Squares for Cyndi

Back during the Iron Quilter challenge, I made a quilt. Some of the ladies at my local quilt shop said that I should write up a pattern for the design. So recently I wrote up the directions and got them printed.  The pattern is named "Squares for Cyndi" because Cyndi, at the quilt shop, really encouraged me to write the pattern and would ask about it most times that she saw me in the shop.  The pattern is now for sale at The Front Porch Quilt Shoppe, as a printed pattern, and at Etsy as a PDF download.

This is a shop sample for the pattern.  It is made with daydream fabric by Kate Spain for Moda.

Butterfly Trails

I finished the baby quilt made from the February Moda blocks (featured here) today.  It finished 38 inches square.  I machine quilted in the ditch between the blocks and through the center of each block in both directions.  I also quilted in the ditch on either side of the white border.  The binding is also done by machine.  It is top-stitched down with a star decorative stitch.  I named it "butterfly trails" because the fabric is butterfly fabric (including the backing fabric) and I thought the pink and blue patches sort of made trails across the quilt.

Pixie Stix

 I finished sewing the binding on this one on Tuesday.  The quilt top is originally featured in this post.  It is the third top that I made from the jelly roll, but I finished it second.  Mostly because the uninterrupted straight-line quilting meant fewer threads to bury than in the second top I finished. 

I decided to name it Pixie Stix after the candy in the paper straws.  One of my sons said that the fabric made him think of candy.  Once I was thinking about candy, the long strips in the pastel colors made me think of Pixie Stix.

I sewed the label on yesterday. For some reason, the date that I put on a quilt is always the date that I finished binding it, even if I don't sew the label on until the next day.  I guess it is because the quilt is finished and usable at that point.  In fact, my grandmother and father don't even put labels on their quilts.  I've told my dad that he should, but he still doesn't.  He has started quilting his initials (and I think maybe the year) into the quilt, so that is something.  My grandmother doesn't quilt anymore (she's 97 years old), so the best I could do is label the quilts of hers that I have.  I may do that, at least with her name.

February blocks in a baby quilt

I really like the pattern that these blocks make when they work together.  I did have to fudge just a little bit on this one.  It is actually the two blocks we got in February for the Moda Size Matters quilt, but it also includes the mirror image of one of the blocks. 

I just used fabric from my stash on this one.  I like the fabric, but the pieces are so small that the butterflies on the fabric doesn't really show up that well.  It probably would have been better in different fabric, but I used what I had.  The fabric that I have for the backing, also from my stash, is multicolored with butterflies on it.  I'm not sure yet how I want to quilt it.

February block - guild quilt

This is my Santa face block for our guild sampler project.  For right now, his eyes are just dots, but they will eventually be buttons.  I'm not adding any embellishments until after it is quilted.

The original pattern that we were given was assembled as 16 squares in a 4 x 4 configuration, but I redrafted it so that it had fewer unnecessary seams.  I had heard that several of the guild members were having trouble with one of the sections (the square where there was background, hat, and hat trim all coming together in one square) so I decided to avoid the problem all together.  Other than the fact that it has fewer seams, the finished block looks the same as the original.

Ellie Ann quilt

When I first saw this fabric, I fell in love with it, but it has given me fits as to what to do with it.  When I bought it, I had a plan of exactly what I was going to do with it.  However, once I had the layer cake in hand, I didn't think it would look right in that pattern, so I went back to the drawing board.

I decided to go with fence rail blocks, but then I wasn't sure about the layout.  For me, the issue is that the variety of colors in the collection are not equal, so it makes it hard to design around.  I think that I'm going to go with the general layout pictured above.  It is mostly symmetrical, so I think it works.  I also considered a layout where the colors moved diagonally across the quilt, but my kids thought the symmetrical layout was better.

Now I need to sew it together and order some fabric for the borders.

