WiP Wednesday: Woven Beginnings

It's Wednesday again and I have another finish and another start to share!  It seems like I'm just a quilting machine lately!  I finished the top for my mom's quilt and sent it off to the quilter on Saturday.  She said it should be finished within two weeks.  That leaves me just enough time to bind it and mail it halfway across the country for Christmas, I hope.  I also began a quilt for my sister-in-law.  I was hoping to have this one finished by Christmas too but that's not going to happen.  Her birthday is in the end of January so now I'm shooting for that.  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

On to the finish:

This quit is so awesome in person and in the daylight.  This picture was taken at night and doesn't have the best lighting.  After it's quilted and bound I plan on getting a lot of really great shots.  To read more about the finished top go here.

Here's the makings of the next quilt for my SIL.  The fabric is Sentiments by 3 Sisters for Moda.  I didn't realize when I bought it how Christmasy it was but I'm sure it will be fine.  I love how it has a 108" backing selection in the line because that will make the queen size backing so much easier.

 

It took me two days to cut out all the pieces.  It was really nice to work with the jelly rolls on this quilt and my new cutting mat was heaven!  It's 24" by 36" so I had gobs of space.

I finished one of the squares so I could have a sample and see how it was working it up.  It was a little difficult getting all the lines to match up with the strips in between but I think it looks pretty good.  The pattern is Simply Woven found on the Moda Bake Shop.  The pattern is for a twin size quilt but I am going to do half again as many blocks and that will bring it up to a generous queen size at 96" by 108". There will be 72 of this square total.

Finished Papillon Top

I am so excited to actually have a finish to share on Finish it up Friday with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts.  I've seen so many of my favorite bloggers link up here.  I've been working a solely on a quilt for my mom these past few weeks and the top is finished and it is ready to head to the quilters!!  I've been loving quilting at home recently but this is a generous queen size and just way to big for my machine.  Here's some fun pictures for your viewing enjoyment...

This one is great for seeing the piecing detail.  I just love how it worked up and the alternating pinwheels and stars!

I finished it about 11pm on Wednesday.  Naturally there was horribly lighting but I did the best I could.  I really liked the square pieced boarder around the outside!  The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop and can be found here.

Here it is all ready to head off to the quilter.  It's going to be so beautiful with the red backing and I just adore 100% cotton batting these days.  The swirl of gray binding should look sharp too!  I can't wait to see what she does with it and get it bound.  It is to be a Christmas present for my Mom and I think I'll finish it just in time!

WiP Wednesday: Quilt and Stash

It's Wednesday again and I have so much progress to show for WiP Wednesday!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced.  I am so excited with the progress on my mom's quilt.  It's going so fast now!  I also got some happy mail in the form of fabric I ordered for my birthday.  Thus the title of this post, quilt and stash!

I finally finished all the star blocks for the center of the quilt.  I was worried these were going to take me forever but they went pretty quickly in the end.  I love how they turned out and I get excited every time I look at those pristine corners.

Okay this picture is just so cool!  I've seen people take pictures of their quilts like this and the sun was perfectly coming into my window to try it.  I love how you can see the piecing detail of the center blocks.

I finished sewing the large center of the quilt together.  I'm in love!  Excuse the poor lighting in this one.  I seem to always have time to sew and take pictures after bedtime which of course means that it's crazy dark in my house.  You get the idea though.  There are two more borders that need to be added to make this queen size.  There is a pieced charm square and then another pinkish red solid one.  I am hoping it will fly together this week.

I got this Bella by Lotta Jansdotter fat quarter bundle with my birthday money.  It came in the mail yesterday and I was just so excited I couldn't wait to play with it.  Sadly it will probably be at least a month before I can even plan on what to do with it but in the mean time I will oogle it on my shelf!

Also in the mail came this fat quarter bundle of Pirate Matey's.  It is for my seven year-old's quilt.  I was going to do a bunch of five inch circles appliqued in rows to a white background but he has since changed his mind about what he wants for his quilt.  He better figure it out soon because once those borders go on my mom's quilt I'm getting going on this bad boy!

I also joined up with the Nancy Drew blog hop over at Sew We Quilt.  I seriously cannot wait for this one.  My love for all things Nancy Drew could be described as an obsession but I'm sure there are those worse than me.  I already have a plan in motion for this quilt and now I just have to wait for the fabric to be released at the end of this month.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you had a great sewing week too!

