Cutting Fabric

I have two different quilts that I want to get pieced together by the end of the month. 

To me, the most time consuming part of any project is cutting out the fabric.
Once that part is done the rest of the process seems to go pretty fast.
I spent my time today cutting all the fabric I will need for my two projects.

These pieces will turn into a lap quilt for one of my friends.
Not sure of the name of the pattern for this one.
I saw a picture of a spiffy quilt on the internet and thought I would try to replicate it.

These pieces will turn into "Sweet Spot",  the quilt for the February Le Petite monthly challenge.

Hopefully I will have some spare time tomorrow to chain piece all these together.

It Has Arrived

My friend's bag has arrived and she LOVED it! And now that she has it, I won't spoil any surprises by showing it off here.  I used the the Profession Tote pattern from The Creative Thimble. I am so excited about it. I really had a good time making this bag.  The shark fabric was really fun to work with.   I even have a little shark fabric leftover so I will have to find some cute little patterns to help use it up.

I added some small embroidery designs to the inside pockets.
I saw these cute shark designs at Embroidery Library and thought they would go perfect in the bag.

This bag is loaded with pockets, inside and out.  It fits everything.  I love it.

Happy Birthday Ilox!!!

(^^^)

So many pins...

It's times like these when I really wish I had a long arm quilting machine.

I am quilting this quilt for another guild mate of mine.  Should be done by the end of the weekend.

Sneak Peak

I've been busy working on a new project for a good friend of mine.
She keeps up with my blog, so I don't want to post any recognizable photos of it yet.

But it is difficult to contain my excitement, so I will show a sneak peak for now.....

Fabrics cut, ironed, and ready to be put together.

(^^^)

/wave

Mon Ami Bound and Finished

 I finished the rest of the quilting and the binding for my Mon Ami quilt on Wednesday night, but it has been raining for 3 days straight so I wasn't able to go outside to take a photo of it till this afternoon.

I added a light blue fabric as the binding to help frame out the yellow border.

~~~~~~  =^..^=  ~~~~~~

Newest Drawing

I finished my beach scene drawing two Sundays ago, and finished adding the color the other night.
Time to start a fresh new page of doodles, just not sure what scene to do next.
I guess I shall see where my pen takes me.

Quilting Done

I finished quilting this top yesterday afternoon while watching Biographies on Hulu.com.

Well, I really did more listening than watching, but I still learned some interesting facts.

I sure am more productive when I have something to listen to while I work.

I'll give this quilt back to my guild mate this Thursday at our next meeting.

Day of Quilting

Yesterday I spent most of the day quilting my guild mates quilt.  It is a queen size and I got more than half of it done.  But around 5 o'clock, after spending my whole day quilting this quilt, I found myself getting irritable.  For what reason I don't really know.  It could have been too many hours in the chair, or me rolling over the corner of the quilt with my chair ripping the batting close to the edge, or the fact that I see too many "wiggles" in my quilting lines than I am comfortable with.  Or it could have been all of those mixed together.   I found myself extremely grumpy so I decided to go do something else.  I went to the kitchen to check on my daughter who was preparing dinner and I brought my Mon Ami quilt to the table to baste it while I chatted with her and helped her out a little.  --    My daughter and I have deal:  She was $8 short of buying some clothes she wanted.  So I told her I would pay the $8 if she would cook 8 meals for us.  She agreed, I was excited.  :)

After dinner I started the quilting on my Mon Ami and my mood was was vastly improved.  Not sure if it was the cheery yellow or the fact that I was working on a project of my own that I get to keep, but either way, working on this project helped me get back to a calm relaxed state.

I didn't get to finish the quilting last night, but this is what I have so far.  I stitched in the ditch around each block, but I want to add some more quilting inside each block.  Not sure what type yet, perhaps some swirly type quilting  inside each star.  I shall ponder over it for a bit and post the finished photo later this week.

Diaper Pouch

I saw a tutorial for a diaper pouch at www.noodle-head.com.  It looked really cute, and I wanted to make one, but since my kids are all out of diapers I didn't really have a need for one.  But I did know someone who could possibly have a use for one and I just happened to have a babysitting date for her tonight.  She has the cutest little baby boy and that was all the reason I needed to make a diaper pouch for her.  It sewed together pretty quick.  I had it finished within an hour.  I even got to use up some of my fusible fleece scraps which were just the right size for this project.

Top Finished

I finished my Mon Ami quilt top this evening. 

Now I have to decide how to quilt it.

Quilt Basted

I basted this quilt yesterday.
A guild mate of mine made the top and asked me to quilt it for her.
I plan to have it ready to return to her by the next guild meeting in February.
I don't know the name of this pattern, but I really like it and I love her fabric colors.  I am excited to quilt it.

Mon Ami Blocks

I finished making the 25 blocks for my Mon Ami quilt.  I have 13 blocks with yellow stars, and 12 blocks with blue stars.  Next I need to put them together and add the borders, but I will have to wait till next week to do that, because I have two clients quilts that need quilting .  Once I get those other two quilts finished then I can go back to working on my Mon Ami quilt.

Winter Themed Fabric Postcards

This weekend I spent some time finishing up some Winter Wonderland postcards.
For these first three I used the blue scraps I had left over after cutting fabrics for my Mon Ami quilt.

This next  card was made using leftover scraps from previous appliqué projects.
The fabric already had wonder under on the back so all I had to do was cut it into the shapes I needed and iron everything together and then add my stitching.

This card was made earlier in the month.
It was made for the Fabricards "January Cover Girl" Challenge.

Starting my Mon Ami

Last night I made my first block for my Mon Ami Quilt.  I haven't made all the other blocks yet, but I have picked out the fabrics I want to use.

I went through my 2.5 inch fabric bin and pulled out 25 different blues and 25 different yellows to make all the blocks.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough yellows, but sure enough I did.  I had exactly enough.  The blues I had plenty of, I even had the option to pick which ones I wanted to go in the quilt and which ones I didn't.



I also cut enough white square to go with all the blue and yellow squares.  Later on this week I will mark all the white squares and sew all the half square triangles together.  I am very excited that I will have my very own blue and yellow quilt.


Blue and yellow together is one of my favorite color combinations. I have made quite a few quilts in this color combo, but I have given them all away.  One of my favorites was made in 2004.  I gave it to my brother for Christmas that year.  It was my first monkey wrench quilt.  A lot of the leftovers of that quilt will be going into this Mon Ami quilt.

Here is the monkey wrench quilt I made in 2004.
Funny how I thought I had a really good camera back then.  I thought all my pictures turned out really neat, but as I went back to find this photo, I realized that my camera back then didn't take pictures as well as the one I use today.  That makes me wonder how my pictures will look 6 more years from now.  I don't see how they can get better, but then again, I thought the same thing 6 years ago.

Three More Mosaic Color Play Blocks

Three more Mosaic Color Play blocks swapped. These are the three I made for my partners.

The first went to Donna in Montana, the second is at Shirley's house in Canada, and the last one is on its way to Karyli in Idaho.

I still need to take a photo of all the blocks I have received.
The best way to do that would probably to put them all together in quilt form.  :)