See You in September Blog Hop

My summer was mostly spent making memories with the family and playing in the lakes and waterfalls of South Carolina. We took several weekend trips and had one full week of camping fun.

As far as making things at the sewing machine, I spent a lot of time finishing up some UFO's, which I have been blogging about throughout the summer. I am always trying to whittle down my UFO pile but I always like to start new projects - probably why the UFO pile never gets smaller. Luckily this hop gave me incentive to start and FINISH three new projects this summer.

First on the list, I made another Ruffle tote with pockets.  The first one was made in March for the Ruffles blog hop and I made it to carry my drawing pad. When my Mom saw it, she told me if it was just a couple inches bigger it would be the perfect bag to carry her iPad around.
So I made another one this summer and made it a couple inches bigger just for her.

I also took some pictures as I made it and turned it into a pattern. It is my first attempt at making a pattern so I am offering it for free at Craftsy just for this blog hop. You can click the link at the top right on the blog or click here to go to Craftsy to get the pattern.

The bottom.

Here are both totes together.
You can see the new one is slightly taller, it is also an inch wider,
Perfect for iPads or any other tech pad.

For my next project I started out with this pile of lovelies.

This was my first time working with Riley Blake Gingham and I must say it is wonderful fabric to work with.  In the past I would avoid gingham in my projects because every other gingham I came across was flimsy, very light weight, and would cut all wonky.  Riley Blake is just the opposite.  It is soft and thick and wonderful to work with.  I will definitely be using Riley Blake's gingham the next time I need more for a project.

I turned some of that yummy goodness above into the quilt below.

I first saw this quilt block on Geta's blog. She calls it a modern dresden, but I like to call it Wagon Wheels or Steering Wheels because that is what I think of when I look at it. I've seen others call it windmills, dresden fans, and sunburst.  No matter the name, I love the block and when I first saw it, I put it on my quilt "to do" list.  It stayed there a long time though because I could never decide which fabrics to use.  During the summer I found out that gingham makes a wonderful Wagon Wheel quilt.  

When I was working on the layout of the blocks I split the quilt in two and put one of each color on the top and one on the bottom, but my son said if I move the red and yellow around every color would be opposite each other in the same way a knight moves on the chess board.  So I swapped the yellow and the red blocks and now each color can find its mate if it goes over two and down one or vise-verse.  I suppose I could also name the quilt "Knight's Movement".  So many names to choose from.

The quilt is 47 inches wide, just a few inches wider than most fabric, so I went for an easy pieced backing.

While cutting the strips for my Wagon Wheel quilt, each strip left me with two scrap dresden plates.  Just enough for one more mismatched block.  I decided to turn that into a pillow.  I finished it up with a band of dark blue gingham and stuffed it, leaving just enough room for it to squish up nice and soft when you hug it.

 My final project was a hedgehog coin purse.  When I first saw this on Craft Passion I knew I had to have one of my very own.  I think she turned out fantastic with her pink gingham quills.  

Thanks for stopping by to see my summer projects.
Be sure to check out the other hoppers today and see what they have been working on

Wednesday, September 10
Secretly Stitching
Buzzing and Bumbling
Quilt n Queen
Quilted Delights (Me)
Grandmama's Stories 

To see the whole Schedule, wonderfully hosted by Shari and Mdm Samm, click here.

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Charity Quilts Basted and September Goal

Not much purge progress this week, so I didn't get to be part of the link this time around,  but I am still slowly chuggin' along.  This morning I basted the three boy charity quilts.   Since I expect these to get washed frequently, I plan on doing a simple  meander. They should quilt up in no time.

I also need to post my September goal for  ALYOF.

This month I am going to work on my left over reunion quilt. 

I used all the leftover pieces from my strip tube quilt to make this top.

I'm not happy with the red sashing so I am thinking about taking that out and redoing it. 

Unstitching isn't always the best part of quilting and I think that may keep this project in the UFO pile for a long time, so to make sure it get done, I am making it my September goal for "A Lovely Year of Finishes". I want to redo the top and have a new finished quilt top to add to my pile.

Here it is with me testing the borders and this is where I last left it in May of 2012.

Time to finish it up.

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Another UFO Complete - Baby Cakes

This pattern is called Baby Cakes by Black Mountain Needleworks.
 The pattern and the fabric came together in a kit from Connecting Threads.
I started it in 2012.  I finished it last week.

