WIP Wednesday

I am still quilting every chance I get, trying like crazy to finish up some of those quilt tops I have lying around. Much progress is being made.  Here is today's installment.

 I am quilting my Spools quilt. This is a quilt pattern by Camille Roskelly. I fell in love with it when I saw it. The stacked off-set spools are so cute and just a bit different from most spool quilts.

 This one is getting quite a bit of quilting, as seems to be what my quilts are crying out for these days.

 I am doing a swirl around the main spool part, to imitate thread. The ends of the spools are getting quilted base on the fabric in them. Small stripes for this one...

      ...and round doodles for the one with the polka dots.  I am loving this quilt already.

The white sashing is going to be figure 8s. I am about half way done with this baby and hopefully I can have it done in about another week. The fabric I used was a fat eighth of Fig Tree's Strawberry Fields.
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Christmas Trees and Tie Dye

I've been quilting away here this week pretty steadily. I have finished one quilt that just needs binding and am quilting another before I bind them both. Meanwhile, I spent a little time piecing and doing some tie dye with my sweet Grandson, V. Let's start with that.

 Here is a t-shirt for baby B. We watched the video that came with the tie dye kit and I let V pick the ways in which we would tie each of the shirts.

 He wanted a swirl for his shirt and even though I doubted my ability to do this one, with his encouragement, I did just fine.

                                        We did the dots and spots for his mom's t-shirt...

 ...and a scrunchy line down one side of mine. We were almost done when he said we needed to make something for grandaddy. So I found a pair of white socks to use up the last of the dye.

The other reason I wanted to tie dye was to make this:

It is two yards of Kona white, or rather it was Kona white. Now I need to decide what to make with it. It is almost too cool to cut up.  Any suggestions?

Now, about those Christmas trees. Christa, at Christa Quilts is having a Modern Christmas Tees Quilt Along.  And this is my interpretaion of her pattern:

I cut the trees from a Robert Kaufman print from the classic quilts line. I thought they would make very cool modern trees.  I struggled a bit with the background. I knew I wanted it to be pink, but I auditioned a couple and wasn't satisfied. I tried green...nope...red...nope. Had to be pink. But I didn't have a lot of any one pink. So the solution was to make it patchwork. I used one pink around the trees for each row and am now filling in the rest with patchwork.  I have a love/hate relationship with this little quilt top. Some days I hate it and I walk away. The next time I see it, I love it again. Well that's it for today. See you soon.

Now I Can Share

So my sister's quilts got to California okay and now I can share the other one. If you recall, this was the quilt I made for my sister K. She loved it, by the way.

And as a treat to my sister S who is a world traveler, I made another lap quilt with this fun Italy print collection by Dear Stella. My sister's favorite country is Italy, so I knew I had to make her something from this cute fabric line.

 There were Vespas and maps and stripes. I bought a half yard of each of the fabrics, with no real plan in mind except to make a quilt. Because of that, I ran a tiny bit short and in the photo above, if you look closely, you can see I pieced one of the squares.

 I had just barely enough of the stripes to bind the edges of this lovely lap quilt.  Excuse the order of the pictures. I am not computer savvy enough to rearrange them.

 Here is the front of the quilt.  I wish you could see all the little maps and buildings that are labeled. It is too cute.

 The grey print is sort of an aerial view of a body of water and surrounding area. I loved that print.

 Here is the back. I used up all the big chunks and added some Terrain by Kate Spain. I still came up short so I used a darker blue green print that I have had forever. It just felt Italian to me.

 My sister was very surprised and that is just what I wanted. I do love a good surprise gift.

I am glad I was finally able to share this. I have been dying to show it off, but I am glad I was able to keep a secret. The end result was fun!
Talk to you soon.

Plugging Along

Still plugging along on getting all those 12 quilt tops quilted. Got two more pin basted on Sunday; the Spools quilt top and the Heather Ross Briar Rose quilt top.  I started quilting Briar Rose on Monday.

 I am quilting it with wavy lines on the stitching lines and then adding three more wavy lines in both directions across each square. The lines will form a wavy line grid pattern about 1 1/2 inches apart. It's looking pretty cool so far.

 Got up to take a break for lunch and when I came back, this is what I found on the table...

"What? It's a warm spot, so what?" O'Malley had found a spot which I gently evicted him from. I prefer if he waits until the quilting is done, lest he find himself sewn to a quilt.

