Purple & Green Baby Quilt

One of my dear friends is having a baby next month, so of course I just HAD to make her a baby quilt. She's having a baby girl and is decorating using purples and greens. Don't you love when someone tells you what colors they're using? It makes it easy to pick out fabrics, although sometimes I enjoy coming up with my own fabric combinations.

Her baby shower was this past weekend, so I was able to give her this baby quilt in person. I was so happy that it was still well received and everyone, including mom and dad, loved the quilt.

I had a fat quarter bundle already with a bunch of greens, purples and blues, so I went with it. I cut 3 1/2" strips and cut a bunch of triangles using my Hex N More ruler. I did add a couple of additional fabrics, because I can't just leave something as is!

I pieced the top while at retreat and machine quilted it there on my domestic. I haven't quilted on my domestic in a little while, but it was fun. Heck, quilting anything is fun.

I backed it in a fun print I got at Marden's last year at retreat. I think it's a Michael Miller fabric. I bound it in a purple print I got at Marden's this year. I totally forgot to bring a binding fabric with me to retreat, so I'm glad I bought something that magically worked.

I can't wait to meet the baby, and I hope this quilt is loved. I stressed to the mom that when I give a quilt, it's meant to be loved and used. I even gave her a card that said to use the quilt and wash it as needed. I'd love to make another quilt for the baby because it was loved so much! That's the best feeling in the world for a quilter, wouldn't you agree? 

WIP - Another Baby Quilt

I love having a leader and ender project going at any given time. In fact, I usually have a regular project and a paper pieced one going at any given time so that I can pick the project to work on whether I'm working on a regular quilt project or a paper pieced on. At retreat, I started a new leader and ender project - a baby quilt for a family member having a baby boy this summer.

I cut up four Sweetwater Pure charm packs using my Accuquilt Go! tumbler cutter. While at retreat, I sewed them into pairs. As I've begun working on other projects, I've been sewing these together, first in pairs and then sewing those pairs together.

This one should go together pretty quick, pending I actually have time to quilt and don't have machine issues again. I'm really trying to be random here and not spend too much time figuring out where fabrics go.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. 

I'm Back

After a stressful week of finals for school, I packed up and trekked north for our annual retreat in Kennebunk, ME.

We set up in a large gym and spent the long weekend sewing, talking, drinking and eating. I'll let you figure out what we did more of. ::wink wink:: There were 38 of us from the Boston and Seacoast MQG's all itching to sew and talk to people that like to sew. I'll share some of what I worked on later this week. Check out the Boston MQG blog for a great recap of our retreat.

After retreat, I scooted home and quickly packed for a little spring break vacation with one of my friends. I had a week off of school, so I took advantage of it and made a beeline out of New England for warmer weather in the Dominican Republic. After this winter, I needed some warmth and humidity.

Now that I'm fully rested, it's back to work and school. I'm also excited to say that I now have a fully functional domestic and longarm sewing machine, so I can finally do some sewing at home.

Getting Ready to Retreat!

Our annual BMQG retreat is upon us and I've been very busy getting ready for it. With my longarm out for service for 14 LONG weeks and my domestic in for regular maintenance and to repair the broken handle and thread holder for the past four weeks, I've been spending most of my time cutting. Throw in the craziness of working full time and going to grad school full time, and I'm going through some serious sewing withdrawal. Four days of sewing sounds like pure bliss right now.

One of my big projects will be to make a quilt using this bundle of fabrics. I'm using a dozen different Liberty of London prints with a coordinating Textured Solids fabric from Andover and a neutral chambray from Robert Kauffman for the background. Let's just say this quilt will be full of different textures. If all goes according to plan, I hope to enter this quilt at QuiltCon and possibly a few other shows with modern quilting categories.

I'm also hoping to work on a bunch of WIPs including my Meadow quilt, which I started at the Philly SewDown. I have four of the 20 blocks complete. Below are the first three blocks. I finished cutting the remaining 16 blocks last week, so I might be able to finish this one, depending on how much time I spend sewing vs. talking.

I'll bring a few other WIP's with me to work on, but I don't know if I'll get to them or not. Maybe I'll get to my quilted tote, also a WIP from SewDown.

And if that's not enough, I brought a few smaller projects to make some zippered pouches and such for some upcoming birthdays and baby showers. Let's just say I'm going to be busy. But that means I'll actually have something to show since I've been so quiet lately.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.