Don't Faint...

I have actually finished a project two and a half weeks before it is due!     

This is my version of the Candy Bar Pinwheels quilt, the May pattern for the "Le Petite: A year of Small Projects".  This is a small quilt that I plan to use on my rectangular coffee table in the living room.  I started it on Mother's Day and finished sewing the binding on this afternoon. 

Usually I am up till the wee hours of the morning the night before in order to get my projects finished on time. So this feeling of being done early is rare and feels very nice.  And this isn't just a top finished in the nick of time, it is actually quilted and bound.  A true completed finish. Yay for finally overcoming my desire to procrastinate! (at least this one time anyway)

I used a charm pack from Connecting Threads called Abigail's Garden.  I don't usually buy charm packs, or any precuts for that matter, because when you add up the fabric that comes in pre-cuts and compare it to the price paid for yardage, you sometimes end up paying $12 to $15 a yard for pre-cuts while regular yardage is about $8 or $9.  With such a huge price difference, I figure I can do the cutting myself and I usually stick to buying yardage.  But when I was at the Connecting Threads website buying orange thread for a different project, I saw that they had a some charm packs on sale at a great price so I bought a few to try.  I admit they were easy to work with (the pattern called for 2.5 squares, which meant no waste of the 5 inch charm), and I enjoyed having a whole variety of different fabrics to work with. So perhaps when I find more charm packs at a price that brings them closer to yardage prices, I may end up adding a few charm packs to my stash.

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Fabric Postcards

I finished up some postcards this week for some of my swaps.  

One of the swap themes was flowers, so I made these.

Another theme was Houses.
So I copied an idea from Lynn.  She had previously sent me this postcard.

Here are my versions.

Thanks for the inspiration Lynn!!

My last swap theme was Bridges. I took one of my drawings and printed it out on white fabric.  Then for more emphasis, I stitched around the bridge and waterfall in black thread.
I hope my swap partners like my sketch

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Quilting, Quilting, Just keep Quilting....

This quilt was made by a guild mate of mine and I did the quilting for her on Wednesday.
She doesn't like heavy tight quilting so I quilted a loose all over swirl pattern for this one.

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Quilting with the Cat

My cat, Jasper, came and sat on the quilt I was working on this afternoon and decided to take a nap.  Since he sat on the opposite corner from which I was working on, I let him stay while I finished up that section.  By the time I got to the corner he was all snuggled up in the other end of the quilt.

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My April Le Petite - Brocante

Here is my version of the Le Petite Challenge for April. I wanted something bright and cherry to drape over the couch for summer so I made my version slightly larger and more rectangular than the original. It measures 40 x 64

It took me forever to make my fabric choices for this quilt.  That was the whole delay in my starting, trying to decide which fabrics to use,  but I finally picked out a base fabric and was able to get a move on this project.  I started with the black Debbie Mumm fabric, which I have had for years.  I bought it on sale not sure what I was going to do with it, but for such a good price I figured I could eventually find something to do with it.  Now it is finally having its turn in the sun, literally.  Once I had that base fabric picked out, it was quick work to add  6 coordinating tone on tone solids to go with it and then I got to cutting.

I started sewing the top Saturday morning, did a few house chores in between, went into town to get some groceries for the week, and then stayed up super late to get it finished in time for the parade on May 1rst.  Which is now today....

I am so excited about how it turned out, that I wanted to blog about it right away. Now that its picture is up, I better hit the hay. Hopefully while I rest, I will dream of a good way to quilt this bright beauty.  :)

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A day at the beach

My kids had spring break this week, so we drove down to the beach and spent a few days with my parents.  Unfortunately it was the same days that the rain storms swept through the east coast.  But we did have a small window when it didn't rain so the kids and I headed to the beach with the dogs.

Facing the ocean, the sky was actually pretty clear and the sun was shining hot enough to give us sun burns.  But...

When you turned to look behind you, the gray clouds loomed over the sand dunes.

