Cowboy Quilt

Another one of my husband's cousins is having a baby. They are doing the whole room cowboy themed and thankfully I already had some fabric I'd been dying to use for a while. 

Fabric is Lil' Cowpokes and Lil' Cowgirl by Michael Miller. And there are some other fabrics from my stash thrown in there. It's kinda busy, but I like it. It's comprised of 10" blocks of the featured fabric (Lil' cowpokes) and then 16 - 2.5" (finished) squares of patchwork making a 10" block. 

Snowflakes....

I am in awe.

This has to be one of the most prettiest things I've ever seen in real life.

The wonder of a snowflake.

True beauties of Nature.

 

Sewing again

As some of you know that have been following me for a while, my hubby is in the Navy. Well this past year he's been at the Naval War College in Newport, RI so he's been a full time student and home all the time with no deployments. We've had a ton of family time and I've pretty much done very little sewing in the past year and a half. He left the beginning of January to go to a Safety School course in FL for a month and then 3 months in VA to re-qualify in his plane. Then he will move back to CA and we will join him in June when school is out. 

So now that he's gone, I've been sewing again! I completed a baby quilt in about 2 days but I can't post pictures of it yet since it's a gift. I'll be mailing it this week and the baby shower is in February, so I'll post pics after.

Last night I sewed these lovelies together...

And created a 90"x90" quilt top!

Then when I was all done sewing for the night, this is what my back yard looked like...

When i woke up in the morning, I was so glad I had my new Jeep that my hubby bought me for my Birthday back in November!

Have a wonderful week and I hope to be a bit more regular on my blog. I've got lots of OLD wips I'd like to finish up!

A quilt for my dad and his wife....

My dad and his wife are the only immediate family members that I've never made a quilt for. Partly because I have always been on the hunt for "the perfect" fabrics for them. Their house is all in whites and various shades of beige. It's been a hard hunt these past several years for some neutrals that weren't "country" looking. 

Then came "Little Black Dress" by Basic Grey. I knew that was it! It's the perfect colors and fabric patterns for them. I liked that there was some blacks and greys in there b/c it's adding a "color punch" but without being to "colorful", if that makes sense! 

Then to figure out a quilt design that again, wasn't "country" looking. (My dad had mentioned before that they don't like "country-looking" quilts) I also only had about 3-4 days to make it, so it needed to be an easy pattern. 

Enter the Postage Stamp Quilt!

1200 2.5" squares! But I pieced it P.S. I quilt style and it was a piece of cake! I literally worked on this for about 3 or 4 days. I wish I tracked the actual hours because I finished this one pretty fast and it's BIG. 60" x 80". I cheated on the binding and machine attached both sides. Which I HATE doing because I'm not very good at it, but I just didn't have the time to hand stitch the back on this big one. I had to get it in the mail today for Christmas. 

When making this one, I didn't plan the fabrics out AT ALL. I literally pieced all the strips and then cut them up and when making the block grabbed whichever one. Then when I made the top, I grabbed finished blocks and sewed them together. I did alternate the "A" blocks and the "B" blocks but I didn't lay out the top or plan it in any way and I'm pretty pleased with the result. I love the randomness of it.

I love this fabric line with all the different whites, beiges, and grays. I hope they like it and I definitely need to make a postage stamp quilt for me. I LOVE the way they look!

Toddler Stepping Stones

I was commissioned to make a quilt for a friend for her son over a year ago. (gosh, I can't even believe it's taken me that long!) My summer vacation got in the way and with the hubs home all the time this past year and not having to deploy, I haven't been sewing much!

I gave her a choice of a few different patterns and this was the one she chose.

 It's made with several fabrics I picked out from Fabricworm/Birch Fabric store in Paso Robles, CA. I was able to visit the store before we left Southern California on my way to Monterey for a weekend. It's a great store by the way!
I also used a Kona cotton grey (not sure which one exactly) and a few other prints from Connecting Threads.

It's backed with a print I got from Connecting Threads, as well.

The pattern for this quilt can be found here. I think I altered the size of the sashing, but I can't remember. I think mine was the same width as the color pieces.
It measures 40" x 50".

Now all my "To-Do" projects are done! I just have a whole bunch of mini quilts to catch up on. (but I don't count those as "to-dos"!)
I still have a goal to finish up a bunch of WIPs, so I hope to get going on those as well!

DEVASTATION...a lesson learned the hard way..

Today I decided to pull out my Cathedral Windows quilt that I started several months ago. I wanted to see how many white squares I had pressed and ready to go so I can start working on that again. 

To my HORROR, this is what I discovered on my completed blocks and one incomplete block.

this is the incomplete block, only the 4 windows on the right are sewn.

one of the completed blocks.

Look closely. See all the RUST spots! OMG! The block not completed was tacked with pins and on the edges, quilt binding clips. The completed block, the edges were tacked with pins.

I'm guessing it's the humidity here in RI. I'm not used to it, I don't know much about it being from California and never even thought that it would affect my pins and binding clips!

These are all the FRONT of it. At first, I thought, it will be ok....once I attach all these blocks together, I'll be putting windows over these and it won't show at all. No big deal.
WRONG... Here's the BACK!

 These are the 2 completed blocks that just had pins in them. Now these I think I'll still keep because this quilt it for me and the rust marks are small enough that they won't bother me too much.

These are the back of the incomplete block. Top one here shows all the binding clip damage, the bottom picture shows where I had pins holding the window to be sewn in. So needless to say, this block is getting trashed.

Here are some of the pins and clips. You can see the rust if you look close.

So here's my lesson learned (that maybe all of you already know!):
I will never have pins or binding clips "hold" my work for me and let it sit. Especially when using white fabric. And especially if I live somewhere where there is humidity!

A quilt for Finnegan

One of my great friends had a baby a few months ago. I knew I'd make her a quilt, of course. She loves the Nicey Jane fabrics by Heather Bailey and fortunately I have a pretty large stash of it. So I chose some of the blues and greens from that line and a few blues and greens from others and make this little baby quilt set on point. It was my first quilt set on point and I LOVE it! I love the colors, love the fabric and love the design. I wish it was a big one for me! Maybe someday, I'll make myself one! 

It measures 38"x45" and is quilted with a free motion meandering pattern.