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.

The Birth Fair

Now, you might ask, as did one of my friends, "What in the heck is a birth fair?" Well, it is the Tarrant County Birth Network's fundraiser. One of my dear friends is a childbirth educator and helps to organize this. I thought, "Why not? I make baby stuff." Here is what my booth looked like.

This was my very first craft fair. I didn't know what to expect -- not from any craft fair, and certainly not from the birth fair. It was smaller than I expected. But I learned a few things, and I gained some experience on what things to prepare, what not to stress about. I'm sure each craft fair is different, though, too, so who knows if I learned the right things.

Ooh! Sorry about that reflection. I took a bunch of pictures of it, and they all came out with that same glare. And my pinwheel quilt looks cream. It's not. It's white. (Later posts to come for each of these quilts.)

Some women told me that they had seen my booth on Facebook, and that was the reason they came down to the birth fair. Well, at least it was pretty. No guts, no glory. I put myself out there, and I feel proud of myself. I really have never tried to sell anything that I have made, thinking it wasn't good enough or that people wouldn't value it. Well, they might NOT value it, but I learned that I know my own worth as a seamstress and a quilter. And it doesn't come from outside sources.

I was modern before I knew it.

I made these quilt tops about 10 years ago back when I had no money and was getting free fabric from a friend's stash. She would go quilting at the senior citizen's center, and all kinds of people would just drop off their grandmother's fabric and UFOs after she died. (Seriously.)

The initial plan was to put them on my girls' twin beds, but I didn't have a machine that could do free-motion quilting, and so they sat in the pile of flimsies waiting to be HAND quilted. Well, that pile grew pretty quickly. I liked to piece more than I liked to hand quilt. Anyway, now my girls are in a full-sized bed, the twin mattresses having been usurped by the boys for their bunk beds. They are not identical. I just made random butterflies. Some of the fabrics are decidedly . . . unpretty, let's say. What did I know back then? Apparently, I did know that bright colors and white were the way to go. (May I just say that the triangle border took longer to make than the whole rest of the quilt top?!)

The idea was that the butterflies were to rest on top of the mattress and the squares to hang down. If I ever get these quilted, we'll see if they work out that way. I wonder what I have that can go on the back.

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.