Little Houses

 Scrolling through IG one day, I saw these cute little house blocks. They are bigger than my tiny house blocks, but simple and oh so cute. Perfect for using up some scraps. The ones in the picture were such soft colors that I fell in love. I'm sorry I didn't think to write down the owner of the post. It wasn't someone I normally follow, just a rabbit hole I fell into. Anyway, I made a bunch of blocks in some soft colors to start with.

I made 12 blocks into a little quilted piece that has colors that remind me of the early morning sky. Mu husband says it's very beachy.

This is obviously the back. Sometimes, Blogger re-orders my photos for me. Yeesh!

Anyway, this is the front. Pride month is almost here and I do love a good rainbow. And it has already been gifted! So win win.

Then I did some blue houses for daughter number 2 in shades of Carolina blue, and similar blue shades. Daughter number 1 suggested quilting in the words "nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina" so I did.And it turned out so cute!

Daughter number 1 had really taken up gardening since the pandemic and this year she bought herself a John Deere tractor mower. They have a very big yard, so this was a great purchase. Her houses are full of flowers, like greenhouses. and I just had to figure out how to make a tractor! The bits of chicken fabrics are a nod to the chickens she would like to have some day.

So, that is my collection of little house quilts. There may be more. I just might not be done with these cuties yet. See you soon.

A Quilt Full of Hugs

Well, I finished my hugs quilt today. It took me almost two weeks, but at least 3 of those days were no sewing days, so they don't count. My friend will receive her quilt this weekend when I see her, and it is a surprise. So, here it is:

 I used all fabrics from my stash for the top. I googled X quilt block to get dimensions and then I just cut and cut and then chain pieced for days to make this 63 inch square throw quilt.

 I know there are parts where there is less definition between fabrics, but up close, it's a beauty.

 The back is all pink, a fabric I picked up at Joann. I just really didn't want to take the time to piece the back for this one. I wanted it done and in her hands.

 The red binding goes well with both sides and frames the quilt up nicely. I have had that in my stash for years and am glad it found a home.

 I used a cookie cutter to trace a heart in the center and then quilted hearts one inch apart from there outward. It does lose some of the definition, but I still love it.

Quilt inspector Pouncer came by to put her paw of approval on the quilt. She knows a good one when she feels it.

       Got my label and I wrote the date with a micron pen on the back.

 And now it's ready to be gifted and I am happy to have it complete. Now, on to my December Penny Sampler Quilt lesson. I have to finish that so I can put that year long project together. I have decided to hand quilt it, so that may take awhile. Don't worry, I will have lots of other projects going on to show you while I hand quilt. Have a great weekend. Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Color Play

I know it's been awhile and yes, I have been very busy sewing. As soon as the box reaches its recipients, I will share all the goodies that went into it. But for now, something else.

I spent today, and yes, all day almost, cutting out pieces for a new quilt. I won a bundle of Amy Friend's Improv this summer and immediately bought some more to go with it. I absolutely love it. I wanted to find a pattern to use all of it in a quilt. I knew that when the right pattern came up, I would know it. And it did. Fat Quarter Shop had a fat quarter Cobblestone quilt pattern for free!

 Here is the whole queen sized quilt in pieces. I am looking forward to starting this one. I need to figure out my color placement.

 So what do you do when you get done cutting out a whole quilt, and it's too late to begin sewing on it? You play with all the delicious scraps! They were lying on my cutting mat, just calling to me.

 So I started grouping them together and sewing a few small groups together. I really love these colors.

 I do have a couple of bigger scraps like this grey, that I might cut up to add to this little project. I don't even know what to call it yet. I thought about making some pin cushions.

But then, I laid it all out on my ironing board and now, I'm kind of thinking about maybe a small wall hanging style quilt. I think I'll sleep on it and see what develops.
Talk to you soon.

A Friday Finish...Yay!

This is the first time I have had a Friday finish in forever!! It helps that it is a small quilt top. It only measures 39x35, but I am smitten with it.

 After I finished all the hearts and put the rows together, I felt that it needed a border of the pink. There wasn't enough pink! So I added a 2 1/2 inch border and I am happy with that.

 I am going to bind it with a medium blue to bring out the flowers and also to give it a proper place for the eye to stop since the pink is so pale.

 I really love this fabric. It all started last week before Valentine's Day, but I am crushing on heart quilts right now.

And I am piecing all the scraps from the hearts to add to the back. I was inspired by Amanda Jean's new book.
Have a great weekend.

Itty Bitty Hello Kitty

It's not finished yet, I am quilting it now. But I wanted to show you something I have been working on for a few months now. When I made the Hello Kitty quilt for my daughter, my oldest daughter had just had a baby girl after two boys. She loved the Hello Kitty quilt and wanted one for baby N, but not a big one and she asked me if I could do a small one to use as a wall hanging.