A New Bag

I made this bag as a gift for my daughter-in-law.  Her birthday was on Sunday, but I just made the bag today.  Her purchased gift didn't arrive until today either, so she can get her gift in a homemade gift bag. :)

The bag is made from some of the left over fabric from the wedding gift quilt.  This time I decided to try using 2 1/2 inch strips instead of 5 inch squares to make the bag.  The dimensions turn out a little different, but it is basically the same as the other bags I've made recently.  I hope she likes it.

February blocks - Size Matters

Here are my blocks from February's meeting of the Moda Friendship group at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe.  I did them both as 12-inch blocks this time.  I really like the block on the left.  It is a simple block, but it has good motion in it.

I haven't come up with neat combination for these blocks yet.  But I'm still working on it.

Autumn Splendor

I finally finished my row swap quilt from last year's guild project.  I got it back from the long-armer last month, I finished sewing the binding on Tuesday, and I made and attached the label last night.  It is made for a twin size bed, but it is shown here on a queen size bed.  You can see the whole quilt better on the queen sized bed because almost none of it hangs off.

Even though all the rows were made by different people, it really blends together very well.  I really enjoyed working on the row swap project.  And, it is nice to have a quilt that was made by the combined efforts of so many friends.  It is a good memory to cherish.

Bear Hug

It's finished with time to spare.  Last night I finished sewing the binding on it, and this morning I made and attached the label.  I decided to name it "Bear Hug" because of the bear paw blocks in the corners and the circle (the Hug of Xs and Os) in the center.  I also thought hugs were appropriate for the Valentine theme of the fabric.

It finished 20 inches square and is machine pieced and machine quilted.  I quilted it in the ditch around the main elements of the blocks - the bear paws, the diamonds (including the line across), and the circle in the center.

January blocks in a wall hanging

I was playing around with the Moda blocks that we got directions for in January (see previous post) and I came up with a design using just those three blocks.  I really liked the design, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  I considered using 12-inch blocks and making a baby quilt out of it.  I considered using 3-inch blocks and just making a 9-inch block out of it that I would then use as part of a larger quilt. 

However, after looking around at the fabric at the quilt shop, I finally decided on some cute Valentine fabric from Basic Grey by Moda (Kissing Booth, I think).  I thought it would work best as a small wall-hanging.  I used 6-inch blocks and then put a 1-inch strip of border around the outside.

I'm hoping to get it quilted and bound before Valentine's Day, so that I can hang it up this year.  I really need to plan these things further in advance.

Size Matters blocks - January

This year I decided to join the Moda U (I think that's what it's called. Update: apparently if is officially called Moda Friendship) group at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe down in Ozark.  We will be doing the Size Matters blocks from the Moda blog-hop back in the fall.  Each month we will be getting the directions for two or three of the blocks and making them in whatever size we like.

There are 27 blocks in the series and I only wanted to use each block once, which creates something of a challenge.  I also liked the idea of using more than one size of block, since we would be getting directions for multiple sizes.  After much consideration, and much sketching, I came up with a layout and a size that I liked and figured up how much fabric to buy.

I went down to the quilt shop and wandered through the various fabric collections.  I had originally considered something bright and spring-like, but couldn't settle on anything that I liked well enough for the design I had chosen.  I finally decided to ditch the bright/spring idea and went with a layer cake of "Sweet Pea" fabric from Kansas Troubles.  They have great lights and darks in the collection.  However, I ended up getting my background fabric from the "Icicle Kisses" line, also by Kansas Trouble.  I really think that anything from Kansas Troubles would work well in the quilt, and I plan to pick up a few fat quarters from some of the other KT lines the next time I'm in the shop.

Here is a picture of the blocks I made from the January instructions.

Two are six inch blocks and one is a 12 inch block.  As the diagram above indicates, I will be making 15 blocks in the larger size and 12 blocks in the smaller size.  After making these blocks, I'm thinking that one layer cake may not be enough fabric for the blocks anyway, so I'm really likely to need those extra fat quarters before all is said and done.  And, of course, making blocks that I'm not happy with and starting over doesn't help matters any either.

