Quilt Tops Become Finished Quilts

A few months ago as I was preparing for my baby's arrival, I was really getting annoyed with all the projects in my sewing space that were in various stages of incompletion. I think it was part of my nesting phase. So, once the baby was born, I set out to turn all the quilt tops I had laying around into finished quilts. I finally finished the last one just before Christmas (which was sitting around without binding for several weeks).

First up is the zigzag quilt I made for one of my sisters. I started it some time in 2010, finished the top in July, and finished the quilt in November (?) so I could finally give it to her for Christmas. I used a charm pack of Blush by Basic Grey, a charm pack of Bella snow, and some Blush fat quarters. I densely quilted the white zigzags with free motion meandering loops, regular loops in the first border, and then large meandering loops in the outer border.



As I was trying to a) finish these quilts as fast as possible and b) use fabric from my stash, I used a single print from the Panache line (can't remember the designer). It was a hair too small to cover the whole back so I added a little strip of some green solid. The back doesn't look as nice as I would have preferred, but it works.



Next up is the quilt that I started way back in 2007 (my first quilt block ever!). I finished this top sometime in July too and decided to finish it up to give to one of my nieces for Christmas. With the exception of the solid blue (a Kona cotton), all the fabrics came from Hancocks and Joanns. I bought them all several years ago when I didn't think fabric quality mattered. You can really feel the difference when you compare this quilt to another made from quilt-shop quality fabrics.



I alternated between straight lines one-inch apart and meandering loops for the quilting on this one.



This one didn't get finished before my baby was born like I wanted it to, but we've been able to get good use out of it since I finished it. It makes me happy to see my sweet baby with it.



I quilted loops in the white sections and then flowers, swirls, and snails in the Freebird sections. I used a brown and cream dot from the Freebird line for the binding.



My first quilt-along, in 2010, was for a jellyroll sampler. The mister's aunt is like another grandma to my kids so I wanted to finish this quilt up so I could give it to her for Christmas. It was well-received as she now considers herself part of the family. =)



I quilted meandering loops in a red thread for this one and really like the contrast it adds to the quilt. The binding is smaller than what I normally do, so I struggled a bit with it. But, I wanted to use the leftover jellyroll strips, which are 2.5 inches. My usual binding width is 3.25, which I'm much more comfortable working with.



Next up is my final quilt of 2011. I love it so much that I almost had a hard time giving it away. Good thing I love my dad so much.

Finished Peekaboo Blush

Before my week off, I finished this quilt, Peekaboo Blush. I've heard of a few people going through the quilting process in stages - piecing several quilts at once, then basting them all at once, quilting them all at once, and binding them all at once. I decided to give it a try and it paid off. This quilt took me just over three weeks, start to finish. I think I'll continue with this method from now on.







When I started this quilt, I thought I would end up totally loving it. Not quite. I like it, but it's not my favorite. It's really girly and I'm not a girly girl. It's currently hanging on the quilt stand in my living room. The stand only has spots for three quilts and it's currently full. I think I may have to come up with another quilt display solution.

Peekaboo Blush

Saturday morning, I finished piecing the quilt top that I started at our family quilting bee last Saturday, Peekaboo Blush (which is what I'm calling this quilt with a square in square design using a Blush layer cake). I had finished all the blocks last Sunday, pieced them into rows on Tuesday, then pieced the rows together and added a two-inch border Saturday morning.

To make the blocks, I separated the layer cake into high-patterned and low-patterned prints. Then I cut the layer cake squares so that the border or outer square of each block would be the same fabric. Halfway through, I thought it would add a bit more visual interest if I used four different fabrics for the outer square on the rest of the blocks.

One of the solid outer squares.


A high-patterned, scrappy outer square.


A low-patterned, scrappy outer square.


When I pieced the top, I tried to alternate between solid outer squares and scrappy outer squares, but it didn't turn out that way. I thought I had the same number of each type, but I had some spots where I had to put the same type of block next to each other. Oh well, I think it turned out just fine.


