Wordless Wednesday

10 Down, 10 More to Go

My little guy developed a sinus infection last week and as a result, his naps were short and sporadic.  He only wanted one thing all week...attention from Mama.  So I didn't finish the entire quilt top like I had hoped, but I did complete 10 blocks.  Now I only need to make 10 more to have enough for a nice sized lap quilt.  I think it's coming along quite nicely.  I'm still trying to decide whether to add 2 1/2" white sashing between the blocks.  I'm leaning toward yes...any thoughts or suggestions? 

Work in Progress Wednesday

My daughter started back to preschool last week, and even though my (now walking/running/climbing) son is a handful and a half, I still manage to squeeze in a few minutes of sewing every day during his naptime.  My to-do list is about ten miles long.  It reminds me of a scene from an old cartoon where a little kid is reading to Santa from his little wish list, and just when Santa thinks he's finished the rest of the paper unrolls and you see that the list is reeeeally long.  Yep, it's like that.  It's time to kick the sewing machine into over drive.

At the moment I'm working on turning this set of strips...

into this...

The 2 1/2" strips are from a jellyroll that I bought at JoAnn's.  Cutting fabric is my least favorite part of the quilting process, so I love buying pre-cut sets of fabric like charm packs, fat quarter bundles, and jellyrolls.  Plus, I am very indecisive and spend way too much time trying to figure out which fabrics look best together, so it's an added bonus that the fabric are already coordinated for me.  I'm sure this particular block has a name, but I have no idea what it is.  I'm just making it up as I go along, trying to make the most efficient use of my jellyroll fabric.  The end product will be a quilt for a family friend who has been recently diagnosed with cancer.  Hopefully I can crank out all of the blocks this week and share a picture of the completed quilt top next week.

Have a great week!

My First Sale!

One month ago, I sold my first quilt!  Yippee!  I had just enough scraps left over from making my son's quilt to make a small baby quilt for my Etsy shop.  I called it "Puppy Dog Tails."   

The quilt top was machine pieced in a simple patchwork design. It was backed with the last big piece of colorful puppy print.  The paw print binding was machine stitched for extra durability.

The quilting was very simple...straight lines machine quilted with light blue thread to accent the patchwork design.

It was tiny, only 23" x 23," but still the perfect size to place on the floor for newborn tummy time or to be treasured as a beloved blankie by an infant or toddler.  It will make the perfect snuggle accessory for a very lucky little baby!

 

A Quilt for My Baby Boy

When I found out in March 2010 that I was pregnant with a baby boy, I immediately started shopping for "boyish" fabric to make a quilt for him.  When I discovered this great blue puppy print fabric at my local Hancock Fabrics I knew it would be perfect!  I hit the jackpot by finding a coordinating paw print fabric and fat quarters of a tiny polka dot print in just the right shade of blue.  It's like these fabrics were made for each other!

The quilt top is machine pieced using a Disappearing 9-patch design.  It is backed with the paw print fabric and quilted with straight lines in a grid pattern to accent the piecing.  The chocolate brown binding is hand stitched on the back.

I'm not 100% sold on the brown binding.  It does match the brown puppies in the print, but it just doesn't look right to me.  Maybe one of these days I'll rip it out and replace it with something blue, but for now I'll let it be.

Oh, did I mention that Jake is 10 months old now and I only just finished this quilt this past weekend?  Um, yeah.  I guess it'll make a great gift for his 1st birthday that is right around the corner!

Just One Star

When I read this post over at The Happy Zombie, I knew I wanted to be involved in the Just One Star program.  The idea behind Just One Star was for a quilter to make exactly that...just one star...and drop it in the mail to Moda Fabrics.  From there, the fabulous people at Moda would trim your star block and include it in one of 100 quilts being assembled and donated to wounded soldiers as part of the Quilts of Valor Under Our Wings program.

This was my block...

I had enough fabric to make two red star blocks.  Both are signed with my name and state where I live.  I feel good knowing that some of my work will be included in a quilt that will bring comfort to one of America's heroes.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

The Noah's Ark Quilt

Well, it only took 7 months, but the Noah's Ark quilt is finally finished and is listed in my Etsy shop!  Hooray!

I found this colorful printed panel at my local Hancock Fabrics store back in November.  I had never quilted anything other than straight lines before, but I thought the picture was basic enough that I could manage to outline the shapes using my walking foot on my machine.

Over the next two weeks I spent every spare minute of my time quilting around every shape in the picture.  I was determined to get it finished before Christmas.  Ha!

What I thought would be a simple, quick project turned out to be anything but (this seems to happen to me quite a bit now that I think about it, hmm).  There are a lot of lines, curves, twists and turns in this picture.  Which meant a whole lot of starting and stopping, moving the quilt around for a better angle, clipping threads, etc.

Believe it or not, I did finish the actual quilting before the holiday.  The only thing between me and finishing this quilt was sewing the binding onto the back of the quilt, but for some reason it got pushed aside in favor of other projects.  This weekend, just a mere 6 months later, I decided to finally sew on the binding and call it finished.  The Noah's Ark quilt is officially marked off my to-do list.  

It was definitely a challenge, but knowing that a child will play on it, snuggle under it, and (hopefully) love it to pieces makes the blood, sweat, and tears I put into it totally worth it.

A Work in Progress

Just a little glimpse of one of the many things I'm juggling working on this week...

How It All Began...

This is the first quilt I ever made...

I grew up watching my mother sew clothing and my grandmother quilt.  I bought my first sewing machine about 4 years ago and have been chugging away at it ever since!  I may be a little crazy, but I think there's nothing better than cutting up fabric just to sew it back together again!

My first project was a baby quilt for my newborn daughter.  I spent many hours in Hancock Fabrics searching for just the right fabric (decision-making has never been my strong suit.)  I finally settled on a puppy print along with coordinating lavender, aqua, and seafoam green prints.  I chose a lavender solid fabric for the backing and binding.

After some trial and error with a rotary cutter, far too long trying to thread my machine, reading and re-reading and re-re-reading my machine's user manual, some helpful hints from my mom, and some time well spent with internet tutorials, I had finally produced my first quilt.  It was nothing fancy, a simple patchwork of 6 inch squares tied with embroidery thread, but I was very proud of it and my daughter loved it.

After four years, my taste in fabrics have changed, my machine has been upgraded, and my methods have improved, but my first quilt will always hold a special place in my heart.  I hope my daughter will love and treasure it for a very long time.