WIP, a finish and a card

Wednesday already-where does the time go, oh yeah time flys when you are having fun!!   I have been away from my card/paper crafting for a couple months now and I think it is time to play again :-)  This week for the DRS card challenge the theme is 'button up', we must use buttons somewhere on the card. Here is my entry for the challenge. White cardstock, designer paper, colored cardstock, die cut buttons and of course the cute little giraffe from a DRS stamp(just love this little guy).

And my WIP for today is actually 2 projects. I am working on 2 table runners in patriotic colors. I better get a move on and get the rest of those fabrics cut-stop back next week for a viewing of the finishes(I hope).

And for the finish I quilted this quilt made by a friend of mine.

A binding weekend!

First off thank you to everyone who commments on my blog and thank you for the well wishes of a health concern in our house. We still don't have all the test results, that comes next week. Yup the waiting game can be nerve wrecking.  If you don't hear from me you probably are a no reply blogger, but know that I read and appreciate every comment.
I am so happy to say I have caught up on my bindings over the weekend! A friend asked me last Friday if I had ever tried any of the fabrics from Connecting Threads and that is what prompted me to get this one out of the closet and onto the frame.  I scored it a few years ago for only $38 on their clearance page-lap size. I added the 2 borders and binding from my stash fabrics.

 A close up of the free motion design from a Patsy Thompson video on the interior of the quilt and a piano key in the border.  And  here it is in our living room. I will be keeping this one :-)   Our quilt guild is having a 2014 UFO challenge where we are to list our UFO's that we would like to complete this year and if we complete them and show them at our December meeting we get 1 chance to win a $100 prize for each completion we show. This is actually #2 for me as I already finished this rectangle quilt last month.  I have to decided very soon how many to enter into the challenge!

Chevrons for Neonatal donation.  I love the look of chevrons and love to work with bright colors for the precious little babies that will receive the quilts and be wrapped in quilty hugs.  Notice the quilt underneath-that is what happens when you don't pay closer attention to orientation of the blocks-but I will think of it as a happy accident :-)  

 

See the linky parties on my left side bar that I join in on.  And if you haven't been to them-you just have to go check out the fantastic projects everyone is working on!

Black/gray/yellow finish and a WIP

I haven't gotten too much done the past several days due to some health issues in our house. But I did manage to get the binding on this quilt.

I chose a couple of similar but different designs in the white frames. I thought I had a close up of each but I didn't and it is too cold to go back outside right now!  Oh you can see a glimpse in the picture below of the other white frame design.  I just happened to have striped gray fabric for the binding. This pattern is Radio Way by Jaybird designs. 

I have this neonatal chevron quilt on the frame, just a little more to finish up.  OMG we just saw a robin on our bird feeder-it's only 7 degrees today, I better make the poor thing a quilt, LOL

Linking up with Freshly Pieced, Let's Bee Social, Fort Worth Fabric and  Freemotion by the River -thanks Connie for featuring my runner from last week!!

It's not fall yet, but...

I was just in the mood to work with my orange,golds and black because I think they are just striking together. And I wanted to try out this EQ7 tutorial over at Connie's ever since she posted her valentine runner and I immediately thought of making one in fall colors. Thank you Connie for a great tute and idea!!
Here you see it without the applique leaves...

and here the leaves are on. I really like it either way. I can just see this in lots of seasonal themes. It was pretty quick and easy to piece.

A close up of the quilting, straight line ruler work on my longarm on the black strips. Free motion leaves and loops in the oranges. Glide thread on top and So Fine in the bobbin, Hobbs 80/20 batting. 

I just want to say that I have so enjoyed the linky parties and all the wonderful people that visit and comment on my projects-Thank you all so much!!!

Linking up at Connie's, Sew Fresh, Quilt Story, Whoop Whoop and Fort Worth Fabric Studio

Divided basket

I saw this basket on someones blog and she had the link for the pattern to purchase. So I downloaded it one day made it the next for a friend's Birthday. Gave it to her last week so now I can finally blog about it, LOL

The pattern is by Noodlehead  it went together pretty quickly, the only part that was a bit cumbersome to do was getting that divider in the lining but I got it and I think it turned out pretty cute! There are 2 outside pockets butyou could divide that for as many as you want.  I am planning on making myself one soon :-)  I can think of so many things to store in these baskets. 

Linking up at Stitch by Stitch ,Connie's, Sew Fresh, Fort Worth Fabric Studio

I've been busy!