I liked the idea of using a dark and a medium fabric on this block instead of a dark and a light.  I thought that having the lighter colored background in the fabric would give enough contrast, but I just wasn't happy with it.  It is much more striking in the dark and light fabrics.

January block - Guild Quilt

Our block for January was a Christmas Tree block.  I used four different green fabrics for the tree, graduating in value from darkest at bottom to brightest at the top.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to put any embellishments on it.  If I do, it won't be until after it is quilted, most likely.  If I decide to have it quilted, I would have to take the embellishments off first anyway.

Sunshine & Flowers

Last night, I finally finished the first of the stacked coins baby quilts that I made from the Riley Blake jelly roll.  I decided to name it "Sunshine & Flowers" because the fabric line is called "my sunshine" and the main fabric of the quilt has flowers on it.

I machine quilted it in the ditch around all of the "coins".  As it turns out, that makes for a lot of thread ends to bury.  I may try to come up with a different plan before I quilt the other stacked coins baby quilt.  I really pleased with how the quilting turned out, though.  No puckers at all.  The combination of a new sewing machine, with a good walking foot, and spray basting adhesive really worked out well.

I also machine bound it.  I used green thread to match the border and binding fabric and used a feather stitch to sew it down.  It is not as neat as if it were hand turned, but it looks okay and it should be very sturdy for regular use.

The final measurements on the quilt were 38 x 38 inches square.

A race to the finish

This is the final baby quilt top from that Riley Blake - My Sunshine jelly roll that I ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Instead of doing stacked coins, I made this one into a race quilt, which had actually been the intention for all three quilts in the beginning.  This one measures 40 inches square.  I think that this one would also make a nice little quilt for a baby girl.  So many tops, so few finished quilts. . .

Stacked Coins in Pink

This little quilt top is made from the same jelly roll as the last quilt top.  (There is a third one yet to come.)  It measures approximately 38 inches x 38 inches and uses 13 jelly roll strips, just like the last one.  I'm not sure yet which baby girl will be getting this quilt once it is finished.  I have two cousins expecting baby girls and there is a new baby girl at our church.  I guess only time will tell.

Stacked Coins baby quilt top

This is my latest project.  I worked on it on Tuesday, but never got around to posting it.  It is a baby quilt that I am making for one of my husband's colleagues whose wife just had a baby.

The quilt top is made from 13 jelly roll strips, for the coins and inner sashing, and half a yard of matching yardage for the border.  I plan to use the blue polka dot fabric for the backing, and the dark green floral (from the border) for the binding.  My intention is to machine quilt in the ditch between each of the coins and between the coins and the sashing.  Then I will probably quilt one or two straight lines around the whole quilt in the border.

Christmas Stocking

Today I made a Christmas stocking for my new daughter-in-law.  I wanted her to have a stocking here at my house so that hopefully she will feel like part of the family.  Her's will be a little different from the guy's stockings, because theirs have white fleece at the top, but I don't think she will mind.  I don't know what happened to my white fleece. . .

Anyway, the stocking is made from poinsettia fabric with a solid green lining.  The top fabric is quilted to the batting.  Then the lining and outside fabrics were sewn together wrong-side out.  Then the whole thing was turned pillowcase style.

Birthday Bag

Today is my mother's birthday, and I made her this bag as a birthday present.  It uses the same basic pattern as the other bags I've made recently, but it doesn't use charm squares.  I wanted this bag to be a little bigger than the bags I made previously, so I cut 6 inch squares to use instead of the charms.  I also cut the strip for the bottom of the bag a little wider, too; it is 9 inches wide instead of 7 inches wide.  When I boxed the bottom of the bag, I came in 2 inches instead of 1.5 inches. 

The only thing that is smaller on this bag is the handles.  My mom wanted them shorter because she says she doesn't carry her purse on her shoulder.  Because of the shorter handles, I moved the handles closer in to the center of the bag.  She also didn't want a closure for the top of the bag, so that was omitted as well.  I hope she enjoys it.

