I Am Thinking "Ruffles"

Today is my day to not only Think Ruffles, but to show off some ruffles.  I became very excited when Madame Samm first proposed this blog hop. I love any blog hop that is a bit out of the usual. Ruffles...so pretty and feminine.  And our head cheerleader, Amy, at Sew Incredibly Crazy...yeah, crazy like a fox! She is doing an amazing job keeping this hop on track. Thanks to both of them. Now, on to my contribution.

 The first thing I thought of was a ruffled pillow. I had a lot of 2.5 inch strips left from a Deb Strain Jelly roll from a few years back. Perfect.

 And even though it's kind of Valentine's looking, surprise, my hubby liked it. I think he could see the potential in all these ruffles.

 Rows and rows, until I ran out. So I called it done. I think you could do this with about any color. The texture is amazing, so if you have a jelly roll lying around, ruffle it.

 Then, I wanted to make another one, but different. I have been on a quest to use my stash this year and I had some Summersville 2.5 inch strips left from another jelly roll. All blues and greens, so I made my ruffles.

 Then, I attached them in a concentric circle. When I ran out, I found a small bit of the orange from the same line and I thought it was the perfect center.

 I love the texture of this one. The orange wasn't quite big enough, so I seamed it, matching the pattern as best I could.

I really love this one. Again, it is the textures that grab me.  And for the back, which barely closes, I used up the last bit of the ruffles.

My last project has been simmering in my head since the beginning. I wanted to do an apron with ruffles.  But then, at work one day I saw this young woman in a skirt with some really cool box pleats. The skirt was a light brown, but there was and orange color in the pleats that showed when she walked. So how to marry that idea with ruffles?

My pictures of this project are a bit piecemeal. I had no model available, so I made do and the pictures are more of the details. I used a grey dot, Confetti Dots by Dear Stella for the main body of the apron.

 I had some lime green Sketch leftover from some past project and another dot fabric by Dear Stella that looked like plant beds. Those became my pockets and waistband/apron ties with ruffles added to both.

 In my box pleats is the cutest little sheep print fabric ever. This has been sitting in my stash for about a year, waiting for the perfect project.

 Here is another shot of the waist from the front, with the ruffle and the box pleats.

 And even though it is not a smooth transition, I felt it needed ruffles at the bottom hem line. I only put them on the grey dot, since I didn't want the ruffles to hold the pleats completely open.

The pleats allow the sheep to peek out occasionally.

 Here is the bow in the back of the apron. I draped a fleece blanket around a body pillow and tied the apron around it for these picture.

One last shot of the sweet pockets. This is the perfect spring apron. I love making aprons, as it is a departure from quilts that is nice to have once in a while. They are pretty quick and lend themselves to lots of different design elements. Hope you enjoyed my show and tell today. Please hop on and see the other wonderfully talented ladies with whom I share my day.

March 10th

 

The Tilted Quilt

A Geeky Crafty Life

Constantly Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts

How arT you?

                                                                    GrammieQs

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.

Saturday Something

So Amanda Jean is taking March off to recharge. That is no reason for me not to have a Friday finish, but I had less sewing time this week, due to a change in my work schedule. I am diligently working on 3 different projects with a fourth in mind.  Here is what I did yesterday:

I am using this fabric, Sasparilla, to make a quilt for little B. It was my WIP for Wednesday this week.

Well that quilt has produced a generous pile of these, which I am stitching together into HSTs.

To make these cute little 4 inch blocks to somehow add to the quilt that I am piecing. Perhaps a border? Not sure yet.

Have a great Saturday. I am off to run a 5K.

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.

This Quilter's Journey, Part 4

So there was the summer about 1996 I think, where I read Sandra Dallas' Persian Pickle Club which I got from the library. I loved that book. It had great characters and lots of quilting talk.  I was so in love with quilting or the idea of what I thought quilting was.  So I decided to make a sampler quilt so I could try out lots of blocks.  This is that quilt:

I had several books which had quilt blocks in them and I chose some of the easiest ones to make. I picked fabrics based on what looked right together in each block, not considering they would all end up together in one quilt.  I actually still have 3-4 blocks I didn't use in this quilt.

 Oh, I had to do plenty of math to make the blocks all come out the same size. And then, when they were done, I had to find a way to put them all into a cohesive quilt. I found a quilt in a book that used these triangles to make blocks on point, that kind of look like star points for the pieced blocks.  I never used black before, but I needed something neutral that would work with all the blocks.  Then I put it on the frame and had quilted the whole thing. I let each block lead me and tell me how to quilt it.

 I put the autograph block in the center, and signed my name and the year, 1996. That is the only label that the quilt has.  My family has loved this quilt about to death. It has been on picnics, to football games. It has held babies and even did a stint on our bed for awhile.

This is such an early quilt in my long quilting career, but I love it so much, even now.  Talk to you soon.

Sunday Stash #8

Well, I have a couple of new things to show off this week.  You see last week I made this quilt from my stash:

It was for a friend in great need and the only fabric I bought was the backing because there was no time to piece one.  So I bought this at the LQS:

This is Freshcut by Heather Bailey and I loved it for this quilt which is bright and happy and floral. But once the quilt was done, I had used enough fabrics that I felt depleted in florals. They are very handy for quilts like these.

Fortunately Southern Fabrics had a sale on Amy Butler and I allowed myself to partake in the sale.

The blue and green floral and the blue dots are from Gypsy Caravan and the pink and purple floral is from Alchemy.

And this little lovely jellyroll I won from Erin at Why Not Sew, Quilts.  Sew it's been a good week. Linking up to Molli Sparkles and Sunday Stash.

Seeing Stars

Here is my Friday finish for this week. I Found this great block, as a quilt in the Modern Bee book by Lindsay of Lindsay Sews and Craft Buds. I though it would make a great single block quilt for over the fireplace. Since it was too small for my needs, and finished at only 16 inches, I added a row and a 3 inch white border. I love the result.

 I chose bright colors, red raspberry and a yellow green, for my star points. This is a great block. The directions are very clear and easy to follow and yes, it would be lovely to have a quilt of this. The one in the book is beautiful.

 I never seem to get a day where the time I have and the light I have match up for great pictures. Sorry about that.

 For the quilting, I found the center point and quilted lines radiating out from there to give the illusion of shining stars. This was my hubby's suggestion and I love how it turned out.

 It is subtle, but it does show up. I think I will be making more of these and perhaps a quilt is in my future with this pattern. There are still more in the book I want to make.

 I used the Pearl Bracelets fabric to bind the edges and create a matching defined frame for the quilt.

I had this yard of fabric which I used for the back. I thought it was cool when I bought it, still do, but could never figure out how to use it in a quilt. I am learning through this using of my stash that my fabric buying habits were really all over the place. I am hoping to cure that and buy things I can really use and blend with what I have.  Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Friday.  Have a great weekend.