Postage Stamp Quilt Top

Hooray!  I finally finished my postage stamp quilt top!  It looks like it took forever, right?  It did take awhile, but not as long as you might think, because I used Rachel Griffith's (of P.S. I Quilt) great tutorial.  I've got a creamy yellow sheet for backing, and I know exactly how this baby is going to be quilted, so hopefully I'll have a finished picture to show soon.

Special thanks to Chelsea for her help with this picture.  See her shadow there?  Isn't she cute?  :)

Cathedral Windows

I finished this project months ago, but put off posting about it because I wasn't finished yet.

To make this Cathedral Window panel, I used Hyena In Petticoats' tutorial, although when I try this again I'll use The Sometimes Crafter's much easier-seeming method.

My initial thought was to make this panel part of a pillow, like this gorgeous pillow I found on flickr, which actually looks a lot like my panel - same blue buttons and similar colors.

The problem is, I can't find the perfect fabric to finish the pillow.  In the flickr one, she uses a FFA print that I have too, but it just doesn't look right.  Any ideas for what I can do with this?  For now, it's just a mini-quilt on my wall, makin' me all happy.  :)

Quilt-to-Be: Krista's Baby Quilt

 Tangerine         +          Lavender         

=    

My friend Krista, who is expecting a baby girl in September, told me that she likes "tangerine and lavender - no pink!"   ...How do you think I did?

These are destined to be another rag quilt - my first for a baby girl!

Central Park Doll Quilt

Yesterday I finished this doll quilt.  I didn't mean to make a doll quilt, but I've been working on a larger postage-stamp quilt Kate Spain's Central Park line, and I had extra blocks after I finished piecing the quilt top.  ...Just enough for a doll-size quilt!

Actually, this was a good chance to try out my straight-line quilting idea... I like it a lot, and will definitely use it on the bigger quilt.  I backed this with some Heather Bailey Nicey Jane, and bound it with some Kona Ash.

It's doing a great job of brightening up the walls in my sewing room!

I'll be posting on the larger quilt soon.  :)

Flower Fairy Quilt

Just wanted to share the quilt I just finished for my mom's birthday.  She and I made a little field trip up to my favorite fabric store in the universe, where she picked out an alphabet panel from Michael Miller's Flower Fairy line, along with a pretty green swirly fabric to coordinate.  At home, I added the blue flower fabric and a dusty blue print from the Metro Living line (love!) for the binding.  It's so her- these colors are all over her house, and for as long as I can remember she's loved those flower fairy prints from the 1920s. 

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Kitty Cat Mini Quilt

Yesterday I tried my first mini quilt.  I needed a little mat I could put under my cats' food dish, and I figured I could do a whole lot better than the dishtowel that was doing the job up to that point.  I dug in my scraps for some fun Heather Ross (see the kitty/seafood theme?), and accented with some orange Katie Jump Rope.  I loved how quickly this project came together - very satisfying! 

Hmm... what else in my house would look better sitting on a mat?

Last One for Awhile...

My last block for the Freedom Swap!  Well, technically I have one more to do, but the fabric hasn't even arrived yet, so I feel like I'm off the hook for that one for now.  I mailed 15 happy little blocks off to various parts of the world yesterday afternoon.  Now I get to sit back, relax, and wait for my blocks to find their way home to me!!

Nirvana

 Last night I dreamed about pecan pancakes.  Although I did not want pancakes when I woke up this morning, the seed of breakfast foods was planted in my mind, and nothing short of a big fluffy omelet would satisfy.

After scratching my itch at the Denny's in Bothell, I remembered that I'd read in a couple of blogs that there was a great quilt store up in Bothell.  iPhone let me know that Keepsake Cottage Fabrics was a mere 2 minutes away.

Holy. Fabric. Mecca. Batman.



