twins!

Twin quilts, that is! I'm happy to present Miss June and Miss July, my Project Linus quilts #6 and #7.



They are based on the Quick Strippie pattern from Mary Quilts, but I used different strips of fabric instead of just one print. And if you look closely, you'll see that these are all cat fabrics! Someday I'll tell the story of how I came to possess all this kitty fabric...





For the quilting, I did some random straight lines over the prints (in white thread) and stippling over the green/yellow strips (in green thread). Pretty much the same as I did for this one. I tried to be more methodical with the quilting, and they turned out a lot better than the one I quilted last week. I didn't even curse the batting too much (except when stray bits kept getting caught up in the walking foot - so annoying).





And here are the backs - pieced with 10.5" squares of novelty fabrics. Anytime I cut a novelty fabric, I cut some extras for the bin of backing squares. And when I get bored, I sew up a 5x6 back for the next PL quilt (or two, or three...).





So, let's see. Today is July 15 - that means I have 15 days to bask in the glory of being all caught up with my PL goal. Sweeeeet! I'm excited to concentrate on some personal projects for a few weeks.

my first quilt

I love a parade! :-) I'm joining (better late than never!) the parade of quilts over at Camille and Carrie's blogs. Here's my first "real" quilt, finished in February this year. I call it my "first hit is free" quilt, because I got all the materials for it practically for nothing, and because it totally got me hooked!



My last fully finished quilt was this one for Project Linus. I was hoping to have another quilt finished before this post, but I only got as far as finishing up the quilting, so it will have to wait a few days.



What I've learned over the last few months:

• Use quality batting! Cheap batting is no fun to quilt with, trust me!
• When you're starting out, do one quilt at a time for a while. That way you only make any given mistake once. :-)
  
• Quilting for a charity is a great way to practice your skills without feeling like your time is wasted.
• Blogging is fun, and crafty bloggers are wonderful, generous people!

loot report - yet more linens and fabric

On Friday, I ventured down to Renton to hit up IKEA [June - your duvet cover has been procured, and will be on its way to you soon!]. I mapped out all the thrift stores nearby, and had a great time checking them out. There are some really great shops down there - I hit a Value Village, a Goodwill, and a Salvation Army store, and they were all really huge and clean and well organized. I wish I could say they were cheap, but no. The prices are about the same as here (pillowcases $1, and sheets around $4-8). But they had a lot to choose from - I got a dozen pillowcases (my favorite is the one on the right in the middle row)...



And some sheets. Check out the yellow one!



In the afternoon, I hit up a nearby garage sale which had mentioned having fabric for $1 a yard. As I made smalltalk with the seller about the weather and sewing and kids, I mentioned that I was making blankets for Project Linus. She was excited to hear it, and said she had been hoping to run into someone from the organization, and she proceeded to give me all the kids novelty fabrics she had. It was so nice, and I think we both were glowing a little bit. It's nice fabric too - the two on top are at least a yard each, and the bottom two are flannels of several yards each (and there was a small stack of scraps that I didn't take a picture of). The pink is 60" wide - I'm not sure I've ever seen a flannel in that width! It's too big for a swaddling blanket, but I'm thinking it will be perfect as backing for a couple more "quiltlets" like I made for my daughter last month. I think those will be next up on my list - that lady was just so sweet, and I really want to see her fabric in some PL blankets!



And of course, there was some fabric for me... :-) She did let me pay for these, but gave me a great deal - $5 for about 10 yards. That brown in the middle is an awesome older Alexander Henry print, and I really love the blue floral one too.



It was a pretty great loot day. :-) And now it's time to buckle down for a while, and get to work on all those projects I have lined up!

zigzag quilt-along

In case you haven't heard, there's a follow-up project for the Old Red Barn Company quilt-along, and this time it's for a zigzag quilt! (I feel so trendy!) Amy of Park City Girl is leading the charge, and the details are in the quilt-along Flickr group discussion area. Also, there's a separate Flickr group just for zigzag quilts (started by your truly!), so if you want get all inspired to make one, go take a look at all the wonderful examples there.

I'm not totally sure I'll be joining this one, but I might go along as far as making a bunch of half-square triangle blocks. I've never tried them, so maybe now is the time! I'm fantasizing about making something like this or this instead.

And speaking of zigzags, here's the latest on #2. The scrappy binding is on, and waiting to be hand-sewn down.

project linus #5

Ah, it feels good to finish something! Here is Project Linus #5, for the month of May, in all of its puffy glory. I used red thread, and did the quilting in wavy lines (a wavy stitch on the machine, not wavy by hand!).







With two more ready for quilting (and the binding already made - yay me!), I'm pretty confident I can finally get caught up this month. Keeping my fingers crossed... :-)

progress, but no completions

I have been super busy, but I don't have any finished projects to show. Grrrr! That's what I get for having so many things going at once.... Here's a recap of my last week:

• I finally pieced the backs for my two Old Red Barn quilt-along quilts. I don't love (to put it mildly) that abstract purple on the right, but I had a bunch in my stash and most of the colors matched, so I used it. I'm happy that I found a project that it goes well with, and doubly happy to have it out of my stash. :-) The fabric on the left is a really colorful batik, also from the stash. The stripes in the middle are the leftover blocks, with a few strips of the purple added in to get that section to the correct width.
  

• I finally finished piecing my second zigzag quilt. I cut it out at the same time as the first one, and got as far as piecing all the blocks of 4, and then the blocks sat for months. I was so happy to get the top completed!
• I spent Thursday on my hands and knees, basting 4 quilts (3 for Project Linus, plus the second zigzag).
  
• I spent Friday nursing an aching back from too much basting!
• Over the weekend, I quilted the zigzag. This time I used straight lines instead of following the zigzags, and it went SO much faster. It's maybe not quite as cool, but I like it. And I think the pattern on the back looks nifty!
  

• I also continued working on these blocks. You might recognize these fabrics from the two zigzags! Months ago, I saw this design in an older quilt magazine and thought it would be so cool with linens. I happened to have a lot of 3" strips left over from the zigzags (and gawd, just how many times can I type zigzag in one post??), which I thought would be perfect. I'll post more about this one later, including a full reference (assuming I can find that magazine somewhere in the stacks of them upstairs...).

• Lastly, I quilted up one of the Project Linus quilts. Man, I hate that monster batting. The quilt came out okay, but not great. I didn't even want to take a picture of it. How sad is that? Maybe after I get it bound, I'll like it better. And I just have to keep telling myself - it's warm and cuddly and colorful, and that's all that matters.
  

little bit o' loot

For the record, the 4th of July weekend is not a great one for garage sales. I only hit a couple, and spent a whopping $3. But I did score a few treasures, and only a buck each - two rulers (5" and 2.5") and a new cutting mat.

I'm pretty excited about the mat, since mine (the green Olfa underneath) has some pretty serious warps (um, I was careless with an embossing gun several years ago...). The new one is a Fiskars, and it's very plain jane (no angles, etc.), but at least it's in good shape! I was surprised to see that it's not exactly the same size as the Olfa - it's only marked for 23 x 35, and the outer edges are 24 x 36. I'm not sure I understand the logic, but whatever!



This is some fabric I picked up the weekend before last, but didn't bother to mention. I don't normally go for barkcloth, but this one was just so colorful, and only 25 cents, so I bought it. I wasn't until I had washed it and was ironing it that I saw the selvedge. I was surprised to see a name I recognized! This fabric feels so old to me, and I always think of Alexander Henry as a "new" fabric company. Makes me want to learn more...