Finished Just in the Nick of Time!

May 10, 2011May 10, 20111 Comment

One of the programs I participate in with my quilting guild is a club called “12-4-12”. We have a goal to finish one project a month for 12 straight months. Everyone that completes this goal receives an award at the end of the year – a fabric shopping spree!

Here’s my latest project that I completed just in time for last month’s deadline. It’s a ric-rac baby blankie that I finished in under an hour (on the last day of the month).

I started with 1 yard each of two different flannel baby fabrics in blue and some coordinating brown ric-rac.

I sewed the ric-rac onto two opposite sides of the backing fabric face up. Then I pinned the top fabric right sides together and stitched around all sides, leaving a small opening to turn.

When I sewed the two pieces together I stitched just outside of the stitch-basted ric-rac so I wouldn’t have to pull out any stitches. The two pieces of fabric weren’t exactly the same size, so I trimmed off the excess after sewing. Then I turned the blankie to the correct side and fluffed the corners.

Finally, I top-stitched all the way around so I wouldn’t have to close the opening by hand. I used a decorative serpentine stitch in blue. Voila-a finished baby blanket in under an hour!

Star Block Exchange

May 2, 2011April 28, 20112 Comments

Last week I told you about some of the fun things my sewing circle does. We recently had a block exchange where we all made the same block in our choice of colors. The only rule was to use a cream or tan background.

About a month ago I cut out the pieces for the blocks. I’m fond of rust and green so I found enough material in my stash that I thought would work. I only had enough background for half of the blocks so after I made those, I had to cut some more!

The block is sewing intensive and I started out by sewing half square triangles. With the leftovers from the first block I made a second smaller pinwheel block. Then, the leftover pieces from the second block made a smaller pinwheel. So it’s like 3 blocks for the price of one (except for the fact that it took a lot longer to sew them).

In fact, here’s pictures of me frantically trying to get them done in time for my meeting. I had to use the help of my assistant Marcie, to trim and press while I sewed like crazy!

Marcie had fun taking a break from cutting fabric orders to help me out.

Here are my finished blocks, just in the nick of time!

The nice thing about a block swap is the variety of blocks I received in return. Now the hard part – how do I put them all together??

Quilt Meeting and Charm Square Swap

April 28, 2011Leave a comment

As part of my local quilting guild I belong to, I attend a smaller group once a month. This “quilting circle” I go to has about 25 members and we meet at a local quilt shop. It’s quite fun as we show and tell our latest projects and find out about all that’s going on in the larger guild of about 300 members.

Another thing we do regularly is exchange quilt blocks and fabric. Yesterday we had a novelty charm square exchange. Each person brought in 5 different 6 inch squares of “Eye Spy” fabric for each of 16 people that signed up for the swap. Here are the fabrics I chose. Don’t they look nice all cut up into tidy squares?

It was nice to use fabrics from my stash! In exchange, these are the charms I received:

We each got a total of 80 charm squares, perfect for making an I Spy quilt or two!

In our little group we also have a drawing each month for who will receive a fat quarter assortment of their choice. I got picked this time around and I needed some nice chocolate browns to round out my stash so I put in my request. These are the ones I got – aren’t they yummy??Tonight I’ll be going to the larger group meeting where we usually have a “Quilt Celebrity” who comes to visit. I’ll post more about that tomorrow!

Amy Butler UFO’s and WIP’s

April 12, 2011April 12, 20111 Comment

It seems like I’ve been working on quite a few projects lately but haven’t been finishing much yet. That’s just how it goes sometimes with sewing.

I’m building up my piles of WIP’s (Works In Progress) and not making a dent in my UFO’s (Unfinished Fabric Objects). This Thursday, my sewing buddy and I are going to add to the pile by taking a class using Amy Butler’s Reversible Sunday Sling sewing pattern.

This morning we spent some time picking out fabrics for our project. Another friend who just got into sewing also stopped by and picked out more Amy Butler fabrics to make a skirt. Take a look at what we chose, below:

First, I’m doing my bag in earthy orange and rust. Jessica picked soothing blue and green for her tote and Tamara selected cheerful greens and pinks for her daughter’s pieced skirt. Now, if we can actually finish our projects, I’ll have something more to write about!

Deja Vu Quilt

April 4, 2011April 6, 20115 Comments

Nancy, a recent blog subscriber of mine (and fellow Fab Shop bunny hopper) made this beautiful quilt using Paula Nadelstern’s Deja Vu fabric collection (shown with permission):

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s Nancy’s original design and I love how the colors sparkle! Notice the detail in the center block below. The matching covered buttons add a touch of artistry to the piece. The tiny pieced squares and effective use of the border print pulls it all together.

