Joy!

It feels so good to be back at the sewing machine and getting some projects finished! As I mentioned in the previous post, my son recently moved to an apartment in California. He furnished it in typical basic bachelor-pad style (thank goodness for IKEA!), which means it's a bit boring. He did buy a few things with color -- red kitchen towels, oven mitts, toaster oven, kitchen rug, etc. -- but a lot of his furniture is black, including the dining table and chairs, so I decided that his place needed some more color. I made the placemats and coasters from scraps of two previous quilts -- one that I made for my son when he went off to college and then another one I made for myself using scraps from his college quilt.

Here's a shot of his quilt...

It made me feel good that he took this quilt to California!

And mine...

I just realized that I had another red/black/gray/white quilt that I made from some of these fabrics...

donated to charity earlier in 2014

The black and red scraps are getting very limited, but I have enough for a couple more things. Stay tuned!

First Finish for March

Finally, a finished quilt!

This was made using leftover fabrics from two other quilt tops (not quilted yet). I decided to quilt this one first because the other two require some thinking, while with this one I just did some meandering loops and double loops.

The last of the fabric was used on the back...

And here's a closeup shot of the quilting...

The pattern is a disappearing four-patch (video here). Very easy.

I still see where I messed up with the layout, but no matter....It's done and used up at least five yards of my pre-2014 stash (actually, all of the fabrics except for the solid cream came from my pre-2013 stash).

Two Finishes for January!

(click on photos to enlarge)

I finished up two quilts this week, both made using some of my hand-dyed fabrics (from June 2009!) and white. Same pattern, just opposite layouts. Each one is about 48 inches on all sides.

Loops and a few hearts for the quilting...

These are going to two sisters, ages 6 and 8, who live close to Orlando, so I think I picked the perfect backing fabric...

Two quilts going to two sisters...similar in design, but different enough so they can tell which one is which.

The only new fabric is the backing, so I used up about four yards of my pre-2014 stash!

Next Project(s)

I've decided to start a couple of bright and cheery quilts during this cold winter. I'm sorta, kinda making two of the Giant Starburst quilts as seen on Canoe Ridge Creations blog. I'm changing the size a bit and using a different construction method than the instructions, but the result will be basically the same. The color placement is different as well.

The fabrics I've chosen are some of my own hand-dyed pieces that have been sitting around in my stash since the summer of 2009, at least! It's definitely time to use them.

I Met The Deadline...

...but it didn't matter, after all.

The trunk show that I was supposed to participate in was held, but I couldn't go due to nasty winter weather in the forecast.

This is the quilt that I rushed to finish in time...(indoor light doesn't do the quilt justice, I'm afraid)...

I made these twelve blocks during a modern quilt block-of-the-month series on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog a few years ago (July 2011 through June 2012), using red, black, and white fabrics left over from a quilt that I had made for my son as a high school graduation/going off to college quilt in the summer of 2010 (I blogged about that quilt here and you can see the fabrics I used here).

The twelve blocks sat around for quite a while, but I finally decided on a layout and put the top together earlier this fall. Technically, I didn't use a pattern, but just figured it out -- it's basically the BQ2 pattern from Maple Island Quilts. My main blocks were 12 inches finished, so I just did the math and figured out what size to cut the gray and white fabrics around each block, based on pictures I found online.

Here's a closeup look at the randomly-spaced straight-line quilting...

And here's a photo of my son's quilt...it's now in its fourth year of use! (Yikes, where does the time go?) I like to think that my son will take this with him wherever he winds up after graduation, and now I'll have my own quilt that will remind me of him when he's far from home. But I'm not going to think about that right now.

Hard at Work

This in quilt top #4 that I've quilted since I made a vow to quilt two of my tops before starting the piecing of another one. It feels good to have surpassed my goal.

The pattern is a free one from Moda Bake Shop -- Marmalade Squares (Two!) -- you can find it on their website by clicking here. Note that there were errors in the original pattern, and the blog post now indicates that corrections have been made on the website but not on their PDF download. The initial directions called for one charm pack of 40 squares, but you really need a bit more than that. And some of the other cutting directions of the larger pieces initially had incorrect measurements.

Just free-motion waves as the quilting...

Here's the scrappy backing....

And my favorite part...striped bias binding....

The quilt measures about 44 inches x 48 inches and used up two yards of my pre-2013 stash (the lime green and darker pink were bought in 2013, but at thrift store and yard sale prices!). Oh yes, and the batting is pieced from three leftover pieces.

Now I give myself permission to start piecing another top!

Still On Track

I'm still on track with quilting more of my quilt tops and not piecing new ones...at least for now.

approximately 50" x 66"

This was an experiment with making large half-square triangle blocks using a nine-patch block and a plain white square. I'm pleased with how it turned out; however, this technique cuts off corners of some of the squares and then seams don't always line up. It's not a big deal, since this is not a quilt that I made to be judged or hung in a show or to be given to an expert quilter. You can see some of the cut-off corners in the photo below (the corners are "neatly tucked away") as well as some of my wobbly "straight-line" quilting.

