As for me and my House....

The House Wall hanging is done and hanging in the eating area of our kitchen.. a very prominent spot in our home as it is also open and visible from our den.  I love love love it!  Looks great with the green walls. As much as I love the Snowman Faces we had hanging there (and will love putting it back up next winter!) I think I may love this one more!

2 more tops done...time to sandwich!

Finished up 2 more tops this week.  The House Wallhanging...

I love, love, love the final border fabric. It looks soo good!

And the other charity quilt I am working on... this one is for a girl.

So now it is sandwich time!  These 2 plus the circus themed quilt (also charity) and a scrappy top of hubby's that has been waiting patiently in the linen closet.

I hate sandwiching.. but it is a necessary step for turning tops into  quilts.

"Belle"

Rainy but productive day....

Today has been a rainy day with dropping temps... this Southern girl is downright chilly tonight! With the rain and such, it was a perfect day to stay in and work on quilts.

I finished up the center block of the wall-hanging last night.  I have to make a plug for a product.. Fabri-Solvy by Sulky.  I used my word processing software to layout the verse like I wanted and then printed it on a sheet of Fabric-Solvy.  Peeled off the back and pressed it to the front of my fabric.  I embroidered as usual, but I didn't have to trace the pattern because it was printed on the stabilize and now on the fabric.  Once done, I peeled and cut off the excess.... then soak in warm water for a few minutes to melt away the rest.  I will say that once it dried, it looked as if the thread had run.  So this morning I decided to wash it. My washing machine has a super delicate hand wash setting. I used that and put the block in a mesh bag.  The rest of the stabilizer along with the excess dye from the thread came right off!  It air dried with no problem and has now been united with the Happy Scrappy House blocks that I had pieced this weekend.

My husband put the top together with sashing and corner stones. He is much better (and more patient) doing those corner stones than me!  I think it is looking great...

Next we needed 1 more fabric for a final border... tried lots of things we have here, but nothing really seemed to suit it. So... a trip to the fabric store was made and this was found..

It doesn't show up here too well, but there are green leaves here and there along with the blue ones. Works really well with the green sashing.  Can't wait to see it added to the top.

While at the store I picked up some pink fabric. Not because I love pink (which I do!!!!), but for a quilt I started today. I am making another quilt for a charity bazaar. I found this fabric in my stash...

Pulled some 2 1/2 inch strips and started making braids with fabrics that I feel "coordinate" with the fishies.

Once all the braids are done, I will use them for the top with some sashing between them and a small inner border that matches it.  Then the fishies will be the outer border. It is going to be a bright quilt!  I have no doubt some little girl will love it.

Here are the pinks I bought..

One of them will be the sashing and inner border.. don't know which one yet.  The leftovers? well they will go in the stash. The pink boxes (yes boxes!) are getting slim and there are 2 baby girl quilts to be made before summer!

All and all this rainy day has been a good one... tomorrow is already full, so won't be a lot of fabric time happening.  Hoping to have the wall hanging and maybe the fishie quilt tops done and ready to sandwich by the weekend.  The circus quilt is waiting patiently along with another scrappy top from last year.  Saturday will probably be a "deli" day.. gonna be making lots of quilt sandwiches!  :-)

"Belle"

National Quilting Day!!!

So pretty much everyone in the US knows today is St. Patrick's Day, but for quilters it is another holiday too.. National Quilting Day.  NQD occurs on the 3rd Saturday of March, so not always on 3/17.

Hubs and I celebrated today by going to a fabric sale and sewing....

Here are the fabrics we bought...

Some bright fun butterflies (the white behind it is Kona Cotton Snow.. bought that today too..)

Some fun polka dots....

A WILD Print that hubby liked....

And one more polka dot.. a big dot.. that the shop owner tossed in as a happy.... 

And here is what was worked on today...

I finished up the house blocks and started making them wonky... the excess fabric gets trimmed off when they are squared up...

And hubs finished up the baby quilt top he has been working on... 

All in all I would say it has been a good National Quilting Day here!

"Belle"

Baby Quilt Inspiration...

Baby quilts seem to be on the upcoming menu here (I love making baby quilts!).  My son's girlfriend has another cousin expecting a baby and wants to make a quilt for the wee one, I want to do another one for a charity Bazaar and we have a young couple in our church expecting girl #2.  All 3 of these will be girl quilts. So lots of pink is expected!  

I have been looking around the Internet and have seen some lovely quilts to inspire..

This one is so simple and sweet....

I love the ruffled edge!

