Saturday, February 27, 2010

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

Sunday, February 21, 2010

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

Sunday, February 14, 2010

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

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

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

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

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