Blogger's Quilt Festival!

Every time it rolls around, I think I will plan ahead, be ready, and finish a brand new quilt for Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Well, here we are again, and no new quilt is finished.  So you get to see this one again.  It is made from Elizabeth's Hedgerow Quilt pattern.

I have a friend who is hard to buy for, because she can just get what she wants/needs when she wants it.  She, however, LOVES Raggedy Ann and Andy.  I happened to find a FQ pack with them on it, so I just added to it to make the hedgerow blocks.  This is my lovely back, which I almost like more than the front.  I may have gone slightly overboard on making the blocks.  :)

I do like red/white/blue quilts a lot, but I feel like this one was too much the same and didn't have enough contrast w/in the blues and reds.  I learned (again) about how I am not as fond of super matchy-matchy quilts.  It's better when the colors are a little off from each other -- more visual interest.

I made the quilt 5 blocks x 6 blocks.  I had originally planned to make it 6x6, but I decided that was too big.  That's how the other 6 blocks ended up on the back.  I always go too big.  I seem to think bigger is better.  Finished quilt is 72 x 86.

Now go check out all the other great quilts in the festival!  I love this time of year!

http://amyscreativeside.com/2012/05/18/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2012/#comment-313063

(Sorry!  I couldn't get the link to work just on the button!  I swear I used to know how to do that!  :P)



I went to the woods . . .

I recently looked at my blog and realized that it has been since the end of October that I last blogged. I didn't give any explanation, but I'll tell you why now. We moved to the woods. My husband took a job in Connecticut last September, but the kids and I didn't join him until right before Christmas. So instead of blogging in November and December, I was packing. Nine people have a LOT of stuff - especially if one of them is a quilter, scrapbooker, knitter, and all-around crafter. THAT one had the most stuff. Sheesh.

Anyway, because we moved to the woods, it has taken just a bit of time to get the internet back up. I guess I could have blogged at least this explanation at the library, but it has taken us some time to settle in here too. So, now I'm back. Lest you think I have not been sewing, here are a couple of pictures of the two butterfly quilts I finished for my sister's little girls. I actually finished them in time for Christmas but am just blogging about them now.

Yes, they're two different quilts -- one with a pink back, one with a yellow back. I made the tops a LONG time ago for MY two girls, never finished them -- a familiar story, no? Luckily, my sister has two little girls, and luckily she liked the quilt tops. So nice to have older WIPs get finished and have nice homes.

Unfortunately, since I was busy trying to move, I didn't take very good pictures. This is it. These two. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging. And hopefully, I will be back to being part of the regular schedule! Here's hoping life doesn't get in the way of my blogging and quilting. ;)

All Star Coins

This the "leftover" quilt -- just scraps were left of this All Star fabric. And there's one coin made from Momo's It's a Hoot.

I love this quilt.

But now I'm kinda wishing that I had swapped backs with the other All Star Quilt. Might have been more consistent-looking.

All-Star Bricks

Not that I needed more fabric, but I just love this Riley Blake line. I think it might be All-Star 2. I got a small FQ pack and just made up this bricks pattern. I was looking for something that would go together quickly. I usually make everything so complicated, and I had a lot of things to make before the birth fair.

I added in a Quilter's Only brown, some robots whose origin I cannot recall (Michael Miller perhaps), and a teal paisley from something so long ago. I think the line was called Tiddly Winks. Okay. I just walked myself upstairs and looked at the selvage. It IS Tiddly Winks, and it's by Arrin Turnmire for Moda. I forgot to look at the date. I'm not walking back up there, but I'm gonna say it's at least 4 years old. I know. I know. A white back on a baby quilt? It's what I had. I think it's cute. And it's too late to go back now. Incidentally, I did another baby quilt with these fabrics, and the front is mostly white while the back is mostly dark. I don't know why it worked out that way, but it did.

Summer Song Pinwheels

Are you sick of these yet? We're halfway there. I just love Riley Blake's Summer Song line. It's so cheery and fun. I have made two other quilts (okay, they're not MADE, but are in progress) from this line. And I want more. It's just so cheery!

Yup, I bought a FQ pack, and I'm using it up for the back. Wow. That rhymed. Okay. I'll try to break it up by posting something a little different for tomorrow. Then I'll be back with two more baby quilts.

Citron Zoo Baby

This is an almost exact duplicate of this quilt. I had leftovers, and I loved the first iteration so much that I thought I should do another.

