Catching Up In Blogville -- Part 2

I have been working on more baby quilts over the last 2 months for 3 little boys due later this year. A young couple in our church is expecting their first child in August. Dad is a high school basketball coach so I immediately thought of a sports themed quilt. I knew I had some fabric left over from my great-nephew's eye spy quilt, so once again I went digging in the stash.  I decided to use the Disappearing 9 patch pattern. There are many tutorials online for this quick and easy quilt.  I use this one: Tutorial

If you have a charm pack or, as is my case, a boatload of 5" charms, this quilt will go even faster!

First I pulled the sports fabric:

After cutting a portion of it into 5" charms, I dug through my boxes of charms and pulled out ones that coordinated:

Take 9 charms and create a nine patch.. I placed the sports fabric in the same place in each nine patch, but was random with the other fabrics:

I made seven large 9 patches:

Then sliced them up!

To create these blocks:

Played with the layout:

Sewed into a top:

Added borders and voila!  Top done:

This quilt top was mostly made from stash fabrics. I didn't have anything on hand I liked for the borders, other than the white with black geometric print (and what you see in the quilt is ALL of it!), so a run to the store was made and 2 vibrant Kona Cottons were purchased.... papaya and royal.  Bright and fun!

"Belle"

Catching Up in Blogville -- Part 1

I cannot believe I have not blogged in 2 months!  Good Grief!  I knew it had been a while, but had no idea how big a while.  Lots of quilting and sewing has been happening here... so on with the catch up... buckle up, it is going to be a long multi-post ride!

JJ Sews...

JJ is my son's girlfriend. She is a sweetie and loves to craft. I have posted some of her creations before.   She made a really cute pillow earlier this year with a tree and leaves. She decided to make a small companion pillow with just leaves... turned out so cute. We found this great sage green polka dot fabric in the stash for the background:

She also decided to make herself a mug rug.  Very basic one, but very cute. Love the fabrics she chose... again, from the stash:

And because she did so well and loved making her mug rug, she decided to make one for her mom for Mother's Day.  Her mom's loves Scotties like I love Dachies and my friend, Rhonda, loves Corgis. (There is just something about those small dogs with big attitudes! )  I remembered there was a bit of Scottie fabric buried among the novelty fabrics, so we went digging and found it. JJ added a few others and voila!  A darling mug rug that was a big hit with her mom!

The Mad Quilter a.k.a my sweet husband....

Hubs has been busy over the past 2 months also. Not so much being the mad quilter (although he did quilt one for me... you will see it later). He has been whipping up quilt tops that will soon be quilts to give away (many to a women's transitional shelter).  Here are his most recent creations:

All the fabric used in these tops came from our stash. I love that!

Part 2 (and 3?) coming later. 

"Belle"

"Crafturday"

Today has been a very crafty quilty day here... and since it is Saturday, I decided to dub it Crafturday. :-)

First the quilt top for a friend's daughter's graduation quilt is done. I have to laugh a bit when I see this quilt. It is so me! LOL!  I love sting quilts... Pink is my favorite color and I love it with green or purple or teal or all of the above... and I love bright fabrics.  Don't worry, I did not make this based on my likes.. I asked the graduating girls mom and my daughter (who knows her well) and they both suggested these colors. Seems the young lady has excellent taste! 

The it was on to a bit of Fusible Applique 101 and creative fun.  My son's girlfriend loves to craft. She saw a pillow she wanted to make. I had a tutorial ( Scrap Buster Pillow ) that was very similar. So we looked it over and hopped to it. She had fabric she had purchased, we added some from the stash and scraps here... mix with a bit of heat and bond lite, some heat, straight-line stitching.. and Voila!  You have a really cute pillow top:

We will finish the back and add an insert soon. (Son and girl had a wedding rehearsal and dinner to attend). 

Check out this cute flower:

More Fabric in the Mail

I could so get use to getting Quilty stuff in the mail every day!  I actually got a box earlier this week from Connecting threads and didn't post about it here. More of their lovely Essential Thread, as well as a couple of pieces of fabric that were on clearance.

Then on Friday, I received a squishy packet and a box.  The squishy packet was from my unofficial-sister (LOL!) who lives in PA. I mad a mug rug earlier this month and commented that if I had more of the fabrics I used (they were scraps), I would love to make a table runner with them. No surprise, she quickly emailed and said "I have some of that green on tan fabric!" and so it arrived on Friday.

