lately

Finished: the quilt for my dad's birthday (back in June). I will post pictures after I have given it to him this Saturday. Hope he likes it!

Almost done: This Hallowgraphix wreath quilt kit by Jason Yenter from In the Beginning fabrics. Just have to finish the quilting and put on the binding.

Next up: a purse for a Christmas gift using Amy Butler's Birdie Sling pattern and a Christmas quilt for ME using Basic Grey by Moda's Fruitcake fabric line (including a layer cake, oooh!). Plus, 3 birthday blocks for my LiveJournal community to finish up the year.

northern lights, finished

I realize that I never posted about the finished Northern Lights quilt!

Here is the finished product, held by my husband:

I am very pleased with the overall look but not necessarily with all the quilting. I won't be picky though, as the recipients like it. :)

The backing is flannel, which was not hard to quilt at all, though it took a lot of smoothing at first and there was a little shrinking at first. The backing has bears, compasses and tents:

More quilting updates to come as I get into sewing again. I've barely been in the sewing room for the last month, until this week. I am trying to finish up a quilt for my dad, who turned 60 in June (hi, Dad, if you're reading this!). I also have a Halloween wall-hanging type thing to make, which *should* go quickly and then a Christmas quilt planned. Then a few little Christmas gifts to make.

giveaway ideas

Hi, blog readers. I think I will do a giveaway once I have reached 10 followers. Small, yes, but it's a lot more than I used to have!

The question is, what will the giveaway be? A mini quilt? Some fabric (those Happy Daisy charm packs that I don't really like?)?? A pillowcase?

And when will I get that 10th follower? I know I don't post much, but I'd love to have more readers. That might inspire me to post more. :)

robot baby

I finished and gave away the Robot Baby quilt, made using a Cogsmo panel and some fabric. It's so cute! And the recipients loved it (I think). :) The baby boy this is for isn't due until September, but I didn't think I'd see the parents again.

Here it is. Henry really liked it, too. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it was pretty cool, too. It was ALL Cogsmo fabric. I quilted around each robots and cogs to make them stand out a little.

I have a few bits of the fabric left over and some larger pieces, so I may make a bib or a baby-type ball. Maybe both.

I also just finished a tiny baby quilt (26x32 or so) that I may sell on Etsy. I honestly don't like the fabric very much (Happy Daisy by Moda) but I pushed through. Made using a charm pack and a little of another one.

Which means I may have a giveaway soon, as I have another charm pack of the Happy Daisy plus what's left of the used one. And I don't think I want to keep them...

postage stamp quilt

I finally started sewing a bit of my postage stamp quilt. Before you see the picture (google it if you want more examples), let me tell you that the squares are cut 1 1/2 inches, so a finished square is 1". Tiny! And I am hand sewing this. I think that will make my sewing more accurate. At least, I hope it will! You can see the measurements on the 6 inch square in the pictures. Yes, those are inches...

This quilt is going to take forever. This is only the first block and I did it while my husband played a video game/watched TV. I don't think I have enough squares cut yet, either, but I save up all my tiny scraps. If you are a quilter/sewer and have small scraps to share, I would love to have them!!

spring wall hanging

Here is the wall hanging I made back in March. On my birthday, in fact!

The block on the left is called "Spring Has Come" and I thought I was making it as a birthday block to give away, until I actually read that the person wanted a white background. So, I made a wall hanging out of it, along with a crocus block that I ended up recreating to give as the birthday block. It all ended up working out and now I have this lovely wall hanging right at the top of the stairs. I hung it up on a round curtain rod that is set on some small Command hooks. Marvelous!

The only problem is that I now need to make a summer wall hanging!

what I've been working on

I've been working on a myriad of projects lately...

1. I've been quilting the Northern Lights quilt for friends in Alaska. I ran into some thread trouble this weekend so I set it aside for a few days and made...
2. Pillow shams. This is the second time I've made some for our bed. For some reason I didn't feel like taking pictures this weekend.
3. Birthday Blocks for my LJ community.
4. A baby quilt with a robot theme, with fabric from the Cogsmo collection, including the panel. Unfortunately I didn't get to work on it much on Monday.
5. I made a spring theme wall hanging in April and I haven't taken a picture of it yet. And it's actually on the wall!
6. Two quilts for Quilts For Kids, one from the kit they sent me (the blue/purple/green one above, with dogs) and another of my own simple creation:

Speaking of the robot quilt, my 2-year-old is napping, so I need to take advantage of some sewing time.

northern lights project

I've started planning the quilt I said I'd make for a friend when she moved to Alaska. And now she's gotten married, too, so this quilt is not just for her anymore. I'm going for a Northern Lights type of feel.

Here is a tentative layout of the quilt:

Now that I'm looking at it, though, I don't think I have that much red to use. But there are two different oranges, as you can sort of see here:
(And I love the pink in this, which has traces of orange and even purple in it.)
and here:
The fabrics are all washed a pressed, ready to be cut into and sewn into something lovely! I want to get started on this quilt this week.

Julie's quilt

Finished in time for Christmas, here is the quilt I made for my MIL, Julie. She came to Quilt Fest one day while we were visiting in Houston. The back and front are both pieced, in different colors of the same fabric line, Olive Rose by Valori Wells...I love all of her fabrics.

The blue side, in the middle of quilting. Quilting was in the ditch and then simple diagonal lines.

The green side, ready to send out. This was a very simple quilt in design but I think it looks great!I based it on an Irish chain block (triple, quadruple??) but used 5 inch squares. Julie says she loves it, so that's all that matters!