Another One Down!

So I finally finished another UFO! I had one more niece on hubby's side to make a quilt for so I chose to finish my Skill Builder Sampler to complete. Here is a pic on our front porch.

I added sashing in the Kona bleached white, then added a border in the same fabric I used as another niece's backing fabric. The backing was something I picked up when our LQS went out of business. I love the colors and it blends perfectly with the front colors.

I used the same fabric to bind it which I loved. I love stripes that run into the quilt instead of running alongside it.

Rachel's Quilt: My version of Skill Builder Sampler quilt along from Sewn by Leila
Lap Size: ~60x70   (I forgot to measure it before it left)
Quilting: Straight line quilting

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Merry Christmas! We have already opened presents and are vegging out at this house. The kids are enjoying new Wii games, while I am preparing my new gift into my sewing room. I'm so excited! It pays to have a hubby who can handle power tools. I knew exactly what I wanted for Christmas. I put in my request and hubby found some bookshelves at a fairly good price. Here's mine at the moment.

Yippee Skippee!!! Mine is not screwed together yet (so no, it's not crooked) because he wanted to wait until I got it where I wanted it. He said the store had two black shelves and one white so, surprise! Mine is black! Plus he used floor tiles on the top which makes it slick. I love it. I'm currently making attempts to clean up my sewing area so I can fit it in there. Mine was also scaled down because I don't have as much room available, but it will definitely be loads of room for me! Hopefully I can keep things straight with this and the bookshelf. Storage!!!

In case you wonder, I got the idea from this Ikeahackers version.

I will post better pics when I get it in place. I also finished a quilt from my To Do list and will post about it tomorrow. For now, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!!

Soft Kitty Variation...

Some Progress...

I got a bit done on my Halloween Chinese Lantern quilt. The embroidered hooks are done at the top, the spider webs are done at the bottom and the spider has even been added. I'm currently working on stitching down the appliqued balls atop the 'tassel' webs.

I just attached the spider and embroidered the legs. Now, two questions...

Are the hooks and spider webs thick enough? And do I need to enlarge the spider webs on the first, third, and last columns since there's more white underneath, or do I leave it as is? I have to admit, I love how this is coming together! It's going to be so stinkin' cute when I get it all done. I'm working on ideas for the back right now as well.

Wicked Webbing...

Well, the Halloween top is put together and I have appliqued the balls for the tassels. The hooks and the actual tassels will be hand embroidered on, but I had a thought. The shape of the tassels made me think, "Why not make them spider webs?" So, I did!

I'm even adding a spider to this one. That's why there's one 'thread' going downward. I love it! Here's how the actual top came together.

That's my daughter's lovely feet at the bottom. Very helpful!! I am so excited about this quilt!!!

Halloween... and UFO's

I'm making some slow steady progress over here with my Halloween quilt. So far, so good! I did go back and replace the repeated fabrics with different ones so now there are 25 different fabrics in it now. Here it is now.

The first three columns were sewn together in a a vertical strip, but the strips couldn't be sewn together until the the border pieces were done. I'm actually farther along than this right now but I didn't want to give too much away.
Are you curious where I found this pattern? Check it out here at Monica Solario-Snow's Happy Zombie blog. She did hers up in her own line of fabric, Holiday Happy. I decided to go with a different holiday for my version!!! I have some sneaky little fun things planned for this quilt that I can't WAIT to show you!!!
I also decided that I really needed to discipline myself to finish some things. My sewing room is currently overrun with UFO's so I decided to take a cue from Quilter in the Gap and do a whiteboard list of everything I need to get done. Here's the problem. I've already taken a picture of the list 3 times. Why 3 times? Cause I keep finding more to add to the list...and it's not a short list in the first place!

I didn't get really specific because most are tops that need to be finished before I can even get to the quilting part. The Skill Builder Sampler is the only one that is ready to quilt at this time, and the mini flag quilt just needs to have binding sewn on. Whew! I hope I don't find anything else hiding out in there that I haven't finished!

Starting a Finish

I'm still working on my Halloween quilt but decided to get some older stuff finished as well. I just finished getting my Skill Builder quilt pinned today.

Now I just need to figure out how I want to quilt it. I thought about just doing straight line quilting on the sashing and maybe doing some FMQ or echo stitching within the blocks.

Opinions Needed...

So if you saw my post the other day you probably figured out that I am working on a Chinese Lantern Halloween quilt. I won a fat quarter bundle of Halloween fabrics from Allegory over at Sew Allegorical last year (she now has a new blog called a thousand needles). I never could figure out what I wanted to do with it until our LQS started this 'going out of business' stuff. I knew I needed to pick up some things to go with existing bundles I already had while everything was cheap so I picked up a few more Halloween fabrics so I could come up with a quilt. So far, so good...but I do need an opinion. Here are my blocks thus far.