And I finally framed my Heather Ross Strawberry print too. I think it's so cute! That's it for today.
Talk to you soon.

I'm on a Roll Here

Back again with another finish to show you.  I finished this quilt top and showed it off here awhile ago, but now, here it is in all it's crinkly goodness.

 I. LOVE. THIS. QUILT.  I cannot get over how much I love the colors and the quilting and the crinkles since I washed it. The colors are so vibrant. 

 I started this quilt back in February and was just going to make it like all the others I saw on line, with 16 different color flowers. Then, I changed direction.  To a rainbow quilt. I am so glad I did.

 I had trouble deciding on the binding. I could have used almost any color. I went with an orange print from V and Co. Simply Color for the two sides of cool colors and the green raindrops from Laurie Wisbrun's Jack and Jenny line for the warm color sides.  I am pleased with this as well.

 For the back, I use a large chunk of this wonderful flower print. I bought a couple of yards of this several years ago and was debating on how to best use it. It is Honey Meadow by Michael Miller. I was just a little short, so hence, the yellow corner.

                                                Isn't it pretty?

                                                    One more look.

And the pretty binding. I think this is getting a hanging sleeve and going up on a wall in the living room. That's Mr. GQ's idea.  Then I can look at it all day long!
Talk to you soon.
Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it Friday.

MSBHQAL is over!

We started in early September. I quickly became crazy and decided to go big or go home. I made a quilt top for my queen size bed. I loved every minute of the QAL and I loved seeing everyone's interpretation of the pattern. But one thing I know for sure, I ain't quilting that beast. I don't do large quilts on my Bernina any more. So I am saving up to have a long arm quilter that I know and love her work, quilt it for me. I want an all over curved design...maybe flowers or something swirly.  I hope to have it to her by the end of November at the latest. But until then, here is my beauty:

Thirty blocks, two inch sashing and 6 inch borders and it fits my bed like it was made for it. Oh, wait, it was. This was a great experience and I'm glad I jumped in. Thank you to Molli Sparkles for the great job you did in running this QAL. I would sew along with you any time.

Cardinal Quilt Finished

I have really been sewing my little heart out over here. I am so excited about finishing up a bunch of quilts. I have finished 3 in the last 2 weeks. Here today is the Cardinal Quilt for my sister K. She isn't a computer person, so I can show it here with no worries that she will see it before I mail it to her. (heavy picture warning)

 This is where I started. I knew I wanted wonky stars, but I couldn't seem to get it to work for me.

 I tried several random arrangements and then, I gave up and came up with a more even and symmetrical plan. I thought I wouldn't like it as well, but I was wrong.

 This is the unquilted top. The color of the background is so light, it looks tan here on the deck.

 Here it is all quilted up, though and you can see the pretty pale blue.  The fabric I chose for this, was where I started before I had a design plan. My sister loves cardinals and they remind her of our hometown. She has lived on the west coast for so long now, she forgets about them. Last year she made a trip back east and kept talking about how nice it was to see them and how she missed them.

 So when I saw Laurie Wisbrun's Holiday Sweet Tweets fabric, I knew I had to get some and make her a quilt. This quilt decided it needed lots of quilting.  I started outlining the stars, but quickly saw it needed so much more. It was easy enough to follow the piecing lines to come up with the pattern

 I left the star centers unquilted and I love the way they look. All the crinkles in the background are so wonderful and lend a bit of old fashioned sweetness to this quilt.  I have never put this much quilting into such a small quilt.  I would do it again, but hopefully not too soon.

 This quilt has 17 hours of quilting in it, not including the binding. I gave the borders a softer, rounded quilting design. I used a continuous figure 8.

 The back of the quilt is a chunk of swirly blue I have had forever and some Kate Spain Terrain, along with the last of the Sweet Holiday Tweets.

 I really didn't want to buy more fabric, but I really didn't like my binding options in my stash.

 So I took the quilt to my LQS and found this wonderful stripe. I only had to get a half yard and with tax, it was only $6.  Not too bad.

 See how pretty it looks with the edges?  I think that fabric was just waiting for this quilt to bind.

And now, I just need to box it up and ship it.  Soon. Or I won't want to let it go.  I think my sister will like it.  See you soon with another finish.