Some small plans for the new year

Quilting, ah yes, that thing I stopped doing for a while there. I bet you thought I lost my rocker! Well, I was a bit burnt out, but I'm starting to get back on the wagon slowly. We did have a few other things that required my attention, but those are mostly finished now.  

I am participating in 2 quilt alongs. The first one started in November, the mystery quilt by Bonnie and Quiltville called Frolic. I've never done one before, but I saw some one's fabric pull and it inspired me to pull these out of my stash. I really love this color pallet.

Here are some of the millions of tiny pieces we have been sewing each week. No, not really! I have never made a quilt with so many pieces before. Good thing it's only about 150 to 200 pieces a week. But I am still loving the colors. Can't wait to get into the green.

The second quilt along is a scrappy trip by Alli at Woodberry Way.  I was planning on starting one with this pile of fabric and saw the quilt a long on instagram. So why not join in? I will be alternating my prints with white to soften the brightness a bit. 

I am also very slowly working on my 4th jean quilt of 8. (One for each of my kids.) My son, whom this one is for, helped me pick out the jeans he wanted to use and cut them up. I'm all ready to start sewing on this one. I use this stained glass pattern by Lucy. I add an extra row to make it bigger. I love this pattern because the sashing is ironed in on itself making the back of the quilt perfectly flat.

And finally, I reorganized my sewing room.  After finishing with a ladies craft group that I hosted this fall it was time for a change. I share my room with the homeschooling and the office. I get two corners for sewing. I lost the table I usually have behind me when I sew, but since I haven't been kicking out quilts at the speed of light it's been working out okay.

One of our cats sneaked in the house and seemed to have run straight upstairs and tried to climb the design wall making a huge rip in the batting. New batting it is! It really did need to be recovered anyway. Still looking pretty clean. Maybe I need to get something up on that wall. The fabric is all put away. No, I haven't quite got to my goal of it being 100% contained under the longarm. But I am working on it.

I just can't bring myself to count my quilts for this year and do an end of year post. I think it would just make me feel bad as I was not my usual productive self in the last half of the year.  But I am looking towards next year with new a new pattern hopefully coming soon. Speaking of patterns, I have reformatted 10 of my 14 patterns. The covers have all been updated. They look so much nicer now and many have fewer pages. You could say I have now learned publisher!

That's about it for me and what I've been up to. Enjoy the new year!!!

Checking In

Just a quick check in this morning to show you what I'm working on. I have this jean quilt top finished. I'm making one for each of my children. Two have been finished for a year or two, but I really didn't enjoy the process back when I made them so I put off making any more. But, I decided to tackle it again recently and I don't know why I thought it was so bad. I rather enjoyed making this one! I think the back should be aqua minky, if I can find a color that goes with the jeans.

We'be been very busy emptying a large trailer of things left over from our old store and selling them locally one thing at a time. So much work. It had to be done as the land it is on got sold and we have to be off by the end of the year. So other than a bit of journal making, I haven't had too much time to sew.  It was really nice to be able to sew this jean quilt one row at a time like a giant log cabin block. At least I felt like I was getting something done! And today starts the preparation for Thursday. My daughter sold a bunch of pies. And of course we have to make some for ourselves. Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble. Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving!

Preppy

50" x 60"

This cute little quilt is made with 5 fat quarters and a little yardage. It is a free pattern called Preppy from A Bright Corner. I actually made mine from all yardage and it was just as easy.

I had a backing piece with some beautiful flowers that I have been wanting to use so I pulled some matching prints from my stash and some brown yardage to make this quilt.

Now that I have all my quilting caught up, I am cutting and sorting all the scraps that have accumulated over the course of this year. Yep, I did get a little behind on this! But I do keep my sewing room pretty clean so it's not such a big deal. Then I plan on cleaning out the closet, because that is one spot I don't keep up with!

Twin Rainbow Chain

74 x 98

I got to dig into my scraps again this month to make a twin sized rainbow quilt. If I was still a child, I think this is the quilt I would pick for my bed! Rainbows were a favorite of my childhood. I had a rainbow comforter on my bed, but nothing like this.

Just for fun and to take a picture, I put it on my oldest son's bed. Don't tell him though. I'm pretty sure he isn't a rainbow fan.

