granny.

I think I'm in love.  Granny and I spent some quality time together this weekend quilting away, and I am so so pleased with how she has come together.

This quilt is based on Jolene's granny squares block tutorial, and of course I had to doctor it just a little, deciding to omit the sashing between the blocks and instead strip piece the quilt with just one white square to separate the blocks.



I was really unsure of how I wanted to quilt this, and kept on coming back to my original idea of clean and simple straight lines on each side of the seams.  I thought about some sort of intricate curvy free motion quilting, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought that there was so much going on with all the bright colorful fabrics, that simple quilting was the way to go and let the fabrics speak for themselves.  I'm really happy with my decision, and it has come together just as I had envisioned in my head.



When I started this quilt, I had all intentions of giving it as a gift for one of the many friends and family of ours who are expecting a baby in the near future, but I'm not sure I can give this one away.  I just love the sort of retro vibe the Granny squares block has, and paired with the bright vibrant modern fabrics just seems to be a perfect match.  Not that I think I am some master quilter or anything, but I'm not sure anyone I would give this to would appreciate it as much as I do.  I hope that doesn't sound terrible, most of the quilts I make are for gifts, and I understand that anything handmade is all a matter of taste, but for some reason, this is just screaming at me to keep it.  We don't have any children yet, but are hoping to start a family soon, so I think I'll tuck this quilt away for our hopefully one day baby.



I backed this with this super cute grey and white houndstooth print I picked up at Joann's a little while back, and I just love it.  That coupled with the aqua Timeless Treasures crosshatch sketch (another fav) for the binding, and the quilt rounds out to a solid 78 different stash fabrics used in this quilt.  I find it a little frightening that I hardly found it challenging to come up with this many different prints all from stash... addicted to fabric much?  I think so.

Granny and I will be linking up to Kati's Slash the Stash April linky party, be sure you head over to From the Blue Chair and add your April stash project!

Quilt Stats

Quilt Name:  Granny Squares baby quilt

Pattern:  Based on the Granny Square block tutorial by Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches

Quilt Size:  45" square

Fabrics used:  78 different fabrics from my personal fabric stash, with Kona White solid

Binding:  Timeless Treasures Crosshatch Sketch in Aqua

Quilting:  Straight line quilting 1/4" on both sides of each seam done by me on my home machine

WIP Wednesday {4.25.2012}

Happy Wednesday!  Its been quite a week, completely aside from sewing, Mother Nature is playing cruel tricks on us in these parts, we went from 80 degree weather on Friday, to snow on Monday (real snow...like the local kids didn't have school snow) to mid 60 degree weather today.  Whaaaat??  Anyways, I've been sewing away, my aunt and I had a little sewing date last week to show her how to FMQ her quilt, and aside from that I've been scalloping away!  Here's whats new:

In Progress

DP Scallop Quilt

I sewed my little hearts out to get this top put together this weekend, and I couldn't be happier with how this turned out.  I'll be putting together a little tutorial when I finish up this quilt, be on the lookout if your interested.  More about Mr. Scallop here.

The other day I took advantage of my clean floors, had a little basting party, and then got to quilting.  I decided to branch out of my normal quilting pattern and try something new.  Ever since seeing Elizabeth's baptist fan quilting, I have been wanting to try it out.  I thought this quilt might be a good opportunity, but didn't want something quite so ordered and structured since the quilt its self is pretty ordered and structured.  I played around a little and settled on this design that I'm calling "Liberated baptist fans" sort of the same idea, but my arches go every which way.  It's taking forever to quilt it this way, and my arms and shoulders feel like they got a good workout after each quilting session, but I think it will be well worth it in the end.   

Granny Squares Baby Quilt

During my little basting party, I pulled out my granny squares quilt top, and let it join in the fun as well.  Granny will get some TLC soon, and be off to its new home hopefully in the next few days. 

Bee Blocks

No pics here, but I have bee blocks out to wazoo that are crying for attention this weekend.  Seeing as how Monday is the last day in April, nothing like waiting to the last minute :-)

What have you been working on?  Head over to Freshly Pieced and link up!

Scallop quilt top

According to the weather man, I've finished this quilt top just in time for the giant nor-easter storm to roll on through Pittsburgh.  Whaaat?  Seriously folks, it was 80 degrees here on Friday, and its predicted for 6 inches of snow tomorrow?  Craziness.