Look at the fine workmanship and striking colors in the corner blocks. The Lemoyne Star kaleidoscope below right was made by fussy cutting the same repeat. The allover quilting adds nice texture, too. Way to go, Nancy!

Saturday Morning Binding

March 26, 2011March 26, 20112 Comments

My friend Stacey came over this morning so I could help her with the binding of her first quilt. What a fun way to start the day!

We started off by pinning it to the quilt. She chose a wide blue satin binding that matched the cute fabrics she picked.

It was fun to help as I usually sew my bindings using a different method.

Stacy got to test drive my machine while putting on the binding.

I told her if she really gets into quilting then she can save up for a nice Bernina and a drop in table with a big work surface.

This makes all the difference when doing lots of machine work, I think.

I am really proud of her finished quilt! She mixed fashion prints with some super soft minkee. Then she added pompoms to give it a touch of whimsy. Isn’t it so cute?

The Three Hour Quilt

March 23, 2011January 19, 20154 Comments

Now sit right back and I’ll tell you a tale of my 3 hour quilt.. my 3 hour quilt… (I hope you get the reference!!)

A friend of mine is throwing an impromptu baby shower today. The first thing I think of when I hear baby shower is, “How much time do I have to make a baby quilt and what fabric do I have on hand?”

Thanks to Moda Charm Packs, I can whip up an adorable baby quilt in a hurry. Here’s a recap of my fastest quilt ever, made with one Lily & Will Charm Pack from Bunny Hill:

(Just click on any of the pictures above to enlarge for details.)

Step One: Select the charm pack and lay it out in a pleasing arrangement – 15 Min.

Step Two: Sew quilt top together, cut batting to size and safety pin baste – 60 Min.

Step Three: Stitch in the ditch with serpentine stitch and along diagonals – 60 Min.

Step Four: Square up edges and trim batting, prepare binding – 15 Min.

Step Five: Add binding by machine and block edges with warm iron – 30 Min.

This quilt took one charm pack of 42 squares measuring 5 inches cut. The finished size is 27″ x 31″ – a perfect grab and go blankie ! To make a bigger quilt, just add borders 🙂

National Quilting Day – A Great Time to Sew

March 19, 20111 Comment

Today is National Quilting Day so of course I had to celebrate by showing you a quilt I’ve been working on. Since friends shouldn’t let friends sew alone, I decided to collaborate on a baby quilt project with a fellow sewing buddy of mine.

At the recent quilt show we went to, my friend Jessica found this adorable panel featuring pictures from the Little Golden Book story, “The Saggy Baggy Elephant”. We have a mutual friend who just had a little boy so we decided to make a baby quilt.

While Jessica sewed, we had a “helper” hold many of the pieces for us.

I ironed the finished pieces and added some applique. We cut out the story pictures, added colorful strips around each block and sewed them together in rows. Here’s the finished top:

I plan to finish the quilting and binding soon so we can present it to the new mom.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – Celebrate the Color Green!

March 17, 2011March 16, 2011Leave a comment

My friend Tamara and I have several things in common. We both love the color green and we both like to garden, cook and sew.

Tamara is new to quilting, so we decided to celebrate our favorite green holiday with quilting and canning. She picked out some green fabrics from my fabric stash to start on a quilt. In return, she helped me preserve mounds of fresh green beans by canning them.

Look at all of these gorgeous shades of green! Needless to say, we’ll be having lots of green beans with dinner.

Christa’s Award-Winning Quilts!

March 5, 20119 Comments

I went to my guild’s annual quilt show this weekend and was thrilled to discover I had won three 2nd place ribbons out of 5 quilts I had entered. Here are pictures of all five quilts:

This quilt is called “USS Jason” after my son Jason who designed the space shuttle block when he was 8 years old. It took me five years to finish but he loves it now that he’s a teenager! I quilted the stars with glow-in-the dark thread. It won second place in the “Juvenile Quilts” category.

I was thrilled to win a second place ribbon in the “Applique” category for this machine-quilted beauty. Notice the pins I’m wearing. The quilt show chairperson gave out buttons for each ribbon a quilter won for her quilts. What a fun idea!

This was the quilt I stayed up all night to finish! It was worth the effort now that it’s sporting a second place win in the “Show Theme – 25 years of memories” category.