Six rows done

Really happy with the rows so far.

Various updates

I took a week off from sewing and then my computer hard drive died so I have nothing but iPod pictures.

The night after I ironed all my scraps.

All the HST or half square triangles all arranged on the floor. H and I came up with a pretty good system for laying out blocks and then stacking them in order when I made A's pink ribbon quilt. I had this picture in my iPod for a few days when I decided that I really disliked the dark green fabric in there. I knew I had some fabric left over from J's quilt in green that I could swap it out with and I still had plenty of teal solid. I spent yesterday's nap time sewing 8 more HST with some other lighter green.

After, much better.

And C's fabric cut, stacked and ready for sewing.

I've been looking at Pinterest for some quilting ideas already. I think this is the most difficult part for me, deciding on what I want to quilt.

*I can't figure out how to move pictures around on my Blogger app so sorry for all the jumbled mess before.

Last shopping trip for a while

Pink for C's binding
Blue flowers for P's binding
Teal flowers for C's back
Solid blue for P's top
Pink batik for P's back

I spent two and a half hours ironing

Let this be a lesson to myself.
Wash every piece of fabric before putting it in my stash.

I picked fabrics from my stash to go into quilts for the girls Tuesday night. I realized that some of the fabrics were washed, some weren't. Big sad face. I put the whole mess in the wash last night and ironed it dry. I didn't think I had a lot of fabric picked out but it took me forever to iron all that mess.
Tonight is cutting night, tomorrow organizing and Saturday is final shopping day for fabric.

Next quilts

For C

I was able to talk thegirls out of choosing Care Bear fabric for their quilts and into picking some Amy Butler fabric. I think we picked from the Lotus, Daisy Chain and Soul Blossom lines.

Gah, again with the white balance. The sun came out and my photos turned out funny. These fabrics are much more muted but still an awesome selection on behalf of the P Pie.

I'm going to see what I can pull from my stash and then I'll go shopping for the rest of the fabric needed for the tops. The girls are super excited for me to get started on their quilts.

Finished

Baby J's quilt is done and in record time.

My least favorite part of quilting, binding

The quilt, pre-washed

Close up of the quilting

Pieced back. I really like the idea of taking the extra scraps and using them to join the widths of fabric to make the back

Ack, sorry for the different color temperature on this photo of the front. I'm experimenting with my white balance near the window, fading sunlight, CFL's overhead and flash. This was obviously the wrong setting.
I've washed the quilt now and it's looking gorgeous. I will take some more before sending it on to it's new home in Alaska.

Done!

Got back into the groove, I have no idea why my thread kept bunching up and breaking while I was sewing. Finished up the quilting yesterday during naptime, attached the border before dinner and just now finished the last bit of the binding. Finger are happily sore and I've got my next projects on the brain.

I have some pictures to take of the finished but unwashed quilt and then I can make a picture post.

Get into the groove

I took a few days off and still can't get back into the same groove. It'll just take me a bit longer to get it done. 2/3 done I'd guess.

Planning

I know it's a little out of order but here's the mock up I did on H's E2 paper. Thanks baby!

They were not helping

The cats kept trying to lay down and take a nap on J's quilt yesterday. Not helpful little buddies.

Saturday update

I think I have about 1/2 of J's quilt done as of tonight. I was on a roll earlier today but just couldn't back into the same groove tonight so I've put away the machine and all the gadgets.

A friend asked me dimensions on this quilt. I read through all the comments at the original blog What Ara Jane Loves, and saw that the blocks are based on a 4 inch finished square. Instead of cutting up tons and tons of squares and sewing three of them together in some cases, the single squares are cut 4.5 X 4.5 inches, two units (on the sides) are 4.5 X 8.5 inches and the biggest units as 4.5 X 12.5 inches. Sew the units together from one side to the other and then attach the rows. The finished blanket exactly as posted will end up 44 X 60 units.

I've learned-
It's hard to draw straight lines while quilting
It does get easier with practice
How to pull up a bobbin thread through to the top of the quilt, no more tangled nests underneath my projects

The girls are getting antsy for their own quilts and I had a rare time with just the two of them today so we headed out for some supplies. I needed more thread so I stopped at the nearest fabric store, a strange hole in the wall place. We decided to check out the fabric and while C wanted a Care Bear quilt, I got them both redirected at a display for some Amy Butler fabric. I think they are from the Daisy Chain line but I don't see any of the fabrics I bought on her page. I just went for what's pretty.

Here's the plan.

Going to make this quilt for P pie. Half prints and half solid. Once I get all the fabric, I'll pick what solid to go with it.

And here's inspiration for C's quilt at Lucy and Norman. I'm going to make a disappearing 4 patch instead of a 9 patch, instructions found here at Oh Fransson. I think I'm going to keep the cuts straight instead of wonky.

Also undecided is if I'm going to put batting inside it or flannel to make it a bit lighter.

Quilting

The back is done
Batting is cut
The sandwich is made and pinned
Quilting pattern is picked and has been practiced



And for the record, for a quilter, I'm really bad at math.
I'll blame it on my mommy brain ('cause I did get a 4 on my BC Calculus AP exam once upon a time) but every time I need to do math on how much to cut or how many blocks I can get from a certain cut of fabric, I freeze. 7 inch pinwheels? 7 1/2 finished? So how big do I need to cut my squares?
Most of the time, I have H help me. "Can I use this batting to make 2 full quilts and a baby quilt?" Other times, we use the Robert Kaufman Quilt Calculator. And even other times, I text my friend T. She calls herself a quilting newbie but she's got a wealth of knowledge I just don't have.

So the math is done on baby J's quilt, on to quilting.
I made sure not to pick up the beautiful and very difficult, for me anyways, to work with Sulky thread. Bobin wound, machine threaded and ready to go.

First post

Another new blog for all my quilting projects.






Pattern by Oh Fransson.