A UFO and a new Obsession

First off, I have got something done that was on my list for this week. Here are some blue and white 1 1/2 inch strips. Some have even been sewn together in the beginning stage of making 130, 3 1/2 inch 9 patch squares. Trying to do one step at a time and not think about the number I need to do. I also got my daughter's cape done for Halloween but you'll have to wait for a picture.

Part of my distraction this week has been this quilt. It is a disappearing nine patch using a charm pack. Meant to be a wall hanging. I had pieced it and done stitch in the ditch quilting this summer and then it got lost in the pile. I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to quilt it so I keep setting it aside. I had actually forgotten about it when I came across it last week while I was reorganizing. I looked at the thread I have (I used burgundy) and I knew how I wanted to quilt it. I really like it and very different for me and my free-motion ways.

Not perfect but pretty good being done by eye and using my sewing machine's foot for guidance. How come I can't draw a straight line with a ruler?

Here's the back as well. Love it. Just need to put binding and a hanging sleeve on it and it is ready for etsy. At least I'll get one new thing in my store this week.

Here is my other obsession/ distraction this week. Got this book from the public library. Put this on my Christmas wish list now please!

Love it - so simple yet pretty.

I NEED to make this quilt.

I doubt I will ever make this quilt but I could surprise myself.

I WILL be making this quilt.

Maybe. I love the polka dots and I'm not really a polka dot person or a red person but this quilt just speaks to me.

Great pattern to use some fabrics I don't want to cut up.

A great scrappy pattern.

I'm so glad I got a chance to look at this book. It's in plastic at the book store and I just couldn't spend the money without looking at the quilts first. Now, can I wait until December to see if anyone gets it for me?

What I did this weekend

So, I was able to get some of the stuff done on my very ambitious list this weekend. Here is what I did.

I got the white and blue fabrics ironed for a future project. This week I will start cutting and piecing.

I got 18 ornaments sewn together. This week I will be quilting them and putting them in my etsy store.

20 christmas coasters sewn together. They will be quilted this week and placed in my etsy store.

12 flower coasters sewn together. And guess what - this week they will be quilted and put in my etsy store.

Working on another Laundry Day quilt. Not sure if I will touch this again this week.

More ornament backings and batting cut.

Christmas fabric ironed and ready to be used.

Not sure what to do with this fabric. Thought of cutting it up but I really like it as a whole. What do you think?

And the Halloween cape? Still 2 pieces of fabric. Guess I need to do that this week too.

Scraps!

Have some scraps? Head on over to Sew, Mama, Sew to check out a bunch of fun scrappy tutorials. I have already printed off one thing that I am going to start working on tonight for 2 of my nieces. While you are checking out the scrappy patterns you may come across someone near and dear to me, my wonderful sister, Sarah, from SewJoy. Go check out her nest pattern Then go check out her blog and enJoy her craftiness.

Friday Finish

I didn't really finish this, this week but it is a finish I didn't show on here. I had to wait until I gave it to the person. This is a Christmas pin quilt I made for my mom. It is roughly 14 inches square. She is suppose to hang it and place her Christmas pins on it to decorate the tree. I gave it to her when we were visiting Canada last month. Of course I had 2 new pins on the tree but forgot to take a picture of them.

The fabric was cut into 1 1/2 inch squares and then sewn together hopefully in a random pattern. it was nice to use up some of my Christmas scraps.



Close-Up. I just did some simple quilting giving the tree some dimension with straight lines.

The back.

Thursday Progress Report

So, I was up well past midnight last night organizing the next few projects. Here is what I need to complete in the next week (if not sooner).

A cape for my daughter's Halloween costume. I found the black spider web fabric in the remnant bin awhile ago. It's only half a yard so I might be able to make a small cape and a bag for her.

Blue crane fabric that needs to be cut for borders for the Twiggy quilt and then sewn on. Then I can start attaching the leaves and birds.

Cut these out Saturday night while watching hockey. Organized them last night. They will be made into ornaments, coasters and I'm going to try notecards for my etsy store.

More holiday gift fabrics. More ornaments and notecards. Need to iron the backing fabrics and then I can start cutting and piecing these together. Have ribbon cut already for hanging.

My basket of blue and white fabric for a project for next year that needs some ironing.
We'll see what I can get done in the next few days. I finished the "Recipe For Friendship" lap quilt and it is now listed in my etsy store. Check back soon to see if I get anything else done or if I just reorganize again and not actually complete anything.

