TA DA!! Perfect Pineapple Quilt Is Done!

 This quilt has been a year in the making. Amber, at Gigi's Thimble ran this as a quilt along. There were 36 blocks, one per week. The blocks are all machine paper pieced. Papers are available at Gigi's Thimble. The blocks finish at about 12 inches. My finished quilt is about 76 inches square.

Here it is on my bed, fresh from the wash. What made me want to do this quilt along was two things. The paper piecing, which I used to hate, makes such crisp blocks. Also, Amber showed a picture of one she'd done in pink and green like this and it really spoke to me. Most of this quilt top is made from my scrap bins and stash. I did have to buy some neutrals. I never seem to have much in the way of neutrals.

These are some images of the quilting, before I washed the quilt. I cut a 12 inch half circle out of cardboard (thank you Amazon) and marked each square's design on the front of the quilt before I quilted it with my walking foot. There is one block you can see here below, that is not scrappy. That was a deliberate choice.

The straight lines through the center of the leaves run on the diagonal, from edge to edge. It seemed to need the extra anchor of this long stitching from edge to edge. And it worked well within the design.

I used a Hera marker for a lot of the inner blocks, but after awhile, I found it harder to see my lines. So I tried chalk, a marking pencil, and finally, a graphite marking tool I bought at my LQS probably 15 years ago. That was the tool that helped me bring this over the finish line. There were several times when I thought I must be crazy for quilting this on my Bernina 440. It has such a small throat space. But, I was patient, or tried to be, and got through it all. It took me 7 days to get it quilted and bound.

And of course, today I had another small issue when I was attaching the binding. Oh, my goodness, I was never so happy for a finish.

For the back, I bought 2 1/2 yards of Bungalow in green and 2 1/2 yards in pink, by Amy Gibson for Windham Fabrics. I found it on sale somewhere, and the two colors were perfect for the backing, being green and pink.

And, as a bonus, I only had to seam it once! Hurray! I trimmed off all the extra and saved it to use for the binding. I ended up only using the pink, as I thought that would look best.

         This is another picture with pins in it as I am still quilting it at this stage.

                         I used another one of my new labels on this quilt.

And, you can see how nice the binding looks on the quilt. The four corner blocks have these little stamens, or antennae on them. I had thought to put them on every block, but when I saw them on one, I changed my mind. And, rather than rip them out, I put them in each of the other three corners for balance.

It washed and dried up so nicely. It is so soft. And that's what I wanted, a soft drapey kind of quilt. There are lots of seam lines in this quilt, so a little less quilting made that happen. Thanks to Amber for a wonderful QAL. I had two quilts on my bed, but I added this one too, because after all, it's still winter.

To and Fro Baby Quilt

Sometimes I have a post name in mind when I sit down. Today, I did not, so I went with the name of the block I used to make this baby quilt. It works well enough, I think. The block pattern is another one from Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook.

 So this is the block, or rather nine of them, each done in one color. I had to use brown, grey and the center block is multi-colored, to get nine blocks. All the triangles are from my stash.

        This is the multi-colored block. That is the name on the bin of scraps too.

 All of the triangles are cut from 5 inch squares. That is the largest piece I have in my scrap bins. I love that I was able to use so many of them.

 This is the pigs from Heather Ross' Nursery Versery line from about 5 years ago. I am so glad I found a use for this finally. I have always loved it.

 And on the grey block another piece from Nursery Versery. The itsy bitsy spider, a childhood classic.

 And here it is all quilted up with wandering loop-de-loops and fresh from the dryer. The crinkle effect on this is soooo nice.

 I decided to bind it with stripes of cream and grey. I think it gives it a classy look and I know the new mom will love it too. Plus, as a bonus it matches the back which is all greys.

        A close up of the lop-de-loops and the wavy lines I used in the borders of the quilt.

This is, obviously, the back of the quilt. I used up tons of larger scrap pieces to make the back. Some of this stuff has been in my stash for 5 years. And frankly, I love the way it turned out.

      This is one of the last pieces of this fabric that I have...Aneela Hoey...can't remember the name.

I can't wait to gift this and see the look on the mother's face. That is my favorite part. That, and knowing that it will be loved for a long, long time.
Have a great rest of the week and I'll talk to you soon. Much more sewing going on here this week.

Thursday Catch Up

I have been home for a week and a half now and I have been doing some sewing! Yay. I have a couple of quilts in the works and also some garment sewing.

 First thing I made wast this pencil pouch for my oldest grandson. While I was in NC, we went back to school shopping but he couldn't find one he loved. So Grammie to the rescue. The TNT is his request. It is from Minecraft. Yellow is his favorite color.

ANd inside are the dapper foxes. The one with the glasses reminds me of him. I am told it arrived yesterday and that there was much rejoicing!

 Next, I ordered this Amy Butler fabric to make us some new napkins. We began using cloth napkins only about 6 years ago when I had to make 100 for my daughter's wedding. I made some for us at the time and they have been used and laundered a lot.

