Dropping In to Share a Finish

Hi! I know that I spent all last year trying, and mostly succeeding at being here more often. Now this year rolls around and the huge curve ball life has thrown me. I did plan ahead in anticipation of this and took a bunch of photos of things so that I could write posts occasionally. Truth is, I find it hard to make myself sit down and do it most days. My commitment to this blog and to you, my dear readers, is to make an effort to say something at least every couple of weeks. Know that I will try. I may not always feel like it. Sometimes I just can't. Okay, enough about that.

I finally finished quilting and binding a small quilt that I made out of a couple of charm packs and some scrap pieces from my Retro Flowers quilt.

I used a couple of charm packs I had sitting around. One was Oh, Deer. The other I can't recall, but I started with a simple patchwork idea.

 Then, I took the scraps from the Drunkard's path blocks from my Retro Flowers quilt and stitched the curved edge together, turned and pressed.  I pinned them into the corners in an alternating design and stitched the blocks together.

So it appears that each block has a small pocket in one of the corners. It's different. I like it. But is it just a quilt? Is it art? I don't know. It defies classification.

 For the back I found a big stack of 10 inch blocks from a swap and I pieced them together.

For such a scrap happy quilt, I took a bunch of binding scraps that I of course, had saved, and stitched them all together. I love the look. My daughter says that with all those tine pockets, this quilt could never live at her house. She can only imagine the crumbs and other things the boys would put in there. Have a great weekend. This is one of my Quarter 1 finishes for Adrienne of On the Windy Side 2015 FAL. Linking up and here is the original list.

Scraps and Charms

My Friday finish today is made from scraps and two charm packs. I had this stuff sitting there staring at me for so long and I couldn't figure out what to do with it. It was like it was at the edge of my thoughts, but wouldn't come into focus. Needless to say, I did get it into focus and now the top is finished.

 I saved the white curved pieces off my Retro Flowers quilt because they were so interesting and I though they should become something. I toyed with lots of ideas, but nothing in my mind would translate to the fabric.

 I finally decided to sew them together into pairs along the curved side. I clipped the seam and turned it right side out and ironed the heck out of it.

 I took two charm packs out of my stash of charms, one was Oh, Deer and the other was a Moda charm pack that went well, color-wise. The name escapes me at the moment. I arranged them on my design wall to a pleasing effect.

 Then I inserted the curved pieces in a pattern and stitched them in when I sewed the seams together. Yes, they are a bit bulky where they overlap, but I love the way they look.  They are like little pockets.

I am going to quilt this in the ditch I think, so it will be well anchored, but I don't want to stitch over those pockets.  Happy Friday to you. Linking up to TGIFF at Quilt Matters, and the new Sewjo Saturday at My Go Go Life.

WIP Wednesday

So I am plugging away over here, at two projects...well, three, but this post is about two. First of all, there is the quilt made up of charm squares and the curved leftovers from my Retro Flowers quilt.

 If you recall, I sewed all the curved pieces together and turned them right side out, pressed them and am sewing them into the seams of some charm squares. I have 5 rows done above.

And 5 more rows to go. As always, I am already contemplating the quilting of this. I think I am going to just stitch in the ditch between all the squares. The white pieces are cool, but bulky and I want them to stay open.

Next, I am working on a quilt for little B. He is still in a crib right now, but he will be 2 this summer, so I am getting a head start.

 I am plugging away at it after a break for a couple weeks. There is lots of chain piecing going on.

 And I had to stop and recalculate some of my measurements. I am using Sasparilla by Riley Blake and lots and lots of Aurifi thread.

I haven't even begun to consider the quilting, but I am thinking about trying one of the heavier weights of Aurifil thread that I am seeing so much about in blogland. Since the fabric is cowboy themed, maybe a quilting motif to resemble a lasso, stitched in Aurifil 12? We'll see.  Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  Talk to you soon.

WIPs - WOW !

Lots of things have popped up in the last week. Let's get started, shall we?  Remember this quilt?

