A special blanket for everything!

My project of the day yesterday was this car seat blanket. I've seen two people at the stores since our baby was born who had them and I was curious. I have always had a problem with the blanket in the car seat falling out. It's usually when I'm trying to herd the kids into the store and it falls out in the parking lot. Then it gets dirty and gross. Hopefully it's not raining. I decided to make one myself. I used Timeless Treasures Strawberry Field. for the fabric with a meduim pink ric rac. It was pretty easy to make. We haven't left the house (or the front porch) today because my oldest has the stomach flu. I can't wait to try it out though!

Flutterby Complete!!!!

I was finally able to finish my Flutterby quilt. I ended up having to take my Pfaff into be fixed. It seems to be working well now though! Hopefully it will keep it up.

We have tons of big trees in our yard so everywhere I take pictures there are shadows. I'm not a great photographer in any way. I really like the colors in this quilt. I really like the way it turned out. Now it's off to the wash to make it wrinkly and soft!

So I have posted many times about how much I love 30's repo fabric. On Tuesday I had the rare opportunity to go to the quilt shop alone. I was actually looking for fabric to make a car seat blanket for my 2 month old (can you really believe she's 2 months?). Anyway, this particular shop used to have a wonderful selection of 30's fabric. In fact, when we lived in Saratoga Springs and I woulc dome visit my parents I had to stop in Bountiful every time to look through their 30's fabric. Anyway, I was looking at other fabric when I realized I was where the 30's fabric used to be. I looked around and didn't see it anywhere. I asked about it and they told me they are not going to be carrying it for a few years. Apparently they didn't like what was coming out and so they had a sale (not a great sale, I saw the flier) and got rid of what they had. They may not be carrying it for a few years! I am so disappointed. I really hope this isn't a trend. Please tell me that your local shops are still carrying 30's fabric!

Uh-Oh!

I am currently trying to finish quilts I have already started or quilts I have fabric for. My goal is to not buy more fabric until I use what I already have. Because of this I pulled out my vintage Christmas quilt that was about half way done. I finished the blocks and put them in order. I had noticed that in the pattern there were blocks that were only half blocks on the sides. I rarely read the whole pattern when I make quilts. I figure out how to do the blocks and then just do the rest on my own. Well.... maybe I should start reading the whole thing. I threw some of the scraps away. I am trying to eliminate scraps that are not really big enough to use. Oops! This time I needed them to make the half blocks on the side. I was able to rescue some (others had just left on their way to the dump). Fortunately the trash can in my sewing room is just used for dryer sheets and fabric.... nothing gross. Hopefully this will make me read the whole pattern before I start tossing things.

You can see the half blocks on the end of the second row. What you can't see is that they are pieced with fabrics or the same color, but not exactly the same fabric. The pattern used this too.

Ok, so I did buy more fabric. I had a good excuse. I got some money a few weeks ago for my birthday and I've been wanting to make the Black Diamonds Quilt by American Jane. I've had my eye on this fabric since it was first posted on Moda's site on the Future Fabric Line section. I had waited to buy it though thinking I should use what I had before I bought more. Now it's starting to be gone in some stores so I decided to buy it while I could. I feel like that totally counts, especially since I used birthday money to buy it, right?

My First Quilt

Here it is in all it's glory... the first quilt I ever finished. I actually starting quilting because I wanted a quilt for my oldest's bed. I couldn't find one I liked so I decided to make one (it's in the wash right now so no picture). At the time we had just moved to Saratoga Springs and my friend Kristen called to see if I be interested in doing a quilt block swap. There were quite a few of us and we each cut fabric to make five shoo fly blocks to swap with each other. We used white backgrounds. Although I had already started my other quilt I finished this one first. I love it. It is absolutely the worst quilting and piecing job you will ever see, but I love it. I didn't know how to square it up so I just made it into a square and some of the blocks are practically cut in half. A few people in the group had never sewn at all before. They cut their fabric by hand. Some of the cuts people made were not accurate. I didn't want to replace any fabric for fear someone would see it and feel bad because their fabric was not used. So I used all of what I had. I love the scrappiness of it. There is all kinds of fun fabric in it. I think if I had not been invited to do this swap I would have made my other quilt, maybe taken a class or two, but I don't know if I would have fully fallen in love with quilting.

Four years later this is my newest quilt for my newest child....

So there you have it. My newest and my oldest quilt. I've loved seeing all your first and last quilts this week. Thanks Camille for starting all this! Oh... something I learned along the way? Really, look at the first quilt. What haven't I learned along the way? I have definately learned a thing or two about matching up points. I've also learned how to cut more accurately, I've learned how to applique. I've learned to LOVE ric rac!

Ellie Fun

This is not my typical style of fabric. I saw it several months ago and fell in love with it though! I love those cute elephants. Usually I like fabric for a baby that isn't necessarily baby, but could be used for a baby. I like novelty fabric in general, just not baby fabric. When Olivia was born I had to get some of this. This was the only piece that the quilt store near me had. I need to buy the other pieces online. I have no idea what I will do with it, but I love it.

So remember yesterday when I was getting ready to quilt my flutterby quilt? Well... I got it all set up on the frame and my stupid Pfaff would not work. It's been having trouble for awhile now. It has never kept the speed up very well. It's suppose to do 1000 stitches per minute. Well, yesterday I was lucky if I could get it to do 1. Then when it did the stitches were the length of my shin. Ahhhhhhh! There is almost always something wrong with my Pfaff. It is seriously less reliable then my mom's old White she hated when I was growing up! Thank goodness for my trusty Bernina, however it doesn't have a long enough neck to quilt on the frame.

Flutterby

I know that in my last post I said that I was going to work on finishing projects before I started new ones. I should have added finishing projects or starting new ones out of stuff I already have. Yes, I started a new one. I had a jelly roll of Flutterby that I've had for a long time. I bought the jelly roll without having plans for it. At the time I bought it I also bought fabric for an outer border and binding. Well..... I was in the mood to make something out of it. So I started a new quilt. Another baby quilt. I am loving making baby quilts. They are quick. Sometimes I get tired of the fabric or block before I am finished and when I make baby quilts that just doesn't happen as quickly. The outer border has now become the backing. I am thinking I'm going to save the binding ( or use it as more backing if I run out) for another project. I think I'm going to bind in Moda's Essential Dots in brown. I'm loving the essential dots more and more lately.

I'm having to piece the back. Two yards was just not quite enough. I used some left over blocks in the back and now I'm doing some creative piecing to try to make it big enough. Again, some of the fabric that was planned for binding may show up here. In the picture I have the backing on top of the top so I can see what I need to do. You can see the top on the bottom and in the top right corner.