Summer Sweep......

Summer flew...and here it is almost the end of September! Good grief! Just to keep things simple here are my finishes since the last posting (which was in JUNE...shame on me!)



I got on a kick making sweet pillowcase dresses!
 

I call this one Find your Inner Peace! Love this quilt :) The pattern is actually called Crazy Courthouse Steps.

The back of Find Your Inner Peace

This is our guild mystery quilt. I like the yellow and red together, makes it bright and cheery!

This is the back of the Mystery Quilt. I plan to use it in our camper, so I picked super cute camping fabrics!

This was a special request for a baby girl-to-be. This is the first time I have put a name on a quilt and I love it! I also quilted this one myself! WooHoo...go me! LOL!



This is the back of Catelyn Lily's quilt. I've had the fabric for a while just waiting on a good use, and I think I found the perfect use for it :)

 So this is what I did over the summer! I have about 4 quilt tops made.....and I need to piece the backings for all of them. And can you believe I starting cutting fabric for another quilt top today?? Ahhh.... quilt making is a crazy obsession for me but I have fun :)

A late posting for June

I was busy busy in June and managed to get a few things accomplished, but one of them wasn't posting this info in my blog! ooppsss!Here are some pictures of June Finishes-

This is my flower block for the guild picnic. I liked the way it came together.

This is a laundry bag I made for my niece. I really LOVE the way it turned out. I hope to make myself one someday to use while on vacation.

This quilt is made for my friend's Mom. I hope she will like it. I love the single Irish Chain pattern.

This is the back of the Irish Chain quilt. Love the flowery quilting and the bright paisley fabric.

Wonder Woman, Super Girl, and Bat Girl baby quilt for a coworker. I think it turned out "super" cute!!- hehe! 

Echoing star quilting..

The back of the Wonder Woman, Super Girl, and Bat Girl quilt. I thought I would try to put something a little more traditional on the back of the quilt. This sweet fabric was from Ikea.

Mom of the baby-girl-to-be is a nurse and I thought this one looked like a nurse! How cute!

This is a simple baby quilt that has been donated.

The back is simply white but the heart quilting makes it amazing!

A quilt that will be donated to Ebenezer's Children's Home. I love the colors in this quilt!

Trying for an artsy photo :)

The back of the quilt. Flowers and Fruits and Stripes=Fun!

 

I got quite a bit accomplished!! Now I need to step it up this month. I've actually pieced several quilt tops and now I need to work on backings and bindings and get some more complete finishes done. Happy July!

A finish for May 2013

I am happy to say that I have a finish for the month of May, and it is only May 16, so maybe...just maybe...I will get 2 finishes in May. We'll see. But for now I am super excited to have this finish!

This quilt will be donated to the Rainbow Center and I am hoping some child will love it as much as I do! I really love the skater boy fabric. I found it on clearance at Walmart. I have some more of it, because I bought quite a bit (I told you I love it! LOL!) The patches that look white are actually a gray marble-swirl and remind me of concrete or something urban-ish.

And this is the back. I love that star fabric. It was left over from the back of another quilt, and the gray binding is also leftover. I think it was a great choice for this quilt. The idea here was to make a quilt suitable for a boy. Mission accomplished I believe, although I think lots of girls would like this one too--I do :)
PS-look at that green grass and those flipflop toes! Don't you love warm spring time weather? Thanks goes to my daughter for helping hold the quilt for photos!

One from 2011

Looking through some pictures I found pictures of this quilt I made for my Mom in 2011 for her birthday. This was a string quilt and I used this pattern: http://www.maryquilts.com/strings/strings-heartstrings-quilt/ I changed mine a little from the pattern. I just made my heart using reds and the background with blues. This is a very heavy quilt. I used muslin for the foundation and I used batting as well. In the future I will try using a paper foundation and see if that lightens it up a bit. My Mom loves it and uses it though! I tied this one, because my longarm quilter's machine just couldn't handle all those layers. I have lots of extra strips from this quilt and I am going to have to make another one someday!

This was taken before the binding was stitched down. I don't think I ever got a completely finished picture of it! I love this pattern. Mary's Heartstrings has so many nice patterns and she does awesome charity work. Check out her site here: http://www.maryquilts.com/

Here is the back. Don't you love that tattoo Mom fabric?? I do!

