Baby Blue Bowties

I've been secretly busy working the last two weeks on a quilt for a expectant co-worker.  Little fellow is due in December, so I recently asked her what her decorations plans were and she just replied all blue and white stuff.  I've been wanting to making a bowtie quilt for a while now and this seemed the perfect chance to kick it off the bucket list.  I don't do traditional piecing often, usually preferring paper piecing, but love how quickly it came together.  The AccuQuilt die for the 2 1/2 inch blocks helped speed up all the fabric cutting some.  Believe it or not this quilt top all came out of my stash and it felt great to use up some of the fabrics that have been just collecting dust for years.

It currently measures 32 1/2" by 49".  Normally my baby quilts finish a little wider but not sure I want to add more to it. Probably an ideal crib size but usually I like to make a play on the floor size quilt.  Still needing to get those three Elsa pillow cushion covers made so this might be the finished size of this blanket plus the binding.

I bought some Michael Miller "Oh Baby" Animal Silhouettes by Cynthia Rowley for the back and may consider a border on the front with it if I have enough.  The animals are all in a dark navy blue and I think they will look great with it.

Christmas decorating the house tomorrow...what are you up to?

Keep Stitchin'

More Happily Ever After blocks

I have been putting off completing these last two blocks in the series by Quiet Play's Kristy in her Happily Ever After Pattern Bundle.  I don't know why I put them off so long, they are so simple to put together and I very much enjoyed all the straight lined sections, making it so nice to assemble each block once the sections were completed.  This is a quilt top I am putting together for a baby due November 22nd, so it was time to take it off the back burner and spend some time on it.  I say the baby is due November 22nd but if I get the quilt completed by the time mom completes her 3 month maternity leave from work I will feel like I got it done in time.

The Rapunzel block was first up and I love her long golden locks flowing down the tower wall

The second one, I just completed today was the Sleeping Beauty block.

There are only 8 blocks in this bundle so I have to figure out a layout.  I think I am going to lay them out like the picture below and add the baby's name in the center.  Of course, the baby's name may be too long and then I will have to rethink the center of the quilt, too.  I think I may sash in a white and add a row of bright paper pieced hearts at the top and bottom to add length to the top and make it a rectangle.  I just might just make all the hearts pink to girl it up a touch, not that I would ever think of these blocks as being a quilt for a boy but I know baby's mom is doing her room in all pink so I know she is loving the idea of having her own little princess bundled in lots of pink.

I've put my Quilt Doodle Doodle 2014 BOM blocks and rows together but the weather has not cooperated in getting an outdoor picture of it yet. I'll give it another week or so and then may have to settle for rain and gray skies as here in the Pacific Northwest we just may be in for 7 more months of liquid sunshine.

Keep Stitchin'

Oh Happy Day

Today we finally had Brayden's baby shower and I finally gave my daughter the quilts I had made for him.  The first was the Word quilt that I started before we knew it was a boy or girl and had to wait forever for a name for the baby to be finalized before being able to finish it.  Brayden's quilt was worth all the time and effort though as it was all I could hope for it to be and more. I am very pleased with the final result as you can see by my big smile.

The pattern for all the letters in the words are from the pattern Just My Type in lowercase from Kristy at Quiet Play that I had the honor to pattern test for her a few months back.  You can find the pattern available for her letters and her other paper piecing patterns at her Crafty Store site.

 This next quilt I gave to her when Brayden was born.  My daughter and her husband are big on woodland animals and I thought they would like the deer.  The stag reminds me so much of Bambi's father.  These patterns are from Joanna at Shape Moth .

I did have one surprise for my daughter that I just finished last night in time to give to her today. It was a total shock and surprise to her and that was the best part ( at least for me )... for her she just loved getting it at all.  Months ago she saw a similar blanket available on Etsy but the cost was something she didn't want to incur.  Lucky for her, she has a mom that can try to accomodate her requests for something special that catches her eye in the quilt department.  But in this case we had a problem.  The fabric was from a Robert Kauffman line that was from 2011 and 2012 and although adorable it proved impossible to find.  I had found  the girl fabric panel featuring lots of pink at a store in our town but once an ultrasound showed she was expecting a boy I knew that pink would never do.  We started searching for the boy panel but it seemed to be an impossible task to find it.  After spending hours searching for it online, I turned the task over to my daughter to search for it.  She didn't have any better luck so we were pretty sure we just wouldn't be able to find it.  You can only search online for so many hours before giving up hope.  About a month or more went by and I decided one night to try looking again.  Within 15 minutes, I found it at one and only one store.  Half a world away, in Australia, I found it!!!  The store wouldn't send it to me until I confirmed I would agree to the shipping costs but I already knew I wanted that flannel panel regardless of shipping costs!

