Just Wing It!

After all the illness that hit our family, it was hard to get back into the "groove" of quilting and sewing again. I just didn't feel like returning to my old projects, had enjoyed all of my leisure reading time, and I didn't even know where to start. I am 7 blocks behind on my Blogger's Palooza quilt-along and I have three packets of fabric waiting for me to do bee blocks. So in order to kick my butt in gear, I went ahead and started a new project for a friend who's having a baby girl in May (nevermind that I still have two homeless baby girl quilts sitting in a pile on my dresser). I recently won two "Just Wing It" charm packs at a recent NEMQG meeting from SewFreshFabrics and I decided to put them to work to do a quilt I had recently seen on Cluck Cluck Sew. Here is the result: I did try to put an appliqued flower on it like the tutorial suggests, but mine looked so horrible that I ended up ripping it out.

I bound it with a Riley Blake dot from my stash and backed it with a FMF copy-cat fabric also from my stash.

This quilt was a cinch to make and seems a little more interesting than just sewing the squares together. Cutting fabrics is my least favorite part of quilting and nearly eliminating that step was awesome.

I have to say that I really like the fabrics designed by Momo (Wonderland and It's a Hoot are GREAT!) but I think it's time to move on from all of the birds and butterflies. Who is Momo anyway?

I actually finished four (!) quilts this past week but I am going to stagger my postings so that you might actually hear from me more than twice a month.

Happy Sewing!

PJ's, Long-Arm quilting, and my fabric hiatus

This blog has been quiet for a while due to constant illness at my house. After three emotional meltdowns, two rounds of antibiotics, and lots of Tylenol - I think we are finally on the mend. It was miserable! The only good thing about it was that I had an excuse to revisit my first loved hobby, reading. I have read a lot of good books lately; like this, this, and this.

Right before virus-ville 2011 visited us, I finished these pajamas for Gregory. If they look familiar, that is because I already made them in a 9-12 months size that didn't fit him at all (even though he was maybe 6 months old). This pair is 3T, so I am thinking he will be wearing them this summer, just before his second birthday. I arranged for a bunch of friends and I to take a long-arm quilting class on March 5. Despite still dealing with the plague, I went (BIG MISTAKE!). I was too comatose to even think about taking pictures, so I will have to refer you to my friend's blog post to see what the class was like. Despite feeling like death, I scheduled with Laurena to come back a week later to quilt my first quilt. Here are a few pictures:

I thought that starting my long-arm career with doing a pantograph would be the best way to go. Next time I feel more keen to try free-motion quilting. Overall, it was a good experience. The only problem was that this quilt top had thick fusible web on the border flowers and ric-rac - the machine didn't like either of those elements.

I will show the completed quilt once I am able to bind it.

The only thing I really sewed within the last few weeks was an apron for my future sister-in-law. I loosely followed a Joann's $1 sale "Sewing For Dummies" pattern and chose fabrics from my stash.

I think the pear fabric is adorable and I still have a yard left - maybe I will make an apron for me at some point. I was really thrilled with how well the Michael Miller Brown Henna Garden fabric went with the fruit fabric.

Finally, I am proud to report that I have not bought fabric in about a month. The last two things I bought was this awesome Ugly Duckling (and gender neutral) fabric from Lizzy House (pictured below) and I bought a few yards of this versatile dot by Jennifer Paganelli at a LQS. I have unsubscribed from most email fabric newsletters and I am simply trying to save my pennies for fabric I really want. I am excited for Sherbet Pips, Aviary 2, and 1001 Peeps. Having too much fabric can feel like a big "to do" list and it feels good to focus on what I have instead of acquiring more - always in fear that things go out of print or won't go on sale again.

UFO's - Another completed one!

This black/white/yellow quilt is my oldest "UFO" - I think I started it over 2.5 years ago. I finally basted it this past Saturday during our NEMQG sew-in. Basting in a big gym is awesome! So much easier than clearing out my tiled living room after my son has gone to bed. I am going to try and quilt it on my own machine - wish me luck! Thanks to Jill and Melissa for helping me get a better picture of this big quilt. It is for my sister - over the summer she chose the fabrics from my stash. I used up a TON of greens and blues - most of them purchased from various trips to Marden's. I also pieced the back from my stash- so it was a great "stash-buster."