Fabrics are Michael Miller's Zoo Baby, Ta-Dot, and who knows what else. The background fabric is Kona Charcoal (I hope that's right). LOVE this combination! I used Elizabeth's free pattern. And it's already in its new home.

Blackberry Baby

I never know what to name my quilts. In preparation for the birth fair that I did last month, I finished up a bunch of baby quilts. This was one. I have no sophisticated photos -- just front and back. The next few posts will look similar to this one in that way.

This is one I designed myself. I don't like how wide the black strips are. They look fine with the bigger blocks but are ridiculously huge next to the smaller ones. I'm going to keep looking at this, though, because I like the idea of it. Back. I was able to use up a lot of the purple that Jill sent me. I'm not a purple person, but I have a friend who loves purple and black together. I'm hoping this next baby of hers is a girl, so she can have this one.

On the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea

Name that tune. Anyone? If you're in your late 30s or older or just a Disney junkie, you'll recognize that from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I always loved that song, and this quilt reminds me of it for some reason -- all the sea life, perhaps.

My quilt group wanted to do a zigzag quilt a while back. I tell you, I am just as behind on my quilt group quilts as I am on my QALs. I guess we can just agree that I'm behind on nearly everything -- except baby quilts for upcoming births. I'm actually ahead there. I just did some wavy lines to sort of look like ocean waves or currents or something. I like the curvy lines juxtaposed against the sharp, geometric shape of the zigzags. I like the movement it gives to the quilt.

It's made mostly with Heather Ross' Mendocino line in the orange/aqua colorway. I saw this on Nettie's blog. She was selling kits and had a tutorial. I didn't buy the kit, because I already had these fabrics, and I think I cut the squares to 5 1/2" or 6 1/2" just to make the quilt a little bigger. That seems like something I would do. ;)

The boys are excited to have something with no pink in it. And those Heather Ross fabrics are SO soft. This one is on my UFO Challenge for the year (see sidebar). I must confess that I have given up on trying to keep up with the right month. I got behind in about May, and now I'm just doggedly trying to finish them all this year period, whenever they get done. I have two and a half months to go and I have finished 10 out of 18. I need to go buy some batting and get going on the rest of them. I am determined. But of course, I need to basically finish one each week to get it all done. (Bites fingernails a little, a bad habit that was theoretically broken when she was 12.) Okay. I'm off to buy some batting, then, I guess. I absolutely WILL NOT start my Swoon quilt until next year. I will NOT.

Charmed Whirligig Finish

I really have been finishing a number of items but have just been too busy to blog them. So you're going to see a lot of finishes in the near future and not much process. I am also trying to focus on finishing and not starting new things. I'm sure I've said that before too, but I've been on a little bit of a roll with that.

Two charm packs (plus backing fabric) make the whirligigs. Fabric requirements here. Instructions here.

Fabric is Martinique by 3 Sisters for Moda. I love the soft look that their fabrics lines always give. I'm not a pastel person really, but I just love their lines! I love a good paisley. I am an 80s girl, and we loved us some paisley in that decade. I'm happy to see it coming back around -- and in such beautiful colors too.I stippled this in a coral pattern, which I though was fitting since some of these fabrics have coral on them.

Machine bound again. It really is making things go so quickly that I can't give it up just yet. Maybe if I ever get down to only 10 or 15 projects, I'll consider hand binding again. How are you doing on finishing? Any progress? Amanda Jean is now sponsoring a Finish-it-up Friday Mr. Linky. Finish something this week, and you can link up over on her blog. Then you can go look at what everyone else is finishing and be inspired too! Good luck this week. You can do it!!

Pinwheels in the Park Finished!

Did you think I forgot about this quilt? I actually finished it SO long ago (you know, like 3 weeks or so), but I have been so busy getting my husband out the door and then getting ready for the birth fair that I haven't had time to blog. (As an aside, since I haven't had time to blog, I have yet to mention that I am moving. The Bossy Quilter will be in the same virtual location, but my family and I will be moving to Connecticut. Exciting for us, but it has really cut into my blogging time.) Okay. Back to the quilt.

Possibly my favorite block. Possibly my second favorite.

You might remember that Kerri was making this quilt and asked if anyone wanted to quilt along. I don't know if I quilted along on their schedule, but this is definitely the fastest I've ever finished a quilt-along.

