Scrap blocks

I had fun making a few pink and green scrap blocks this afternoon. I have about 30 of them now. :)

peer pressure... I caved

Here are my first two blocks from the Farmer's Wife Sampler book.

For now I am planning on trying to include purple in as many blocks as possible.

I couldn't get my printer to work yesterday, so I used my brain and math to make these blocks. Block 1 on the left isn't exactly perfect... but I did my best and got tired of re-sewing. 

Last 3 Blocks

Today, I finished up the last 3 blocks for my (this quilt needs a name!) king size quilt, for the naked bed challenge. I took some pictures along the way.

Here's what I had when I was getting started this morning:

Making some progress:

And, all finished!

I ended up taking apart a couple of my earliest blocks and redoing them; they didn't have the same feel/look as what I ended up doing later, and I do like them better after the second try.

The deadline for the challenge was extended until Monday, so I don't have to try to finish this thing by tomorrow. I did get started with the sashing though, and the first row is assembled. My leftover fabric and scraps are all straightened up, too.

In regular life news, we are starting off the summer busy! We went to the pool yesterday, and the library today. We have a ton of new books from the library and I plan to take the kids weekly. I also got the boys signed up for swimming lessons but I was too late to get them into the first session. Tomorrow we have an orthodontist get-measured appointment and I think Friday will be another pool day, if the weather cooperates!

Goodnight Monkey Quilt Progress

I sewed up the last 7 blocks for this today:

This (above) is just right after I laid them all out and before I moved them around for balance/evenness.

And here's what I think will be the final layout:

I'll look at this photo a bit more and see if there's any changes I think need to be made (the rows are labeled and it is picked up already). It is hard to get everything arranged all evenly and without a lot of color clumps. I think it is probably good enough though.

I'm excited. This has taken a long time, but that's ok.

Also, I exercised (I did the 30 day shred 4x this week), oh and that's all I did besides sew and feed the family. My husband made a gate with the neighbor so we can share his riding mower, he mowed and fixed the pipe coming out from our sump pump, we both visited with neighbors a bit. I did direct some morning chores being done by my boys; life is better when they do more work around here.

How is your weekend going?

Current Projects + Winner #4

I wanted to share a couple things I've been working on over the last week or so.

I finished up this little blouse for my girl. The pattern is from Ottobre Design 1/2006, #11. I worried about the neck facing and that slit for a while... but when I sat down and got working on it, it turned out just fine. I omitted the back zipper. Now I just need to make her something to wear with it. I have lime green that will probably be a skirt and natural linen for capris.

And I got some more monkey blocks finished:

I only need to make 7 more and then I can put together the quilt top! 

And then after I get that done, I think I'm going to give the Naked Bed Challenge a shot. I have an idea in mind, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to use up all of my Flea Market Fancy fabric on this one. I hope it works out ok!

I need to announce the winner for my blog birthday giveaway #4. The Mendocino fabric/scraps/towels will go to Anna. Congratulations!

p.s. There's still one more day to enter giveaway #5!

Quilt Blocks and a Little Announcement

Here are some things I've been working on the last little while:

This is almost half of my Punctuation jelly roll, all sewn up into these super easy blocks. I like making these because there isn't a lot of thinking involved, and they are very quick to make. Especially when you cut 4 blocks at a time. I will probably finish the rest of them in the next week or so and put together the quilt top. And this will be the first time I've bought a jelly roll and used the whole thing up. So far.

I have also felt the need to make some improvised scrap blocks. I have my scraps organized by color in big ziplock bags, and I had a little baggie full of those triangles that are left over when I make quilt binding. I decided to make some stars. And one shoo-fly block.

I did something different with these--I only used scissors for any cutting that was necessary while I was making them. I have noticed a few quilts or quilt blocks made this way on flickr and have wanted to try it. These blocks aren't trimmed or squared up yet, and maybe I won't square them up, really, but I think they do have a little more organic, homemade look than blocks cut with a ruler and rotary cutter. My plan for these is to make a kind of scrappy improv quilt, maybe a row quilt. It's something I plan on taking my time with; I'm only making blocks when I want to and I have no plans for when it needs to be finished.

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And now for my little announcement... in the next few days, this little blog will be having its 5th birthday! As a thank you to my readers, I will be having 5 days of giveaways, starting this Friday, April 1. I think you will like them. I hope so! See you then!

some quilt blocks and a quick project

Just because I had to start another project.... I got a Punctuation/American Jane jellyroll a couple weeks ago and saw a quilt made from these blocks and haven't been able to get them out of my mind. They go together so fast! I made 10 of these in less than an hour this morning. Each block is just three 2.5" squares and 2 strips that are 6.5" x 2.5". I love the tickets.