I'll be cleaning up the sewing room and cutting some scraps I found in the closet. Then maybe I can pick another project to start. There is only one quilt waiting for quilting on the hallway rail. One should always have more than one project going so I think I'm a bit behind. 

We're still waiting for fall here in Oklahoma. It's too hot to get out the fall quilts. Maybe next week!

Eyeshadow - a New Pattern

60" x 72"

This is my new pattern called Eyeshadow. I love the how the the diamonds are subtle and have a shadow effect to them. I made this quilt with a fat quarter bundle called Nest. The pattern is available in my etsy shop. It comes in 5 sizes from baby to king and can be made with fat quarters or 10 inch squares. 

Being as my favorite color is blue, I did a mock up in a blue monochromatic color scheme.

I love it in these grays too which would be perfect for those who love a more modern look. Gray seems to be very popular these days in home decor.

If you like to get the PDF version of Eyeshadow you can find it right here.

Rainbow Chain Quilt

 62" x 74"

I've finally finished this beautiful rainbow quilt! Yep, I'm pretty excited! Not only is she a rainbow, but I was able to use scraps for the entire top. Or I would have if I'd had enough of the background fabrics in my scrap bins. This is a free tutorial from Melissa.

The back is a white and gray cross hatch that I got at Joann's. I think that is one of my favorites that they carry. I probably need to go get a bolt of it to have on hand.

I was even brave enough to add some backgrounds with a bit of color. There's a light blue print up there in the oranges and cream prints with orange and pink down there in the blues. There is more than that in the quilt, those are just the ones you can see in theses pictures.

I would make another one of these if I could, but what's left in my scrap bins isn't so bright and pretty.  I'll need to do some thinking to see what can be made of those duller fabrics. It may come down to a simple 2 inch patchwork quilt. I just don't know.

I've got a pattern in the works...and I've even started cutting the fabrics! Well, I have two patterns. I just haven't picked any fabrics for the second one yet. One thing at a time is the theme for September!

Checking In

I am excited that I will actually have a finish to share this week! That scrappy quilt is getting quilted today finally! It's been a long time since I've hit the needle to the fabric. So what have I been doing this month?

We painted the master bedroom a beautiful light blue and added this faux headboard. I was going to make a quilt for our bed, but I've put that off for a while and decided to use this old one I made years ago. I'm still in the process of finding lamp shades to go with the new lamps I bought. I'm also looking at making something for over the bed and the other walls in the room. I haven't decided yet, but my friends have been giving me ideas. This is a long term project as there are other things on my plate this fall. At least the hard part is done.

I also made this junk journal for a class I am teaching in a couple weeks. It's not really a class - we call it life group. It has taken a while to make the book and then put the supplies together. There will be 12 ladies in my life group. I am no expert, and since most of the ladies are my close friends, they don't expect me to be. Should be a fun 8 weeks! 

I will be back later this week with my rainbow quilt finish!

Queen Postcard Quilt

96" x 96"

I just love how vibrant these quilts are! This one is a queen size, the one size I had not made yet. It's also the only picture I took. We've been super busy here this summer and I still have a lot left to get done. We just started the master bedroom paint job this morning. 

I do have two quilt tops ready to quilt, one of which is the scrappy one I'm excited to get to. We'll see how much time I'll have this week. Ah, summer, I will be glad for you to come to an end. Or maybe just the end of my projects!

Postcard Wall Hanging

32" x 32" 

Here's what I've been up to in my sewing room lately. I small postcard quilt sized to be a wall hanging. This one is smaller than the baby quilt that I make. I took off two rows and one column all of which had the more orange/red than blue/green. 

Working on a Preppy quilt to specifically use up a large piece of fabric which will be the back of this quilt. I strip pieced the blocks so it went pretty quickly. 

And finally, my favorite of the three. This is a very scrappy quilt. Low, low volume background pieces with bright X's made in a rainbow of colors. 

I'm waiting on some fabric to make a customer quilt so these two won't be finished until I get that one done. Fabric is coming tomorrow so I hope to jump right on that one! It's another postcard quilt, but this time in a queen size. 

Waffles - A New Pattern!

59" x 68" 

Introducing my new pattern - Waffles! This is the throw size, but the pattern comes in 5 sizes from baby to king. This is such a fun design that uses Fat Quarters and an accent fabric. The squares are designed to make a weaving pattern. Can you see it?

