SaraRules Quilts

Yes. I've been a bit absent.

2011-11-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

So, you may have noticed that I haven't blogged for approximately ten months. I'll be honest, I haven't had much time to quilt lately. I'm attributing it to these two:

Yup, I went and got pregnant and had twins. Now that I have adjusted a bit, I think I'll have a little bit of time for quilting again, so look for posts in the near future.

Also, you may have noticed that just about all of the pictures on my blog disappeared lately. All my blog pictures have been hosted on my website, and due to a problem with domain registration and hosting, they were deleted. But don't worry, they're all up again. :)

Holiday Candle Mat Swap.

2011-01-18T12:15:00.004-07:00

I participated in a Holiday Candle Mat Swap, and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures I made.

I've never made a candle mat before, but it was actually a great little piece to make, and to have around the house for Christmas.

Here's the whole mat. It's about 15" square.

Here's a close-up of the snowmen in the center:

And here are the corners. I added little snowflake buttons to give it some extra character.

Oregon Trail Quilt - August Block.

2010-09-27T21:00:00.002-06:00

And here, my friends, is the final block of the year. Makes sense, as once the pioneers travelled the Oregon Trail, they would need to build a house. So here is the Log Cabin block:

The designed block was a little bit small for my needs, so I switched up some of the strips and made it a bit bigger. This way it would fit perfectly in the finished quilt. Which you'll see next time!

Gracie's Baby Quilt

2010-08-31T21:19:00.000-06:00

I promise I haven't been a total quilting slacker. I've been working like a fiend on hand quilting another quilt, but I did find the time to make a quick baby quilt for a co-worker.

It turned out super-cute, but working with minky was a PAIN! It stretched a ton when I was quilting it, and that drove me a little crazy. But fortunately it quilted/washed out for the most part. :)

June & July Oregon Trail Blocks.

2010-08-26T21:12:00.002-06:00

Hey Sara, remember that quilt blog you used to update? D'oh!

Okay, I'm a little behind, so here's June:

And here is July:

Isn't this quilt done yet? No? Just one more month.

Latest stop on the Oregon Trail.

2010-05-24T20:49:00.001-06:00

I'm a little later posting than planned, but here's my Oregon Trail blocks for May.

The pattern is called Indian Mat. It was a royal pain in the butt. Fortunately I used Thangles for the half-square triangles which helped my accuracy a bit, but I was still loving these suckers into place. :)

I picked up the fabric for starting to put the whole quilt together, so I just might have a little bit more to show off next month! :)

Spring 2010 Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

2010-05-21T05:30:00.001-06:00

Hello there! And if you're coming here from the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!

I had great plans to finish this quilt in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Well, that didn't quite happen. If you look closely you'll notice that I haven't finished the binding. But I still wanted to show it off, so here's my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival this spring:

I don't know if this one really has a name yet, but in my mind I call it the Earth, Sky, and Water quilt.

I started this quilt back in... 2004/2005, so it's been a while coming. I wanted to try a bargello style quilt, and I started in the beginning by trying to dye some fabric. But I really didn't like the result, so I ended up making the blue section just for some fun.

After I got the blue done I really liked how it turned out, so I decided to do a green section.

And then a purple section. I didn't think about it until the purple section, but at that point I realized that I needed them to be relatively the same size.. fortunately they all turned out to be within about three inches of each other, which was lucky.

At that point, I realized I needed a lot of sashing to make the quilt bed-sized, so I decided a nice marbled black would work well. Used some of the leftover strips for the border bits, and that was that.

The quilting is just squares and rectangles of assorted sizes, but I think it's effective. And I love how the colored quilting sections overlap... hopefully you can see it in this picture with the purple and green.

Anyway, it's turned out quite nicely, and fortunately my husband likes it, so it's going to be staying with him. :) And with me. :)

I hope you enjoy the Festival, and hopefully this will inspire you in some fun way!

Whoa. I promise, I'm not dead...

2010-05-18T13:40:00.004-06:00

I've just been moving.

My husband and I bought a house, so the past oh, 7 weeks have been buying and painting and packing and moving and schlepping and fixing and trying to unpack. There hasn't been much quilting done, I'm afraid.

Fortunately, I dropped a quilt off at the quilter's in March, and got it back last week. Still need to do the binding, so I'll show that off later this weekend, but here's a graphic representation of what it kinda looks like.

Curious, no? I think it turned out great, and can't wait to show off real pictures. :)

...just have to find the box with my camera in it.

More Travels Along the Oregon Trail.

2010-04-08T19:00:00.000-06:00

And now I'm all happily caught up with my block of the month quilting blocks. The pattern for March is called Traveler's Star.

I will admit, I'm not crazy about the lightest fabric choice. It's a little busy for my taste, but I do love the blue fabric. Sometimes the neutral Civil War reproductions read a little funny to me, but I love the shades of blue that were produced back then. I always find them to be rich, elegant colors, but still mellow.

Anyway, now that I'm more than halfway through I should probably start working on putting the quilt together. I've got an idea that I've sketched out, and it should work out beautifully. As soon as I get the first few blocks put together, I'll share!

No Joke! Christmas Quilt Finished!

2010-04-01T22:01:00.002-06:00

Since it was April, I figured I should probably finish the Christmas wall hanging I started back in November. It's done, bound, and going into the closet, ready to be pulled out in eight months! At least I have a quilted Christmas decoration now. :)

Wildlife on the Oregon Trail.

2010-03-29T20:00:00.000-06:00

I got sidetracked by another quilt project and didn't get my February block done in time for quilting group. But I got it finished last week! So now I'm all caught up.

This month's pattern is the bear paw.

I'm not a huge fan of half square triangles, but I do love the graphic simplicity of this block.

Winter Mini Received!

2010-03-22T22:30:00.002-06:00

I received the most wonderful quilt from Janet at What Comes Next? as part of the Winter Mini Quilt Swap at Quilting Gallery.

It came packaged up in this cute spring fabric, with a bright card, some fat quarters, and little snowflake buttons.

The quilt is absolutely exquisite! It's got beautiful piecing, applique, and machine quilting, and it's all shimmery.

And sparkly!

And simply beautiful!

And she also sent along some winter-themed fat quarters. Such a wonderful quilt from a great quilt swap partner! Thanks Janet!

Winter Mini Quilt Swap.

2010-03-13T15:33:00.002-07:00

Wow, how the month can disappear when you aren't watching it closely!

I just barely finished my Winter Time Mini Quilt Swap from the group over at Quilting Gallery.

I had many different ideas about winter looking themes, but in the end, these are the fabrics I chose:

Yes, not necessarily very wintery. But they are when you get inspired by the Olympics and make this dude:

I'm quite drawn to the bold geometric graphic look of the logo, so I decided to copy it into quilt form. I wanted to work on my applique skills some more, so this guy is hand appliqued, and hand quilted.

I admit I had a spot of trouble with his mouth, but all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out.

I just hope my quilt swap partner is an Olympic fan, too!

How Cool Is This?

2010-02-11T21:54:00.004-07:00

The answer is, totally cool and beautiful! Isn't it stunning? Totally rich fall colors!

I just received this quilt from Thearica at Pigtales & Quilts. Thanks Thearica; I love it, and can't wait to hang it in my office!

She picked the background fabric because it reminded her of a sunset-Totally! Especially with all the beautiful shading in the batik.

Look at all the detailing of the edges, and the beautiful quilting.

Totally awesome!

At the bottom is quilted "How lonely is the night without the howl of a wolf."

I've probably mentioned it before, but I'll say it again. I've been just loving the quilt swap at Quilting Gallery. I've been in contact with some awesome quilters, and I love receiving quilts in a style that is outside my norm. It is awesome to be inspired by techniques that you didn't know existed, or be daring enough to try a new technique that you saw someone else do. It's really helped me grow a bit as a quilter, so thanks everyone!

