A First for Continuous Circles

I have reached beyond straight-line quilting this time and taken on continuous circles. 

The center was challenging, but I pushed through it at a slow and steady pace.

Once I got away from the center, the quilting went much faster and I was surprised at how quickly I was able to finish last night.

I'll be making the binding this evening and sewing it onto the quilt.  I'll have the rest of the weekend to finish hand-stitching the binding.  I think the dark plum will frame this quilt nicely.  You also get a sneak peak of the back in this picture.

My goal is to have this one in the mail by Monday.  Wish me luck!

A productive weekend

I had a very productive weekend.  It started with piecing the second of the 2 Parson Gray quilts.

I tried to save some time by sewing the blocks on continuously to a long strip of fabric.  I still haven't decided if that saved me any time or not after trimming them all.  I also finger pressed my seams open, which definitely saved me some time while sewing. 

I also used the tape method instead of drawing all the lines on the fabric for diagonal lines for the corner squares...much quicker.

I trimmed up my blocks and saved those corner triangles.

I laid everything out on my design wall to figure out placement.

I really like how this one turned out.

Remember those tiny triangle scraps from trimming the corners?  Here's a fun mini-quilt made out of them.

Here are both quilts side by side.

Saturday evening, I found out that my college roommate had her baby 6 weeks early!  I was planning on starting on her baby quilt next week, but that got moved up for obvious reasons.  I finished the top yesterday and have the backing laid out ready to be pieced.  I need to finish this quilt and send it on it's way before I can finish the two quilts above.  I'll be working like a mad woman this week to complete this one.

I don't know if I've said this before, but I just LOVE the swoon pattern.

One Down and One To Go

I've finished piecing the first of the two baby quilts that I'm working on.  I really love how it has turned out.

I even started piecing the blocks for the second quilt...well, maybe only one block.  The women's figure skating was on last night and I didn't want to miss it.  :)

Another project I started tackling this week was reorganizing my fabric.  I really love the comic board cards, but I didn't buy enough of them. 

 

I have all my pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, greens and aquas wrapped.  I originally bought 300 cards thinking that would be enough, but it only worked for about half of my fabric.  I still need to wrap my blues, purples, grays, browns, multicolored and solids.  I've ordered some more so hopefully I can get the rest done this weekend.

Weekend of Half-Squared Triangles

I started my weekend by cutting into my Parson Gray fabrics.  I'm making two baby quilts out of them.  I was able to get all the fabric cut for one and most of it cut for the second one.  I stopped short because I just wanted to start pieced the first one.  I had lots of HST to do and I was a bit impatient.  I'm glad I didn't wait because here is what is on my design wall now.

It's so much fun to see what you can come up with using HST.  I took the time to trim every one of those HST and it was well worth it.  I usually skip this step, but decided to see if it would make the project easier to piece.  Needless to say, I will be trimming from now on.

 

I was hoping to have all my fabric cut out and have at least one of the baby quilts completely pieced together, but it turned out to be a busy weekend for our family.  Friday night was spent eating take out on the couch and watching a movie with the Husband.  Saturday, my husband was out recording an album with his band and the kids and I had a play date with friends.  Saturday night was spent going out with another one of my Valentine's...my son.  We had blast watching monster trucks squash cars and race and show off their tricks.  Well, let me clarify that.  My son had a blast watching the monster trucks and I had a blast watching my son.  He was so EXCITED!

Sunday was busy with church, but I was able to get in enough time to finish all those HST.  I'll be spending the next couple of evenings getting that top pieced together.  I just love watching a project come together.  :)

Flying Geese Finished!

It's finished!  I recieved so many wonderful responses for the binding color and I wish I could have used them all.  Most everyone suggested a scrappy binding, which I would have loved, but every scrap of fabric in those flying geese was all I had.  A couple people suggested a white binding, which sounded amazing, but it clashed a bit with the backing.  I ended up taking my quilt to Sew Memphis, a local fabric store, and laid it out with as many possible fabric selections as I could and had others there helping me whittle it down until we picked the perfect color.  A muted teal was selected and I really think it works well with all the colors in the quilt.

I walked around at a local park during my lunch break and took some pictures.  It was so wonderful to be outside in the sun!  It was still in the 40s, but I felt so good to have the sun on my face.  I'm so ready for winter to disappear.  The bright sun wasn't necessarily picture friendly, but I didn't care.  Here's what I was able to come up with.

Here is the back.  I just love this Anna Maria Horner print.

This was a fun quilt to create, but I'm glad it's finished. 

Baby Quilt Time

The next several weeks will be spent focusing on getting three baby quilts completed. 

I'm making two baby quilts for two brothers.  They are sharing a room (the youngest will be born in April) and the mom would like to coordinate quilts.  That means I need to use the same fabrics, but different patterns.  I'll be diving into some Parson Gray fabric this time around.  I won't lie and tell you I'm kinda excited about this.

 

I found some solids to coordinate with the Parson Gray fabrics.  The background fabric is Kona Expresso.  The other coordinating solids are rust, spice, chrome and slate.  If those aren't masculine fabrics, I don't know what is.

I also get to play around with some girly fabrics from the Bungalow collection by Joel Dewberry and some Kona Snow. 

I found the gray patterned fabric in my stash that coordinates well.  This quilt will be a large swoon block on the front.  The Swallow Study fabric and the gray patterned fabric will make up the swoon with the Kona Snow as the background.  The Dahlia print will make up most of the back with some scraps thrown in. 

I can't wait to get started!

Sunrise

My Sunrise quilt is DONE!  I finished up the binding in the early morning hours and I'm so glad I did.  The quilt is already at it's new home and getting cozy on the bed.  I got to take some pictures of the quilt in it's "natural habitat", so here it is.

 

 

Here is the back.

 

Now it's time to move on to some more projects!