Jelly Stars!

My husband and I had to speak in church yesterday. I worked on my talk throughout the week. He worked on his Saturday night. It left me LOTS of time to sew. I wanted a break from Merry Go Round so I started Jelly Stars. I know, I know, I should finish one thing before I start the next. I was thinking I'd just do one of the four stars and then go back to and finish the other quilt. Well.... I think I'm addicted. I loved making this star! It was so fun. A lot of points to match up, but still fun. I can't wait to do another today.

How many calories.....?

Today I saw that Fig Tree is releasing a new fabric line called Patisserie. Because there was no picture on the blog I did a search and found it on the Moda page. Anyway, I see that not only does Moda carry jelly rolls and layer cakes they are now making turnovers and honey buns. Are they opening a bakery too?

http://mordac.unitednotions.com/storefrontB2CWEB/itemdetail.do?action=prepare_detail&itm_id=126714&itm_index=45

Apparently turnovers are going to be 6 inch squares cut in half. They will fit perfectly with a charm pack. Couldn't find any patterns using both. Here is a link I found to a pattern using 2 turnovers and a charm pack.

http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/images/images_499/CherryTurnover-300.jpg

Honey buns are 1 1/2 inch strips. Just like a jelly roll but thinner.

http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?Shopper_id=1074929151371074&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=24482&Parent_Ids=

Apparently layer cakes will now have 42 squares instead of just 40! Oh... the quilts that have yet to be made!

This is half?

Do you ever feel like you put a ton of work into a quilt that turns out very small? I am half way done with my Merry Go Round Quilt. This is one of two jelly rolls. The quilt does go the other way, but my camera automatically turns it, which bugs me but I'm too lazy to figure out how to turn it. Anyway, this quilt is going to be a lot smaller then I thought. I think it's something like 64x68. Other than the size, I really am liking it though. I love the colors and fabric. It looks so happy. Now, do I pause here and work on another project for a day or two or do I just keep going? It's a lot of seams to match up!

This quilt is making me want to do a grandmother's flower garden quilt. I love them. However, I do not think I will love hand piecing. Also, I feel like if I hand pieced the top I'd feel and obligation to hand quilt it, which I know I do not like to do. Anyone made a grandmother's flower garden quilt on the machine?

American Patchwork and Quilting

I've become a big fan of quilting magazines. I feel like I'm getting several patterns for cheaper than the price of one. I suscribe to America Patchwork and Quilting. I was anxiously awaiting my December issue, which comes in October. It didn't come. Then I realized it was probably delivered to our old house. We did leave a forwarding address, but when things slip through the new owowners are not sending it on. Anyway, I bought this issue since it had several Christmas projects in it. I think called and made sure they had the correct address. They were very nice at APQ, even volunteering to send the one I missed. Since I had already bought it they will extend my subscription!

This issue has a feature on one block quilts. I really like this one. The pattern is simple, but I like the qult as a whole. This is an antique quilt with fabrics dating from 1840-1870.


I love anything Fig Tree. Here is a Fig Tree Quilt made with pieces of several different Fig Tree lines. Such a simple quilt, but I love it.

I would really like to make these stockings. They are so cute. Two years ago I made these stockings. I liked them because I can do a different one for each family member, but they coordinate. They are from Under the Garden Moon, which is owned by the owner of American Quilting in Orem. I made two more, but I apparently don't have a picture of them. I also have the patterns for more in hopes of future children that may join our family.

While I was looking for the stocking pictures I found a picture of one of the tree skirts I made last year. I put this on one of my family room trees. I like to put more crafty/homemade looking decorations on it and then I have a formal living room tree. I made another tree skirt as a gift out of a charm pack. I need to find fabric I like for a more formal tree skirt for the living room.

I'm a Winner!

Look what fun things I found in my mailbox! I won one of Melissa's giveaways from her Christmas Cottage Open House. Jane was so sweet to donate these Christmas fat quarters as a prize. If you are interested in buying these fat quarters for just $1 each you can buy them here. Thanks so much Jane! I always love Christmas fabric.
These are my four favorite ones. I had to do a close up! Now... to come up with a fabulous quilt to show off my new Christmas fabric. Thanks again to Jane and Melissa!

Butterflies

Today my friend Natalie came over so we could start a quilt for her 2 year old daughter. I love making girly things since I have two boys and no girls. She wanted to make the quilt in a sagey green, pinks and browns. A few months ago we went fabric shoppingand chose some and she's been hunting and gathering every since. This is her first quilt.

