February Baby Quilt

My sister emailed me requesting a baby quilt for a friend who is due in March. My sister's one request/demand was "don't make it all pink." Nothing like a little notice. 

Well it gave me a reason to make a pattern I saw and loved in the April issue of American Patchwork & Quilting called "Sticks and Bricks".  I planned to downsize it for a baby and used the yardage for the color option they gave which is a perfect size.

The toughest thing was finding enough large scale prints that worked color-wise. Found tons of nice prints that tended to read as solids from a distance.  So I cut up everything that had potential and started playing with the layout.  This is the finished top:

Baby Quilt Top 02-24-12

Now to quilt it.  I've decided to machine quilt it as it needs to be done fairly quickly.  I'm thinking straight lines as I'm still a novice at machine quilting.  Now off to shovel some more snow that was dumped on mid-Michigan today.

Kincavel Krosses Stitch Along

One of my favorite cross stitch designers is Kell Smurthwaite of Kincavel Krosses and she started a monthly Christmas cross stitch along.  I thought it was a great idea and a way to get some Christmas cross stitching done early this year.  This is my January entry:

Noel

I added seed beads instead of doing french knots as was offered for the holly berries.  One down, eleven more to go.

Craftsy Block of the Month - February

The Balkan Puzzle Block.  Ended up just shy of 12 1/2"

Balkan Puzzle Block

I'll work on the Chunky Chevron Block tomorrow.

And now for the Chunky Chevron Block:

Chunky Chevron

I have learned I prefer the drawn line method of half square triangles.  This course is showing me some great ways to put together blocks.  I could put together a chevron quilt very quickly and may just add it to my to do list.

Wow, wow and WOW!!!

I subscribe to a lot of quilting and craft newsletters always looking for new ideas and tips.  And I think the one I got today is going to really change my quilting life.  It's all about spray basting quilts.  Take a look:



I've got 3 tops just begging to be quilted and one thing that always slows me down is the prepping for quilting.  Ugh! 

I'm already thinking about what to move so I can set up a wall to use and track down some 505 Basting Spray.

Thank you Quilt Show for sharing this wonderful tip!

Craftsy Block of the Month - January

So after thinking and rethinking and thinking again, I finally decided on a color scheme for the Craftsy Block of the Month course.  I'm doing black, white and red.  There may be a few spots of other colors with the black, it will depend on the block.

So I went to Joann's and used my 10% VIP discount card that I got with my AQS membership and bought some fabric as well as a couple of rulers and some floss.  Here are the results for the two January blocks.

Asterisk - January

Wonky Pound Sign - January

 They were really easy to make, the only problem I had was with one of the wonky arms lining up.  I ripped the stitches and tried it again, but it wouldn't line up so it's staying the way it is.

Can't wait to see February!

A little block

I went on a bit of a binge and bought three kits (which I mentioned previously) and joined a block of the month club. 


The block of the month sent a bonus block that I think is just a thank you and warm up and I pieced it today using my new machine.  It's a small step in the process forward.

I need to trim it a little to even up the edge.  I like the autumn colors, but lately I've been in a batik lust.  I just can't get enough of looking at them.  I believe I'll be doing the Craftsy blocks out of batiks.  I'd better get started on the January block as the month is half way over.

First crafty completion of the year

This is a market bag I made for Angela using Michigan State fabric.  It folds up neatly to be stashed away.  Pretty easy to put together.  The most time consuming part was the bias tape.

I started this on my old White Jean Machine and finished it on my new Brother CP7500 which I got mainly for the quilting features.  What I can say is that so far I LOVE THIS MACHINE!!  It is easy to wind the bobbins, thread the machine and sew.  I love the 1/4" piecing setting, no more fiddling with the seam allowance.  Now to really learn machine quilting.  It came with a walking foot and the free motion quilting foot as well as the quilting guide for straight lines.  I was blown away with how easily I got started, but there's still a lot to learn.  It's quiet, fast and user friendly.

Brother CP7500

Not the best picture in the world, but here it is.  It also came with an extension table for quilting and a hard cover.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!! I realize that I actually avoided sewing because of the old machine and now I am thinking of all of the projects I want to do this year.

While looking for a biscotti recipe I read a post about Connecting Threads.com and popped over to see what it was all about.  Well it's about some really great fabric for not a lot of money.  I have been looking for a quilt kit to work on for quite a while. Something I didn't have to look at putting the fabric together for, something I could just pick up and do.  And boy was I pleasantly surprised when I bought not one, not two, but three kits for under $70 (including the backing fabric).  One kit I purchased is called Scrappy Diamonds and cost all of $29.46 for the top, binding and backing!  If you don't believe me, look for yourself.  They have a Kit Builder option where you can trade out the fabrics to get an idea of how it will look. 

I was a little skeptical about the fabric until it arrived.  Now I am completely sold on this company.  Trust me, give them a look, you will love the way this fabric feels when you get some and you will really love the prices. I will definitely be going back to them for future projects.

In closing, I'm still learning to live without Jay.  I can see that at some point I'll get to a "new normal", but I'm still having my moments.  Crafting (reading blogs, looking at projects, going through my stash, and actually working on things) is helping me to make it through.

Here's to what I hope is a peaceful, crafty new year for myself and everyone out there in craft land.