Busy quilting, tearing down wall paper borders and painting walls that is. I just finished painting our family room a light gray Monday and still putting it back in order. I took down the wall paper border in the main floor bathroom Sunday morning and it came down so quick and nice, no damage to the paint, thank goodness as I didn’t want to paint in there. But then I got the bug to see how good the family room one would come down and easy peasy and then we removed the chair rail and now have a much more modern cleaner look.  Now to figure out what to do for new window covering. So those of you that have more modern decor what do you have for window coverings?  I have a large window on the south wall and a small one on the west.

OK onto the quilting which is what you all want to see right, LOL

This is a strip tube quilt in which I used a jelly roll-well actually it is one of those strips in a brown bag deal-can't remember what they are called. Anyways it is Sandy Gervais Lollipop line. I just thought the colors were so bright and cheery. I actually have had it pieced for several months and just figured out what quilting I wanted to do on it. So last week I got it loaded on the frame and had some fun-lots of freehand work with a little ruler for the straight lines. The flower in the print blocks I took from the flower in one of the prints. The backing is a pink/brown print and I found the perfect pink for the binding and neither is from that line. Love it when a plan comes together!

A close up of the quilting, I love doing the wishbone!  

This quilt has a little story...Two years ago I met this great little gal online through her blog and after a couple emails we discovered we only lived like 5 miles apart. I mentioned I was doing a bunch of charity quilts for Ronald McDonald and she asked if I would like a bunch of fabric as she was moving and didn't want to take it with her. Boy would I!!  So I went over and picked up 3 boxes full and later another bag of scraps. This was so awesome that an almost complete stranger would do-well we are no longer strangers-we stay in touch through emails. Thank you Cynthia !! You should visit her blog as she has some cool quilts she designed over there.
So the prints in this next quilt are from that box and are all one line I believe but I don't know the name of it. I was able to find the right color of solid aqua to go with at JoAnn's. I pieced this over a year ago and just decided this past week what I wanted for quilting on it after seeing something similar on GreenFairy blog. A lot of ruler work but I think it was worth it!  I decided to keep this quilt for myself to remember Cynthia and her generosity, but the rest of the fabric will be made into charity quilts, in fact I did several last year and donated to Ronald McDonald and Neonatal, but more will follow :-)
I found a great yellow with gray polkadots for the backing fabric at JoAnns too. The binding is all leftover's of the prints.

 This is what happens when the wind blows while you are trying to take a picture while freezing!!!

Linking up this week at Let's Bee Social, Freemotion by the River, Stitch by Stitch, Freshly Pieced  hop on over there to see all the awesomeness!!

 

Show and tell Monday

It's Anything Goes Monday at Stitch by Stitch, but it is being co-hosted by Serggerpepper today. Also linking to Linky Tuesday at Connie's ,  WIP at Freshly Pieced, and Esther's   So when you are done looking around here hop over and see all the great projects!
I have been very busy working on quilting some tops I pieced recently-well some may be a bit longer ago than recently, :-)  Last week I was just beginning to quilt this and now I have it all done, don't you just love those bright colors for a baby quilt! It measures approx 36" sq.

Next up was this cute little hexagon quilt. I used a template from JoAnns to make them adding a 60 deg. triangle in between. The quilting was even more fun!

Now this one is a pattern from Sew Kind of Wonderful called Urban Escape and using her Quick Curve ruler. A fun quilt to do and I absolutely LOVE the colors I chose.  I had loads of fun taking the pic's this morning in the sunshine. The tobaggon was actually my hubby's when he was a little boy. Yesterday we pretended we were kids again and went snow tubing and tobogganing down our hills, great fun!!  So that is when I got the idea to use it for a prop for my quilt. 

 

Adding a sneak peak at a work in progress...

I have used Hobbs 80/20 batting and Glide thread on all of these quilts which I quilted on my Nolting Longarm.   Thanks for visiting my blog!  I love all the comments I get, I read and try to answer each one!

WIP Wednesday

It's WIP over at Freshly Pieced today so I am linking a few projects. This baby quilt is my current project measuring in at 36" sq.  The pattern is an X Block pattern using their ruler and I am having fun with the quilting on my Nolting Longarm! A little ruler work and a little freehanding.

I also put the binding on this little table runner yesterday. It is a D9P out of Batik's, I posted about it while I was piecing it a couple weeks ago. The quilting was freehand and very easy and forgiving, I will definitely use that again. Doesn't it look nice on my coffee table-I might just have to keep this one!!

I also finished up these patriotic wedge round toppers, I love how they came out. The quilting on them made it look kinda like saw blades.  My friend and I were shooting ideas back and forth and this is what we came up with.