We chose this pattern called Butterflies from the book Celebrated Craziness by the Buggy Barn. I thought Buggy Barn would be a good place to start since there are no points to match up and perfection is not required!

These are the blocks we worked on today. The orangish-red is really a dark pink. I love the fabric she chose. I can't wait to see the whole quilt when it's done!

Grandma's Flowers Update

I was going to wait to post until I was half way done, 10 flowers done and 10 left. My goal for that was after the second session last Sunday of General Conference. Well..... that didn't happen. During the first session on Saturday I got a late start as I got kids quieted down and then took a break as I got the kids something to occupy their mouths so I could listen. Then we went to my parents during the last session on Sunday and I didn't get a thing done. So here I am with only 9 blocks done and 11 to go. This last week was spent binding the football quilt instead of applique. This week I have a book club tonight (well, it used to be book club, but then we realized we don't actually read the book assigned so now we don't even bother pretending anymore, we just eat dinner and talk), tomorrow I have caramel apple dipping for Relief Society so it will be Thursday before I get any more applique started, but The Office is on and that is the one show that I watch without any hand work.

Anyway, I'm liking this much better than I thought I would. I thought it would be a chore but I loved the quilt so much I was willing to do it. I'm really liking it though. It is kind of a lot of prep though to starch each piece but then it's done and I'm ready to stitch. It does seem to go pretty fast too. I think I may do purple sashing. Haven't decided on a border yet. I don't love the top, middle flower. It think the fabric is a little too busy, but I think I'll probably leave it in. I think the ones look best with just a white pattern on them. Also, I keep buying more 30's fabric. I'm addicted. I love it.

Football fever is half done!

I finished Caleb's football quilt! Yeah! I have admit I don't love the quilt. We're just not big football fans. But it's nice to have something with a little more color. The quilt he has had on his bed is the first quilt I ever made and it's not very well done. And it's blue and tan. I needed something with a little more color in the boy's room. I also wanted something that wasn't little, little kid looking that could be age appropriate for a long time. They have tan carpet and tan walls. I am going to paint the walls though. Or, I may switch them to a different bedroom that has blue carpet and yellow walls. Yes, we've been in our house for almost 2 months and no I have not painted a thing. It's time as I'm sick of their very blah room.
Here's an up close picture of the football players. One down, one to go. Jake's is probably not going to have the borders that Caleb's has. I bought a blue border just like the red for Jake, but since Caleb's turned out so huge (slightly bigger than a full) I will probably piece the large footballs and the blue border and use them for the back.
Here's a picture of the fabric I used for the back. I let Caleb choose what he wanted and he chose this robot flannel. Football and robots. I think I have enough to make him matching pj bottoms!

The quilt that keeps going, and going, and going..........

A few days ago I made this little dish towel. I need a few more Halloween decorations and thought this would be quick and easy. On another note..... don't you love almond appliances? Welcome to the 80's.
Today I've been working on quilting Caleb's football quilt. When I bought the kit at American Quilting it said it was 60x84. I knew it was close to a twin, but not quite. I asked the girl working what size a twin quilt was and she told me 86x102. Well.... that sounded kind of big, but I figured she was the professional and knew what she was doing. The quilt at the store and also the kit did not have boarders so I added some making them the bigger size. I bought enough backing for a twin size quilt. I layed it out and ummmmm..... what happened to my twin quilt? It's now a full, or so I thought. I bought some more backing. I'm planning on getting the boys bunk beds when Jake is out of a crib so I figured the quilt will probably be tucked in on the sides. Well.... I bought enough batting for two full size quilts. One for Jake and one for Caleb. I just added some of Jake's to Caleb's. I'm not going to do the boarders on Jake's unless I need to add just a tiny bit to make it fit a twin so I figured I should still have enough, but as I'm quilting this thing I feel like it keeps going and going. There is no end to this thing. Actually, I only have the bottom boarder left to quilt, but needed to make a phone call before I forgot and then ended up adding this post. Tonight I'll be binding.
Here's my Pfaff. This is machine I do my quilting on. I use my Bernina for piecing. I really do not like the Pfaff. I know some people love them, but mine is only 2 years old and I just hate it. It does not keep the tension so I am constantly having to adjust it. It's just really finicky. Are all Pfaffs like this or did I just get a lemon?

