Bumblebee quilt

It's kind of a stupid name, I realize. It's just what I've always called it. I made this quilt top years ago -- like 5 or 6 years ago. You know how you get sick of things and just stick them in a bin for a while? Well, I recently unearthed this, and here it is, all pinned and ready to be quilted. This (of course!) was all just scraps. The backing is from my stash too. It wasn't quite enough (as always), so I had to add a couple of strips to the sides. I'll show more pics of the completed project. You can see the back then.

Some cards

The Christmas cards were for card swap in November. I always do two different sets. I made the cards, but I don't know if any of them will actually get sent out! I am so behind on that, and I'm never very good at sending cards, so I suppose no one will be surprised if they don't get a card from me this year. It's par for the course, and I can always use them next year -- try again.

I didn't really have good enough ink on this gingerbread card. Well, it was good ink, but it was dye ink, and I needed some chalk ink or something for this acrylic stamp. Anyway, the gingerbread men look cookie-ish with their sporadic inking. Whatever. They look better IRL than they do in this picture. It's from a Martha Stewart stamp set -- some Christmas one I got at Wal-Mart. I used iridescent white puff paint and red stickles on the gingerbread men.

These are just some cards that I thought would good for weddings. The butterfly stamp is from Papertrey Ink. I stamped it in some Martha Stewart blue ink. It's upstairs, and I'm too lazy to go up and check the exact name. I just used Frosted Lace stickles on the outside of the butterflies. The glittery paper is from My Mind's Eye. I think. The "Celebrate" sentiment if from Papertrey's Little Lady stamp set. I stamped the butterflies, cut them out, and adhered them with a glue dot. I bent them in the middle a little bit just so they wouldn't be completely flat.

I have a quilt ready to show you. Maybe I'll get it posted today as well. Maybe not. I know I've been so unreliable about posting. In the meantime, it has been a while since I posted any cards, but it's not because I haven't been making them. So here they are. I hope you're having a good Christmas/Holiday season. Are you ready?

Updates

Yeah, I know they look very similar. The hourglass one is made from Moda's Seaside Rose, an oldie but goodie. Don't know why it's so dark. I had all the lights on.

The Sawtooth Stars with fancy centers (don't ask me to name them all, please) Quilt is made from Moda's Simplicity.

I'll take more close-ups if I ever actually get them quilted. I have the backs all ready to go, but again, they're not going in the lineup for before Christmas, so maybe in January you'll see something more than quilt tops. Here's hoping!

Blue and Yellow Ragged Squares

Here's a little update on the ragged squares quilt. The top is put together. The back isn't. I don't have quite enough of the blue I wanted to use, so I'll have to add some strips to the sides. I won't have time to quilt it before Christmas I don't think, because there are at least two quilts ahead of it. I'm just not that fast.

There's a reason why I don't try to pin quilts together unless everyone is napping. What a great assistant, though!

Tie-Dyed Onesies

So I made some of these for my sister's baby a few months back, but of course, I didn't take any pictures because I wasn't blogging then. I recently did some blue ones. I plan to sew some cute fabric up the middle of the burpees (maybe not on the tie-dyed ones). I'll post those after I do them. I'm just trying to get a jump on some baby gifts -- all these people giving birth. What is up with that?

I got the idea from Abby's website. She has a great explanation of how to do this, so I'll just send you there. I'm too lazy to do my own tutorial. Hey, why reinvent the wheel? Ya know? Enjoy!

Applique Hearts

So I saw a little snippet of a picture on an ad in a quilt magazine (wow, LOTS of prepositional phrases there) of a quilt kind of like this. Now, I am still on a fabric fast (although, thanks to Jill I was able to break that fast with no injury to my bank account), so for this quilt I just dug into my stash. I had some Shangri-La (by Moda) and some Anticipation (old Sandy Gervais for Moda) that matched perfectly. I also used a piece of pale pink flannel that I had left over from making somebody pajamas a number of Christmases ago and a couple of red fat quarters from Joann's. Don't know who made them. Probably going to regret that because of the fading factor, but I always remember that in hindsight. The squares are 15 1/2 inches cut. I just freehanded the heart on a piece of 12x12 chipboard that was the front cover to a paper pack. I did the large one, and then cut the smaller one out of the middle of the larger one, so I only had to use one template for both. I just machine appliqued them -- little zigzag. There are actually 12 squares altogether, so 3x4, and then I will put sashing in between and a couple of borders to make it into a throw-size quilt. I'll give finished dimensions when it's . . . well, finished. This is a fast, simple quilt. I typically do such complex quilts that they never get done (see my lengthy current projects list), so I'm trying to change that.

Now, on this quilt I did trim the hearts out of the backs of the large hearts and used some of them to cut out the smaller hearts. The rest of the small hearts that I didn't do on the front I am saving to applique onto the back of the quilt. It just seemed like such a lot of fabric (and fabric that I LOVE, too!) to waste in layering. I know you're supposed to trim out the back on applique, but I'm so random with when I do and don't. This time I did.

This is my favorite one, I think. Enough contrast, but mostly subtle blending. I just love it!

Blue and Yellow Ragged Squares

I saw this quilt on Amanda Jean's website and knew I had to make one. I always find it odd that I am drawn to yellow and blue quilts, because individually I am not fond of those colors. I certainly can't WEAR either of them without looking washed out. I'm a red/green/pink/brown kind of girl. I think I have made three or four yellow and blue quilts including this one, though, so on some level I resonate to it. Plus, I just love the ragged look.

I just used stuff from my stash. I have way too much, and I have got to cut it down. However, I'm not as good as Jill. I'll find a way to use it before I give it away. I'm such a packrat! Anyway, this quilt is nice, because it goes together quickly, and it uses up a lot of fabric. I didn't trim out the back on these, because I wanted the extra weight. I used some fabric from my stash that I got back when I first started and didn't know better. Some of it is really thin, so the triple layers are good for that. Plus, if these colors fade at different rates, it really doesn't matter that much, because I have so many different shades of blue. Anyway, I am loving this quilt, and I can't wait to snuggle under it. Of course, it has to get shoved aside a little while I finish stuff for Christmas. Only 27 days left, so said my Facebook page.