WiP Wednesday: Birthday Edition

Yesterday was my birthday.  The big 3-0!  I'm excited to be thirty.  It feels better than twenty.  I'm more confident and sure of myself and my opinions.  I feel like I've been around the block a time or two especially since I now have 8.5 years of marriage and four kids under my belt.  I got a few things done this week in spite of the birthday prep and hoopla but what I'm most excited about are the presents that will help me start new projects!  I'm linking up with Lee and Freshly Pieced for WiP Wednesday.

Here I am being the birthday girl.  My hubby blew up thirty balloons, it's a tradition in our house, but he couldn't get all of them in the picture.  I didn't feel like thirty was that big of a number until this point.

Happily I got some fabric mail on my birthday and I was pretty excited.  This is the background and the backing for my SIL's Sentiments quilt that I plan to get working on next week after I wrap up my Moms.

This picture is from my Monday post.  I hoped to make some more progress on my Mom's quilt but I didn't really feel like sewing on my birthday so I skipped it.  It should go together pretty quickly in the next few days.

Also in the birthday mail I got the backing for my Mom's quilt.  I love it!  I put it under the blocks for the front side for a color comparison and I think it is perfect.  It's not too dark and just the right touch of pinky.

My friend invited me to a crafty retreat with her on Saturday. Her mom had paid and was ready to go but at the last minute had to go out of town and I took her spot.  It was fun.  We stayed about five hours and I got some crochet time in.  Sadly I only really have this hat to show for it.  It took three tries because the pattern was wrong.  I keep coming up on that and it's making me doubt my crochet ability but I checked the gauge this time and used the exact same yarn size and hook.  While that was all right on the hat came out baby size.  So I made up my own pattern but I wasn't focusing and increased one too many rows so it was giant size.  Then I had to unpick it all again and finally came up with the right size.  It was an ordeal that took about four hours to do.  I love the result though!

Here's the hat alone so you can see the detail better.  It's so soft being fancy wool and I just love how it feels!

I got some birthday money from my Mom and Step-Dad.  I was so excited but had to take a while to figure out what to use it for.  It was a touch choice and now that it is spent I keep thinking of other things I want.  It's a good thing I have an awesome hubby who buys me crafty things for holidays and I'm not just out of luck (see the bottom of this post for an example).

I got this Wonder Clips.  I've heard many good things about them and I can't wait to try them out.  Since I hope to finish at least two quilt before Christmas I'm sure to do some binding sewing by then.  I'm hoping it will speed up the process making it so I don't have to stop and fold every few inches.

I also bought the circle die for my Accuquilt.  I'm making a quilt for my son that is all circles, 130 at 5" each.  Think twister with pirate fabric.

This is the pirate fabric I'm using.  It just shipped yesterday and I need to get on finishing my mom's quilt before it comes!

My last present was this fabulous fabric.  Isn't it just yummy?!  It's Bella by Lotta Jansdotter and I got one fat quarter of each of the 19 prints.  Want some too?  Get it here.  I have so many in line before I can get to this but I'm excited for it just the same.  If nothing else it will brighten up the shelf of my sewing room.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope I have a lot of progress to show you next week but in the mean time I'm reveling in the birthday haul.

Blog Hop, Progress, and Spoiling

First off it's the final day of the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop.  Beth from Plum and June has put a lot of work into this hop and it has been running for quite some time.  The hop started in May and is now ending six months later.  It was a fun journey and I really enjoyed being a part of it and meeting so many other new bloggers like myself.  Here's my post from back in September.  The list of women for today/this week, is fabulous and found below...

         Cynthia from A Quilter by Night
         Stephanie from Smalltown Dreamz
         Cynthia from Quilt Doodle Doodles
         Diane from From Blank Pages
         Laura from Waffle Kisses
         Mary Ann from Rocknquilts
         Jaime from Stitches to Sprinkles
         Allegory from {sew} Allegorical
         Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts
         Lynne from Bouts Choisis
         Nat from Made in Home
         Francine from Mocha Wild Child
         Lyanna from Purple Panda Quilts
         Stacey from The Tilted Quilt


Now onto my progress.  I've been working hard on a quilt for my mother this past week.  I picked it up again last Tuesday after not working on it since July.  I'm getting to the part now where it's all coming together so quickly and getting bigger and bigger which is so fun!