Piecing projects from retreat weekend

These are the projects I worked on while at a quilt retreat last weekend. I arrived there at 11a.m. on Friday with these all cut out and ready to sew. Pedal to the metal until noon on Sunday. I almost stayed over another day due to winter weather conditions. I did not get the borders on these while at retreat but finished them all up yesterday at home. Retreat is always a fun time with good friends!

This is a large lap quilt from a 5 yard bundle of Civil War from Bolines. I added a skinny beige trim border before the final one to give it a little pop, glad I did as it made all the difference for me. Now to decide how I want to quilt it, I already have 2 quilts with Baptist Fan so I want something different-anyone have any ideas??

For these 3 table toppers I used Cheryl Phillips Gem Jr. ruler, fun and quick to do and pretty accurate too! I will show them again after I get them quilted.

After I got all the above ones pieced (except for the borders) I worked on this quilt I started 4 years ago at a class from Pat Speth called Star and Crown. It is proving to be a lot of work-not a quick quilt by any means! A lot of sewing, trimming, and cutting and sewing back together in a different configuration. I had about 12 stars sewn from the class but am working on the other blocks little by little. I have a goal of finishing this quilt this year(along with a couple others than have been in the works for a long time-I just need to get them out of my closet!

Linking up at Freemotion by the River linky Tuesday, Anything goes  and Let's Bee Social so hop on over to see all the wonderful quilts getting linked up!!

WIP-hexie's

WIP wednesday is on Thursday this week over at Freshly pieced where I am linking up.  That's Ok as we all get our days mixed up once in a while!!
Yesterday while going through a closet and pulling out projects to take on retreat this weekend I found my hexie ruler I bought at JoAnns a while ago and haven't had a chance to use it. So why not start yet another project even though I should have been packing! But look-how could I resist these little cuties, LOL, even though I have 45 other projects started :-)  I will cut and sew white 60 deg. trianles to piece inbetween. Hoping to come out about 36" sq as that is the size they would like for the neonatal quilts. Now go check out all the other wonderful projects underway at Freshly pieced!

Some round wedges are totally done!!

I had some time on Sunday and got these 2 round wedge toppers bound-I still have a few more to do so stay tuned for those, LOL

For this one I chose prints that say Christmas but don't scream it, they are also ones that could be out any time of year if that was your color scheme. They were fun to piece and fun to quilt, lots of ruler work on my Nolting longarm. I love how the quilting almost makes it look like pleats in the round. If you click on the pix you will get a closer look at that.

The center circle is appliqued on using the interfacing sewn to the right side of the green and then clip interfacing and turn it, position it and iron it down. Then I chose a tiny blind hem type of applique stitch from my Janome Horizon 7700 to applique it down.
It measures in at 28" just the right size for my table, but I didn't make it for me! All of the round ones are for sale, as are most of what I make :-)
I was so surprised to see I was featured on Freemotion by the River blog today-great way to start the day!! Thanks Connie!

 And a fall wedge topper that measures 36"-it turned out a little bigger than I was hoping but I am sure it will fit someones table!  This was the first one I made and I was trying to scale it down from the original tree skirt size and forgot to take into account that the wedges don't meet right in the middle, LOL Live and learn :-)
The quilting on this was freehand hook swirl, an easy forgiving design that is fun to do and leaves great texture.

This little quilt you might recognize as a free pattern from Connie at Freemotion by the River.Thanks Connie-it was a fun little quilt to make up. This will be donated to our local Neonatal unit.

Linking up at Freemotion by the River and Sew Fresh Quilts

Done, done, done!

Yeah! I really do have some finishes to show you this week!! These 3 little quilts are approx 36" sq. Just quick, fun little ones to donate to our local Neonatal. I will deliver them in Feb to the gal collecting them through our local guild.  My personal goal is to be able to donate 12 this year, one for each month, so I have a little head start which is a very good thing :-) 

I decided to use our grandson's bouncy chair for a prop! And you get to see a little backing of the orange quilt peeking out of the bottom. 

The center of this quilt, the letters and red border, is a panel I picked up for 50 cents at store going out of business! It was pretty small so I added the blue checkerboard and yellow borders and had fun quilting it up.

Orange Charmer I'll call this one. Wish I could remember the name of this charm pack, but I think I picked it up at Missouri Quilt Company a couple years ago when a friend and I were on our way back from Machine Quilters in Overland Park, Kansas.

 











And here is my first chevron quilt, don't cha just love the nice bright colors for a baby!
Linking up at Stitch by Stitch