Charming Flowers

This is Charming Flowers, a design by Konda Luckau of Moose on the Porch blog. I loved making this, very easy pattern to follow. I went ahead and made 5 rows instead of 4 because I loved the look and I had already made the blocks. The pattern calls for 6.

I wrote of adding the flange to provide a break between my border choices and I loved how it came out. However, I didn't think about how it would affect my quilting. I had trouble with the flange folding back on itself as I moved from one direction to another. Lesson learned: stay away from flanges if you're going to quilt it on a longarm or don't use an allover design. Or I could have basted it down too.

I also did the binding by machine instead of sewing it on the back by hand since I ran out of time. It was my first time of trying this on a whole quilt and for the most part I was pleased. This is something I may do again in the future and with more practice I should improve. There is something relaxing about doing the binding by hand but in a pinch, machine is definitely the way to go.

I wrote on the quilt back for the label and I'm not sure I'd go this route again. After I washed the quilt I saw the writing had faded (I used the micron pigma pen). It might have been better with a lighter back though.

I'm pretty pleased with the quilt, especially since it took me just a little over a week from start to finish. The pattern is one I would definitely recommend too. This quilt turned into another one where I had a hard time giving it up. But, I wanted our youth pastor and his wife to have something special for their first baby and I got to do something I loved making it. Win win all around!!

Loving Pink and Green

I had never been a pink kind of gal but lately I've been really drawn to it. Perhaps it's all those years of raising 2 boys that has had me thinking girly things in the past few years. I'm going to a baby shower (a girl to quilt for....yay!!) on Sunday and I'm racing to get this project done.

This is a quilt from one of Konda Luckau's (her link is the Moose on the Porch blog on my sidebar) books in the Simply Charming line. Her books feature projects using charm squares, this pattern is called Charming Flowers. She also has information if you don't have charm squares and want to use your yardage. I had a bit of pink and green yardage/fat quarters so I decided to use them in the project. The book I have is a combination of 2 books, called "Simply Charming Collection". Lots of great patterns!

The pattern calls for 24 blocks in a 4x6 grid but I made 20 (I know, I need a new photo) thinking to put it in a 4x5 grid. That still makes for a good sized quilt (the original finishes at 52 1/2 x 70 1/2) so I may cut it back to 3x4 or 4x4 which would make it that much faster to finish. As a baby quilt, the smaller size would be more portable too. It's been a very easy project to work on.

What's a quilt without issues though? Mine is in color. I purchased the border fabric to tie my pinks together and then I went and purchased the inner border fabric (which I fell in love with while shop hopping). However when I put them together I realized I had forgotten about scale and pattern. The 2 together didn't look right to my eye so I knew I had to do something. Also....when I put those 2 blocks up on my design wall, the green I used for the centers read as too green. Normally I would have gone out and bought some more fabric to fix both issues but then I decided to try a flange between the green and pink border and I think I found a solution that works. This is supposed to be a scrap quilt after all! As I get it together I'll post more photos. In the meantime I'll be spending my time rushing to get this done by Sunday afternoon!

Shopping Before the Storm

I apologize for no new photos today. For the past few days we've been warned that a big winter storm was coming. Because of that I've been running around getting things done before the storm. Well, this morning we had maybe 2 inches of snow and no storm! But...I wasn't upset because I was actually stressing out hoping for good weather because I had planned a shop hop today, taking advantage of several sales. I had told my husband I didn't want flowers for Valentines...I wanted fabric!

I went to one LQS that had an open house today and it was a madhouse! There was quite a line by the time I had my fabrics picked out. I don't think I made the ladies behind me too happy with my stack of 16 bolts (20% off)! It was a trick moving them around, believe me! I stocked up on lots more Kona solids (1/2 yd lengths), this time buying a lot of light colors. I also picked up a couple of yards of various fabrics for some current and future projects.

The second store I stopped by was also having a sale that ended on Monday and I have been thinking about this sale for quite some time. This shop has a huge selection of Kaffe Fassett along with many other designers you don't regularly see in other shops. I've been wanting to add to my meager stash of Kaffe so I bought a number of 1/2 yd lengths. Fortunately no one was waiting for me to be done!

My last stop was at our local Ben Franklin store. I had been in there yesterday buying some Riley Blake fabric (coupon for 40% off) for a baby quilt I'm about to start. I saw the new book Scrap Basket Sensations so I had to go back there today with my coupon (couldn't use 2 coupons on the same day). Hey, saving 40% is a big deal on a book!

By the time I wake up in the morning we're supposed to have up to 8" of new snow. It's snowing quite a big now so I won't be surprised if we get that much. Now that I've done all my shopping I can spend the day sewing! After I clean up my mess there first! Hope to post some photos next time around!

Wishing for Spring

It's near the end of February but I'm already thinking Spring. That's usually not a good idea here in northern Utah but I can't help myself. It's hard when friends across the country post their great weather on Facebook and talk about mowing the lawn. We had about 10 inches of snow Saturday/Sunday and more could be on the way. If not in the next several days, certainly sometime in the next month or dare I say two? So, instead of thinking Spring outside, I decided to bring it on in.

This small wall hanging was made I think 6 years ago. My quilting interest which had sat dormant for 8-9 years had just been revived. Who knew it would turn into a full blown passion! Anyway, I was living in eastern Washington state and feeling the need for Spring when I made this. I had spent a good number of years in Japan and Spring there was always cherry blossom time. (Looking at this I can see it needs quilting and that just might happen soon!) It's definitely time to hang this in my sewing room and remind myself that Spring will eventually get here too!