Look at the surprise on her face when she opened her present today.  I wrapped the quilt with the backing to the outside so she would have no idea what was on the inside until she opened the quilt up.

It didn't take much of a peek for her to catch on what she was looking at.  She had fallen in love with the border the girl at Etsy had paired up with the flannel panel.  It was a camo and orange pieced border.  Although, I thought it was lunacy, I must admit, it paired up nicely with the fabric and turned out adorable.

I had to share this photo even though my DH captured it with a bit of a blur ( at least it was captured ).
You can't see it thru Mia but she is giving me a high five...she was so EXCITED and still had not seen the whole quilt yet.  That's the good stuff right there.

Here is the resulting quilt, it definitely was worth all the time it took me to find the fabric and wait for the package to arrive from a place so far away. I know I've said it before but the internet is an incredibly life changing tool.  To think a generation ago my parents could never have dreamed of being able to do something like this for me and yet I can do it for my daughter with...relative ease :)

While to someone like me a flannel panel isn't exactly what I think of when I think of starting a quilt project for someone, you can tell my daughter was overjoyed at receiving the blanket she had dreamed of having when she found out she was expecting a special little fellow to light up her days.

I have to admit that after outlining each of the animals and all the leaves in the quilting process and adding the pieced border that it did indeed turn out to be a beautiful finished blankie.

We welcomed the new member of the family this weekend.  He arrived Saturday morning and mommy and him are doing great.  Brayden James weighed in at a hefty 8 lbs 12 oz. and  was 20 and a half inches long.
I am still working on getting his blanket done ( I am so close just the binding to go) but I quickly made a little minky blankie for him because his mommy wanted one that matched his diaper bag (orange and camo).  I couldn't find the real tree camo she wanted so I did the best I could.  I will have to find it online and order it soon. 

He was wide awake and bushy tailed ... checking me out as much as I was checking him out.

When his older sister arrived she held him and checked him over real good, too.

Her look when she looked up was PRICELESS

I think she was pretty tickled pink with the newest member of the family.

 Don't you agree???

Her youngest sister kissed the new baby but I suspect she may be a harder sell on how great he is. We, on the other hand couldn't agree with Kiara more, Brayden puts a huge smile on our faces, too!

Warm fuzzy feelings are happening over here and wishing you and yours the very best!

And Sew On...

And sew on...seems to be the story of my life right now as I continue to try and catch up.  I did get my July rotary cutter And Sew On block done.  My rotary cutter certainly gets a good workout so it is only right to feature it in one of the blocks.  I am glad that Kristy found just the way to do that in one of the patterns.

With little time to spare, I got back to work on my word quilt for Brayden and completed the top.  I got it all pin basted and hope to be able to FMQ it this week so it will be done for Brayden's arrival on Saturday.  He just has to keep cooking in the oven a little while longer so nana can 'Get er Done'. 

For the most part, I think I will just be following the grid when quilting it so it should be rather easy to quilt.
That's the plan anyway.

In doing a little blog reading this weekend , I saw that Sharon over at Lilabelle Lane is asking for help to make an eye spy meets polaroid quilt for a special little boy who is going through some tough medical issues right now.  I told her I would make a couple of these blocks and get them off to her but they are so additive I made four.  Oh, well I am sending them all and if she gets too many she can decide what else to do with them. I just need to pick up a postcard to send with it so Blake and his family can see where they came from and pop them in the mail so they can travel half way around the world to reach Sharon and become part her little love gift to this little guy to warm his heart and bring a smile to him with all of our good wishes.

I made the Gorilla, which turned out super cute, an Elephant, monkeys---just too fun to resist, and then I saw the deer and thought it was perfect since these blocks are being sent to Blake with love from the Pacific Northwest.
Keep Stitchin'

My Quiet Play Block : Pressing on

Kristi's block for the month was Keep Calm and Press On.  Love her little ironing board and iron she designed for this month's block.  She recently put her blocks together and made a very unique quilt out of them.  She was totally brave and cut her blocks up and reversed appliqued them...setting the bar high for us! You can check out how brave she was here.  It really looks great!!!  Love being inspired by what I see others doing but not sure I could be that brave.

