Last Friday Finish for January

So I worked really fast yesterday to get this done for today.  I did have a backup plan in case I couldn't get it done. And fate laughed at me when I got home from work yesterday and the heat was not working. The sewing still happened, though, while I waited for the repair man.  Ready?

 It is all melty and muddy outside today, so indoor pictures it is.  Here it is on my couch...The Dotted Dresden quilt. I love those ombre dots as much now as I did when I bought them.

 Here is some of the quilting in the large, white areas.  Zigzags in the four corners and in between the side Dresdens.

 This is the best shot I can get of the center. It imitates the shape of the Dresden and then straight lines go out to the end of that area top and bottom.

 Here is the fun and funky binding I hinted at on Wednesday. More ombre dots.  Can't get enough and I thought it made a perfect finish.

Thanks for stopping by. I will show you my backup finish soon. Linking up with Crazy Mom.

Not Only Did I Dare to Dresden...

...I took tons of pictures.  I hope you don't mind.  I started with jelly roll strips of red, white and pink polka dots.

 I loved the way they went together when I was chain piecing them.  So cool...

                                               More fun...

                            Then I started playing with arrangements...

 This is the one I finally went with.  It seemed to me to be the best for this application.

And before I even finished the project I had in mind for these, inspiration struck again, so I quickly jumped on it before the idea could be lost.  I still had a bit over a quarter yard of my Ombre Dots!

 Sew I fussy cut them to come up with this arrangement.  I used almost every scrap in this, but I love it.

 I put a dark green Kona circle in the middle, and then I stitched in the ditch up and down the fan blades with my machine.

 And I did accent stitching with Perle Cotton.  I was thinking maybe pillow, but once I did the accent stitching, I wanted more.

So I think I am going to make more of these and make them into a quilt, because I just can't stop at one.  Now about that first Dresden...this is what happened to it:

 I wanted to make a pouch, but I sort of forgot that it would have a flat bottom.  I forgot to compensate for that...

 So a lot of it ended up on the bottom.  At first I was bummed, because it didn't turn out like I had pictured it, but it is sort of cute after all...

I used Anna at Noodlehead's wide mouthed pouch tutorial.  I love the way those turn out every time!
Could I stop now?  NO! I had to make more...

 I wanted to see how small I could go...these fan blades are 2 1/2 inches, but the circle in the center is still too big.  They are Sunkissed by Sweetwater and the center is the new Noteworthy line by Sweetwater.  I realized I needed to make the narrow end even narrower to get a smaller center.

This one became my new mug rug for my desk and I love it.  More stitching around the outside with Perle Cotton.  But I still wanted a smaller one...

                       This is more Sunkissed, I am almost out of it now. 

I adjusted the size once again to make it smaller still.  The small Ackfeld hanger is 5 inches wide.  Want a little perspective?  Here you go...

That's what I wanted to achieve!  I love this little cutie!  And now, my tale of Dresdens is done.  Thanks to Madame Samm and Christine at Quilt monster in my closet.  Another fabulous hop and I learned so much and I thought I didn't really like making Dresdens.  Who knew?  Here is the rest of the schedule for today.  Enjoy the hop.

 January 28^th, 2013

A Reformed Heath'n

Meadowbrook

Rosemary B @ “that Other Blog”

Stitch Duchess' Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Grammie Q’s

Bumbleberry Stitches

Sunshine Girl

Spiral

Butjenter Quilter

Blooming Where I am Planted

Quilting Lodge

The Tilted Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Pretty Bobbins
In The Boon Docks

Sew Much and More

Threading My Way
Pink Ribbon Quilts
Thimble Mouse & Spouse

The Best Quilting Day!!

This is going to be a picture heavy post, but I am so stoked!  I finished TWO quilts today and I decided that rather than do two separate posts, I'm going to do one big one.  I have been working on these for awhile now and, well, lets look at them, shall we?

First let's look at this one.  I borrowed the idea from Camille this summer.  I only wanted to make a small lap quilt.  I really just wanted to use the Summersville jelly roll I had.  This was perfect.

 I decided to bite the bullet and try my hand at bias binding.  I have been too afraid to try until now.  What was I afraid of?  I thought it would take lots longer and I am lazy when it comes to a longer process for anything.

 This is how my binding would have looked if cut on the grain.  Plain and boring, right?

 This is how it turned out.  Soooo cool, am I right?  I used Amanda Jean's tutorial for bias binding.

                                       Here we go...

                             Love the way this looks.

                         Here is a bit of the back with the binding sewn in place.

 I had quite a bit left.  I didn't measure, I just made a bunch because is was so easy.  I will use this later on something else.  I have a few more strips I can add if I need to.

 A close up, fresh from the dryer.  I hope you can see the zigzag quilting pattern I used.

                                         One last shot!

                                 The inspector...doing his thing.

 Now for my favorite Quilt!!  This first picture isn't great, but I kept it to show the chevron quilting pattern on this quilt.  I felt like all those dots needed a linear quilting.  After doing the other quilt above, I knew this was what I wanted on this quilt.  I did half of it and then my husband suggested reversing the points to point in the opposite direction toward the faded dots.  Perfect.

 I used the black/grey Ombre Dots for the binding, which is not bias because I didn't want to lose that fade to grey look.

How cool is this little quilt?  And I still have lots of Ombre Dots left to use in other projects.

Have a great rest of the week.

Really Random Monday

I've got lots of different stuff to show you today.  This was my only sewing since early last week, so I tried to cram lots in.  Ready?  Here we go:

 First of all, here is my red mini ticker tape all finished and bound in a soft blue green.  I am so loving making these.  It's like a story of past quilts, revisited.  Fun to look at all those scraps again.

 Next, I received some very happy mail from Aunt Marti at 52 Weeks, 52 Quilts.  I won her giveaway last week and this is what I got.  Yes, those are some Kate Spain note cards, note pad, journal and emery boards.  How cool is that?

      The cute pink polka dot box holds these lovelies.  Sew cute!!

 And how about these?  Yes, pink snips with white polka dots on the handles.  Love them!!

 And some awesome polka dot fabrics.  I love both of them.  I really need to make something using all the different dots I have.

 And to top it off, this lovely thank you card, for being a follower of her blog.  Marti, it is my pleasure.  You should go check her out too.

 Next, I spread out all the blocks I have received so far from my Bee mates in the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee.  I wanted to look at them all together, and I am already thinking: sashing, or no sashing?

 Here is a bit of a peak at my Ombre Dots project.  I can't wait to finish this one up and show it to you.  I decided to pin baste it this morning and had no idea how to quilt it, but as I was pinning, it came to me.  Has that ever happened to you?

And I also decided to use a similar quilting pattern on this one.  I got it all quilted, just need to bind it.  I am thinking of trying bias binding for the first time.  I am trying to push myself to learn new tricks.
Since I had such success with these, maybe I will get some batting and go ahead and baste my Swoon quilt. Maybe a quilting pattern will come to me on that one too.  I have waited a long time.
Have a great week and I hope to see you soon.