testing

A few weeks ago I decided to make quilts for my nieces and nephews when they turn 8 years old (this is the age in our church when kids are baptized).  Hopefully the mother's of my niece (who will be turning 8 in the next week and who will be receiving the granny square quilt in my last post) and my nephew (who turned 8 a few months ago) don't read this blog or these won't be much of a surprise ;) Then I started to think . . . what kind of quilt do you make for an 8 year old boy?  I have no idea, but this is what I came up with: I was also a little concerned about what size to make the quilt.  I didn't want to make them small like a baby quilt, but I didn't want to make a giant quilt either (mostly because of time constraints).  Both this quilt and the granny square quilt finished up around 42" x 52".  Hopefully that will make a nice lap size quilt for them. This was my first attempt at improv blocks and it was really fun!  I backed the quilt in this Curiou...

I love quilting books.  Pretty much whenever a blogger announces that they have a book coming out, I place a pre-order and anxiously look forward to the book arriving in the mail.  And I do really like most of these books; they have good information and I have even made a quilt or two out of some of them.  But I think my expectations on quilting books have been raised: image borrowed from Tallgrass Prairie Studio This book is absolutely amazing.  The book itself is beautiful (and it is pretty big, there is a lot to it!), but the quilts are so inspiring.  I have been wanting to try more improvisational quilting (I was just finishing up my first attempt when the book arrived, photos coming soon), and there are so many ideas in this book that I can't wait to try. So if you haven't checked out the book, or at least checked out Jacquie's or Katie's blogs, give them a look.  And this post was completely unsolicited, I just wanted to share how excited ...

I always look forward to taking pictures of a finished quilt.  The problem is that my husband works long hours and my kids are too small to hold up anything other than a small baby quilt.  I also live in an apartment so I don't have a yard or any nice open spaces to spread the quilts out.  So today when my almost-4-year old had a friend over, I took advantage of 4 little hands that could hold my granny square quilt up. I am really happy with how the quilt turned out.  I love the bright colors against the white (the prints are Pick a Bunch and the white is Kona snow).  I was not particularly happy with using a layer cake for this project and it would have been easier if I could have used yardage, but the blocks turned out okay.  A couple of them are a little wonky, but with the sashing between the blocks it isn't very noticeable.  For the back I used my favorite print from the line.  I just love how bright and happy it is.

It is finished!  This was a lot of piecing, a lot of quilting, and for some reason, the binding took me forever, but I am thrilled with how it turned out.   I did straight line quilting with my lines every 1/4 inch to about an inch and a half a part.  I really like the texture that it gives to the quilt. Here is the fabric that I used for the backing.  It probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but a few months ago I ordered 0.5 yards of this online.  And guess what they sent me instead . . . FIVE yards.  The store said that since it was their mistake I should keep the fabric, so it was a natural choice for this quilt.  The back is a little crazy and the front is a little crazy so I was hoping the Kona Ash binding would tone things down a bit.  I am happy with the result.

When I saw the nesting bowls pattern over at a cuppa and a catch up , I knew that I would be buying the pattern.  Especially when I saw the easter basket that had been made with the pattern.  My kids have been using those little felt Easter basket from Target and while they are cute, I wanted something bigger and (hopefully) more long lasting. I wanted to use a fabric that was not Easter specific in case I wanted to use the baskets for something else in the future.  I also wanted to make mine bigger than Nova's (she used the 5 inch bowl, I used the 7 inch) because I know that my kids will want to also carry around sippy cups, stuffed animals, and snacks in their baskets. Harper's basket Jonah's basket, which looks wonky here, but it isn't really The pattern is extremely well written and detailed with instructions on how to customize size and details. I didn't have the right weight of interfacing (the pattern called for a medium weight and what I had was a lighter we...

Spring cleaning + lots of visitors has not left much time for sewing lately.  I generally like to complete one project before moving on to something else, but lately I have been working on 5 different things and it is making me a little scatterbrained! I saw somewhere about the Umbrella Prints trimmings competition and could not resist.  I have no idea what I am going to do with these beautiful little scraps, but I better think of something quick! I finished my Granny Square blocks and just need to get them all sewn together.  I think they are really pretty, but several of mine turned out a little wonky (oops!) so I think I should have been a little more careful.  My oodalolly quilt is all quilted and I am just working on the binding now.  I wasn't loving it before, but I am now.  I love how quilting can totally change your feelings about something! And I finished my wheel quilt, which was also part of the Curves class.  I wish I had done so...