Pineapple Blocks

 After finishing this quilt top the other day,

I pulled out another box with a UFO and decided to

continue working on this project.

Unfortunately, this project had just 4 blocks finished

and a few others started.

I gathered some more fabrics so there is more of a variety,

and have been working on more blocks.

This meant a trip to the quilt shop with the gift certificate

my husband gave to me for Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 These beauties were added to what I already had.

No matter how hard I try... I just can't stay away from

these colors!

 

 

 

 

I am making pineapple blocks using the Pineapple trim tool above.

It's a pretty easy process and the piecing is very accurate.

 

(I am not a paper piecer, but if you haven't seen  

Rebecca Grace's gigantic pineapple quilt, you must!

 It's gorgeous!!)

 

 

Here is a finished block.

(I must put up a design wall somewhere!)

I made 12 blocks with the original fabrics I had and had

them on my design floor.

My husband came in and said that these blocks would make a really

nice quilt for our bed.

What a great idea!

Now I only need 109 more blocks!

(These are 9" finished blocks.)

 

 

It's going to take a while,

but it will be a fun process.

Happy Quilting!

 

Red, White and Blue Geese

 I know I'm not alone in this....

Why do we begin a project, get the most difficult part done

and then put it in a box and not finish it?

Before I moved, I put several quilt UFO's in project boxes

and labeled them, so I knew what was in each box.

Since my stash is still in packing boxes,

I decided to go through these project boxes and see what

I could work on from time to time.

Today's finished top was started months ago

and ended up in a pile in my old Hidey Hole.

Into a box it went.

I pulled it out the other day and all of the parts

had been made.

All that needed to be done was to sew these parts into

rows and make the rows into the quilt top.

 

 

This was a kit from Shabby Fabrics, I think.

For me the most time consuming part was making all of the 

Flying Geese and the square in a square blocks.

These were all finished and waiting in the box.

 

 

It took me two evenings to sew the rows together

and finish the quilt top.

This top will be added to my growing

"needs to be quilted" pile.

I really need to find the box with yardage and get some

quilt backs made!

 

 

I emptied one box and promptly filled it again.

Hopefully I will get another box emptied soon.

Happy Quilting!

Pinwheel Baby Quilt

 It is so nice to have some time to sew lately.

Things will be ramping back up soon as my

mom is going to be moving out of her apartment

and into a senior living facility.

This is the year of the move, for sure!

The other night I wanted some mindless sewing.

I had made a bunch of HST's from a charm pack I had.

Other fabrics were added to brighten it up a bit

and to allow for more HST's to be made.

I was going to make a chevron quilt,

but decided to make pinwheels.

Totally mindless.

 

 

I am bad about measuring block sizes

and finished quilt sizes,

but this is a good size baby quilt.

 

 

Some of the prints have farm animals, 

farm words and farm land scenes.

It's really cute!

 

 

Now I need to find the box of yardage in my

stacks of boxes and finish this quilt.

I'm sure I have something that will work for a backing.

 

 

 

You can see some of the cute bunnies, words, etc. in these fabrics.

This quilt will be donated when finished.

Happy Quilting!

Three Dudes Quilt

 Before the big move, I had made all of the blocks for this quilt..

The Three Dudes Quilt.

(There is a pattern and a youtube video showing how to make this pattern.)

In the midst of my move, I needed something to sew one day

and pulled these blocks out of the box.

I laid them out on my design floor and began sewing them into a top.

Well, somehow between the floor and the machine,

things were moved and switched and everything ended up into a mess.

 

The partially finished top went back into the box out of frustration.

 

Last week I decided it was time to spend some quality time with my seam ripper

and get this top finished.

I put a book on Hoopla to listen to and ripped away.

 

 

Here is the finished top.

Needless to say, I am very happy I decided to rip and

resew these blocks.

The black strips really makes these fabrics shine.

 

 

This is a tricky top in some ways because of all the bias

edges you have once the blocks are cut.

I starched the heck out of the blocks and that certainly helped.

 

 

This is not the border that pattern used, but I don't know

where all of my extra strips are from this top.

These pieces were cut from the left-overs from making the blocks

with the black corners added.

 

I can now check this off of my list and move on to another project

that has been in limbo land.

 

 

Last night I finished the Bucilla kit I have been working on lately.