 

Love how this little block turned out. I was nervous using such a busy background but it works for me. When I am making a block I forget to take a look at the previous blocks and thinking about my colors choices as how they will look together in the finished quilt.  Instead I seem to have tunnel vision with the task at hand and pray they will look good together when the time comes to unite them.  Keeping my fingers crossed and pressing on seems to be my motto.

Each month Kristi has us link up our blocks in her linky party and a couple people win some goodies each month.  My scissors block WON in the month of April.  I was the lucky winner of a scrap bag from Fabric Worm.  I can not say enough good things about the scrap bag I got.  I don't know about your definition of scraps but for me they are not WOF cuts.  Each piece I received was a WOF cut.  Some 1/3yds, some 1/4yds, and a 1/2 yd or two cuts. Plus they all coordinated together very nicely.  Here is the pretty fabrics that were in my scrap bag I won.

So I set off to find a quick little quilt that I could throw together for my daughter's sister-in-law who just adopted a newborn baby boy about the same time I won this. I found this little pattern called 'Baby Birds' for free on the fat quarter shop website.  The original pattern had some baby birds---thus the name---appliqued onto the row that I put and elephant and a giraffe and paper pieced the baby's name on.

Here is the result:

I had the elephant and giraffe appliques just hanging around my house for the last 5 years since I didn't use them in a quilt I made for my first grand-daughter so I was glad to see they fit the theme of the fabrics so perfectly.  I put minkee on the back and wrapped it around the the front to use it as the binding.  When I went to quilt the layers together the quilt wasn't moving to freely on the table top. I figured the extra drag was from the minkee fabric itself so I thought I had the ideal fix.  I would put my supreme glider on the sewing machine and surely there would be less drag.  Next thing I knew when I finished that row this is what I found.

 

My supreme slider must have slide alright and somehow got sewn right into the blanket without me being aware of it.  ACCCCCCCCK!!!  I hate finishing a quilt top.  I dawned a pair of gloves and skipped the supreme slider after that.  I think that possibly all the lint from the minkee was just too much for the supreme slider. For sure I think I was suppose to wash the supreme slider between uses and skipped that step. 

I have a very nice darning foot for my juki that I usually use to FMQ with and for all the straight down lines that I just went top to bottom with I used my regular sewing foot.  But once I went around the whole perimeter I noticed that the fabric would push the quilt top into the edge that was now locked in place and I wanted to quilt the chevron so I switched to this foot.  It was a cheap (like $6.95 foot) that I bought at Christmas but hadn't used yet.  I liked the open toe. My juki quilting foot is a closed circle and it really does block the line of vision of your stitches.  I really liked how this foot performed. I always lower my feed dogs with my juki foot it just seems to FMQ better with the feed dogs down.  So many times I see Angela Waters or someone else saying you can FMQ with the feed dogs up and with this foot that was very true.  I also liked how the edge of the "C" opening could be used to track my path on the quilt to help me get a straight line.  This foot hops much better that my other foot and I think that might be the biggest difference.  I think I may need to try and do some skillbuilder FMQing with this foot and see if I can get more comfortable with the whole process.

I recently read someones post about using the backing as the binding on the front and then they machine sew the binding onto the quilt.  I always do the opposite and put and extra border on the front of my quilt and then use it for the binding which I then wrap around to the back of the quilt and then hand sew the binding in place on the back.  I was intrigued with the idea of doing it the opposite because I loved the idea of being able to sew the binding in place and wham being DONE.  I must say I was a little unsure of trying it with the minkee but it worked like a charm.  Not only that but I LOVE the soft edge that it brought to the front of the quilt.  Feels so luxurious and soft.  I just cut my backing and batting to measure 2 1/2 inches larger than my quilt top.  Once I had them trimmed I peeled the minkee away from the layers and cut the batting back to measure 1 inch.  Then I just turned the minkee in about a quarter inch to get rid of the raw edge and then pinned it to the blanket.  Mitered the corners pinning throughly and sewed it into place near the edge.

I just want to say a huge thanks to Kristy from Quiet Play and to her sponsor Fabric Worm for the fabulous win that made this quilt possible and I know Ryan and his family will be thrilled to be the lucky recipient's of this blankee. 

Now I had better go link up my May block :)

Keep Stitchin'

Aubrey or Calvin???

