Finished Quilt Gift

I have had this one done for awhile now but just have not had time to sit and write about it.  I had won a layer cake of Field Study on the Moda Love blog tour.

My original plan was to make the quilt from the tour but decided I wanted to do something a little simpler and smaller as it was going to be a gift for SIL for Christmas.  I haven't made her a quilt in a long time and thought this fabric line would work really well for them.

I quilted it with an overall leaf pattern. I stitched this quilt up in November had it almost completely done in just over a day.  I had run out of time to finish it up.  The pattern was from the FQS.  

Here is another close up of the quilting. Overall I am really happy on how it turned out.  I still need to work on the stitch length.  Sometimes it just gets a little too long.  I know what I am doing wrong but it is difficult to slow down and be consistent.  

I used Aufil #2600 for the quilting.  I think that might be one of my favorite colors.  I used a Kona blue for the binding.  My SIL's living room is navy and grey and they live on a wooded lot and get lots of animals in their backyard.  I am hoping they love it!

On the back I used all my leftovers and I had a fat eight small pack along with some Kona silver. So happy to not have any scraps left over.

Here is one from the weekend when my friend made the same quilt in a different fabric and they are different.  This was a great pattern!

Linking up to Whoo Whoo it's Friday, Finish it up Friday, NTT, Sew Fresh.

Week 1 Mystery Style

I decided this year I would partake in the fun.  I am sorry I didn't make Celtic Solstice since that one is just beautiful.  These quilts seem overwhelming when you see them done but not so much when they are broken up into chunks and you sew them up over six weeks.

So here is my color selection.  I have a few more lights to add in.  Most came out of the stash but did add some aquas.  I do love the colors!

I didn't have as much time to sew over the weekend so I was set to get some time in tonight.  Just in time to link up too.  I was able to cut my blacks and yellows and sew up a few HST's.  

I am planning on getting some done this week and then to be ready for clue number 2 on Friday.

Click over to Quiltville to see what others have done - there are a lot of links!  It's too bad I have to work this week!

Placemat Gifts - Finished

I started with this stack of fabric and mini charms for three sets of place mats.

Here is my finished sets.  I made a set for each of one of my supervisors.  I love them!  Really hoping they like them.

First set is with My 3 Sisters and Essex yarn dyed in Flax.

Next up is Botanics with a very cool greyish blue solid like fabric.  No idea what it is and I love it and it is almost gone.  I think these were my favorite.

Here is the third one done in Fig Tree.  

I made these each about 13" X 17" with thin batting.  I turned them inside out to really just save a step plus I like the look of them with out binding.

Now I love them so much I would like a set for my house too!

I am almost done with my Christmas sewing which is such a good feeling.  Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Sew Fresh Quilts.Whoo Whoo it's Friday. I will be seeing what everyone else is up to as well tonight.

Stash Update

I know I was on a fabric fast for the first 6 months of the year but after checking out this stash update those days are long gone.

I was actually buying with purpose. This stack I bought as we shop hopped a couple of weeks ago when I went with some friends sewing at my mom's cabin.  I bought some black on whites since I have used my all and love having them.  The reds because I love red and will be making more Badger type things in the future.  I actually already used two of the prints for that.  The greens, pink and aqua for the mystery quilt on Quiltville which starts Friday.

I already used that white and black polka dot too there on the bottom of the pile.

Then at my Moda meeting I did get more aqua as much as I like aqua I don't buy it much but plan on using those.  The other two white prints are from Best Day Ever and I loved this line.

As you can see here I bought more of it at my LQS in a few of the colors.

Then I went back again and plan on using these two pieces in the Moda Building Blocks for one of the large blocks.

And if all that was not enough I bought this lovely fat stack of Doe.  Was so excited to get this one.  I do have a plan already but going to wait till I have a few other things done before pulling this apart.

I think I might need to go back on the fast and get all of this sewn up.  Nope, I didn't add up the yardage but it was plenty!

Linking up to Molli Sparkles Stash Report.  Good thing I am sewing up plenty and will have a few finishes to show yet this week once I get some photos and have a very nice long weekend planned with the family for Thanksgiving too!  So enjoy!

Light String Finish

This one has been done for over a week but the weather has not been very cooperative and it gets dark so darn early now I can't seem to get it together to get it done.

So I started out with a bin of light colored strings

Here is what is left in that same bin.  Does it l look like I used any?

Not really!

