Sea Life

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

For a while I had been looking for a pattern

for this fabric with a big print.

Cutting it up into small pieces

would not have done it justice.

One day I was cruising the internet and found the 

perfect pattern for this fabric.

I pulled other fabrics to go along with it and made the top.

"Sea Life" is now a finished quilt!

I am super pleased with this finish

and never dreamed it would turn out so well.

 I thought and thought about how I was going to quilt 

Sea Life and then one day it came to me....

just use a simple grid.

The fabrics speak for themselves in this quilt.

My husband cannot believe I am giving this one away.

:)

 My friend, who lives at the beach, will love it

and it goes with the color scheme in her bedroom.

 

I stitched the quilting lines 2 1/2" apart in the grid.

 

There may be enough of this fabric left to make another quilt.

Maybe my husband will get one, too.

(I need to find some taller quilt holders!)

"Sea Life" is a finish and is ready for gifting.

Happy Quilting!

Under the Sea Finish

My Hidey Hole has gotten out of control again.

I had done so well for a while,

keeping things neat and organized

and having my piles to a minimum.

Then my old habits reared their ugly heads.

It is time to get some things finished

and the piles out of my room.

"Under the Sea" needed quilting

and would be the quickest finish of the bunch.

It was quilted and bound over the last few days

and is off the table!

This quilt is the result of a mistake I made making

another quilt.

I love these kinds of mistakes!

 

The fabrics are "Calypso" and are

digitally printed.

I used a grunge dot for the background fabric

 

These colors are pretty true in this photo....

so vibrant and rich.

 

This quilt hasn't told me where it's going yet,

so will stay with me for a while.

 

There was a large piece of the focus fabric left over, 

so I pieced the backing.

Amazingly, it's pretty centered!

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Quilting!

Working on Another Pile

Years ago I bought a fat quarter bundle of

fabrics that are not in my normal color choices at all.

I don't remember why I bought them,

but I must have liked them at the time.

I made a quilt for a friend using bits of the fabrics

and she loved it, so maybe I bought the fabrics

for that particular quilt.

Who knows!

This quilt was made in 2011,

so I've had this pile of fabrics since then!

I decided something was going to be done to get these

fabrics out of my cabinet.

Out came my ruler and rotary cutter

and the cutting began.

The "go to" block for me is the

Disappearing Four Patch.

 I think this is the 8th one I've made with this block.

 

It's wild, chaotic, crazy and pieced together.

 

I'm going to use the left over fabrics for the backing

and get the rest of these out of my stash.

 

Someone will like this quilt....maybe.

Maybe it will make a nice picnic quilt.

Anyway, it's almost finished

and some mindless sewing was done to make the blocks.

Happy Quilting!

Even when it's ugly!

:D

Woven Baby Quilt

Another baby quilt is in the works in

my Hidey Hole.

A mentee of my husband's and his wife are due next month

and are having a boy.

I've had this pattern for a while and had all of these

fun, bright prints and thought they would work well

with this woven design.

The cutting and sewing began and this top was made.

I wanted a polka dot background and found this

subtle white with tiny black dots.

It really works well with the bright prints.

 

Many more blocks can be made with the number of strips

I cut from the pile of fabrics.

That means another one of these will probably be in my future!

 

I think straight line quilting will work well with this one.

The backing needs to be pieced or found. :)

 

 

This one will go into the "to be quilted" pile.

This pile is getting rather large,

so some basting needs to be done soon!

Happy Quilting!

Cathedral Window Pillow

Over the past year and some I have made a lot of pillows.

This Cathedral Window pillow made from my friends ties

is my favorite.

This pattern is one of my favorite patterns to make

and it's so easy if you follow the

Missouri Star Tutorial.

 

I was able to fussy cut a group of giraffes from one of the ties

and put them on the bottom of the pillow.

 

This backing fabric was in my stash

and would make a beautiful tie if it was silk. :)

 

This will be delivered to my friend very soon.

I like this so much,

I might have to make myself one!  

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Quilting!

One More Tie Item

For those who follow my blog,

you know that I was given a bunch of ties

by a dear friend who retired two years ago now.

I have made him a quilt from these ties,

a Christmas stocking for each of his grandchildren

and now I am making a pillow.

There are so many little pieces left from the ties

and I can't leave them alone.

This will be it....I think! :)

I started by cutting 3" squares from the tie scraps

and black fabric.

All of the tie pieces have interfacing on the back to

stabilize them and give some more heft.

Then I used the Missouri Star tutorial

and made a Cathedral Star pillow top.

I just love working with all of the different ties.

The silks just shine and really pop with the black panes.