Christmas Chaos

This is the finished quilt from the top featured in this post.  It is made from a Christmas Countdown layer cake.  I machine quilted straight lines across the quilt at 3 inch intervals.  I considered quilting at 3 inch intervals going up and down as well, but decided against it. I also considered machine binding it, but opted to hand turn the binding instead.

This is a picture of the label on the back.  After much agonizing, I decided to name it "Christmas Chaos".  Since the quilt has a random design, I thought that chaos was an appropriate descriptor for it.  Plus, Christmas time is often a chaotic time of year, so it seemed fitting in that regard as well.

Auburn Coasters

This Saturday is the Pike County Habitat for Humanity annual Giant Cookie Sale.  And while these certainly aren't cookies, I plan to donate them to the cookie sale.  (The sale actually includes cookies, candies, cakes, and crafts.) 

I made 8 coasters that measure approximately 4 inches square.  They have Auburn Tiger fabric on top.  The top is quilted to the batting only.  Then they are finished by adding an orange square of fabric for the backing, using a pillow turn technique. Then finally, it is top stitched close to the edge all the way around.

Here they are all packaged up for the sale.  I was thinking I would price them at $5 per set (of 4 coasters), but I'll wait and ask at the drop-off before I actually put a price on them.

Christmas fabric purse

I enjoyed using my fall themed bag so well that I decided to make one out of Christmas fabric.  This one uses the same pattern as the last one, but with a few utilitarian additions.  I added a small pocket inside to keep my chapstick and nail clippers. 

 And I added a D-ring to clip my keys to, so they would be easy to find.

The D-ring is attached to a fabric strip that is then sewn into the seam that attaches the outside of the bag to the lining.  It was added at the same time as the shoulder straps and the top closure.

Square Dance

This little quilt was made to enter in the Iron Quilter 2 competition over at the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It is made from one Lovely (by RJR fabrics) charm pack with the addition of some some off-white " Basic Gray" fabric from Moda.  The quilt is made completely by machine.  The only exception is that I added the label by hand.  It finished 34 inches square.

I really hadn't intended to enter the Iron Quilter competition and didn't even initially purchase the charm pack when it was the Deal of the Day.  However, when I was ordering some other fabric later, I noticed that they still had the charm packs at the discount price, so I ordered one.  I really had no idea what to do with it that would make a quilt and use all the charms so I just set it aside and figured I wouldn't enter. 

But on Friday I got an email reminding people to enter and I had an epiphany.  I could use the same idea used here in this jelly roll quilt, but use half charms instead.  I headed down to the quilt shop that afternoon, and voila, now I have a finished quilt.  I'm sure it won't win anything, but I really enjoyed making it.  I think it will make a pretty wall hanging for the spring.

Christmas Countdown Throw

Today's project is a throw sized quilt made from a Christmas Countdown layer cake.  I didn't actually have a pattern for it.  I used the same technique from a Turning Twenty quilt, but used 10 inch squares instead of fat quarters.  It makes a block that finishes 9 inches. 

From each 10 inch square, I cut off a 3.5 inch wide strip (3.5" x 10").  Then I rotated the remaining piece 90 degrees and cut off another 3.5 inch strip (3.5" x 6.5").  I was then left with a 6.5 inch square.  I mixed up the pieces and sewed them back together, sewing a 3.5 x 6.5 to a 6.5 inch square, then sewing the 3.5 x 10 inch square to the unit that was formed.  I then trimmed off the excess to make a 9.5 inch square.  I then set the squares together in the same layout as a Turning Twenty.  I didn't measure it, but it should be about 54 inches x 63 inches.

It's not the prettiest quilt top I've ever made, but it may be the fastest.  It went from being a layer cake to being a complete quilt top in about 6 hours.  And that includes several interruptions and lunch.  I'm hoping to machine quilt it and have it finished to use this Christmas season.  I still need to buy backing and binding fabric.  I see a trip to the quilt shop in my future.

