Good Fortune All Caught Up

Well, week 3 sorta kicked my butt. I did have other things going on, but still. I struggled a bit with getting blocks to turn out with the correct dimensions. Once I got that down, wasting only two blocks, I moved on. I want to make as much of this quilt from my scrap bins as I can. This slows down the cutting process quite a bit, but no matter.

 This is the box  am using for all my block so far. Week 3 is right on top there in the green. I am still having counting issues, as I had about 30 extra green rectangles when I was done.

Everyone is pressed, but I still have dog ears to trim on about 100 of the HST bonus blocks. I figure I can do that later.

And here are my week 4 blocks. I made about 3/4 of them one solid rectangle and did a bit of strip piecing for the rest. Orange is a color I don't have a lot of, especially in my scrap bins. But now I am all caught up.

That will not last, as I am traveling for the holidays, and when I come home I will have two weeks worth of clues to catch up on, but, no matter. It will get done. It always does somehow.
Happy Tuesday before Christmas.
Linking up with Bonnie Here.

A Christmas Dress

So much of Christmas sewing is secret, but the dress I made for Miss N is not. Her mother knows about it and as an almost 3 year old, N doesn't read my blog, so I can show it to you here.

I used the Geranium Dress pattern with the expansion pack for the collar, sleeves and the sash. I have long wanted to do a dress with a sash. I loved sashes when I was a little girl. The fabric is Sarah Jane's Peter Pan line. When I first saw it, I just knew the plum and pink had to be a Christmas dress for N. It's hard to tell here, but there are also gold metallic stars on this fabric.

 I found the perfect fancy buttons in my button jar. They add a bit more holiday sparkle to the dress. You can see the gold stars better her.

 And here is the lovely sash all tied up in a bow. It gathers at the side seams where it is attached to the dress. I also had just a bit of pink left so I put a small border around the bottom of the skirt. I love that detail.

And of course, there had to be pockets. My girl loves pockets. I cannot wait to see this on her. We will be there for Christmas this year, so I will get to see it in person.
Have a great Thursday and I'll see you soon.

A Swoon Worthy Finish

I have finished another quilt. This was one of those quilts that needed making for someone in need. As I have often done when a friend or co-worker has had a great need due to life's circumstances, I decided to dive in and make my friend a quilt. This friend is also my daughter's friend and so my daughter told me what colors would be best for this quilt. So we started with that.

We chose brown and blue. Once I got home from NC, I searched my stash for as much brown and blue as I had. I also had decided on the way home that I wanted to make a Swoon quilt. I had made one years ago, but I wanted to make one with 16 blocks in a smaller block size. Camille has a pattern for Swoon 16, so I went to her shop and bought that.

 Then, once I had the pattern and knew the amounts of fabric, my husband and I headed to our local quilt shop to find more fabrics to supplement my stash.

My husband is very good with selecting fabrics and finding the colors I needed. And as a bonus, he helps me carry all the bolts to the cutting station.

 I spent about four or five days cutting all the pieces for the blocks. I only assembled the first one before I cut all the rest. I stuck it up on my design wall for inspiration.

I wasn't very far into things when the quilting motif presented itself to me. Swirls...lots of swirls.

 Once the blocks were done, we decided that the sashing needed to be blue and I ordered it on line. A Moda marbles shade of blue. After the main quilting was done, I decided to quilt the border in infinity swirls. That is what I call these.

 And when I was almost to the first corner, I had to find a way to turn the corner, so I did this double circle. I like the way it turned out.

I found this extra wide backing at Pineapple Quilts. They sell lots of interesting wide backing fabrics. You can buy by the yard, or you can buy a 3 yard cut for one price. At the time I bought this, I believe they were having a sale on the 3 yard cuts. It is so different that I just knew it was the one.

 Back to the quilt store we went to get a brown for the binding. Once the quilt was all quilted, I knew brown was the choice and I didn't have enough of it left. Gosh, I loved making this quilt.

I used one of my new labels from Dutch label shop and sent this baby out priority mail. It got there super fast and made my heart sing when I knew it had been received. For me that is the best part of the quilt process. It is a hug from across the country. Having been on the receiving end of this just 3 short years ago, I know how it feels. It feels great.
Have a lovely Wednesday my friends.

Good Fortune, Week 2

Here we are in week 2 of the Good Fortune Mystery Quilt. This week's clue is HSTs. Not my favorite blocks to do. Bonnie has a special ruler and method. I can't see getting it, for me it wouldn't get used too much. I really don't like HSTs.
Bonnie's link up page can be found here.

 So I ended up cutting squares of the blues and the neutrals. Here are the blues I cut, all from scraps!

 And here is my pile of neutrals, also all from my scrap bins I am happy to say. I draw a line from one corner to the other and sew a quarter inch on either side of the line I have drawn. Then, I cut on that line.

And here is the first pile, cut and pressed and ready to have the dog ears trimmed off of them. I know it's a lot of trimming, but this is my preferred method.

And here are some of the lovely results. Not even half way through, but I'll get there. It's all about the process, right?
#quiltvillemystery
#goodfortunequilt
See you next week for more Good Fortune.