A Finish!

Totally DONE! Woo! It's all bound and washed and in the mail! This went to some friends back in Cali who are part Swedish. Thanks to my tall neighbor for holding it up. I was so anxious to get this quilt on its way that I couldn't be bothered to go searching and waiting for a fully sunny photo location. We're getting short on daylight around here these days and I am a busy lady. My favorite part is the plaid quilting. I love the colors too, which don't show up that well in this photo.

It's about 84"x84", Kona Papaya and Kona Surf, quilted with blue Aurifil 50wt which I got near Roanoke, VA last Christmas. I think the batting is Quilter's Dream, but I'm not 100% sure. 

Now... on to the next! Still got those pesky Denyse Schmidt Pie in the Sky blocks to finish up, but in the meantime I've started another Denyse Schmidt design. More on that when I get some photos. I think I'm on about the 700th of about 1000 triangles to cut for that one, ugh. It, too, has just two colors.

Skill Builder BOM

Oops - never even tried to start any of the Skill Builder blocks. Sorry Pile-O-Fabric! So many projects.... so little time! But I have the lessons in my inbox if I ever want to try them since I signed up.

Retro Rubies was really calling my name too. I might try it some time. Maybe after I finish my Tropical Swedish, and my Denyse Schmidt Pies/Basketballs, and my sawtooth stripes (watch for that to be blogged here eventually), and... you catch my drift.

Tropical Swedish - the continuing saga AND a shirt

I'm slow, what can I say? Here's the plaid quilting as suggested in the book (Modern Minimal). I really like how it looks, even with the blue stitching in the papaya color. Yay!! I just have 2 or 3 places where I need to tidy up loose ends where I had to start and stop in the middle of a quilting line.

Now I'm working on the binding. One side left to go! Next time I will take the extra 2 minutes required and audition the binding so I don't end up with a seam in a corner. I thought, eah.. what are the chances? Not bad I guess. Oops.

And here's a Charlie Tunic from Made By Rae that I did for Bea for our plane trip to Ontario. She is in love with airplanes and airports right now. Too bad she refuses to put it on. The airplane print did not convince her, boo. I didn't do the facings on the cuffs. It seemed like the trickiest part and I was trying to get it done before our trip. I think finished cuffs would look a lot nicer and if I had to wear this shirt, I'd prefer finished cuffs to finished vents. It's cute either way though, I think. Waiting to find the perfect buttons!

Tropical Swedish

A yellow cross on a blue background makes me think of Sweden. But the colors are called Papaya and Surf. Hmmm... I started this one intending it to be a Christmas gift but here we are in March and I've just finished basting it. It's half safety pins and half thread-basted. I have like 3000 safety pins, but they're currently occupied :)

  This design is from Alissa Haight Carlton's Modern Minimal. I'm going to follow the straight-line quilting suggestion from the book - a simple plaid. I get to try out the Aurifil 50 wt. thread I bought in Virginia. I can't find it anywhere around here. The color is a really good match for the Surf. I hope it looks ok on the Papaya parts...

I liked how the green, black, red, orange, and yellow looked hanging around together in the crayon box. Thought I'd save it for some day...

 

As for the Skill Builder Block of the Month... the second two blocks didn't turn me on either and I'm still pretty busy. Plus they're fairly basic as far as stitching skills go, so I'm waiting to see what the next two blocks are to join that party. I DO need to practice FMQ. I'll get there...

Another Sleep Sack

For another baby girl. Not 100% finished in this photo, but close enough...

Sleepy Time

I made this cute sleep sack for a friend who's having a baby soon. It's from Anna Maria Horner's "Handmade Beginnings." The quick-change trousers from that book are a hit too!!! This is lined in flannel. The closure is velcro, which seems a lot stronger than I thought it would be. That baby's never busting outta there!  Awww!!!

Reversible Top for Summer

I got the pattern for this top in Virginia over Christmas. It was smooth sailing until I got to the bottom hem. Part-way through I sort of figured out how to pull on it so the hem would lay flat, but it's not pretty close up. I don't think the bad parts will be too noticeable, though, when it's on. It's supposed to have applique giraffes on the side without pockets, but obviously that would have been weird with the whale fabric. I didn't think it was necessary to make up a whale applique to go on that side. The whales are cute all by themselves.

It Stands

Well... I got these light garden stake things and some squishy rubbery cord stuff. They work for now. I'm going to want to make the poles shorter. All the bamboo poles I came across were skinny little ones. This thing is fun and cute! My sister informs me they have something similar at IKEA. I'm sure it cost me way more to make this one, but it was fun and I learned some things about sewing and I got to choose my fabrics. Tee hee!

TeePee!

Well I meant to post some work-in-progress photos, but I got on a roll this weekend and actually finished this awesome play TeePee for B. It's from Growing Up Sew Liberated which I got for Christmas, yay!

Working with canvas was no problem for my Bernina. I used a jeans/denim needle and just regular 50-wt cotton thread. The only SNAG occurred when winding a bobbin. Ew, I hate throwing away this much thread. I hadn't threaded the winder properly, oops! The pattern said to use home dec. fabric for the trim, but my LQS is good and terrible, so I just used quilting cotton. It seems fine so far.

Whoopee! I even did bias binding around the outside AND the inside of a circle. That was the part I was most scared of, but it worked out fine. 

 Can't show you any pics of the thing actually standing because now I have to find some bamboo poles. Good luck to me in Nova Scotia in winter. I don't want to wimp out and use hardwood dowels, though, which are easy to find because those will be heavy and expensive. This week's mission is to find some poles!!! Oh yeah, and I need a couple patches of velcro, but that's no biggie. Oooh, I can't wait to show you what it looks like if I can actually get it to stand upright!! And if B actually goes inside it!!

And here are some solids I found in my pile that I thought of using for the Skill Builder BOM. I don't know if there's enough contrast in the warms. And I have lots of some colors and not much of others. I'm already taking a pass on the first two blocks since we were all flu-filled zombies when they came out and I wasn't into it. They were just made of straight strips anyway.