Well when it was finished. I was left with a lot of these little pieces and no idea what to do with them.

There were actually 192 of them I think. I kept trying to come up with something to do with them. I reached out to Amanda Jean for some advice.  I thought about it some more.  Then I paired them up and stitched them together.

And this is the pile. I need to clip all those curves and turn them and press them.  When that is done, they will meet up with these guys...

More on that later.  I also worked on two other WIPs this week.  First, this is the quilt I am working on for Baby B. I bought this cute Sasparilla fabric at the end of December, before my fabric fast.

 I knew I wanted to make him a quilt with it, but no plan in mind until it got here and I started thinking about it.  I came up with a sort of star pattern and sketched it out on graph paper.  I liked it so I started cutting.

 Well, I can't count very well and I don't have enough fabric to pull this off.  All I have is cut out, so too late to change course.  So (hangs head in shame) I had to order more of 4 of the fabrics. I only ordered 1/2 yards of each, the smallest I could get. I had to get them from two different places to get all four. It felt so wrong to order fabric. But I have to get this finished somehow. So...moving on...

 And I am a bit more that half way finished with the quilting on last Wednesday's WIP. At my hubby's suggestion, I am quilting swirls.

If you look closely, you can see the swirls are taken from the aqua swirly fabric in the quilt.  This is turning out so cool. Well, that's it for me this week. Maybe by next week at least one of these will be a finish. We are expecting snow and ice here in the next 48 hours. I just hope the power stays on. Stay warm, ya'll. Talk to you soon. Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.

I'm on a Roll Here

Back again with another finish to show you.  I finished this quilt top and showed it off here awhile ago, but now, here it is in all it's crinkly goodness.

 I. LOVE. THIS. QUILT.  I cannot get over how much I love the colors and the quilting and the crinkles since I washed it. The colors are so vibrant. 

 I started this quilt back in February and was just going to make it like all the others I saw on line, with 16 different color flowers. Then, I changed direction.  To a rainbow quilt. I am so glad I did.

 I had trouble deciding on the binding. I could have used almost any color. I went with an orange print from V and Co. Simply Color for the two sides of cool colors and the green raindrops from Laurie Wisbrun's Jack and Jenny line for the warm color sides.  I am pleased with this as well.

 For the back, I use a large chunk of this wonderful flower print. I bought a couple of yards of this several years ago and was debating on how to best use it. It is Honey Meadow by Michael Miller. I was just a little short, so hence, the yellow corner.

                                                Isn't it pretty?

                                                    One more look.

And the pretty binding. I think this is getting a hanging sleeve and going up on a wall in the living room. That's Mr. GQ's idea.  Then I can look at it all day long!
Talk to you soon.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it Friday.

Friday Big Finish and Post 200 (the one with a giveaway)

Here we are. Another Friday Finish and this is, to me, a big one. I have been working on this for a long time. It is also my 200th post! That, my friends is a lot of words and stitches.  So let's get to it.

Remember when this quilt pattern came out?  I think it must have been a year or more ago. I fell in love with it. There was a quilt along that I wanted to join, but way too much else going on then (16 months ago) for me to start something I knew would take a bit of time.  I finally began my Retro Flowers Quilt in March.  This was the first block I made.



I loved it and I had a whole stack of fabrics pulled to make each flower different, like the one in the picture on the pattern. As I stare at the block and the fabrics I had pulled, I started to like my selections even less. I tried pulling other fabrics. I was spinning my wheels.  Then, either due to some unknown inspiration, or maybe it was a conversation with my hubby, I took an abrupt left turn to this:

I have done several ROYGBIV quilts in my time. It's a theme I revisit a lot because I just love it. I drew the whole thing out and colored it with colored pencils.  Okay...this was it.  I even found a way to keep the first block as part of the quilt.  Yay me!  So here it is, the finished top:

 Please excuse the poor lighting. We have had such a rainy week, complete with downed trees and flooding. I had to take these in my sewing room. I tried without the flash (above) and with the flash (below) which makes a yellowish cast.

