The last block

I just finished my Aunt Dinah blocks for the exchange. This will be my last exchange for at least a year. I just need time to get more of my unfinished projects done before I commit to anything else. Can't wait to see what everyone else is doing!

I also finished my last appliqued block for Grandma's Flowers. When I started I didn't know if I'd actually make the quilt the size of the pattern. I didn't' know if I could finish all 20 blocks. Well, I'm happy to say I did it!

What to work on now? I really want to start something new, but as you can see on my sidebar I should really finish something I'm working on. The lady bug quilt would be quick to finish, but it's a baby quilt and I'm a little discouraged in the baby department these days. I should finish Jake's football quilt, I have all the 4 patches done and just need to put the rows together, but it doesn't sound fun at the moment. I could start on the borders and sashing on the flowers..... I could, but I really want to start something new. I have two layer cakes and three jelly rolls that I am trying to resist. I'm in the mood to stipple 1974, but I don't have the right color of thread. I just really want to start something new. I'm going to be strong though!

Ahhhhh Broadbent's

Until 6 months ago we lived in Utah County. When we moved her to Davis County I realized how good Utah County quilters have it as far as quilt shops go. We lived about 5 minutes away from Broadbent's. Broadbent's has got to be my favorite quilt shop. The ladies in charge of choosing which fabric they sell do such a great job of getting a variety of fabrics that appeal to each person. I just love their selection.

This weekend we were down in Utah County as my husband's step-sister and her husband were sealed. On the way home we stopped by Broadbent's. I bought the rest of my blue fabric for the block exchange. Moda Essential Dots in blue. Hopefully I also got enough for binding. For our anniversary in December my husband gave me a layer cake book. I have been waiting and waiting for Sweet to come out so that I can make one of the patterns in there. I was so excited to see it. I had called around in Bountiful and none of the stores there had it.

They also had Flag Day Farm. They didn't have a layer cake or honey bun of it which is what I was looking for so I didn't buy any, but I have also been waiting to see that fabric so I could make Sugar Sweet Swirls. It was fun to see all of the fabric on the bolt though.... and it made me want it even more.

I also bought a new iron this weekend. My old one died on Friday.... or rather I thought I might die if I used it again. I was ironing some blocks for the swap when I saw a spark. It had come from the cord. Apparently the cord was so worn that the wires were coming through. I unplugged it and that is why this new iron is now joining us. It's quite a bit heavier than my old iron, but who doesn't need to workout while they quilt?

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

I've been busy lately. So, so busy. Between volunteering in kindergarten, running errands and getting ready for my quilt class I have also been looking for another adoption agency. We have been registered with one agency for over a year and haven't had much luck at all. The average wait with this agency is 2-3 years but we just don't want to wait that long. Also, that's average. It could take longer. The last several weeks my time has been divided between calling around to other agencies, doing LOTS of online homework on different agencies and making sure we have all our paperwork and profile pages so that we can be shown. We've actually been at this for several months, and have everything in with two other agencies besides the original. The last few weeks I have felt the need to look into two additional agencies for more info. Needless to say my quilt time has been very, very limited and only then I only have time to do what I need for my class and for my block exchange in two weeks.

Yesterday I was busy on the phone with both new agencies and also trying to track down other adoptive couples who have used these agencies to get an idea of how they work. I had a meeting with a case worker at our first agency and came home and got back to working with the other agencies. You have to be so careful in adoption because there is a lot of dishonesty. The good news is that I feel good about both these agencies.
The bad news is when I sat down last night to work on my blocks for the exchange this is what I came up with. When I was sewing the sub blocks together I couldn't figure out why I didn't have enough pieces to this fabric. When I sewed the rows together and looked at the block I realized why. Apparently my mind was somewhere else. Well, I was out of time at that point and put it away for a few hours while I made dinner, got my 5 year old off to karate, and scanned in our adoptive parent profile to overnight out of state.

Then I took a break and started to unpick. I finally had it all together and was ready to iron when I realized I had done it again! Ahhhhhh! You would think that when I had made a mistake once I would be thinking clearly enough to do it the right way again. Apparently not. Does anyone else have sewing days like this?

I guess third time is the charm because I finally got it right. Hopefully we will find our baby soon so things will calm down a little. I know that's the opposite of most people, but when you enter the world of adoption the finding then the waiting is the hardest part. It does calm down once your baby arrives..... no matter how many times they wake up in the night or how much they cry. You are just so thankful to have a baby to get up with in the night that it all makes it worth it. Until then I'll just keep swimming.

Samurai Squares

Finally. I got this fabric for my birthday a year and a half ago. The top was finished a week later and has been sitting in a box ever since. The hold up? I didn't know what color of thread to use for the quilting. I ended up using plain old white. When I chose the colors I loved this fabric I used on the back. It's from Amy Butler's line called Belle. There are quite a few fabrics from that line in this quilt as a few from Chocolate Lollipop and then a few others for contrast.

Here's a closeup of the outer border. I love the large, bold print. This pattern is actually uses a jelly roll, but I saw one hanging up at Corn Wagon in Springville and loved these colors and fabrics.