The fabric is flannel and it makes this quilt super soft!  I love it!

And I am proud to say that with this finish I have completed my August goal for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" and I did it before the last hour of the last day of the month like I normally do. Yay!

It is also my fifth finish for my third quarter "Finish A-Long", and with a little more than a month to go for this quarter, I may beat my old record of 6 finishes.  I'll keep you posted.

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Purge Progress 3rd Link Party

Before I left for beach week, I cut up some pink scraps from my bins. Enough to make three more brick quilts and some extra squares for some other scrappy quilts.


Then I raided my 3 inch bin and mixed some prints with the the pinks and the blues I cut a couple weeks ago and started a small half square triangle quilt.

I'll be linking up here with all the others who are participating in The Purge.
Go check them out.

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Newest Finish - Jewel Box

I finished the quilting and binding on my Jewel Box quilt last week.

Just in time to gift it during my last vacation week of summer.

The kids and I packed our bags and headed to the beach to end the summer in style.  I wanted to take the quilt down to the beach with me and deliver it to its new owner, but unfortunately I went and left it on the sewing table.

I'll be back down to the beach next weekend though, and will be able to deliver it then.

I think I will go put it in my car now to make sure it gets where it needs to go.

This makes my fourth finish for the Q3 of the 2014 Finish A-Long

and my 18th finished quilt for  the year.

On to the next UFO.

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More Purge Progress

I spent a week at the lake last week.  It was so much fun I wasn't ready to come home.  This is my favorite picture from our trip.  It captures the whole trip perfectly. We were on Lake Jocassee in SC and I definitely want to go back.  The lake is so clear and pretty and cool to swim in. 

The forecast had called for rain all week, but we never had any fall on us other than the first night while we were sleeping.We strategically avoided the rain at our campsite by visiting waterfalls in the area during the afternoons.
 

Brasstown Falls - Cascades section

Brasstown Falls - Veils Section

 Luckily the showers were scattered and we picked the right falls to visit and had sunshine almost everyday.

Another view of the veils Section

Riley Moore Falls

Station Cove Falls

When we got back I jumped right into my purge projects.

I finished up the second Brick top...

Then I cut out some white squares from my white scrap bin to go with my newly cut animal scraps...

And then I started a new charity quilt.  This one is simple squares with white sashing.  

I used up most of the left over 4.5 inch scraps for this one.

The white is Kona Cotton in Snow.  I like using snow since it isn't such a bright white and is a little more forgiving when it gets dirty.

Next on the purge list is to use up some of the 2 inch squares to make a checkerboard quilt. Then I want to go through my left over bins and get some pink fabrics out for some little girl quilts.  I really love the brick tops and think they would look lovely in some girly pink and purple flower fabrics.

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ALYOF: August Goal

This top is a pattern called Baby Cakes.  I made it from a kit I bought from Connecting Threads April of 2012. I am making it my August goal for A Lovey Year of Finishes.

My quilt top pile is getting smaller and smaller. I use to have too many to count, but now, thanks to these UFO finish a longs I can finally see the bottom of the pile. YaY!

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FQSQA Finished!

Last night I put the last stitches in my Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along Quilt.
This quilt was my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I started this quilt in September of 2011 when I joined Moose on The Porch Quilts' quilt along.

Every couple weeks a new star pattern was released.
I got all my stars done each week and even got my top done on time.
But then it sat in the quilting pile until now.

I used an orange fabric for the background.  I bought a fat quarter of it for the blocks and when the bolt went on sale, I bought more for the backing and the binding.

I had to have some pictures ready to post on the link party before it closed last night, so I took it out on the porch in the dark last night hoping to get a good photo. The porch light gave it an interesting look.

Then I got the idea to turn the quilt hoping more light would shine on it, but It didn't work out like I thought.

I got a good shadow of my quilt holder though. 

This is also a finish I can knock off my third quarter list for the 2014 Finish A-long.
Yay! This is my third finish for this quarter.

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Purge Progress

Rachel over at Stitched in Color is hosting "The Purge".  She is encouraging us to do something with our un-loved fabrics, fabrics that we once loved but have fallen out of love with for one reason or another.  Well, a couple of months ago I already did a purge by taking all my unwanted fabric to my quilt guild meeting and let the ladies pick and choose from what they wanted. What ever they didn't want went to goodwill. So I don't really have unloved fabrics for this project, but I do have 12 bins of odd sized scraps that needed purging.