The setup will be different but I was keeping up with all the colors. I kind of wish I'd run one of those stripes horizontally, but... So here they are all mixed up.

Why am I missing one? Well, The original pattern called for 25 different prints. I didn't have that many so some had to repeat. I'm not sure I always picked the right one to repeat but I tried to pick ones that had actual Halloween things depicted. Okay, back to the missing one. I had originally cut two of the off white star fabric as a double, but once I put it on my board, I wasn't sure there was enough difference between the fabric color and my background color for it to stand out. I'm thinking I need to pick up another yellow...what do you think?

Close up you can see a bit of difference between the fabrics but not a lot.  Also, if I decide to look for more prints so I don't have to double, I thought about taking the seconds and making a couple of lantern rows on the back of the quilt. What do you think? Does it look okay as is or do I need to add some other fabrics? Keep in mind this is not the exact set up of the quilt, but it will be columns of five...there will just be space between the columns.

A Little Something Wicked

So am I working on finishing some of my many UFO's? Nope. I got a wild hair and a very specific idea. Want a hint? Check it out...

I'm so excited!!!

Looking for More Finishes

I have been working on getting some things finished lately. I finally got all the quilting done on my American flag mini quilt.

It just needs a binding and a way to hang it at this point.
I also picked up some great backing fabric for a quilt that's been sadly waiting for me to put it together. Remember this one?

Well, I picked up this great fabric for the backing from our LQS that is going out of business.

I love it! It will probably be another niece quilt since I'm a bit behind on those. I've also been getting a few more goodies from the LQS that I'll have to show later. Stay tuned!!!

A Finish! It Feels So Good!!

This is my latest finish! There are a lot of firsts on this quilt: my first queen size, the largest quilt I've made thus far, the first time using double sided binding (which I love!!!).

This is the Falling Charms quilting tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Co. using Kate Spain's Good Fortune. It is queen sized and approximately 94x105. I accidentally lost some width from a miscut that I didn't catch until it came back from the quilter's.

The quilting was done by a long armer with a pale purplish thread.

I love how it turned out and will definitely be using this pattern again.

The backing is solid with the little floral you see above. I also created double sided binding for it since the front and back were so vastly different. It was totally easy and came together so well!!!

I'm so excited to be done with something. Now on to finish some UFO's!!

Living and a' Working!

I'm actually getting some work done on the Falling Charms quilt today. I got the binding cut out yesterday and and today I have to sew it together and get it ironed and on. I also have to get a crocheted wrap done for my MIL. I'm using this tutorial to do double sided binding. Here's what it looks like so far.

Here you can see both sides.

And here is looking straight onto the side of the binding.

Pretty cool! I'm excited how it is turning out. It will end up being totally reversible!

Where I'm Headed...

I am really not sure which way I want to go with this quilt. Here is the way the row of one 9 patch variation on point is going.

Sorry for the bad shot. My design board is not large enough so it is across the bed.

I can sort of see the chevron going on.
Then I put some of my white below and added the other 9 patch variation.

Yeah. I'm not sure I'm feeling them together. I'm thinking about just doing another row of chevron in the upper design. I have plenty of charms to do it. I picked up another pack at the LQS the other day just in case. I'm still trying to decide. Hmmm....

Playing with Color (and ideas!)

So I am creating some of two different nine patch variations out of Simply Color. I was taken with both blocks and, instead of waiting to try the second block with other fabric, I chose to make both blocks. Now I'm wondering; can I combine both into one quilt, or am I looking at two quilts?
Here's a pic of what I have so far.

I like the idea of the on point, chevron looking stripe with the blocks on top. I don't want to turn the ones on bottom on point. So I'm wondering; do I make three or so rows of the 'chevron' row with alternating white, then use the other squares for something else? Or do I run a row of squares, a row of 'chevron' a row of squares with alternating white between? I was wondering what the consensus might be. What do you think?

So Sad...

Another LQS down the tubes. Our town is getting a Joann's, and we already have Hobby Lobby. We had an LQS that closed a few years ago but someone else opened another one. That one has been open for about 2 years. Well, I just found out she has chosen to close her shutters for good. I don't think it was really because of Hobby Lobby and Joann's so much as it was that she hadn't thought the shop would take up so much of her time.
I went over there to check out all the sale items but only picked up a few things. Others had picked over the Aurifil so I only got two. Then most of the fabric is more traditional. I still may go back and pick up a couple of things. I only got some Kate Spain to finish out the binding for the Falling Charms quilt. I got it back from the quilter yesterday...gorgeous! Here's a peak:

Ach! I sooo wish this was going to be living at my house! But a quilt for MY bed is next on the agenda. Well, I'm off to triple check the packing we just did for my daughter. She goes off to camp tomorrow in the North Georgia mountains for a week! My son is doing camp as well but he will be coming home at night (a fact he was none too pleased with when he found out, but I'm not ready yet and neither is he!).