I made this quilt 6 x 7 block layout and the blocks finished about 10 inches.  I laid them out in a couple of different layouts but really liked the one I ended up with.  I can tell you that when I am making these very scrappy quilts I lay them out get a plan and then just pair them up and put them together.  I don't spend a lot of time rearranging blocks.  I somehow always end up with them in a different order anyway and I really do not think it matters much since they are so scrappy.  It is so much easier when I am not worry about that.  Because sometimes it does matter.

I quilting this one in a swirl or circles.  I really like how the quilting turned out. There are all sorts of fabrics i n this one too.  There are some novelty, shirtings, calicos, Christmas.  Whatever had a light background or light color went in.

This is another one that was pinned at work on the tables with some help from coworkers - that makes pinning so much easier.

The back is a very old piece of fabric that I have had in my stash for over a decade and I had it in a pile to give to charity and nothing else I had seemed to work.  I put a beige with white as the binding.  I have been sewing my bindings on and they are getting better each time.

Not sure where this will end up but it was fun making it.  This was on my Q4 goal list so I have knocked another one off the list!  So I will link up this finish when it is time.  It was also my Lovely Month of Finishes Goal as well and I did it! So I will link up to Sew Bittersweet.

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Whoop Whoop it's Friday, NTT, Sew Fresh Quilts.

I am hoping to get my handmade gifts done this weekend and a slice of decent weather for a few pictures too!

November Goal

Just a quick post on my November goal for the Lovely Month of Finishes over at Sew Bittersweet Designs.

My string quilt is together and quilted so all I need to do is sew on the binding.  Seems very doable.

I have a few things I really want to get done because by list of what I want to start is long! Today I went to my LQS and they had this fat quarter bundle of Doe from Carolyn Friedlander from Quilt Market last week and she asked if I wanted it.  Oh, yes I do!  Plus I had a gift card.  My day was good!  Now I just have to decide what to make..... 

I am hoping for a some sewing time this weekend as I prep for a weekend away with some quilting friends.  Can't wait!

Happy Halloween

I have had this little table topper done for a couple of weeks and it has been hanging out on my table. The only Halloween decoration I did manage to get out.

I found it on Pinterest one night and decided to make it then and now instead of waiting for some other time.

I had the fabric from the Moda Club I am in at my LQS so I used up some of that since I am not a big Halloween fabric lover.  This was the perfect size.

I have always wanted to make a Bargello quilt and I think I have gotten over that now.  While I still love them, I think there are other things I would like to start first.

I quilted spider webs on them.

The back is funky cute little creatures.

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween!  Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and Whoo Whoo It's Friday, Also on my Q4 Goal list and linking up to Littlest Thistle.

A Scrappy Batik Finish

I finished my October goal for the Lovely Month of Finishes and even prior to the deadline.  I think this might be a first in a long time!

Here is my Scrappy Batik Majestic.  The pattern is from the free pattern tab on Quiltville.  There is large selection of patterns to choose from there and this is my 5th quilt that I have made from Bonnie Hunter.  This was an easy pattern and thought it turned out well.

The last year has been about using up scraps and my old fabric.  While I am using and making lots of scrap quilts, the fabric isn't seeming to go down as much as I thought it would The goal of this quilt was to use up my batiks.  I have one stack of squares left (cut too many) that I am going to use up and then the rest are being donated.  I will pull the few I like and move them into the color grouping but otherwise I am moving on.

I FMQ'd this on my home machine and was going for the swirl and hook from Angela Walters.  While they do not look exactly as I had hoped, I still liked the effect.

I sew in the basement and my son's girlfriend saw it laid out and really liked it - she love purples, pinks so I think this will be her graduation quilt.  That is a win since I would have made her something anyway, now I am ahead of the game with it already done.  This one also knocks one off the Q4 list as well.

One last picture in the yard on the leaves.  I love this time of year!

I am linking up to NTT, Sew Fresh Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, and, Sew Bittersweet Designs.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It is that time of year again that to link up a quilt with Amy's Creative Side for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  There are always so many pretty quilts to see in all the categories.

I had decided that I would enter the quilt I made for my son's bed this year.  His room is red, white and black and we are all die hard Badger fans for the University of Wisconsin Madison.  So it made sense that his quilt have some Badger fabric in it and then all the scraps I could find in red, white and black and a little grey.  Not too much since we are not Ohio State fans!

The only fabric I bought for this quilt was the solid black and two fat quarters.  They were too fun not to add.  I had found a fabric with the three monkeys, hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. And the other one was the dish ran away with the spoon.  My humor is not lost on my youngest either.