Prairie Flower on the Oregon Trail.

2010-01-31T11:21:00.004-07:00

It's time for another Oregon Trail block!

This one is called Prairie Flower. I had a heap of trouble with this one. Not serious trouble, but it uses a lot of squares sewn on the corners. Let me tell you, whenever I sew squares on and then trim and press them, they're never in a square shape anymore. They're always a little bit angled and too big or small. So I have to do a little bit of loving it into shape when I sew it all together. But it still works. :)

So here's a close-up. As you can see, there's a lot of uneven edges. :) However, I am glad that I was thinking ahead and managed to put the stripe in the petal fabric so that it radiates out on all the blocks. :) Hooray me!

Christmas Reindeer Wall-hanging.

2010-01-20T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I realize this is a Christmas project, but I'm not done yet.

I started this guy at the end of November, because I wanted to try and have a Christmas decoration this year. I sewed it together (The center is a panel), machine quilted it (which was a royal pain in the ass, and I'm not going to machine quilt anything larger than 24" or requiring anything other than straight lines until I get a new sewing machine), but I needed to finish the quilt for my new niece, so I just haven't had the time to do the binding yet. And now Christmas is over.

But I guess this means I'll have plenty of time to finish it for next year! :)

Quilting the Oregon Trail

2010-01-13T18:48:00.001-07:00

Sheesh! The new block of the month club started back in September, and I haven't even posted about it yet! Slacker, and a half!

This year the theme is the Oregon Trail, one of the main overland migration routes of the United States in their efforts to take over the country. All of the blocks have something to do with the Oregon Trail. We had three different colorways we can choose from: Aunt Gracie's, Civil War, and neutrals. Well, The neutrals are browns and tans and golds, which are nice, but I wanted something with a little bit more color. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the Aunt Gracie prints. And I figured that the Oregon Trail and Civil War were contemporaries in American history, so it could work out well. So Civil War fabrics it is.

Here are the blocks so far:

September - Kansas City Dugout

October - Farmer's Daughter

November - Wagon Tracks

December - Whirlwind

There are four blocks of each pattern that will finish at 6" square. I'm already thinking of how I'll put them together. I'll keep you updated!

Falling Leaves finished quilt.

2010-01-08T18:00:00.001-07:00

And here it is, the finished quilt!

Finished size is about 14 by 20. It's in the mail right now, and hopefully my quilting partner, Jennie, will enjoy it as much as I do!

Falling Leaves, Part 2.

2010-01-06T20:00:00.001-07:00

Well, at this point I had finished the fabric, rinsed it a bunch (In my experience, red dye always bleeds a ton when you self-dye), and ironed it out and looked for the spots I wanted to use in the quilt. This quilt is the first time I've used fusible web, and man, it was awesome! Cut out my leaf shapes, played with the placement, then ironed them on. Fabulous!

Here's one of the leaves:

See how the little shibori lines run through the fabric like veins of a leaf? Totally what I was after.

For this quilt, I decided to hand-quilt using a perle cotton, for a little bit heavier quilting stitch. (Also the first time I've used perle cotton. This quilt was full of firsts!)

I used a 12 weight, so it's heavier than regular quilting thread, but not too huge. I just echo quilted around the different leaves, and then leaf groups.

I used the leftover dyed fabric for the border, and the binding. All in all, this quilt only used three fabrics: The background, which is a nice cream fabric with a little branch/leaf print; the yellow/gold dyed fabric; and the red/chestnut dyed fabric.

Next, the finished quilt!

Falling Leaves, part 1.

2010-01-04T20:30:00.001-07:00

I have really loved doing the different quilt swaps over at Quilting Gallery, so when sign-ups came around for the Fall-Inspired Mini Quilt Swap, I knew I had to be a part of it!

After thinking about the project and doing some reading on my partner, I knew I wanted to do some pretty autumn leaves. One of the quilt bloggers I follow, Nedra, works for Superior Threads, and keeps talking about a product they have called Texture Magic. So since I like texture in my quilts, I figured I'd give it a try.

It's a cool product; you sew it to the back of your fabric, and steam it, then it shrinks about 30%, giving some great ripples and texture to your fabric. I tried a couple of small pieces in the shape of leaves, but they didn't turn out too well:

Just because of the texture and gathering/rippling of the fabric, they lost a fair bit of their shape when the pieces are so small. I'm looking forward to playing around with the Texture Magic again, but for projects with bigger pieces.

So after going through my stash and not being inspired by my fabric, I decided to dye some fabric myself. I wanted to have some washed out fabrics that looked like the veins of changing leaves, and I figured I could do this myself with a shibori dyeing technique.

Shibori is a fancy Japanese word for tie-dying, basically. There are many different techniques, but basically you're pleating, gathering, tying, or knotting the fabric before you dye it, to give it spots that don't take so much dye.

Since I was trying to replicate the look of autumn leaves, I started off with a natural, undyed muslin, rather than a white fabric. I pleated it, then wrapped it in thread.

Dipping it into the dye. I did two different fabrics, each in two different dips/colors of dye. So I used four colors in the fabric for the quilt.

And here's a shot of the finished piece of fabric. The little horizontal lines are where the thread was wrapped around the fabric, and the bigger light spots are from the pleating.

Next entry I'll show the leaves and pattern I came up with!

Results of One Year in Quilting.

2010-01-03T00:23:00.005-07:00

Okay, I had to go back to December 2008 to see what my quilting goal for 2009 was:

"Okay, I'm going to say it now before I get chicken, but 2009 is going to be a six quilt year."

So, let's see how I actually did:

1. Alternate Take quilt

2. Cool Tumbler quilt

3. Georgia Belle's Baby quilt

4. Spring Pinwheels quilt

5. Yankee Fork Log Cabin quilt

6. Sophia's Baby quilt

Holy crap. I reached six quilts! Admittedly, two were baby quilts, and three were small quilts, but it totally counts! I'm totally stoked about this!

Happy New Year of Quilting!

2010-01-01T12:47:00.002-07:00

Well, it's that day where we reflect on ourselves and decide to do all the things we didn't do last year. I admit that I'm no different. :) Last year my big resolution was to learn how to hand applique, and I'm happy to say that it was mission accomplished. I took a class earlier in the year, and even managed to work a little bit of applique in a quilt swap I did.

I actually have three quilting goals this year:

1. Blog more often. I've been rather remiss lately, and I do want to do better. Rob got me a camera for Christmas, so I don't have that excuse anymore, and my goal is to blog at least once a week.

2. Be willing to try new techniques. I'm pretty traditional in my piecing and hand quilting groove, but I want to break out of that comfort zone a bit, and not be afraid to try new techniques and technologies that will help me get different styles of quilts.

3. Finish projects! Right now I can think of these quilts that I want to finish before the year is through: Appalachian Spring, Jo's Japanese Quilt, Cool Bargello, Reindeer wall-hanging. And I'd like to do a new scrap quilt to use up a lot of the fabric bits I have leftover.

So those are my quilting resolutions for the New Year! Good luck with any you may have!

Busy Busy with Sophia's Baby Quilt.

2009-12-14T18:51:00.003-07:00

I'm furiously working away on my niece Sophia's baby quilt, and I really need to have it done in time for Christmas. Little Sophia was born back in August, but with a new job and the wedding and such, I just didn't get her quilt done in time. Well, that's not entirely true. I finished the top back in July, but decided I hated it. So I had to start over. :)

I'm about 2/3 done with the quilting, and I'm hoping to finish the quilting tonight. Wish me luck!

Bye-Bye October!

2009-11-02T21:02:00.002-07:00

October always seems to fly by, doesn't it?

I mean, this October has been super busy for me; still adjusting to a new job, got married at the beginning of the month, settling in to married life. I just haven't had much time for quilting.