The box was from a friend in IL who is an amazing quilter and has influenced me in more ways than she knows.  I recently sent her some TOT Creams and Tans for a project and she reciprocated by sending me some much needed browns and yellows and even a bit of the same green on tan my sister-friend sent.

Here is the green on tan fabric... it is, to me, one of those fabrics that look better when used than just by itself:

And here are the browns and yellows...

I really love that back yellow with the sort of folksy floral print. Love it!

I worked on my mom's GFG last night and will work on it more as the weekend continues. I am also putting together a pieced border for the graduation quilt. It is looking good.  Lots of quilt action happening here!

Oh yes... and just when I think I am caught up on Baby quilts, 3 more pregnant mommas pop up! LOL! I have a little boy quilt to make, a girlie girl and one that doesn't know yet. The earliest due date is late August, so PTL I have a bit of time.  But the creative process is already churning in my mind. I love baby quilts!

"Belle"

X another one off the list

I made this String-X top several years ago and it has been sitting in the closet on a shelf sadly watching other tops become quilts while it was ignored.  :-( I have no idea why it kept being passed over. I adore this top.  I love BRIGHT and SCRAPPY... this quilt definitely covers both those!

My husband has been pulling UFOs from the shelves (most of them tops he made) and getting them finished up left and right (8 out of 12 done so far this year!)  This is #9.  He quilted it a couple of weeks ago and then, once again, it sat.  I originally planned to bind it with black fabric.. just a solid black. He went to do that yesterday and found we did not have enough black for binding strips!  (Oh my!  How did that happen?!)  So we started auditioning other colors and fabrics. There were several he liked, but nothing really grabbed me.

And then I remembered.... we hit the clearance bins at Hobby Lobby shortly after the first of the year and hubby pulled out a TON of this wild reddy-purply-pink fabric.  I remember saying "Good grief!  I don't think we need that much!"  Seriously... we have about 10 yards! They were in 2 yard cuts and were $2.00 a yard. He kept saying they will show up in something. He was right... righter than right. Not only was this used for the binding of the String-X quilt, but I have some pulled to use in another string quilt I am working on for a graduation gift  AND I pulled some fabric to whip up some new cheery napkins for the kitchen table and this is one of them! (Yes, I know it is bright.. did you miss the fact that I love BRIGHT?)

When I made this top years ago, our daughter announced she wanted it.  Maybe one day.... LOL!  For now it is on the back of the couch.  The pups and I tried it out last night and it "fit" us just right!

"Belle"

p.s.  The pattern for this great quilt is found at Quiltville along with lots of other great patterns and other wonderful quilty info!

More Goodies!

I had to run some errands earlier today including a dash into a local thrift shop. My son leaves tomorrow to go work at Youth Retreat over Spring Break and he needs shorts. He is a tall thin fella and has a difficult time finding pants and shorts. I hoped to find either some shorts or some pants that could be cut off and hemmed for shorts. No luck. BUT while there I found a bunch of sheets. One particular sheet caught my eye. Cotton candy pink with butterflies! I am thinking this will be the perfect backing for the graduation quilt I am making.  I was able to get the entire set.. fitted sheet, flat sheet and 2 pillow cases. Then I found a   set with a neat folk-art type floral pattern. Got a flat and fitted sheet, no pillow cases. Lastly I found a pillow case I had to have. LOL!  A bright green gingham.  I love the color! Got all those treasures for $4.82! Whoo Hoo!

When I got home I found goodies... first, my hubby took the afternoon off and came home to be with me. (Happy Face!)  second, a package in the mail from another quilty buddy.  She knew my stash was running low of browns and yellows and sent me some!  Aren't they great?

I could get use to getting goodies like this every day!  What's more.. I think I need to make sure some other folks have "goodie" days too.  Hmm... wonder what I can send to someone???

"Belle"

from a Sweet Friend...

The other day I was quilting and I needed to wind some bobbins (I go through so many!).  I loaded up my handy-dandy sidewinder (which I love) and away I went.... hmmm... away I went.... nope, away I didn't went!  I fidgeted with this and that and finally realized that I have worn the poor thing out... kaput... dead.  I was so sad.

I mentioned this tragedy to online quilty friends and one quickly replied "I have one I can send you!" and she did... along with some quilting inspiration!

Aren't Quilting buddies the best!?

Cannot wait to plug my new side winder up and start loading those bobbins for the next project!

"Belle"