This is one of my faves.. I love the colors.. I will make this one day!

I am not sure a rag quilt is best for a baby, but I do love this. I have Fat Quarters for every fabric in this collection. It is one of my faves.  

Another very simple quilt, but oh so sweet.

The initial adds a cute detail to this one.

Some pretty Spring Flowers for a Spring Baby

Works In Progress...

Sewing Central is buzzing with several projects right now....

Hubby is making a baby quilt. Co-worker asked him to make it for her niece.  She bought fabric and picked pattern.  He has it laid out and is in the process of piecing the top together. I love the colors.. bright and cheery.. perfect for a little girl!

Once he is done with this, he has a quick project for the house... napkins!  These fabrics will be transformed into new spring napkins.  Won't they be lovely!

I watched a video last week on a really interesting technique for making quilt blocks with 2 1/2" strips.  We have a slew of these in our scrap stash, so I pulled a few and gave it a try.

Here is what the block looks like once done...

Here are a couple of possible layouts...

The technique really is cool.  You can watch it here: Amazing Jelly Roll Quilt

I may use that technique and some of our strips to make up another baby quilt for an upcoming bizarre to benefit the family of a little boy in need.  I made this top for it all ready..

It just needs to be sandwiched and quilted to be done.

I am also working on a new wallhanging for the breakfast room. I knew I wanted to use a specific Bible verse that has to do with House.. so a house block was called for... there are many, but one of my faves is found at Quiltville...  Happy Scrappy Houses

The pattern calls for 2" strips. The stash here is full of 2 1/2".. so I adapted and came up with this...

Looks great.. even before being wonkied.. but it is bigger than I want for my layout.

So today I cut down some of those 2 1/2" strips to 2" ones and pulled together some "kits" for house blocks.  They are waiting patiently for me to sew them together.

Plenty to keep us busy this week!

"Belle"

Crochet Roll Up

Sunday afternoon is the perfect time for napping with a good book or old movie OR for doing a quick easy project.. or both!  This past Sunday, I opted for the quick easy project followed by some fun time online soaking up ideas for an upcoming quilty adventure.

My son dates a rather crafty girl... she loves to do just about any craft at just about any time... the Internet time getting inspired was for a baby quilt she will be making soon. I am her teacher (oh my.. a bit like the blind leading the blind).. her hand-holder.. her enabler.. I have done my part to ensure another generation is addicted to fabric!  She is also a wonderful crocheter (crochetist? crochet-master? what do you call one who crochets?)

On Sunday she dove into the stash here and pulled out 2 purple fabrics (she had been eyeing them for a while) and with a bit of slicing, dicing and stitching.. Voila!  A Fabric Roll up to hold crochet hooks and some scissors was born.

Here is it all rolled up...

And here it is opened.. ignore the ugly ironing board cover (that has to be rectified soon!).. but do notice the pretty red fur under the ironing board.. that is Mac the Magnificent who had slipped into the room to look out the window and sigh as the world passed him by. LOL!

This was a fun, easy and quick project. You can find tutorials for making one of these or numerous other rolls (knitting needles, crayons, makeup brushes, toiletries etc.) online... do a quick search at your favorite search engine or look on pinterest!

"Belle"

Another top becomes a quilt...

The Mad Quilter (a.k.a. my hubby) continues his quest to turn all our seemingly abandoned quilt tops into quilts.. and he is get close. There are 3 that he wants to long-arm at some point. We don't have a machine. He uses one at a local LQS (sidenote: great shop with huge Internet business.. check it out.. Stitch-n-Frame )  Of course there are UFOs that will need to be quilted once they actually become completed tops, but he is determined to take care of those ready and waiting!

This is a scrappy top he made last year. The tiny little 4 patches are some I made of a mystery quilt. I have NO idea why I keep trying mystery quilts. I just never complete them. I get frustrated in the process. I like to at least have an idea in my head of the finished project. I often change things along the way, but I still have an idea of where I am going. Mystery quilts don't allow that luxury.

So he took those little four patches and other scraps and came up with a super scrappy super colorful top. I was not to keen on his choice of fabric for the final border (Also from the scrap box... forget where we got that bit of fabric.. garage sale I think).  He quilted it with some lime green thread... it was cute, but I was still not a fan of that border. Then he added that binding and wow.. I love it!  I have no idea what it is about that bright teal binding, but it just makes that border work for me. Go figure!

This is a very springy quilt to me... and it is lovely to curl up under with the pups and read or watch tv. I know.. I have already taking it for a test spin!

"Belle"