Besides, October means Halloween costumes! For the past two years, Rob has mentioned that I should be Wonder Woman, and that means he could be Green Lantern (His favorite comic book character. Hands down. Totally.) And this year I finally gave in. Which meant spending tons of time making our Halloween costumes!

They turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself.

But anyway, I actually had time last night for some quilting! Hooray! I'm hoping that November can be a nicely productive month on the quilting front. Hopefully I'll have progress pictures in the next few days. Hope you're doing well and finding time to quilt!

Yankee Fork Log Cabin Quilt.

2009-10-10T00:27:00.004-06:00

Hooray! I'm finally posting this quilt!

This is the quilt that I made for the In the Good Ol' Summertime Mini Quilt Swap over at Quilting Gallery. I was toying with a couple of different ideas, when I got my partner information, and found out that the woman I was making the quilt for loved pink and purple. Well, in my stash, that's easy enough to find. :) So I decided to scrap my original plan and make a fun pink and purple quilt.

I admit that, at first glance, this isn't necessarily a "summer" quilt. Every year of my entire life, I've gone up to Idaho to my grandmother's cabin in the summer. So for me, summer and her cabin are just about one and the same. So I figured I could pay tribute to my fun summers in Idaho and make a log cabin pattern quilt.

So here it is! I did the "wonky" style of log cabin, which was *tons* of fun and very easy to do.

And I hand quilted it with pink and purple thread, and fun concentric wonky squares.

And then the quilt went on a very long journey to my quilt partner in Portugal! How cool is that?

I can't wait for the Fall Swap. I've been having so much fun with these mini quilts, I just can't wait for the next one. :)

The Zodiac Quilt

2009-10-08T22:17:00.005-06:00

Posted for the fabulous Blogger's Quilt Festival, hosted by Amy.

Design by Sara (me) and Mel (sister).

Folding and machine piecing by Mel.

Hand quilting by Sara (mostly).

I can only take some credit for this quilt. Most of it is the work of my fabulous little sister, Mel. Many years ago, as a Christmas present, she promised to make a quilt for me. I would tell her what I wanted, and she'd make it.

Well, I had this awesome idea for her to make a quilt based on the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Yeah, I have no idea where the idea came from, but Mel was game. And I told her I wanted the animals to be like origami. So she made this awesome quilt that has origami fabric animals, and the Japanese words for the different animals.

So here we have the snake:

The tiger:

The rooster:

And the monkey (which is probably my favorite!):

As can sometimes happen with quilts, this one was a long time being made. My sister and I are kind-of opposites; she prefers piecing, I prefer quilting. And once the top got finished, it... languished for a little while.

So, my little sister packed up the quilt and sent it on to me to do the quilting. She had done a couple of the blocks, and then I finished the rest. Each of the kanji blocks has a different quilting design. Some are circles or fans:

And some are geometric patterns and fills:

And once I finished the quilting, I sent it back to Mel who did the awesome red binding. It was fun to be able to have this awesome quilt from my little sister, and to have played a part in making it happen. :)

Quick Photo Break.

2009-09-12T23:53:00.002-06:00

Okay, I know I promised you pictures of the finished Summertime Quilt Swap quilt, and they'll be coming soon. Hopefully tomorrow. In fact, I should be working on it right now, I know.

But I totally got distracted because I got both my bridal photos and engagement photos from my photographer today. I can't show the bridal photos yet, because there's the danger that my honey just might visit my blog. But I'll share one of my top 5 engagement photos. :)

Second Guesses in Quilting.

2009-09-10T19:25:00.002-06:00

So, how often do you second-guess your quilting skills?

I've been thinking about the awesome quilt I got yesterday from Melanie through the Good Ol' Summertime Quilt Swap on Quilting Gallery. It's totally cute! Every time I see quilts like this, I want to make one. And by "quilts like this" I mean, more pictorial/landscape style with techniques like machine quilting and fusible web and landscape style fabrics and such. Cool and modern.

In other words, a style of quilt I've never done, don't have the materials to do it with, and don't know how to do.

So now I'm totally second guessing the quilt I've been making for the quilt swap. (Hopefully finishing the binding tonight, so pictures will follow soon.) I mean, it's totally me! Bright colors, piecing, hand quilted. Hopefully my swap partner will like it. But I guess it's kindof a crap shoot to see if other people like it.

So, my question is, do you ever second guess your quilting projects? Maybe I just need to take another quilt class and learn how to do a new style of quilting. That should, perhaps, be my birthday present to myself this year. A new quilting technique.

Anyway, thanks for listening!

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

2009-09-09T21:47:00.002-06:00

How totally cute is this??

The answer is, totally freakin' cute! Don't you just love it? A huge thanks to Melanie from Australia, who made it. Just realized that she's winding up winter and moving into spring, but she made me a fabulous summer quilt! (And it's her first quilt swap! Fabulous swap partner to have, eh?)

Perhaps you can't see all the detail in this picture, but the quilting in the clouds look like clouds, the water section is all wavy, and at the bottom in front of the cabanas is all this beautiful quilted beach grass. I love it! It makes me miss the beaches in Southern California. And I just love all the colorful stripes of the fabric! So fun and colorful!

Melanie, you could not have made a more perfect quilt for me! You did a fabulous job, and I love it! Thank you so much!

Whoa. I am overwhelmed.

2009-08-12T12:42:00.004-06:00

Like, completely overwhelmed. As you might can tell, because I haven't posted in a month. I, officially, have too many quilting projects.

1. The Wedding Quilt

Yes, this is a peek at my wedding quilt. I'll give you whole story when it's finished, but right now it's embroidered, the top is finished, and I'm quilting. But I'm hand-quilting, so it's taking a bit of time. I've got seven weeks to finish it, which, to be honest, should be plenty of time, but I have other projects going on, such as...

2. The Baby Quilt!

Nope, not for me! For my new niece! Well, technically not mine yet, because she's my future Mister's niece, but she'll be mine in seven weeks. ;) She arrived bright and early Monday morning, so I need to get going! The top is finished, and I'll go shopping for batting/backing tomorrow, but it will also be hand-quilted, so it'll be a couple of weeks before she gets it.

3. The Summer Quilt Swap

I signed up for the In The Good Ol' Summertime Quilt Swap at Quilting Gallery. I had so much fun with the spring swap, I knew I had to do another. But inspiration has been a little bit lacking. I had a good idea, but well, fail. So I've been playing around to figure out something new. These are the fabrics I want to use, but it's going to take some thinking to come up with a good product. And tick-tock, tick-tock, time is passing quickly!

4. The Countries Quilt

And this last project is the Countries of the World Block of the Month I've been doing at Quilt, Etc. here in Salt Lake City. I've got all my blocks finished, but now it's time to put them together and finish the top. I'd love to have the top finished by the next class, because everyone shows off their completed tops and it's way fun. But this is probably the lowest on my priority list. If I finish it, great.. if not, well, it doesn't have a person and a deadline like the other three! :)

I'll be better about posting this month, because I think showing my progress will keep me on track. In the meantime, think happy, productive quilting thoughts my way... I need them!!

Velcome to my Qvilting Space.

2009-07-06T22:56:00.003-06:00

One more month, one more country block!

This month the block is from Romania, so the trivia was about Transylvania and Count Dracula.

And of course, the fabric in the block has little bats. Too cute! :)

Only two months left! I pulled out all the blocks last night in an attempt to figure out how to put the quilt together. There are just so many colors! I think I might just do some minimal black sashing and borders, and leave it at that. We'll see how it ends up.

3D Pinwheels Tutorial.

2009-06-27T22:35:00.007-06:00

I had such a fun time making my Spring Pinwheels quilt for the Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap at Quilting Gallery!

I've had a few friends and fellow bloggers ask how I made the pinwheels, so I've put together a tutorial showing how it's done.