Aunt Dinah

Here's my first Aunt Dinah square for the block exchange I'm involved in. I think I've said before that my friends from my old neighborhood would get together and swap blocks at least once a year. This is our second in 6 months ( I have not put the blocks together from my first). We've planned on this since October and I am just now getting around to my blocks. We picked a block and then decided to do blue with a cream background. I have different blues and was going to use all the same background, but today when I pulled this fabric out I decided I may use it in a different quilt. I bought it years ago and decided on white instead of cream for the quilt I was planning at the time. I really like it and I think I'm going to use it to go with a layer cake of Fig and Plum.

Anyway, I thought I'd post this to make sure I'm on the same page as everyone else. If you are involved in this swap (Kristin, Erica, Anna and anyone else who may be reading) and I am completely off on color or something let me know! Don't fret, they will all be trimmed and straightened by the day of the swap.

RS Quilt fabric choices

For those of you who have never sewn I thought I'd do a little lost on choosing fabric. This is overwhelming to some people. For this quilt I am going to do mine out of fabric that I already have. The blocks I showed in the previous post were made from fabric I had left over from other quilts. I did decide to use all fabric 1930's style. This is a good quilt to make with scraps as we are going to be working on it all year long. That way you don't have to worry about running out of a certain fabric. Here are some other examples of scrappy quilts I made in the past. This one is made of 1930's fabric. Each butterfly is different. This quilt is made of Civil War reproduction fabrics. Each basket is a different pattern and made from different fabric. I don't think any piece of fabric was used more than once.

When you get to the fabric store the newer lines of fabric will be near displayed together. Using fabric from the same line is a good way to make sure all your fabrics coordinate. In this case, where I can't tell you how much fabric to buy I don't know this is what you want to do. You could end up with not enough fabric and have it sold out in the store or you could have way too much making the cost of the quilt more expensive. Here are some quilts I've made using small pieces from a whole line.

This one is from the Cotton Blossoms.

This one uses the fabric from Dandelion Girl by Fig Tree Quilts.

If you want to choose all your own fabric I would suggest choosing a fabric with a print that has several colors that you love. You can pick it to match the room where the quilt will go or use your favorite colors. You will make sure all your fabrics coordinate with this fabric. For example:

When this fabric was chosen it was for a block swap with friends. We each made blocks and chose this fabric to use as the central fabric. We could choose any fabric that coordinated with this one. In addition to the brown we used fabrics in the red, green and blue. Most people used cream as a background color.

This is the finished quilt. The main fabric was used in the outer border.

This piece was used in one that I will hopefully get quilted and bound in the next few days. If you were using this fabric as your central piece in addition to other oranges you could use the teal, green, brown and white colors to find fabrics that coordinate. I will post the quilt to this in the next few days so stay tuned!

Now you know a little bit about choosing fabric. If you need help feel free to give me a call. Remember, the first class is Wednesday February 18 at 7pm at the church!

Relief Society Block of the Month

For those of you who will be joining me in our Relief Society quilt class here is a little preview of what we are going to be working on this year. We had planned on doing a life quilt, but because many people were interested in the class who had never sewn we decided to do a basic quilting class. We will be starting with a simple nine patch. Each block will be 12 inches finished. 12 1/2 before it's set in the quilt. The quilt will be a large throw size. If you would like to make more blocks to make the quilt bigger that will work too!This is the block for March. Many patterns call for flying geese, which is what these arrows are called, as a sub block. The finished quilt will look similar to this quilt. This quilt is one that my friends each did a block to give to every other person doing the quilt. Although the quilt we make will not use these exact blocks the finished quilt will be a sampler like this. There are many different ways to finish your quilt and we will talk about that as we go along.

What I have and have not been working on.

I had big quilting plans for last week. I started this whirlygiggle quilt from the pattern that I won from Camille's blog. I had also planned on starting my blocks for my next quilt exchange. I may have mentioned before that a group of us from my old neighborhood used to quilt together. Of the 15 or so of us only two still live in that neighborhood, but we've been able to continue to do block exchanges. This time we are planning on doing a blue and cream quilt. I still need more blues, but this is the fabric I'm using. Those two plans got put away when we bought bunk beds for my boys. We had been looking and looking for a few months now and finally found some we liked and that were sturdy. I already made Caleb's quilt but hadn't even started Jake's because he was still in a crib. My other projects of the week were put away to get moving on his quilt. I figured it wouldn't take too long to do since it's so easy...... Several weeks ago I was asked to teach a block of the month quilt for my church. We had planned on one quilt where everyone chose their own patterns, but people wanted to do it who had never quilted before so we decided to do a quilting basics class. Tuesday was when we scrapped the other quilt ( no pun intended) and I started planning the new one. I want to start very basic and each month get a little bit harder.

Another surprise came yesterday morning as we were getting ready for church. My husband was getting breakfast for my boys while I showered. When I was done the hot water would not turn off. I gave it a strong turn and it went off. I didn't think much about it at first until Jeff came down about 20 minutes later and the water was still running. He couldn't get it off at all! So, while I took my kids to church Jeff stayed home turning off the water to the house and trying to figure out the problem. He was able to get there only a little late, but we now only have cold water. My kitchen is stacked with dirty dishes, nobody has showered or bathed. And laundry is (ok, already was) stacked to the ceiling. So once the problem is fixed I have a lot of cleaning to do before I can get too far on quilting. Wish us luck... and hot water!

Also, I did get this blog award from Anna. Thanks so much!