WiP Wednesday!

Well, my Falling Charms queen is at the longarm quilter so I started looking at some other things to do until it gets back at the end of the week. Instead of finishing something I already have half done, of course I pulled out something new!

I started these before we left for the beach (pattern picked up from here). I was toying around with how to do the quilt. I was thinking of a few rows with some intentional open space...then I saw another block on her website.

Lovin' it! So now, do use them both on the front? Do I make it reversible with one kind on one side and one on the other? Or do I just make two quilts? All the nieces so far have gotten rainbow quilts so these would be perfect color-wise.
And just to let you see a little of our beach vacay...

These were all down the beach! Wish we could have seen some little turtles making their trek to the ocean!

 The view from our room...

 and Castle Us! Hope you have a great vacation before it's school time again!

It's 5 o'clock Somewhere!

Headed out the door on vacation at the beach, but wanted to show you a little peak at something I'm working on.

How cute are these? It's a disappearing 9 patch pattern I found here. I think I'm going to alternate it with another block. We'll see when I get back! Have a great Monday!

Headed to the Beach!

I tried to get a little sewing done today because tomorrow we are headed for the beach!!! Woo-hoo! Last week we spent some time at the lake (they have a little "beach" area which was totally deserted the day we went except for our kids).

Oh, and the geese. I didn't get them all in this shot but there was a gaggle of 45 of them!
Then we played with some sparklers on July 4th.

Thanks to my sis for providing those!

I got one piece drawn out for embroidering during my beach trip. Here's a little peek.

And here are my sewing pieces! Some quilting on my flag...

(yes, I know, still not done but it will be by Memorial Day!!), and a new project with some Simply Color.

I can't wait to see how this one comes together! What did you do for the 4th?

Getting Ready for July 4th...

I was planning on making a wreath to decorate my front door for July 4th. Then I saw the Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial for a tumbler flag quilt. Too cute! So I shifted gears since I knew I had some red, white and blue fabrics I'd put aside for some projects I never actually made.

I haven't actually added the border yet but it's very cute so far! Jenny at MSQ used a navy blue so I'm still debating the blue I have. I just have it pinned to the blue in the picture to test it out. I think it will be fine (it will also mean I don't have to buy more!). I'm trying to decide whether to add a tiny white border before the blue just to help it pop. Hmmm....

Since I made this for my front door, I needed it to be a bit smaller than what they made it. The tutorial calls for a tumbler to be used on charm squares (5" at the widest) but I didn't have one so I used this to make one.

I picked it up for $1.49 at Tuesday Morning a while back. You do have to be careful because you can accidentally cut through it with a rotary cutter, but I didn't have any trouble with mine. I originally cut a 5" block. Then I marked 1" in from each side at the top, drew a line from the mark down to the edge of each side, and trimmed. Voila, a tumbler!

So after cutting out my blues and trying them out, I figured out something. A 5" tumbler was going to make it too big for my door. So I did some configuring and decided to use a 3.5" tumbler instead. Back to the drawing board and ....... here ya go!

I made it 3.5 across the bottom and came in .75 of an inch on either side at the top. One inch was too much so I dropped back a bit. I think it turned out perfect!

What I ended up up with so far is 24" wide and 17" tall. I will be adding the border, then quilting it up and hanging it on my door! More pictures when I'm done!

Just Guilding Along!!!

I finally made it to a quilt guild meeting Monday night! I've missed so many this year since my lovely daughter's dance class was that night. During ways and means (we purchase tickets for prizes), I won a neat new pair of scissors I'll have to let you know about.

It advertises that you can cut through up to 8 layers of fabric. Not that I need to cut through that much, but I'll let you know!

We had a wonderful speaker named Teddy Pruett who is a quilt appraiser.  I love speakers who can keep your attention, with almost a bit of 'entertainer' quality to them, and she was definitely the ticket. She was a hoot with her stories and I absolutely loved her art quilts. They are quite my speed! Let me just tell you about some of them.

• A "Cook is a Four Letter Word" quilted (with a Dresden plate, of course) depiction of a harried housewife complete with stove dial eyes and every four letter cooking word you can think of: sift, pour, dice, bake stew, etc.
• A "Fractured Wedding Ring-The Divorce Attorney's Quilt" which depicts a large heart. The center of the heart depicts the perfect marriage, while each side shows the way things can go wrong.
• To Hell with Housework which depicts exactly what you think it does!
• The Church Ladies is a celebration of Southern Gospel choirs. The choir robes are actually made from Crown Royal bags!

I loved her stories as well; she mentioned purchasing an old apple core top which one of her peers referred to as "the old panty crotch quilt". Oh my gosh! I can never see apple cores when I look at those quilts again. I kind of always thought the shape looked like panty liners, but I wasn't going to say it!!