Postage Stamp Quilt: top is almost done!

I put this on flickr last night so some of you have already seen this, but for those of you who haven't, here is my postage stamp quilt! Each of the colored squares has 100 1.5 inch little squares of fabric for a grand total of 3,000 squares. I am going to add a 12" border all the way around to make it approximately 80x90". I still have squares left over-little ones and about 5 assembled 10x10 grids for the back.

I am just happy to have this quilt at this stage. It will next enter the queue for quilting and hopefully will be done before summer. This quilt is really heavy; It has to be all those seams because it really feels like two quilt tops or a finished quilt when you pick it up.

Hope you are all having a happy Monday!

Craftster Lap Quilt Top Fall Edition Progress...

I worked on my quilt top some more this weekend and I am so happy to be this far along!


All of my squares are pieced, now I just need to add a 6" border of the purple around the outside.

I will have to go buy some more purple, though, so it will be later in the week before the top is finally complete. I really like it. So many people made such gorgeous blocks for it. It will be a full size quilt with the borders!

Craftster Lap Quilt Top Fall Edition coming together, finally...

I spent this past weekend and President's day trying to finish up or at least make progress on a couple of projects. I started with my Craftster Lap Quilt from round three which I have had most of the blocks for since October! So I decided I needed three more blocks so I could have a total of 30 12.5" blocks for a full size quilt. This is the biggest quilt I have ever attempted and I may be over my head.
Here are a few of the blocks I made to finish up....
I am working with small scraps of leftover fabric which is a little limiting, but I am happy with how they all came out! They are all square, but I can't seem to take a picture at the right angle where they appear square.

Here are all the blocks laid out on the floor. I started sewing rows together last night and now I need to add horizontal sashing between the rows. I went with a soft lilac color, which I really like, for the sashing.

I also went to the post office yesterday with all of my packages for the current round of the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap. I am so happy that I finally finished all of the blocks and got them packaged and mailed. It took forever to just assemble everything to mail out. There are 19 envelopes! The people behind me in line were not amused to say the least, but they are all in the mail now. It was an expensive trip to the post office at around $30...

There is talk of another round starting next month. I may have to take a break due to the fact that I have consistently been in this swap for a year now and haven't had time to actually finish any of the four quilts that will come out of these swaps! It has been a lot of fun though and I highly encourage everyone to try at least one of this swaps out.

Happy Wednesday!

Craftster Lap Quilt Swap: chinarockfishakm, flashleyashley, and jqadams

I finished up some more of my blocks for the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap this weekend. The one above is for chinarockfishakm. I really like the oriental fabrics she chose and the orange fabric has glitter!
This block is for flashleyashley. Her palette is beautiful! I love the soothing blues and greens she picked out. The picture does not do justice to these colors.
John sent these fabrics with an oriental flair. He wanted straight lines and improvisational type blocks. I wanted to showcase the birds in this print so I kept is simple and framed the center square. I like how the red floats above the green. It is 12.5" square.

He also asked for blocks in many sizes so the one above is 9.5" square.
I then made two more 6.5" square ones for him. I was fun playing with the different sizes.

I am almost done! I believe I only have one more block left to make! That is 21/22 blocks complete. Woohoot!

King Cake

I made a King Cake last night to take to a newly started knitting club this afternoon. These cakes are so yummy! I use this recipe from Southern Living and definitely include the baby. I frosted both of the cakes before adding the sprinkles , and I should have iced and then sprinkled immediately so they would stick better. Oh well, it will still taste good! My husband had a slice last night and immediately found the baby. :)


For those of you interested in the history of the king cake, here is a short summary.

• The top is sprinkled with purple representing justice, green representing faith, and gold representing power-the traditional mardi gras colors.
• Cakes are made between the Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday-January 6th to February 25th this year.
• At some point in the mid 1900's, it became a tradition to place a small plastic baby inside of each cake. There are a couple different theories involved with the baby. Each person takes a piece of cake and the person who receives the baby is "crowned" King or Queen for the day. That person then has to throw the next party and make the next cake. I think it is good luck!

