Single girl without the work

I was just flipping through the pottery barn website looking for inspiration and I came across a quilt that looked very familiar.  It was the Single Girl Quilt by Denyse Schmidt and it's on sale!

It doesn't really seem like the pottery barn aesthetic.  Maybe that's why it's on sale.

Framed Squares, another finish

My MIL is coming to visit today, so I wanted to get her quilt finished for her.  This was, perhaps, my longest in the works quilt.  Usually, I don't like having unfinished project hanging about, but this time I'm glad I put it aside, because the back is awesome and it wouldn't have been if I had just finished when I started it.

 I think I got some of my rows mixed up, because I thought I had a avoided having the same fabrics next to each other.  Oh well, it looks fine and I'm the only who will ever notice.  My MIL loves harvest colors and I started with the dark print and drew all the other colors from the dark print.  All the fabrics, with the exception of the gold, are from Joann's.  Not all of their fabrics are terrific, but you can certainly get some nice ones if you are careful.

I'm so pleased with the way the back turned out.  MIL is a high school English teacher, so I thought the book shelf design would be appropriate.  Hubby said it's my best back yet!

 I used the book fabric for the shelf above and below the books.  I used strips of scraps to give the extra dimension needed.

 I used the alphabet function on my sewing machine to sign the quilt on the spine of one of the books.

Habitat challenge

I belong to the newly formed Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild.  We've only had 3 meetings, but we formed just in time to participate in the Habitat challenge.  Our rules were as follows:  no more than 30 x 30 in size and only solids were allowed in addition to the Habitat fabrics.  We had the earth color story, thank goodness, because I really think the other color lines are ugly.  I love the aqua and orange that are the predominate colors.  We each got 6 of the prints and had to use all the ones we got.

As soon as I heard about the challenge I knew what I wanted to do.  I recently got Susan Beal's Modern Log Cabin book and I've been wanting to try the modern crosses quilt.  The first quilt I made with my mother was a log cabin and it's variations always appeal to me.

I chose kona aqua as my solid.  I got it from Marmalade fabrics and Tammy was nice enough to tell me which solid was an exact match.  I wanted the crosses to dissolve into the background.  I wouldn't say I was wholly successful, but the colors do work nicely together.  Some of the Habitat fabrics with the peachy pink background didn't have enough of the aqua to meld.  I wanted to use all the fabrics I got on the front, even though I could have fulfilled the requirements using them for the backing.

I give you Habitat Plus Aqua.

I can't decide if I want to add the buttons.  I think it needs the buttons.

I used all my leftover yardage on the back.  I bound it in aqua.

WIP BGBGB Quilt finished!

This poor quilt has been sitting, waiting to be bound for months.  Seriously, I think I got it back from the quilter in April.  I was scared of dealing it by myself.  First I couldn't decide what I wanted to use for the binding.  Then I couldn't find the fabric I wanted.  Then I forgot what fabric I had decided upon.

Finally, I decided it was silly to be scared of it because it's so big and to just pick something for the binding already.  It didn't take me long once I picked something.  I used leftover strips from the sashing fabrics plus the lovely coordinating stripe.  I originally wanted to only use the stripe, but I didn't have enough.  I cut the binding 4.75 inches wide, then folded in it half, because that's how wide the narrowest leftover was.  I know that's super crazy wide for most people.  However, on a big bed sized quilt, I like the binding to be proportional.  It's my quilt and I can do what I want with it.  Trust me the quilt police at my traditional quilt guild already gave me their opinions.

As with most things, once I got started it wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined it would be.

I give you Baby Girl's Big Girl Bed Quilt in all it's glory.  The center fussy cut squares are from Baby Girl's crib sheets and the sashing fabrics are all Delilah by Tanya Whelan coordinates.  It's bound in leftovers from the sashing.  The pattern is inspired by Spring Thyme by Nancy Mahoney.  I originally blogged about this quilt here.

 Here is Baby Girl sitting on her new Big Girl Bed quilt on her bed!

Pillows

Here are the pillows I've been talking about.  I finally got the bindings finished.

This is a bookcase pillow to coordinate with MIL's quilt.  It's inspired by Don't Call Me Betsy's design.  I added a piece of background at the bottom of the leaning book, so the bottom of the book is square instead of at an angle.

Here are two pillows for the living room made with scraps from my first quilt and a few additions.  The first is a random log cabin that I quilted on diagonals following a piece of painter's tape.  I sewed each side of the painters tape with a bright aqua thread.  It was my first attempt to call attention to my quilting and I'm quite pleased with it.

The second is a quilt as you go method, that is my new favorite thing.

It's quilted every 1/3 of an inch and the thread ends are all buried under the next piece of fabric.  It's fabulous!

One more home decor project

This is what the window over the toilet in the master bath has looked like since the day we moved in.  I think that's about 21 months.

 Functional, but not very elegant, right?  Those are kitchen towels draped over a tension rod.

I picked up this nice toile a year ago with the intention of making Baby Girl a dress.  I still haven't made the dress, but I realized this would also make a nice curtain for that little window.  It took me all of 20 minutes to hem the wof piece and put a sleeve on the top.  Why, oh why, do I procrastinate about these simple little projects.

So much better!  And yes, I did make it cafe length on purpose.  That window looks on to an open field and it'a nice view in morning or so Hubby tells me.  I might even hem it a little shorter if I get around to it.

Frankenbatting

I spent the last week in Wisconsin and somewhere I lost my voice.  Seriously, it's completely gone.  My kids are getting really good at charades.  I'm alternating feeling like crud trying to cough up a lung and feeling ok.  This morning I was feeling ok, but not great.  I hadn't touched the sewing machine in more than a week and so I thought I just finish up the project I left out on the cutting table, frankenbatting.

I collect scraps of batting the way most people collect fabric scraps.  If it's more than 2 inches wide I keep it.  I use the narrow ratty bits for upholstering bow holders that I make for any little girls who come near me.  The wider pieces I sew together until I have pieces big enough for quilts.  Usually I wait until I need the batting before trying to piece it together.  I'm often impatient and rarely want to sew more than two or three pieces together when I’m ready to get a quilt basted.  This leaves me with a huge pile of batting scraps in the corner.  It takes too long to sort through so I just cut from the new stuff.

With my recent foray into pillows this seemed like the perfect time to use up the medium to little pieces.  I pulled out all the scraps and sorted them by length and started sewing. Originally I kept like batting together, but I’ve realized once it is quilted no one can tell if it was warm and natural or warm and white or whatever other brand of cotton batting I’ve used in the last 18 months. All my batting is cotton and sort of the same thickness, but not exactly the same. I got one piece big enough for a lap quilt and a bunch of cuts big enough for pillows and I decided some of what I had been holding on to was too junky to bother with, so it went in the stuffing bag.

When I sew batting together, I use the zig zag stitch that makes lots of little stitches across the width. It seems to bunch less. I just butt the edges together and zig zag across the top to hold them together. you don’t have to be neat or precise. Today I learned an important lesson, that I want to share with you. Two words, WALKING FOOT. Why, oh why, was I not using my walking foot this whole time? It pulls and bunches so much less, particularly the bits that are a little sticky from spray baste.

I’m going to add sewing up batting to my list of end of project chores. At the end of every project I like to put all the fabric away and put the scraps in the jar and generally tidy up, otherwise it gets out of control. Now I’ll also sew the new batting scraps to the old ones, so I’m ready to go when the quilt needs sandwiching.