Happy Skipping Squares

So, this fabric is super cute right?  Monica of Happy Zombie designed it for Lecien, it's called Holiday Happy.  I’ve been working on this quilt for well over a year now.  I wanted to make a red and aqua quilt, and this fabric line was perfect!

I won this fabric and pattern from Randi at Fresh Squeezed Fabrics on Etsy.  Randi was having a giveaway on her blog.  So, thanks again Randi!  The pattern is by Cluck, Cluck Sew, called Skipping Squares.

 The directions for the pattern were perfect, you needed fat quarters and white yardage.  You use up almost every bit of fat quarter you have, I love that!  The quilt is a great size too.

I had this pretty Bliss Flannel (which you can find on sale at my fave quilt shop Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe) in my stash for a long time, and it went perfectly with this quilt top.  I love this flannel!  It is really soft.  I can’t wait to wash this quilt and use it.

For quilting I used white thread and did big free motion loops across it.  It wasn’t the easiest to do, big loops were a bit hard to push through at certain points in the quilting, so some of the loops are wonky.  That’s okay though, I still like it :)  I put striped binding on it, because it reminded me of candy canes. 

Have a fun weekend everybody, it's National Quilting Day and St. Patricks day tomorrow all rolled into one!

WIP Wednesday

Here we are again, how on earth is it Wednesday again already??  I meant to post over the weekend because I finished a quilt!  However the weather has been so grey and rainy there has not been a good time to take photos of it.

The quilt that I finished is Holiday Happy, I love it!  Here is a lame picture of it, it will have its own post later this week.  It's very bright and adorable.

The aqua pillow is coming along.  I had to stop my progress because I ran out of stuffing.  I need to go and buy more and haven't been able to get to the store.

I finished piecing the backing for my "plus" quilt.  I was so proud of myself because I used fabrics I've had in my stash forever, which means I didn't go and buy and big piece of fabric.

I may have started another new quilt....  I pulled out my Neptune stash a few weeks ago and wanted to make something out of it so badly.   So, cutting has begun!  I threw in some Prince Charming as well, since it matched so nicely.  These fabrics are by the designer Tula Pink.  I love her designs!

And there was a bit more progress made on  my cross stitch, the antlers are coming along.  I've been working on this while watching my son do Taekwondo.

And what's up with the Christmas themed projects?  It's funny how these fell into my list of things to do, but that is how it worked out.  My husband thinks I'm crazy.

No progress on my Single Girl, Stella Blue, or City Greens quilts.  I am starting too many new projects haha!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday

I have been reading several blogs where every Wednesday they post their WIP (works in process).  I loved Erin's!  She makes the prettiest things, have you visited her blog at Why not Sew? Quilts?  You should!

I thought I would play along today.  The current (bizillion) WIP that I have going on are:

This week I quilted my Holiday Happy quilt, I have to make the binding and sew it on now.

I started a new pillow using a tutorial on V&Co.  The pillow is of course, AQUA.

I finished a quilt top, I need to piece the backing for it now.

There is still work needing to be done on my Single Girl Quilt, more blocks need to be pieced, I did a few last week.

I've made good progress on my City Greens Quilt, I am dreading the layout and sewing the top together with the tiny sashing, I can do it!  (I am avoiding it like the plague)

Stella Blue needs one more border, I have yet to find the perfect backing for this quilt.

And my Christmas Cross Stitch is coming right along.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Sewing Curves, using glue instead of pins

I'd like to say I am not an "expert" in this, I've only learned to do this on the one quilt top I've been piecing lately.  Pinning was difficult and very time consuming, so after I was shown a tutorial at a guild meeting using glue instead of pins for sewing curves, I gave it a shot.

There are several glues you can use for sewing curves.  The one I was able to find at my local Joanns store is called Aleene's No Sew Glue.  At the demonstration shown to me at my quilt guild meeting, she used Roxanne Glue-Baste-It.  I think I'd prefer to use the Roxanne glue because it comes out of a tiny tube, making it more accurate to place.  Just make sure the glue is WATER SOLUBLE.  You want it to wash out when your top is complete.

The quilt I've been sewing curves on is the popular Single Girl Quilt.  There are obviously lots of curves on this puppy!!  Okay, first off you need to have all of your pieces cut out and ironed, ready to go.

Next you take your two pieces you want to sew together, fold and crease on the center of each piece, on the side they will be joining.

You then add tiny dots of glue every 3 inches or so, TINY dots, not big globs!! Down one end of your fabric.  Not the whole piece.

Now place your fabrics on top of each other, in the center first.  Line up your creases and press on the dot of glue for a few seconds until they adhere together.

As you go to each dot of glue make sure the fabrics on top and bottom line up together.  It will look gathered, but that is what is supposed to happen.

Now you put tiny dots of glue down the other end, and press together.

It will then look like this.  Now sew around the ring, take your time and get your curve right.  After it is sewn, open it up and iron towards the white fabric.

Now you want to sew on the top corner piece, so again, fold both pieces in half and make a crease with your finger in the center of each piece.  Put tiny dots of glue in the center and down one side.  Line up the creases, and press in the center dot of glue first, working your way down the side.  Then make tiny dots of glue going down the other side and press each one until you are done. 

It will look like this.  Now sew together, again, take your time sewing your curve.  After it is sewn, open it up and iron towards the white.  Trim your blocks as needed.

Sew your rings together and enjoy!!