 

 

All these need are the hangers and they are ready for a tree!

Happy Quilting and creating!

Kristen's Tree Skirt

 My niece was married last month,

so that meant a Christmas tree skirt was needed.

 

I had used the Emilia pattern by Robin Pickens

for a baby quilt recently and really loved it.

I decided this would make a pretty tree skirt.

 

 

I have never made a square tree skirt before,

but I like it.

The real test will come when it's under the tree.

 

 

I had planned on doing something different with the corners,

but it didn't work as I had wanted.

By the time I realized that, I couldn't miter them.

I like the little triangles, though.

Most all of these fabrics were from my stash!

I bought the stripe for the border and one other print.

 

 The multicolor ferny looking print in the upper right corner

is a favorite.  I should have bought more of that!

I have decided to not add ties to this one.

Last year I realized that I don't use mine when putting

it under the tree, so that saves some time and aggravation.

Merry Christmas in August!

Happy Quilting!

 

 

Tidbits

 The summer of traveling continued last week

with a trip to Michigan.

In the last 6 weeks I've been in 17 states,

but I am finished for a while!

I am ready to get back into some kind of a routine

and get sewing regularly again.

While in Michigan, I had some time to do some handwork,

so I took along a couple of Bucilla ornament kits.

It felt really good to have some down time to work on these.

 

 

This ornament is for a friend who has a dog that looks just like this,

minus the tassels!

 

 

 

This ornament will be for my nephew who loves music.

 

This guy will find a home on someone's tree,

but I'm not sure whose yet.

There will be more of these made.

 

 

While we were in Michigan,

we found a really nice gallery shop

that represented a lot of artists.

 

On the counter was a big bowl of glass buttons.

My husband and I had the best time looking through this bowl

and came home with a few of the beauties.

 

 

A pattern and black linen have been ordered to make a blouse

for myself, using the 5 flashy buttons.

I'd like to make a quilted shawl and use the blue buttons,

but I need to design a pattern.

It's been a long time since I've sewn clothes for myself,

so we shall see how this goes.

Happy Quilting!

 

Libelle is Finished

 Wow!

It has been quite a while since I've posted anything here.

Time just gets away from us sometimes, doesn't it?

 

In the past month I've finished moving,

closed on my former house,

driven cross country with my daughter, granddaughter

and granddog,

driven to PA and NY to visit family and to attend quilt camp,

gone to northern VA to help my daughter and son in law move into

their new home,

and am continuing to get settled in my new home.

 

Needless to say,

there has been very little time for quilting.

Plus, I still don't have my new Hidey Hole put together,

but hopefully that will happen in the next couple of months.

 

One thing I did finish is the baby quilt for my new

Grand Niece.

Her middle name is "Libelle" which is

German for Dragonfly.

 

I had the perfect layer cake for this little ones baby quilt.

 

 

This has to be one of my favorites.

The dragonflies in the fabric are just perfect

for this baby quilt.

I had just found the layer cake 3 days before she was born,

not knowing that Libelle would be her middle name.

I was able to draw a dragonfly and stitch them

into the large triangles in the design.

 

 

Parts for a second quilt are cut out, too.

Her grandmother, and her namesake,

needs one of these.

 

The pattern is Emilia by Robin Pickens.

 

I have not figured out a new email platform yet,

and hope to do this in the next couple of weeks.

Hopefully it won't be too difficult to move those who

get my blog posts emailed to another platform.

 

Happy Quilting!

 

 

Geometric

 My middle brother loves mechanical things.

He loves to figure out how things work,

why things work the way they do,

and is fascinated by old buildings,

manufacturing plants, etc.

 

When I saw this quilt pattern I knew I had to make it for him.

 

 

He loves the Escher quilts I've made,

but Kaffe is not his thing.

 

Instead I'm making this quilt in these fabrics.

 

 Not many pieces or colors, right?

This is going to be one tedious quilt to make!

Each piece has to be in the right spot

and the rows are long.

Thankfully I've started checking the placement each time I

sew pieces together.

Plus, each seam needs to be pressed open and I don't enjoy doing that!

Here are the first four rows.

Only 16 more to go!!

 

 

 

 

This week I am flying to California to help my daughter pack up their house.