Here's my progress with the center portion of the quilt.  There are to be 28 of each block.  I must now sew the three sections of the star block together and then assemble in a checker pattern.  I'm so excited with how quickly it's progressing!

To aid in the progression of this and other quilts my hubby spoils me enormously!  He's pretty cute about it to.  Tomorrow I turn 30 (I'm so excited, is that odd?) and he was worried he didn't have enough presents for me so he offered to take me to Joann's and supplement as well as use my 60% off coupons.  How could I refuse?!

He got me this new fancy yellow cutting mat.  It's HUGE!  I'm so excited to use it.  I put my old one on top for a size comparison.  The new one is 24" by 36" and a little slice of heaven.  He also got me a fancy new pair of Gingher scissors.  I'm in love.  They cut like a dream not like my cheap scissors that are about nine years old.  They make me want to make another HST quilt so I can cut out all that fabric with the nice ones!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to hop around the last stops of the hop today!  I'm linking up with Plum and June for the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link Up.

WiP Wednesday: Moving On

It's Wednesday again and I have a lot of progress to share!  Lately I've been sleeping with my babies during nap time (oh glorious moments) but as nice as that has been I haven't been getting a lot of crafty time in.  Yesterday I stayed up for nap time and my babies slept for 3 1/2 hours (!!!) so I got a crazy lot done.  I finished the first quilt on Friday but all the rest of this post was done yesterday during nap time, and a little bit after.  To celebrate this productivity and to share it with more people I'm linking up to WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.  Where Svetlana one of my favorite bloggers from s.o.t.a.k handmade is guest posting today.


Let's start with the finish...

This Giant Granny Square quilt was made for my friend's baby due in January.  It was finished just in time for her shower that was on Saturday.  To read more about it and see more pictures click here.

Then on to the start...

I finished the first half of this quilt months ago and then it went on the back burner for a while.  It is a quilt for my mother and I'm so excited about it right now.  Here are all the pieces cut up.  There are 689 pieces here all cut out yesterday morning.  Man was my back sore after that!!  The fabric is Papillon by 3 Sisters for Moda and the pattern is American Pinwheels from Moda Bake Shop.

Although I love the pattern I'm a bit grumpy at it right now.  Moda fabric is NOT cheap and the requirements were way off for this quilt.  This is the extra after it was all cut out.  I have 2 yards extra of the Ivory, one yard each of the next two, 3/8 yard of the blue, and the red was more or less right on.  That amounts to about $40 extra that I spent on this quilt that I didn't need to.  I like the fabric so that's nice but still, grrr.  *End of Rant*

Back to the quilt... I did really well with these HST and didn't even have to trim any of them.  I was really excited about that bit.  Hurray for good cuts!  There are 112 of these.

I then sewed the HSTs into pinwheels to make 28.  These will be the center of my blocks.

I couldn't resist sewing up a sample block.  The Pinwheels have been done for a while now (see this post) and the star block I finished yesterday.  In the pattern I will alternate between the two then there is some fun border stuff to make it queen size in the end.

Here's a close-up of the two main blocks.  I'm LOVING how this one is coming together and I can't wait to see it all fixed up!

Phew!  One day's work and all that to show for it!  I'm sure a busy bee!  Here's to another great week and thanks for stopping by.

Giant Granny Square Finish!

I finished this baby quilt just in time for the baby shower.  I quilted and bound it yesterday then this morning minutes before I was to leave I took a few pictures.  It was such a fun experience trying a few new-to-me techniques.   I'd never done squares on point and I've also never quilted 1/4" on either side of the seam.  I love how both turned out!  To read the other post on this quilt click here.

Here's the finished quilt.  I'm seriously in love.  It's about 35" square.  I used four fat quarters (but only half of each of them), 1/2 yard of the blue, 1/4 yard white and 1 1/4 yards of red.  I cut them all to 6.25" squares and just sewed in diagonal rows.  I picked 6.25" squares because if you were to fussy cut the fat quarters you could get four 6.25" squares.

Here's the back side.  You can really see the quilting on this side.  I love the look!  I will have to try this one again!

Here's up close from a jaunty angle.  I really love how this quilt turned out and I have enough left of the fat quarters to make it again if the mood strikes me.

It was a hit at the baby shower and my friend loved it!  She is due in January and I can't wait to meet the sweet baby girl this quilt was created for.