Project Between Projects

 I saw Joann Fabrics had an excellent sell on their outdoor fabrics. 

My outdoor cushions that I have had for at least a decade are needing a change, something cheery! So, I saw a motif that I like! And the fabric was a great deal for outdoor fabrics. 

The insides of the cushions were still good and clean for use in the updated cushions. So while waiting for other fabrics to arrive for another quilt project, I went to work on bringing new life to the cushions.

Now just waiting for the weather to warm up so that I can sit outside! 

Evening Project

 Another Christmas gift completed! This just took a number of hours in the evening while watching tv.

I thought the fabric would be nice to use in an apron for the male chef in my family. 

It's a Baby!

 I haven't made a baby quilt in years. One of my mother's friends recently became a grandma. Yeah, my mom is in her early 90s. So, most of her friends should be great grandmas. This person is about my age. She became a dear neighbor to my parents decades ago. She still chats with my mom even though my mom has dementia.

Every so often I'm in touch with my mother's friend. When I heard that she had become a grandma for the first time I was so happy for her! She stated that for the next six months she will be babysitting the granddaughter.

                  

About seven years ago, my mother gave me her fabrics since she was no longer quilting/sewing. Dementia had already stopped that activity for her. Well, knowing that my mom would have given her friend's daughter a baby gift, I decided to give the friend the gift. I collected some fabrics from mom's stash to use in a baby quilt that the proud grandma can use while babysitting her granddaughter. Yes, this is a baby gift for the grandma!

I also looked through my stash to see what fabrics would add to the cuteness of the quilt. I had enough flannel fabric from a pervious project that became the backing fabric.

Baby quilts go together quickly! Looking forward to making more in the future.

Sparrows

 In April, the sparrows frequent my yard! I love watching them hop around the yard looking for food.

When I saw that Lindsey from Pen + Paper was going to do the Sparrow Quilt Along and Keepsake Quilting sold the pattern and kit for this too cute quilt, I was all in for my first quilt along. 

Or almost! I'm not good at group projects or totally following directions. 

After figuring out the directions for cutting of the fabrics and assembling some of the blocks, I decided that for me to do the type of quilting I wanted to do I would need to do the quilt-as-you-go method to make the machine quilting easier.  Alterations were made in the directions to assembling. 

I sandwiched the layers with the batting being an 1/2 inch smaller than the top all around. A decorative stitch was used around the three triangles.

And the birds' bodies and tails were quilted with curves. 

After all the birds were quilted, I started assembling the blocks together. This was done like a normal assembling using 1/4 stitch. There is no stashing on the top.  I did lose points to the triangles. The pattern needs adjustments for it to work well as a quilt-as-you-go.

The back side has the stashing to hide the seams.

I decided to use a binding with a flange; this might become my way to do the binding work this year.

Sparrows now decorates the back of my sofa. Spring is officially here!

All Access Bags HoHoHo!!

 Finishing up on some more Christmas presents!

I followed Missouri Star Quilt Company's tutorial video "At Home with Misty" to help me on assembling these bags. They also sell the pattern for these too cute bags.

It's almost like eating candy when making these bags. Once you have mastered one, the others were easy and quick to assemble. I used up some of the sample interior design fabrics that my mom had given me years ago.

Neko bag for one lucky gal!

For one of my travelers! The blue fabric outside was used to cover my sewing room chair.

Pina Colada bag for the bartender!

Beach and waves!

Europe and Rome!

Revamping My Irish Chain

Years ago I made a Irish chain that I wasn't totally happy with the look. That mode had bugged me for years. This year I decided to do something about revamping the quilt. So, I cut it up and sewed it back together to look like this. Yes, much better!

 

I didn't like the black borders or quilting on the black borders that were to look like rainbows. What was I thinking back in 2011!

It went from this to cutting out the black areas and then...

stitching the sections that I like together again by using the method that I use in quilt-as-you-go assembling. 

