Finish #2 for April............

I finally have another finish for April.  It was a month of sidetracks but fun ones so I'm not complaining.  This little quilt is 33" x 43.75" and I will keep this one.  I have a few favorite baby quilts that I keep, the rest I gift.  The fabric is all Aunt Grace's reproduction 1930s.  The embroidery is done on my embroidery machine and the designs were from Cactus Punch many years ago.

Finished........

I cut the binding and sewed it onto the Laurel Burch baby quilt yesterday.  It ended up 39" x 52".

Did you know C&T is publishing a Laurel Burch coloring book?  You can pre-order here.  In the 1970s there were adult coloring books and my daughter and I colored in them.  This is a revival of sorts with many different coloring books available.The library in my town has a coloring book night where you can come in and relax and color. 

The back is a Laurel Burch flannel with monkeys.

Another side project I'm working on is to cut 2.5" squares from most of my Kaffe collection.  These piles are just from Box #1 which has numbers 1-30 of his fabric.  He is up in the 150s now so I have a long way to go.  I'm cutting 5.5" strips to cut with my die cutter.  I'm planning a couple different quilts that will use the squares and I need a big variety.

The baby quilt...........

When I asked the parents to be what color quilt they wanted for the baby the dad said blue and gray.  Then he said cowboys.  So this was my idea of cowboys.

But this was his idea of cowboys - Dallas version.......blue and gray.  I alternated H blocks for Baby H with Cowboys fabrics.

Yesterday I met the baby for the first time - my great-grandson.  He is a little over 2 months old now.  I had forgotten how hard it was to hold a natural smile while the photographer waits for the baby to look pleasant, or hopefully smile.

He's a little cutie and a good baby too.  I'll have to wait awhile for him to tell me if he likes his quilt.

Number 2 done........

I quilted and bound the frog quilt yesterday.  I did the binding all by machine.  It ended up about 41" x 54", perfect for a baby or small child.

On this wallhanging I trimmed the extra batting and backing then folded the outside edges to the middle and found that the borders were longer than the center.  I could tell the border needed more quilting so I went back and added lines between the ones I did a couple nights ago.  The border has to be as densely quilted as the center or the borders will be wavy.

Rainy Day Projects........

I started the day out by going out in the rain to mail some packages.  I have sold 2 tops on my Wandaful blog and am waiting for payment on a third one.  I took some photos and posted a couple more in the blogshop yesterday.  I had 53 tops waiting to be quilted so now I'm down under 50 because I quilted this Bento Box baby quilt last night.  I had a piece of batting 25" x 98" so I cut the length in half and used the fusible tape to piece it and had a piece 50" x 49".  I needed 46" square so I trimmed one edge and was good to go.

I thought I was going to use the red dotted fabric that is in this block for the binding but when I laid it next to the quilt I didn't think it did any more for the quilt than the border fabric and I had plenty of that to use.  This was the first quilt I quilted on my Jewel long arm since May.  Now that I am reacquainted with it maybe I'll try for 3 a week starting with the smallest ones.

Volunteer work, charity work, whatever you call it.........

I'm really not sure what to call this service, making things with the church sewing circle.  We donate the finished layettes to a nearby hospital.  I make the little quilts at home and deliver them on sewing day.

I still have to use my serger to finish the edges on the 2 pictured above.  This next one is laid out in rows and ready to sew.

The other current project is the pillowcases for the domestic abuse shelter.  I have 3 pictured but did another one afterwards so there are 4 partially sewn to take on Monday.
I guess the official title would be service projects rather than charity.

I got the first strata sewn for the green Trip Around the World.  I will need 3 stratas sewn before next Saturday to demo with.  One will be totally sewn and cut, and 2 sewn but not made into a tube yet.  I will show pressing on one and how to line up the last seam so there isn't a twist with the third one.

The weathermen are talking about the next big storm.  They can't decide if it will hit us or just clip us.  The talk is that if it hits us it will be a big one.  I guess we'll have to wait to see.

Summer day in spring

We have just had 2 days in the 80's which is unbelievable this early in the spring.  I worked outside picking up branches for the free brush pick up next Monday.  It was too windy to rake any leaves.
The only sewing I did was to get these blocks assembled into a baby quilt top.  I'm going to put a border on it too.

I'm going to show you a few more of the Dutch Wax fabrics.  Maybe I'll get inspired to cut some of them up by seeing them on the computer monitor.

They are printed on a high quality fabric with a fairly tight weave.

Birds and butterflies seem to be some of their favorite motifs.

Today I said good-bye to the zig zag Kaffe charm quilt top.  One of my readers purchased it and I mailed it to her today.  It was a great journey making that top and now I'm ready to start on another.

Errand day

I try to get all of my errands done on one day of the week so I can stay home the rest of the days.  I had to get Dad to sign his tax return yesterday so I did the errands too.

Last night I figured out the measurements for the Bento Box pattern when using a 2.5" strip instead of the 3" called for in the pattern.  I had some strips left over from the kits I cut for the last class so I used them up and made 9 blocks for a baby quilt.  It will be 36" square so I'll probably add a border.  I didn't get any more triangles cut for the zig zag yesterday so I'll get back to that today.

January quota met

I finished my 4 little preemie quilts for a local hospital (donation through my church) on the last day of January, one for each week of the month. I'm using all of the scraps left over from cutting the gowns and receiving blankets.

To keep the edges thin and flexible I just use a serger finish on them.

They measure anywhere from 18" to 24", some are square, some are rectangular.

I met my self imposed quota of 4 finished quilts in January too and added a tablerunner for good measure. They can be seen on previous January posts. I cut a few more pieces for the star quilt but didn't get any blocks made yesterday. That is what I will work on today.

Day of the week quilts..........
I made my decisions that I mentioned yesterday, which quilts belong to which days.
Monday is the basket quilt, known by several other names I know, but it is still a basket quilt to me. Remember the indecision about which color setting triangles (link in yesterday's post)? I decided on the rosey one. To me the quilt blended right into this color and the blue looked like an add on. I know I am in the minority here because most of you liked the blue, but I tend to make my quilts blendy so this one worked for me. The top is all sewn together (successful day).
As a bonus I got the binding sewn on this little (28" x 32") cradle quilt.

The backing is a baby print batik.

Now onto the other days of the week:

Tuesday will be the Kaffe Fassett inspired beaded curtain quilt. Here is a link to the design wall the last time I played with it in June last year. Yesterday I showed the strips sewn to make more 4 patches. I also need to cut more batik squares. I will show a picture tomorrow of the quilt that inspired me but I am doing it a little different. I am teaching until 2:30 so I may not get a lot done.

Wednesday will be the vanilla 9 patch quilt, pieces pictured below, all sorted ready to sew when a friend comes over to baste a quilt on my big tables. I decided I needed company to be able to stick to this one.

Thursday I will baste 2 more of the many wallhanging tops I have hanging on hangers in the basement.

Friday I will work on finishing the 2 Strips and Curves small pieces that I used for samples for the class. Friday is the last day of the class so I won't be able to get to it until late afternoon or evening.

Saturday I will work on the Rosebud pink and green batik blocks I showed yesterday.

Sunday will be a free day to start something new or work on whatever I want (or to rest). Monday will start over again with the same projects on the same days until they are finished.

I think I see some finished projects in my future.