Hosting TGIFF!

This weekend was filled with lots of activities, including a wedding for a co-worker of mine.  It was a beautiful ceremony/reception at the Memphis Zoo, which is one of the top zoos in the country.  It's always nice to have a reason to get a sitter for the kids, dress up, and dance the night away in celebration. 

This week should be a busy one quilting wise.  I will be hosting TGIFF this Friday.  Hurry up and finish those projects so you can share with everyone.  Here's a sneak peak of what I will have finished to share on Friday.

I still have some rows to connect and a possible border to attach.  I haven't quite decided on that one yet.  See you Friday!

WIP Wednesday

Christmas projects have commenced in my home.  I have 2 quilts to make for Christmas gifts and then several other Christmas projects to complete between now and December 25th.  LOTS to do!

Here is the start of the first quilt I'm making.  I'm using 11 Flea Market Fancy prints along with some coordinating solids.

I've finished all the 16-patches and 4-patches for the top.  Now it's time to cut and assemble a bunch of HST to fill in the gaps before I can start to piece the entire top together.

This should be a cheerful quilt top that I hope will bring lots of cheer to the recipient.

Scrappy Explosion

This quilt started as an idea to utilize all the corner scraps left over from the X-Plus quilt.  One day I just sat down and started sewing triangles together from the trimmings.  I kept the fabrics together with which ever fabric it was already paired with when I trimmed it off the X-Plus quilt blocks.  There were well over 300 HST created and they were trimmed down to 2 1/2 inches. 

I used random selection to start sewing them together.  I didn't pay attention to the direction of the HST.  The only thing I kept track of was making sure I didn't put the same fabric next to each other.  The results were amazing.

I added the teal border to frame out the piecing and contain the randomness.

For the back, I ended up purchasing some of the plaid fabric from the DS collection to give it some visual interest.  I utilized some scraps of the solid navy and teal used in the front to add some detail.

The quilting really shines on the solid fabrics.

I had some leftover binding from another project just hanging around, so I utilized it for this quilt.  You can find the gray wood grain fabric within the quilt, too.

I haven't decided what I'm doing with this quilt yet, so it's just hanging out on my quilt rack for everyone to see when they come over.

X-Plus Masterpiece

The anticipation of finishing this quilt has been such a motivation for me.  It was always a side project since it didn't have a deadline and it was a personal quilt for myself, but I was determined to finish it up before the Christmas projects started.

For this quilt, I used every single Denise Schmidt collection fabric I could find at Joann's within this color scheme.  I slowly started collecting these fabrics over a year ago in 1/4 yard increments.   Every time I stepped into the store, I would swing by the DS collection aisle and see if there was anything new and snatch it up.

I knew I wanted a scrappy feel for this quilt, which the x-plus quilt pattern lends itself to nicely, but I also wanted to create a sense of order.  I wasn't sure if using the oranges and yellows to highlight the plus signs would work out, but I was blown away once I saw the blocks come together.  

The various shades of blues and grays also add a lot of texture to the quilt top.

The quilt back is all the scraps.  I just started piecing everything together and this is what I came up with.  I didn't really have much of a plan when I started, but I really love how it turned out.

The binding utilizes the orange and yellow fabrics to tie it all together.  I thought about going with a solid binding, but the patterned fabric was just too much fun to pass up.

This quilt simply makes me smile.  I've already snuggled under it on the couch and it is proudly displayed on my quilt rack in my sewing room.

Son's Birthday Quilt

Back in May, I made a quilt for my daughter's birthday.  Ever since then, my son has been asking me for a quilt of his own.  How could I resist?  He is such a sweet boy with a wonderful sense of humor.  I had fun picking out his fabrics and putting this one together.

I chose the Greek cross pattern without the half-squared triangles in the corners.  I also pulled out the deep teal, lime, and coral to accent throughout the quilt.

This pattern is pretty easy to assemble.

I used the scraps to make up the back.  

The colorful chevron print was the perfect fabric for the binding since it ties everything together.

Here's the birthday boy!  It's not unusual to find him sitting next to me while I sew to help me press "the button" (a.k.a. the thread cutting button).  He's such a helper.  :)

Now it's time to enjoy the festivities!

I'm back!

Hi everyone!  I've been back to quilting for a few weeks, but I haven't been blogging.  I want to share with you everything I've been up to and give you a preview of things I'll be showcasing in the near future.

First off, the Memphis-Area Modern Quilt Guild made several baby quilts to donate to the infant/toddler care unit at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital.  We took a tour of the unit and received the privilege of hand-delivering 3 of our quilts to current patients.  It was a wonderful experience and we are all looking forward to doing this again soon.

I did a simple patchwork pattern, but I think the colors really played well together.

I had this solid pink fabric in my stash that complimented the patterned fabric and some leftover binding from the Sunrise Quilt I made back in January.

We were missing a few of our members when we delivered the quilts due to other commitments, but we really enjoyed meeting the nurses and the patients.  The smiles on the patients and the parents were well worth it.

I also have three other quilts.  Two of them are finished and the other will be finished by the end of the weekend.  This first quilt is made from the scraps leftover from my X-Plus Quilt top.  It turned out really well and I can't wait to show it off.

I finished hand stitching the binding onto my son's birthday quilt last night.  It also turned out really well.  My son is so excited about it and has enjoyed watching me put it all together.  

The X-Plus Quilt top mentioned above is also now basted and three-quarters of the way quilted.  I hope to have the quilting done tonight and the binding completely hand-stitched by the end of the weekend.

This quilt is all for me.  I'm really looking forward to getting it done so I can snuggle under it on the couch while watching some of my favorites on Netflix.  I might even be convinced to share if my husband and children are nice.

WIP Wednesday

It's been 3 weeks since I've posted...life has been busy!!!  First off, my daughter started Kindergarten.

Ignore the self-imposed haircut she gave herself.  We are hoping for her hair to grow quickly before school pictures!

My first born is off to school and I'm still wondering where the time went.  We've had lots of meetings/events already with this new school year.  Our daily routine has also changed quite a bit to adjust to my daughter starting school.  I'm now at the gym at 5am to workout since I don't really have time in the evenings anymore.  My late night sewing has disappeared...I'm so tired!  I'm hoping I adjust soon and find time to sew more consistently again.  If not, well...I don't want to imagine that.

I have also finished the back (sort of) for my HST baby quilt.

Unfortunately, the back is not quite wide enough to comfortably baste and quilt it, so I'm going to be adding a strip of navy vertically.  The fabric is just placed on top of the back on my design wall.  I wanted to get a feel for what it may look like and I really like it.  I'll be adding this strip tonight...I hope.

I also started cutting the fabric for another baby quilt using the Tennessee Traveler pattern.  I've lost a bit of motivation when it comes to the 2 1/2" white squares, but I'm determined to get them cut before this weekend so I can start sewing them on.

I also got a wonderful package in the mail yesterday...my business cards!

Here's the back of the card.  I won't show the front since it has more personal information, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out.  It will be nice to be able to hand these out to potential clients/friends.