Monday, May 28, 2012

Two finished quilts and one WIP!

Matroyshka 2 finished for my good friend's baby's 1st birthday!  I really love how this one turned out!  The color are fantastic!  It almost has a matryoshka surfer girl vibe!
The colors almost look different in every photo I took.  I think these colors are more true than the top photo.  The aqua fabrics are from the Moda Grunge line which I have not used before but will definitely use again!  And the berry color is from the new Michael Miller Broadcloth Couture line which is amazing.  It feels so soft and silky.  When I hear broadcloth, I usually think not 100% cotton but this is 100% cotton and fabulous.  Can you tell I'm a newly converted fan?



I'm calling this quilt Triangle Fancy.  When the Flea Market Fancy fabric reprint was released, I bought almost the whole collection in either 1/2 yard or 1 yard cuts.  Then I stared at it for a while and petted it and tried to let it tell me what it wanted to become...Truthfully, I'm not sure that this is what it had in mind but I needed to make a quilt for a silent auction fundraiser for our son's fine arts group at church and I had all of this on hand and I was rather inspired by this quilt by Anna Marie Horner so this is what I came up with!  I've sewn really biasy things before but I've never done triangles like this.  They aren't difficult but you have to be awfully careful about pulling and stretching!  
The back of Triangle Fancy is so fun!  I quilted with straight-ish lines a 1/4 inch from all of the seams and it made this lovely grid of triangles on the back.  This photo was taken pre-washing but post-washing, it looks even better in all of it's crinkly goodness!  I love what a good wash does for my crooked seams!



This string quilt top has been sorta hangin' out in my sewing room for a while.  I get between projects and add a few more blocks.  This weekend it grew by 24 blocks!  This photo only shows 12 of the new blocks but the photos can't even keep up with me!  I've not measured it yet but each block finishes at 8" square and so far it's 6 blocks by 9 blocks so I'm guessing it's about 48" by 72".  I think I'll add another 16" to the width to make it 64" and one more to the length to make it 80" and call it quits.  It has been hanging here long enough!  But it has made a significant dent in my strip scraps.  I actually had to cut into some orange and purple fabric last night as I was fresh out of those scraps!  Still have plenty of blue, pink, and yellow though! 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Holy Goodness, May is Half Over!

The spring is just flying by!  I've been too busy to post but here's a little current sewing mania!
Here is the current progress on the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  I'm trying to stay on track with two blocks a week but I'll admit, I'm slightly behind!  My goal is to finish this one before school starts back in August.  If you aren't farming and you feel compelled to, do it.  I don't really even like sampler quilts but this has been an amazing skill builder for me.  I'm a MUCH better quilter for having done this.  This is the 64 block mark!  I have 47 to go!


Also, on the table is a quilt top waiting for me to make the back and quilt it for a charity auction. It's made entirely of the reprinted Flea Market Fancy fabric cut into triangles!  I must say, I've struggled a little with the bias-y triangles but in the end, it's going to be fine.



I've also spent some time playing with random placement of half-square triangles on the placemats below.  I made the triangles and just started putting them together with little to no thought.  I really love how these placemats came together.  They are a wedding present!


And even though this picture is crooked and dark and hideous, these new matryoshka dolls are adorable!  This quilt is being made for a very special little girl!  Hopefully, it will be done this week!  I'll post finished pics.


AND....the big news is that my Little Red and Her Big Bad Quilt sold in my etsy shop!!!!  Now I can never say again that I've never sold anything!  I'm so blessed on this Mother's Day.  My family is a huge blessing in my life.  My mom is incredible!  My mother-in-law is wonderful!  And my step-mother is amazing!  AND...I have the two most wonderful children ever.  These people keep me going and I thank God for all of them.