Also I did this yesterday:

These thrift store jeans were too long and too flared so I cut them off and hemmed them with ribbon. It only took about 20 minutes to sew the ribbon on. Do you want me to make a tutorial for how to do this?

I finally got some fusible stuff and eyelets/grommets so I can make the ABC book from Moda Bake Shop. I have the letters and batting cut, I'm ready to go!

More Monkey Blocks

I sewed up this set of 4 monkey blocks yesterday and cut out the group of 6.

And today I was able to get all 6 sewn together.

I now have 22 of these finished and need to make 13 more. I am starting to be a little short on some of the fabrics--I only had 1/2 yard of each of the solids and a couple of the monkey prints. I might need more fabric to finish this baby up. :)

If you want to make similar 13.5" quilt blocks with these measurements, the diagrams and cutting measurements are here.

p.s.Check out the We Love Jenny Auction, you can bid until 10 p.m. EST tonight (February 15).

9-patches week 12

How's everybody doing? Just how snowed-in did you get this week? We were homebound for a couple days--Tuesday, the day of the blizzard when we got 13.5" of snow, and then the next day, which was beautiful and freezing cold and the snowplow didn't get to our street until about 10:30 p.m. The kids had 3 snow days this week, and today's a professional day at school, so they only went to school on Monday. We have had fun playing video games and reading books (including Dr. DeSoto, Cannibal Animals, and finishing up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). The boys have played out in the snow a lot too--I haven't ventured out in it much yet this time. Anyway, we have another storm coming over the weekend, but I hope we don't have another week like this for a long time!

Here are this week's 9-patches! This is the last installment of weekly 9-patches for a while as I have all the blocks made for my second 9-patch quilt. :)

And here's a shot of the rainbow of blocks I made this time. Plus one lonely black and white one.

Guess which colors are difficult to find in quilt shops these days?

I have a lot of time to think about it, but I wonder what color scheme I should do for my 3rd 9-patch quilt. (Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a third one. And then I'll probably move on to something else.) I could do a 2-color quilt, or even go monochromatic, or do something with a lot of black and white... what do you think?

If you're interested in making your own 9-patch quilt, I used the instructions from the crazy mom quilts one-a-day quiltalong. Here's the blog post about my first finished 9-patch quilt using this tutorial (I made another 9-patch about 10 years ago as well....) This time however, I'm making a smaller, throw-sized quilt with 48 blocks instead of 70.

9-patches week 11

Only 7 more to go!

I've been working on some other projects this week, too.

This doll really needed to not be naked, and my husband said something like "well, do we have any fabric in this house, and  a sewing machine?" So I made a couple of diapers for her. This is baby Arabella, by the way. The diaper has velcro closures in the front and I put some elastic in the back waist to make it fit better.

And a baby gift:

A flannel blanket, 2 burp cloths (with little ribbon loops), and a hat (pattern from Ottobre design 4/2004).

We have been busy this week with a meeting about middle school enrollment, 5th grade vocal music program (sooo cute!, um I mean really cool), pinewood derby, and my husband's birthday. I made my mother-in-law's peach cheesecake for birthday cake; I love it. I bought extra ingredients so I can make the cake again soon. I'll try to remember to take a picture and then share the recipe here--it's so yummy!

Monkey Quilt Blocks

I sewed four of these blocks today and now I have 12 done, plus one that will either go on the back or get fixed--I accidentally made the outer strips too narrow. I cut them the other day and it was nice to have them all ready to put together. I planned out the next 4 as well, maybe I'll cut them tonight.

So I'm pretty much 1/3 done--I'm going to make 35 for a twin-size quilt for my 6-year-old. If you want to make blocks like these, here are the diagrams for the 5 blocks with cutting measurements included.

I like how they look, especially the dark brown. Those outer strips really eat up fabric though and I may need to reorder more solid fabrics before I'm done.

9-patches week 10

Only 14 more to make!--I'm making a throw-size quilt with 48 blocks this time.

9-patches week 8 + some other blocks

These are last week's blocks. I guess I'm a little bit behind but right now I'm focusing on sewing for fun and not a schedule. It's a nice change after the busy holiday season!

