one of the things I'm working on...

I decided to make a Christmas Tree Skirt Pants for my tree this year. Here are my first 4 blocks. You can find the tutorial for the sew-along here.

The fabric I'm using is the leftovers from my Advent Calendar: "Be Merry" by Mind's Eye for Riley Blake Designs. I'm so glad when I bought this that I bought way more than I originally needed!

The only problem that I have is that I'm a little disappointed how the white stars don't stand out against the white printed fabric, but it's what I had and I love the fabric and it will match my advent calendar, so it will have to do and I know when it's done I'll like it!

Do you think I have a chance.....

of starting and finishing 7 quilts by August 1st? I'm giving myself the August 1st deadline because if all goes as planned, my husband is coming home the 1st of August after being gone since December 26th!! I'm so excited and I know once he's home I won't be sewing, plus the fact that the next week we will be getting packed out to move to Rhode Island.

These have all been cut, just ready to be sewn together:

1. two Daisy Chain Avalon Quilts (need to be done by 7/29)
2. one 80"x80" vintage sheet quilt (needs to be done by 8/5)
3. three 55"x70" vintage sheet quilts (need to be done by 8/5)
4. one 60"x70 Nicey Jane quilt (needs to be done by 8/5)

 plus one top that is done and needs to be basted, quilted and bound; also due by 7/29.

So do you think I can do it????

Now...

....I just have to quilt and bind it!

A soon to be baby quilt for a friend.

Oh and thanks for the ideas for the teacher. Starbucks gift card and mug it is. It's what my daughter wants to give him anyway, so it works out perfectly!

What I'm working on...

I decided to hand quilt this. I made a small quilt (baby sized) with the two 12" blocks surrounded by A LOT of white. I wasn't sure what to do with it as far as the quilting goes, but then decided to hand quilt it. I'm pretty excited and I'm loving it so far. It was originally going to be a gift for someone having a baby girl, but I love this so much and with all the hand quilting and time,  I'm not sure I want to give it away for fear it won't be appreciated! So this may end up hanging on a wall in my house.

I finished my hst quilt top, but have not quilted it yet. That will be on hold for a couple weeks. I'm heading to my mom's in IL next week and I haven't been there in two years, so I'm rather excited! My sister is also going for part of the time. It should be lots of fun! 

 

I won't be blogging on my end the rest of this week and all of next week. But I'll be reading all of yours while I'm gone. I plan on bringing this quilt with and hopefully finishing it, but we'll see! 

Maverick Stars Top Done!

I finished the top for the quilt I'm donating for our Hawkeye Ball VVOSA raffle. I was going to quilt it next week. Maybe, just maybe, start it this weekend. My weekend plans fell through so now I'm home with nothing to do, hubby gone again and eldest daughter is coming down with a cold. So we shall see!

Maverick Stars

Inspired by this.

Four down...26 to go!

bobbin thread color...

Have you ever used a different color in the bobbin than what's on the top for your quilting? I finished the quilt top for my sister and I'm getting ready to quilt it soon. My problem is that my backing fabric is an army green and pink color (see above). I want to quilt the quilt with white thread but I'm afraid it will stand out so much more than I'd like it to on the back. So I'm contemplating using a green or pink or even invisible thread in the bobbin. Have you ever done this? Does it work out ok? 

 Anyone ever use invisible thread for quilting? The stuff I found is invisible nylon thread. (quoted from Connecting Threads) "There's no need to change the bobbin tension with this fine, yet strong, translucent thread! Gives machine quilting a supple, antique look. Originally produced for embellishment uses.

Do I dare use anything but 100% cotton thread when machine quilting??

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated! I just don't know if I want to use white on the back.

To Do List

1. Start and finish an "Avalon" quilt from the Material Obsession book for my sister's birthday (which is Aug. 15th! I better get on this FAST!)
2. Stay up to date and on schedule with Freckled Whimsy's Charm Pack quilt along. (so far so good! Got my 75 HST completed!)
3. Finish blocks 6-12 of Modify Tradition's Round 2 quilt along. (which was over and done with MONTHS ago, but I started it, so I want to finish it!)  
4. Baste and quilt Modify Tradition's first quilt along quilt.(oh, and I'm not hand quilting it. I changed my mind AGAIN and I'm just going to machine quilt it)
5. Finish piecing and then quilting my "Butterfly Fling" quilt for my 6 year old that I started a year ago!