Later in the week we will begin our drive back to Virginia

with a 5 month old and their English Lab.

(She, her husband and daughter are moving to northern VA...

only 2 hours from us!)

It will be and adventure, for sure!

I'm excited about seeing parts of our beautiful country I have not seen

and visiting quilt shops in states I have not been to.

(One of my bucket list items is to visit a quilt shop in each state.

I'm up to 25!)

It's a trip we will remember for a long time, I'm sure.

 

Obviously, there will not be much quilting done in the next couple of weeks,

but I'll be able to read blogs along the way.

 

So, until then....

 

Happy Quilting!

Teddy

 One of my daughters' college roommates is due to have her

first baby any time now.

She's having a boy and the nursery theme is the National Parks.

 

Plus, his name will be Theodore.

 

I found the PERFECT quilt pattern for this baby!

 

 

These guys were so much fun to make!

I had a cutting session

and then sewed them all at once,

so they were finished all at once!

 

 

I was very thankful that I didn't make any mistakes cutting

the pieces, because that could have messed up

every single bear.

 

 

This pattern is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern...

the second pattern of hers that I've made.

Glasses will be added to one of these guys

and then the top will be finished.

 

 

But look at what I found for the backing!!

 

This is the parents favorite park!

The panel will need to be trimmed, pressed and added to,

but it will make a great backing.

 

This quilt will be finished soon and given to 

Teddy after he is born.

:)

 

 

Happy Quilting!

Libelle

 I have a new grand niece.

Her name is Julie Libelle.

Julie is after her grandmother, my sister in law,

and Libelle is German for dragonfly.

Grandma Julie loves dragonflies.

 

Well, I've had a quilt finished for this little one for a while.

(I haven't unpacked it yet from my move,

but am pretty sure I know where it is!) 

However, several days before she was born,

I was looking through a box of fabrics and found a 

layer cake of fabrics with dragonflies and such.

I told myself that I needed to make something with it

soon, since it was so pretty.

Little did I know that I would have Libelle arrive within days.

 

 

 

I saw this pattern, Emilia, by Robin Pickens on line and knew

it was perfect for these fabrics.

 

 

 

It was a bit fussy to make this from 10" squares,

but it came together and I love the results.

 

 

This needs a good pressing before it's quilted.

I love how the design goes out into the borders.

Do you see all of the dragonflies?

I'm looking forward to meeting my niece and

giving her this quilt.

(I think I may have to make her grandmother one, too!)

 

I am linking to Design Wall Monday today.

Happy Quilting!

Annual Patriotic Table Topper

 For those who have followed me for a while,

you might remember that annually I make a 

Patriotic Table Topper for my mom and siblings.

My dad died in July years ago and was one of the most

patriotic people I know.

It started in memory of him and I have continued over the last 8 or so years.

 

This year I felt pressed for time with our move and

not having the sewing mojo (or "Sewjo" as Libby said!).

I decided to make my own "border fabric" and use the

60 degree ruler (which I had finally found in a box!)

to make these.

 

 

To make these, I sewed 2 1/2" strips in sets of four

and used the 60 degree ruler to cut the ends of the strip sets.

This tutorial helped get me started.

 

 

For some reason the colors of the photos are not accurate.

The fabrics are brighter than shown here.

I quilted them in different ways and 

bound them all with the same fabric.

 They are ready to give to my family this month.

When making the larger runners,

there are leftover triangles that were used

to make these little toppers.

These went together so quickly and are pretty cute!

Happy Quilting!

Another Quilt Bound

 Before I moved I sent five quilts to a LAQ 

my SIL uses in upstate NY.

I figured I would be picking them up in July

when I go up for quilt camp.

This woman was fast and had them done in March!

 

Here is the third quilt I've finished from the five.

 

 

This pattern is called Junk Jewelry.

A while ago a friend and I cut out a bunch of wedges

from our Kaffe fabrics and each made a quilt.

I had so many wedges left over that I was able

to make a second quilt.

A wedge border was added to use up even more of the pieces.

 

 

The black narrow border adds so much to this quilt.

And you know I love the polka dots with the Kaffe!!

The LAQ used royal blue thread and quilted circles and swirls

across it. I love the design.

The backing is one of my favorite Kaffe prints.

 

This quilt is ready to be gifted.

 

Happy Quilting!