We stayed for about an hour and a half and then went back to grandma's house where we visited and played games.  Even though the weather was bad we still had a good time on our break.

We got home late last night and today I was inspired to make some beach postcards.

They are for one of the "open theme" postcard swaps I am in.

 I have also finished cutting out my fabric for the Le Petite Challenge for April.
I am cutting it close to the deadline again for this one.  

I sewed two of the quarter triangle squares together and that is all the sewing I have done.  So I know what I will be doing tomorrow.  Luckily the easy part is left.  The hardest part for me is trying to decide which fabric from my stash I want to use.  I stare at my fabric shelves for hours testing out color combinations.  I pull out a fabric and then put it back because I'm not ready to cut into it yet.  I told my daughter, who was watching me and questioning my process, "I haven't had that piece of fabric long enough to cut it yet.  I want to stare at it a couple more months before I make anything with it."  She just rolled her eyes and left me to my madness.  :)

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Eggs for Easter

I made these 5 eggs for my Flat Easter Egg Swap at Fabricards.  They are made just like the fabric postcards, and can even be mailed in this shape.  But since mine had some beading on the flowers, I decided to put them in some clear envelopes.  I kept the one in the middle for myself and added it to my Easter Decorations

These are the ones I got in return.

Now I have a basket full of flat eggs.

YAY!!

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4 down 1 to Go

 I finished the quilting and the binding on my Sweet Spot quilt this afternoon.
The shadows strewn over the quilt are from the tree in my backyard. This little bit of shading sure has helped the actual quilting show up better than when I took its picture in full sun.

I only have one quilt left to quilt from my original 5 quilts that I basted on the 21rst of March.  Which is the Pink Zig Zag quilt, but that will have to wait till after I finish the quilt I am making for my Quilt Guild Challenge, which is due the first week in May.  The challenge theme for this year is "9 patch or 9 patch variation".  So I have decided to turn in a very traditional 9 patch and finish up the nine patch quilt I started with Amanda Jean's sew along back in April-July of 2009.  Wow, two years ago.  It really doesn't seem that long ago. Again I am glad for this blog to keep my dates in check.  I would have sworn it was only last summer that I put those 9 patches together into a top.   I don't have any current photos of the top as is, but all it needs now is a thin outer white border and some quilting.  I pan to add the white border later this evening and then I can baste it. Hopefully I can get started on the quilting in the next couple days, that is if my schedule can stay uninterrupted, but with 4 kids and lots of pets, you never know what will come up in the days to come.  :)

The four original basted quilts I completed, plus the two extra I made from start to finish in between, make 6 quilts completed in about a month.  I have to admit that I am impressed with myself for getting these done.   I am not usually that productive, but lately I have been putting all my tasks into my phone using a Task App that I downloaded. It keeps track of all my tasks and reminds me when they are due and when I get close to getting behind. When a task is complete I check it off and it goes off the list. It has really helped me manage my time better.  I enter in every thing that I have or want to do, whether it be work or play.  If I am working on one task and think of something else that needs to get done, I quickly add it to my phone with a completion date and get back to the task at hand.   I feel like I get so much more done in a day than I have in the past by using this simple little app.  I use to keep notes on paper, but they would get lost, or I just wouldn't read them, but since I carry my phone almost everywhere, I have a constant reminder of what needs to get done and when.  I love it. and my fabric stash loves it.  It is finally getting some lovin' other the usual caressing as I walk by.

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Spring Time Fabric Postcards

I've Made several postcards over the past few weeks in between quilting quilts.  Can you tell I really like this green flowery fabric?  I have used it in all of them but one.

This Easter Egg was done using the Iris Folding technique.  But instead of paper, I used fabric.  I sure love the look of these types of cards.  I also made an iris folded strawberry.

Then I used the egg I cut out from the Iris folded card to make new Easter Cards.
I used up some of the left over Easter appliqués I had left over from previous cards.
So they are all a little different.

