Hanging at the quilt show

I used this quilt back in November to announce my pregnancy. There's no hiding it now! :)

So far my quilt hasn't sold, but there's still one more day. I'll have to find a place to hang it in my home if it does come back with me.

And I finally found a use for the bag I won from Winona. It held my purse, camera, car keys and name tag. I bet there'll be room for an extra diaper next year. ;)

Leah

First Finish of 2010

Whoo hoo! First completed quilt in 2010. And Chris teased me that it might be my last. Hmmph, I hope not. :)

It's all leftovers of other quilts. The center strip is leftover ends from my Challenge Quilt, and the 4 side strips are leftovers of the Old Red Barn quilt along.

I never did get my design wall back up after moving. I usually can get away with the floor or ironing board, but I used my pile o' batting this time.


One thing that I've started doing is journaling my quilt progress in a sketch book with heavy-duty paper. For whatever reason, it really motivates me!

You can see a rough drawing of the quilt I had in mind, my math and my notes. Then I dated my progress. I'll have to add that I blogged about it on the 21st. :) I'm also planning to get a hard copy of the finish quilt and taping it to the other side. Sorta like a scrapbook?


Here's it being ready to be pinned.

I started getting a feeling that something was off...


...but I didn't figure it out until tonight and actually measured both sides. One is 46.5" long, the other is 45". Oops!

I realize what I did wrong when I was trimming the quilt, but too late now. Since I have a small fabric fold in the backing too, I'll just go ahead and keep it for the baby. :)

A great way to use leftover bits of other projects!

Leah

Gotta quilt faster!

Here I made a backing for the pink and green quilt top I completed. I figured the white would make a great spot for the label.

And yes, it's ripply as it looks. :( I'm not sure why, but my guess is because I tore off the selvage, instead of cutting it off. Must have stretched the fabric? I just tell myself I can quilt it out! Tell me the same too, please. :D


The quilting is going to have to wait a little bit, as I need the batting from the yellow bag and there's a whole bunch of tops paired with battings that are waiting to be quilted.

I did get another backing prepared for a quilt in the pile, so that's progress! And nope, it doesn't ripple, since it's just one piece. :)

Leah

Road to Spring quilt along

Been keeping my sewing machine humming with the Road To Spring Quilt Along. This top practically flew together.

After making the boyish train quilt, I was definitely in the mood for girly. :) But of course I can't give up my favorite color, green, so I mixed the two.


I jumped the gun and started piecing my "blocks" before the directions were released. Then I found out I was doing it wrong... but both ways lead to a finished top.

I just loved not having to match seams! Only needed to pay attention to which direction I was pressing the blocks.


And it grows...

I tried very hard to make sure that every 4 blocks didn't have any repeat of green or pink fabrics. Plenty of shuffling happened towards the end.


The completed top! It should be measuring 50"x72". Once again, a good bed quilt for a child under 10.

I was hoping to make a nice dent in my stash of older greens... ha! Not hardly. :P

I do kinda wish I had a higher fabric turn over in my stash so I could buy newer stuff more often. I don't want to buy something that's STILL going to be in my fabric stash 5 years down the road. Except for hand dyes, I never tire of them. :)

Leah

Goodies and LizzieB Crea8ive

I squeaked under the deadline! Today was the last day the guild was accepting quilt show submissions. I was ready to turn it in at the last meeting, but I didn't know I was supposed to include the Challenge description.

I also made the decision to put a $250 price tag on it. For whatever reason, I'm not emotionally attached to the quilt. I think because it didn't quite turn out like I envisioned in my head. I wanted it to look like a flower, yellow center, purple pedals, blue and green leaves. The other thing is the yellow-orange fabric dominates the quilt, when I was trying to make the blue-green dominate by making it the biggest diamond. Between the very heavy quilting and use of hand dyed fabrics, I put a larger price tag than I normally would.


The program meeting today was Beth Hawkins from the LizzieB Crea8ive team. She did a slideshow combined with showing the actual quilts she had on hand. When she came to the blue sunflower quilt... I knew I would want that pattern!

We've had several trunk shows over the years, but this is the first time I actually bought a pattern. I just adore those flowers and figured it's about time I had a quilt made with them. :)


Lastly, all is going well in my pregnancy! I'm definitely starting to look pregnant now. This is my official 5 months photo. There's been a lot of kicking of the late.

I'm hoping to hit garage sales in the next several weeks, I'm on the look out for a bed for the baby. Our first thought was to get a pack'n'play, but I'm open to other deals we might find. Cash can talk a nice bargain. ;)

Leah