 

He had quite a variety of ties, too.

 

I had one more piece of the giraffe tie and was able to 

fussy cut it so the giraffes are standing in the middle of the window.

 

The pillow will be finished and will be delivered, 

along with the stockings,

in person soon.

Here is the quilt I made and gave him in January:

The stockings.

I think I'm done playing with these ties,

but time will tell.

Happy Quilting!

Pink and Gray Baby Quilt

For those of you who follow my blog, 

you know that the title of this blog is not me.

I rarely make baby color baby quilts.

The brighter the better for me.

The daughter of a dear friend just had a baby

and I struggled with what design to use for the quilt.

I had come up with one design, but was not happy with my

drawing of the parts needed to make it.

Finally, I decided to make a quilt using this design

and use pinks and a gray... the colors of the nursery.  

The right pinks were few and far between in my stash,

so I had to go shopping.

Pink is not my favorite color, but I do like it with gray.

Here is what I made....

This design uses half square triangles and a few squares

and is very easy to make.

I did get one of the HST's turned by the heart

and had to use my seam ripper for that.

Not bad!

This heart kind of hides in the HST's

and I love that.

 

Now to get this quilted!


I'm linking to Design Wall Monday  and Monday Making today.

Happy Quilting!

Monster Log Cabin is Finished!

And it feels so good to have this checked off of my list!

There was a time when I was so tempted to just trash this quilt.

I was so frustrated with how the blocks weren't laying right

and knew it would be a bear to quilt.

Finally, I put my big girl pants on and got the top together,

decided I wasn't crazy enough to try to quilt it myself

and sent it off to the quilter.

Now it is finished.

And I am thrilled with the finish.

This quilt is so large (112" square!!), I can't get a good photo of it. 

I don't have a king size bed, so I can't take one with it on a bed.

It took quite a while to stitch the binding in place,

but this is one of my favorite parts of quilting,

so I didn't mind.

 

I don't know how many different fabrics there are in this quilt,

but there are a lot!

Now it can be delivered to my sister.

I love you, Deeda!

Borders on the Sealife Quilt

Things have been busy around here,

so not much has happened in my Hidey Hole.

We traveled to California to visit with my 

younger daughter and her husband for a few days last week

and had a wonderful time.

They took us to Lake Tahoe for the day

and it was gorgeous!

The water was way too cold for this Virginian,

but it sparkled and shimmered and was beautiful to look at.

I have done a little sewing and managed to get the borders sewn

onto the latest sealife quilt.

The same fabric in the big blocks was used for the outer border.

It looks like the fish are swimming under the sashing and narrow border. 

 

I need to give this another good press and it will be ready to baste.

Quilting ideas have not come to me yet.

 

There is a lot of this sealife fabric left.

I'm trying to decide if I'll use it for the backing

or if I'll make another quilt with it.

 

Once finished,

this will be given to a dear friend.

Happy Quilting!

Challah Cover

A good friend of my daughters' is getting married next month.

My usual gift of a Christmas tree skirt would not be appropriate

as this friend is Jewish.

I found a pattern for a Challah cover and decided this would make a nice gift.

My daughter asked that I make it in the wedding colors and I set to work.

The pattern had more flowers around the letters,

but I liked this simpler look.

 

I started to hand applique the design,

but realized it would take a while.

I machine appliqued it instead and am

very happy with the results.

 

The back looks so cool!

I'm going to take this to my daughter this weekend

and she will deliver it to the bride.

Happy Quilting!

Monster Log Cabin Quilt

A year ago this month I started making the blocks

for a log cabin quilt for my sister.

I had decided to destash my reproduction fabrics

because they just aren't my thing and I had a lot of them!

I began cutting them into 1 1/2" strips to make this quilt.

The blocks were made and the top was pieced

and then it sat....

and sat and sat.

Finally, in May I sent it off to be quilted.

I had considered quilting it myself on my sewing machine

and then reality set in, thank goodness!

If I had tried to quilt this monster quilt myself,

I would have ended up bald, with two bad shoulders,

having to repent for language used

and with a smashed up sewing machine.

Instead, I have this....

This quilt is HUGE!!!

It's a ginormous king.

I'm not actually sure of the size at this point,

but it will definitely be large enough

for my sister's king bed.

 

She loves these colors and fabrics

and is excited to get it.

I told her I might have it done by October!

 

It has been trimmed and the binding is being stitched

to the back now.

This is going to take a while!

The quilter did a beautiful job. 

I just wanted something simple and she nailed it.

It will be wonderful to finish this quilt and remove

it from my list.

It will be at your house soon, Rhonda!

Happy Quilting!