 Here is the set of 8 that I made. I just cut and hemmed. They were cut at about 18 inches and hemmed with a quarter inch turned under twice.

I used a coral color Aurifil to accent and went around twice to add a bit of decorative interest to the napkins. I have more fabric to make another set of 8. They are cut out, but not hemmed yet.

 Then there is this quilt that I made for my sister for her birthday. I am finally quilting it. This is the pixelated rose quilt a free pattern from Riley Blake.

         Hard on the knees and hips, but I got down to pin baste this thing.

 It only took me about an hour or so to get the whole thing basted. It looks so different up close.

These are the colors I have chosen to quilt it with. I plan to do some artsy quilting to accent the roses and the leaves. I have started it, but I will wait until it is done to show you.

Then there are these nine blocks that are being made into a baby quilt. The block is from Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook. A great book if you haven't seen it yet.

 And last, but not least is the September lesson from the Penny Sampler Quilt. This month we are tackling MPP, or machine paper piecing. We had to make two teacups.

 It was very challenging, and sometimes a bit frustrating. This one was the first and I ended up with it being a bit short on the top, so I added a bit to it. Not sure if I will go back and fix it properly, but I needed a break for now.

The other paper piecing project for this month is the diamonds in a row at the top of this quilt. I am LOVING those!! They were much easier than the tea cups.
That's all for now. Have a great Thursday friends.

A Friday Finish...and Now, Vacation

Well I said I would show you my other quilt finish. I leave tomorrow to go visit children and grand children in NC so now sewing for the next two weeks. I know I won't have time to miss it since I will be very busy while I am there. So here we go:

This is the quilt, started back in North Carolina last winter. I made one block from Amy Gibson's book, The Quilt Block Cookbook. I loved it so much, I decided to make 8 more and make a small quilt of it. And then we moved and it was packed away. I got it out probably a month after we arrived, but it sat folded for a long while.

I finally figured out how I wanted to quilt it. And then, the binding, which was, in my opinion, the perfect choice.

And I did some hand quilting too. This little quilt has a bit of everything.

 Can you see the little bird in the center of the block? I copied it from the fabric and hand stitched one in every center square. There is stitch in the ditch around the star points too.

And swirls in all the in between white areas.

 The blocks are twelve inches square, as are all the blocks in that book. With the border, that makes it about 40 inches square, a nice little size.

 For the backing I sewed together two Cori Dantini panels I have had for a long time. I loved them, but could never figure out how to us them.

 They are perfect for the back of this little quilt, don't you think?

I hope you have a lovely weekend and I will see you in a couple of weeks.

Two Weeks Left

I have two weeks left, living in my home of 23+ years. I alternate between excitement at this new adventure in my life, and sadness at leaving what I have come to know and love in this place. The sewing room is all packed up now, even the machines.

Amanda Jean has been working on reducing the number of WIPs in her studio, so I thought I would see what I have that needs a finish. I plan to work on these things as soon as I am set up on the left coast. And just so we're clear, I will also start a few new projects too. The ideas are coming on fast and strong. Change of venue might be the best thing my creativity has had in years.

 First of course, my Penny Sampler. I will be in transit without my supplies for the first half of April, but am excited to see what the month's assignment will be.

 A small quilt to play with circles. This one just needs quilting. I am thinking of some very dense quilting for this, just to play and practice.

 This sweet plus quilt is so cute. It also is a finished top that needs quilting. I will need to figure out how to quilt it once I pull it out again.

 This small quilt is for my middle daughter. She had requested some small wall hanging quilts for her home. I have a whole box of fabrics that she picked out to make them with and a Pinterest board full of ideas. I need to decide how to quilt this one.

 This is my clambake quilt. I started this when I was home fighting cancer. I had cut out all the clams in one week, and began sewing. As fatigue set in, I lost the energy and the desire to work on it. I have since added many rows, but still more to go. My youngest daughter has asked for this one when it is done. It is a quilt as you go project, done with Rachel of Stitched In Color. Clearly some of my clam shells are not as smoothly rounded as others, but...practice, practice, practice.

 This is one I made to use up a jelly roll I had won a few years back. I love how it turned out. It is also for my youngest. It just needs quilting and binding. I think maybe a curved quilting design.

 This big thing is one I started about 15 years ago. I picked out all the hand quilting and need to add the last rows and machine quilt it. My skills have improved since I started this, so finishing it may be a challenge since the seams are not all flat on the stars. I really want to finish this, my oldest WIP.

 This is the small wall quilt made from Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook. It also just needs quilting. I haven't quite figured out the quilting yet. Maybe some stitch in the ditch and a bit of fancy work in the white space.

 And here is the very last quilt block sewn in my North Carolina sewing room home. The last of the ittty bitty blocks. This one was pretty tough. You can tell I put the top together wrong and had to rip it and re-sew it. These tiny blocks are truly skill builders. Patience and precision.

And here they are, all together. Some I love, and might make a few more of those. Some, not so much. Thanks for being here and hanging out. The sewing room will open up on the left coast as soon as all my stuff gets there. I hope to see you there.