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Vintage Holiday Blocks 7-10

September 4, 2012 jennifer Musings on Life and Beauty, Quilting and Sewing

I’m rushing out the door to pick up the children from school, which means these are the final moments of the clock ticking as we await the explosion. Whatever I get done before I pick them up is generally undone before they go to bed, so these last few minutes often have me frantic.

For some reason getting them all out the door felt harder than usual this morning, and the entire day has carried the same feeling with it. I’ve been working on all the things I should be, only they’re not coming together quite how I pictured and, as usual, are taking more time. Oh well, such is life.

I did squeeze in a few minutes on Labor Day to get caught up on the Vintage Holiday blocks. (Yeah, I joined the quilt along, got caught up, and immediately fell behind.) Thankfully this quilt is coming together so easily that I know I’ll finish without trouble.

So here they are, blocks seven and eight:

And blocks nine and ten:

I went a little heavy on the reds, I think. I should have laid out all the blocks before I got going, but it will work out. I’ll get more green in there on the last two, and then I’ll be piecing this together! Hooray!

And I’m off to three schools….

Life is good!

One comment life, quilting

Seaside Quilt

August 22, 2012 jennifer Quilting and Sewing

I did it! I reached my summer goal of making a quilt out of my Seaside fabric in time to use it at the beach. In a marathon sewing session just before we left (between soccer games and birthday celebrations) I pieced, basted, quilted and attached the binding on this quilt, then took it with me to the beach house to finish the binding by hand. The only disappointment in it all was the early sun and shadows, making pictures difficult.

I am so happy with this quilt! It’s been a while since I pieced a simple patchwork quilt, making it simple and enjoyable. The squares finish at 5.5 inches. I enjoyed adding the white border with a line of half width rectangles lining up with the center. And for the first time ever, I tried my hand at a mitered corner (in the prints; I stuck with squares/rectangles for the solid).

It always feels good to learn something new. I also feel like this quilt is one of my best as far as quilting goes. Yes, I did it simply with an x through each square, but the stitches are more even, the back more smooth, and when I quilted in the ditch around the borders I felt pleased with how well it looked. This quilt is large, about 77″ by 77″ square, so having the quilting go well made me feel really good since I did it on my own machine. The back of the quilt has a strip of my favorite bright stripe running through it.

For the binding I used the navy blue print with aqua dots on it, another favorite from this collection. I like the way it frames the quilt.

Most of all, I love the prints and the way they look all together.

There are some really great prints in this collection that would work well in almost any quilt.

Both flower prints, the dots, the stripes and plaids… I could go on about all of them. This is a happy collection, perfect for a day (or a week, or a month) at the beach.

It was so hard to come home. How I wish we were still there!

4 comments quilting

Vintage Holiday blocks

August 21, 2012 jennifer Christmas, Quilting and Sewing

Tidy stacks of fabric may be pretty, but sometimes I prefer a messy stack. Messy piles mean something good is happening, and something good is certainly happening with these! They also remind me how beautiful the traditional Christmas color palette really is.

About a month ago I saw the Vintage Holiday quilt along starting up over at Fabric Mutt . I went back and forth over and over again in my mind before deciding to jump in.

I’m so glad I did! This quilt is turning out to be a lot of fun. The blocks are simple and come together quickly, but even better than that, they’re turning out prettier than I thought they would! The QAL started while I was still on vacation so I had some catching up to do, but it was easy to accomplish. I find myself thinking about how fun it would be to make this in several different color schemes for different people I know.

This is what I’ve done so far. Blocks 1 and 2:

Blocks 3 and 4:

Blocks 5 and 6:

Ironically, I was most worried about that last block, number 6. I was afraid that the red on white print (Jennifer Paganelli) wouldn’t look right but I think it’s my favorite of the bunch!

These fabrics were pulled solely from my stash and it is fun to use them together. Now I’m caught up and the quilt is already half made. My kind of project! I’m hoping to do more holiday sewing this year, some as gifts and some just for the joy of it. I figure if I don’t start now there’s little chance of accomplishing anything so this quilt along comes at the perfect time.

Do you have any holiday projects planned this year?

Hopeful Homemaker