I better get busy! I really needed to get this in a list form so I can see it in front of my face so I can relax a little and take one thing at a time. I can do this!

wip

Just finishing the binding of this baby boy quilt. Another Navy wife had a baby a couple days ago and I knew I'd make her a quilt once I knew what she had. Just so happened I had bought this fabric if she had a boy, and that's what she had! I should finish the binding up today then I'll post more pics of the finished quilt in a day or two.

If you haven't already entered, my giveaway is open for a little while longer! I'll be drawing a winner first thing Friday morning! (AND WOW!!! 634 entries! You guys really want some AMH, don't ya!?)

binding...

Just about done with the pinwheel sampler quilt! I ended up finding some fabric at Walmart (of all places!) that I really liked for the backing fabric. So I got it along with some binding fabric. Now I don't have to  spend the $$ and wait for the mail for backing fabric! Got it quilted today and binding attached to the front. I'll work on the hand stitching today and hopefully throw it in the wash tomorrow. So excited...this is my first quilt that is completed and is just for ME!!

progress...

now I just have to sew it all together!

what to do...what to do????

I've been commissioned to make a quilt. (My 1st commission, btw!) Anyway, a fellow Navy wife asked if I'd make her a quilt to give to a little baby that was born on Valentines Day and is in the hospital with no end in sight. She's got some rare condition and there is no idea when she will be released from the hospital. She thought it'd be nice for her to have a nice quilt to keep her warm and give a little cheer to her while she is in the hospital. 

Instantly I thought of pretty heart themed fabric since her birthday is February 14th. (yes, I already opened the Jelly Roll! Couldn't wait!)  I ordered a Jelly Roll and a Honey Bun (honey bun just because I knew I'd want more for myself!). Originally I had picked out a pattern from the Jelly Roll Quilts book, which I still may do. It's the "Garden Trellis" quilt minus the border since I need it crib size. But now I realized I don't have the Omnigrid triangle ruler thingy that I need for cutting. I need to check Walmart, but I'm almost sure they wont have it. Which means I'd have to drive to Reno to get it and it's an hour away, and I was just there this past Friday, and I don't want to go back again. I want to get started on this NOW! So now I'm thinking that maybe I should so something different..but I have no clue what! 

Any suggestions on what to do with a Jelly Roll or Honey Bun? Something fast and easy??

Have you seen mandalinn's "Garden Trellis"? It's beautiful and that's what sold me on the pattern!

I'm contemplating......

(yes, I'm still in Tahoe, relaxing and chillin', but I got to thinkin' today)

I'm thinking I may want to HAND QUILT my Modify Tradition Round 1 quilt top!

After seeing Anna Maria Horner's posts here and here, it's just really making me want to try it. I know it's hard and time consuming, but I love hand stitching. Well I haven't tried to hand quilt yet, but I love doing the binding on a quilt, and I love to knit and crochet, so why not try hand quilting? I've always wanted to and this quilt means so much to me, so I think it may just be perfect! I'd like to get a whole bunch of different colored chunky Perle cotton thread and just outline my blocks and the designs within...taking one square at a time. It wouldn't have to be totally "quilted" for me. I love how the hand quilting looks, like Anna's done in the above links.

What do you guys think? I'm done with my "have to get done" projects (if you don't count catching up on my quilt alongs I'm involved in!) so I'd really like to finish this quilt up. My other option for the quilting on this would to just do a meander stipple stitch.

straight line quilting

For all you "straight line" quilters out there....I bow to you! Boy is it ever hard! You'd think it'd be easy...but it's NOT! At least not for me! The quilting on this one is taking me forever! For one, my quilt is 80" x 80" sandwiched. So it's heavy...and huge. My walking foot isn't really working on it's own because of the weight of the quilt. So I'm pretty much all over the place! It's driving me nuts! This one is going to my best friend, so I'm chalking all my wiggles and non-straight lines to "character" of the quilt! I'm hoping lots of it will be disguised after washing.

what I'm working on & a GIVEAWAY!

