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.