What's wrong with this?

The good news is I found my camera! Wait a minute, why is this underlined? I can't get the underline off! It's been like this a lot lately, but when I go out and come in to edit the underline is gone. Help!

Ok so now it's not underlined all of a sudden. Why? Also, while we are on the subject of not knowing what the problem is with blogger, why can't I move pics around anymore? Also, I have another pic to post of this quilt but it keeps deleting it without warning and when I try to repost it it tells me something about a path not available. AHHHHHH!!!!

Well, onto quilting. I've been making a baby (or rather smaller size quilt for a baby) gift. I'm not really liking it. I love the pattern. I was a little unsure of the fabric. It's not colors I would usually put together, but I thought it was cute. Plus, the mother of this not-here-yet baby is kind of a modern girl so I thought maybe I'd go for it.
I bought it as a kit. I shouldn't have used such a large print for the large flower. The small yellow flower on the bottom shows up better in real life than it does in the dark pic taken in my basement. So does the blue flower. I'm just not sure I'm liking it. There is still another small flower and some vines to add, but I'm not sure what to do to make them pop. I want to use an brighter blue with a bold pink flower or a lighter pink fabric, but it seems like something is missing. What is it?

I always stress about making quilts for others. I don't want someone to feel obligated to use it because of all the time I'm putting into it. I'm thinking this is my last baby quilt gift. I just worry about it too much!

Blossoms!

Finished! I finally finished the quilt I've been making for Olivia's crib. Sorry the picture turned on it's side. I don't know how to set it the right way. Anyway, this pattern is called Blooms for Annabelle. I made it using Bubblegum Basics fabric.

The pattern calls for two charm packs, but I just cut my own since this fabric is not by Moda. I started appliqueing the first row by hand, got it done and decide machine would be just fine for the rest! I did press the seam allowance under and then do invisible thread to stitch around. The pattern also said to use bias tape for the vines but I chose to use ric rac instead. Saved time!
Here's a closeup. Sorry about the dark picture, it was raining when I took it. I do love the bright happy colors! Cute for a little girl's room.

Olivia's First Quilt

I finished my lady bug quilt! I finally had a reason to. Since I had no finished baby quilt for Olivia when I got home I needed to get cracking on this one. I had the lady bugs finished so I just had to add the outer border and then last night I quilted it last night and bound it today.

Sorry about the shadows. I took the picture outside and we have tons of trees in our yard.

I found the pattern years ago in Quick Quilts. Quilting Cottage in American Fork had a sample made and I loved it. I bought the fabric and it's been sitting around waiting for a baby girl until this summer when I pulled it out. This was about a year before Jake was born so probably a little over three years ago.

Now onto another quilt out of Bubblegum Basics.... I'm loving girl fabric.

What I'm working on

It's been awhile. Over a week, in fact. My excuse? No batteries in the camera. I know that shouldn't really count, but I haven't made a ton of progress. I am wanting to start new stuff, but I know I need to finish the other projects first. I'm feeling a little scatterbrained in the quilt department lately.

I got this pattern for Christmas. It uses a layer cake and I am using Fig and Plum from Fig Tree Quilts. I really wanted to try just one block. I only cut enough fabric for one and put it together. Now I can work on other things and not feel quite as antsy to get started on this one done. As I've mentioned before, I'm quite baby hungry. Still no word on a baby, but I really want one. A few years ago before my 2 year old was born, I saw this pattern in a magazine. I bought all the stuff and then my next baby was a boy. I decided to get this out and work on it a little this summer, then we moved and it got put away. I'm trying to finish it now. The lady bugs are taking quite awhile to applique. I'm just doing it on my machine, but I am not very good at it, especially the little ones. I also finished the top of Jake's football quilt. I've been working on my grandmother's flower garden. I've decided it's gong to be a baby quilt, or possibly a table runner, depending on when I get tired of it. Last night I did the white hexagons. It took over two hours and most of them don't have the sides sewn yet. My quilt group exchanged blocks again. It's always interesting to see what fabric people used. I was so sure I was using the right color blue. Um..... mine is the only one that color. Sorry guys! Here is every one's blocks. Now.... what to do with them?

