A Happy Anniversary Quilt

I finished an anniversary quilt a few weeks ago, for my daughter and son-in-law. Their anniversary isn't until October 1, but I couldn't wait any longer, so I gave it to them this weekend. What can I say, I get excited when I finish a project and it was a secret for so long already. So, this is what I did.

When they were married, 5 years ago, I made 100 cloth napkins in sets of 4, 6 and one set of 8, for the wedding reception. The plan was that later, they would use them at home. And use them, they did. Awhile back she gave me all the scrap fabrics she had from those napkins and it sat here for over a year until I got the idea to use it for a quilt for their anniversary.

 I wanted to do triangles. I have long wanted to make a quilt of triangles. I had such a variety of amounts here, once I cut out all the triagles, I had to find a way to make it look good, and random.

 So I stared rearranging them on the wall as hexagons in color groups that looked good to me.

 And I just kept on moving them around until I had used almost all of the triangles.

 This is the final arrangement on the design wall, all sewn together before quilting.

                     And this extra wide fun fabric is the backing!

 The top and bottom are straight lines, but I decided not to cut off the side angles to make it straight. Instead, I let them swerve in and out along the sides.

 I found enough solid green in a couple of colorways in my stash to do the binding. I made a bias binding to help ease in the indents and curve around the hills and corners. It's not perfect, but it works.

 My daughter commented that those napkins are so faded now from all the washing over the last five years, but these are so bright, just like the original fabrics.

 I love the way this turned out so much, and it will be a constant reminder to them of that happy day.

The colors will stay bright longer, since it won't be washed as much, and no one will be wiping their mouth on it. :)  Talk to you soon.

Countdown

Well, my daughter says the countdown has begun.  The wedding is in12 days.  The napkins are all done.  Check that item off my list. 

The outfit for the little man is done.  Check that item off my list.  He is ready to walk his mom down the aisle.

Went shopping today (which I hate to do) and now my outfit is ready.  Check that item off my list.
 So now that my stuff is done, I guess it's okay to work on all the other projects I have going on, right?

Like this:

for a special baby girl in Vermont

and these:

putting together my 36 patch

my hometown quilt

and this:

just bought the pattern

I have been dying to try the Swoon quilt and since I didn't have enough going on, I caved and bought the pattern this weekend.  I want to try and make it out of fabrics I already have so when I have time I will go hunting in my stash.  I also have a couple of other things to get going on for Christmas.  I know it will creep up quickly like it does every year.

So after the wedding I will be sewing like a maniac.  Oh, wait, I already am.

Have a great week.

And then there was one

So after some fast and furious sewing today, I decided to post about the great napkin project.  After seeing a post over a year ago on Purl Bee, my daughter thought she'd like to make a bunch of napkins to use at her wedding.  Afterwards, she could use them in her home.  We decided to do lots of different fabrics (because who can decide?) in sets of 4, 6, 8 and one set of 12 for Thanksgiving and such.

So we bought fabric every time we found some we thought would be good.  Now we had lots of fabric, but hardly any hemmed up and no idea if we had enough.  So we finally had a napkin cutting party and got them all cut to see what we had.  I think this was in late January.  I began hemming, a few here and there.  I had lots of time until October.  We simplified some of the ideas from decorative stitching to just plain hemming.  There were 97 napkins here folks!!

She took one set to top stitch with embroidery floss and the rest I had at my house.  There are 2 sets of 4 that are double sided with rick rack around the edges.  There is one set of 6 that she started to embroider a flowering vine on.  It was also double sided.  After 2 of those she was ready to give up.  They were taking way too long to finish.  I told her to leave them and I would see what I could do.

Now they are all done but one, and I have started the embroidery on it.  Should have it done in about a week, in between everything else and work.  I cannot begin to tell you the relief at having this so close to done.  As October looms, I am feeling the time crunch. 

I have other projects too, you see.  Like this one with Crazy Mom Quilts:

blocks all done, so I can breathe.

And I finished my August Birdie Stitches block.  So here I am, feeling pretty good about myself.  Uh oh, what's that?  V needs pants for the wedding...and he wants a bow tie too?  No sweat, Grammie can do that easy peasy.  There's a tutorial on Dana Made It for boy pants.  Here's the fabric:

A nice linen from Joann's...on sale too!  So I'll just be going now.  Got to draft a pattern and get sewing.  I am glad I never lack a project to whip together.  How boring would that be?  One last shot of those napkins....

Have a great week.

Lots of Updates

I have been listening to Prairie Home Companion on Saturday nights for the last 6 weeks or so, and if you've ever listened to that radio show, you'll understand when I say: It's been a busy week here in my sewing room.  Lots of projects are making significant progress.

First, the Yo Yo Along with Penny from Take a Hike.  I got a late start, but I am going on it now.  Today I can proudly say I have 69 Yo-Yos  done.  They are quick, easy and addictive to make.  The total needed for this is 1008.  Yes that's ONE THOUSAND!

The next project is my napkins for my daughter's October 1 wedding.  I need to do a total of 97, and as of right now have done 59.  So more than half way done!

I finished my Birdie Stitches block for July one week early!

I have also joined a 36 Block sew along with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I may not be able to keep up with the 6 blocks per week pace, but I have the first 3 done and the second 3 cut out.

And last, but not least I made Days of the Week dishcloths from a tutorial on Knitty Bitties blog.  I am loving these things and my kitchen is so much cleaner now and not so many paper towels are being used.  Even the hubby likes them.  So, YAY!

I hope your weekend was productive and happy too.  We did a lot of good eating around here this weekend.  Best thing about summer is the garden fresh food available, some home grown and some farmer's market and some grocery store.  Enjoy!

In the Good Old Summertime

It is so hot all over the country today.  We have actually enjoyed several days of cooler temps here in NC.  That doesn't happen too often.  Still trying to get lots done around here.  I may just have to accept the fact that it is going to take awhile and I need to enjoy the process a little more.

These are the napkins I have been hemming.  The stack is growing and almost larger than the still to do pile.  I'll need to check and verify that.  So....progress.

 But then last week this came and has been sitting there distracting me....looking at me and tempting me to come and play with it.  I finally caved.  Since I had the pattern and labels from the Label Crew...I did this:

The world's cutest pin cushion!  I made one for my daughter too, but forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to her.  I didn't put windows and doors on hers though.  So now that I played with my new toys, I need to go hem a couple more napkins.  Especially since I joined a couple of quilt alongs with other bloggers.  Can't wait to really get going on those too. 

Have a sunny week and keep cool.