The finished size of the pinwheel is 8 inches, so the unfinished size is 8 1/2 inches. For each pinwheel you will need:

Background fabric (my example uses white fabric): four squares, 4 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches.

Pinwheel fabric (my example uses light blue butterfly fabric): four squares, 3 3/4 inches by 3 3/4 inches.

After you cut your squares, you will take the four pinwheel squares and fold them in half, on the bias, with wrong sides together. You will have four triangles, with the fold on the long edge.

Now with the triangle in front of you, the short raw edges should be the bottom and right sides. Take the bottom left corner and fold it across the bottom, then pin it into place.

Because there will be so many layers of fabric (because of the folded triangle) I like to baste it to the background fabric to keep it in place. The pinwheel blade is pinned in the upper right corner of the background fabric. My baste stitch is about 1/8th of an inch from the edge.

So here are the four pinwheel blades, basted to the four squares of background fabric.

Now, time to sew the four pieces together!

With right sides together, sew two of the squares. You'll be sewing over the basted pinwheel edge on one block, and the long pinwheel blade on the other. The nice part about this step is that the folds of the pinwheel blades butt up against each other so it helps keep your seams in line and your points sharp! Here's quick picture of how they lock together.

Don't forget to set your sewing machine back to a regular stitch instead of the basting stitch. I always forget this step and have to unpick it. :)

After you've sewed the seam, you'll have to ignore your quilting training and instead, press the seam open. Otherwise, you're going to end up with 7 layers of fabric on one side, and your pinwheel won't lay flat!

After you have sewn both of the sets of two, it's time to sew them together. At this stage, be very careful of how your sewing machine goes over pins. With the pins and all these layers of fabric, it could really do a number on your machine, so you might want to pull the pins out before your sewing machine goes over them.

Again, because of the fold of the pinwheel blade, you can butt the edges against each other, making it easier to get some great points in the center!

And you will iron the seams open again.

Now we've got a pinwheel!

But wait, it's flat.

Take your iron and iron up the edges of the pinwheel.

I like to give it a good blast of steam and then hold it up to give it a nice shape. (But be careful! You don't want to scald your fingers!)

And there's your finished 3D pinwheel!

Depending on the fabric you use, you can get a lot of lift out of these. In this example I used a fairly soft cotton. But if you use a batik, or another fabric with a really tight weave, it will give you a very crisp edge and an inch of height.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! This is my first tutorial, so if you have any suggestions on how to improve things for my next one, or if any of my steps aren't exactly clear, please let me know!

Just Checked The Mail And...

2009-06-26T17:35:00.005-06:00

My Quilt Swap quilt arrived! Yay!

Isn't this awesome? An absolutely beautiful Dandelion quilt from Bea in Germany.

Here's a close-up of the dandelion. I love it! Such a great combination of traditional with the tumbler pattern in the background, and the three-dimensional dandelion on top! I've always loved dandelions, even though many consider them weeds. Such a bright flash of color! :)

And such an amazing quilt swap partner- not only did she send a beautiful quilt, but there were all sorts of other goodies in the package:

A beautiful postcard quilt:

This cheery rooster fabric:

A pin from her quilt guild in Germany:

And a redwork hexagon pattern. I thought I took a picture of it, but it seems to have disappeared from my camera.

Thanks Bea! You're a fabulous and talented quilter!

Quilting Anxiety.

2009-06-21T13:28:00.004-06:00

So I've been having quilt anxiety the past couple of weeks. You know how you start out a quilt with great plans and ideas about how it will come together. However, somewhere along the way, you start to worry. Maybe you had to replace a fabric in the middle of the quilt, or your blocks haven't been exactly the right size. Whatever it may be, you start to fear that the quilt will end up a hot unfinished mess.

I was starting to have that worry with this quilt. So I had finished the blocks, but I had been putting off sewing the top together. I started this morning, and I'm happy to say that this is going to be one nice quilt. :)

I've got the first three rows done, so 30 of the 110 blocks are together. And I'm stoked for how this will look in a couple months when it's all finished.

Quilt anxiety, managed. :)

Spring Pinwheels!

2009-06-14T21:37:00.006-06:00

Are done! And I'm so excited about this quilt. Very pleased with how it turned out!

The finished size is about 13" by 22". When I was brainstorming what I wanted to do for the quilt swap, I realized that I didn't really want to do a flower quilt, although that's one of the natural thoughts when one thinks about Spring. Instead, I starting thinking about kites and pinwheels and such. So when I was thinking about pinwheels, I was trying to come up with a way of making them three dimensional. I thought about prairie points, but when I was folding and experimenting, I came up with this pattern instead!

In addition to the fabric folding, I also used my new-this-year applique skills, and appliqued the pinwheel handles. :)

Hopefully you can see that they rise about an inch from the surface of the quilt. I tried taking a picture from the side so that you can see it better:

Anyway, it was really fun, and since it was a small quilt, I even had the time to hand quilt it. It was a very fun project, and in the future I want to figure out more ways to make my quilts 3D!

Tomorrow I need to get it in the mail to my quilt-swap partner. :) Hooray!

Quick Side Trip to Italy.

2009-06-03T16:11:00.003-06:00

Since I have my Quilt Etc. group Saturday Morning I figured I should probably get the block done. So this month we took a quick trip to Italy:

The block is called Roman Coliseum, and the fabric is purple grapes. Makes sense, no?

I've been hard at work on my Spring Quilt Swap project, and I'll have that all finished to show off this weekend. :) See you then!

Spring Quilt Swap Adventure!

2009-05-19T23:04:00.003-06:00

So I signed up for this Spring Blooms Mini-Quilt Swap sponsored by Quilting Gallery.

I'm really glad that I went to the quilt show the other weekend, because I had my eye open for interesting techniques or ideas that I might want to try. I love the idea of the mini-quilt because it's small enough that I can try something new, but not be overwhelmed.

So I'm thinking about spring. And what makes me think of spring. I think I have a pretty good idea that I'm going to start playing around with. Here's the fabric that I'm going to work with:

I'm also excited because I've decided this project will come completely from my stash! (Except for the batting, since I don't keep that on hand.)

I'll have some pictures once I get it all finished and ready for mailing. :)

Log Cabin Blocks Just Keep Coming.

2009-05-13T00:20:00.003-06:00

I've been slowly, but consistently, working on this quilt for... oh, nine months or so. I started it at the end of last summer and I'm slowly putting it together.

It is a log cabin quilt, a pattern that I've always wanted to make. I've got just two more strips to sew onto each block, and then I get to start putting together. But first I need to finish the embroidery. I'm embroidering a heart in the center of each log cabin. Why? Well, that's a story for a future post. :)

Georgia Belle's Baby Quilt.

2009-04-23T21:18:00.004-06:00

I have been reading so many other quilting blogs as part of the Quilt Festival that I've hardly had any time for quilting!

But I've had a little. :)

This is my third finish for the year, and it's a baby quilt for my latest little cousin, Georgia Belle.

The pattern is called Squares Askew, and it's from Amy at ParkCityGirl. It was a really fun pattern, and easy to put together! I love the way it turned out, except for on that one side where the squares are more rectangular than square... I had to do some creative trimming due to some less than stellar calculations for backing material. By the time I realized I was off, I had already done so much of the quilting I didn't want to tear it all out! So I improvised. :) I'm pretty sure my new baby cousin will still enjoy it.

The Puzzle Quilt.

2009-04-17T12:26:00.004-06:00

Now this quilt was a long time in the making. A few years ago when I had just started quilting, probably in 2002, I bought a bag of scraps from Quilts Etc. in Salt Lake City. They were 4 inch squares, and there were, I think 200 of them. I promptly put them in my stash, because I didn't yet know what to do with them.