 But you get the idea. There are small dots and flowers in here, although you can't really see them in these pictures.  But I L-O-V-E it so much. I have even planned how I will quilt it, as soon as I finish one more WIP top and quilt the other two tops waiting in the wings.

 Here is a bit of a close up. You can see that sometimes, my seems met up perfectly.

 And sometimes they did not.  It also shows more on the darker colors.  But I don't mind at all.

Every time I started a new color, I got excited all over again.  I think that helped me keep going.

Now on to the second item of my post. To celebrate my 200th post I am going to have a giveaway. I absolutely love Alicia Paulson and her blog, Posie Gets Cozy. She is the creator of Maggie Rabbit and the lovely Daisy Chain ABC sampler. She also has lots of great stuff in her shop, Rosie Little Things. I am going to offer the winner (chosen by Random Number Generator) $20 to spend in Alicia's shop.  This giveaway is open to any and all. The winner will pay any difference between the prize and the total, including shipping of items.

To win, and you must answer the question to win (my party, my rules) go visit Alicia's shop and tell me what you might choose if you win. That's it.  Giveaway is open until next Friday, July 12 at 5 pm EDT.  Thanks for sticking with me. Now go look at Alicia's shop!
WINNER!!!! Fiona of Celtic Thistle is the winner as chosen by random number generator.  Congratulations! Thanks to everyone for stopping by. I hope you stick with me in the future.

So Many Projects!

If you're like me, you don't just have one quilt or sewing project going at any time.  I make lists, so that I don't forget any of them and I try to rotate through and give each one a bit of attention.  Sometimes, however, I just have to start a new one, even though there are so many already in progress.  One of the things I love about my husband is that he doesn't even point out that I haven't finished the others when I start a new one.  Here are two in the queue, and one that's done. (an unintentional rhyme)

Remember this?  I started this a while ago, after buying the pattern last year.  I scrapped my original fabric choices and started again.

I made some progress on this one yesterday.  It's slow going for me because there is so much cutting and then trimming and then sewing...I will keep going, but this one will take longer than some.

 This is a new start.  I saw an offer of 50% off these fabrics from Fat Quarter Shop on facebook.  It is Zoofari by Riley Blake Designs.  I bought a total of 4 yards to make a new quilt for Baby B.  I thought pinwheels would be nice and quick. 

It's really cute fabric and I know he'll love it.  These are the first few pinwheels I made yesterday.  The dark blue is one I had in my stash, a Kona color.

Now, for the finish...and there's a story, but you knew there would be, right?

A few years back my daughter went to New York City.  She stopped in at the Purl and bought, among other things, a bundle of these cute fabrics.  She wanted to make a quilt, so I suggested patchwork as an easy one to do.  She cut them up small.  These squares are 2 inches!  Then, she did nothing with them.  Life happened and finally I stepped in and offered to sew them together for her.  This pile is what is still left at the end.  Here is what I made for her:

 Here is the quilting, in progress yesterday.  It was overcast and rainy, so the perfect day to quilt.

 I found, with the help of another member on flickr, some of the yardage with the hut on it.  I didn't know what it was, but turns out it's Tina Givens.  I was able to get another yard at Fabric.com.  I used it for the binding, although my original thought was to use it for the back.

 Here is the front of this bright and beautiful quilt.  I do love the way it all turned out.  Minimal planning went into this, but as often happens, it came together.

 I even had the perfect color for the quilting and stitching the binding.  What a pretty pink!

 I found some yellow in my stash that I made the border with to corral the squares.  It is the same 2 inch width as the squares.

 I absolutely love the back.  I found these two fabrics in my stash.  Both are Quilter's Candy from Connecting Threads.  I don't think the pictures do them justice.  So bright and pretty!

 Down in the bottom corner I cut and stitched one patch of the hut that I fussy cut.  I think it's perfect.

 This is a project that took a year, sandwiched in between so many other quilts, clothing and bags that I have made for friends and family.

I hope you have enjoyed this look today at some of my many projects.  They all get done eventually.
Have a great Monday.