If you make one, I would love to know!

SewConnected January

I finally finished my block for SewConnected for January. It took me forever to make this block, and I am not sure why. It always takes me so much more time to make an improvisational block than using a pattern. I love the greens and browns she chose. Some of the fabrics are cotton and some are silk which gives it a luminosity that I love. I wanted to include a large swath of the green floral print because it is so pretty, but then it just seemed too big so I included the angles to add more movement. I am now caught up on my sewconnected blocks!

Christmas Table Runner

I can mark one item off my list! I finished the Christmas table runner for me-whoopee! It is already in the box to go in the attic with all of the other Christmas stuff that hasn't been put away yet. It feels good to mark something off the list.:) Now I just need to decide what to finish next!

The next thing I need to do is finish my blocks for the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap and catch up on my sewconnected blocks but that can be finished by this weekend. Happy Wednesday everyone!

My Quilting to do list...

One of my goals this year is to finish most of my unfinished projects. I want to leave some room for new and exciting things that come my way so I won't say ALL of my projects but most of them. Here is my list with pictures:
1. This is my quilt top from the Star Quilt A Long that crazymomquilts hosted last spring into summer. I still need to finish the backing, baste, quilt, and bind this one. I do love how it turned out.


2. Finish a table runner like this for me before Christmas next year. I have the top pieced and it is basted. Now it just needs to be quilted and bound. I ran out of time before Christmas this year. This is the one I gave my mom.:)


3. Finish my hourglass quilt. All of the rows are sewn together into a rectangle of 10x15 blocks. I bought orange dots for the border. I need to sew on the orange border, get backing fabric, baste, and bind this quilt.


4. My quilt blocks from LQS3 need to be pieced together. I still haven't decided on sashing or not. I am leaning toward sashing in tan or a purple or green....maybe even orange but probably not.


5. These blocks are from the 50 state block swap. I need to make two more and then I have no idea how to put this together. I can't decide on the finished size but 50 blocks is an awkward number for me. Would it be 25 blocks by 2? 5 x 10?

6. Tokyo Triangles Quilt
I have made so many of these! I really need to count. I still haven't figured out how to piece the big and small ones that sit side by side.

7. Yo-Yo Quilt
This is the neverending quilt project. I might finish this year. I have so many 12x12 blocks that are pieced together. I just haven't finished sewing them in strips and then the strips together. This is around 1,000 yo-yos.

8. This is a quilt top from the first two rounds of the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap. It needs backing fabric, to be basted, quilted, and bound.

9. Scrappy Disappearing Nine Patch
This is just the top. I have started a pieced backing which I need to finish. It then needs to be basted, quilted, and bound. I really want to finish this one this year.

10. Postage Stamp Quilt
I still have not made up my mind on how to put this together. I am leaning toward adding small white strips around each square so they look like paints in watercolor tray but leaving them in this arrangement. They are not all exactly the same size-which worries me. Each square is made up of 100 1.5" square of fabric.



11. Thangles BOM 2008
I only have 8 of these blocks finished. I may make one more and then turn it into a baby quilt.

12. 1930's BOM
I have eight of these six each blocks complete. It is an ongoing offer at my local quilt shop so I am not going to mark this one to complete this year. I would like to catch up on all the months that I am missing-about ten. I would also like to learn how to applique so I can also complete the applique blocks that go with this project!

I am afraid that I am forgetting a project! My goal will be to complete one of the projects listed above a month. If I can accomplish that goal, I will have eleven finished projects for 2009. I can start a new project when I have completed one. There is no way I could make it through the year without starting a new project, plus I already have a couple in mind!:)

Sewconnected2 Block for January

I finally finished my block for the sewconnected 2 virtual quilting group that I am a part of this year. I finished on Feb. 1st-one day late but I do like the way it turned out! I love the batiks she picked out.