For the back, I originally planned on just using the fabrics below, but then opted to add some red. Cutting the correct sizes for this was a challenge this time around; for some reason I kept miscalculating and had to add more to the ends here and there. This back is definitely more "pieced" than it should have been.



My mom recently got new floors put in her kitchen/dining room so I headed over there yesterday to take advantage of a non-carpet place to baste this quilt (I usually baste on my living room floor). Oh man! What a difference it makes to have a hard floor surface for basting. My sister helped me and I think we got this whipped out, ready to quilt in about 30 minutes.

As of now, it's ready for quilting. I hope to get to it this week. I'm doing free-motion again to see if I can get more practice. Plus, free-motion seems to go a lot faster than straight line.

Fabric-Related Birthday Goodies

I celebrated my 28th birthday on Wednesday. I had to work. The mister had to work. It felt like a regular day. But then I tracked a package I had ordered the previous week and it was scheduled to be delivered on my birthday. Hip, hip! I ordered some yardage and a turnover of Figgy Pudding to add to my small stash.


I didn't learn about Figgy Pudding as early as the rest of you so I've been searching high and low for shops that still have some of it left.


I'm using Momo's Odyssea for the Jellyroll Quilt Along with Moose on the Porch Quilts. I bought solid Kona cotton in green, brown, and cream for the backing, sashing, and binding. When I ordered the Figgy Pudding, I decided to buy an extra yard of some Odyssea to supplement the quilt somewhere when we're done with all the blocks.


Yesterday, I stopped by my sister's house and was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I opened her gift. There was a new quilt book with really fun quilts for kids;


a quilt journal,


complete with blank pages for sketching


and graph paper for layouts;


some blackboard material for making chalkboard pillows for my two kiddos;


a scrapbook page for inspiration on a family tree quilt (we tossed around a lot of ideas for putting that one together);


and last, but certainly not least, a 24-piece fat quarter pack to make this kite quilt from my new book!


There's some Blush, Bloom & Grow, and others that I don't know the names of.


Yum,


yum,


yum!


Thanks, Hawl! You made my day!


The only downside of my birthday was that my back went out and I haven't been able to stitch an inch since Sunday! I'm dying to make some more progress on my Life Is What You Make It quilt as well as finish off the blocks for my Swirling Stars quilt.

Organizing my stash

I went to get goodies for our Easter baskets yesterday. Since my two kiddos are young and just starting to get a feel for holidays (well, at least the oldest is) we haven't done Easter baskets before. Instead of just doing junk, we opted to get them a couple sweets and a toy. While I was shopping, I decided to get gifts for my husband and myself as well. For me, some bins to start organizing my fabric stash.

Here is most of my fabric. Keep in mind that I'm a beginner and didn't really start buying fabric until December 09. I have some more fabric that wouldn't fit in this three-drawer organizer. It's still in my cedar chest.


The top drawer has most of the designer fabric I've bought. There's some Blush, Oz, Panache, the fat quarter pack I won, Figgy Pudding, Cutie Pie, Arcadia, Goodnight Monkey, and some others that I can't think of off the top of my head.


The second drawer has most of what I've bought at Joann's for different projects. Skirts and pillow covers, the spring quilt, scraps from my sister and mom, etc.


The bottom drawer has my flannel. There is flannel for two rag quilts to be made in there as well as the leftovers from the two rag quilts I made in the last few months for my kiddos.


I love having my fabric better organized. Although I need to buy at least one more unit, it's nice getting the fabric out of the plastic bags they came home in and into something a little more see-through and accessible.


Maybe organizing my stash this way will be a good way of getting the big TV off the floor. Maybe we'll have to get a new flat screen to hang on the wall and make floor space for the fabric bins. The mister would love that!

Stay tuned: This weekend I'm going to work on finishing piecing the top of my Life Is What You Make It quilt as well as piecing the eight remaining stars/pinwheels for my Swirling Stars quilt.