Blankies

What do you get when you have a friend who likes to sew but doesn't really like to quilt? And that said friend wanted to try a new pattern to her so she made a ton of blocks in said pattern only to realize after they had sat and aged at her house for a while that she was never going to complete the project? You get LUCKY!!!!
My friend gave me this great score of blocks and all I needed to do was finish them into blankies.
So here are a couple that I did.
This one has opposite blocks...Had put all the blocks into what kinda went together with other colors and figured I would do them with four squares...one would be with the lighter squares on the outside and the other would be with the lighter squares on the inside

these two you can see the different squares and the matching ones below

this pink one matches the one above to the right

and then I didn't have enough of the purple to do the backing and said above mentioned friend had also given me the heart fabric which I didn't have enough of to do a back...so I sewed the heart into the purple and got two backs :)

These two were blocks that didn't match any other blocks when I got done matching so I made them single block quilts...I really like the way that these turned out so going to do more of them...might even finish the rest of the blocks like this...

here is the back of the black/white/red quilts

and then these goldfish were just too cute to pass up in the fabric aisle...well actually the virtual fabric aisle of an online shop :)

and they got bubbles for their embroidery :)

Working on a couple of orange squares like the above ones.....Halloween is coming...Wonder if there will be two sets of twins to use Halloween colored quilts?

Been a bit MIA lately

Well all the older puppies have gone to their forever homes so life here is a bit quieter. Still have 5 pups here but they are only 3 weeks old so they don't make too much noise or demand too much of me right now.............
So while I have had a bit of a hiatus I decided to tackle the infamous sewing room and see if I could get a bit of it organized....had this brilliant idea to take the closet doors off and put shelves in there to handle the little bit......I mean the vast amounts of fabrics that I have accumulated. It was all jumbled in several spots and hard to see what I had and what I needed.......Well really don't NEED any more but........gotta leave options open don't you?
So what I did was put the two shelving units I had together. Took off the doors so that you could see what there was and open it up.

Then I folded all the material that I had the same way and sorted it according to color/design/designer/fat quarters etc. Look how nicely it all fits on my shelves now. Every single piece of fabric that was mine is now where I can see it...woohoo! I still have a couple of boxes my daughter gave me but want to make sure that she really doesn't want it back now that she has a potential sewing room in the making. Beside...I don't think I can fit it in anywhere........oops...just remember I lied......I have two more bins of older fabric that I just stuck under my bed...there is no way they are going to fit on the shelves until I get myself in gear and make some more blankets or doll clothes!!!
See how pretty :)

This side has got my precuts on the top shelf and all my UFO's on the shelves below....will get those finished now that I can see them :) And then flannel on the bottom...woohoo...I am so organized..well till I start a project that is :)

This is stuff that I still need to get into the room....hopefully a shelf is going into the closet today to put the fleece that I have and lace and anything else I don't use all the time up there. It got painted yesterday and I bought the shelf and brackets today.........hopefully hubby will be able to get it up before he goes to work...then my bedroom will be cleaned and will have a organized sewing room.........

Now to sew, sew, sew

Completion of the Jelly Roll Race

Finished the quilt in the time frame and thot I would be smart and have them quilted in that time frame also...........not totally so...got all but one done...so came home and finished the last one.....they are awaiting binding that I ordered today from the lady who ran the race :) Shawna from 1 Choice 4 Quilting Blog ran a quick little Jelly Roll race...basically you sewed strips from the Jelly together and together and together....you get the picture.....and then posted them on her flicker account........when I saw the dimensions of her quilt I didn't want one that big but figured it would be great split up into two quilts....well I actually got three out of it...so I changed the rules a bit :)

Ran into a bit of trouble after the first one was quilted...wanted to get the second one done today so in a hurry I marked it...hooped it...sewed it...and then ripped it and resewed it.

This is what happens when you are in a hurry and forget to check and make sure that all fabrics under the hoop is not under the hoop...what is means is ripping...had to rip out the entire first run of the flower .......oh well.........

here are the three for my picture sent in to Shawna

I look at each as a learning experience...still working on this hooping thingy and every time I try something I learn something ;) So tried three different things on these three quilts

bubbles everywhere........except I should have started in the middle instead of the middle end....made me need to redigitize for the end pieces that weren't quite covered in the pattern

number 2...the one I screwed up on...this time I started in the middle and had to restart in the middle when I sewed a corner onto the back and couldn't get my hoop out

you can't see the spiral flowers too easily on this backing but it worked

last and not least is the one I decided to go against the lines and do perpendicular large feathery type quilting.....only 6 hoopings on this one...yippee


here is the back for that one but you can't see the direction I went on the lines of the quilt...oh well...you get the picture

they are all trimmed up and waiting the order of the binding..........made it on the extra percentage off sale so am a happy camper :)

Rainy days and Sundays

Rainy days and Sundays....ah...it has been raining all day today...really coming down quite a lot...not hard just lots of it ....so what do you do when it rains???? You quilt and take pictures of puppies :) What else????
Here is a bit of chocolate to make your day :)







On to finishing another quilt top...you guys are always amazed that I get so many done...but it is cuz they are only about 30" square....easy to do tops and quilt..........