And of course I had to change the binding, since that was removed in the cutting out of the black sections. I added a prettier green motif with a white thin flange for the binding.  I'm so happy that I took the initiative to complete this project in time for St. Patrick's Day.

A First

 ...for me! Working on Christmas gifts in February and March. This year I said that I wasn't going to wait until November to think about Christmas projects. 

One table mat for each of my children that will be their Saint Nicholas present December 6th.

I pieced batting scraps together to use in the two table mats.

Quick quilting by using masking tape as a guide.

This one will be for my daughter since there are cardinals in the fabric used for the corners.

And this one will be for my son since there are trucks in the fabric used for the corners.

Dreaming of Candy Hearts

February, I think of candy hearts. For years, I have wanted to make a quilt with hearts for the month of February. 

This year, I made it happen.

I started at the beginning of the month by cutting out my hearts from 5 inch batik squares that I got from Missouri Quilt Co in mid January. At first, I wanted to use a printed pattern with vintage, Valentine motif that Missouri Quilt Co was selling, but I was too late on that deal. The remaining fabrics came from Joann Fabrics since there was an awesome sale on fabrics. I cut 10 inch squares for front and back fabrics. 

This quilt is another quilt-as-you-go quilt since I wanted to use up remnant batting and also make it easier quilting. Much easier to quilt a 10" block with curves through the machine than maneuver an entire quilt.

So, I got busy zigzagging batting pieces to together for the 10 squares to be quilted.

Next, came centering the hearts and machine stitching the hearts down onto the tops, white 10" squares.

Hearts were arranged, numbered (36), and placed with back squares that also had been arranged. 

Squares were then sandwiched (top, batting, back) and quilted with my Davis Feed walking foot machine. I love that machine! 

Threads were knotted and then sewn under, between top fabric and batting. 

Stashing strips were cut, top 2" (little red hearts) and bottom 1.5" (white). I assembled the blocks with the back stashing first. I tried something different for the assembling of the quilt-as-you-go blocks on this quilt. 

After a row was formed, I then stitched down the top stashings. 

I decided to bind the quilt with the flange binding technique of stitching in the ditch. 

Most of the binding is purple with a little corner of red. The flange portion is mainly pink with just a little bit of orange.

My mom loved the "red hots", cinnamon red hearts. She would buy them every Valentine's Day instead of the candy hearts with the little messages. This quilt has both, minus the messages--those are for one to dream about.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

 A kaleidoscope quilt has been on my bucket list for years. While watching Jordan Fabrics Youtube, I came across an easy method for assembling this type of quilt. Jordan calls it the Roundabout. I followed her pattern for what I call my kaleidoscope quilt.

I wanted my first project of the year to be this project. After weeks of record rains and clouds, I was wishing for Spring and warmer weather.  I wanted a quilt with bright, warm colors too!

I remember as a child looking through those cheap kaleidoscopes seeing a rainbow of colors. That was my goal for this quilt, warmth. I had to purchase a 45 degree ruler for cutting the triangles and some additional fabrics to complement the multi-color, flower background fabric.

I lost count of how many triangles I cut.

Assembling my blocks, I made sure of being careful with keeping perfect 1/4 inch seams. 

Took me some time arranging my pattern. Now one can see the circles formed from triangles. 

Next was cutting out and laying the backside of the quilt. Yup, this will be a quilt-as-you-go!

After sandwiching the layers, I quilted each block. Front fabric of blocks 9.5 inches, batting 8.5 inches, and back fabric 10 inches are the measurements. Blocks were then sewn together with the 1/4 inch seams going to the back. 

Two inch sashing strips folded down to one inch were used to cover the seams on the backside of the quilt. I originally had a very dark green in my fabrics that I decided not to use in the binding. Instead I went for the dark blue with the dots along with a pinkish fabric with pastel colors that isn't in the line-up of fabrics. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this quilt pattern and assembling as a quilt-as-you-go.

Signs of Spring are starting to show with some decorative fruit trees in bloom.