Hand quilting again

I started hand quilting the Make Life baby quilt

the other day and it is going pretty well. I'm quilting in the ditch 

around the squares. I love the feel of this fabric, I wish all my fabric felt

so smooth and soft!

This is not my normal style but I'm loving the modern feel, I hope the

mama I'm giving this quilt to enjoys the modern design as much as I do!

One top finished and one pinned together

I pinned a quilt top for quilting today and now I will have it ready to go when I get the urge to hand quilt. I taped it to the table top and pinned it half at a time, much easier than crawling on the floor!

Also today I was able to finish a top I started a few weeks ago.

 I fell in love with the Pure Baby Boy quilt that the

Moda Bake Shop blog 

posted about in July. 

I used the Make Life fabric line to make mine.

 I didn't follow their directions too well. :)

 I used 8- 21/2 inch squares for my top (they used 6)  with that being bordered by another 2 1/2 inch strip(they used 1 1/2 inch).

 I had fun trying to get the fabrics all in a "random" order! :) 

Then I added about 15" of off white fabric for the sides.

 I might cut that down as I'm not too happy with it as it is now.

 But I marked it today for the quilting I will be doing.

Moda Bake Shop just used straight line quilting, 

I will be using a curvy line with flowers inserted about every 12 inches. 

The flowers will mimic the backing fabric I will be using.

I can't wait to get this quilt pinned up so I can start to quilt it. 

The baby this is for is due in October, so I better get cracking!

:)

Paper piecing a scrap quilt

I have a huge tub of scrap pieces of fabric that I've been saving for awhile. I even save some
pieces as big as 1 inch square! I decided that since I was tired of
 pink (from making all the pink baby quilt tops) that I needed to work with all different colors. So I pulled out the tub, put it by the sewing table and cut some paper into strips. I used varying widths but cut them 8 inches long. Then I used the sew and flip method of stitching the fabric to the paper.
I paper pieced three strips of scraps, then stitched them together and cut to 8 1/2 inch square.

I used some fabric from my mom, my daughter and both my grandmothers.

The red and blue flower print in the center strip above is from my mom.

I'm pretty sure the green and gray flower print in the bottom of this

 block is from my Grandma Cox.

The pink flower print in this photo is my daughters

graduation dress that I made for her.

The orange blue green check in this block is from one of my Grandma Becker's
house dresses she always wore, 

I stitched them  in rows with 2 1/2 inch strips of black with white pin dots.

Tomorrow I will stitch the rest of the sashing to the blocks. I like the

 way the black pin dot makes the blocks appear to "float". Right now I'm planning to add 5 inch borders to make this a quilt long enough to snuggle with in my chair.

Dinner!

We had to have the oven serviced on Monday, the broiler wasn't working and I finally ran out of recipes that didn't call for the use of either a broiler or the oven. I even made tuna casserole on the stovetop one day. So I called John to come and fix the oven. He discovered the heating element thingy on both the broiler and the oven were in need of replacing. 

So this is my $170 quiche.

I'm sure we will enjoy every bite! :)

Still playing with pink

I'm still playing with my basket of pink fabric.

These are my favorites of the lot.

I cut up some 2 1/2 inch squares and came up with this simple design.

43"x 47"

Then I saw this border on a quilt somewhere and decided to see how it
would work. I like it.
45" x 53"

 I found this idea

in one of the many magazines I have, can't remember which one right now.

I already had the 2 1/2 inch squares cut and just had to make the

half square triangles.  I decided to make the corner squares to extend into
the border. 

Boy, it needs an ironing doesn't it!

I'm going to bind this one in pink polka dots.
40" x 56"

This is a quilt top I made some time ago, and am still using some of these fabrics

in the new quilt tops. 

I especially love the butterflies.

I've got to finish this one!

I still have lots of pink fabric left, so I decided to try 

this pattern that I saw in a catalog. I drew it out on graph paper

since the size I wanted was smaller than the one they were showing.