We won't know if our next grandchild will be an Aubrey or Calvin until April 29th so I can't finish this quilt I started for the newest family member until I find out because I want to have the baby's name run down the right side of this quilt.  I thought I would share my progress on it though because I am over the top in love with how it is turning out.

I based the words from the fabric you see in the picture and used the paper piecing pattern from Kristy at Quiet Play that she has available on her craftsy site.  The rest I just sat down and drew out an approximation and then tweaked as I was putting it together.  I love how fresh and beautiful it is turning out.  It has been a long wait to find out if it is for a boy or girl but we will know soon.

It looks so much like Spring that I had to get a picture with my favorite flower.  Aren't those baby feet adorable???

Here is how the Asian Scrappy is turning out, too.  I am waiting to finish it till I can find the $$$ to buy the border.  I could find the $$$ easier if I didn't keep spending it elsewhere but what fun would that be?  I am accumulating a lot of fabric lately.  There was another quilt show in town this last weekend and another this weekend.  I always find something I need.   Bye Bye $$$

This one will be for my daughter, Ashley, she is wanting to switch from her queen size bed to a twin so she can gain room in her bedroom so I don't feel too rushed to finish it as we don't have a twin in there right now.  We just recently gave one to the littlest grandchild so Ashley will have to wait in line for funds for that, too.

Tomorrow Mr Random will choose a winner for the current giveaway that is open to my followers.  Leave a comment on the previous post if you are a follower that would like to be entered in the drawing for it.  I recently won the Two Sisters traveling stash box and will be posting that giveaway this weekend.

Speaking of accumulating fabric and winning...look what I recently won from Boardwalk Quilts in Long Beach, WA.  When I was in town in March they were having a fabulous fat quarter sale and I LOVE FAT QUARTERS.  So I quickly scooped up something like 23 or so of those babies at 1.69 a piece.  I was in heaven.  I entered their drawing for what I believed was the pattern to a quilt they had on display.  I WON!!!  But it turns out I didn't win just the pattern oh no...I won the whole quilt kit to put it together.  Can I hear a WOOT WOOT!!!??  Here is a pic of this dreamy win.  I ran to town this last weekend and picked it up.

The pattern can make four different designs.  I really love the pattern but am tempted to use the fabric (a whooping 15 fat quarters and two large cuts of white and black for the blocks and borders) in my Zetti quilt that I have been procrastinating on.  I am still pondering design options but recently tried something and just by coincidence they were 8" blocks the same as this pattern has. I think I can swap my Zetti blocks and use the black and white string blocks in between them.  The blocks wouldn't be set on point but I think it would look great and wham look at all the fabric that I can incorporate into the Zetti quilt. Here is how the first two blocks turned out.  I also just bought the pattern for the Believe Magic girls that Carrie makes ( I LOVE THEM) and want to incorporate them in here, too.

Keep Stitchin'

 

  Quilt Names

What's in a name???  I have made quite a lot of quilts and have only named one.  Why is it when I go to think of a name for my quilt my mind draws a big blank? All I see are the beautiful fabrics and the love I've put into this beautiful creation but a name for it is never easy ( in fact down right painful so I skip it). All that comes to mind for the following quilt is Zigzag Boats...not very creative huh?  Anyone out there want to help me give this quilt a name?  If so please just leave a suggestion in my comments and I'll at least have more of a clue than I have now.  It is for my great-great nephew that is three days overdue. So pressures on to get this done and on it's way to him.  All I need to do is wash it with a color catcher and put a quilt label on it...sure would be nice if it had a name.

If you can help me out, I sure would appreciate it. I'll show you the back when I get the quilt label created and put on the back.  In the meantime I've started a new top.  I am making it for a raffle event my work is having to raise money for our company Christmas party.  Every other week each department is putting something up to raffle off and the winner is chosen on Wednesdays.  So far they started off with 24 egg rolls which raised $68.00, then a movie basket which raised $86.00, this week was a 6hr-3 winery bus tour for two for a net profit of 126.00. So far they've earned $280.  My quilt will be in anchor position on October 17th. I'm going to add a couple more borders. One of which will be about 4 or 5 inches wide and I will have all the employees sign it the week before the raffle.  It's off to a great start...check it out

I tried to create wonky star blocks but had difficulty so I used this pattern from the Quilter's Cache called the uneven star.  It is paper pieced and I think the black/white and white/black print are striking with the bright colored stars. You can get a copy of the pattern here
Keep stitchin'