And here's a look at the backing and binding fabrics...

Although this quilt is now completed, I can't count it as using up any of my pre-2013 stash. The gingham fabrics on the front were from a fabric thrift store this year, and both the backing and binding fabrics were from a couple of quilt guild yard sales, also this year. I don't count white fabric as being used up because I buy it periodically just to have on hand and I have no clue how much of it I buy in any particular year.

Anyway, not counting the white, the fabrics for this quilt cost me a grand total of about $7. Not bad, huh?

Finally, Another Finish

Life has been way too busy and I haven't had much time to do any serious quilting, sewing, or blogging lately. I'm hoping to get back on track with everything soon. This is a small baby quilt made with leftovers from two quilts I finished back in July. Some of the strips were already sewn into sets, so I just added more white fabric until I came up with enough for a small quilt. This was strictly improvisational, just finding places for all of the leftovers.

You can see the straight-line quilting a bit better in this photo...

And I had a couple of double-pinwheel blocks left over from the previous two quilts, so I used them on the back of this one...

The leftover came from these two quilts...

The photos don't do the fabrics justice...they are much prettier in person.

The backing fabric came from a quilters' rummage sale earlier this year, so I can only count about 1 yard of fabric as coming from my pre-2013 stash.

Now What?

Some of my regular readers might recognize these twelve blocks from a Modern Block-of-the-Month that I participated in a year or so ago (started in Aug 2011, finished in July 2012). I've had these on my design wall for quite a while now, hoping that something will inspire me to figure out a layout, but so far, nothing has come to me. Truthfully, I haven't really thought about it much because I have way too many other things keeping me occupied, and unfortunately, not all of them are quilting-related.

Anyway,  I'll figure this out someday, but in the meantime, I don't need my design wall for anything else, so they'll just stay up there.

I'm thinking perhaps some solid gray fabric to tie it all together...

First April Finish

It feels good to have another UFO completed. I made this top and backing back in August 2011 (I blogged about it here), but put it away until I got around to quilting and binding it this past week. As I mentioned in that blog post, this quilt was made after I made this block you see below...

The red/white/black block was part of a modern block-of-the-month project from the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. When a friend of mine first saw the block on my blog, she thought it was an entire quilt -- so that gave me the idea to make a large quilt based on the same design as the block. 

I changed the measurements a bit to make the quilt a rectangle rather than a square, but it's the same basic idea.

Here's the pieced back, all from my stash...

And a closeup of the quilting...

The colors are not quite right in the photos -- I'm afraid that blue and purple and pink don't play well with my camera and computer, but in real life, the colors look really good.

This quilt used up 3 1/2 yards from my stash and will be going to the local foster child program.

Can't Wait

This Sunday is the third meeting of the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild. I've been to both of the previous meetings and have enjoyed them quite a bit. The quilters in the group have been pretty excited and the meetings have been full of inspiration. Lots of great show and tell.

The group meets at a wonderful quilt shop -- Quilters Corner  -- in Ithaca, NY. It bugs the heck out of me that the shop doesn't have an apostrophe in its name, but I'll forgive them since I really, really love the shop and since they are so gracious to let the IMQG meet there.

I'm taking a couple of friends with me to this meeting...we can't wait....

Modern BOM Block 12

I finally got around to making block number 12 of the Modern Block of the Month Sew-Along from the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.

Here's a photo of all twelve blocks on my design wall. Now I have to work on how to set them all in a quilt. No straight row settings for this one...

Modern BOM Block 10

This is my version of block number 10 of Sew, Mama, Sew's Modern Block-of-the-Month Sew-Along.

Now I'm caught up. Only two more blocks to go -- one in May and one in June. And it's a good thing that there are only two blocks left; my fabric supply is running out. Remember, I'm using leftover fabrics from my son's high school graduation/going off to college quilt. You can see pictures of that quilt here.

Modern BOM Block 9

This is my version of block number 9 of Sew, Mama, Sew's Modern Block-of-the-Month Sew-Along. Very easy to do. Now on to block number 10...

Modern BOM Block 8

 I'm a few months behind in the Sew, Mama, Sew Modern Block-of-the-Month Sew-Along, but I'm hoping to catch up in the next week or so. Here is Block #8 from February...

Some of the pieces are a bit wonky, but that's due to the fact that I chose to cut and sew them together a different way than the instructions say because I didn't want to deal with partial seams. But in the end, the wonkiness won't be so noticeable.

...and here are all of my completed blocks so far...

To see the rest of my posts about these blocks, click on the "SMS BOM" label on the right sidebar of this blog or click here.