Bliss dots for binding. Because I'm trying to finish a lot of things very quickly (because I'm tired of the ginormous number on my WIPs list), I have taken to binding by machine -- stitch onto the back, flip to the front, topstitch. I like the look of hand binding better, but this is going much faster. I'm into faster right now. This is my second daughter's current favorite. It's smaller than I thought it would be (should've read the directions instead of skimming them), but it's a good size for her. I really love this one too. Kinda makes me wish I were a little shorter so my toes didn't stick out. Kinda.

Pinwheel Sampler Finished

I did finish this last week, but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it, so I'm going to link it. It was for my UFO Challenge. I'm so behind on that now that I'm not even sure what number was supposed to go to which month. But I know I should've finished this a while ago.

This was Rachel's Pinwheel Sampler Quilt-Along from last year. Just now finished it, yup. I added a few extra pinwheels, because I wanted it to be a little bit longer.

Scrappy back made from whatever was left. I had found some other FQs on sale at my LQS. The fabrics are Aster Manor by 3 Sisters for Moda. That main brown on the back, however, is from Shangri-La -- also by 3 Sisters for Moda if I'm not mistaken. Loopy meander. I'm in a hurry to finish a bunch, so I'm just using the ol' stand-by to bang these out. Also, I'm machine binding (gasp!). It's so much faster. Did I say that already?

The sunlight makes this harder to see, but I like this block. I wanted to try a different-colored background than just white or cream. This may be too dark, but in some ways I think it makes it more formal.

I love this simple, framed pinwheel. And these colors -- the coralish red with the browns and pinks -- these are my colors. I just love how cozy they feel to me. I tell you, I'm going to finish my UFO challenge by the end of this year -- even though I'm behind and even though I'm moving. I can do it!!! Right? I'll just keep saying that to myself over and over, and then maybe it'll come true.

Framed Cars

I don't know where the time has gone. I really have been working on things -- mostly backs and quilting without binding. (I know, I know.) I did finally finish this little cutie for my friend's little cutie. She adopted him back in April. She got it last week. (I know, I know.)

I'm really down to scraps of Riley Blake's Wheels, but I love it so much, so I'm not wasting a thing if I can help it.

I used a few other lines to finish out the frames. It's really such a great way to use up little pieces of your favorite fabrics.

This quilt finished at about 36"x48" -- perfect baby size.

Some of my hand-dyed muslin on the back. I love the slight marbling you get from hand-dying (and not being perfect at it). I think this used up the last of that cars print too. I'm not completely sure, though -- there might be some scraps left to make another quilt. ;) Oh the scrap/WIP dilemma.

Kaleidoscope finished!!!!

ETA: I guess I misunderstood. I was OVER the wire. The FQs were already given away. But I actually finished this, and that is a prize in and of itself.

And just under the wire too! Elizabeth had an incentive to finish by today -- some lovely FQs. I wasn't sure it was going to happen, but lo, and behold. Here it is.

I had it laying on the floor last week, and my husband looked at it and said, "It looks like a kaleidoscope." I asked if he was mocking me, because, you know, husbands do that sometimes. "Did you know that's what it was called?" He said he didn't. So . . . mission accomplished. My pieced (scrounged up) back. It has some scrunchy, puckering issues, because I have some technical difficulties with machines right now. I think once I wash it, it will be just fine. Crossing fingers. Cuz I'm not undoing it. I still have 79 projects on deck. Onward! It's in the washing machine now. So I can snuggle it later. Maybe. It IS 106 outside right now. Which is actually 4 degrees cooler than usual around here. ;)

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you finish something this month! We're just at the beginning!

Lest we forget . . .

Remember this? (Scroll down.) I nearly finished it in February. It just needed binding. In fact, I got the binding on it about a week into March. And then I kept forgetting to blog about it. So here it finally is. Elizabeth Hartman's Paintbox QAL.

My helpers were being silly.

Loopy meander again. Not enough gray to finish the binding. I chose gray because there are SO MANY colors in this already, and I couldn't choose one over another. Black was going to be too heavy. I like how the gray turned out.

The lovely back.

Silly helpers again.

My oldest has adopted this as her favorite quilt. For now. I've got a crazy circle quilt top that she has her eye on. Unfortunately, it's not on my list of UFOs to finish this year. :/

I already took this one off of my number, so it will not be going down at all. The previous two quilts didn't even make the list, so my number didn't go down with those either. And I have other baby quilts that I need to start (and, of course, FINISH) that will not reduce my number either. But I am happy to see it in the 60s. Hoping it will at least stay there or creep into the 50s. I want to be able to start new projects guilt-free. Ha ha. :)