This makes me all the more happy to have this bright cheery "I-scream-summer" quilt top to work on, and think of much warmer temperatures.  Bertha and I spent some quality time this weekend, and the majority of that was spent piecing this guy together.  

Mr. Scallops came together quite quickly with the help of my Accuquilt and Drunkards Path die, and good ole pal rotary cutter to trim the blocks for assembly.  My preplanned color chart was super helpful in remembering where each color was supposed to go.  

This quilt top just screams to be placed under a bright vibrant beach umbrella on warm soft sand, so you can bet that's what I'll be thinking about while quilting this guy.  

I took advantage of Joann's big sale this weekend and stocked up on quilt batting, so I'll be a basting machine over the next few days with a few tops that have just been waiting for batting to be purchased.  Also, I did a fairly large house clean yesterday, and feel its necessary to take advantage of those nice clean floors for some basting action.



What about you?  What were you sewing this weekend??

WIP Wednesday {4.18.2012}

While I was waiting for the rest of my Kona Aqua to arrive to start on my Owly baby quilt, I decided to dive right into a project I've had on my mind for some time now using my Drunkards Path Accuquilt GO! die.  Ever since appliqueing this pillow, I thought "hey I could piece this using the drunkards path die."  Its nice to finally see this idea coming together in fabric. 

Most of Saturday was spent pulling fabrics, and turning that crank to cut the pieces, while Sunday was spent designing the arrangement and finally beginning to stitch some blocks together.  I am so happy that I had no intentions of giving this one away when I started it, because I'm loving where its headed.  I really forced myself to step out of my comfort zone color-wise, and I think I must do so more often!  

Now that my Kona Aqua has finally arrived perhaps I'll give that owly baby quilt some love this week, but for now, it continues to sit in a pile, cut and patiently waiting to be pieced.

Before wrapping up this weeks post, I have to give a shout out to my Aunt Linda who just sent me a picture of her first completed quilt top!  We took our first Joann's sewing/quilting lessons together a year or two ago, and this is her first completed top all on her own.  I just love it to pieces, all those bright fun colors, and on point to boot?  Just perfect.  She says that the points don't line up, but from my view, its lookin' pretty awesome! 

What have you been working on this week??   Head over to Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

weekend stitching

Call me a nerd, but one of my favorite parts in the quilting process is sitting down with my graph paper and colored pencils, drawing out my design and figuring all the quilty math necessary to make the quilt come alive in fabric.

Starting with this....

Pulled out all this....

And started stitching this...

This color palate is so not in my wheel house, but  I wanted to branch away from the typical blues and greens I tend to be drawn to, and head toward yummy summery colors.  I am now considering myself 100% converted to pinless curved piecing using Leann's tutorial, and it makes sewing these scallops a piece o' cake.  These blocks are another great use of my Drunkards Path die for my Accuquilt GO!, which makes cutting the curved pieces super quick and simple.  

What about you, what were you stitching this weekend?

WIP Wednesday {4.11.2012}

Happy WIP Wednesday!  I hope everyone had a very enjoyable holiday weekend, I know we certainly did (and got to enjoy a rare 3 day weekend, woohoo!)  I feel like I am now coming out of a sugar induced coma from all the chocolate and sweets that have been consumed...you mean to tell me that eating chocolate bunnies and peeps for breakfast is NOT healthy and nutritious??  Anyways, in the midst of running here and there doing the family holiday thing, I did manage some time down in my sewing room, here's whats new:

In Progress

Granny Squares Quilt

I finished up my granny squares baby quilt top, and am so so happy with it.  The quilt back is pieced, and will be basted just as soon as I can get to Joann's for more batting!  More on this quilt top here.

New Projects

Owl-y Chain Link baby quilt

While over-indulging on super yummy things this weekend, my aunt asked if I could make a baby quilt for a good friend of hers who is expecting a little boy.  Of course I said yes.  She told me the mom really likes "cute little owls" as the theme for the nursery, and when I said I had just the perfect owl fabric, she looked at me like I had two heads, and I believe she said, "you actually have fabric on hand that has owls on it??"  And to that I explained that it was just the benefit of being addicted to buying fabric, haha.  Anyways I cut my fabric pieces, and am planning on using Amy's Chain Linked pattern as my inspiration, with the size doctored a little to make it baby quilt size.  

That's about it for this weeks goings-on!  Elizabeth tagged me in her recent post with some super fun quilty and non quilty  questions, so look for a bloggy post coming soon!

