Sunday, December 25, 2011

Synchronized Squares: Done!

I am proud to say that this quilt is finally finished as well. I ended up giving it to my kids on Christmas morning. They very much enjoyed cuddling on the couch with their presents under the quilt (and then dragging it all around the living room backing side up proclaiming that they are a little red riding hood :) ).


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Pinwheel Extravaganza

One of the projects I have been working on, that has been finally revieled, is making blocks for a pinwheel quilt for one of our quilting bee members, whose house burnet down right after we made blocks for her. A lot of people donated charm packs to us to do this and we made pibwheels. Here are the ones I made:

I love how they all look together. In fact I think I will also be making a pinwheel quilt.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

French Quilt: Finished

It took me a while to finish this one, but I am proud to say that this quilt was my first attempt at the pieced back. It turned out quite well if I may say so myself :) This quilt was a present for my mom for her 50th birthday. The pattern was from this book, but I made it smaller. I used 1 charm pack and 1 jelly roll of Pom Pom de Paris by French General for Moda Fabrics. So without further ado, here it is:

 
This is the front

This is the back

The backing was made by taking the leftover jelly roll pieces and sewing them all together, 6 strips at a time. I squared the resulting blocks to be about 12" in length and pieced them all together. I attached a bella white fabric (same as used on the front) to top and bottom. Then I attached the backing fabric on either side of my strip. It definitely took much longer to make, but I like the way it looks. One thing I learned though was to not quilt parallel to the white strips. It ended up looking a bit off because the backing strip was not perfectly aligned to the front.


The batting I used is woolen. I was nervous when we washed it for the first time, but it was ok, it shrunk just enough to give the quilt the desired crinkly look.

My mom really liked the quilt when she received it. It will hopefully keep her warm through the winter months.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Baby Squares Quilt: Complete

Here it is! The pictures were taken a day before the quilt was given to my coworker, Jon for his brand new baby boy, who was due to arrive 2 days before by baby girl. I hope he likes it!



I tried out diagonal quilting on this for the first time (not stitch-in-the-ditch!) I think it turned out pretty well!

I thought this was kind of appropriate as this was a baby quilt :)

This is quilting detail

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Squares Baby Quilt: Top Complete

My top is complete! It is actually basted and ready to quilt at this point. Here is a picture:


I think it actually turned out pretty well! My failed plan was to add flannel as backing. Well, the flannel was 42.5" wide and this quilt is 43.5" x 43.5". So it will have cotton backing which thankfully was 44" wide. I just hope that my quilting works out. The hope is to do diagonals.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Secret Project: Fabrics

I am making a super secret project, which will be revealed when the top is done. I did get the fabrics in the mail the other day:


These are for the top. I am dragging my feet picking out the backing and the binding, partially because I am not following any pattern in particular (rather various quilts I have seen), so I have been too lazy to sit down and figure out the dimensions....

In case you can't see them too well it is Pom Pom de Paris by French General for Moda Fabrics:


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Pinwheel Sampler: Top Done!

The top is done!!! Yay! I have decided to do a thin sashing on it (1"). I am quite happy with the way it turned out. There are a couple of blocks that I wasn't 100% happy with, but I think all together they look quite nice.


This is probably a better picture of it:


For sashing I decided to do mitered borders. Since there were essentially 2 borders, the cream and the pink, the method that I was taught, was to attach the borders together first, then attach them to the quilt, then miter them. Here is a picture of the final result of the mitering:



I have to say that mitering is hard to do! I am not sure when I will be brave enough to try it again. I learned a couple of things from this quilt: firstly, the cream fabric was much thinner then the rest of the fabric. That Made it much harder to work with, because it would arch and gather until I would iron, and that would not be permanent either. Secondly, my 1/2 square triangle units are 2" finished. The sashing was 1". I was going to quilt it in diagonal lines going through the middle of each 1/2 square triange units, but then the problem is that now my lines can extend only as far as the single square, because if I were to make a continuous line through the sashing, it would hit the next square in a weird place...

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Squares Baby Quilt: Fabrics

I started a new project: a baby quilt for a co-worker that is having a baby boy! I am using this tutorial from the moda bake shop. Here are the fabrics I am using:


Aren't they pretty? This is Meadow Friends Boy Line by Deb Stain for Moda. I am close to being done with the blocks, so hopefully I will post a picture soon!


Thursday, August 4, 2011

Pinwheel Sampler: All Blocks are Done!!

