Making progress

About a year ago, I started cutting my small leftover pieces of fabric into 2 1/2 inch squares in anticipation of making a granny square quilt.  Every time I cut a few, I throw them into a jar on my cutting table, and it has been filling up!  Although I've used some of them for small projects, multiple granny squares have not been made!  So, this week I decided to try making my granny squares as a leaders and enders project.  And it worked out really well!

In between adding borders to my braided herringbone quilt, and working on my "String of Pearls" table runner, I stitched rows of 2 1/2 inch squares together and ended up with a couple of blocks. What a fun and easy way to get started on a quilt completely out of my scraps!  I figure I will need 20 of these to make a quilt, so I'll just keep laying out the little squares and stitching them together as I work on other projects.

I found the perfect background fabric for my String of Pearls tablerunner - Kona Tarragon.  It was even on sale at my local Hobby Lobby.   I haven't ever worked with a Kona cotton before, and it is lovely!  It has a beautiful texture and weight to it.  I am really happy I went with this color and fabric.

 

 

 



 

The only problem I ran into this week was when I was cutting the green and black pieces for the sashing on my pearl blocks - evidently I didn't pay close enough attention to what I was actually cutting into.

Oops!  Oh well, luckily I have plenty of fabric!  I'll just keep going!  Happy sewing, everyone!

More Ideas than Time!

Something I love about the new year is the feeling of starting new with projects, even if some of them have been leftover from last year!  Right now I have more ideas than time, so I keep starting new projects, as well as going back to WIPs from a few months ago.  Maybe the best things about that is being able to choose what to work on at various times, rather feeling stuck on one thing.

I have been wanting to make something about out of my stash of Kate Spain Honey Honey, and when I went back and looked at Christa's String of Pearls quilt-along, that was something that looked like it would work with what I had in my stash.  I've decided to make only a big enough quilt to be a table runner, which equals about two rows of Christa's pattern, or eight pearl blocks.  So far, I've made the eight basic blocks, with Honey Honey as the center and some black and white polka dots from Timeless treasures as the outside border.

Although I was trying to make this table runner entirely from my stash, it looks like I will have to go find some background fabric for it, because I'm not finding anything that will work that I already have.  My local Hobby Lobby has a great selection of Kona cottons, and I'm hoping to find something to match that pretty green that is in some of my Honey Honey fabric.  Can't wait to get going on this again this weekend!

Back in November I put together this Braided Herringbone quilt top from Kelly's tutorial.

Then life got busy with holiday projects, so I put it away, and now I'm ready to decide what to do with this quilt.  I'm thinking about adding a few borders to it, to make it more of a lap size quilt.  One thought is to add a border of randomish 3 inch squares around it, before continuing on with something bigger.  So, this week I've been cutting lots of squares!

 

 

Time to start sewing these up! 

 

I am also following along with the Scrap-a-Palooza at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  Who knows what I will decide to work on next! 

 

 

Happy Sewing to all of you!

Diann

Sew Cute Tuesday Christmas gifts post

I enjoyed making some fast and easy Christmas gifts this year.  For my co-workers, I made simple pocket tissue holders from this tutorial by Buttons and Paint.  Who knew you could have so much fun making something so simple?  And I think they were very appreciated too!

I also made a tote bag for a friend, my first tote, from this video tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  It's called "Make Three Totes/Purses with One Charm Pack."  It was also fun and easy, and I made it in an afternoon.  I definitely plan to make another one for myself.  Now that I've made one, I know some things I'll do differently next time to make it even better.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday today and Needle and Thread Thursday later in the week!

Looking Back

At the end of this week, I will celebrate my first anniversary as a quilt blogger, and it has been fun to look back over the last year's worth of posts and what I have accomplished.  Getting involved in the online quilt community has been fun, inspiring, and full of lots of learning for me!  Thank you to everyone who has hosted linky parties for me to join, posted tutorials that I have learned from, or taken the time to visit my blog and comment on my projects.  I think I have accomplished more in this one year than ever before in my 15 or so years of quilting.  It has been a year of many firsts!

My first Block of the Month to participate in, thanks to Kristy of Quiet Play.  From this first block in January:

to the finished product in November:

From my hours and hours (and hours!) spent reading blogs and tutorials, I have completed a Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt:

  

 an Open-wide Zipper Pouch:

 

 

several baby quilts:

and many other smaller projects, like this fun pincushion for my quilt group's Christmas gift exchange.

