Category: Quilting and Sewing

My little squares of cheery fabric have become a finished quilt top.  I used the instructions found at Pins and Bobbins for the Made in Cherry Quilt Along .    I made the smaller 60 inch size, which actually made this a super fast project.  Once I got all the squares lined up on the bed, I broke it into small sections and was able to work at it in 10-15 minute segments until I had it all pieced together.


For this project I cut into a small stack of prints from the Tweet collection by Timeless Treasures.  (You can find some of them here .)  The turquoise solid I had in my drawer just happened to match and I thought it was good for me to use a solid other than white for a change.    I’m proud of myself for cutting into relatively new fabric instead of fretting about having the perfect project for it.


This is the fourth project I’ve finished in 2012 that is still waiting to be quilted and finished.  I did baste the Little Man quilt top and made a couple of passes for quilting, but am unhappy with it and need to pull it out and start again.  Ugh!  I wonder if I’ll get it done in time for the baby to still use it!  (I know, I know… it would certainly get done if I worked on nothing else in those stolen 10 minutes each day.)

Sooo, I’m off to clean bathrooms so I can perhaps find a few minutes to spend with my seam ripper later tonight.

Have a great day!
Jennifer

Isn’t this a great stack of fabric?

My daughter and a close friend of hers are working on value projects for their Personal Progress achievement (a goal-setting and personal development program for girls age 12-18 for the LDS Church).  For one project they each want to make a quilt and we’ve decided to make them in the colors of the Young Women’s values.  We spent some time Saturday going through my stash and making piles of fabrics for 7 of the 8 colors.  The colors are (starting at 12:00):  orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, gold, red.  The 8th color is white, but they’re both using lots of white in the quilts.


Do I have time for this project?  Not at all.  But it’s one of those things I’m not going to miss.  It’s a chance to spend time with my daughter and her friend, a chance to mentor another girl, a chance to teach them a skill that is useful.  A chance to help them make something beautiful.  Their excitement is infectious and I’m looking forward to the process.

Now I have a bunch of math to do before we start cutting!  Wish me luck…

Hopeful Homemaker

On my recent trip to Logan f I worked on a project I started in February.  I took an online class for sewing curves.  I started this table runner for that class.  Instead of using solid fabrics, I opted to use two charm packs I had sitting around.  One was from the Verna collection by Kate Spain and the other (I think) was called Swell.  I’d had the latter for a few years and didn’t know what to do with it.  You’ll see a few pieces from American Jane’s Punctuation collection also.


I worried that I’d hate this project because it would be too busy.  While it is certainly a riot of color, I like it more than I thought I would.   This was a good introduction to improvised curves and I enjoyed experimenting with it.    It took me a few hours to piece this together and two weeks to get around to adding a simple white border!  I think the wide border (3 inch) gives the eye a chance to rest.

My one concern is that it doesn’t want to lay flat due to the curves.  You can see that easily in the photo below.  I’m hoping I can find a way to minimize this when I’m quilting it, which will mean very careful basting.   Hmmm….


Even so, it’s nice to have the top finished.  I learned a lot while piecing this, which was the whole point.

HH