WIP Wednesday

Here it is, Wednesday again and I am still stitching away from my stash. Proud to say, even though there are a few things I would like to have, I haven't caved yet.  Here is this week's progress:

 This little sweetie is going to be a table topper for a small round table in my living room. All made from charms I collected and pin basted and ready to quilt. The border print is from Malka Dubrasky's line, Stitch in Color. I have been looking for something to do with this for a long time. I even mitered the corners!

 Here is my Flags quilt top. This is from Cheryl Arkison's book A Month of Sundays. I changed the layout to be able to use the fabric I had chosen, even though it wasn't quite enough. I have decide to put a thin row of dots in between each row of flags. Still trying to find my way through this one.

And last, but not least, this is the back of another small quilt. I am pin basting this today. I am not ready to show the front off just yet. This is for the Mosaic Tiles Quilt Along on Craft Buds.  Hope you are having a great week. Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Talk to you soon.

Sunday Stash #2

After a crazy little weekend and arriving home late, here is my Sunday stash post.  I am still not buying any new fabrics. Today's stash is some that I pre-ordered from Hawthorne Threads awhile ago.

 This is Lizzy House's new line, Catnap. I bought one full yard of the feature fabric, and half yard cuts of the others that I wanted. Lizzy is so creative and I just love her stuff.

 I love these butterflies and the sweet little mice, riding bikes and just hanging out. I got this in two colorways,because I couldn't decide between them.

Here is a close up of that one. See the three blind mice. Too cute.  Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Sunday Stash.

WIP Wednesday

So it's a vacation week for me and I am trying to do as much sewing as I can. I know once this week is over, it will be back to 30 minutes sewing here and there. And I am going to share lots of it here, I hope. So today, it's WIP Wednesday here.

I have about 5 or 6 projects in motion, but today I am focusing on this one:

 I asked for a few quilting books for Christmas and Santa didn't disappoint. This one has been on my list since it came out. I love Cheryl's style and this book is more than just quilts. Beautifully done.

 My goal is always to use these books and not just read them and stack them aside. This quilt really spoke to me for some reason, so I chose it for my first one from the book. (Sorry for the crappy lighting in the sewing room)

 I have been wanting to use these lovelies since I bought them and this seems the perfect project for the first cuts. I am trying really hard to sew from my stash this year. This pattern is supposed to be paper pieced, which I have to admit, I still have never tried. I wasn't ready to try it with this one yet either. I used my Tri Recs tools rulers which happened to be the exact size I needed for these.

I have been saving this yard of Wordplay for about a year I think, and decided it would be perfect for the background. Trouble was, I needed another yard to do the layout in the picture.  I put out a plea here and on flickr to see if someone had another yard they would be willing to trad, but alas, no takers. So I set out to reconfigure the layout and make it work. I tried adding several different fabrics for a more scrappy background, but I just didn't like it. So my little quilt will be even rows of 5 flags each. It should finish at about 42 inches square, instead of the 42 x 54 size. I am still going to love it.
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced. Talk to you soon.

This Quilter's Journey, Part 2

This is the second installment of my quilting journey.  You can read part 1 here.  The first several posts will be about a single quilt,as they were fewer when I began quilting. Later on, some of the quilts will be grouped together in a single post.  This is the story of my first "real" quilt.

 

.  I started getting books from the library on quilting when I would take my kids to the library.  This was 1992 and Georgia Bonesteel had a few books out about lap quilting.  I checked them out over and over and poured through them.  I checked out any other quilting books as well.  I liked Georgia’s method, since I didn’t have a frame to stretch a large quilt on.

When I felt ready, like I could really handle this, I bought a cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler and some fabric.  I had designed a quilt that could be made and quilted in squares with the lap quilting method.  It took me about a year to make this queen size quilt.  Now I am stubborn and tenacious, as my husband can tell you, but looking back I was clueless too.

My first “real” quilt was a queen size quilt with tons of half square triangles.  I think I just liked the design.  I bought the fabric in calicos of dark green, dark blue and a sort of burgundy color.  I didn’t pre-wash and the green has since bled onto the adjoining muslin.  That’s another notion I had, that all quilts should have some muslin in them.

