Lucky Stars Block of the Month

I did some paper piecing a while ago, and I finally got around to taking pictures of it.  These blocks are from the Lucky Stars Block of the Month from Don't Call Me Betsy.

Fireworks Block

I bought the Fireworks pattern from Thimble Blossoms and i quickly jumped onto making this block.  It took me many hours, and I don't have intentions for a full quilt using these fabrics, but I just really wanted to make it!  I'm not sure what I'm going to turn it into... a pillow.. a mini quilt... no idea!  It's a 16" block, so if it went to a pillow I'd have to sash it to 20".  I'm leaning towards a mini quilt as I type this... I need more decorations in my messy sewing room :)

Come What May Quilt

I finished this quilt last fall.  The pattern is Come What May by Jaybird Quilts.

When Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2 collection came out, I bought the entire purple colorway without a plan in mind.  After I purchased mine, my best friend saw the collection, loved it, and her mom made her a quilt out of the black/yellow colorway (I posted about that Pendant Quilt here).  That was October 2011 - so I've been sitting on this for a while!

It took me a while to find a pattern I wanted to use with it.... and one that required the amount of fabric I bought (I had 1/2 yard cuts of all of it).

And that is the problem with how I shop for fabric.  When I have a plan in mind, stuff goes fast!  I don't get nervous cutting into it, I don't want to change my mind in the middle of the plan... I just move right along!  When I don't plan, I end up buying gobs of fabric that I love and it just sits there looking pretty.  Although I don't mind gobs of pretty fabric, by the time I get around to using it I wonder if I will still love it as much as I originally did?  That is what was pushing me to get this quilt done once I decided on a pattern.

I quilted straight lines 1/4" on either side of each column and row.  I love the woven look of the finished product.  It's a really simple quilt pattern - it would be great for beginners.

This purple should look eggplant colored, but the morning light did some funky stuff.  The back is all birds - with my best attempt at matching the birds in the seam with the amount of fabric I had available for it.

Although I love this quilt, I ended up gifting this to my mom.  I was on video chat with her one day and she saw it in the background and asked about it.  She is a very picky person when it comes to fabric/quilts.  I went through about all of my collection with her before to see what she likes and she nixed all of it.  And I mean all of it.  I showed her other examples online, other fabric styles, I tried everything... and she nixed all of those too.  So when she showed interest in this, she got it.  She obviously gets first choice!

I flew out to visit and gave it to her while she was in the hospital.  Apparently it made conversation with every nurse that came in the room - which she loved!

Windows Sewing Machine Cover

(This makes my desk look clean.  Just prior to taking this photo I took a big swipe and pushed all my crap on the floor.)

My friend Andrea made a sewing machine cover like this from the full line of Flea Market Fancy and used linen as the sashing.  I loved it and made one for myself, with a little different selection of FMF prints and white sashing.  This pattern is "Windows Sewing Machine Cover" from the book Fresh Quilting: Fearless Color, Design, and Inspiration by a stitch in the dye.

I quilted it in the ditch... which I never usually do but I thought it worked well for this small pattern:

On the back is one of my favorites - Bouquet in Turquoise.

My husband was the one that suggested white binding.  (He gave an opinion on fabric..wtf??!)  It does work so well...

Weekend of Binding

I hand bound two quilts this weekend to a Grey's Anatomy marathon on Netflix.  I've been itching to get my Scrappy Trip Along quilt done and it finally is!  I was so happy that I dragged it around with me all day today.  I love finishes!

I'm in love with the back of my Scrappy Trip Along quilt.  It's Nordic Diamond in Purple from the Heaven & Helsinki collection by Patty Young.   I have learned since I started quilting to never skimp on the back.  If you find a print/idea/layout you love... just go for it.  You will be seeing it 50% of the time when you're using the quilt.  I made the mistake once on a quilt... and while I still love the front of it, I'm angry at the back every time I look at it.  For the amount of time I put into these, I never want to be angry at the back!

In other news, my Madrona Road Challenge quilt has been completed for a while now and I have yet to post about it. Below is in progress shot that I forgot to share from early February.

I'll share the photos soon.  :)

LVMQG Mini Quilt Swap - Improv Chevron

Our guild swapped fat quarters at a meeting to use as inspiration for a mini-quilt.  The fabric I got was from Jenean Morrison's Silent Cinema line called Gray Featurette.  It's the gray print/border in the below mini-quilt.

Included with the fabric was a note that she liked 'Jewel Tones'.  I really had no idea what to do with it until some teal and gold fabric fell on my sewing room floor next to each other on accident.  I pulled a bunch of fabrics and went for the improv chevron block (Tutorial over on Six White Horses blog).   I actually meant to have more of the gray fabric showing, but after I finished piecing a couple of the strips, this is where my trimming landed it.

I put the remaining fabric on the back with a cute little strip of Kona berry on the binding.  The photo looks maroon but I can assure you that's just my bad photography and it's really a berry color.

I hand bound the edges and added a little white piece of ribbon for hanging:

Christmas Tree Skirt

My work in progress that I shared yesterday turned into this:

I convinced my husband that instead of a big real tree this year, we have a smaller fake one.  Our condo living room is quite small and the big tree takes up a ton of space (and blocks part of the TV).  I also didn't feel like cleaning the pine needles out of my convertible that we use to bring it home in. :)  This year I bought a super cute small pre-lit 4' tree and needed a new skirt.

I sewed together strips of fabric, alternated cutting them into 45 degree triangles, added tree trunks (they are a dark brown Kona), sashed each tree and sewed them into a circle.  It finishes at 30" wide which is perfect for our 4' tree.

My absolute favorite part of this skirt is the binding. I love how the stripes look.

It was complete luck that the tree above has a snowflake positioned as if its a star on top. :)

I ripped off all of the clear pre-lit lights and added multi-colored twinkle lights.  I could stare at it for hours.  We both love it!

Happy Sewing!