Basting Away!

I will hopefully be quilting away today!

Oh Cherry Strip Twist Pink and Green Version

This is my second baby quilt using the rest of the Oh Cherry Oh! Jelly Roll. I decided to make this one all pinks and greens. Now I just need to finish making backs for the these two quilts and get these quilted!

Happy Friday everyone!

Oh Cherry Strip Twist

This is my newest wip- Oh Cherry Oh! Strip Twist baby quilt. Each block is 8". I used a pattern called Strip Twist that I picked up at my local quilt shop. I had to learn how to make partial seams for this one. The partial seams were not as hard as I thought they would be.:) I used half of a "Oh Cherry, Oh!" Jelly Roll from Moda. I am hoping to have a finished quilt after this weekend.

Zig Zag Baby Quilts

I have been working on a few baby quilts this past week sewing a little each night. I don't have any finished pictures yet-I still need to buy some more white. I am hoping to have the tops finished this weekend which should be the easiest part! I have 3-4 strips of each color finished in the zig zag. I am thinking of using two green and one orange and pink per top.

It has been absolutely beautiful here this past week with temperatures in the 70's each day. It feels like spring, but I know that it can and will snow all the way through April so I am not packing away my coats yet! I am ready for spring!

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!

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!:)

Hourglass Quilt: WIP

When I was in Birmingham last summer, I picked up this fabric in the hope of creating an hourglass quilt. Well, I returned home and started on it but got sidetracked into many other projects so it got put away for awhile. I am trying to finish up all my scattered works in progress and this is on its way to completion. I used this tutorial at crazymomquilts. I did not cut the block into fourths. I just cut it diagonally and then sewed my color triangle to the blue triangle and then cut it in half the other way. It created the same effect for me and I didn't have as much to sew!

It took awhile because I kept sewing the hourglass shapes going the wrong way so I spent some time with my seam ripper. I have a love/hate relationship with that seam ripper! I almost have all all of my rows sewn together horizontally; I just need to sew all those rows together for the middle section.

It is going to be approximately 10 5" blocks across and 15 5" blocks down. I then need to add a border. Since I don't have much fabric left, I will have to go purchase some more-darn. :) I am thinking orange polka dots for a 5" border all around. That might change when I get to the store!

Tokyo Triangle Quilt

I have decided to undertake another long term quilt project. I should be quilting and finishing up what I have already started but I couldn't resist. Plus, this is a quilt that can be worked on a little at a time over the course of several months. Here are 86 flying geese that will eventually end up in a quilt like this.

I am going to try to make 40 of these units a week until I am done. That sounds like a lot, but I already have about 60 more squares cut that will make 4 units each. So I can realisitically make 8 in about fifteen minutes. (Do you hear me justifying this craziness?) I am using this tutorial to make them. I learned about this whole project from crazymomquilts.

Four more blocks!

I made four more blocks for my quilt from the Craftster Lap Quilt Swap. I think I may make a few more to keep making it a little bit bigger. Thanks for all your suggestions on whether I should use sashing or not. My original thought was to not use sashing, but I am now leaning towards using a thin strip-maybe 1/2" finished... I would like to make the blocks pop a little, but I want the majority of the quilt to be the blocks. Still trying to decide...

I have four more blocks that should be coming my way soon. We had one person who has been very absent so I really may only have two more blocks coming. :( It really stinks when there is someone who flakes out on a swap especially when I sent fabric to them (which they still have) and I made two blocks for her. I had to rely on delivery confirmation to even know that she had received. Oh, well the swap was still fun, and I would still do it again.

Scrappy Disappearing Nine Patch: Progress

I am still dilegently working away on this scrappy disappearing nine patch. Somehow, I manage to sew a couple blocks the wrong way together so they aren't matching up right. Seam ripper, here I come! I did ponder if anyone would notice, but I would notice, so I should do it right. I have three rows that are completely finished. I need to finish the two half rows that you can see, and I think I will need to add at least one more row to the width. It is slow going, but I really like how colorful it is right now. It will be great as an I-spy quilt because there are so many novelty fabrics from cupcakes and fish to beach sandals.

