Colorful HSTs

My husband just finished up a quilt for a friend in his office. She had a great niece born recently and asked him if he would make a quilt for the baby. The co-worked picked that pattern and bought all the fabrics.  I think it turned out cute. Definitely bright and cheery!

"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"

What a Hoot!

Owls are the rage right now.. as they have been many times in the past. Last year my daughter asked me to whip up some bibs and burp cloths for a friend who was having a little girl. She mentioned that they loved owls.  I found the cutest fabric and ordered much more than I needed. Whipped up a bib and burp cloth and set the rest aside for future use.

Well that use arrived.  A sweet young couple in our church had baby #2 in Dec. When I learned the nursery was going to be done in bright pink, lime green, white and sky blue I knew I had just the right fabric.. the owls!  I grabbed it out of my stash, went through my nickle charms and pulled a bunch that would work, sewed a bunch of big nine patches... sliced them into 4ths... put them back together and created this cute Disappearing Nine Patch. I really do like this pattern, especially for baby quilts. It goes together quickly and turns out so cute!

Hubby quilted it basically in-the-ditch, but he kept the lines going from block to block.. creating an implied 9 patch. He used the same petal pink thread he used for Lou's baby quilt (previous post).  I love the way it looks on the back against the lime green!

2 of the 2011 baby quilts down... 1 more to go....

"Belle"

Baby Lou's Quilt

I made this top back in September for my SIL's first grandbaby.. a sweet little girl named, Lou.  Then I got caught up in an 80th birthday bash for my mom and shortly after that she fell and broke some bones (still recovering from that)... needless to say I got essentially nothing "quilty" done during the last part of 2011. 

Well 2012 is here and it is time for new stuff.. but first some of the old has to be finished up. Lou's was first on the list!

The Mad Quilter (a.k.a. hubby) and I got this one sandwiched up and off he went!  Simple in-the-ditch quilting, but on what a difference it makes. This quilt top is now a quilt!  A cute girlie quilt with lots of pink and green.  It will be headed off to Miss Lou this week.

There are 2 more baby quilts in the works.. one is quilted (again The Mad Quilter at work!) and ready to be bound. The other is waiting patiently for some batting.  And I am working again on my Snowman Faces quilt... finishing up the embrodiery so it can be quilted.

Then let the new stuff begin! (OK there are more UFOs to work on, but once these goals are met I am going to work on something new for a bit!)

"Belle"

Time for a Little Girl Quilt!

My sister-in-law will soon be a grandmother for the first time... and It's A Girl!!! I couldn't wait to whip up something girlie after doing several boy quilts.  What fun!  I pulled charms and made a bunch of HSTs (my sweet husband cut them all down for me... are you jealous?)  and then I put them together in a very basic patchwork layout. No fancy patterns.. just a sea of HSTs.  I love all the colors. Have NO idea how it will be quilted!  But it will be worked on soon.  Baby Lou is due in a few weeks! Of course she lives in TX, so she won't need a quilt for warmth for a while!  LOL!

Here is the finished top.. unquilted..

Girlie Quilts

A friend has a sweet little granddaughter who will be 3 soon. She has a baby doll that she loves and cherishes... carries her everywhere. My friend found a great baby crib for the doll at a yard sale. She asked me to make a quilt for her to wrap the baby in when taking her out and about... and then a quilt and pillow for the crib.  So I played with some girlie fabric and came up with these... I think they turned out nice. I have to add that my hubby loves to do machine quilting and so he quilted the carry quilt real quick one morning.

The Quilt for Carrying the baby out and about..

A look at the quilting on the back..

Crib quilt and matching pillow....

I love making girlie goodies!

"Belle"