What have you been working on lately?  Head over the Freshly Pieced and link up!

Granny Squares quilt top

I am so excited to share that my granny squares quilt top is complete!  This is hands down one of my favorite quilts I've made in some time (giving my Swoon a run for its money), and I cannot even begin to count the times I've had to talk myself out of deciding to throw some borders around this little lady and keep her for myself.

Ever since seeing Jolene's granny squares quilt way back when, I knew I had to make one, and then when flickr seemed to be inundated with granny squares, I knew I had to make one, like now.

My granny (as I am now affectionately calling her) is not only inspired by Jolene, but when I saw Michelle's granny mini, I knew this was the layout I wanted, forgoing the borders.  I pieced mine together slightly different than in the tutorial, piecing it in rows on the diagonal, instead of each complete block, and then sewing the rows together.  This avoided having my white background squares with a seam down the center, and by pressing the seams of each row in opposite directions, it made for fairly simple, pinless piecing (my favorite kind!)



She is just so bright and cheery, and will make the most perfect  baby quilt for a dear friend of ours.





This quilt is comprised of approximately 960 individually pieced 2" finished squares, and 75 different fabrics all from my stash, for a finished size of about 44" square.  I'm going to set this aside for a few days while I mull over the quilting.  I'm leaning toward straight line quilting 1/4" on each side of the seams because with all the different fabrics and colors, there is already so much going on...but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has an awesome idea!



For now I think I'll let her live on my design wall, so I can soak up the brightness and warmth this quilt gives off!

WIP Wednesday {4.4.2012}

Oh Wednesday, we meet again.  We've had quite a busy week running here and there it seems, so I'm surprised I've gotten as much sewing done as I have.  This was the hubs weekend off, so it seems we cram about  three weekends worth of stuff into two days, whew!  Anyways, here's whats new in the sewing room:

Completed Projects

4x5 Bee Blocks

I spent some time finishing up my bee blocks for my hivemates in the 4x5 bee.  I struggled a little this round on what block to make, and ultimately decided on taking Rachel from In Color Order's Wheel Quilt Pattern and shrinking it down to 12.5" block size.   Overall I'm very happy with how these turned out, and can't wait to make the pattern in actual quilt size!

New Projects

Granny Squares Baby Quilt

For starters, pardon the crapalicious cell phone pic here, bad lighting+cell phone camera in general= not good at all.  But, its all I could manage this morning before heading out the door to work.  Ever since seeing Jolene's granny squares quilt  way back when, I knew I wanted to make some of these little guys, but it seemed I was always in the middle of something else and couldn't get around to it.  I figured no time like the present, and this week got to work.  I'm doing mine a little differently, after seeing Michelle's granny squares mini without the sashing, I knew this was how I wanted mine.  I'm piecing them together in rows first, and then will sew all the rows together on the diagonal.  I'm itching to get this top pieced, as I can already tell it will be a favorite.  

I've officially lost count of technically all the "WIPs" I have going on, so I'm deciding to leave off the number count and focus just on what I'm working on this week.  Much less stressful, I figure I don't need reminding about all projects I haven't touched in 3 months (ahem, Farmers Wife QAL)..I'll get back to it eventually...maybe...

So, what have you been working on this week??  Head over to Freshly Pieced and link up!   

Bee block update

 I got down to business this weekend and finally tackled my bee blocks for my hivemates in the 4x5 bee.  I am usually much more on the ball, but these just seemed to keep getting set off to the side for other projects.  On aside, I cannot believe that after this next quarter, the 4x5 bee will have been in action for an entire year already! I believe signups for the second quarter have just started, so if you haven't joined in the fun yet, you definitely should :-)

  

I fussed around with a few block designs, and ultimately settled on a mini version of Rachel's Wheel quilt pattern.  I shrunk the templates down to about 33% of the original, it worked out perfectly, leaving me just enough to trim my blocks down to 12 1/2" square.  

 

For Em@Sewingbymoonlight

This was a fun round, as everyone in my hive had different color requests, so I got to rummage through my scrap baskets for each block. 

For Hambone&Jennicakes

For PurpleMum1

For Sarah Oviatt

For owlyjulie

I cannot say enough great things about this pattern, working with it in mini form has me itching to make the scrappy regular baby quilt size soon!



I will be linking up to sew modern monday today