I've been busy making some other things too. Mostly quilt blocks. Sometimes I think I like making individual blocks more than making whole quilts. Maybe it's just the (nearly) instant gratification that I like. 
Here are some monkey blocks:

When the Goodnight Monkey fabric came out I decided I wanted to use it to make a twin-size quilt for Jacob. I really enjoyed making quilts with 12" blocks last year and decided to make his quilt with large blocks. I did some math and figured that with 13" (finished measurement, they sew up at 13.5") blocks, I can make a twin size quilt with 35 blocks. I decided to make the quilt blocks in a square-in-a-square style, no wonkiness or crookedness because he likes things straight and neat. I drew out a few different blocks with varying measurements but my diagrams had the finished measurements written on them. On that lower left block there I forgot to add the 1/2" I needed for seam allowance to the outer square. Oops! I think I'll redraw my diagrams with the cutting numbers instead of the finished numbers.

And... here are my last two bee blocks for 2010.

I was in two virtual quilting bees last year and these are my last 2 blocks, for Stephanie of Bee Beautiful. Here is the link to photos of all my bee blocks last year. (I was going to make another mosaic, but now I'm not.)

Finally, here's a sneak peek of my no prints allowed Kona solids quilt.

I think I'm keeping it a secret until March. So far it has been fun and I like what I've done!

I'd love to hear about what you're making. Are you having fun sewing without a time crunch?

blocks ~2~

Here's what I worked on today in the sewing part of my life:

These two are for Amy who is the woman of the month in Bee Beautiful. I like the primary colored one best--and it's not the best photo due to being finished after sunset.

I also made these 4 scrap blocks today and yesterday:

I think I have a plan for these, for after I finish some other things and make a few more blocks in other colors.

I also worked on the toy/basement declutter and did some vacuuming (and got a kid to vacuum, too.) Will vacuum more tomorrow. And tended to my girl who's feeling somewhat but not all the way better.

Oh yeah, I had a question for you! What's a good seam ripper? I got the cheap Dritz one after it got a decent review in Quilter's Home a while back, and it is not cutting it for me. Not pointy enough. My old thread snippers were good for cutting stitches, but I've replaced them and the new ones are also... not pointy enough. Do you have a seam ripper that you'd highly recommend? Tell me about it!

blocks

I spent some time this week making quilt blocks.

A few for my bees. I started my very first Dresden plate block as well, but it's not ready to show yet.

And I made 4 of these blocks. The others were made a few (or more) months ago. My husband's grandfather passed away 2 1/2 years ago and I offered to make a quilt from his shirts for Grandma M. I've been preoccupied with other things for a while but this project has finally made it to the top of my list again! I hope she will like this; I've been afraid that it might be a little too modern or not traditional enough for her tastes, but I think I'm sticking with it anyway. I will probably look for a nice dark red (and traditional) floral for the back though, which seems like it might be just her thing.

I'm linking up at Sew & Tell Fridays, go check out all the cool things people have made this week!

mini-quilt Monday! (on a Tuesday)

No--it is not Monday! But it feels like it!

I finished up the green placemat-I love how there's a mix of some of my really old fabric in there, some from my nephew's baby quilt I made a couple years ago, and some newer stuff too.

I think that sewing the binding down by machine make the binding a bit ripply. I tried to steam out the wave, but it didn't really work. Turns out that my little girl is using these placemats to wrap her baby in; I need to make a bigger doll quilt for her.

This was my last finish for the Spring to Finish project--I got about 6 finishes done, not exactly the ones I had on my list, but I made good progress.

Here are last week's 9-patches. I'm really going to finish this one up, too! I have the first 3 for this week cut out and ready to go.

I got these fabrics last week for a super secret project. Well, the Blush is for a super secret project; the fat quarters are just for fun. My green selection was getting really sad. Natalia from Piece N Quilt had a great sale--thanks Natalia!

I've got a busy week ahead--my boys start their 4 weeks of swim lessons today and we're still easing into summer, working on routines and making sure they have enough jobs to do and not too much TV to watch. Also need to clean up from the long weekend!

finally... finished baby quilt!

I finally got the last few inches of binding sewn down on this quilt tonight:

I'm going to wash and dry it, get a label on it, and mail it to its owner right away!

The quilting was done in sort of straight lines, some of them doubled up, in a grid. I thought I (pin) basted pretty well and I used my walking foot, but there were still some issues with the layers shifting as I quilted. I am looking for any suggestions or advice about improving my straight line quilting, because I am hoping to quilt my watercolor quilt next, and I was thinking (hoping) diagonal straight lines would be a good choice.

Here's a better view of the block I put in the back.

I also got some other things done in the last couple days:

Blocks for a charity quilt that the bee beautiful group is collaborating on.

And, jam. I made it with the quick set freezer method. My first time. Strawberries were on sale! I'm going to make another batch, probably in the morning.

Things are working out a bit better here this week and I'm actually going to post my link over at sew -n- tell Friday. Go see what else people are sharing!