the winner, and another strippie

The lucky winner of the pink charm squares is #40, and that's Sue of Sue's Quilting Haven. Looks like she's been having quite the winning streak lately! I was pleased to see the Project Linus badge on her blog - it's always nice to meet another 'blanketeer'!

And speaking of which (and just so I don't have a post without pictures!) here's my latest PL donation quilt, which I finished last month. It's the second 'baste as you go' quilt that I started back in July. I wish I had paid attention to the repeat on the focus fabric when I put it together, but it's hard to see the overall pattern until you step away from the quilt. Oh well! I'll know to keep an eye out for that next time.

This is the fifth Quick Strippie quilt I've made, and I have 4 more in the works (they're on the big list!). They are just so easy to make!

And of course, my usual big crazy patchwork backing. Also fun and easy to make, and a great use for random scraps of novelty fabrics!

hanging my minis

I hate to admit, but I've never hung a quilt before. I was so thrilled with my new wall hangings, and really wanted to get them up. I had this idea in my head that involved covered buttons (shank removed, glued to thumbtacks), twine and clothespins. In my head, it looked adorable. In practice, not so much....

But then I remembered this wacky lady named Nan from Pots & Pins, who 'fessed up to stapling her quilts to the wall. If she could use staples, why not thumbtacks?? I just gently pushed the tacks through the quilt, and it worked great!

Here's a couple different styles for ya. We've got some kinda big buttons that match the binding...

And some small buttons that match the background, so that they are almost camouflaged...

And some fun and contrasty buttons (I was too lazy to run upstairs to get actual fabric from the quilt, and that red polka dot was at hand)....

For the long wall hanging, I thought I'd try a cleaner look. I had sewn little triangles into the backing (not knowing how I'd eventually hang it), and so I tried putting the buttons in there.

That worked okay, but was a little bulky (and why waste a pretty button where no one will see it?), so I pulled out the button-tack and just used a plain old tack instead. Works great!

I love it! So easy and so quick. I do realize that the tacks might eventually rust or pull the fabric or whatnot. But I'm cool with that. The instant gratification is worth it. :-)

valentine's day project #2

Another new project that wasn't on the list... When I saw this cute wall hanging over at Nostalgic Cafe, I knew I wanted to make one. I had some 5" squares left over from my pink triangle quilt, and thought they would be perfect! I cut them into 2.5" squares, and used one of each print to make this little cutie!

The only bad thing was that I now had 3 more squares of each print! Following my new "create no UFOs" rule would mean tossing the extra squares into the scrap box. I couldn't bring myself to do that, so I went ahead and whipped up 3 more hearts (they don't take as long as you would think!), and sashed them together to make another wall hanging... In this shot, I have it laid out on the cutting table while I mark the diagonal lines (using one of the kid's washable markers - works great!).

I love how they turned out! For the little one, I used stippling in the white areas (dense in the heart area, more loose around the edge), and just some simple diagonals around the heart. I think this one will end up in my sewing room!

For the long one, I did an all over cross-hatch design.

This one will be hung on the narrow wall in the hall by the guest room. Probably year-round, until I can make more wall hangings to swap it out with! It's not TOO valentines-y, right?

And guess what... I still have more 5" squares left! To celebrate the finish of this mini project, I'd love to give this 'charm pack' to one of you. There's one each of 30-ish prints (a couple more than I used to make the wall hangings). Of course you don't have to make the same project that I did - it would make a cute little patchwork quilt for a baby girl!

Just leave any old comment (and I'm happy to ship international). I'll pick a winner on Thursday night, so hopefully I can get it in the mail on Friday! Yay for finished projects!!!

Happy valentine's day!

I've amended my "no new projects" resolution. I'm still working down my list, but I'm also making room for small diversions. Sometimes you just gotta have a little fun! So now my rule is "no new UFOs". If I want to start something, I have to commit to finishing it before I move on to anything else. This way, when the little missy asks for a new skirt for Valentine's day, I can say sure, why not!

It's just a simple gathered tiered skirt with an elastic waistband. I did the ruffles with the serger by increasing the differential. I first tried it with some el-cheap-o fabric, and set the differential to 2, which made it gather about 100% (42" wide strips gathered up to about 21"). For the test skirt, I used seven 6" strips to make a 3-tiered skirt - the top tier was one strip, the second tier was 2 strips, and the third tier was 4 strips long. It was really, really twirly! For the real skirt, I decided to start a little smaller so it wouldn't end up quite so voluminous (and because I only had a yard of fabric, so I only had 6 strips instead of 7). The top tier would be 3/4 of a strip, the middle tier would be 1.5 strips, and the bottom tier would be 3 strips, for a total of 5.25 strips, giving me a little fabric left over for a comfortable margin of error. But even though I set the differential to 2 again, it somehow gathered more loosely than the first time!! What the heck? Oh well - it somehow worked out perfectly so that I had enough to make 4 tiers instead of 3, with about 12" left over. It could be twirlier, but it's good enough. And it's a little long, but that just means she can wear it next year, right? :-)

I picked up the solid shirt at Target a long time ago, and was so pleased that the color happened to match perfectly. One big appliquéd heart later, and her outfit was complete (and total pink overload!!).

bee block round up

I haven't posted my bee blocks in a long time! First up, here is the last round of blocks for the vintage sheet bee...

