Strawberry Lemonade

I know, it sounds like a post for summertime, not the middle of January, but this bright sunny quilt is just the thing for a grey January day.  I started this quilt last spring when I first received this book.

I ordered the complete series to save money. It was a good deal. Also, I used it as a treat to myself for getting through the year of cancer treatment. One book came every other month and they were each a joy to page through and dream of the quilts to come, once I was ready to sew again. Now, the first one is done and on its way to the new owner.

 Vanessa calls this quilt Lemonade. I fell not only for the color, which is my favorite color, but I loved the slices of lemon and the way they were quilted.

 The quilt was easy enough to piece, and went together pretty easily. It only took so long because I wasn't sewing at all for several months.

 It was a chance to use a lot of yellows that were sitting on my shelf waiting for such inspiration.

 I would only have wanted to quilt it exactly the way Vanessa did. It was perfect. The quilting, however, was a challenge for me for several reasons.

 First, I hadn't quilted in quite awhile and I was rusty. Second, I hadn't had my machine serviced in two years and it was dust inside and had a couple of other issues. Once I had it serviced and talked to the technician about a couple of things, I was back in business.

 My stitching was still way less than perfect, but I just kept plugging along. Nothing in life is perfect and this was okay with me. I had a big chunk of Sweetwater's Wishes yellow for the back, and I added another off white print from that line, as well as this cute strawberry print from my stash.

 And that's how it got the name Strawberry Lemonade. And the imperfect lemon wedges are organic lemons, never perfect, but always tasty.

 There wasn't enough of the strawberry print for the binding, but a search of my scraps unearthed some lovely Heather Ross strawberry scraps to make a scrappy strawberry binding. It adds the perfect pop of color.

 A too cold, but sunny day yielded these pictures in my bedroom. I am very happy with the way this came out.

So, even though she might see it before it gets there next week, I am sharing this here. Sally, I love you and I hope you enjoy this quilt.

A Birthday Gift

Even though the sewing is slow going here, when it came to my best friend's birthday, I just felt that this year, I wanted to make something for her. She lives half way across the country and I haven't actually seen her in 15 years. Travel is expensive and so we keep in touch on line and on the phone. And it's just like we were together yesterday, each time we talk. She has been such a great support for me these last few months and I really wanted to make something small, that showed how much I appreciated her friendship.

 So, since her birthday's in April and I had these lovely bright spring colors in my stash, I decided a single Swoon block that she could either hang up or use as a table topper, would be wonderful.

 The solids are Kona, but I am not sure what the print is. I won it last year some time in a fat quarter bundle. But I just love it. The quilting is one, big mum, starting in the center.

 The corners I decided to quilt a leaf in each one. I love the way it turned out. I think it finishes the corners so nicely.

The back is a small chunk of Sweetwater's wishes line I also had in my stash. Just the perfect size.

So, Happy Birthday to my friend. I hope you love it and have many more birthdays ahead.

Sunday Stash #9

So...I guess my fabric fast is over. I made it 2 months. Well, I don't intend to go crazy now, and I am trying to still use my stash. But after the color intensive class, I am going to try to be more deliberate in my fabric purchases. I can see now how just loving a fabric doesn't make it the right purchase for using it. With that said, here are my newest purchases:

 This is a fat quarter bundle of Wishes by Sweetwater. They are one of my favorites in fabric design and I always buy some of their lines. I got this collection from their Etsy shop.

 Here are some more confetti dots by Dear Stella. This is such a great collection and I love ALL the colors. The grey and the lime green are to replace some I used up in a couple of projects. This is one of my new go to blender collections.

 These are the Joel Dewberry Herringbone prints from the True Colors collection. Again, a great blender in several colors. Smaller scale prints are great for that.

 I took this picture to show the older Herringbone prints from Joel Dewberry. The colors have changed a bit and they were tone on tone originally. I didn't realize that when I ordered these, but I still like them and will be able to use them.

This is my one wild and crazy purchase. I bought a full yard of this delicious water color print by Dear Stella. I am going to make it a focus of a quilt and pull fabrics to show it off. I am thinking tone on tone and maybe some Kona solids.  I haven't got a definite idea yet, but I do have an inkling of what it will be.
So, there you have it, my fall from the wagon. Linking up to Sunday Stash.