Maybe two years later I was reading up on scrap quilts, and I came across a story about charm quilts in a quilting magazine. Charm quilts are this tradition of making a scrap quilt with often thousands of different fabrics, without them repeating. A similar article to the one I read can be found here. So I decided to make my own charm quilt, and started to stockpile fabric.

Fortunately, since I was working with small scraps, it was fairly easy to beg, borrow, and buy different fabrics. I spent a lot of time on eBay, and bought lots of scraps from sellers in Nebraska, Canada, Hawaii, all over. And I also got some scraps from other quilting friends.

The biggest problem was trying to figure out how to put the scraps together. I experimented with a few different patterns, and tried to plan out groups of colors. But I just wasn't coming up with anything I really liked. So I decided to go pretty simple, by just doing squares on point.

I also ran into some trouble when putting the squares together. I decided against grouping them by pattern or color, and figured that by sewing them together at random, some sort of pattern would naturally emerge. To give the eye a resting point I did the solid blue in the middle, and then center horizontal and vertical lines of primary blue, red, and yellow, to give it a bit of structure.

I think I collected enough fabrics by Christmas 2006, and began sewing it in spring 2007. Hand quilting was done the summer of 2008.

So, why am I calling it a puzzle quilt? Because the charm quilt story is just too long and convoluted to explain. It's easier to just say, there is only one square of fabric that repeats, and it's a puzzle to find it. :) Sometimes I also call it the ugliest quilt in the world, because there are some gawd-awful fabric combinations.

All told, there are 1008 2 1/2 inch squares, plus the mottled blue for the border and center. Right now I am the only one who knows which fabric is repeated, but I'm not telling. :) When you see the repeated piece, you'll know. The finished size is 81" by 109", a slightly odd size, but I still like it. :)

This is a close up of the blue center, and the primary red, blue, and yellow lines:

This is a close-up of another section so you can see the quilting a bit better:

Since I didn't plan the fabric placement, there are some seriously ugly combinations.
This would be one of them:

Again, since I didn't plan the fabric placement, somehow these two fabrics, same pattern different color, ended up right next to each other:

But there's some totally cute fabrics in here. Look! It's a monkey in a turban! And a monk, with wings!

The final step for this quilt was washing it. I use cotton batting, which shrinks a bit in the wash and gives the quilt a nice puckering look and texture, which you can kinda see in this picture. It's the center blue squares and I folded the side so you can see the backing fabric.

This is the one thing I was worried about when washing. I don't usually wash my fabrics anymore, unless they're a really saturated dark color, or I know the fabric is older. Because the squares came from lots of different people, I couldn't be sure the fabrics had been washed first. I wasn't so worried about shrinking, but I was worried that some of them would bleed. A couple did bleed to the back, which you can faintly see in this picture. But I think I'll be able to live with it. :)

The Exotic World Tour...Finished!

2009-04-14T21:09:00.000-06:00

The tour of exotic countries is finished! My eight additional blocks are done, so I'll be right on track to have twenty blocks by the end of the year. It amazes me how quickly it goes each year... I think we just have four blocks left.

This first one is Saudi Arabia (sorry, it's a little blurry):

This one is for The Philippines:

Here we have Egypt...for some reason the colors didn't come out so well on this one... the squares that look black are actually purple!:

See how off this one is? The four patch blocks are much smaller than the other five blocks... and this is with some easing and strategic seams to get the whole block together... I don't know what it is, but whenever I have to sew bias triangles on the corners of something, I just know it's going to be off. Bah.

And last but not least, an Oriental Star from Thailand:

Woohoo! So close to being done with this quilt...well, relatively. ;)

And a special thank you to my sweetie for holding up all these blocks. ;)

Quilting Adventure!

2009-04-14T15:22:00.001-06:00

If you don't follow Amy at Parkcitygirl, you should! Not only is she always working on cute projects, she's also doing this great quilt festival starting Friday!

Head over to her blog and check it out!

Greetings from Switzerland!

2009-04-12T20:45:00.003-06:00

One more month, and one more worldly quilt block!

This month we were off to Switzerland, and the pattern is called Alpine Cross. If you look close at the dark and light fabrics, they have little chocolate kisses and bonbons on them.. perfect time for it, no?

I finished this block this afternoon, and after I had it all sewn up I realized how apropos it is... I gave up sugar for Lent, which included chocolate, so it wasn't until today that I finally had chocolate again. And now I have a chocolate quilt block to match!

Hope you had a happy Easter!

Bye-bye Europe, hello Asia!

2009-04-02T22:58:00.000-06:00

In addition to the twelve monthly blocks we have in our Quilt Etc. group, they sometimes do an additional packet of patterns in case we want to increase the size of the quilt.

This year we have eight additional blocks, and all of them come from more "exotic" countries.

With the monthly blocks they put together the fabric to complete it, but with these additional blocks I've had to buy some new fabric and go through my stash. Some of these are a little quirky and bright, but I've had fun putting the fabrics together.

India: I wanted to have some bright Bollywood inspired colors for this one.

Tahiti: The center fabric reminds me of a Hawaiian shirt my dad would wear.

Japan: I have a ton of Asian fabrics, so this one was easy to pick from my stash. And the cream colored fabric is my absolutely favorite fabric I own. I don't know why, but it's such a pretty versatile print. I've put it in probably five or six quilts, and I'm down to my last 1/8th of a yard. Oh well. It was bound to get used up eventually!

China: This pattern is called Chinese Poppy. I'm surprised that I was able to get all the points to match up. :) Hooray!

Anyway, hopefully I'll get the next four finished up this week!

More blocks from around the world.

2009-03-30T22:52:00.003-06:00

Well, I forgot to post my Quilting Around the World block last month, so I took pictures tonight of last month and this month.

This month is Germany, and the block is called Roads to Berlin. It was a nice quick block that sewed up easily, which is always nice! The center fabric is so cute! Lots of little car parts. :)

Last month we went to The Netherlands! This block gave me no end of trouble. I got one of the rectangles put together backwards, so I had to re-do it. Bah! But it's finished and looks pretty. If you look closely at the fabric in the center, it's has blue and white tulips.

What I've been up to.

2009-03-11T22:19:00.006-06:00

I know it's been a little while. I feel like I've got three or four projects going on, but nothing is to the point where I can show a picture of it. But at least I've been up to this:

Applique!

My New Year's Resolution this year was to learn how to applique. I've been a little bit curious about it before, and since I love hand quilting I figured that applique could be a good thing for me to learn. Besides, how many people get to actually say they accomplish their New Year's Resolutions? Yup, I like to keep it realistic. :)

So my local quilt store, Quilt Etc., had an Applique Basics class, and I figured that would be just my speed. It was the past two Tuesdays and we learned the applique stitch, and the freezer paper, pre-basting, and needle turned techniques, and then we learned a bit about bias strip appliques, and how to make beautiful even circles.

Well, I learned that applique is not quite my cup of tea yet, but I'm glad I tried it! I definitely like the freezer paper method, because the results are crisp and event. Both the pre-basting and needle turn, I had some very... lumpy bit that should have been straight, and straight bits that should have been curved. ;)

But one of these days I'll see if I can't come up with an applique quilt project to test my new-found skills on. :)

Cool Tumbler, Finish and Pictures.

2009-02-23T11:14:00.008-07:00

Well here is the completed tumbler quilt, finished bound, and ready to go up on the wall. I had originally planned to hang this in my office, to give it a bit of color, but I think it will end up destined for another spot.

Here's a close-up of the top right corner. I really enjoy how all the different colors and fabrics worked out. And once I figured out how much I had to adjust the edges so that there was some overlap, the piecing went quickly. Which I guess it to be expected when you only have 56 pieces. :)

Here's a shot of the back, so that you can see the quilting pattern I did. I like how it emphasizes the motion between the rows, rather than just the individual tumblers.