I finally finished making all 9 blocks! I have made more 1/2 square triangle units then I care to count. Scaling down the size of the blocks also made this process somewhat tedious. Next step is sashing! Here are the last 3 squares. I love how all 3 of them turned out!

"Star Pinwheel" from this tutorial. This one is really pretty. I like how it turned out!

"Spinning Pinwheel" from this tutorial. I love this one, because I was able to use 3 different prints, and I love how the pink is on the outside, it kind of looks like the dragonflies are flying away :)

"Flying Pinwheel" from this tutorial.

Here are all the blocks together. I haven't decided how I want to arrange them, but I like the way they look all together! 


Friday, July 29, 2011

Pinwheel Sampler update

I have been working on my pinwheel sampler quilt and I have 2 more squares to show you:

I have made this block before for the quilting bee, it is not actually from the pattern. I wanted to make it again though using the half-square triangles technique that I learned (and using a machine!) I like how it turned out.

This square's pattern is on the pattern, but not in the blog, so I don't have a link. This is called "Floating Pinwheel". I like it, but it is a bit too white for my liking. Not sure if it will make it into the quilt.

So there we go. 6 done, 3 to go.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fabrics I Want

I have recently become a Moda addict. Fortunately, fatquartershop.com is happy to oblige. They have so many great Christmas collections out now. Here are three non-christmas collections that I love and would just love to have in my stash:


Terrain by Kate Spain, is just SO pretty. I would love to have a quilt on my bed made entirely out of this collection! I just need a great design and some time to make one!


Fairy Tale Friends by American Jane. I would love to make a play quilt/lap size quilt for our living room. I am sure my kids would love picking out their favorite fairy tale characters. Now I just need to make sure that Goldilocks and Ginger Bread boy are pictured... This collection should be available in October.


This is Summerhouse by Lily Ashbury. I think this collection would be great for the Summer Series Sampler Quilt Along.

Now if only I had space to store all that Moda wonderfulness.... 

Monday, July 25, 2011

Pinwheel Sampler: Baby's Quilt #2

My little girl is going to get another quilt, this one very girly :) I am going to make it out of the Meadow Friends by Deb Stain for Moda line. The tutorials are all from the PS I Quilt blog. I am making this quilt as a part of a quilting class I am taking. I thought it was about time to learn to do triangles... So without any further ado, here are the first 4 squares I made:

"Enormous Pinwheel" from this tutorial

This is "Framed Pinwheel" from this tutorial. I modified it slightly, since I am making 8" finished instead of 12" finished blocks.

"Windmill Pinwheel" from this tutorial.

"Simple Pinwheel" from this tutorial. I loved making this one, although I have to say, nothing simple about it!

Here is all four of them together:

I like the way it is turning out. I am making it small, so that it actually is usable for the baby. I am going to make it 3x3 or 3x4 blocks, depends on how many pinwheels i feel like making :) The scraps I have left are all so pretty, I need to come up with another project to use them all up.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Fence Rail (aka Max's) Quilt

My fence rail quilt is on the way. I picked a very easy design, with some really fun fabrics that I love. I also plan to quilt this one diagonally, as opposed to in the ditch, so it should be interesting. Right now I have all my squares cut up and ready to be put together into a top. The layout is pretty intricate, so it is going to be interesting. I hope I don't mess it up! Check out all the cool colors!


Monday, July 11, 2011

Play Quilt: Done! Done!! Done!!!

It is done!! I finished completely last night!

This is what the finished quilt looks like

Folded up

I even like the binding!

Here is some quilting detail

I love this picture :)

Rolled up!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

My Most Recent Project: Farmer's Wife Quilt Along

Here is my latest undertaking:


For the quilt along, I am supposed to make 2 blocks per week. There are 111 blocks, so it should take me 56 weeks, although I am getting a late start. Here is a link to the flickr group.

I am going to use the scraps I have, supplementing them with some fabrics from my local quilt shop. I am using the same color scheme as the book and I did realize that that I have way too many pastels and not enough dark fabrics, so I may have to supplement quite a bit. So look out for updates on this!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Synchronized Squares: Finished Top!!

I JUST finished this! (Yes, at 2am :) ) Look look!


Sorry the picture is kind of bad, I need to take another one with better lighting. Now I need to buy batting and quilt this!! Any good ideas as to how to quilt this?

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Synchronized Squares: Progress

Well after a late night last night, I have some progress to show for my synchronized squares quilt:

Stack of all the prints sewn onto the solid


This is how they all will be cut up


All of them are cut up

And one of the squares all sewn together

I am still working on on sewing the squares together. Then onto the quilt top. I am supposed to be finished today.... Oops!