From Keepsake Cottage Fabric's website



This place is insane.  I almost don't want to tell you about it, but I will. Sadly, I wasn't brave enough to take pictures in the store, but I'll try to grab a few next time.  Picture a weird, cutesy red barn.  Now imagine that it's all divided up into a labyrinth of rooms, and every wall is stacked three layers deep in fabric. 

Now imagine that every fabric you've ever wanted is here.

Including ones that were discontinued long ago.

Ones you thought were out of your reach.

Ones you've been kicking yourself for not buying more of when they first came out.

There was a whole section of both cotton and flannel Bliss.  Two walls of Riley Blake (including the Tone on Tone Dot Blue - see it in the picture?).  An entire ROOM full of vintage-inspired fabrics... I was in American Jane heaven.  Nicey Jane, Farmer's Market, Erin McMorris' UH-dorable bicycle fabric, and that seed pod pattern (no idea what it's called), which I bought in two different colors. They had new fabric too - the entire Central Park by Kate Spain line (which I'm using for my Postage Stamp WIP, but I had to have more of that glorious orange).

Okay, I have to stop now.  I'm worried the drool is going to short out my keyboard.  But you can be sure there will be more fabric posts coming soon... I'll be back to Keepsake again soon, and next weekend is the Sew Expo!!

Nearing the Finish Line!

I love the block pattern above - it's called "Flying Over Fields," and I think Ryan Walsh designed it.  I think I'm going to do it again on one of my last fabric bundles.

This is a shoo-fly block.  I thought these graphic prints kind of spoke for themselves, so I wanted to try something simple to showcase them.

14 down, 2 to go!  Although I'm still waiting for the 16th bundle to arrive from Australia... so really only one more that I can do right now!

Finally! Wee Play Wild Thing Quilt - Finished!

Okay, it's taken me about a hundred years to photograph and post the finished quilt, but here it is:  the Wild Thing quilt made with two charm packs of American Jane's Wee Play line.  My free-motion quilting definitely improved on this one! 

I love American Jane, and the Wee Play fabrics were so adorable.  I found the cute orangey-red polka dot fabric to border, then bound with a navy-and-white star fabric to give it that Americana feel.  Normally I'm not big on Americana, but on this quilt, it works.  The backing is just a super-soft white cotton sheet.  I'm thinking this quilt will move onto my couch this spring when I'm ready for a little more color... I'm feeling more and more ready every day!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

This is my latest block for the Freedom Block Swap.  These fabrics just felt like a rainy spring day to me, so I did a log cabin design and embroidered a little umbrella in the middle.  I just love quilt blocks that have a little bit of embroidery in them!  I'm not thrilled with the puckering, but I know that after the block is quilted and washed they won't be noticeable.  10 down, 6 left to go by March 15!

Pinwheel and Zig-Zag

Today I'm home sick in bed, so I thought it would be a good day to post a couple more pictures of quilt blocks I finished last weekend.  Both new types of blocks for me - a pinwheel and a zig-zag block!

I still think that the string block and the wonky log cabin were the most fun to make, but I like how these turned out too.  The person who sent the pinwheel fabric only sent these two fabrics.  You know how I love color, so I was a little apprehensive about creating something in just a color plus black, but I like the graphic effect this block has!

More Swap Blocks

It's been a really productive weekend so far... I caught up on my grading last night, caught up on my quilt swap today, and plan to catch up on National Boards tomorrow!  Let's hope I can keep the momentum going.

I'm trying to make the swap blocks as I receive fabric packets, under the theory that this will help me not procrastinate until March!

Today I made my first string blocks, using paper piecing.  They were so fun!  I used this great tutorial over at P.S. I Quilt.  I've always been a little intimidated by paper piecing, but it was really simple, and it created much neater quilt blocks.

The fun thing about doing this swap is playing with fabric I'd never choose on my own, like these batiks:

I honestly think that the batik section is probably the ONLY part of Pacific Fabrics that I don't know backwards and forwards.  Nothing against batik - I just had a somewhat hippie childhood and it's given me an aversion to all things tie-died.  :)  I liked this color combo though - very tropical.