Here's the top of the back of quilt. One of the bloggers I follow, Judy, had a post back in December about hanging small quilts, with a tip from a blog that she follows. So I followed the tip about sewing triangles in the edges, rather than making a sleeve. Works like a charm!

This is the only part I'm not happy about... see those great blue splotches on the back? I learned a valuable life lesson when I took the quilt with me to North Carolina at Christmas. When you leave a quilt at the top of your not-waterproof suitcase and it's gets wet, the dye from the suitcase is going to bleed onto your fabric. *sigh* At least it's the back. And I'm going to see if I can get it out when I wash it. :)

I have now officially finished two quilts this year- The Alternate Take quilt and the Cool Tumbler quilt. (Called cool because of the color scheme, of course.) Let's see if I can keep the momentum up. :)

The Tumbler is Quilted!

2009-02-18T10:51:00.003-07:00

But quilting it took a lot longer than I expected!

In the end I went with some pretty dense quilting. The quilting lines are about 1/3 of an inch apart, so it gives the quilt some nice body. It's going to feel great once I get it bound and washed.

When I was trying to figure out what thread to use for quilting it, I found a great dark blue in my stash that I had used on a previous project, and I figured it would look great. It does. But the past couple of days of quilting have given me some worries that I might run out of thread before finishing!

Fortunately, I had just barely enough... this is all that's left on the spool:

I don't think I have much going on tonight, so I'm going to try and find some fabric for the binding, and get that sewn on. Then it will be all ready to hang on the wall. :)

Animals Around the World!

2009-02-17T10:01:00.003-07:00

I was in the fabric store the other day, standing in line at the checkout, and I noticed this cute little fabric book, Animals Around the World.

Well, my niece had her first birthday just the other day, and I figured this would be a great birthday gift. Fun stuff for little eyes to look at, mom and dad can teach her animals, and she can grab it and bonk herself on the head with it, and not get hurt. :)

It took about three hours from start to finish. It was pretty easy, except that the panels for the pages weren't exactly the same size and shape. Some of them were on a bit of an angle, so there was a large amount of pinning and pressing involved to make it fit.

But I'm happy with how it turned out. :) And it was a refreshing non-quilt project to renew my brain a bit.

Thinking about pieces.

2009-01-25T22:21:00.004-07:00

I've started working on a new quilt. I can't say too much about it because it's going to be a gift, and I want it to be a surprise, but here's a glimpse of some of it:

As I was cutting out some of these strips, I was thinking about all the pieces that can go into a quilt. This quilt will have 110 units. Each unit will have 17 total pieces. Thats a total of 1870 pieces. Plus whatever pieces go into the border and backing and binding.

To think some people would find it crazy to sew thousands of little pieces of fabric together to make a quilt. To me, it's just plain fun. :)

Vive la France!

2009-01-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

And hooray for block of the month at Quilt, etc!

This month was France, and we did a block called Road to Paris.

The colors of the country block was... well.. quite exuberant. ;) We talked a bit about French fashion and haute couture, so the center of the block is a great hat pattern. Not everyone was such a fan of the pink and green to compliment, but I love it! I've always liked the pink and green combination. Plus I love polka dots! Totally a win, as far as I'm concerned.

I also got the black and white version worked up last night. I absolutely love this block! First of all, it was nice to see a new black and white fabric, and I love the cute mod-ish flowers. But I really enjoy how crisp the block looks.

Looking at the two blocks, I think the layout is fabulous, and love thinking about the great fabrics you could put in that center block... the finished block size is 12", so that center square is about 7"... a good chunk of fabric. I'll definitely be keeping this pattern in mind for some future project.

My Alternate Take on Scrappy Quilts.

2009-01-20T15:32:00.002-07:00

And the Alternate Take quilt is officially in the Finished category.

Despite the trouble and annoyance this quilt caused me at times, I don't mind it. Perhaps in a while I might actually like it.

I do like all the bold color in it. Now I look at it and think of ways I would have changed it, if I were starting over today... but it was fun to do a quilt without any plan except for experimenting with different shapes, colors, values, and techniques.

And I kindof like the back as well. My favorite part is the lower right corner, the red corner. Somehow the binding lined up so that the red binding is on the red square... so it looks like the quilt is falling out of the corner. Yeah, I dig that.

I'll go through my projects and stash tonight and see what I want to work on next, but for now I think I'm just going to pat myself on the back for a job well done.

Tagged? Heavens!

2009-01-14T09:00:00.003-07:00

Well, this is a blogging first for me. I just got tagged by Amy at Park City Girl, a quilt blogger I follow.

The Rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of the post and link to them.
Let each person know they've been tagged.

I broke both of my pinky toes twice, during my junior high, high school, undergrad years. But since the pinky toe is so small you can't set it... you basically just tape it and let it heal. Consequently, my pinky toes are short and goofy looking. But I think their shape makes it easier to fit my toes into heels, which is a great blessing in disguise. :)
Hands down, my favorite food is the potato.
I've collected postcards from around the world since high school.
Somehow, over the past ten years, my favorite color has changed from black to pink.
I am sort-of, half-assedly, planning my wedding.
And for lack of anything else I can think of, I'll throw a famous person story into the list. A couple years ago, when I was living in L.A., I was trying out a bunch of different churches in my neighborhood, and in one of them I sat next to Haley Joel Osment, the Sixth Sense kid.

And I'm afraid I don't know six people with blogs. :( The only one I know is my friend Mary, so I'll tag her.

Never Again. Never.

2009-01-13T14:08:00.008-07:00

All I have to say is: Ugh! What a pain in the tuckus this has been!

Since the Alternate Take quilt has so many pieces and little seams I decided that I should machine quilt it. Now, I don't machine quilt. I've done one quilt on the machine before, and I wasn't terribly happy with the results, so I've hand quilted every project before and since then. But I have a different machine from the last time I tried machine quilting, so I figured I'd give it a go.

I actually thought ahead, and I tried some test machine quilting before I put a needle through the real quilt. Instead of dropping the feed dogs, my machine has a little plate that you put over the feed dogs. No big deal there, but it does give you slightly less room to work with. But I was ready to get past that. The real problem is, my machine completely loses the tension! All I got was a huge snarl of thread on the back. So instead of doing any stippling or meandering, I decided to just do straight lines of sorts with the feed dogs engaged. Here's an example, from the back:

So really, all in all, not entirely what I had planned, but not a bad result.

No, the really bad result came from the batting. I've always been a cotton batting sort of girl. I like the way it shrinks a bit, and gives a nice texture to the quilt, but since this one is more modern looking, I chose a batting with a cotton/poly mix because I thought it would give it a smoother feel with less shrinkage.

I wish I had kept the packaging, because I never want to use this batting again. Why? Look:

See all those little white fuzzies? Yup, that's the batting, which shed even worse than a pug puppy. All over the quilt. All over the table. All over the floor. I didn't sweep the dining room floor for days, just because the quilt wasn't finished yet, and I knew it would leave more batting bunnies in the corners!

This is a shot of the batting just outside the border. It just ended up all stretching and molting. Sheesh!

But anyway. I finally finished the quilting last night. Swept the dining room. Now I just need to bind the infernal thing.

I was a little lackluster on this quilt anyway, but after this batting nightmare I never want to see the quilt again! I hope I feel differently once it's finished.

Complete Success!

2008-12-18T09:07:00.004-07:00

Success, success, success!

Caden's Baby Quilt is quilted and bound! Hooray! Oh frabjous day!

Little bit of the front:

(as a side note, all of the animals on the quilt are pictured with a pretty tight shot of their upper body... except the jaguar! It's just his little tuckus running out of the frame, and every time I look at it, I just giggle.) :)

The back:

Closer shot of the back so you can maybe see some of the quilting:

For the quilting I did outlined all of the frames.. I figured it would set off each of the blocks nicely, and give it a nice even look. And in the border I did a slightly larger square. The backing is a nice red flannel, which I think works well for baby quilts.