Matching Diaper Pouch

 This diaper pouch came together lickety split. It took me less than an hour to complete it from start to finish.  I do believe I was able to make it so quick because I had already made one before, so this time around I didn't have to spend time learning the pattern, which can be found for free here.

I  used the same fabrics from the pinwheel quilt to make the stripes on the pouch.  But instead of using white to exactly match the quilt, I used a yellow fabric for the bottom and linging.  This will get carried around a lot in the bottom of another bag, and I was worried the white would get too dirty so I went for yellow instead.

I sure wish I had one of these when I had babies.  I always had diapers and wipes strewn all over my diaper bag.  This would have kept everything nice and compact. I would have only needed to grab this pouch to have all my necessities for diaper duty.

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Pinwheel Baby Quilt is finished.

I got my white batting last night and basted this quilt as soon as I got home.  Then I started right into the quilting.  I finished it up this morning and then hand stitched the binding to the back this afternoon.

 I so love this quilt.  It feels so soft. I love all the white and how all the colors mix well together.

Did I mention it is soft... so soft.  I keep caressing it.
 

While I was out shopping for batting, I found the perfect stripped fabric for the binding.  I hadn't even been looking for binding fabric,  I figured I would use something I already had in my stash, but as soon as I saw this striped fabric I knew it would be perfect for this quilt.  So I snatched up a yard.  I didn't really need a whole yard for this binding, but the fabric was so nice I went ahead and got extra.  I am sure I will find another use for the rest of it.  

I used a nice soft baby flannel for the back.

Can you tell I love this quilt?  One picture wasn't quite enough.

I can't wait to give it away and have it get snuggled by the new baby.

  The shower is Saturday and it sure feels good to have this quilt done two days before it is needed.  Most of my handmade gifts end up getting finishing the night before or in the wee hours of the morning before the event. But not this time.

This time I have two days till the party.  Hmm, I bet I have time to make a diaper pouch in matching fabrics....  

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Endless Summer Quilted

 I had planned to baste and quilt the Pinwheel baby quilt last night, but I didn't have any white cotton batting. I thought for sure I had a small package left, but I must have used it for something else because I couldn't find it anywhere.  I didn't even have enough scraps of white batting to get a piece big enough for the little baby quilt. 

But, while I was searching for the white batting, I did find some nice pieces of beige batting that fit perfect for my Endless Summer quilt top.  So I sewed those batting pieces together and then basted the layers of my Endless Summer quilt together.  I had an idea I wanted to use for the yellow triangle spaces, so I started the quilting right away last night and after doing some quick house chores this morning, I finished quilting the rest of the quilt.  Then while watching biographies on Hulu this afternoon, I hand stitched the binding down on the back.

I like the quilting I did all except in the sashing.  It didn't come out as smooth as I would have liked.  I thought I would be able to make nice smooth even curves if I used the points of the pinwheels and seams lines as base points for my arcs, but I got wobbly and some things got off center as I turned the quilt under the machine.  Unlike other freehand quilt designs, I feel like these wavy lines need more precision for a more smooth profession look.  I almost wanted to rip out all the sashing stitches and start over, but I refrained.  I suppose I will have to break down and actually mark my quilts from now on when I really want precision in certain areas of my quilting.

Free hand feathers are more forgiving when it comes to wobbly lines.  I really enjoy doing those.

 Now I have a nice spring time quilt to decorate the house with just in time to decorate for Easter.   Later on tonight when I go into town, I will pick up some white batting at Hobby Lobby with my 40%off coupon.  I love using my coupon on cotton batting.  After using cotton batting so often lately, it is painful to go back to polyester batting and that coupon really helps bring down the price of the cotton batting I have come to love.  I really like how the cotton sticks to the top and backing.  It really helps eliminate bunching on the back of the quilt when I machine quilt.

I still have those two other quilts I basted a couple weeks ago waiting to be quilted.  One of them fits in nice with my spring decoration too, so hopefully I can get it finished before too long and enjoy it  this spring season.

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