Fall Colours?

Last weekend, my family and I went for a walk to enjoy the fresh air and the fall leaves. You expect to see yellow, red, orange and brown leaves but purple?

The purple isn't as bright in the picture as it was in person. The purple just jumped out at me and I had to take a picture. I admit I love the combination of purple and green.

Here is a purple and green quilt at the 2008 Ann Arbor Quilt Guild Quilt Show. I loved the quilt then and I still love it. I keep thinking about this quilt so I guess I will have to make it. Now I just need some purple - Christmas present idea maybe?

You know it's a going to be a good day when...

... you check your email in the morning and find out you sold something for the first time in almost 2 months. Happy to say that the above "Laundry Day" quilt will be heading out of town hopefully by the end of today. My poor Etsy store has been ignored with summer holidays, school beginning and house renovations but I am trying to refocus for the holidays and had just added some coasters yesterday. It feels really good that someone else likes my quilts and makes me want to spend the day at my sewing machine. Hopefully I'll get to sit at my mahcine this afternoon - after a trip to the post office of course.

Quilt Festival

Better late than never, right?
I finally decided to participate in the online Quilt Festival hosted by Amy at Park City Girl. Thanks Amy!. Click on over and look at the hundreds of different quilt blogs and the beautiful quilts they have made. Here is my contribution.

So, I have 2 quilts to talk about. My son attends a wonderful Co-operative preschool here in Ann Arbor Michigan. Every February they have a silent auction to raise funds for the school. Last school year I decided to make a quilt for each class (a 3 year old class and a 4 year old class) using the handprints of the kids.

This is the finished quilt of the 4's class. The kids hands are used for the sunflower blossoms and leaves. The teacher's handprints were used for the sun, since she is what makes our children grow.

I traced both hands of every kid in the class.

I used the biggest hands for the sunflowers.

Smaller hands and those who didn't want to spread their fingers apart were used for the leaves.

On the top and bottom borders are the outline of each child's hand (just one) with their name written in the the palm. I then quilted around each hand. I don't remember exactly how I quilted the whole quilt. I zigzagged over all the applique pieces but other than that I don't remember.

Here is the 3's class. They were a bunch of tulips. The teacher's hands were once again used as the sun.

The kids hands and names were placed at the bottom this time (for both quilts the names were in alphabetical order).

A slightly closer look at the finished quilt. There was no pattern for the leaves I just cut out a whole bunch and then played with the leaves as I laid everything out.

Some kids were used for butterflies (my son is the middle butterfly).

Pretty tulips.

These quilts were a lot of work. Cutting out all those little hands was more difficult than I thought it would be and attaching them took longer than I thought as I bought a new sewing machine in the middle of making these quilts. Overall I was very happy with them and glad to donate them to the school for the auction. I am not doing it again this year but I might try to make a similar quilt using my kids and all their cousins.

Another Finished Project and other updates

Finished binding Calliope's doll quilt the other day. Using my new quilt rack (thanks mom) to display. Still trying to find a place for the quilt rack - think I will use it for picture taking right now.

Close-up.

Back of the quilt. Fairies and their houses.

My sister mentioned that the Twiggy quilt shown on Monday's post needed something more than the leaves. What she didn't know is that I had already decided that, and have cut out these birds to go on it. Hope to get them placed on the quilt this week.

My sewing table by the end of the week. The empty basket now has fabric for a project in it. The doll quilt is done. Another project is on the side waiting to be finished and the crochet hooks are off my chair. The ironing board is off my table too.

Have finished some other things, just need to take some pictures. Also put up the thread rack from my sister and put some thread in it. Ironed some more fabric for different projects, including some Christmas fabric for Etsy projects. Busy, busy, busy.

Birthday Doll Quilt

My son went to a birthday party yesterday for a little girl from his preschool. I made her a little doll quilt, my son picked a Groovy Girl to go with it and then I made a bag for them to go in.

Here is the little quilt. I had quilted the top right corner close to 5 years ago as machine quilting practice thinking I would finish one day and give it to my daughter or a niece. Never happened. I didn't have much notice for this party so I decided to finally finish it and give it away. The hardest part was matching the quilting I did 5 years ago.

Here is the doll all cuddled up and ready to go.

My son doesn't like to have his picture taken. At least he stood still long enough for me to take his picture holding the finished bag. Doll and blanket are already inside.