Now I just need to wash it, and embroider his name in the corner and it's ready to ship.

As a funny side note, I was with my boyfriend last night when I finished it, and he commented that now I can start working on a new quilt. :) I had to explain that most quilters usually have a project or two already waiting in the wings to be picked up. ;)

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...

2008-12-17T16:36:00.003-07:00

Thanks to Robert Burns we know they "Gang aft agley"... or often go awry. :) That is definitely how my quilting plans went the past two nights!

I had great plans to work on Caden's Baby Quilt during Monday Night Football... but I forgot I promised mom that I would do some Christmas shopping with her! We had a nice time finding the last of her Christmas presents, and we made a quick stop at the library where I picked up some quilting books. ;)

I have been working on Caden's Baby Quilt... I have one and half sides left to bind, so maybe, just maybe, I'll get that finished tonight.

I got caught up on my Quilt Etc. block of the month blocks, and here are the English Wedding Ring pattern and Castles in Spain pattern in the black and white fabrics.

English Wedding Ring:

Castles in Spain:

I must say I love how the Castles in Spain turned out! I think it is just a great looking block, simple, but works.

I can't say the same for the English Wedding Ring block. The pattern is great, but I think the fabrics are too busy for all the little pieces, and it just looks a bit scattered to me.

Oh well, can't win them all, I say. :) It's still going to be a lovely quilt. I've already started thinking about how to bring it all together!

Hopefully I'll have happy Caden's Baby Quilt news tomorrow!

Quick Weekend Update!

2008-12-15T11:33:00.002-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know I'm working on the binding for Caden's Baby Quilt. See, there it is, machine sewn to the front, and I've got one side of the quilt hand sewn to the back. Perhaps I'll get it finished tonight during Monday Night Football... but I'm not holding my breath. :)

Ah, and look at that nice postcard from Miami. Wouldn't that be nice right about now? We're looking at a high of 29 degrees today, and more snow. :(

A Block That Just Makes Me Giggle!

2008-12-11T09:42:00.003-07:00

Well, I'm hard at work, quilting Caden's Baby Quilt. At this point I'd guess I'm about 90% done with the hand quilting, so that will be finished up this weekend. A group of friends gets together every Friday night at a coffee shop and just chats the evening away, and then we follow that up with a late dinner. I think I might bring the quilt to coffee and work on it there. If I can finish the quilting tomorrow night, I can sew the binding on Saturday afternoon, during Sara's Scheduled Quilting Time. ;)

I also got caught up on my Quilt Etc. block of the month. *phew*

Last month, I just didn't have the time to work on it, so I didn't get my free block. However, I'm okay with that, because: a) $5.50 a block is still a screamin' deal, and b) even when I don't have the block finished I have tons of fun seeing what the other quilters have been working on.

Anyway, Saturday I got back to Sara's Scheduled Quilting Time, and worked on my blocks. I'm now officially caught up on the block with fabrics that match each of the countries.

November's pattern was an English Wedding Ring block:

This one threw me off a bit at first, because the colors aren't really "English" but if you look closely at the red fabric, it's not polka dots, but little teapots. Adorable. :)

I also worked on the block for December, and the pattern is Castles in Spain:

Yes, the center of the block is a fussy-cut bull. Every time I look at that guy, I just giggle! It's going to be a very fun quilt when it's done. :)

I'm also doing the blocks in black and white, but those aren't put together yet. Hopefully this Saturday I'll get the binding sewn to Caden's Baby Quilt, and the black and white blocks for November and December finished.

Yay! Hope your quilting projects are going well!

End of Year Progress and Reflection.

2008-12-04T15:37:00.002-07:00

I was in a terribly long, boring meeting this afternoon, so I did what I often do when stuck in this situation... I thought about quilting. My meeting quilting activity varies... sometimes I just quilt-dream, sometimes I do some sketching, sometimes I go through previous ideas and figure out fabric needs. Today was a little bit different. Realizing that it is now December, I thought about my quilting goals for this year, and how I've done, and what projects I have on the horizon.

My goal for this year was to finish four quilts. Like many quilters, my problem isn't dreaming or starting a quilt... it's finishing a quilt. I started off strong with Grace's Baby Quilt, and also managed to finish the Puzzle Quilt I've been working on for a couple of years. I'm hard at work on Caden's Baby Quilt, and hopefully I will have the quilting done by the end of the weekend. Caden was born earlier this week, but I think it's going to be sent off as a Christmas present. :) And I do have the top and back finished for the Alternate Take Quilt, and the batting is purchased, so I just need to baste and quilt it. In theory, I could definitely have four quilts finished by the time the clock strikes on New Year's Eve!

So, in addition to these quilts, I listed the ones that are still in progress:

1. Jo's Japanese Quilt - Top completed, just waiting for quilting.

2. Appalachian Spring Quilt - This one I haven't talked about yet, but it's still in the early piecing stages. It will need to be finished by this coming fall, I think.

3. Earth, Sea, and Sky Quilt - Also haven't talked about this yet, as I work on it very intermittently. In the late piecing stages.

4. Tumbler Quilt - This is pieced and basted, just needs to be quilted.

5. Quilt Etc. Block of the Month Quilt - Ongoing by nature, but the top will be finished at the end of the summer.

And that's my list. I think I could get these all finished in 2009. And maybe add another one, just for fun that I could do some sweet hand quilting on. Okay, I'm going to say it now before I get chicken, but 2009 is going to be a six quilt year.

Caden's Baby Quilt.

2008-11-20T09:43:00.004-07:00

I am a big fan of baby quilts. First of all, because they're a nice functional item to give to a new mom. But I think the real reason I love baby quilts is because I still have one of mine. It's pink. It has an appliqued bunny on it. It's tied. It is 31 years old, and still in one piece. I admit I still sleep with it on my bed. It has a couple of little holes, and the applique is starting to come undone at the edges, and it could use a new binding, but otherwise, the fabric is in good shape. The batting has gotten really sparse and lumpy over the years, so I've been thinking about taking it apart and redoing it with new batting, and this time with quilting rather than tying. But I just don't have the courage yet, out of fear that once I get it into separate layers it'll just disintegrate.

Anyway, I'm digressing.

So, I'm working on a baby quilt for my boyfriend's anticipated nephew. I made one for his niece, who was born early this year, so it's only fitting that I make one for the new nephew as well.

I found the Baby Genius line of fabrics by Bernatex, and I admit, I love brights for baby quilts. Well, and pretty much any quilt. So it was a good fit. They have a panel of letters and numbers (I cut off the numbers to make the quilt more square), added two borders, and done!

Here's the full quilt:

And here's a closer look at the fabric:

I got it all basted last night, and it's on my little lap frame for quilting. I'm just going around the squares. Simple, but it'll frame the letters/animals quite well. I got three done last night while watching TV, and with Thanksgiving holiday off from work, I think I'll be able to make some good progress, and get it quilted before Caden comes out. We'll see!

Tumblers in purples and blues.

2008-11-17T10:57:00.003-07:00

I'm officially sick of looking at the blank wall behind my computer at work, and I've started on a little tumbler quilt to brighten it up. I've never done a quilt this small before, so it was great to see how quickly I was able to cut out all the pieces! I was able to use just some scraps that I had around, the backing fabric was also a remnant I had in my stash, and the piece of batting was leftover from another craft project... so this little project comes only from my stash! Hooray!

Anyway, I got the top all sewn together, and here it is, basted, and ready to start quilting:

Since this one isn't in any sort of a rush, this will be my new hand-quilting-while-watching-TV project. I haven't done any hand quilting since this summer, so this will be a nice change. :)

In other projects, my boyfriend's brother and sister-in-law are expecting in, Oh, three weeks. So I've got a baby quilt to get started on, right now! I got the fabric this weekend, and started to cut it out a bit last night, so hopefully I can get the top together in the next day or two, and start quilting!

