Wednesday, May 25, 2011

May diversions

I got tired of working on the queen sized quilt I’m making and so I decided to stop and work on a fast little, project. I had picked up 2 yards of a fabric on the clearance rack of Joann’s. It was this “running eighths” print – eight different, yet coordinating prints side by side running the length of the bolt. Each print was a little over 5 inches wide, which made it ideal for cutting up into 5” squares. I’ve been waiting for a good project to make with this fabric ever since I picked it up. Looking back through some quilting magazines from last year I found a pattern that would be quick and easy to sew, but still look a little different from the four patch baby quilt I made last month.
Here is the top – I plan to bind the quilt in the same fabric as the sashing and make the binding the same width as the sashing.

I’m trying to make this quilt entirely from my stash (except the batting since I don’t keep that on hand) so I decided to use 3 one yard cuts of Stonehenge fabric that I bought online, but didn’t like once I saw it in person. While it’s not anything I like well enough to put in a quilt top (especially 3 yards worth!) I think it works well as a backing.

You might think that 3 fabrics from the same line might all be the same width, but evidently, that is not the case. Hence, I had to add the strip of blocks along the side to make the backing wide enough. I hope that I can be careful enough when basting the quilt to make sure the backing stays squared up in relation to the top.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Winter Wonderland quilt found

I finally found this quilt!  It was lost in the storage room ever since we moved last summer and I only found it recently (after winter was over, of course).

Grandma gave this to me when I was looking for a new project to start. It is a kit from Joann's and she picked it up on clearance with her employee discount several years ago and never finished it.  She had already pieced the log cabin and rail fence blocks so I got to do all the applique.  While I'm not going to swear off applique in the future, I think it will be used sparingly.  This quilt was started in November of 2008 and was finished in December of 2009.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Trip to the Zoo

Well, we finally made it to the zoo for the first time this spring.   My sister-in-law took this video of DS that I just had to share.  Of course, I'm sure it was much more cute to DH and myself than it will be for anyone else, but I'll share it just the same.