Finally, a finish!

I have been on a slow stitching path these last few weeks.  It's probably due to it being the end of the school year, with many demands on my time!  The last day of school is Friday, and I am  SO looking forward to more sewing time this summer!

I was able to finally finish my Rainbow Scrappy Bars quilt based on Quilting is More Fun than Housework's Scrap-a-Palooza series.  I am in love with scrappy quilts these days, and having a ton of fun seeing what I can do with fabric in my stash.  Here's how my Scrappy Bars turned out:

I really enjoyed quilting it with concentric circles using my walking foot.  I had never done that before, and will definitely try it again.  

I used some of the leftover blue and green polka dots from my Charm Pack Cherry quilt for the backing as well as some of the bars in the blue section of the quilt.  I was able to throw in some of the scraps on the back as well.  For a scrappy binding I used mostly blues, with a bit of red thrown in.

The finished size is about 40" by 50," a baby quilt size.  Even though that is small for use by an adult, I'm keeping it for now, since I don't have any babies to give it to, and I love how it turned out!  Can you ever have too many quilts?

Hoping to link up with some of my favorite parties later this week.  Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

A Little Random-ness... Quilty and otherwise

A fun find for the weekend:

I love the name of this wine, and it is tasty, too!

Dinner with good friends, celebrating retirement and engagement:

and... I have been having fun quilting my Rainbow Scrappy Bars quilt this weekend, as well.  I wanted to try something I had never done before, concentric circle quilting.

 

 

I started by tracing a circle with a dinner plate, and stitching around that circle.  Then I just kept adding larger and larger circles about 1/4 inch away from each line of stitching before it.  It is really an easy way to quilt with my walking foot.  It got harder when I wanted to stitch the inner circles.  When I got to what I thought would be the smallest circle, I decided to try a heart.  It ended up looking more like a philodendron leaf!  But since it is on a green piece of fabric, I guess that works!

 

 

 

I really love how this is turning out!  I did not start my circle in the center of the quilt.  Instead I off-centered it, and I think that makes it look fun and modern!

 

 

 

At this point, I am close to finishing the quilting, and hopefully, next weekend I will be binding it.  Thanks to Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for her Scrap-a-Palooza Series!  I am having fun following along, and getting lots of inspiration!





Gifts for Special People

Two very special colleagues at my school are retiring this year.  I have had several different ideas in mind for gifts for them, but could never really nail down exactly what I wanted to do.  Then I decided that something useful would be the best idea for them.  So I got busy on some Open Wide Zippered Pouches.  I made myself one last summer, and I have used it every time I have traveled ever since!  I hope they will like theirs just as much!

I'm slowly getting better at the zippers.  At first, I was very frustrated, and sure it was my zipper foot that was causing the trouble.  When I went to the Janome dealer in my area to see if he had a different zipper foot, he kindly suggested it might be my technique!  :)  So, home I went, to look for a YouTube video about sewing a zipper.  Sure enough, I found an idea that I tried and it helped.  I guess if I want to make a triple zip pouch, I'd better refine my technique!

I had fun choosing just the right text fabric for each of my friends.  I've been building my stash of text fabric for awhile, so I found just what I needed right on the shelf in my sewing room.

Made just for you, my friends!  With love.

A Scrappy Rainbow

Since January, I have been following along with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework's Scrap-a-Palooza series.  Scrappy quilts are my favorites these days, and I had noticed that Cyndy has a wonderful way of making her scrappy quilts look so "put together!"  I wanted that for mine!  So I decided to give one of her ideas a go.

January's project was bars of fabric cut out of chunks of your scraps in various widths, but all 5 inches high.  I pulled lots of fabric choices with the idea of making my bars in rainbow colors.  I was actually surprised at  how many scraps I had that would work for this purpose!  One of my favorite parts of making a quilt from scraps is finding bits of my favorite fabrics to include.  I love these stars, moons, and suns!

 

 

They went to gether to form this:

 



I have to admit I didn't have anything in my stash to make the sashing, so I hit Hobby Lobby last weekend and found a nice, neutral, cream-colored floral that worked nicely.  I cut my sashing at 5 inches wide also, so that I could get the size of the quilt top up to about 40 inches by 50 inches.  I think this will make a fun baby quilt for someone.  And if not a gift for someone, certainly a quilt I have enjoyed putting together, which is all I seem to  need these days!

Linking up this week with Sew Cute Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Happy Sewing!
Diann

Can I just say?

That I Love. This. Quilt!  At the risk of overdoing it, I had to post about it one more time, probably because I just finished it and took it to our local sculpture park to take some photos.

The Charm Pack Cherry Quilt is a simple pattern that went together so quickly for me.  When I ordered the Color Me Happy fabric from Fat Quarter Shop, I didn't even really know what to expect in terms of color and how it would work with the Bella Solid White, but I really have loved it.  The different greens and navy seem so fresh and clean.  The occasional pop of pink is fun to see, and the gray every now and then gives it some calm as well.

I backed it in some navy and green polka dots from Hobby Lobby, and used that for the binding as well.  I am happy with how that frames the lighter colors of the top.

I really wanted to keep this quilt, but as soon as I started sewing on it, I knew it wasn't going to be for me.  Funny how that happened.  I have made quilts for everyone in my family: husband, sons, mom, MIL, sisters, and brother, but I have very seldom given away anything I have made to someone outside my immediate family.  But as soon as I started working on this quilt, a special friend kept coming to mind.  I went to work and told my teaching partner that I knew who I had to give this quilt to!  She even knew who I was talking about!

I love this quilt, but my friend needs a big hug right now, so I stitched lots of love into it, and will be so happy knowing this quilt is giving her a big hug everyday, as long as she needs it.

Quilting Like a Charm

I have been enjoying doing the quilting on my Charm Pack Cherry quilt this week.  I started by spray basting outside on the driveway.

I have always done this inside, down in my sewing room, in the past, but after reading a tutorial on Christa's blog where she says to spray baste outdoors, I decided I'd better try that.  The upside of doing it out on the driveway was having way more space, and getting Mr. LPQ to help me with the process!

I wanted to try a new stitch with my walking foot for quilting that I hadn't tried before.   I've seen several people doing a beautiful scallop sort of stitch that I've tried really hard to duplicate, but I don't think my machine has that stitch.  So, instead, I figured out a giant zigzag that I really like!  It's turning out like this:

Back in September, I got a big table from Ikea for my birthday to put my sewing machine on.  It has really been wonderful for quilting bigger quilts!

Another pic of my zigzag quilting!  The pink leaves are one of my favorite fabrics in this line.  I love the micro dots, too.

I am really happy with the navy and green polka dots I found for the backing.  I'm going to bind it in that, also.

I guess I'd better go get back to work!  Linking up to Sew Cute Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Charm Pack Cherry Love

When I saw all the examples from other bloggers who were making this quilt, I knew I wanted to make one, too.  It definitely helped that Fat Quarter Shop was having a sale on their charm packs at the same time!  It wasn't long before my Moda Bella White and Color Me Happy charm packs came in the mail, and I got to work.  I  just love the result.  L.OV.E it!

I love the blues and greens with little touches of pink and gray that this fabric line has.  It gives the quilt such a fresh, clean look.  It's the first time I've worked with so much white, and I love that about this quilt, too.

I can't decide which fabric is my favorite.  There are many fun ones to look at up close:

 

 

For the backing and binding, I found a pretty navy blue with green polka dots at my local Hobby Lobby.  Can't wait to get back to work on it this coming weekend when it will be Spring Break!

 

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation.