Quilted Fish Giveaway

I love me some giveaways! Isn't that just a great way to share the love in blogland? The Quilted Fish is sponsoring an amazing giveaway right now, so head on over and check it out.

I planned out and drafted the design for the backing of the charity quilt last night and plan on cutting all the pieces today (if my darn shoulder will cooperate - I think there's something wrong with my rotator cuff). Stay tuned.

Charity Quilt Top

A couple weeks back, my brother-in-law asked if I'd be willing to make a quilt to donate for a silent auction. There's a little boy in his neighborhood with Cerebral Palsy. The whole neighborhood has banded together to raise money for this little boy and his family. At various times in my life, my family has been the recipient of such kindness and I wanted an opportunity to pay it forward.

I bought a Frolic jellyroll a few months back without a specific idea of what to make with it. After the call from my brother-in-law, I set out on trying to figure out what sort of design to use for this charity quilt with the jellyroll. At our July quilt guild meeting, one of the girls brought a string quilt. I loved the look, but I'm totally intimidated by paper-piecing. Then I saw this pattern, which just so happened to use the Frolic line. After searching a bit more for inspiration, I read through Cluck Cluck Sew's easy double hourglass tutorial and knew I could find a way to fuse all these looks together. Here's what I came up with:

Note: The photos link to flickr so they're cut off a little on the right side.


I constructed each block using CCS's directions for the double hourglass blocks, but I made mine using three jellyroll strips.

I started by separating the jellyroll strips into sets of three, making sure to create contrast in the pattern and color, but also making sure the strips went well together. Then I took out my trusty ruler and cut each strip at 45 degree angles, alternating the direction of my ruler.



I was able to get five triangles from each jellyroll strip set. I paired four of them together as shown below. I reserved the leftover triangle for later use. Sewing the triangles into a block was tricky because of the cut being on the bias. When you sew something this way, you have to make sure not to stretch the fabric or else your block will bubble.



The 42 jellyroll strips gave me 16 12" blocks, 13 of them looked symmetrical like the one above, and other three were comprised of the leftover triangles, making them look a bit more scrappy.



Each strip set had a bit more leftover so I cut a few smaller triangles and paired them together like so.



I had enough smaller triangles for six 8" blocks, but I only used four blocks as the corner posts at the ends of the borders.



The quilt top measures about 60 inches square, a good size lap quilt. I need to pick up the backing material still and my deadline is swiftly approaching (September 15) so I best get crackin'. Hopefully the quilting and binding will go fast and I can hand this quilt off for the silent auction ASAP.

Linking up:

JRS Quilt-Along Quilt Top

I finally took the time this weekend to finish the last block for my Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt-Along quilt top. I only made nine of the blocks (instead of 12) because I was really getting burned out on the fabric. I have to say though that now that the top is all put together, I like it much more than I thought I would. It's definitely not my favorite, but it's not as horrible as I thought it might be. A while back, I bought an extra yard of one of the prints from the Oddysea line that I really liked. I'm glad I did because I was able to use that as the outer border.

My plan is to use a solid brown or green as the backing with a little pieced strip of Oddysea to break it up. I'll be making a scrappy binding out of various left-over jellyroll strips.

On a side note, I was quite the busy little quilt-top-piecer this weekend. Keep your eyes peeled for more to come. I pieced three tops, bringing my total tops ready for basting up to four. I like the assembly-line method of piecing several quilt tops at once, basting several at once, quilting several at once, and binding several at once. Too bad I don't have enough pins to baste four quilts (I'll be pushing it with two).

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you all had a great weekend.

Chore Chart

A while back, I saw the chore chart Emily at Not So Idle Hands made for her little girls and knew I wanted to make one some day. At the time, my oldest was not quite three and we hadn't been working a ton on making him do chores. But, now that he's three and a half, I thought it would be good to make one. I used Emily's magnet images, but only used the chores that I felt my son would be able to do (clear the table, pick up toys, get the mail, etc.) as well as some other chores that he can help with (sweeping, vacuuming, cooking dinner, etc.).


I already had this magnet board lying around and decided it would be great for this project. I printed the chart itself out on scrapbook paper and cut it to fit within the frame. I didn't modpodge the paper down, like Emily did, because I am thinking I may use the magnet board for another project too (like a Family Home Evening board). I did, however, follow Emily's directions for printing and making the magnets. I ordered the glass tiles, magnets, and diamond glaze from Sun and Moon on Etsy.


This project was so easy and I really love the tiles and magnets that I bought online. I've made fridge magnets before, but anytime one of my kids would drop one on the floor, the glass gem would separate from the magnet, which was a pain.

Now I have a good tool for teaching my son how to work and it's cute too, which is always a plus.

Finished Freebird Picnic

I finished Jessica's Freebird Picnic quilt last week and gave it to her this past Sunday. I think she was pleased with it.


I had a bugger of a time with the free-motion quilting this time around. The tension kept getting all screwy on the back and I think I unpicked several sections at least 10 times. Good thing I love you, Jess. If it were any other quilt I may have just left the back as is.


I liked the dot fabric for the binding because it really does give it a little pop. I had heard that some people don't like using dots on bindings because it's hard to get the dots to line up. I definitely had that problem here, but it only bugs me when the quilt is laid out as in the first picture. Otherwise, I really like it. I ended up buying another yard of the dots fabric to make my daughter a dress.


I did all-over loops on the main part of the quilt. Then I quilted a straight line 1/4" into the brown border, and finished the quilting with a wavy stitch through the middle of the border.


I wish I was better at free-motion quilting. And maybe quilting in general. My favorite part of making quilts is piecing the top. I think because that's what looks the most like the quilt. The rest of the process is just a necessary evil. Well, not evil, but you know what I mean.

Next up? I need to make some progress on a charity quilt as it's due in about three weeks. I'm also turning the top of my son's quilt into the back (ya know, since it's so ugly) and need to piece the squares that I cut for the new top. We bought him a big boy bed and will be getting the mattress and box springs soon. I want to have the quilt ready to go when we get the bed set up.