king size quilt top, finished

A few notes: King size, 104" x 96", flea market fancy plus some others in the blocks, moda crossweave in gray for sashing and borders. 96" borders take a LONG time to make and attach. For the Naked Bed Challenge!

Some fabrics I used just about all the way up, besides my FMF, that I might try to replace: turquoise henna garden, pink grunge, that one pointy diamond fabric by H. Bailey in light blue, the turquoise scissors fabric.

This was my main project for just about 3 weeks and it was almost the only thing I sewed during that time. It was less stressful than my typical sewing MO which is a sort of project ADD, working a little bit on something and then switching to something else when I feel like it. All the while having several projects occupying my brain space and stressing me out. Working on one thing was so different (in a good way) for my stress levels--I'm going to try it more often!

Quilt Tops + a winner

I am hoping to join in on the Naked Bed Challenge, but felt like I wanted to finish up some of my other quilts first. I told myself if I finished my Goodnight Monkey quilt top for my 6-year-old, then I could go ahead and start a king size quilt top for my bed.

Well, I finished it today:

I like it! I will be sure to show some closer photos of the fabrics after I finish the whole thing. There is fabric with "zzz" in speech balloons, bunk beds with monkeys on them, fabric that looks like sock knit, and stacks of books. I'm glad I decided to add in solids. Oh yeah, my 6 yo says "cool" so I no longer have to threaten giving it away to his cousin. :)

I have a design in mind for my king size quilt, but need to do some figuring to see if I have enough fabric for 16 blocks that are 16" square, and also how much solid gray I need for sashing and borders. I'm going to make improv log cabin blocks using my flea market fancy collection and probably some other coordinating fabrics too.

I have also been working on some quilt tops for some (graduating soon) girls from church. Here's the one I sewed (I cut some other ones out but they are being sewn by someone else.)

 

These will be signed over the next week or so and then we will get started on basting and quilting!

So I picked a winner for 101 Patchwork Projects. 

It's Krista. Yeah, you, Krista.

I'll bring it when I see you next month. Congratulations!

Here's the screenshot just to prove I didn't cheat. (I figured out how to do it!)

Rainbow 9-Patch Quilt Top

I finished getting the last borders on this last night. I pieced that square border randomly, at least I tried to, and there were lots of little segments that I didn't really like during the making process. This picture gives me some distance though and I really like how the border looks! And the rest of it too. There is that dark section in the lower right hand corner that I don't totally love, but overall I am happy with the rainbow effect and the bright colors. The quilt is kind of wrinkly/ripply in this photo but that's just because I was hurrying to get the picture before the wind blew! It went together really straight and smooth, if I do say so myself.
 

I am going to take a break from 9-patches after this one for a while. But that doesn't stop me from thinking about the next one. Next time I am planning on doing some limited color palette but I don't know which colors, yet. Ooh, and maybe gray sashing fabric, too.

If anyone is interested in making a quilt like this, I followed the quiltalong on Amanda Jean's blog. But this quilt only has 48 blocks instead of the 70 she used.

I have a couple of 9-patch projects from my past that I'm going to show you in the next couple days. One of them is really bad... just wait and see.

adventures in quilting

Oops. Has this ever happened to you? The red polkadot strip in the backing was about 4" longer than the other backing pieces. It got folded over and caught in the quilting. The cute, circular quilting. Pretty funny, huh? I guess I will undo the stitching and requilt it. I've started putting the binding on this quilt.

Also, this morning I was pretty excited to get this quick quilt top all into one piece:

It is about 60"x84". I am getting batting for it tomorrow and will work on the back soon too.

finished quilt top!

Here's my 9-patch quilt top, all done!

I made it following the quilt-along at crazymomquilts. I have batting for it but still need to get backing and binding fabrics!

Next up--blocks for Grandma Kathryn's quilt. (If you know her, don't tell, ok?)

I've made some progress on L's costume... found a tinkerbell t-shirt at Savers that I'll be cutting up and making into something really cool for her. I can't believe I found it, it's just perfect for her costume.

Also wanted to share--I really loved this post over at zen habits today. I love the idea of relaxing and focusing on doing what you truly enjoy.

UFO week progress

Got the Quilts for Kids top finished! I will be basting it tomorrow. I have hot pink thread that will work for quilting, too. 

A few things have come up that weren't on this week's list, of course:

I have to make monkey pj pants for J tomorrow so he'll have them for pajama day on Friday.

For the KCMQG charity project, I still need to make a quilt back and probably will be quilting one quilt, maybe two. These aren't due this week though.

I went to JoAnn's today for batting (I have enough now for the next... 5 quilts) and came home with some fun remnants. One is piratey; I also got a wide wale black corduroy and an embroidered dark gray twill. And I bought a yard of cute corduroy for a fall/winter dress for L. I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.

How about you? Have you made progress on your UFOs?