 

 

Of course there are various WiPs that I have plans for in 2014 as well!  And finally, yesterday, I finished up a Christmas quilt (only a few days late!) that I slept under last night.  I think it is true that I always love my current project the most, and that is definitely true of this particular quilt.  It is made from a layer cake of Aspen Frost, and the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, so it went together quickly and was fun to make!

  

I love the bright, modern colors, especially the aqua, red, and olive green together.  I machine quilted it simply, mostly echoing the seams, but with a few curvy, "organic" lines through the middle of the bigger blocks.

I added a row of the leftover main fabrics to make a pieced back, which makes the back interesting to look at, too!

Even though Christmas is past, I'm going to enjoy this quilt well into the new year because it just makes me happy to look at, and isn't that what creating is all about?!

I am wishing all of you the Happiest of New Years, and a 2014 full of quilty inspiration!  I can't wait to see what I learn about next!

Linking up to Freemotion by the River for the last linky party of 2013!

WIP for a Thursday

Between being out of town for Thanksgiving, and a busy week at work, I haven't had much time for sewing, but I have a WIP that I'm looking forward to working on this weekend.  A few weeks ago, a layer cake of this arrived on my doorstep.

I wanted to try making a simple, modern Christmas quilt.  I discovered that I love this line of fabric! Here are a few close-ups of my favorites.

 

About the time that I got the fabric, I saw this tutorial for the Layer Cake Lemonade pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.  I decided it was the perfect pattern for a quick and simple Christmas quilt that my family would enjoy for the holidays.  It is also great for featuring the fun patterns in the fabric because there isn't a lot of cutting to be done.  Half of the pieces are used in their 10 inch square size.

My Aspen Frost layer cake turned into this:

 

 

The colors in this photo aren't the best because of the lighting in my sewing room, and the fact that I am not home much in the daylight these days!  But at least you can see the pattern.  I am really loving the teal and olive green in this fabric.  It's so different from the typical Christmas colors.  I was ready to try something more modern! 

 

I've been working on a pieced backing for the quilt this week.  There is one strip of the half-size pieces left when you are done piecing the top, so I decided to work it into the back.  The rest is a yardage of red with white hearts that I am also using for the binding.

 

 

I am definitely looking forward to putting the quilt sandwich together this weekend and starting on the quilting!

 

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday this week!

 

Pincushion Project

My quilt group always does a fun project for our December get-together where we each make a gift and then bring it to the meeting where we have one of those crazy gift exchanges.  It's the type of gift exchange where you never know whose gift you're going to end up with - lots of stealing and hilarity goes on! We have made dolls, snowmen, pins, bags, table-toppers, mug rugs, and more that I can't even remember.  It's always fun and it is definitely the meeting I don't want to miss.

This year's theme is pincushions.  I was excited to give this one a try because I've been seeing so many adorable pincushions on many of the blogs I follow.  Finding the one I wanted to make required lots of searching for the perfect tutorial.  I always think (hope!) that if I make something I would love to have, then someone in my group will love it, too!  Here is what I came up with:

It is called a Couch Pincushion, made from this tutorial by Bree McElroy from Distant Pickles.  I found it posted on Riley Blake Designs where there were tons of pincushion ideas.  It is meant to hang over the edge of a chair or couch for when you are doing some hand sewing.

Since I love hand-sewing my bindings, I am always sticking pins and needles into the arm of my couch.  This is the perfect solution to that problem!  The pincushion also has a couple of built-in pockets for carrying your scissors, thread, and whatever other notions you need for your project.  I really love how this turned out!  I may need to make one for myself!

I'm linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts!

Braided Herringbone Quilt Top

I just finished this quilt top yesterday from Kelly's tutorial on My Quilt Infatuation.  It is actually posted on Sew in Love (with Fabric) as a part of their Holiday Headstart Blog Hop.

I love this line of fabric - Hello Sunshine - from Connecting Threads.  Even though it isn't a fall theme, or anything remotely related to the holidays, it has been fun to work with this past week. 

Right now, this quilt top is about 40" by 50" which would be perfect for a baby quilt.  However, I am really loving it, so I'm not sure I will want to give it away!  It looks pretty good with my blue couch!

To make it more useful here at home, I am thinking of adding some extra borders to it to make it larger.  I have lots of extra fabric, so that will be easy to do.  For now, though, I'm going to set it aside because it really is time to get going on a few Christmas projects!