Rolling in the Deep Wallhanging

Before I start on this week's project, I figured I should post last week's project.  I actually finished it on Saturday, but just now got around to taking a picture of it.  It follows the same pattern as a Jelly Roll Race quilt, but only uses 13 strips in 16 rows.  I wanted to try out the pattern in a smaller scale before I did it with a whole jelly roll.  I was happy with the result, so I bought a couple of jelly rolls to try it full scale.

The quilt finished about 32 inches square.  It was machine pieced and machine quilted.  The quilting is straight line, in the ditch quilting, all the way across the quilt top.  The only hand work on the quilt was turning the binding.  I considered doing the binding on the machine as well, but I enjoy hand binding, so I did it my normal way. 

I named it "Rolling in the Deep", inspired by the Adele song, because it used jelly roll type strips and it reminded me of the ocean.  It has a much more abstract feel than most of my quilts, but I like the change of pace from the graphic style quilts that I normally do.

Christmas Present Block (November block)

This month's block is a Christmas present block.  It is an enlargement of the block used in this quilt.  It was my month to teach the block, so I went with the one I had just finished.  It is made entirely of fabric from the Holiday Accent line.  It is a really easy block to sew, but can be a little confusing getting it laid out correctly.  I always had to consult the diagram to make sure I had those center squares in the right orientation.  Other than getting it oriented correctly, it is just rectangles and squares with a few flippy corners.  The pattern came from Quiltmaker's Nov/Dec 2008 issue.  The pattern was called "Silk Wrappings."

Sunbonnet Angel (October block)

For our current guild project, we are making a Christmas sampler quilt.  Each guild member teachers a block, and we get a new block each month.  Last month's block was a Christmas Sunbonnet Sue, which could be a plain Sunbonnet Sue in Christmas fabrics, a Sunbonnet Cat, or a Sunbonnet Angel.  I decided to go with the Sunbonnet Angel.  She's not finished yet, but here she is, all ready to be appliqued down.  I don't know if you can see the blue line in the photo or not, but the block will be cut down to a 12 1/2 inch square once the applique is finished.  I'm planning to hand applique it, using a blanket stitch in gold thread.

My First Jelly Rolls

Remember that fabric that I said I had ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Company?  Well, it came in the mail today.  The odd thing is that I don't remember getting an email saying that it shipped.  Oh well, better to get it when I wasn't expecting it than to be waiting for it and it not come.

So anyway, what we have here is a First Ladies jelly roll, a He Still Loves Me jelly roll, and a binding tool.  If I had known that it was coming today, I would have waited until I got it to put the binding on the quilt that I bound today.  That's okay, I'll use it next time. . .hopefully soon!

More Fabric!

I've gone a little crazy buying fabric lately, and I just realized that I forgot to document my latest purchases (from late October).  Again, I ordered some pre-cuts and yardage from Missouri Star.  Those pre-cuts really are addictive and I haven't even used any of them yet!

Below I have a Salt Water layer cake, a Lovely charm pack, and some Holiday Accent yardage. 

The yardage was intended for the borders on the Christmas quilt feature in the previous post, but only the white background holly fabric made it into the final quilt.  I'm not sure yet what I'm gonna do with the pre-cuts.

Then my local quilt shop was having a sale, so I bought even more fabric.  Below I have one Christmas Countdown layer cake, a half yard of green fabric, a fat quarter of novelty fabric, and a remnant of brown fabric.

The green yardage (along with an additional yard purchased later and not photographed) ended up as the outer border to the previously mentioned Christmas quilt.  It will also be the binding once I get to that point.  The novelty FQ is tentatively slated for a frog themed baby quilt I have planned.  The layer cake probably is going to turn into another sofa-sized Christmas quilt, this one using a cutting method similar to a Turning Twenty quilt, except using 10 inch blocks instead of FQs.  The brown fabric is completely uncommitted at the moment.

Oh, and I've order more fabric from Missouri Star, but it hasn't shipped yet.  However, I did manage to skip the Veteran's Day sale at the quilt shop yesterday.  It was a temptation, but I managed to resist.