I quilted this black Auril thread on my domestic machine.  I recently bought a Juki and love it for FMQ.  I am still practicing but my quilting has improved with the machine.

I especially loved the back on this one as well.

Those two borders are 1.5 inch strips.  I was happy to note my sweet son liked them and noticed them right away!  I made the quilt in secret and when it was together was the first time he saw it.  My Sam always has an opinion on the quilts I made but he wanted this one to be a surprise. He loves it!

The pattern was from the quilt calendar that we are using and it was a Weeks and Ringle pattern.  This quilt finishes at 88" x 89" and I used black batting as well.  I am entering this in the large quilt category.

Here is one more picture of it.

If you are new here, thanks for visiting and for the fellow followers - thanks for reading!

Happy sewing!

Scraptastic Tuesday

I have several scrap quilts going so thought it would be fun to link up what I have been working on.

This is my light string drawer.  I have made 24 10.5 inch blocks so far and am aiming for 42 blocks total.  Thinking a 60 x 70 quilt will make a very nice lap quilt.  Yes, they are some really old stash fabrics in there!

They are easy and am trying to section them off in 6 block increments to get through them and stay on task. I love looking at all the fabric but there is some cringing going on as well. I just use tissue paper for my foundation.  I buy it in big pack at Christmas time and cut the pieces up to the size I need. I find this works well and it rips off easily.  It is a little messy but then it just goes with the thread all over the floor.

I find the more blocks I sew the more I love the quilt and once you step back and look at them from afar I do love the scrappiness of it all.

Still not sure how this one will get sewn together but here is what I have so far. Two different layouts so far.

I am hoping to get this one to completion yet this month.  Sew day this weekend so it is an easy one to do - can't really mess it up when I am busy talking.

I am linking up with She Can Quilt for Scraptastic Tuesday and Quilt Story.  First time linking in both of these places!

I am going to see what others are up to!

Q4 Finish along goals

Not sure how doable all of these items are but I am excited to work on each of them so really hoping that lots of sewing time is in my future.

Roll Overs- I started the first 2 in 2013 and really want them done in 2014 so they are at the top of the list.

1.  Tula Pink City Sampler

2.  Moda Friendship Quilt - needs to be basted and quilted 90 X 90

3.  Scrappy Batik Majestics - basted just needs to be quilted.

4.  Light String quilt - 24/42 done

5. Blue and beige 16 patch scrap quilt - pulled from the scrap bins

6.  Layer Cake - Quilt for Christmas  I won this in the Love Moda Blog Tour and I think this might be a good one for my SIL and BIL. I have the grey to go with it as well.

7.  Halloween Table Runner - needs to be quilted

Not listing but want to start-

1.  Moda Building Blocks- Picked out fabric but need to finish the first two before I start this.  I wonder if I will listen?!

2.  I think I am crazy enough to do another Quiltville Mystery.  Really shouldn't based on all I want to get done but love the bright colors this year.  Lots of pieces - but fun not knowing what you are making and all of them are pretty when they are done.  So I will start but no intention of finishing this one this year!

3.  I am also going to make a few Christmas gifts but haven't even figured it out yet!

So that is it for now.  I am linking up with The Littlest Thistle and we have until the 14th - cutting it close once again!

Q3 Update

I made some good progress on a very optimistic or aggressive list depending on how you look at it.  Sewing time was not optimal so I am very happy with what did I get done.  Here's the run down.

1.  Badger quilt- done and blogged here

2.  Moda friendship quilt -  finished the top so need to baste and quilt.

3.  Batik Rail Fence - Done and blogged here.

4.  Giant J pillow -done and blogged here

5.  Tula Pink City Sampler - no sewing progress but am going to focus on this one for last quarter.  I did figure out a fabric to sash it in so that was good.

6.  Batik Scrappy Majestic - top done - needs a back and the quilt it.  Lovely Month of Finishes Goal.

7.  Light string blocks - 18 out of 42 done.  Put them up on the design wall to get a look.

8.  Botanic bundle - no progress

I did accomplish four out of eight.  I am calling that a success since 2 more are close to completion.

I am going to join in a Lovely of Year of Finishes this month and go with lucky no  6- the Scrappy Majestic Mountain.  This one is smaller so should be done (fingers crossed) this weekend!

I need to figure out Q4 Goals since I need to throw in some Christmas sewing as well and want to finish up the UFO's in 2014 and go into 2015 with a clean slate.  I am not even sure that is possible for me but it is worth a shot!

Thanks for checking in.  I am linking up to NTT and Sew Fresh Quilts.