I still love all of these fabrics, but they can definitely use a purging in a good way.  They are a mix of left over pieces from quilt backings, scraps given to me by friends, and leftovers from my own craft projects. Some are slightly bigger than a fat quarter, others are extremely long 5 to 10 inch strips.  Because of their odd shapes, there isn't a spot for them in my fabric storage system and since I don't want to cut them up into smaller strips they get folded and put into these bins and shoe boxes.

I have started to organize them by color and have even pulled out some and placed them next to my color yardage, but a lot of them are novelty fabrics from when I was making cutesy baby quilts and bags to go with them and they don't seem to fit into a specific color category, so for my purge I am going to dive into these bins and make some charity quilts for the kids in our community. Hopefully by the end of the purge I can throw away some empty shoe boxes.

I started out by pulling out anything that would look good in a boy quilt.  I ended up using all animal prints and decided to use the Color Brick pattern that Rachel used for her beginner Quilt a long.   

I used a smaller brick dimension so I could keep the quilt small for a little boy.  My bricks finish at 4 x 8 inches. My sashing measures half an inch and the borders are 1.5 inches.
I had enough brinks to make two small quilts.

The sashing is a purge also. It is a Kona Solid that I bought for the Kona blog hop I participated in, but I ended up not using it for the hop. Luckily it has turned out to be the perfect color for my brick mortar.

 I cut out two more bricks to finish the second top and then I cut up all the leftover animal fabric into different sized squares ranging from 4.5 inches all the way down to 1.5 inches. I cut up every bit of blue and green animal print from those bins.  I didn't see much dent in the bins, but it still feels good knowing that I have used up several pieces of fabric and that I have scrappy squares already cut for another quick quilt.

Check out the link at Stitched in Color to see how everyone else's purge is going.

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Just the Ladies- The Dimensions

I got an email a bit ago asking me where to find information on the pattern for my Just the Ladies quilt, the one I made for the She Who Sews blog hop, but I didn't really use a pattern. It was more of a sew as I went sort of project.   Since I didn't use a pattern I decided I would post the dimensions here on my blog for who ever would like to have them. 

 

First, I started out with the ladies.  I used 6 different ones.  But I only scanned in one for the picture.
I cut them to be 7.5 inch square so they finished 7 inches.

Next I worked on the sashing. 

They are made from three 1.5 x 7.5 strips, (Two yellow, one black).
When sewn together they  finish as a 3.5 inch x 7.5 inch rectangle. 

The quilt uses 17 of these sashing rectangles.

The cornerstones are Shoo Fly blocks that finish at 3 inches.
(They will measure 3.5 inches before you sew them into the quilt)
There are 12 of these in the quilt and they use the red and yellow fabrics.
About.com has dimensions for a three inch shoo fly block here. Scroll down a bit for the right size. 

Sew the sashing, cornerstones, and ladies together in rows to get the inner part of the quilt.
Then just add borders.

The first inner border is cut 1.5 inch x the length/width of the quilt top dimensions so far.

The red outer border is cut 3.5 inches x the length/width of the top so far.

The thin yellow border is actually part of the binding.
Marti, of 52 Quilts gives a great tutorial on how to make a two colored bidning.

You can find it HERE.

I used yellow and black for the binding.

You can use this method with any large print you want to showcase and change the sashing and border colors to fit your print. It is a simple and fast quilt. The part that took the longest for me was the shoo fly blocks.  Once those were done the top went together fast.  I think I spent more time quilting around the ladies than it sewing up the the top.  :)

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Quilting in Progress

I got my Jewel Box quilt under the machine this weekend.
After a couple hours I took a break and stretched it all out to see what it looks like so far.
It is fun to see the top transform as it is being quilted.
I am copying a quilting design I saw on Tamarack Shack, - I love her work!

So far it is looking fabulous!  :)

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Jewel Box Borders and Basting

Yesterday I added the borders to my Jewel box quilt, a small inner white border and an orange flower print from the same fabric line as the outer border.  Last night I also prepped the backings for all the completed tops on my third quarter Finish A-Long list and picked out the right size batting for each one.

So this morning and afternoon, with the help of my daughter, the pin closer, we basted four quilts:
the Jewel Box
the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt
Baby Cakes
and my Strip Tube Top

Momentum is good and going strong for this quarter's UFOs.

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