I made her matching pillowcases too:

A funny thing about these two quilts is that if you combine their two color schemes - you get the exact color scheme of my African dresden plate quilt. I am missing my other favorite colors - red, pink, and orange!

Blocks

I haven't blogged too much lately because I have been working on applying these dresdens to the white background squares. Let me tell you how excited I was when I *thought* I was done and realized that I had only 29 completed. I was also under the impression that I had run out of most of the fabrics and making another one would be quite difficult - luckily I had enough scrap pieces to make the final dresden. Next step: apply the African heart print to the center. I was a little behind on the Blogger's Palooza, but now I only have one more to make before they post the tenth one on Tuesday. I wasn't thrilled with the "country" design of this basket block - but I do have to say that appliqued flying geese are a lot easier than the real thing.

This block was the easiest one so far - a much needed break from the flying geese.

I really tried to choose a contrasting color scheme with this block and I am not so sure how I feel about it. The flying geese came out HORRIBLE - but that's what you get when you are trying to rush.

Here are the first eight all together - it's starting to grow on me, though I have to say that I am not as in love with these fabrics anymore.

I will post my sister's completed queen size quilt and matching pillowcases in a few days. I have also been working on some pajamas for Gregory - he has long grown out of the whale pj's.

Is spring here yet?

As I have been trying to use up a lot of my fabric, somehow it keeps coming in! I trained my husband recently to forgo jewelry in exchange for fabric and he surprised me with "flowers" for Valentine's Day- the three orange/blue Anthology fabrics on the left (gorgeous prints bytheway - I think Anthology fabrics are grossly overlooked by the bloggy world but they are to die for!) Next, a nice swap came from a swappy friend online - somehow I think that I am obsessed with orange lately. Finally, I got some backing for my Tufted Tweets Quilt (could it match more perfectly!?) on my recent semi-annual trip to Marden's. To my disappointment, they recently raised their prices from 2.99 a yard to 3.99 and up. The fabric is still a steal and it is hard to match a quilt top to an appropriate backing if you are shopping online (unless you buy a print that is in the top of course). I am now onto the final stage of completing this beast - just hand-sewing the binding down. I will show more pictures once it is complete.

I am slowly adding to my bee blocks:

I finished the Blockapalooza block #6 last night - definitely not thrilled with my poor contrasting fabric choices, but I don't think I am going to bother redoing it:

I made this skirt last week but delayed in posting about it because I wasn't sure if I liked it. I bought the orange Far Far Away II print with a coupon, otherwise this would've been one really pricey skirt. I wasn't thrilled with it initially because I just wasn't sold on the mustardy-flower Weekends trim that I had included, but it's grown on me and ripping it out would mean too much seam-ripping. When I get a chance to wear it, I will post another picture.

This little stinker has given me a hard time lately - it's not been a fun winter being cooped inside with a one year old who wants to get into everything, is teething, and quits taking his second nap. But he's still a keeper. He was having a fun time yesterday playing with the skirt:

(Yes, my living room usually is strew with toys and pots and pans.)

Block Party Part II

So I decided to enter two more blocks into the Quilt Story Block Party contest - the first in the "creative category" and the second in "traditional."

Last night I made this block for the Hip 2 Bee Square bee. Kerry, aka "the seamripper," asked for her seven year old daughter's input regarding the block we should make. She asked us to make a "house" block or something similar based on a favorite childhood place and simply asked us to be creative. Kerry sent lots of cute fabrics, but I couldn't resist using some of my own (the book print, Modern Meadow, and the woodgrain). I decided to make a library block:

I am pretty happy with how it came out. I was pretty initimidated by this task but soon found that I preferred it to the nit-picky piecing of the next two blocks:

For the NEMQG bee, Aimee asked for butterfly blocks. I adored the fabrics she sent and only ended up adding the KJR posie as a border from my stash. I may make another block for her if I can stretch the muslin she included. I used a tutorial found here, from the Four Wise Monkeys blog.