Here's what I'm currently working on:

 

My mom and aunt are gone. :( And I'm still trying to get better. I've been so sick with the worst cold/virus of my life, I think! Horrible cough, stuffy, running nose, head hurts...I could go on and on. After 2 visits to the Dr. I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better. I have so much sewing to do by April 14th, I've got to get busy! So anyway, the above picture is the "Scruffily Quilt" I'm working on. Made with April Cornell's "Nostalgia" for Moda.

 

Now for the GIVEAWAY part....the above tutorial calls for 1 layer cake, 1 charm pack and 1 jelly roll. The jelly roll part, you only need 2 1/2" cut off each strip of fabric. So now I have the remainder jelly roll. That's the giveaway. It's got the selvage and 2 1/2" cut off each strip. (On about 6 strips I cut off two 2 1/2" strips.) So other than that, it's pretty much a whole jelly roll. Again, it's April Cornell's "Nostalgia" line. If you'd like it, leave me a comment. I'll draw a winner on Saturday! Good Luck! 

Block 1 (and 2) for Pinwheel Quilt Along

Here's my blocks for P.S. I quilt's "pinwheel quilt along".

 

I'm using "Verna" by Kate Spain. My solids are a white sheet from Ikea and a Beige sheet from Ikea.  Not too sure how I like the beige but I wanted to try something different than just the basic white.  In the Verna line there are some tanish/beige accents, so I thought this may work. It's definitely not the same color as you can see in the block on the left, but the hint of that color is in some of the printed fabrics. I think as a whole it will be fine. If not, who cares! This quilt it going to be for me!

Look what I finished today!

 

Normally I don't like to post pictures of quilt tops, but this was such a huge accomplishment and it was so time consuming, and frankly, I need a break from this one for a bit.  I have no idea when I'll get to actually quilting it. So, I thought I'd share this now. This is my quilt top for the Modify Tradition Quilt along. It was so much fun to make and I learned so much making all these different blocks! Don't even ask me how I pieced this top. It was completely random and I pretty much did it like a puzzle and cut pieces of white that I needed to fill in gaps. The picture isn't the greatest, but you get the idea. (My hubby is gone for 3 weeks so I don't have a helper to hold it up and it's pretty big, so I just laid it on my floor.) I'm so glad this is done! I have no idea how I'm going to baste this. I may have to sweep out the garage really good and do it in there since I need a large area to tape the back down.

Modify Tradition's quilt along progress

I haven't posted any of my latest blocks lately. I've been having a rather hard time with this! I love doing the quilt along but I'm using fabrics that I normally wouldn't use. They are rather vivid and bright and not typically my color choice, but I wanted to incorporate the whole line. I've got 1/8 yard cuts and that is why this has been hard. Sometimes I have to piece fabric just to get a 6" piece, so it's been challenging..but fun none the less!

#5 : Starflower Block

#6 : Churn Dash (I did a "floating" version)

#7 : Amish Diamond

#8 : Maverick Star (an Ohio Star is called for this block, but I don't care for the Ohio Star)

I made 2 because the 1st one doesn't show up that well,  but the 2nd is the 1st block I've used white. I plan on sashing the quilt w/ white so the block w/ the white may end up on the back of the quilt.

The most exciting part is that I just received an email that Anna Maria Horner's "Folksy Flannels" are now out SOOOO, I think I'm going to use one of those for the backing fabric! I never used flannel for the backing before but it looks so warm and cozy! Ever since seeing Crystal's quilt that she backed in flannel, that's what sold me! Since I'm not sure how I will like this "sampler" type quilt, I have a feeling I'll LOVE it with flannel on the back!

Modify Tradition's Quilt Along

So I'm doing my very first quilt along! Modify Tradition is hosting. First tutorial is found here. I like modern quilts and want to learn how to do different things, so I figure this is just the thing for me! They are starting simple and will progress from there. Should be lots of fun! Here's my first block.

I'm going to make the sampler quilt out of the 1/8 yard cuts of Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line that I got a while back. I had no idea what to do with it and this will be perfect!

Rachel's Giveaway & some WIPS

Rachel of P.S. I quilt is doing another giveaway! Stop on by her site and take a look see!



Well I was busy last weekend. I managed to finish 2 quilt tops. I normally don't like posting pictures of just the tops (I like to show off completed projects!), but I haven't posted anything in a while. And I also need batting, so it may be a while before I get these quilted!