My border solution

Here is the finished quilt top.  The consensus seemed to be that the green fabric was best for the border.  I think it turned out good and the green fabric really pulled it together.  The finished size of the quilt top is 49.5 x 58.5 inches.  The plan is to bind it with the same green fabric as the border.  Not sure yet what the backing fabric will be.

My Design Dilemma

Yesterday I was finishing up a Christmas quilt that I started working on last week (2 weeks ago?), I forget.  Anyway, at the point when I started working yesterday, I had just 3 blocks left to make.  I decided on the fabric for those last 3 blocks, and got them sewn and the blocks sewn into basic top without borders.  I had already chosen my border fabrics, which I had bought especially for the project.  I cut the strips, sewed them on, and thought I was done.  However, once I looked at the finished top, I wasn't happy with how it looked.  I felt like the focus fabric, the Christmas kittens fabric, looked out of place once the outer border was sewn on.  The picture below shows the original outer border.

I removed the outer border, but left the inner border. 

I was thinking that the outer border was a bit too busy, and that it would look better with a simpler fabric that was closer in color to the green of the focus fabric.  I auditioned some green fabric that I just bought at the quilt shoppe, but I don't think I have enough of it.  Although I'm sure I could go buy more.  But I still wasn't sure.

Then I found some other Christmas fabric that I had that was red and green.  I really like it, and at first I thought I was going to go with it, but now I'm not sure about it either.  I'm afraid it still might be too busy.  I definitely like both of these better than the original black, red and gold holly fabric, though.

What do you think?

Travel Fabric

My husband and I recently traveled to Berkeley, CA for my husband to present a paper at the Western Literature Association's annual conference.  While we were there, we visited a quilt shop - New Pieces Quilt Store and Gallery.  It was a really nice shop with a large selection of fabrics.  The shop staff was also very nice and friendly.  (I know that I drive quilt shop staff everywhere crazy because I wander around the store 3 or 4 times before I even pick anything up, but they are always great about it!)

Above is a picture of the fabric that I bought while I was there.  I bought 1-1/2 yards of the fabric on the left (from Abbey's Garden by Eugene Textiles).  The fabrics on the left I just bought in fat quarters (top - from Serenity by Cheri Strole for Northcott, bottom - from Autumn Bouquet by Denise Urban for Quilting Treasures).  Those were the fabrics that I just kept coming back to as I wandered the store.  They are not for a specific project, and most likely won't get used together, but they are my mementos of fun trip to Berkeley.

Pickles

For several years now, if I make enough cucumbers in my garden, I make homemade pickles.  This year we had a cool, cloudy, and wet summer, and my garden did terribly!  I didn't have any dill pickles left from last year either.  I had bought a jar of dill chips at the store, and I used them, but they just aren't the same as homemade.  Not only is the flavor different, when I went to Walmart, I couldn't find any normal, round, dill pickle chips.  They were either "ovals", which in some cases means sliced the long way instead of the short way on the pickle, or they were spicy.  I didn't want any of that, so I gave up on store bought pickles, and bought cucumbers instead.

Usually Walmart's either doesn't have pickling cucumbers or else the ones they have are all beaten up and shriveled.  But yesterday they actually had several pounds worth and they actually looked good and fresh.  So I bought them and made homemade pickles with them.  They didn't seem to have any wax on them, so hopefully they will turn out good.  The only problem is, with dill pickles they need to sit for a couple weeks before you use them.  So I still won't have usable pickles for a while, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Charming Little Bag

This is an adorable little bag that I made today.  From start to finish it took me maybe 5 hours, and that probably includes my lunch break.  I'm sure it could be made even faster than that, but I was stopping periodically to watch the tutorial on YouTube.  The instructions are available here on YouTube.  It is a great tutorial from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.  I've been watching a lot their tutorials lately and I really wanted to try this one.  I had several charm squares left over from a fall themed charm pack that I bought last fall to use in my row swap quilt.

