A One Man Race

Have you ever done a jelly roll race quilt? Me either. Until now. I never really wanted to, even though I have seen plenty of them.

About 3-4 years ago, I bought two Riley Blake jelly rolls. One was yellow and one was pink. Each had 24 strips, two of each fabric. There were ginghams, polka dots and chevrons in different sizes. Some with white, and some tone on tone, but I really loved them all. I never knew what to do until one day it struck me that I could do a jelly roll race with them. But then I didn't for like a year or more.
Today was the day. I felt like something new and easy. So I unwrapped them both and unrolled them.

I just laid the two stacks of strips next to the machine and began attaching first a pink and then a yellow, in the order they came in.

This is how the first pass of strips looked as it fell off the back of my sewing table. That part was fun.
I could not have ever won this race had I been in it with any competition. This took me way longer than I thought it would. But now it's done and I just have to come up with a back and get it quilted.

I love how it turned out. I'm calling it pink lemonade, which seems appropriate for early summer. Have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon.

Churning Along

This is going to be my Friday finish. The quilt top is not finished, but for the last nine days, not counting weekends, I have been piecing and pressing these churn dash blocks and today at 4 pm they were finally all done!

We went from this, last Monday May 7...

...to this today. This is 41 blocks all stacked up. I was planning to do 6 x 6 which is 36, but I had counting difficulties. So the extras will go on the back of the quilt.

 There are 6 of assorted greys, all 12 inches square...

 there are 6 dark blues that are reversed...

 there are 11 dark blues in assorted fabrics...

 there are 13 assorted light blues, some there are 2 of...

and finally there are 6 of these, made from (4) 6 inch blocks.

The background fabric is Swiss Dots by Riley Blake. I originally ordered Navy on Cream, but when they pulled the bolt to cut is at the Fat Quarter Shop, they found it was mislabeled and was actually black dot on cream. They were so kind and called and emailed me right away. I decided to go with the black on cream and they rushed it right out to me.

Now I don't have EQ or any software to help me design quilts. I do it by trial and error and graph paper. So I had no idea how much fabric to buy. All the other fabrics were in my stash. I ended up buying 3 yards. I though it was enough. I had cut all my pieces and counted them and labeled them with post it notes. But I ran out before I got finished and ended up ordering another yard.

I think if I had counted how many blocks I had at that point, I was probably fine, but I assumed all my blue pieces were correctly counted. Ha! So I cut more background when I received the extra yard and I finally realized I had extra blocks. Now I have about a half yard left and it may become the binding, but I am not positive on that yet.

The next step is to figure out an arrangement, but that will be tomorrow. I am tired right now.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose

I began this quilt in June for my sister's July birthday. I was able to present her with the top on time, but life gets in the way sometimes, so the quilting was just finished yesterday. The reason I chose this pattern is because my sister's house is known as the Garden House and she grows lots of Roses, among other things.

These are but a small peek at the many roses she produces every year. So the Pixelated Rose Quilt is perfect for her.

 Here it is in all its glory. I couldn't be more pleased with the end result. After washing, the texture was awesome.

 I used an older Dear Stella print for the binding. I thought a bit of color was needed against all that white, but not too much.

 The pixelated rose and the rosebud needed some quilting to give it some gentle curves to suggest the rose petals. So I used two colors of Aurifil to do my wandering curvy lines.

These are the threads I used. I used the two greens to give the leaf areas some form as well.

 And the white background got some semi-measured straight line quilting.

      I even added a few actual leaves here and there just for fun.

 The back was pieced with some chunks of fabric left from other projects, but I think it looks great.

       Here you can see the leaf veins on the back of the quilt.

And here it is on the bed at last. Both my sister and I are very happy with this quilt. Happy Birthday Sis!

 And Just a few more rose pics, just because they are beautiful. Linking up with Amanda Jean today.

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.

Post Number 385

I had great hopes of hitting number 400 this year, and I was on track until just recently. Life has started getting in the way of my blogging. Sometimes, I have nothing to blog about. Sometimes, I just don't feel like blogging. That is the first time that has happened to me. So, here I am, still 15 posts away from 400 and only 14 days until Christmas. Not gonna happen.
So here is what I have and can share with you, during this season of surprises that cannot be shared yet:

 I am in the holiday mood, thanks in part to these pretty fabrics. I bought this bundle from Fort Worth Fabrics. I am in love with red and white right now.

 This was the print that sealed the deal for me. So cute! I can't wait to figure out what to make with it.

 I found this on crazy black Friday weekend shopping on line. I got the last of it from Fat Quarter shop. I bought two yards.

 And this too.

 And this. I recently discovered a distinct lack of reds and pinks in my stash. I am out to fix that.

 I got this cross stitch pattern for the January blog hop at Sew We Quilt. Still a few spots open if you are interested.

And from Craftsy, these two great rolls of Riley Blake goodies. Lots to do. Hope to talk to you soon.