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.

A Little Bit of Sewing

I haven't had much time the last two weeks, but this week I got to sew a bit. Yay me! I am trying to keep myself from going crazy here with all the house stuff and work. Sewing soothes me in a way not much else does. I know there are those of you who feel the same way. So this is what's going on:

 This is my little Village from the Penny Sampler Quilt. I had such fun picking the fabrics. I had a few others picked out, but as usual, the fabrics led me to this. Some of the ones I thought would work just didn't seem right when I put them up there. So my village is done.

 This is my mitten all sketch stitched to a golden yellow Dimple Dot fabric. It is backwards. The thumb is supposed to be on the right. But I am leaving it this way. I see no reason to change it.

 This is my clover all sketch stitched to a solid coral. I found that I really like this method of applique. And this completes the February lesson for the Penny Sampler. I am still happy I chose the 12 month class, because I know I will have very little time to sew as the move gets closer. And then my machines will be on a moving van for awhile. So sometime in May-ish, I will have to buckle down and catch back up.

This is the block from Amy Gibson's block along that is following her new book, Quilt Block Cookbook. I bought the book before she announced the block along, and I don't intend to do every block. She is doing a block a week. But I really liked this one. I had a bit of trouble figuring out the paper piecing, but Jennifer Mathis from Ellison Lane has a You Tube video that is pretty good and it helped me out a lot.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see you back here soon.

What's Happening Here?

I wish I was just sewing  along and taking pictures, but I am moving in a few months, so there is lots going on that has nothing to do with sewing. But, to keep me from losing my mind, I am getting to do a little sewing. I want to keep in touch here while all this is going on too.

Before I show you what's happening here, I just want to comment on something. I was reading blogs this morning, which is my version of reading the morning paper. I follow many blogs on Bloglovin', but there are others I follow because I bookmarked them way back in the day or I see them on someone's side bar and click over.

So many of them are gone now. Well, they are still there, but no posts for a year or sometimes 2 years. I know Instagram has changed things a lot, but I felt so sad this morning for some I hadn't thought about in such a long time. They used to share great projects and bits of family life. I get it. Life changes. But I haven't found any new blogs lately that can take the place of them. It just makes me sad. It's like when your favorite TV show is cancelled. Okay, that's it. All I'm gonna say about it.

Here is what's happening here:

 This is the small quilt made from block #40 in Amy Gibson's Quilt Block Cookbook. I selected this block, one of my favorites, to make a small quilt that I could work on between packing and all the other moving chaos. Here, the blocks are done.

 Here, I was trying to decide if I wanted to sash them, rather that just put them side by side. I stuck a few up on the design wall on top of the blue gingham that makes up the corners. It totally changes the look, but it wasn't what I was going for.

So here they are, all sewn together and I really like this version. The blocks are 12 inches finished, so this is 36 inches square. I have decided to put a 2 inch border around it, in white. I just want to frame it up a bit. Then, we will think about how to quilt it. I think a combination of hand and machine quilting.

 Now the other project I have is Penny Sampler. I chose this as a great skill builder for me, but also because I can take the 12 month version and not get overwhelmed when we are in the throes of moving. The four hearts block has been hand appliqued since this picture was taken.

 And while waiting for the second lesson for February 1st, I worked ahead and prepared two more appliques using a different method. Now I am trying them out on backgrounds to see what works for me. I love my mitten and I think this golden yellow dimple dots fabric is perfect for it.

I know this is sideways, but this is my clover applique, sitting on a piece of coral colored Kona. I don't remember the exact name. But I like the way it shows the clover off. Both of these will be appliqued next month.

 And here, I am trying out some other fabrics for different parts of the Penny Sampler. Just trying to see what plays well together. I think this is going to end up very colorful, but hopefully, not too busy.

Last shot with most of the elements in place so far. Yup, I'm liking it and enjoying the as we go method whenever time permits. I know it's going to get way crazier here soon. I will continue to sew until they make me pack up my sewing room. It will be the last thing to go, I'm sure. Have a great week.

Last Post of 2016-What I'm Working On

So another year has come and gone. A tough one, to be sure, but I am trying to keep everything in perspective. Ever the optimist, I have hope for the future. I want 2017 to be a good year for me and for everyone else too. This new year will be bringing big life changes for me.

I will be retiring. I just can't physically handle the work any more after the cancer and the treatments to get rid of it. I am moving...clear across the country! I am leaving my beloved North Carolina behind and going where weather is milder...Southern California. It will be hard to leave, especially since my children and grandchildren are all here, but that's what airplanes are for, right?

I will be able to sew so much more and I want to continue to create. So, that said, in the midst of all the chaos of moving I am doing two things. I signed up for Rachel Hauser's Penny Sampler class. I am taking the 12 month version. I figure if I get behind in the beginning of the year, I can catch up later. I want to push myself and this class looks like it will do that.

The other thing I am doing is working on assembling a new small quilt for the holidays next year.

 I bought this book awhile back and I am not really into buying many books these days, but this is a great basics book. There are 50 blocks in this book. It gets my creative mind working. (Amy is doing a quilt along this next year using this book)

 I fell in love with this block and just had to make it first. I thought about starting at the beginning, but hey, that's not me.

 Next I played with placement. I don't have any fancy programs to do this. I just use my colored pencils and some graph paper. I'm old fashioned like that.

I've been cutting and pressing. I love how these fabrics are coming together. I hope to be able to keep a project going that I can just step in and sew a bit while the chaos goes on in the house.

And these are the first two blocks together. I am only making nine blocks for an approximate 36 inch square quilt. I may add a border, I haven't decided yet.

One more goal I have is to blog more, once I get moved. I love the way Barbara at Cat Patches blogs almost daily. I love stopping by to see what she is up to. So there's that to look forward to later in the year.

For now, I wish you all a safe, happy and healthy new year, filled with hope and promise. See you in 2017!