Big Quilting Thank You!

2008-11-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

I want to say a superbig quilting thank you to Judy over at Quilting with Ragdolls! She needed some help figuring out a halloween poem on a quilt she was working on... I guessed right and she sent me a sweet package of two patterns:

I've been thinking about doing a little quilt to hang on the wall of my office, and I think this tumbler pattern will be perfect!

Back to quilting land!

2008-11-11T09:36:00.004-07:00

Phew!

The past couple of weekends I've been out of town, which has severely cut down on my quilting time!

But I finally sat down at the sewing machine last night and got some more work done. While working on the Alternate Take quilt, I bought *way* too much of the black and white border fabric... so I figured I could just use that for the backing, instead of something plain. But of course, I didn't have enough for it to be the whole back. So I did some shopping in my stash and pulled out a bunch of colored fabrics to go with the black and white, and figured I'd just piece a backing together.

Here are some of the fabrics. For some reason my flash isn't working, so the colors are off. The upper left fabric is actually a green with gold flecks, and the upper right fabric is a bright blue paisley. *shrug* Oh well, I'll get a better picture when it's finished.

And this is how the back ended up! Again, the colors are off.. the right column, middle row is actually purple, but this gives a good idea of how it's going to turn out. Next time I need to remember to take pictures in the middle of the day when there's some light, rather than at 11:30 at night. :)

But I also bought batting, so hopefully I'll have time tonight to baste the quilt! This will be my first machine-quilting adventure, so I'm very nervous to see how I do.

Month of October blocks finished.

2008-10-20T10:12:00.002-06:00

Well, I finished up my October block of the month from Quilt Etc. This year we're going around the world with patterns inspired by different countries. For example, last month was Ireland, and we did an Irish chain, this month is Scotland and we did a Scottish cross.

Quilts usually does three different color schemes. This year was Country Christmas, Black and White, and Colors of the World. Since we were going around the world with patterns, of course I wanted to go around the world with the colors. But last month when I got to class, the black and white looked so striking, I was tempted by that, too. So in the end, I'm doing both color schemes!

Here are October's blocks:

(I love this colored block... it's a little hard to see, but the triangles are a cute little green/blue/yellow tartan plaid.)

And here are September's blocks:

The Ultimate Secret to Good Piecing.

2008-10-16T10:15:00.002-06:00

So, I've finally taken a step toward being a quilter who actually cares about points not being cut off, and seams lining up.

Well, that's not true. I've always cared about such things, and when my points look good, I always gloat a bit, even if it's just to myself. But I admit, good points are the exception, rather than the rule.

One reason for this is that I don't pin.

Yes, I know, I'm a terrible quilter for not pinning, but at least I admit it!

Last weekend was my monthly quilting adventure at Quilts Etc. block of the month group. Pat, the crazyawesome quilter, was talking about how important it was to pin your pieces and line everything up. I know this. I just don't practice it. Primarily because I don't have any pins.

Well, I have safety pins for basting, but no straight pins.

Pat was nice enough to put pins on sale, so I bought a box. And that $6 has totally changed my life. Suddenly, little pieces of fabric line up! Half-square triangles actually come out to the size they're supposed to be! And my blocks are almost (within 1/8 inch) the size they're supposed to be! (Last month, my 12 1/2" block ended up being 12". Yup, it's going to have some creative sashing.)

Look at that. Pins. Marked fabric. It's almost like I'm an adult quilter or something.

Ha! But after I took this picture I realized I had sewed the wrong sides together. Which I did on a previous square too. Thank heaven for seam rippers.

Anyway, will hopefully finish this month's blocks tonight, so I'll post more pictures soon!

Weekend Quilt Show.

2008-10-13T11:26:00.003-06:00

This Saturday I was able to head to a quilt show not too far from my neighborhood. It was fun for me because this was one of the first shows I've attended... most of the time I just catch quilts at the state/county fairs. This was a show of some local quilters, with just over 100 quilts in all.

One thing I was surprised at was how few quilts were hand quilted. I think I only saw 4 or 5 quilts that hadn't been machine quilted, and hand quilting is one of those things that I always look for.

I did find a couple of patterns that I liked, that I'm going to keep in mind for future projects:

I apologize to the quilters whose quilts I took pictures of.. I totally forgot to write down their names and the names of the quilt.

Wait, I think I might have the list still.. let me see if I can figure it out.

Hmm.. nope. This one I can't remember. I really like the dramatic contrast of the pieced blocks. They're really striking, but I think they get a little lost mixed in with all the florals, but it's definitely a pattern I'll remember for the future.

This one is Lover's Knot by Lorraine Day. I love this pattern! I think it's very cute done in scrappy 30's prints, but I imagine it would be very dramatic done in just two or three colors.

Darn, I thought I could figure out this one, but I can't, even with the writing on the side. This is just beautiful. I can't imagine every sewing such great curves, but perhaps someday!

Fabulous Productive Quilting Weekend!

2008-10-05T15:57:00.005-06:00

So, I'm proud to say that I totally rocked this weekend, and managed to finish two quilt tops! Hooray for me! These are the only two flimsies I have in the stash, so I might actually get to them relatively soon!

First up is the Alternate Take quilt. I finished piecing this one together and finished the border. It actually looks a little bit less crazy than I expected (if that's possible!) but I think once it's quilted it will look very nice. I'm thinking about a nice colorful pieced back for it, and I think I'll have to do a colorful binding, just to bring all the colors together.

Next up is Jo's Japanese quilt.

Ages and ages and ages ago I was hanging out with my roommate's girlfriend, Jo. She was over for the weekend, and decided that she wanted to learn how to quilt. So we went through my stash and found some fabric, and went through the quilt magazines and found a nice easy pattern, and she started a quilt. She was pretty motivated for the whole weekend, but once the weekend was done, she really didn't touch the quilt pieces again.

So I inherited it.

It hasn't been much of a priority for me, but it's been taking up room in the quilting pile, so I figured since I was so motivated to finish projects this weekend, it would be a nice easy quilt to finish.

So, now it's all cute and finished! I'm not sure what I'll do to quilt it, but I might get to that in the coming weeks. The big question now is... once it's finished, do I have to give it back to Jo? :)

Here's the whole quilt:

And a closeup of the two different blocks, one red, one blue:

Alternate Take Quilt - Update.

2008-10-02T09:37:00.007-06:00

So, I read a few blogs by quilters who do scrappy quilts. And they are usually extolling the virtues of using up all the odds and ends and bits of fabric, and earlier this summer I was inspired by their scrappy ways, so I decided to make a scrappy quilt.

However. I feel that a lot of scrappy quilts end up looking a little bit... country for my taste. Does that make sense? So, I wanted to try and make something that was scrappy, but still keeping with my style. So the initial pieces of the quilt can be found here.

I decided to start putting the top together this week. You know how sometimes you spend a lot of time finding the perfect fabric for the sashing? This was not that time. I wanted to find some sort of black on black print, that had a little bit of geometric texture, but wouldn't distract. Initially I was thinking like Moda Marbles or something, but the store didn't have it.

Then I saw this great white on black, crazy geometric pattern. And I just bought it. Without thinking too much of how it would look with the quilt. Because really, this fabric is going to be about 2/3 of the total quilt area.

But I've started cutting, and sewing, and at this point, I've just got to go for the gusto and commit to it. I think it's going to be striking and a bit crazy, and possibly a little bit ugly. But I'll know this weekend, when I try to finish it up.

SaraRules Quilts begins!

2008-10-01T09:48:00.001-06:00

Well, now that I've finished school and started to settle down, I finally have the time to get back to a few of the things I love. One of them is quilting, and I wanted to have a spot to post pictures of projects I'm working on, connect with other quilters, and just babble about all things quilt.