March Spring Bloom

 

The puzzle is done! The backside is all pink too!! 

My notes, haahaa! Looking at this now, I don't know what the numbers go with. I believe this was a quick idea before my test, which can be seen on previous post.

Puzzles

 I like puzzles! Sometimes I look at a quilt pattern as a puzzle to solve.  

This is the case for this Missouri Star pattern since it will be in one of this year's Block magazine. I watched their YouTube video of the Block Party. They showed this quilt and stated that it will only be found in the Block magazine. Well, I fell in love with this block!

I was planning on working with the pink and orange fabric that I had recently gotten to create a quilt for February.  Since I couldn't wait and I love puzzles, I decided to figure out how to assemble a block. Missouri Star likes to work with 2.5 inch strips and layer cakes. That was helpful information in figuring out measurements. They also mentioned in the video that a small drunkard path template is used. Easy, I ordered from them their small drunkard template. 

It's fun playing with the different shades of pink and orange to create this cute block. 

Arcs!

 

Last year when visiting Missouri Star quilt Co, I purchased the medium drunkard's path template along with the layer cake and easy clamshell pattern in plans to make a clamshell quilt. After reading the pattern and watching the Youtube video, I realized the motifs on the layer cake were too large to work well in the easy clamshell pattern since the pattern calls for two half shells to make a whole one. A small print or solid color is best for this pattern. 

I still wanted to use the templates and the layer cake. So, I googled around to find something that I liked. I wasn't that in love with the fabrics after I looked through the entire layer cake. I thought oh well, let me just practice with these. Sewing the arcs was easier than I thought!

I felt it needed something additional; so, I added a few smaller circles that I machine appliqued with variegated thread onto the top. I added the flange to the binding for additional pop and to use up the remainder of the fabrics. There is no batting in the quilt since the flannel backing is thicker than I thought it would be. I just did a simple quilting since the top seems to adhere to the flannel. Yes, I'm pleased with the look of the quilt! And the fabric grew on me as I assembled the quilt!

New Holiday Apron

 

I have numerous aprons that I use often. My one favorite was the one I made for my husband. 

I realized that I didn't have a holiday apron. So, I decided to get one finished before the next holiday season. Santa on one side and snowflakes on the other. 

Luckily, I had all the materials for this quick and fun project!

And Lastly Two

At the beginning of October, my son and girlfriend brought over a bag each of their old tee shirts in hopes that I would be able to use them in a quilt for each of them. I had used a couple of their shirts to make into pillows. With a lot of tee shirts, I was able to pick out the best to use on the backside of their quilts.

My son's girlfriend loves cats, but sadly my son is allergic to them. 

So I decided to make her quilt in a cat theme. I had enough leftover batiks and also the paw print motif fabric that was used in my son's quilt to make a rainbow of cats. I followed the Missouri Star's cat pattern. Got to love Missouri Star's Youtube!!

The backside has the tee shirts from her high school years; tee shirts that she got from Taiwan when visiting her Grandparents. 

For my son's quilt, I had already purchased a fabric with paw prints as the motif back when JoAnn's was going out of business and before doggie. My son had been talking about getting a Shiba Inu for at least a year. I wanted this quilt to be for the dog since my son already has many quilts from me. I used scraps from my stash to use as the chain in the Irish Chain pattern. 

An eclectic grouping for an eclectic group of tee shirts. 

The dog isn't a blanket kind of dog, but he didn't mind for this photo. I think he doesn't mind being on top of the blanket, just not inside it. My son was good by rescuing a 4 year old Shiba!! The sweetest Shiba!!!

Mrs. Smith's Favorite

Back in April, my daughter and I traveled to Hamilton Missouri to shop at Missouri Star Quilt Company's many shops. Honestly, I just wanted to experience this quilt town since I follow them on Youtube. My daughter saw the Mrs. Smith's Favorite quilt hanging on wall at one of the shops and fell in love with it. 

She loved it so much that she asked if I could make her one almost with the same fabrics and in a queen size for her bed. 

After purchasing the Block magazine with the pattern and directions, we headed over to their Batik shop.

Omg! That shop is worth the travels to Hamilton! There are so many beautiful batiks! My daughter loved the look of the blue quilt; so, we stuck to picking from the many beautiful blue batiks. We got lucky that they had the cute small flower fabric, which was used in the quilt at the other shop.

The pattern is easy to follow, but since I didn't purchase the suggestion of layer cakes, 10" squares, I had to make changes to directions. Since my quilt would be a queen size, I had to purchase yards of fabric for the different motifs of fabrics that are required. The size of the quilt increased from 68x68 to 95x95. I had to figure out how many more squares and rectangles would be needed to make a queen size.

Eeks! I forgot that quilting a queen size quilt is a workout! The binding was quick and easy using my favorite method. 

In this photo, the quilting looks like it's taking away from the star pattern in the quilt, but I think it's the lighting. The quilting is much softer, but this does show the pattern of the quilting that I used for being able to quilt a queen size quilt with my sewing machine. 

The backside of the quilt is a solid print. I used 3 yards of 108" fabric. This was a fun quilt to make and would do it again, but not a queen size. I'm done making queen size quilts---and don't even think of a king!   

Something Extra

 Made some pillows as Christmas gifts this year.

My son-in-law designs the tee shirts for his Mom's cafe: Son of Egg. 

This is the second pillow that I have made for him using a tee shirt that they sell. 

My son's girl friend gave me some tee shirts from her high school days to make into a quilt. 

These two tee shirts just didn't fit into the look or theme of the quilt; so, they went into a pillow that became a birthday gift for her. 

And lastly, my son also handed over more tee shirts with the request for another quilt. 

I used two of his tee shirts to make him another pillow since the essential shirt would have been difficult to use in a quilt. 

Beekeeper

I always wanted a quilt with a bee theme. When JoAnn Fabrics announced they were going out of business, I went shopping for fabrics with that theme in mind. 

I also wanted to use hexagons for the look of having a honeycomb. Luckily for me, Missouri Star Quilt Company had recently done a tutorial on sewing hexagons. 

After cutting out all the hexagons, I had to mark the seam lines for sewing. 

This made sewing so much easier! This isn't a quilt that one can rush through and get done in a day or two. Between cutting out the hexagons, marking seam lines, playing with the layout, sewing hexagons together, and quilting, this project took numerous of weeks to do. 

And the backside is a field of daisies with honeycombs and busy bees buzzing around.

Grandma and Tot HoHoHo!!

 

A friend of mine is a first time grandma. I know she loves to cook and wears aprons while cooking. I do know that she doesn't have a Christmas themed apron. So I made her one and one for her granddaughter.  

Grandma's apron pocket gets Mrs. Claus....

while granddaughter's apron gets Santa. 

I Spy Quilt

 I'll be visiting a friend in Japan who is now a Grandma! As my gift to her 1 year old granddaughter, I made an I Spy quilt.

I used a lot of leftover fabrics that I own for the 2 inch squares, but I also added a new fabric.

It's the Missouri Star's Chuck fabric. So, Chuck will travel to Japan!

Backside of quilt is ice cream cones. Now, who doesn't like ice cream!? 

I foresee endless hours of fun either counting ice cream cones of a certain color or looking for the I Spy with my little eye....