Hexagons

I've been talking about doing something with hexagons for quite awhile now. I got an Accuquilt GO! before Christmas and it's taken me this long to get to it. What a breeze it was to cut out the hexagons in fabric, but in the end I cut out the paper pieces by hand. Couldn't find the paper pieces locally in the size I wanted. This is the smallest hexagon on the cutter so it's pretty small, I think maybe 3/4 inch finished. Anyway....I enjoyed doing the one flower. Have a couple of more cut out and ready to sew. I think I'll keep doing this from time to time. No plans for the flowers, just putting them together for kicks.

Hope Kids Charity Quilt

Here's the quilt I'm currently working on for the next Hope Kids auction in April. I saw this quilt on another blog and have requested the name of the pattern so I can give credit to the designer. I've made mine different in that I have a solid border. The other quilt had a nice pieced border made with strips and cornerstones of pieced blocks.

I was going to put the blue border on without an inner border but I really like a little black and white there. However, I am not happy with what photo shows so I think I will go out and get a nice black and white stripe. I think that will set it off nicely. Anyway, if I can't find a good stripe I may just leave that inner border off.

Not so sure I like the check...it reminds me of auto racing...lol Not that there is anything wrong with that but I don't want this to read as a "boy" quilt. I don't know why I didn't take that check down before I took the photo! Also, unfortunately the photo doesn't quite show the brightness of the fabrics.

Kona Solids

About a month ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) I decided to take the plunge and go get some Kona Solids. I've never worked with them before, other than to use the black for one thing or another. I've seen some beautiful works of art with solids so I treated myself to some fabric. I don't have a plan yet as I'm in the middle of making a charity quilt but I'm thinking of doing some kind of liberated log cabin, strips, or maybe I'll just cut pieces and see what develops!

I bought this selection (the fabrics are actually a deeper richer color than what the photo shows) at one of my favorite LQSs, Gardiners Sew and Quilt. They weren't on sale at the time but the prices for solids weren't bad, around $7/yd if I remember correctly. Lo and behold I received a flyer in the mail a couple of days ago and they're having an open house at the end of the month and just about everything is 20% off! I feel so lucky! I bought 1/2 yd pieces of only a few of what they had. Now I can go back and add to my stash! I'm so happy I hadn't started on my project! This is one time that delaying was a good thing! Now all I need to do is cut squares off the pieces and take them with me so I don't buy the same fabrics!

Project blocks

Just wanted to include a couple of photos of some projects I've been working on.

These blocks are my contribution for February's Scrapbee on the 15 minute blog. We were to make 5 or 6 blocks, 6.5" square, using just 5 fabrics. These went together very easily and were fun to make.

I also made a couple of word blocks....my very first two!! You can see various blocks people are making on the Unruly Quilting blog.

New Books

I recently picked up this book because I just loved a Santa pattern in it. I know some have trouble with the Buggy Barn way of stacking, whacking, and sewing but I love it! I find it liberating when getting the blocks together and then measuring them up. No stress about making the block a certain size. Just find the smallest one and cut the others to match! How great is that?

This book is so much fun to look through and read! I was itching to get going on some words. I follow her blog (lazygalquilting.blogspot.com - it's on my sidebar) and she made a request for the words "bah" and "humbug" using certain colors and "bug" fabric. How cute is that? Well, I made my first foray into words making a humbug block and I really enjoyed it! I know I should have posted a picture of it but the battery on the camera needed some juice so that will have to wait. Anyway, I am hooked on word blocks and am looking forward to some word quilts in my future. Stay tuned!

Recent Projects

The past few days I've actually finished a number of projects! The first one was a cover for the EReader my husband bought me for Christmas. He had looked for a cover and couldn't find one and I was supposed to order one online, however, I wanted to take it with me and didn't want to wait, so I made one! I looked around on the web and took ideas here and there.

I also finished a couple of mug rugs that I was supposed to finish before Christmas. Given I didn't get my tree up till a couple days before the 25th, it didn't surprise me I didn't finish them until this week! I used some autumnal scraps for a friend who liked a quilt I had made for a charity auction on one and the other was made with some purchased fat quarters. They match fabric my friend bought on a shop hop we went on together.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year....or Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu as my mother would say!

New Year's is all about resolutions and fresh starts. I can list 100 resolutions, you know, like losing weight, getting more exercise, being organized, etc. In fact I should list those as I could benefit from each one! Those will be on my mind as 2011 goes on, but since I have this passion for quilting and this blog is mainly about quilting I feel I need to list my quilting resolutions. So here they are:

Do more sewing! Now I know this sounds simple and it should be simple but sometimes I find myself doing everything else or nothing in particular and days go by without me even taking a peek into my sewing room. Sewing makes me happy so what's the deal? So...I resolve to do more sewing!

Get my scraps in order. I throw my scraps all together. I've seen various posts in blogland on how to organize them and I will try to implement some of what I've seen...ie by color, cutting them down to various sizes, etc. I may not get all my old scraps like this but I resolve to do that with any new scraps I generate.

List my finishes. This seems simple, but when I think back to 2010, I don't know that I can list everything quilt related I've done. It's made especially hard when you give away things so you can't see what you've done. I actually do take pictures of what I've done but those photos aren't organized in the proper way either. So, I will list my finishes on this blog with photos too. (I hope I can make it work!)

I was going to list more resolutions and then thought...those 3 should be a good start to the year. So, I'll leave it at that. Here's to sewing happiness and looking forward to 2011 as a very good year!