Putting this one away!!!

TGIF!  Here is my latest top, and a  thing of beauty it's NOT~  and at this point I've wasted quite a bit of time on it!   I like the checked border, but the busy print is coming off!  I could cut it up, and make quilt blocks from it and some more white.  But at this point I think the whole thing needs to age awhile on the quilt rack.

I haven't shown you my racks yet.  I have two, a very large laundry drying rack that hold my finished quilt tops, all ironed and ready to be quilted.  The other is a typical quilt rack, and it holds unfinished tops, mostly problems yet to be resolved.  The racks help me keep track of what I've finished and what still needs more work.

I didn't sew at all today, but spent the day cooking and knitting.  Overall, quite a productive day.  In my next post I'll show you what I've been knitting.  Recently I've been working on a few knitting techniques that I never quite mastered and am quite please with the outcome.  So, ttfn! 

Enjoy the weekend!

Stars from flowers

This photo proves all ideas are not good ones!  The center stars are the left over pieces from the Flower quilt.  I thought it would be a neat idea to make borders out of the random parts, sort of floating them on the white.  NOT!  It's just a hot mess in my opinion.
 The border has been  removed, and I'm thinking of starting with a checkered border, Then some more white, and finishing it off with binding from prints.

 I just wanted to clean off my desk from the last project by making something of the leftovers, but now I've wasted a few hours with this mess.  Lesson learned:  when using multiple bright colored prints, less is more!  I hope my mood and my quilt have calmed down a bit in my next post.  Please stand by!

Completed Flower Power Top

 Finished at last!  I love how this turned out!  But if I ever make this pattern again, the border needs to be reworked.  It would be quicker to strip piece as much of it as possible.  This pattern was designed by Cindy Carter, and can be found online here.  Thanks Cindy, great pattern!  I loved using leftover pieces of "Soul Blossoms" jelly rolls.  The solid fabrics are all Kona cotton.

The flower blocks are very easy to piece and come together quickly. The large size, about 16 inches, are great for making a quick baby quilt.

I'm defiantly making more of these blocks.  But, probably not use this border again -- at least not for awhile

When I'm not piecing quilts, knitting fills my need to be doing something productive.  Whenever I leave the house I take my big L.L. Bean canvas tote, with several knitting projects inside.  It's great to fill otherwise wasted minutes -- waiting at the doctor's office, at the DMV, in line at the bank, etc...

In the past few days I've been knitting baby/children's hats.

I love this pattern!  

As you can see here I've made several in the last day or so, and now have the time spent knitting one down to a little over a hour!

 My model is about the size of a year old baby --

at least I think so!

These hats will be going to the Etsy show later this year, in Brown County Indiana.

I will be taking mostly quilts to the show,  but thought I could add knitted baby items as well.

This patterns is quite fun to knit.  I love watching the flower shape emerge from the needles! 

It really doesn't take much to keep me amused --

just a ball of yarn and needles

and I'm happy for a long time!

Flower Power

Flower Power seems like an excellent name for these blocks.  I've been busy for the last several days cutting all my Soul Blossom fabric (Amy Butler) into pieces for this quilt.

The blocks are 16.5" I think???  But I'm loving the big size of them.  It's been awhile since I worked with large blocks, but I'm seriously considering more large block quilts.

The size is good for showing off colorful fabrics, and the white keeps everything grounded.

I'm wondering how it would look to use calmer fabrics, like all pinks or purples?  It would make a great quilt for a little girls bed I think.

There is a bonus when making these blocks:

This star block was made from the scraps of a flower block.

When the white square is added to the flower blocks, and the triangles cut off

are sewn together, the pieces can be sewn together to make these half square triangles.

I've arranged them into a simple star block, which turns out to be 15"!

So, another baby quilt can be made with the scraps of the flower quilt.  Two for the price of one!

I'm headed back to the sewing studio to try and finish all the flower blocks.  

Happy quilting!

Another Snow Day

My sister's quilt. Isn't the border fabric nice & rosey!

 This quilt was finished back in January for my sister's birthday.  Yeah.... I know it's really late, but I will send it tomorrow.  I actually tried to mail it today, but the 20 year old mail girl said whatever was inside had changed the shape of the box, and I'd have to put it into a larger box to ship.  I have shipped many lap size quilts and always use a medium Priority mail long box.  It wasn't bulging, it closed properly, but it did it have a bit of trapped air under the plastic bag the quilt was in, but it didn't bulge!  I told her, "it's things like this that are causing the USP to fail."  Mad couldn't begin to describe my mood.  Okay...  rant on USP over.  (sorry)

Back to the quilt!  It's made from Moda's Papillion line from last year or so.  I probably would have pulled the red fabric out, but I only had charm packs to work with, so I just sewed them up.  The backing is a cream butterfly print from the line.  I hope she likes it.

Progress on my yet to be named Pink/Brown quilt.  The applique block nearly made me crazy, but my long forgotten skills have returned.  By the last little berry the agony had subsided!  I'm thinking of removing the white block and just stick with cream, tan or light pinks for backgrounds.  I have plenty of options, and the white seems a bit cold/stark.

~~Abby, my sweetest girl kitty~~

Pippa in her basket with sleepy eyes.    Sweet kitty.

Lately I've had problems with kitties on my desk.  They all wanted to be where the action is happening!  This was making me crazy.  So, I thought the problem solved by giving the little kitten a basket & quilt to sleep in.  She was the main problem, and liked it, but Abby did too.  So, one basket became two.  The desk isn't large enough for three baskets.  What a dilemma!

Abby made it clear to Pippa that she was still the reigning Queen, and Pippa was only a Princess.  Thus, she could choose any basket that suited her fancy, and she likes butterflies!