This block is going into a Halloween-themed quilt.  It's hard to tell with the fabrics so broken up, but there are a few fabrics here from Moda's Haunted Mansion line.  That green print is my favorite - it looks like creepy wallpaper (with dangling spiders!) and reminds me so much of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

I'll post the other blocks I did today soon...

Freedom Swap Block #1

Okay, I am such a dork.  The Freedom Block Swap I joined didn't even officially begin until today, but I happened to get my first fabric bundle in the mail yesterday, and I simply couldn't wait to start sewing!  One of my swap buddies from Las Vegas sent these adorable Dr. Seuss fabrics.  She has twin boys and is hoping to put together a Seusstastic quilt for their bedroom.  By 10:30 last night I'd finished this wonky log cabin block. 

One block down, 15 to go by mid-March!

The Question of the Day

Okay, here's the question.

White buttons?



Or orange buttons?

Quilts of 2010

Since this seems to be the thing to do, here are my quilts from 2010.

The Wild Play quilt is finished and bound... I'm just waiting for a nice day to take it outside to photograph!

Today I started my next quilt - a cathedral windows quilt.  It's a very new technique for me:  lots of origami folding and ironing, which leads to a highly textured quilt.  When it's done, it will look similar to this:

Happy New Year!!

Wild Play Quilt Top (Minus border)

Chelsea took this beautiful photo!

This afternoon Chelsea and I got together for a busy day of last minute Christmas shopping, pho-slurping, and quilt... quilting.

I finally finished piecing together the main part of my latest quilt top.  I'm using two charm packs of the Wee Play line from American Jane (which were not easy to track down, by the way!).  I love this line so much, and am sad that it's going the way of the buffalo.  I used the Wild Thing quilt pattern again.  I like the movement of the blocks, and the way you can showcase lots of different prints.  I also used some different whites from the Bella Solids line and Kona.  I wanted the quilt to have a scrappy, vintage look - like the quilt you find in your grandma's atticf, which you find out used to sit on the foot of your mom's bed in kindergarten, which has been pieced and patched over the years.  Or something.

I'm a little stumped about what to use for the border and binding.  I'm thinking maybe some Kona Ash for the border:

Something fairly neutral, I think.  And maybe a pretty red polka-dot for the binding.  If anyone out there has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!!

Wild Betty Quilt Finished!

Last September I started a quilt top using a Hello Betty layer cake and the Wild Thing quilt pattern from Thimbleblossom.  Remember?

Well, I finished it!!  All these snow days gave me the perfect opportunity to put in the last few hours this quilt needed.

For this quilt, I used freemotion quilting... which is both very fun and takes a lot of shoulder muscle!  The freemotion pattern is far from perfect, but I just love this quilt.  The candy striped binding makes me smile every time I look at it.  This quilt looks perfect draped over the end of our bed, but now I want to make some matching pillows... 

Summer Love Quilt Top

This is a quilt top I started last spring, using fabric from Amy Butler's Love line.  At the time, I stalled out because, once the quilt top was finished, I had no idea how to go about turning it into an actual quilt.  Now, my skillz are a little more developed and I know what to do... but since I will probably continue to procrastinate with this particular quilt, I thought I'd go ahead and take some pics to show you now.

 This is my wonderful husband being a good sport and helping me hold the (very large) quilt up.  He is sporting a look that I like to call, "The Handsome Hobo."

A little bit of summer on a wintry day!

Blue Owl Baby Quilt

On Monday Seattle got its first snowstorm of the year, so I've had two snow days to quilt and sew to my heart's content!  I finally finished the quilt that I bought fabric for back in September. When I finished the quilt, I still had blocks left over (although not enough to add a row and still keep the pattern of the quilt), so I made a little matching pillow.

I really do love these colors together!!