Scrappy Disappearing Nine Patch wip

Over the last several months, I have been collecting and swapping 2.5 inch squares from numerous quilters. I started assembling these squares into 12" blocks about 2 weeks ago. So far I have 24 12" blocks completed. Here is where I think out loud due to my lacking mathematical ability: Each 12" block contains 4 -9 patchwork squares that are 2.5", so I have 36- 2.5" blocks per 12" square. Therefore, 36 times 24 equals equals 864-2.5" squares. I think that is correct. I think I need at least half that again before this will be big enough but here is where it is at so far.
I really like how scrappy it is! You can click on the pictures for a closer look.

Did you notice that I now have three columns? Thanks to the houseofkrom, I figured out how to adapt the layout. I feel really cool since I edited html code but only because I used this tutorial.

I hope everyone is having a happy Tuesday! Thanks to everyone who suggested ideas on my postage stamp layout. I am currently making a few more squares and may put up a couple more layouts due to some great suggestions.

Postage Stamp Quilt Possible Layouts

I am playing around with how I want to arrange my postage stamp quilt squares. I am calling the one above the diagonal rainbow. I think I would either use 1-2" sashing between the squares and a white border-maybe with another square border with the colors all mixed up together.

This would be set as a diamond on white, again with maybe a 2" border of white mimicing the diamond and then mix border of 2 deep 1.5 inch squares that are random.


Here is an idea of alternating lengths of color strips set on white with no sashing between each of the squares.
I was attempting a braid here, but couldn't quite get it to work. I did like that it was sort of random though.
My original plan was to have either long strips with a white border or have white sashing between each of the squares and a white border. It is going to take me forever to decide, I think and each option requires me to make a few more squares of differing colors. If you have any suggestions on what you think looks good, please, please let me know. I am stuck.

Disappearing Nine Patch

Over the last several months, I have been swapping squares of fabric with people all over the United States-which is pretty cool. Some have been 2.5" squares.
Other squares were 5" originally and I chopped them down to 2.5".


Over the last three weeks, I have been slowly assembling the squares into 9 patches with a black in the center. Actually, they go pretty quickly when everything is already cut up!

I have some pretty neat fabric that people have sent me. Athenamat has sent some really cute squares including some that you see here. :)

I still need to make many more 9 patches.

Isn't that cute summer fabric! I love the umbrellas.

I am then going to cut these in half vertically and horizontally so I have four smaller squares like this!

These squares will get flipped around.

Then juxtaposed with other cute small squares.

Eventually, I will have a scrappy disappearing nine patch similar to the one above. These are not pieced together yet, still waiting to cut all those 9 patch squares that you see up top.

My fresh squeezed disappearing nine patch is almost done! I have a small piece of binding left, and then need to throw it in the wash so it gets all wrinkly and pretty. I should have pictures of the finished product tonight or tomorrow.

What I did while in the car for almost twenty hours...

This past weekend we made the trip down to New Mexico to see my new niece. It was a great trip, although very short. We spent a long time in the car to get down there. It was about a ten hour trip one way.

We left around 1 o'clock on Friday and arrived around 11. To occupy myself along the way, I took many pictures.


Most of these were taken from the window of the car as we were rolling down the highway.

The above picture is from a gas station at the Raton exit off of I-25. It is a pretty impressive view from a gas station!

My favorite part of the drive was the windmill farm we passed. All of those tall structures you see along the horizon are windmills. There must have been a hundred of them surrounding the road that meanders through them all along the edge of a mesa top.I also worked on my yo yo quilt. I have around 200 4x4 squares. Along the way, I started sewing them into 8x8 squares and then into long strips. I would guess that this is almost 1,000 yo-yo's.