Now, I liked the quilt, but I never thought I wanted to make another one, especially a smaller one. But...I began to think about it. After awhile I decided to try it and not tell her until I saw if I could follow it through.

 N's signature color, according to my daughter, is purple. So the same quilt, with a purple border this time. The other difference is that instead of cutting 2.5 inch squares that finish at 2 inches, I cut 1.5 inch squares that finish at 1 inch. Itty bitty squares...1,296 itty bitty squares actually.

 And then I added another border around it to frame it, and also because I have special quilting planned for the border.

The most fun in making this is finding scraps to use for all these squares. Many are left over from the larger quilt, and many are cut from scraps, charm squares and the last bits and bobs of very old fabrics, particularly the purple ones. This quilt will finish at about 40 inches square. I will be back with more photos when it is done. Have a lovely weekend and talk to you soon. Linking up to Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Meanwhile...back at the Clambake

I have been trying to work on a quilt I started over a year ago when I was home during chemo and radiation for breast cancer. Rachel, of Stitched in Color had a Clambake quilt along. If you go to her blog and search using the word clam, you can find all the relevant posts.
I was able to get all the almost 500 clam shells traced and cut out. It was actually a good, soothing activity for me, sitting at the table and watching TV while I traced and cut.

I got the backing made and added the batting. This is a quilt as you go method. I started pressing the curved edges under and sewed the first few rows. I was liking it, but struggling with fatigue made sewing less fun. Finally, I stopped all together and folded it up. I think I had about 8 or 9 rows and I need 34 for the entire quilt.

The time has come to get back on that horse. I hope to be able to add several rows a week until it's done.

 They are not perfect. This is hard, but my muscle memory is improving. That's why I want to keep at it and get it done.

 The curve edge of each clam has to be starched and ironed , before pinning and stitching through all 3 layers.

 Here are a bunch, pressed and ready. This is one whole color row. I am being very random about my placement of these.

I am improving. I am trying to go slow so that it looks good. So, what are you doing these days?
Talk to you soon.

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.

Friday Finish, Tour de France Edition

We have always loved watching the Tour de France in my house. Every July, for 3 weeks, we watch. We love all the beauty of the countryside that we get to see and we enjoy watching the cyclists work so hard and cringing at the crashes. When I saw an aerial shot as I was walking by the tv, I had a sudden inspiration.

This is the best shot I could find and even this is not what I saw. What I saw was the riders, from behind, all squeezed together on a narrow road.  And what my quilter's mind saw was this:

 A pixelated picture of the scene which I chose to surround with white to emphasize the scene.

 I found the grey scraps in my scrap bin, and they just looked like the road, so I included them around the colorful "riders"

 The quilting, of course had to be bicycle wheels. I only put spokes in some and I like that random look.

 I happened to find polka dots, so I included a polka dot "jersey" for the king of the mountains and a solid yellow for the tour leader. I know there are others, but that wasn't the point of this, so I did not include them.

And the back, which I think is way cool too. White binding to not distract the eye and I love it! All scraps and yardage I had on hand, and I have to admit, I dropped everything to make this over 2 days. Have you ever done that? Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

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.

Briar Rose Scrappy Goodness

Remember when I posted my Briar Rose quilt and said I was aiming to use up every bit of it? Well, I am off to a great start. After I made the Rainbow quilt and the baby Rainbow quilt, I took all the scraps that were left up to that point and created a few blocks.  I haven't figured out what to do with them yet, but they are done. Wanna see?  Good.

 I took the small strips and separated them into three groups, based on how they looked against three pieces of fabric I picked out. Then I made a stacked coins block. This is the pink background.

 These are 25 squares for my Bee mate in Sunday Morning Quilts Bee. She is making the Up Up Away quilt in scrappy blues. I used all the small triangles left from the baby rainbow.

 This is my selvedge piece. I think I may be going to make a zippered pouch out of these. I have to look at them some more to decide.

 This is my first foray into selvedge sewing and I like it okay, but I don't think it's really me.

 Here is another color set of stacked coins. I am really loving how these look. Not sure what I am going to make from them though.

 I took this close up to show you the sweet vine and leaf pattern on the background fabric. I have had this forever and could never figure out how to use it.  I have one more set, not done yet but the background fabric is blue.

 These HSTs are all from the larger Rainbow quilt. I just fiddled with them until I decided I was happy and stitched them up.

And that brings me to this. This is the stack of what is left. Lots of pretty big chunks and two complete half yards. I have no ideas what to make with this. I am going to think on it, but I would love some suggestions of patterns to try with these. I am pretty sure I can get a good size lap quilt out of these.  So let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by. I'll let you know what I end up with.