scrappy quilt top

I'll be linking this post up to Canoe Ridge Creation's Sew Modern Monday, be sure to pop over and check out all the modern-ness!!



Thanks everyone for helping me decide that I really wasn't just being lazy in not wanting to add sashing!! I am one million percent happy with the outcome, and agree that the white bordering the blocks is enough to break up the blocks and give the eyes a bit of a rest. In looking at it now, I almost think adding the sashing would have diluted the colors too much.

This top measures 60 inches x 75 inches, and will make an excellent picnic blanket just in time for spring!

It was such a pretty yet windy day out side, that I was able to take some pretty fun and crazy "blowing in the air pictures." These ones almost remind me of stained glass.

in your opinion...

Sashing or no sashing??  I finished up the purple blocks this afternoon, and you ladies were 100% right, more color all the way!  Now I'm asking your expert opinions once again...I had been planning on doing sashing between the blocks all along, but seeing them like this, I kind of like the mass of color explosion...I'm torn, what say you wise quilty friends??

(Just as an aside, I guess it doesn't really matter, but in my mind this should be flipped so that it is longer than wider...this was the only way this  behemoth would fit on my extended design wall!  Just tilt your head to the left when looking, hehe)

March Bee Blocks

I'm cutting things a little close this month, I don't know where March went, but seeing as how its about over,  I needed to get my bee blocks done and out in the mail!



This block is for Lisa in the Simply Strings Bee.  She sent us along a bunch of scrap strips in blues and yellows and encouraged us to incorporate a few scraps of our own that were in the same color family. 

This block is for Corley in the Solids bee.  She requested that we make tree blocks to help "landscape" the house blocks that had been made for her in another bee.  Now, I've never made a tree block, and was a little stumped as to how to go about this...I decided on doing some applique with fusible web, and am happy with the outcome!

This block was made for Jessica in the Sew Fun bee.  She sent along some beautiful fabrics and requested that we make her our favorite pinwheel block.  I just love flying geese, and had been wanting to give this a try.  I had initally planned on making actual flying geese blocks, but the first tutorial I found from psiquilt used HSTs, so I went with it.  This picture really does not do the fabrics justice, they are much prettier in person!

Lastly, these are not blocks that I made, but I wanted to share the lovely blocks I have received so far in the 3 x 6 bee.

These blocks were made by:  1. windowshopmom 2. jenjohnston 3. oneblessedmama 4. bellsbellsjo 5. quiltedoma 6. 2mayboys 7. A Blond Quilts 8. AmieJ Designs 9. Sunnyauh 10. erika4303 11. techalum

I requested light greys, lime greens and lemon yellows, and am loving what I've received!  I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with these (besides make a quilt, of course), but I'm going to continue with these colors for quarter 2, and see where it goes.  

Stay tuned for progress on my scrap quilt...  Seeing as how Mother Nature has decided to grace us with a tornado and hail storms earlier this week, and freezing temperatures throughout the weekend, my urge to be outside has disappeared!  This is hubby's weekend to work, and that means hours and hours of uninterupted sewing time :-)   

Central Park Baby Quilt

It's finished!  I just finished sewing the binding yesterday, and I am so so pleased with how it turned out.  Here it is all quilted and bound but not washed and crinkled yet.

...Please disregard the hazy blurb in the center of these pictures...my nice quilt picture taking camera had an unforutunate accidental run in with the rotary cutter, and now has a pretty little gash on the camera lens :-( 

It measures approximately 40 inches square, the perfect baby quilt size in my opinion.  I am just in love with these colors together!  I am seriously contemplating purchasing another fat quarter bundle of central park from my LQS, because I can think of so so many projects I would use this for.

I see a few more on point quilts in my future, and perhaps I will suck it up and do the math to make the setting triangles for the ends of the rows and save my self that mini headache again...

I used the brown cobblestone print from Central Park as the binding and I just love how well it plays with the rest of the fabrics and the white sashing.  Here's another little glimpse of my quilting, a nice all over stipple.  I just love how well this quilting crinkles up after washing and drying. 

Heres the back, which I almost like as much as the top!  I really like the simplicity of the single print with a pop of fun pieced goodness at the bottom.  I'm going to put this quilt away until the baby is born and hope that mom, dad and baby like it as much as I do! 

WIP Wednesday {3.23.2011}

I must admit, it has been a pretty slow sewing week, so this post will be pretty short.  It's finally decided to turn to spring in these parts, and with daylight savings time keeping it lighter in the evenings longer, I'm finding I want to spend more time outside/doing more active things and less time down in the sewing room!  I have a feeling that this will become more of a trend, but I'll certainly keep posting about what I do sew!

Onto this weeks WIP Wednesday...

Ongoing Projects 

Central Park Baby Quilt

I am thisclose to being finished with this quilt, and actually thought for a minute that I was headed toward a finish this evening, but instead I drug my butt to the gym for a spinning class and left the binding to be finished up tommorow.  Here's a sneak peek at the quilting, I contemplated straight line quilting this, but I just really wanted to do some FMQing.  I did an all over stipple in white thread and am pleased with the outcome.