I've been busy in the sewing room this weekend and will show you what I've been up to in the next few days. I will have a lot of explaining to do. How come I never have enough time in my day to get around to all I need to get done?  I do want to mention that along with all my other things to get done in the quilt room I now have another project in the waiting line.  During the last quilt blog hop I also won a pattern for a Goldilocks and the three bears pattern which is stunning.  I look forward to making this quilt for the next little girl to come into a my circle of friends.  You can see the project I'm talking about at Bubblestitch Quilts.  Cyrille has a great talent for designing some wonderful quilts and blocks that are paper pieced.  I can't wait to start picking out fabrics for this beauty.  She also has an adorable Red Riding Hood set of patterns and a nice deer and bear that I'll have to find time for also.
Right now I have to find time to finish a Zig Zag quilt I threw together last weekend for my great-great nephew arriving in July.  Grayson will be the first boy born in my family for 44 years so we are all looking forward to greeting this little guy.  Here is a sneak peek at the top:

This is a gorgeous picture but as you can see the quilt top is upside down. Just imagine it flipped around so the boats aren't standing on their tops.  I chose all nautical prints and since his due date is July 10th the red, white and blue may be very appropriate as well.
Keep Stitching,

Jungle Cuddles

I am ready to show off my Jungle Cuddles Quilt now that I received my new camera cord in the mail today.  I had fun taking these pictures,  so I was glad to be able to recover them.  I haven't been sure about the whole process used to create this blanket but the end result isn't so bad.  The girls I work with love it so I must have done something right.  I am always my worst critic.  Hope Madelynn approves when she arrives soon that is all that really matters.   All I need to do is wash the blanket and iron the back and it will be all hers. Well I do need to put a quilt label on the back, too .  I always seem to forget that it is nice to let baby know the who, when and with my love part of making this for her so she can cherish it for years.                                                                

   

Take Care,

Still a WIP

I still have to add another row to the top and the leaf border to the other three sides but the quilt top is coming along.  The monkey found a nice place to live but since he moved in over there I needed another animal to live at the bottom of the quilt. I needed an animal not too tall so I added the alligator.  He was never in my original sketch but I really like him down there. I love how soft the minky cuddle fabric's are.  I'm not sure I would piece the quilt together this way again.  You can see I am a little crooked on the backing, that is why I wouldn't choose to do it this way again. I think I will just barely have enough room at the top since the layers are already quilted and I just have to add the border.
Happy Quilting...........

I forgot the giraffe needed to have a mane on its neck so I added that and the lion is now a part of the quilt but the monkey is not sure where on the quilt he will live.  I need to make the elephant and zebra before locking him down I think because I am a little worried about room for them all. What do you think of how it is coming along so far?  Sure am loving how soft they are. I will have to hand sew an eye on the giraffe.  I forgot that when I started this project,too. I can't wait to make the elephant. JoAnn's didn't have gray cuddle fabric so it is off to craft warehouse tomorrow to get some. I was tempted to make it out of regular fabric and just line the ears with pink cuddle fabric but the monkey is sooooo soft to the touch that I must have the elephant out of cuddle fabric and I don't really want a pink elephant. Looking at the picture I think I should have given the lion a body of yellow under his head. Oh, well I am not re-doing it.
Wish me luck putting the rest of this together. I will show you how it's coming along when I get the elephant added.

                                               Why do I procrastinate so???

I can't believe it has taken me so long to finally start Brittney's baby quilt for Madelynn.  The last three weekends I have gone to local quilt show every Saturday and taken lots of pictures of very inspiring quilts and many ideas were added to my bucket list of quilt ideas but now it is time to get to work.  Brittney stopped by my house this last week and her belly was a HUGE reminder of how little time I have left to finish this project and I hadn't even started it yet! One of the biggest reasons other than I haven't been home much lately is my lack of real understanding what I am attempting to do. I am kind of treating this quilt like a giant paper piece project sewing directly onto the backing and batting. Problem is I have no pattern on the back that would normally be my sewing lines when paper piecing so I am free handing it from the front of the quilt.  I started with the giraffe in the middle (only it is a little to the left and a little lower than I would have liked) so right off the bat I will probably be compensating down the road and changing my original design to compensate for that problem.  I am mixing cuddle fabrics and regular cotton fabrics so that to has been challenging.  I love the soft feel of the cuddle fabrics though and look forward to what they offer this quilt. I still want to be able to add an elephant , monkey, zebra and a lion.