so much to do...

and to be honest, plenty of time to do it.

This is a sneak peek of the quilt that's in the dryer. It started life as a roll of strips from JoAnn. I'm not really sure why I bought it. I'm not really a bird or birdhouse kinda girl. I did like the tans and blues. Anyway, I sat down with this roll and a book. See the book? I liked the tessalating crosses. 

 Sewing, pressing, cutting, sewing, pressing, etc...we have squares! I like 'em.

We have more parts of squares...then, as usual, I forgot to keep taking pictures. I promise a finished pic tomorrow. I might even take it outside for some great light.

 I finished cutting all the prints for my Swoon quilt. It is going in our guest bedroom which is a lovely shade of yellow with a simple but pretty white bed. I chose a variety of florals. We'll see how I like it once I get started. All of the prints came from my stash. I have to wait until at least Thursday to order the white solid.

 The light in my sewing room is just not good for pics. These fabrics are much brighter.

 BTW, I need a cutting table and a bigger mat. I cut all the Swoon pieces on this little mat with my little rotary cutter.

I also need a triangle for 2 of the jelly roll quilts I have planned. Lucky for me, JoAnn has quilting tools on sale this week. Guess where I'm spending lunch tomorrow?

Productive Sunday!

It was a good day. I got A LOT done!

• Finished a quilt made from stash fabrics. (pics soon, it's in the washer)
• Selected fabrics for my Swoon quilt. All from my stash except the white. I'll get that later this week.
• Decided on quilts for 3 different jelly roll quilts.
• Sewed the "tubes" for one of those quilts.
• Cut most of the pieces for my Swoon quilt.

WHEW! I'm tired. I think I'll watch some Jeopardy! with hubby and the teenagers.

I will not lie. I am a huge nerd. So, when I read about Quiltcon earlier, I was giddy.

THEN, I clicked on the link and OMG IT'S IN AUSTIN. 25 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE AUSTIN!!!!!

I am so going. 

http://www.quiltcon.com/

Not your usual baby quilts.

 When my friend Barbara told me she was pregnant with twins, I knew these baby quilts would be fun. You see, she collects snowmen and her sweet husband collects penguins. I love both. At first, I considered making matching quilts and backing them with snowman and penguin fabrics. After we found at that they were a boy and girl, I couldn't find a pattern\fabrics that I like for both. I decided to just grab some fabrics from my stash and go for it.

These certainly aren't traditional baby quilts but I like the way they turned out.


This penguin top is flannel and denim. I really have to work on my lighting. These colors are kinda off esp in the next pic. I backed them both with denim because I really really like the way it looks and feels.

I decided to try my hand at a different design for the snowmen quilt. 

I wanted them both to be gender neutral so Mommy and Daddy could decide who gets which one.

I'm sure some of you noticed the books holding the quilts on the mantle. I've read the Farmer's Wife and will be starting on some squares soon. I've flipped through the Civil War book but haven't read it. I'll get to it...eventually.

Stash busting Saturday

I hope anyway. I got up early (on my day off) to go work the powerlifting meet at the high school. I tried to get out of it but apparently as football booster vice president, I am expected to show up at these things. It was actually a lot of fun and we finished early.

My husband and son are off to take one of our vehicles to the shop. Yay, oil leaks. I have a quiet house and I think I'm about to go play with fabric.

I have  managed to make it almost to the halfway point in the month without buying fabric. However, I haven't actually planned any new projects to use up some of what I have. That will change today.

I have made a bunch of mug rugs (pictures later) and will package and ship them to some lovely friends later. I just used scraps for those. I am planning to decide on a quilt for the boy and maybe something for me.

Oh, and I still need to count my WIPs. At least it won't be as bad as the time Becky made me count my shoes.

Dinosaur quilt for Baby Boy

 So, my friend Natalie is having a Baby Boy. It's capitalized because that's what we have to call him until he's born. I was wandering through JoAnn one day. (It's common). I was looking for backing fabric for some other baby quilts. I saw this adorable dino fabric and had to have it. It was easy to imagine just cutting it into 4 block squares. I just grabbed some fat quarters in fun prints to coordinate and away we go...

 The backing is a light blue that I have had stashed away for years. For the binding, I just left the backing a little larger and folded it over.

Big sister Elinor needed a blanket too. Some super soft flannel, some minky dots, and a white binding makes a sweet and soft blanket!

Owl Baby

  So, this baby quilt has been received, now I can SHARE!

Okay, ya know when you get married, you tend to inherit some friends. Some are okay. Some you click with the first time you meet. Yeah, the first time we spent time with Will and Jeanette, I knew she and I would be great friends. She's funny, witty, loves movies, and she's a crafty chick, like me. I was wasting time at JoAnn one day (what? how do you spend your lunch hour?) and saw this adorable owl fabric. I knew I had to get it to make something for Jeanette. I just didn't know what.

Fast forward a few months and ANNOUNCEMENT: BABY GIRL IS ON THE WAY!!
First, I LOVE babies. Second, I love making things for babies. Third, OMG I can use my owl fabric.

So, I dug through my stash and found some really bright fat quarters I bought several years ago (we'll talk about my fabric problem later). Then, I sat down with the graph paper and colored pencils. Yes, Tonia, it was mostly just an excuse to color on graph paper ;)

I decided to fussy cut the owls and randomly select the squares for the 4 patch squares.

 
 Tell me that isn't cute. Go ahead. Try.
However, it made a smaller quilt than I wanted. I grabbed some "woodgrain" fabric that came in a bargain bundle. I knew I'd eventually use it. Then, I added a pieced border because I cut a few too many small squares. I love my Accuquilt Go!

 
I should mention at this point that I really need a design wall. This is the space below my upper cabinets. I had to move the ironing board to pin this up. I moved things around until I was happy.

Center section complete.


Border number one.
 
 And border number two. Woohoo! Complete. Yes, it is tacked to my cabinets. The cute little fairies are Amy Brown. They make me smile.


I've been looking at lots of different backing and decided to try my hand at something a little different. I was really pleased at how it turned out.

 
A little decorative stitch on the denim binding and DONE!!!

Now to wait for baby Faylinn to make her entrance!

I have to mess with the settings on my camera and the lighting. This quilt is way brighter than these look.

All 4 baby quilts are complete. They are packed and patiently waitin on the dining room table for me to take them to the post office.

As soon as they are delivered, I'll post them here. I got several mug rugs completed but haven't taken any pics.

I finished a couple quick blankets this morning. Those are also ready to mail.

I found a great tutorial for washcloths here so I think I'll do some stash busting with those.

Have a great Superbowl weekend!

I was trying to think of a snazzy title for this post but it just wouldn't come to me. I have decided that I am not buying fabric for the ENTIRE month of February. Yes, I realize it's the shortest month but I have to start SOMEWHERE.

I do have a couple orders from last week that haven't arrived yet so that should help the jitters this week.

I'm going to work on a few WIPs, plan some stuff using my stash, and make some mug rugs!