I hope I have enough to finish this top as I'm not sure how much I

will need for the bottom of the blocks.

Sorry for the bad photo, not sure why the fabric appears yellow

at the top of the picture. Might be the Ott light I have on my cutting table.

Next I'm going to do the

Pure Baby Boy pattern shown on the Moda Bake shop blog.

I figure I have enough pink 2 1/2 inch squares to make it, maybe two of them

if I like it enough. 

You can find the "recipe" here.

I do so love the Moda Bake Shop blog, they have a pinwheel baby quilt that I want

to make also. Check out their website.

 I expect I'll be totally sick of pink pretty soon. Then I'll have to figure out what to do next. 

I do have another laundry basket full of yellows....................

Indecision

I'm in between projects just now. Can't decide what to make.

I need to make a pink baby quilt and can't find a pattern I like.

I decided to go through my magazines to see if something jumps out at me. 

I found a daisy applique quilt that looked good.

 Until I started cutting out the petals and counting 

exactly how many I would have to cut and applique down. Yikes! Lets rethink this! :)

Quilting the border

I have been working on a quilt top that I made quite awhile ago. I made it with several dusty pink fabrics in a simple square pattern and I embroidered a couple of butterflies on one of the squares. This last week I sandwiched the quilt together and have quilted flowers and leaves in an allover pattern on the quilt. I backed it with a dusty pink kona cotton. I love the kona cotton but it is very hard to needle. My fingers are quite sore, both from needle pricks and from the stress of needling the fabric. Now I have started quilting the border and can see the end of the tunnel. I really can't wait to finish this one. I need to find the tin of Bag Balm I have somewhere! :)

Also tonight I was able to cut out the binding for my blue and yellow star quilt. I had forgotten that I had to finish this up. Thank goodness I was able to find the matching white background fabric. Sometimes I use up the fabric I intended to use to finish a quilt and then am out of luck! Skittles has claimed this spot as his own and seems quite comfortable to supervise my stitching the border on the other quilt.

My Monday

I didn't do too much today. Did a little laundry, did a few dishes, read some blogs, did some shopping, reorganized the linen closet, added to the Goodwill pile, washed a few walls, petted the cat, got my hair cut, made dinner, washed walls, swept and cleaned bedroom, petted the cat, read some blogs, did a few dishes and washed walls.

Not too much for a vacation day.

:)

I had to work on the fourth. 

Yeah, that sucks.

I decided to make hamburgers and pasta salad for dinner that night.

Simple, you say.

Yeah, not for me.

I was so tired and hot after work that I treated myself to an ice cream cone on the way home.

Chocolate, yeah! )

Feeling sorry for yourself does have its rewards.

When I got home hubby was gone to a party and wasn't to be back until 5. 

Well, I never heard him come home.

I was out, sleeping like a log until 6:30. :(

It was too late to cook and hubby had eaten at the party. I wasn't that hungry.

Fast forward to Monday. 

Hubby, lucky man had a 3 day (yeah, 3 day!) weekend, but he was busy doing odd jobs.

I decided to make the pasta salad and hamburgers. 

Plans don't go like we want. 

When I was making the salad I realized I didn't have two ingredients that were important

for the completion of said salad. Since it was 3000 degrees outside and I was still

vaguely anti-social from having to deal with crowds for the holiday, there was NO way

I was going to go out and get the two ingredients. :)

So fast forward to Tuesday.

I had to work the evening shift, so no cooking that night.

So fast forward to tonight.

Wednesday.

Yeah! I finally got to finish making the pasta salad, but wait!

I took one more look at the recipe..............

ugh! I had gotten the wrong cheese!

I threw in the cheese I had and called it a day! 

Hubby and I enjoyed it anyway. 

Smiles.

I'm still working on quilting the elephant quilt. Been busy at work

and came home tonight with a sore ankle. I'm sitting in my

lazy boy chair with some ice tied around my ankle, and 

catching up on the blogs I read. :)