 

Eventually I hope to post all of the quilts that I have made that I have pictures of on this blog. Just so I have them all in one place :)

April 2013

April is quickly coming to an end. So on the quilty front I have one finish to share. I am calling this one Home Sweet Home. I have learned to love it :) Making this one was a bit of a challenge for me. Setting blocks "on point" in general is a challenge for me. It is like a puzzle and I have so much trouble visualizing it even when I have it all laid out in front of me! Also, I had to find the time and location  to lay it all out and be able to keep it all out for several days while I pieced it. The pattern is awesome and my challenges were my own. The pattern is clear and is actually fairly easy. It is just my mind I sometimes have to work around ;) Here is the pattern I used:
http://beesquarefabrics.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-make-zig-zag-quilt-without.html

zig zag fun

 

My first instinct was to use this yellow for the binding, then I agonized over it! I made the binding way before the quilt was pieced and just decided to go ahead and use it. I LOVE IT! I really really like the yellow binding. It might be my favorite part. Also, just a note the pattern really does require an accurate 1/4 inch seam allowance or you will wind up with some pieces not matching too good as is evident in this picture. I don't stress over the little stuff though and I think once it is washed it will be no big deal, at least for me anyway ;)

Here is the back. I almost like the back better than the front. I just used the left over fabric and added a couple of more prints to make it big enough. So bright!!

Here is the block that helped me to name this quilt. Home Sweet Home! In case you couldn't see, all the prints are home oriented, mostly kitchen. The quilting was done by my friend and she used a pattern with kitchen untensils/pots/and pans! How cool is that?? I adore the quilted whisks and spatulas!

 

YEA for a finish in April!! I am glad to have this one completed. It only took me a year....LOL! That will probably be my only finish for this month. But I did sew the binding onto 3 quilts the other day, so my goal for May is to finish hand sewing those 3 bindings :)

 

March = lots of WIPs

March is winding down quickly!! I did get one project completed, and I did it in less than 2 weeks start to finish! It is not my favorite quilt, but I still like it. This quilt was made for a benefit silent auction. It didn't bring as much as I had hoped, but it was won by someone who will love and appreciate it. So without further ado here it is:

This is the front. I have now pieced so many quilts in this pattern that I think I could do it in my sleep. I like this pattern, though, because it always looks so different with each print and color theme.

This is the back. I love the cream fabric. I found it at a Walmart for $1.50/yd. I was a little afraid to use it but it has such a nice feel to it, and it washed up beautifully! If I ever get back to that particular Walmart I will definitely be buying several yards to use for backings, if not fronts of quilts.

This is a close up of the front and the quilting. My favorite local longarm quilter did a big loopy rose design on it in brown, which complimented the quilt perfectly especially since I had planned to use brown for the binding.

 

So that's the only finish for March so far. There may possibly be one more finish, if I get busy on some binding. I have probably 6 quilts ready to be binded, and a couple of tops I need to get quilted, and one quilt top that I have only 5 seams to sew and it'll be a completed top. Maybe I should dedicate the month of April to working on bindings only.... so I will have some finishes to share!

 

Hope the winds of March don't blow you away!

So here is it 2013! and almost the end of February! So much for keeping up with blogging...oh well! I have completely finished 2 quilts so far this year though and I thought I would post my pictures. Here is the first finish:

This is the Belle Wave Quilt which is a pattern available free online here: http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=2116

I really love this pattern. It came together beautifully! It was quilted by my local long-arm quilter friend and she used a star stipple on it with red thread. I love how it turned out. This quilt was gifted to my nephew for his 14th birthday.

Hey, who's that photo bombing my quilt picture taking session? Oh, that's Tangie, my cat, who we rescued from the animal shelter. She brings our family great joy!

This is the back. I used a navy blue star print and a HotWheels car print because I had both on hand and thought my nephew would like them both. I think it works nicely!

 

This is the 2nd complete finish of the year. I actually started this last year. This was sort-of a challenge in our quilt guild. I participated with my guild in a 2.5 inch strip swap. We swapped one yard's worth and so I think I ended up with 14 strips. Our challenge was to use them to make something, so here's what I made. I added one additional strip and used natural muslin for the background. When I very first started working on this quilt top I found out my nephew was expecting a baby. and so the timing was right! Later on I found out it was going to be a girl and due around Valentine's Day, so as suggested by my daughters I requested the echoing hearts quilting pattern and my long-arm quilter friend used a varigated pink thread. The pink star tone on tone fabric I used for the binding pulled it all together. At first I wasn't sure of our choices, but once it was done I absolutely LOVED it!!

 

 

This is the back- flannel, hearts, and princess crowns: perfect for a baby girl due in February, don't you think?

 

I have 3 or 4 quilts in the works all in various stages. Hopefully March will bring more complete finishes! I hope the beginning of 2013 has been good for you! Enjoy the last week of February :)