For November. This is going to make a such a pretty quilt! And the block was not as difficult as it looks. (Here's a link to the tutorial, if you want to try the block yourself!)

December - time-consuming, but kinda cool!

January - my first ever "representational" block! It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It takes a whole different way of thinking about putting things together!

And finally, for February. I love the look of these blocks, but honestly they were such a pain in the butt to make. And I felt like I was always trimming, trimming, trimming - more fabric got thrown away than was left in the block!

And here are my blocks for the do. Good Stitches bee... (i'm so petty - every time I have type that name out, the kreativ punctuation drives me batty!)

Anyway, here's the November block... You should click over and see the final quilt here. It's gorgeous!

And the December blocks. Nice and simple, yay!

The January block... I was glad that I already had experience with this block! I loved picking out the fabrics for this one.

Okay, I'm all caught up now, whew! :-)

Happy new year!

Hi friends! My plan A (catch up on everyone else's blogs) didn't work, so I'm going with plan B (start fresh and hope y'all don't hold it against me!). I have no great excuse for not posting - just lots of little bumps in the road, like a new computer (my first Mac! and this old dog is not having fun learning new tricks!), minor illnesses, travels, internet outages, stressful work deadlines, you name it. But nothing serious - life is good here, and I'm so happy that the holidays are over and spring is on the way!

Before I start posting about my recent projects, I have one very overdue thank-you to take care of. Check out this fantastic apron that Amanda sent me!!! I just adore it. Every time I see it, I just want to blow off work and get all domestic in the kitchen! Thank you so much, Amanda! Oh, and go check out her shop - I bet if you asked nicely, she'd make an apron for you too!

Even though I've been neglecting this blog, I'm happy to report that I've been keeping myself busy with the thrifty/crafty stuff. My number one goal for 2011 is to finish up as many WIPs as I can, and to try like crazy not to start any new projects until I get the existing ones done. To keep myself on track, I started a list of all the projects I have in progress. Some are small (like individual bee blocks, or hanging up some miniquilts in my sewing room), but I'm writing down everything as I encounter it, and celebrating every item that I mark off. It's been very motivating for me!

I have a few holiday projects to show, but to heck with catching up chronologically. Instead, I'm going to start off with my most favorite project I've finished lately. You might remember some test blocks that I made last May, and this little table runner I whipped up:

I wasn't in love with it then. But now... I love, love, LOVE it. Behold!

It's going to live happily on my credenza (that's a 'fancy nancy' word for big filing cabinet). I love having something in my office that I made just for myself! And maybe it will help keep me from piling crap on top of there (um, not working at the moment, I have to confess!).

The back is just as pretty! I used one of my favorite vintage sheets, and the colors are perfect for the "tiffany" blue walls.

Now I just need to get busy on the actual bee quilt. I've received all my blocks from my bee partners, and I'm almost ready to start putting them together. It's on the big list! :-)

I have two other goals for 2011. My big list of projects includes a bunch of Project Linus quilts I've got cut out, and I'm hoping that I can use up all the polyester batting that's taking up WAY too much space in my closet. If I don't use it all by the end of the year, I'm going to donate the rest and be done with it.

My last big goal for the year is to blog regularly, and to reply to all the comments you wonderful friends leave for me. I do appreciate them, and I know I've sucked at this in the past. But I'm recommitting. Go ahead - try me! :-)

still here...

Yes, I'm still here. Sorry for the incredibly long absence... I had a big work deadline this week, which slowly ramped up the pressure over the last month or so. On top of that, there were bouts of sickness, snow days, holidays, birthdays, feeble attempts to get ready for xmas... Blech. I know I should love this time of year, but I honestly don't.

And I know it doesn't take long to make a blog post, but... I'm also utterly behind on reading blogs. My reader had been pegged at 1000+ for weeks now!! I somehow feel wrong to post when I haven't caught up on all my friends' blogs (or even worse, emails). So, friends, please forgive me for not having my act together. I'm working on it. And if you soon get some comments on really old blog posts of yours, you'll know why!

Meanwhile, here's a little show and tell from last month. I finally finished the Project Linus quilt I started way back in July!



The standard crazy patchwork back...



I did all the quilting at the November PL meeting (killing two birds with one stone!), and it was pretty interesting to do the quilting in front of a room full of people. I was surprised that so many of them had never done free-motion quilting! I'm no expert, but I did my best to demonstrate, and answered lots of questions.



I did stippling in the large strips, and tried a couple new-to-me things in the narrower strips. The loopy quilting in the pink strip was fun, and I did okay on that. The wavy quilting in the green strip, on the other hand... not so great! I think I was getting tired and sloppy by the time I got to that. Oh well, it was good to try it out anyway!



Sorry again for dropping off for a while. I'll try to do better in the future. :-)