended up with a snarled mess on the back of the fabric.  It has been a long time since I tried before, so I'm not sure what all I did differently this time.  But I didn't adjust the tension at all and I didn't drop the feed dogs.  I just put on the darning foot and quilted it.  I think it turned out looking really nice.  It isn't perfect or anything, but I like the way it looks.  You can see the quilting a little better in the picture below.

Lilah's quilt top

This is the finished quilt top for the quilt that I am making for my new grandbaby that is due to arrive on April 3rd.  Her name is going to be Lilah Rose, so that is why there is an "L" in the center of the quilt.  The "L" is machine appliqued.  The top is made of simple half square triangle blocks.  I put them together into 4-patch blocks, added the applique, then sewed the 4-patches together as a large 9-patch unit.  Really fast and easy.  The finished top is approximately 39 inches by 39 inches.

2016 In Review

Last year I finished 9 quilt and 1 quilted candle mat, made 6 quilt tops that didn't get finished (UFOs), and did a couple of small projects that weren't quilted items (some burp clothes and a Christmas ornament).  That makes 12 completed projects for the year, which is always my goal.

I suppose that maybe in 2017 I should try to finish up some those UFOs that I created in 2016.  But part of the problem with that is that I'm not sure what I want to do with them, which is one of the main reasons that they didn't get finished in 2016.  One of them, however, is currently at the quilt shoppe to be quilted, so it should get done this year with no problem.

I still have one project from my 2015 quilting to-do list that I have not finished - hand quilt something.  Maybe I will get around to that this year as well.  I do like hand quilting, but it just takes so much time.  I am thinking maybe I will do a pillow.  Possibly something whole-cloth with a nice quilting design.