Please email me, or leave a comment if you have questions, or need clarification.  I had to practice on a few to make sure I had it down, I would recommend you do the same!  Happy sewing!

Feeling Fidgety

I have been so fidgety lately, flitting from one task to another, barely getting anything done.  So, I decided since I was flitting, I might as well start some new projects.  I am not one of those people who starts one project, only works on that one project, and finishes it, oh no.  I like to have a dozen projects going at once :)

The Single Girl Quilt is coming along nicely, but I needed, no I CRAVED to start something new and springy and fresh.  So, I pulled out my fabric bins and started digging around.  I found some lovely yardage I had bought of Curio, by Basic Grey for Moda.  Aquas, lemony yellows, creams, spring green, it was perfect!  I combined it with some other fabrics and was well on my way.

I have been wanting to make a "plus" quilt forever.  So, the pattern I chose is from the Simplify book by Camille Roskelly.

I cut out the pattern in a few hours on Sunday, and laid it out to get my colors all organized.

Now I am sewing the rows all together.  It has been really easy so far.

And since the cross stitch I was working on was finished, I started another new one :)  I worked on this while watching the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and cried my eyes out.  I need to watch happier movies.

So, that is what I have going on.  What are you working on??  Anything you are dying to start?

Sherbert Pips Chevron Quilt

My friend Julie is having a baby girl pretty soon, we were able to see them while in Utah last month, and she is so excited about it.  She already has two boys, so it was time they got another girl in the house.  When I was thinking about what to make her, I pulled out my fat quarters of Sherbert Pips fabric and knew that was what I had to use.

There have been so many beautiful chevron / zig zag quilts popping up lately, and I really wanted to try making one, so I googled it.  I came across Hyacinth Quilt Designs, and she had an amazing chevron quilt!  I loved it, so I sat down and figured out how she made it.  It was kind of hard, it would have been easier to use a 40" long strip, rather than my 20" long fat quarter strip, but in the end it all worked out great.

Isn't this fabric just adorable?  I have loved it forever, and was happy to use it in a quilt finally!!  I stipple quilted it with white thread, and used a light pink for the binding.

I used up extra pieces on the backing, and I had a yard of the cute print with the girls on swings, oh my gosh, I love that one!

And many thanks to my quilt model Jessie, she is always so happy to help me take pictures :-)

Summer Snapperland

In January I decided it was time to start a new cross stitch project, my current work in process was messed up, see the previous post! and was driving me crazy.  So I just had to ditch it to start something else.  It worked out pretty well because just after stitching it, we had to make a last minute trip to Utah, and we were driving.  Driving to Salt Lake City from Portland takes about 12-14 hours, and I needed something to work on and keep my hands busy.

I pulled out the charts for Summer Snapperland by Bent Creek.  I have had this ready to stitch for a few years now.  I pulled out my threads and picked and chose what I thought would look best.  I changed several colors to be more vibrant.

I loved working on this, it took me about 5 weeks to stitch it.  It helped I had so much time in the car, and watching Downton Abbey *ahem*

I made the girl (who was charted to have grey short hair) a blonde, like my daughter Jessie.

The quote along the bottom says "Turn your face to the sun & the shadows fall behind you"  I plan to get it framed and hang it in my house.  It matches my house perfectly!  Now... to find another project to devour.

Cross Stitching, help!

When I started this blog in 2006, I was inspired by other cross stitchers to do it.  I met so many wonderful people through blogging and cross stitching that I stitched like a mad woman for about 3 years.  Then, the quilting bug started worming its way into my life, and that has taken over.  I have such an obsessive personality, it's all or nothing for me!  I still enjoy reading all of my stitching buddies blogs every day, and I enjoy my stitching hanging in my home.

I hit a road block with my current stitching project back in November.  I have been slowly, but surely working on Gina, Queen of the Sea by Ink Circles.  It has been a WIP for several years now, and the thread I am using is an over-dyed thread.  Well, while working on it, I had to take some stitching out, I made a counting error, and the thread had left dye on the fabric!  I was really bummed out about it, and haven't picked it up since then.

See the dye lines in the upper right hand corner?  I have to take that whole line out to restitch.  What would you do??

My friend Charissa told me to just restitch it, and adjust the pattern for the mistake I made in stitching.  I think I was one stitch off... I could easily do that, but still...

Grey fabric & Hand Quilting

I have seen so many quilts with gray fabric as the neutral, and I love it!  I found several lovely grey fabrics while shopping at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe.

Mmmm... now to pair them with my stash and make a gorgeous quilt.

Another wonderful thing to do is hand quilting, using Perl 8 thread.  I picked up several colors of blue and green.  I plan on hand quilting my Single Girl quilt using these threads.  It's going to be delicious.

Wish me luck ;)

Stella Blue Friday

Only one more border to go...

Last week, I had to miss my Portland Quilt Guild meeting, which made me so sad.  I had a nasty head cold I was just getting over, and thought it’d be rude to share it with my friends.  So, instead of attending the meeting, I sewed.  I worked on Stella Blue again! 

Since I added a 1” border around the top, I had to change the flying geese border a bit.  After some fudging, and making the corner block a bit different, I made it all work.  I think it looks okay, but I am not taking it out!

So, now all that is left is the big blue 5” border.  I will hopefully get that on this week.

In other fun news, I was reading Ladies Home Journal, February 2012, and came across an article about the Modern Quilt Guild, and how quilting is fun and hip, haha!  I loved seeing the article, how cute is Latifah??