Oddly enough, when I was making my bag, I used more precuts than Jenny did in the tutorial.  She used yardage for the base, lining and handles of the bag, but I used a fat quarter (or what was left of one actually) for the base, the closure, and part of the handles and some extra charm squares for the the other part of the handles.  I only used yardage for the lining.  Jenny's bag didn't have the closure, but she mentioned that you might want to add one, so I did.

Chicken Scratch Heart

I'm not exactly sure when I finished working on the actual embroidery on this one.  I'm sure it was several months ago.  I just couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it.  I thought about making it into a pillow, but I figured that in a house with 3 boys who like to throw pillows at each other, and two cats that sometimes knead on pillows, it wouldn't last too long.  My mother suggested that I frame it instead, so that's what I finally did, yesterday.  I went to Walmart, hoping to find a nice white frame, and to my astonishment, I actually found one.

When I was younger, I remember my mother showing me how to do chicken scratch embroidery (also called Hoover lace, among other things) and decided to try my hand at it again.  I could remember the general nature of it, but I couldn't remember all of the stitches and exactly how each stitch corresponded to the squares on the gingham.  So, I did a quick search of the internet and found a great tutorial at Pink Paper Peppermints.  It's not hard to do, especially if you stick to the basic stitch, and you can use it to makes lots of different designs.

I'm planning to enter this piece in the country fair, so wish me luck!

Not as simple fringed blanket

The other day my Walmart had some of their fabric marked down for clearance, including some of their fleece.  I saw this fabric and thought it was really cute and very soft.  I decided to get some to make another fleece blanket, like the one feature in this post to donate to the same organization.  As it turned out, this fabric was not quite appropriate for that application.

Just like with the last blanket, I sewed around the outside of the fabric about 2 inches from the edge.  Then I cut out the corners and fringed the edges.  However, this time, the fringes on two of the sides (selvedge sides, I think) were not stable and just wanted to pull off.  Obviously, that is not good for a child's blanket.  So I went back and cut off the fringes on those two side, almost to the stitching line.  Then I turned under the edges and zigzag stitched it down. 

To my thinking, it is not nearly as cute with fringe on only two sides, but there seems to be no other choice in the situation.  It would have looked neater if I had just left the selvedge edges on, because they were  not white.  But I didn't know it would turn out the way that it did.  I still think it is plenty nice enough to donate, though.  Oh well, I guess you live and learn.  I guess in this case, softer isn't always better.

Pineapples in the Pumpkin Patch - finished!

I finally finished my pumpkin wall hanging quilt that I started last fall.  The first block is featured in this post from November 15.  And it is actually a do-over from the original block posted on October 18.  But at least I got it finished in time for fall (and the County Fair).

The quilt finished 24 inches square.  It is machine pieced, with both traditional piecing and paper piecing, and hand quilted (mostly quilting "in the ditch").  I quilted it in a hoop because it was small.  This was challenging for me, simply because I'm not accustomed to using a hoop, but it was also much more comfortable than sitting at a frame.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I added a hanging sleeve to it, which I haven't done with a quilt in a long time.  I also made a decorative label for the back.  A cute little pumpkin, unlike any of the ones on the front, but using some of the same fabric.  The backing is a pretty autumn, pumpkin themed fabric.

Day and Night

This quilt top is made from Eleanor Burns Day and Night pattern.  It is made with strip sets (of course) and it requires a special tool to cut triangles from the strip sets.  I bought the book, because it comes with the tool.  I used the "three strips, two colors" option to make the crib sized quilt. 

She suggests using fabrics with good contrast, so I went with complimentary colors: yellow and purple.  The design makes me think of a harlequin, even though it is a little different.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I'm not sure what I'm going to name it, or what I'm going to do with it once it is finished.  I've bought fabric to make a sofa-sized quilt using the same pattern, but that one will be in shades of red to match my living room.  I made this crib-sized one as a trial run before I moved onto the larger one made with more expensive quilt shop fabric.