Fabulous Fabric Find

This fabric is probably my very favorite fabric I ever bought. In fact, I liked it so much that I've bought it many times over the years. I love 30's fabric and bought this purple Everything But the Kitchen Sink fabric for my first 30's bow tie quilt.

Around the same time I happened to buy some in pinks and reds to use in this Mable's Table quilt. I have no idea why this picture flipped and I have no idea how to unflip it. I used the fabric as the rim on some of the bowls. By this time I was starting to really get attached to the fabric. I never found it again in the pink/red, but I did find it in green. I bought a lot of it. More than once. I have just enough left to use in my Lemon Twist quilt which I will return to working on some day.
I've use them many times in quilts over the past few years. I used it as part of pinwheels, butterflies and now the purple will appear my flower quilt I am appliqueing.




I've been a little disappointed because Ben Franklin Crafts is the only store near me that has quilting fabric. It doesn't have really any 30's fabric. I'm going through withdrawals. They do take Robert's crafts 40% off coupons though and will let you get 2 yards of fabric at 40% off. My plan is to piece my backs in 2 yard pieces. I saw the Portobello line from RJR, but hadn't looked at it closely until today. Guess what I found as part of the line......

This little gem! It's the same pattern but a colored background and the flowers are different colors and the leaves are green, but it's so close to the same. Of course I bought a fat quarter to use in my applique flower quilt. The also had it with a bright green background. I may have to make a pink and green quilt so that I can savor this lovely fabric over and over again. I need to go buy a lot of this so I don't have to horde it. I'm so excited about my little find! I just want to sit and hang out with it for awhile.

Do I like it?????

I started the Merry Go Round Quilt this morning. I noticed it's different than the original pattern from American Jane. This one is one that American Jane printed in McCall's Quilting. It only has two strips where the original one has three. Oh well! Less points to patch up. I have mixed feelings opening a new jelly roll. It looks so nice and cute curled up with the ribbon. Who am I interrupt that? I get excited though to see the full strip of each piece of fabric since when it's rolled up you can only see a tiny piece.
Here are my first few strips sewn together and cut into triangles. It's kind of labor intensive. I'm not a big fan of sewing a little and then cutting and then sewing again, but it's so much better in this new house where I can sew and cut in the same room. In our old house I sewed upstairs in the loft and cut on the main floor on my center island. Even having my sewing and cutting on the same floor would have been a plus.
I just had to put a few hexagons together. I love the happy bright colors in this line.
However, I'm not sure about this one. I don't know that I want the black in there. Do you think it will make it look too dark and take away from the cheeriness with the blacks in? I like a little black, but this one and one other strip I'm a little worried about. What do you think? Also I don't love the biggest print that's in the center here. It looks really scrunched in such small pieces. The colors are nice, but I'm not sure about using it.
Here is the opposite hexagon. It doesn't look so bad here. You can see more of other larger print fabric and the black is more of an accent color. What do you think? Would you throw out the pieces with black backgrounds? Would you toss the pieces with the bigger print in the center? Far away those will look fine, but I'm not sure how great it will look up close. Help! I need your opinion.

A Piece of Cake

I finished my Piece of Cake top tonight. I always get anxious to finish and start my next project. I also had a hard time cutting into my border fabric. I just wanted to hang out with it a little longer and feel it. I decided to take a picture. For whatever reason I don't like to put borders on. It's probably because I'm so anxious to start on the next thing that I don't want to spend the time. Silly, really. My new rule for myself is I have to finish the whole top, including borders before I start the next. I would add have it quilted too, but sometimes I have to wait for a fabric sale to be able to afford the backing.

Here's the finished quilt top. The picture is a little dark. I just love the colors in it. It's perfect for fall with the greens, browns and oranges. And the blue looks great too.

Jake needed me to take one last picture. He loves to be in the spotlight. He gets quite offended if I take a picture without him in it. Today my American Jane triangle rulers came in the mail. I've decided I'm going to do the Recipe for Friendship jellyrolls in the Merry Go Round Pattern. I'm excited to try it out! I had my Jelly Stars all lined up for next, but I'm bumping them back one. Really, I should probably do it next. I found some fabric at American Quilting a few weeks ago from the line on clearance and bought the back so I just need binding fabric. Oh, well.... I have it for later.