Ok....so when I saw this fabric I kinda had an idea of what I wanted to do with it....instead of normal piecing I used strips and then quilted the strips...not exactly what I envisioned but it worked...and then when the top was done I thot a cute little applique ducky would fit :) So while at another class I had the teacher help me figure out how to do a simple applique :)

I got the applique done yesterday before my machine decided to take a hiatus and see the repair guy :) You can see the bubbles that I used to quilt the sides too :) Totally fit this fabric

Love it when a plan comes together

YEAH!!!! Blogger is finally back....tried to post this for a bit and with no luck...today they came back online so could post these pictures...
this first one is a friendship braid done with Moda marbles........kinda faked the top by cutting off the top and sewing it to the bottom....cuz I didn't want to waste any of that fabric :)
I am such a cheapsake!

here is the back quilted...I played a bit with free motion after I put the embroidered feathers on...not too bad :)

And here is my next pile of schtuff :) all cut and ready to sew


here the process :)

this shows the color the best...it is called peony and is a really cute dark pink

all bound and ready for some lucky little one

the 3D pinwheel

Finishes for today

Today I finished some quilts...had one quilted but needed to finish with the binding and the other one needed to quilt it and then finish it ;)
This is the one that I quilted and bound today....you would think with a pattern so simple it would be easy to quilt...not so...the hooping seemed to take forever with this one even tho it is simple....digitized the hearts that went on two sides of the sashing cuz I was just a bit short on pattern :)
these are the materials I got from 1 Choice 4 Quilting :) Ok...so that was a shameless plug for Shawna and her quilt company :)

here is the back...you can see how simple the pattern was but darn it took forever :)

Here is the other one...actually finished this yesterday but who is counting??? You can't see but there are little stars and moons on the material

So I found a moon and digitized it :) Pretty proud of myself!

then took the stars off the moon man and made more for the other blocks..and the border

here is the back...a bit disappointed as the thread was really sloppy on the back....but this is a learning curve, right????

this is what I really wanted to work on between hoopings but it was too quick so this is tomorrow project...can't wait to see if the picture in my head is the same as this turns out :)

Oh...and the other thing I did that took a bit was give one of the babies a haircut.......she looks like a grownup now instead of the baby that she still is :(
kept taking pictures but she doesn't like to stay still...and if you say her name she comes running to you..........ah..the joys of motherhood :)
Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Been busy :)

Hope this isn't fuzzy cuz it looks like that to me :) Trying out new contacts to see if I can go without my readers stuck on the top of my head all the time....and last night I didn't quite get one of them in the little case or maybe it crawled out after I stuck it in there...I checked with my glasses and finger to make sure they were in the case but it must have stuck to my finger and popped off...............sigh...........
Anyway...have had this done for a few days but didn't get a pic of it till today.......I love this one...if I hadn't cut the binding I would have put a ruffle on it...it was just screaming for a ruffle but had already cut the binding so went with plan a
Love love love this fabric and how fun it went together

One of the fun things I did was to digitize the inchworm and the caterpillar and put them in the border......

here maybe you can see it better........ :) and tried different colors on the top too :)

this one I kinda did more things to today....I had embroidered a fan design on the colored part and in the middle sashing....couldn't figure out what to do with the borders so went with a diamond shape in lines...but there were spaces in the colored part...so...........

I decided to play with some free motion....not very good but the unpracticed eye couldn't see the poorness of it too well.......unless you really look...well you don't even have to look that hard :) but it is practice :)
Need to pick a binding color to finish the quilt

have two more of these done but not with sashing yet.......wonder how they will turn out

Perpetuating the lie...........

there is a nasty rumor that it is always raining in Washington state....it is true...........or at least a lot of Washingtonians would have you believe...well not a lot but maybe some.......we have been here almost 19 years and it has grown by leaps and bounds since we have been here :) And in an effort to keep more people from moving here...well someone must have started the lie cuz there are days like this too...wish I could have caught the blue of the sky cuz this isn't even close....it was a beautifully blue...tried to fix it on some software but couldn't catch it with that wtithout making it look way fake...so trust me on how blue it was

Instead of enjoying the sun outside I have been playing in my room.....I can see the sun does that count????
Had a friend who wanted me to do a blanket with the name of her great niece? to be...she bought so much extra material that I made a couple of burp cloths too

had to include all of the bunny to make it count

and then sewed these together...using a handy dandy binding tool.......or at least that is how you make the strips and then sew them together...I am such a non-waster of fabric that I couldn't cut off the top and bottom to make a straight line.....so my ingenuity kicked in and I sewed the two strips together and then cut them from that.......so that there are straight edges without any wasted material....aren't I clever?

tomorrow want to get some material for the strips in the middle and sides.............oh and just had a binding idea..........yikes my brain isn't gonna sleep tonight :)