 I hand quilted it in squares and joined them together.  Oh, and I wanted it to be hefty, so double batting.  I don’t know where that crazy idea came from.  That is one heavy quilt.  I think I had so many comforters over the years that were store bought and very fluffy, I must have thought that was a good thing. That quilt was on our bed for years and we still have it.  I signed the back with my name and the year, 1993.

 This is the quilt, today. Sorry that it is rainy and overcast, so the lighting isn't great. This quilt spent a lot of years on our queen size waterbed.

 It is very lumpy due to the double layers of a poly batting I used, and all hand quilted by my untrained hands.

 The points don't match up in many places due the the way the blocks were joined together. I understood the concept, but it was tough to execute.

 You can see here on the back how the green fabric bled when washed. I don't remember pre-washing these fabrics.

My sharpie signature

 The corners of the quilt, once I figured out the border.  All quilts had borders back then.

And here you can see how worn it is. It is dirty and stained in places too.  I still have a soft spot in my heart for this old quilt, my first creation.  See you soon for another installment.

Sunday Stash

I have decided to join up with Sunday Stash. My friend, Molli Sparkles is now hosting and I love that guy. He is so funny and has a great blog that I love to read. So here we go for my first time ever.

 I am on a stash fast for this year, but I bought all these in December so I'm still good. I loved the new colors of Art Gallery's Squared Elements so I added these to the stash. Look at that orange and navy!

 Don't they all look great together? I want to find a way to showcase all of the squared elements in one quilt.

 Found these cuties at a sale at Intrepid Thread. (sale in December? crazy!) I love the little hedgehogs from Bluebird Park. The yellow print is an older one from the Salt Air line. I have always wanted some. The stripes are Barcelona Stripes and the Rain is Sunnyside by Kate Spain.

 This is Sasparilla. I also bought these on sale. They are going to be a big boy quilt for my youngest grandson. He is not quite there yet, but it will take a while until I am done, since I haven't even begun yet.

And lastly, a fat quarter bundle of Dimple Dots I got from Craftsy, also on sale. Great to go along with many others. They have such subtle texture. Hope you have a great Sunday. I am off to work now.
Linking up with Sunday Stash at Molli Sparkles.

Willing to Trade

I made a goal of not buying any new fabric. I am sincere in this. However, I am in need of some to finish a quilt I have started. Therefore, I come here today to ask if anyone has what I need and would be willing to trade for something I have that they may need. Intrigued?

Here is what I am looking for:

This is Wordplay by Benartex. This print is Big Words in cream/green. I need one yard of this to be able to complete my quilt without having to rearrange things and try to make do with something else. If you are game, and have a yard you would be willing to trade, leave me a comment and I will contact you to see if we can work out a trade. I have a pretty good stash and I would trade a yard of something you want/need for this.  Thanks and I hope you don't think I am too crazy, but this is not the same as buying fabric, right?

A Clean Slate

Happy New Year to all. This is the time of year when we all get a clean slate. We vow to be stronger, healthier, learn more, eat better...well you get the idea. Like many of you, I also have those goals for the new year. I prefer goals, to resolutions. Goals are achievable. Resolutions are often broken. Goals can be reset if you slip. One of my goals is to sew as much as I can from my stash this year. I have said it before, but this time, I am really going to work hard to make it happen. I am putting it out in the universe so I have some accountability.  The only exception to this will be fabrics for backings. I do not have many large chunks of fabrics for this. I will piece backs when I can, though.

 I have these wonderful fabrics to make a larger, bed size quilt for B. He will eventually be in a big boy bed and need one and I love these Sasparilla prints. I had trouble deciding on the colorway. I bought these on sale, though, so a good purchase in December.

 This is a fat quarter bundle of Dimple Dots. I got this on sale too, knowing they would be great blenders with other fabrics in my stash. These were one of my last purchases of the year.

 Sew now the sewing room is clean and tidy. It took me 3-4 days working after I got home from work. Christmas sewing had totally trashed it so I really couldn't create in there. I know you understand that, right? And there is my new orange chair. Got it at the PTA Thrift store for $10.

I have already started two new projects that aren't even on the official 2014 list I made. I received some great quilting books from Mr. GQ for Christmas, and yes, I asked for them so not too much of a surprise. I found a couple of projects that I really wanted to start and I went shopping in my stash quite successfully. So my goals are off to a good start.  I hope you have a great new year filled with successfully met goals also. Talk to you soon.