Something I've always wanted to say...

I've been working on a secret project.  Hee Hee!!  I've always wanted to write that on my blog.  I'm going to do my first tutorial in a little bit.  I had to make some prototypes to take pictures for the tutorial.  I might even do a give away.  I know, a giveaway, craziness!

We're entering my favorite season, Fall.  I have a bunch of projects lined up for the next few months and I'm hoping to make a bunch of Christmas presents, plus Halloween costumes, plus a mini craft fair.  It's a good thing both kids are in school, even though it's only 2 hours for Baby Girl.  Truth be told, I'm not quite sure what to do with Baby Girl all afternoon while big brother is in kindergarten.  We've been at loose ends the last week.  I've been letting her watch too much TV, while I sew.  I need to figure out things for us to do in the afternoon.  I'm just used to the two of them entertaining each other all afternoon.  That's why I had two kids in the first place.

In the midst of all the other projects in the pipeline, I finally got some inspiration for these stacks of fabric.

I've been wanting to make a spread for our king sized bed.  I've been intimidated by the shear size of the undertaking.  Usually, I decide upon the design I want to tackle next and then I pick the fabric.  If I have the fabric first, before the design, I have trouble deciding what to do.  I wanted a design that would feature the large scale prints from the Aviary II bundle I bought, but I didn't want to do just a large patchwork.  I also wanted a design that might lend itself to a quilt as you go project.  I've sort of used up my long arm quilter budget for the year.  Add to that, I've thinking about doing more of a bed spread and less of a quilt.  I want something pretty to throw over our bed, not so much something to keep us warm.  That's a long way of saying that there were a lot of requirements.

I started cutting on Friday and I have to say I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out.  I'm keeping it simple with lots of wof strips sewn together horizontally.  I'm currently trying to decide if I should add a few perpendicular strips to mix things up.  I'm thinking yes.  I really enjoy these projects where I have a vague notion of where I'd like to end up, but where I let the fabric dictate how we get there.  The giant courthouse step quilts were like that and now this strip quilt is the same.  As an added bonus, Hubby says he really likes what I've shown him so far.  As soon as I find a spot to layout my progress I'll take some pictures.  I'm planning on about 120 inches square and it's hard to find a piece of bare floor that big.  I wish I had a big design wall.

This evening, I think I figured out how to assemble this monster just using my little Janome.  The secret will be that I'm not using any batting.  I'm going to quilt the top directly to the flannel back.  If I don't assemble the back until I've quilted the center panel, then I should only ever have less than one wof piece rolled up in the neck of the machine.  I think this will work!

DSMMQG

Today the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild is meeting at the West Des Moines public library at 6:30.  I wish I could be there with you tonight.  If you are in the Des Moines area, go check it out tonight!

First day of school and some other summer fun

The Wee Monsieur started kindergarten today.  He rode the bus and I only cried a bit.

Earlier in the week I made jam.  Our strawberries all came ripe right before we left for vacation, so I froze them all.  I finally got around to pulling them out and making jam.  I threw in a frozen bag of kiwis for fun. The kids call this Super Strawberry Jam.  I use a cheapo emersion blender to smush up the chunks.  It works great on soups and sauces too.  I've already got these three earmarked for teacher gifts at Christmas.

Baby Girl has been playing with these little nesting boxes from Ikea for the last week.  She keeps leaving them in interesting patterns, so I've been snapping pictures.  It gives me a hankering to make a quilt with circles.  I wish someone would send me one of those Go! Baby cutters.

Those are the boxes on the left and the lids on the right.  She's really good at getting them in just the right order. Have I mentioned she likes to play with buttons at the store, which annoys the sales women, except that Baby Girl always outs the buttons back in the right spot.  It's amazing how she's able to always get the button back on the correct post, even in Joann's button aisle.

WIP: All WIP as good as done

I finished up two big quilt tops that had been lingering and am taking them to the long arm quilter tomorrow.  That's as good as done in my book.  That means I have no works in progress.  That is such a liberating thought.  I have a bunch of stacks of fabric for projects, but I haven't cut into them, so they aren't WIP yet.

I present B's Bento Box.  It is always windy where I live, so forgive the slightly ripples, it was the best shot I got.

It's 80 x 100 and queen sized.  I made my own bento box pattern.  The back is just pieced from yardage of 4 different fabrics.

Here is the rainbow quilt for my mom.

 I had stopped working on it in the spring because I ran out of fabric to do a square Boston Commons, as my mom had requested.  She's been visiting the last week and  we worked out a solution.  We made it a rectangle and then framed it with the navy and yellow batiques.  I wish I had gotten a picture pre border because the border really changed the way it looked.  The navy and yellow border is really electric.  I was not a fan of this design at the start.  It's not my usual style.  But that can be a good thing.  I've ended up LOVING this quilt.  My mom is going to hang it in her stairwell, so the long narrow shape will work well.

Love those colors!  It's made from a rainbow batique jelly roll.

I won!!!

I won my first ever giveaway.  I'm so excited.  I never win ANYTHING.  There's this giveaway and I think a stuffed pumpkin I won in the first grade.  That's it!

The lovely ladies, Jill and Marny, from Modern Quilt Relish are sending me a jelly roll of "Wee Woodland" and 4 of their new patterns.

I originally learned about the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild starting up from their blog, so that's two things I have to thank them for.  Maybe I'll start entering more giveaways if my luck has turned like this. I'll go back to my happy dance now.

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.