2 more quilts done!

When the garbage pail beside your sewing machine is this overflowing, it must mean you finished something, right?

Right! I finished my daughter's hummingbird quilt the other night. It's bigger than I thought it was going to be. I really like working with no batting but just the polyester fleece as the backing. Much easier to move under the needle.

My favourite flower. I tried to use contrasting threads to outline and add detail to the petals.  There is an orange spiral in the middle but it's hard to see.

Detail of the big purple flower.

I decided not to quilt the hummingbird. I used transparent thread to do a zig zag stitch all around the hummingbird to secure it. You can also see the loopy quilting on the background. Again with the transparent thread. I only quilted where it was polka dotted, leaving the "borders" of the fabric free of quilting and easy to cuddle up with.

The back. I think the back looks awesome. This has been on my daughter's bed the past 2 nights. She loves it.

After I finished the hummingbird quilt Wednesday night, I thought I would get started on the above Frida quilt. I had only planned on picking the thread I wanted to use and stitching around the brown columns. An hour and a half later I was sitting in my rocking chair, attaching the hanging sleeve to the finished quilt.

This has been waiting a year to be quilted. Pinned together, just waiting. Glad to have it done and I love the red binding. Frida Kahlo is one of my favourite artists, definitely my favourite female artist. I had made this to put up in our house (since my favourite Frida paintings aren't really kid appropriate), but now I'm thinking of putting this in the etsy store. I love it but am willing to see it go. If you haven't looked at her work or read a biography of her, you really should. She was an amazing woman.

Too Many Tea Towels

When you move and reorganize, sometimes you discover you have a lot of one thing. Like tea towels. We had some we received as wedding shower presents that have spent the last 9 years in a box.

Like these 2 tea cup tea towels.

I even use them as hand towels in the kids bathroom. But what am I suppose to do with them all?

Then I came across this in my sewing day calendar.

Tea towel rug #1.

Tea towel rug #2.

I used an old beach towel for the back.

#1 being used in our bathroom on the little square of tile outside the shower. Has proven to be very useful. Just hang it over the shower curtain to dry if it gets too wet.

#2 actually being used in the kitchen. Benefit I didn't think of until I needed it - when you drop a bit of water on the floor, just use your foot to drag the rug over it, dry it up and place back by the sink.

Can you spot the difference?

Yes! First sock is complete. It feels amazing.

Isn't it pretty? 

Not perfect but still awesome. I have already cast on the second sock (I actually completed the heel last night). It looks so much better than this one, that I may reknit the first sock so they look like they match. Super excited to be almost finished my first pair of knitted socks (and they're all for me-although my daughter has requested a pair too).

A BIG Friday Finish

Here is the back of my BIG finish.

And here is the front. Mystery Quilt from 2009 is finished!

I took it outside for some pictures. The pink and blue fabrics are both vintage fabrics. I love the yellow fabric and the white fabric was a pain. I don't remember where I got it but it caused the most trouble of the bunch.

Close-up of the middle blocks. Flowers were done free-hand and I used multi-coloured thread. I think they turned out alright (not perfect but they still look like flowers).

The other blocks. Again free-hand flowers (no leaves), same multi-coloured thread. They were a little easier.

I added this row of flower blocks at the bottom. This is for a child and I know how they toss, turn and move around at night, so I add an extra row at the bottom of children's quilts just for extra tucking. Also, the main design stays centered on the bed and not under the mattress.

As for which niece this is for... well, she turns 3 in a couple months and is the only member of her family without a quilt from Aunt Rachel. This will be coming your way, little Athena. I'll mail it in a couple weeks so the quilt can keep you warm as soon as the chilly weather starts. I won't make you wait for you birthday as you were suppose to get it for Christmas last year.

Works in Progress

Here are my 3 main projects for this week.

This is what is under the needle right now.

This was the mystery quilt for the Ann Arbor Quilt Guild last year. It was suppose to be a Christmas gift for one of my nieces last year but when I realized I wouldn't get it done in time I set is aside.

Found it when I was reorganizing my projects here in Idaho and decided it needed to get finished. The stitch-in-the-ditch had been completed and I had decided to do free motion stippling on all the white fabric but had only done a couple blocks. I have been working on this for the past 2 days and only have a few blocks left to quilt. I will also be adding some quilting to the centre of the blocks.

Feels good to finally get this quilt under the needle again.

My daughter's Hummingbird quilt. The applique has been fused on and is now waiting to be quilted. I need to work on the previous quilt to have enough pins for this quilt.

I am not putting any batting in this quilt but am using some polyester fleece from the remnant bin to make the back. Everything is ready to go, just need the pins to keep it together.

My sock. I love it. I can hardly wait to wear it and make the second one. I had some trouble turning after the heel to do the instep but everything turned out alright and I absolutely love it.

Aren't the stitches beautiful? And the yarn is so soft. I want to knit myself another 6 pair so I never have to wear store socks again.

Time to get back to it. Just another inch and a half and then I start shaping the toe.

Last of my August Finishes

Table runner. Made this to fit our coffee table. Now I just need to clear it off so I can put this on it.

Middle is made up of vintage squares I got on Etsy (sorry can't remember who). I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, so I sewed them into 4 patches and then finally decided on a table runner. The blue fabric and the backing are also vintage fabrics. The green is from my mom. It's leftover fabric from curtains she made for the laundry room almost 20 years ago - does that make the green fabric vintage too?

2 potholders. These will probably be gifts this Christmas but I don't know who will get them.

Bedroom curtains. I really like them. They go really well with our green comforter (which didn't get included in the picture).

Now I can focus more on quilts and etsy. The table runner and potholders were ufo's, so it is nice to have some finishes from my big bin - although they didn't really take up that much space.

Plan this week is to take pictures and post the works I currently am working on. Mainly to help me organize my priorities and if all goes well I hope to have another finish my the end of the week.

Oh, I did have another finish this weekend but I was testing a new pattern for my sister and I'm not allowed to show pics until February (I think). Sorry.

A Quilting Project with and for my Daughter

Got to work on the hummingbird quilt my sister bought for my daughter the other night. Decided to recruit my daughter to help me.

She traced all the shapes and cut them out.

These are the fabrics that my sister had selected and sent along with the pattern.

My daughter decided she didn't really like all of them and instead went through my stash and came up with this. I insisted on keeping the background piece (the big yellowish fabric on the right) and she picked the rest. Here are all the applique shapes on their fabrics. I have ironed them on and cut them out. Placed them on the background and they look great, although we had to move the flowers around a bit to deal with all the different fabrics she picked. She has also decided that she would like to have this quilt to cuddle with on the couch instead of up on the wall. Hope to get the appliques on the background this weekend and post an updated shot of the project at the beginning of next week.