Here's a close up of the quilting on the quilt back.  I only had one pesky little pucker on the quilt back, and after contemplating ripping out alot of stitching, I decided that its really not that noticable, and I'm just going to leave it.  I'm hoping to get the binding finished up, so there should be more to show soon!

Scrap Bin Quilt

In all honesty I haven't even touched this quilt since last week, but I did make a trip to my LQS and picked up a few fat quarters of some purple fabrics, as my stash is really lacking in the purple department, and the next project on my list is to get the rest of these blocks completed.  I know this is technically cheating, as every other fabric in this quilt was straight out of my scrap bin, but I rationalized that the newly purchased fabric would have eventually been used for something, and would therefor have scraps at some point!  I know, I know still "cheating" but I am 100% ok with it :)

Quilt tops awaiting quilting

Central Park baby quilt #1

On Hold

p.s. i quilt postage stamp quilt along quilt
Amy Butler sew along (I actually have a plan here!  My MQG is planning a shop hop on April 2nd, and I plan to get some new fun fabric to make a few of the bags, including the Cosmo bag.  Inspriation is what I need to get started here)

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 0
Completed Projects: 0
Ongoing Projects: 5 (I'm including March Bee blocks here too!)

Be sure to pop over the Freshly Pieced and check out this weeks WIPs!



baby quilt top

While I wasn't able to participate in the Friday Night Sew In last night (hubby and I are in a bowling league with a bunch of neighbors...I feel like this makes me very old for some reason.  A bowling league?!?  Well I must say there are many beers consumed as well, and is all in all, a good time, but its every other Friday evening, and I just couldnt skip and let my team down-all 100 pins I typically knock down each game, ha!)  I digress.  Anyways, since I couldn't partake in FNSI, I snuck in some sewing time this afternoon and was able to finish putting together this baby quilt top. 

I am really happy with how these colors work together.  I think the blues I pulled from Hope Valley really add just a little extra punch of "boy" to this quilt.  I also can't get over how the simple act of tilting these charm squares on point and adding sashing really makes this quilt much more interesting to look at.

It was quite windy outside, so I only managed to snap a few pics outside, before heading inside to get one of the whole quilt top laid out flat.

When putting this quilt top together, I decided to forego cutting the setting triangles for the edges, and just used whole squares and then cut it down.  This of course did not work out exactly as well as I imagined, so don't look to closely at those edges!  I think the pattern and fabrics are busy enough that its not overly noticeable, but it did mean that my quilt top ended up a little smaller than I had planned.  Oh well, live and learn. 

This fabric find at my LQS gave me the extra push I needed to get this top finished up today.  Yes, Central Park yardage!  They only had a few prints (2 of the animal print and this brown cobblestone print) to purchase yardage of, and when I asked, was informed that they wouldnt be getting any more in.  That was a bummer, but I purchased a few yards of the animal print to use as the quilt back, and a few yards of the cobblestone print, I'm thinking for the binding. 

I'm itching to get the back put together and get this basted so I can do some free motion quilting!  It feels like its been forever since I've done it.  Stay tuned!

itty bitty

I was thinking up some ideas for a few extras to throw in with my DQS package, and I immediately thought of a pincusion, and then followed the idea to make a replica of a block in my DQS doll quilt.  After a few trips to various local pet stores looking for crushed walnut shells, no less in the lizzard section of the pet store, I struck gold at Petco with this and was off to the races!  I had never made a pincushion before, and I have to say they are such fun little projects that come together pretty quickly.

In scouring flickr for some other pincushion ideas, I came across these little adorable "pin toppers" and of course ideas started running through my head along the lines of "I could do that!"  I had also seen these made by Carol on her blog, and it fueled the fire to see what I could come up with.

I stopped at Michaels on my way home from work and for about $30 had all the supplies to try my hand and these little cuties.  I used Sculpey III clay, which I found very easy to work with, and baked quite nicely in the oven.

These little flowers were my favorite of day one's attempts, and by far the easiest to make.  I bought a little set of cutters which included this little flower and went to town.  I had used the longest pins I could find in the sewing section, which were 1 15/16" pins, which worked ok, but after doing a little more research, I decided to buy some coursage pins and chop the pearls off. 

Just an aside here...This scrappy pin cushion make look familiar...and thats because it used to be this.  Remember that little adorable yellow lab dog I have?  Well she decided that cherished favorite scrappy pillow looked like a really yummy chew toy, and she went to town on it.  I thought about trying to fix it, but I know I never will....sooo it's been repurposed!  I still have about 3/4 of the scrappyness left to cut up, perhaps more pincushions??

These were day #2's wares.  Much better than day #1 if I do say so myself!  No, I did not poke these into a baked potato, again referring to Carol's blog, rolled up foil balls make an excellent way to bake these puppies with out distorting the shapes!

Here's a few cupcakes (I was happy that they actually came out looking like cupcakes!)

and a little spring garden

and some juicy apples.  I used the longer coursage pins for this batch, and am much happier with the longer pin length, and they are a little sturdier.

Now what to do with all these little guys!  I'll be back down in my sewing room today getting a few of those WIPs completed, but this was a nice little crafty break!