Something different

I needed to clean up my sewing room this weekend and came across these blocks. I decided to put them together in the quilt as you go method. So this is the same on both sides. It's very small though, each block is 9 inches. This is from the International mystery class (this one is Mexico-I think it may be called a Mexican cross?) I took earlier in the year, maybe in February. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next in my winter class with Tonya so I decided to work on this. I need to add a border and then I think I will give it as a baby quilt -not sure who exactly will get it. It is kinda bright, maybe tomorrow I will get back to my free piecing. I think I may have ADD. Have to change things up every once in a while. Can't work until finished on any one thing, have to have many projects going at the same time.

Ongoing Projects

I am in the process of quilting the pineapple quilt. I have it iron basted and I plan to do a simple meander pattern free motion quilting on it.
This Halloween panel was just for fun. I got some purple metallic thread and just meandered around the background and then sewed the binding on. Now I just have to hand sew the binding to the back. I think this will go to a friend who loves Halloween. Or else I'll keep it, I haven't decided yet.


I also have finished the hydrangea quilt-finally. I hand quilted the border and didn't quilt the center where the applique is which has made the quilt every Un-square, but oh well, it is just for me to see and it was good hand quilting practice.

A little handwork

I got the fabric for this quilt (top) in Newport when Jim was working there for about 3 months back in 2001. This may be my oldest undone project. the top has been done for years, but I wanted to hand quilt it. I worked on it a bit last night while we watched tv. I am doing some small baptist fans around the border. I think I will end up doing a grid (probably 1 inch) on the inner background around the hydrangea. I really liked this fabric (border hydrangea fabric) when I bought it. I still love the hand dyes that the petals are made with, but I am not as crazy about the floral. Funny how your tastes can change in a few years. I still like it, but I probably would not have bought that same fabric if I was in a quilt store buying fabric today. I'd get something more bold and bright. Like the fabric my house quilt is made out of. Which is probably what I will go work on now. Maybe I can get the top done today before Jim comes home from work. Since Zack isn't here today I don't have much planned. Lots of free time to quilt.

Funky Houses with letters

I haven't been doing a lot of quilting but I have been working on the letters I am going to add to the borders of the funky houses quilt. It is going to read-Home is where the heart is. I am not sure if I will put something along the bottom edge or not.

The letters are kind of fun and I think they add a whimsical touch to the look of the quilt , as if a lime green house with purple chimneys weren't whimsical enough!

Well anyway, I am having fun and enjoying how this is coming out so far. I hope to have it finished in the next week or so (the top) and then get it quilted before the end of summer, but we'll see. It seems like I have a lot of time, but I just don't seem to get as much done as I'd like to.

Swap blocks

I pulled out the swap blocks the other day and have been doing a little quilting of each block separately. I am trying out the "quilt as you go" method I saw on Simply Quilts the other day. I recorded it and am currently trying to attach a couple blocks to see how it goes. It is going a lot better than I thought it would. Hopefully the sashing between rows will go as well as these. I am using a multi color print with a black background for the sashing. It really brings out the brightness in the blocks. These blocks are so cute, like an I spy quilt with having the novelties in the middle. They are small blocks though, but I am enjoying this process. It's nice to think when I am done putting the blocks together it will be all done-so much easier to quilt a small block than to try to do a whole top at one time.

I'm not sure why I can't manipulate these pictures, I thought I could move them. Anyway, I tried to post a picture at the end here of the string x quilt top that I recently finished. It ended up being on top. It is fairly small, I guess it's a baby size quilt top but I decided I am done with it. That's as big as it gets. Now I just have to quilt it and get it finished up. I liked doing that one, but I don't think I will do that pattern again. It wasn't hard, just for some reason it wasn't my favorite pattern to do. I do like the scrappy look to it and using up all those leftover scraps! There are so many patterns I want to try though, so I need to finish these quilts up so I can get to them too-

Well I did end up manipulating the pictures a little bit. I switched the order and changed their size but I couldn't move them to be in between text. Oh well, maybe someday I'll figure that out.

UFO finish #5 for 2007

Last night I finished my scrappy trips quilt from quiltville.com's pattern that I started last summer. I machine quilted it and washed it up last night so it got all crinkly-it doesn't look too bad. I need to keep practicing the machine quilting but it's getting better. Now I have to work on some projects that were not UFO's-the Mexican quilt before cinco de mayo and a birthday quilt and Cody's quilt for gram. I told him I would finish it up for him so he could give it to her for Mother's Day. He got the top pretty much done so I said I would finish it for him.

Since it's a snow day today, hopefully I can get a few things done on a couple of quilts. Now that we have the power back, that is! It got awfully cold here this morning! I was still glad it was a day off though, while the power was off I took a little nap. That was good because I was up at 5 listening to hear if the school was going to be closed and I didn't hear the announcement until 7 and I had already gotten Zack up to take a shower.

Dancing Geckos

So now I have UFO #3 done for 2007-Dancing Geckos! This one was very fun. I found the pattern at Quiltville.com and made it all from fabric I had on hand. It was the Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern with the braid border. I really like the way it came out. I'm not sure what I will do with it. I did my own machine quilting on this one and I am still practicing that technique, so the back of the quilt is far from great looking, although I do think the front looks fine. These are my favorite kind of colors-especially for this time of year-bright! With all this snow, although fun for skiing and sledding, it's not very colorful to look at, these colors are a bit cheerful. So 3 down! This is a record for me!