I had fun playing with the colors on this one. Here's a few different versions. Blue as an accent with Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Black background with gray as an accent. Would look great in some prints too!

Blue background with a white accent. I love seeing how changing the dark and light fabrics can make a big difference in the look of a quilt.

Here's a simple version in just 2 prints. Wouldn't this look great on a bed?

Hope you enjoyed seeing some fun layouts as much as I had making them! You can find Waffles and all of my other patterns in my shop. 

Checking In

I thought I would just pop in quickly and let you know what I've been up to lately. It's not sewing! We've been redoing our laundry room. As you can see, it needs a little loving. The orange walls are gone and so is the red oak cabinets. Well, the cabinets are still there, I just painted them white.

And my husband installed a new light for me. It used to be so dark in our laundry room and now it is full of light. I told him I need some of these up in my sewing room. Wouldn't that be nice? I still have to paint the ceiling around the edges where I was messy and the cabinets have to be adjusted. But we had a our yearly celebration at church this week and that always wears me out! 

The master bedroom is also on the list for an update, but I think I need a week or two before I have the energy to tackle that project. Maybe I can get some sewing in this week.  Summer is a good time to fix up the house. We are hoping to get it back on the market once all the updates are finished.  I hope I get my room looking just as nice as the laundry room!

August Rain in June

56" x 68" 

I had a backing fabric in my stash that I wanted to use up, so fabrics were pulled to match it a while back. Then I saw this quilt pattern here and just loved it! It was a bit too large for what I wanted so I modified the size a bit and took off the borders. Perfect!

Here is a shot of the backing fabric. It has muted shades of red, orange, green, and teal. Seems to be a go to theme for me lately - muted or bright. I also threw in a couple grays just for fun.

Seems it's been a while since I last finished a quilt, but I have been busy. Some quilting related and some other things. We just started updating our laundry room. The oak cabinets are stained a reddish brown stain and it was time to try our hand at painting them white. The walls will be getting a light gray coat of paint as well. Hopefully, I'll find some time to get in my sewing room while we work on other projects. Feels good to get a quilt finished!

Play Date Pattern Sale

I'm having a sale this weekend on my Play Date Pattern! Myra whipped up this cute version in a baby size. I just love the colors! Notice she used only grays for the triangles and blues for the squares.

This is my original version that I made when the pattern came out. Mine is made by random placement of multiple fabrics.

Here are two quilts that put the fabric in spots that make arrows. This baby quilt only uses 4 fabrics to get this cute look.

And this rainbow quilt uses 8 colors to make the arrows. If you look closely you can see that the color blocks are repeating. One set has pink, orange, green and purple. And one set has red, blue, aqua, and yellow.

With this pattern, it is all about fabric placement. So many fun options for you to play with and it comes in two sizes - baby and lap size. You can get this pattern in my shop here. It will be on sale this weekend until Sunday.

Two Twin Sized Memory Quilts

A customer requested that I make these two memory quilts from my Lindsay Lou pattern for her daughters.  She sent me several dresses to use. One quilt used all blue dresses and the other had a few pink and red dresses added in. I stabilized all the clothes with some pellon 906.

My friend  has an embroidery machine so I had her stitch me up these labels. I cut a square on the diagonal with the label in the bottom half. I folded it in half and sewed it in the corner of the quilt before adding the binding. The diagonal seam was then hand stitched to the back of the quilt.

 

I think they turned out great. There is one dress in there that has such a wonderful kinkly feeling. I wasn't sure the longarm would like it, but I didn't have any trouble with the quilting. I did go a bit slower over those fabrics, but the stabilizer did it's job and held it flat. I think she will be very pleased with these quilts.

Linking with Busy Hands Quilts

Wedding Quilt

60" x 72" 

Seems my friends prefer neutrals for their wedding gifts. This one is a mix of gray, taupe, and cream in various values.  I didn't get a count of the number of fabrics in this quilt, but there has got to be at least 30. The quilt is made from 2.5" strips and just one block. It looks amazing!

Most of the gray prints came from a fat quarter bundle of Compositions. I was surprised how many taupe fabrics I had in my stash. I didn't have to buy anything except the back. I backed it with a taupe colored minky fabric so it is super soft and heavy.  My son said it was luxurious! What an awesome compliment.

Linking with Myra at Busy Hands Quilts.