Scrappy Double Wedding Ring

I have always loved Double Wedding Ring quilts. I also love any "cheater" techniques. When I found this pattern last spring by Quiltsmart I bought it to use up my scraps. I discovered Quiltsmart a few years ago when I made my Star of Bethlehem quilt and then took a class later that used it for Pinwheel Spin. It came with the fusible interfacing and also the plastic template. I had put this quilt away in the spring, but today I got it back out again to work on some more. This quilt is so easy I thought I'd show you how to make one the easy way. After cutting out slightly over a million wedges you take 6 and sew them together. I'm not sure how big I will make mine, so I don't know how many to cut.

The Quiltsmart comes in a big sheet. After you've cut out the arcs, sew them onto a pieced arc. Quiltsmart even has a line to sew and also a line to trim for seam allowance.

Here is one that's been sewn and trimmed.

Now it's time to turn them right side out. This is why I put it away in the first place. It seemed like it took forever to turn them right side out. Well, a few weeks ago as I was turning out apron strings I realized I could use this tool for that. The lights are now on! I don't know why it took me so long! Now it takes 10 seconds as opposed to 5 minutes per piece!

Now it's time to iron (press) them onto the white background. Quiltsmart fuses right on, not as tightly as fusible webbing, but enough for a temporary hold.

Last, use a small zig zag stitch and clear thread. I like the Sulky. Machine applique the pieces down.

There will eventually be a small triangle piece sewn to the four corners of each block to join them together. I'm not sure if I'm going to use solid fabric as suggested or if I want to use more of my scraps. The package of Quiltsmart comes with enough for a baby quilt or two table runners. I'm not sure what size I'll do, but you can also buy it by the panel and I noticed a store near my house carries it that way so I may make it bigger.

I really want to try the Apple Core, but I'm not sure how it would work. Maybe I'll look for a tutorial online so I can see if it's easy. I know this all sounds like a commercial, but since I'm always looking for easy ways to make classic patterns I thought other people might as well and I wanted to show you how easy this really is!

Lemon Twist- Check

I finished binding my Lemon Twist quilt last night. I don't love the quilt, but I ended up loving the binding. I didn't think I would like it very much until I was actually binding it. It was a good use of my 30's yellow and green scraps, but I didn't realize when I started how small it was. I'm going to have to start checking the finished size before I start. Also, the pattern had a scrappy border, but I felt like it looked too busy so I just did the green dots. Here's Jake's usual picture with the quilt.

I also finished the top of the Merry Go Round quilt. Hopefully I can get it quilted during nap time today. I'm not really sure how to do the binding. I'm thinking I pivot on the inside point and do a regular mitered turn on the outside point. Any ideas?

Pinwheel Spin

I'm trying to stay true to my goal of finishing all my quilt tops before I start more. Here is my pinwheel spin top. I took a class from Broadbent's to make this with my friend Anna back in April. This quilt was made using Quiltsmart, which I talked about in my last post. All the fabric is from Denyse Schmidt's fabric line Katie Jump Rope. Here is a closer picture. Sorry it's a little dark. The dots are also Quiltsmart.

Since this is an older line I had to piece the back because I couldn't easily find the fabric. This is how it turned out.

I still have one quilt to quilt and I need to finish binding Jelly Stars. It has the binding sewn on, but not sewn to the back. I will do one 30's flower and finish my Grandmother's Flower Garden block (notice I said block and not quilt!) before I finish Jelly Stars. I'm having some wrist pain though so it may be awhile.

Cherry Baby Quilt

I finished the binding on this quilt a few days before we moved and am just now getting a chance to post it. Some of the fabric is from the Cherry Baby line, but a lot is just fabric I found that coordinated.

On another note, does anyone know of any good fabric shops in the Layton area? We are now in Fruit Heights and I know there of Threads of Time in Centerville and Quilters Haven (my favorite) in Bountiful, but I don't know of any in this area. Ben Franklin Crafts has some quilt fabric, but mostly holiday stuff and maybe five or six other lines at a time. I want something close to me!

Finished

It's quilted and the binding's on. I'm done!