Finally, here is the fifth block for the Blogger's Palooza. The 24 flying geese units about drove me up the wall. This whole quilt along is based on various person's use of flying geese and nine-patch blocks - so I am really hoping that some of the blocks focus on the nine-patch a little more!

Block Party

Sorry for the repeat of a project - but this is the baby I have been working on lately. Over the weekend I managed to sew up the reamining 13 dresden plates but have only appliqued one onto a background square. This block was created by using Darlene Zimmerman's Easy Dresden ruler, a compass to create the 7" circle template, and I used Anna Maria Horner's "super circle technique" to apply the circle onto the plate/background. All 30 dresden plates are done now! It was no small task! At first, I was taking a digital picture of the layout of the fans and then sewing it together exactly as I had had it layed out. It wasn't long before I realized that I needed to do this more quickly and I just randomly chained pieced the units together in groups of five.

I am entering this block into the Block Party contest. Wish me luck!

Palooza Block #4 and Quick-Change Trousers

(Psstt... Look, one of my quilts was featured on a fabric designer's blog - sweet! Mine is in the middle of the top row.)

On Thursday I was able to complete block #4 in the quilt-along and clean up my house, all during Gregory's nap (boo-hoo, "nap" in singular form - he has given up the second nap now). This block was one of the easiest ones for me and I like it especially for being able to use a large scale print. I made those quick-change trousers from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book.
These pants are SO fun to make: it's not the end of the world if your seam allowance is a little off, you get two "looks" per each pair of pants, it's really fun to put all of the fabric combinations together, and they do not take long at all to make.

Here's a picture of my favorite "sides" or "version" of each pair:


Here they are reversed:

And here are close-ups of each pair:

I couldn't believe how well the bird print went with the whales!

Here's a picture of how they look by my favorite "model."

Happy Sewing!

Palooza Blocks, Snow, and Design Board!

Today I am going to make three pairs of the AMH pattern "Quick Change Trousers" for Gregory. I pulled out some oldies from my stash as well as a recent swap and some pieces from my haul with Sew Fresh. I decided I better make these soon because my son is growing so fast and the 24 mos size he is wearing now is none too big (he is almost 16 months). I think I have a good chance of getting a lot of sewing done today because the Air Force base is closed due to snow - another paid day off for my hubby! This is the only good thing about these constant snowstorms- I think I have gained about 10 lbs and am tempted, more than usual, to buy fabric online. Can someone say cabin fever?

This picture was taken yesterday in our backyard.

I took inventory of my completed quilts last night - I have seven with no immediate purpose - most of them baby size. I finished four of these in the month of January!

I calculated how many dresden plates I needed for my African heart quilt - I needed 600. I am now in the process of snipping the corners, inverting them with a chopstick, and ironing them flat. I keep telling myself, "To be a quilter, one must be okay with repetition."

What does one do with a 4 yd piece of slightly aged (dusty and wrinkled) flannel they bought at a yard sale this past summer? Why make a design board in their kitchen/sewing area of course! I am seriously loving it. We are running out of space in our apartment and all these piles of blocks had no home - so it was a great solution.

Here is block #3 of the Blogger's Blockapalooza. I finally perfected my 1/4" seam and fixed the first block too.

I finished this Blogger's Palooza block about a week ago. It has 81 tiny 2" squares. It came out nice looking but I don't think I want to tackle this kind of block again. My dreams of doing this quilt are over. I also finished this "UFO" a week ago. I now have only 6 quilt tops left to be quilted. I have allowed myself to start some "newer" projects now that I have caught up on so many of them. It feels so good to get these off of the "to do" list and it has been great practice in doing free motion quilting.

I did "cross-over" stipping on this. Pretty easy pattern but difficult to keep the "scale" consistent.

I backed it with a piece of Timeless Treasures banana fabric I had bought at a quilting yard sale over one year ago. My nephew has a twin to this blanket - I had made too many blocks and thus had an "extra" quilt top.

Thanks for reading this long - I thought about trying to split these pictures into different posts but decided if I didn't write too much - you would stay with me. Happy sewing!