WIP Wednesday & A Somber Note

I swear, it is going to take me forever just to finish this quilt. I lamented on what fabric I would use for the binding, as I don't really have many of the colors of this quilt in my stash. Finally, I found a great piece of FMF that I deemed perfect for this quilt. This weekend, the first time I've had a free minute in a while, I managed to cut the binding and get it sewn onto the quilt. 

I still need to tack it down to the back, but it's one step closer to being done with the quilt. 

On a more somber note, I am heartbroken by the events that occurred at the Boston Marathon this week. As a life-long New Englander, I've gone into Boston too many times to count. I've been to numerous Boston Marathons as a spectator - three times going to the 11:00 Red Sox game and walking to the finish line of the Marathon at the end to cheer on the runners. I knew a number of people running or watching the Marathon, so needless to say, Monday afternoon was a very emotional time for almost everyone in the Boston area trying to figure out if their friends and loved ones were safe. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this cowardly attack - this hit so close to home for everyone in the area. If you are looking to help, there has been a fund set up, The One Fund where you can donate to help everyone affected by this tragedy. 

Finish Friday: HST Baby Quilt

Last weekend I quilted and made the binding for a baby quilt so that I could hand sew the binding down and have something to do if I lost power with Sandy.  Well, I lost power around 7pm on Monday, about 5 minutes after I finished cooking dinner - talk about great timing.

So, I did what any quilter would do.  I set myself up on the couch, propped a flashlight on my chest and spent a couple of hours sewing the binding on. It certainly took longer doing it by flashlight, but it sure beat the alternative of sitting around doing not much of anything.

It's finished in a nice, soft flannel print that matches the colors on the front.

I quilted this one pretty simple; I echo quilted around all of the seams, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. Just a 1/4" on either side on the seam.  Simple but effective. If you study the quilt closely, no print was used more than once on this quilt, so it's kind of like an "I spy" quilt in that respect.

To make the HST's, all I did was take a bunch of 5" squares, draw a line on the diagonal and sew on either side of the line to create two squares.  I then trimmed up the squares to 4.5" square before piecing everything together.

I went back and forth on what to do for the binding and finally settled on a red print from my stash.  I think it is from the "Fresh" line by Deb Strain. I really love how it adds another pop of color to the quilt.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I'm looking forward to washing this and seeing it become all soft and crinkly.  I used two layers of 100% cotton batting to give it an extra soft, plush feel.


And a reminder... it's time to nominate your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'd love it if you nominated and voted for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt - Quilt #78!

Ready for Sandy

Yesterday I finally got back into my sewing room after finishing putting my guest bedroom together - and boy was I productive! 

First on my priority list was getting some quilts ready to hand bind for if/when we lose power with Sandy coming today.

The first is of a baby quilt that I'm making.  I know so many people having babies this year, so I'm not quite sure who this one will be for.  The second is a larger, queen sized, quilt that I made a while ago but never finished.  The BMQG is having a WIP contest to finish all of our UFO's, so between Sandy coming and the challenge, I figured now is as good a time as any to finish it up.

I added a red binding to this quilt to add an additional pop of color to it.  The binding isn't tacked down yet in this picture.  I have a feeling I'm going to lose power sometime today with Sandy, so I wanted to have something to do if/when I do.

I backed the quilt in a soft flannel and echo quilted along each seam.  I didn't want the quilting to be too dense because I want it to be soft and "snugglie" instead of stiff. 

Oh, and I do have my stock of non-perishable food, water, flashlights and batteries, but having these two quilts ready to bind is the most important.  Right?  Hmm, maybe I need to reassess my priorities.

30th Anniversary

Today my parents celebrate their 30th anniversary!  Happy Anniversary to them!

(Here they are at Versaille during our trip to Paris last year.)

It's been no secret that this quilt is their 30th anniversary present.  This weeked, in anticipation, I finished putting the binding on. I came home from vacation and the quilt was waiting for me at the post office, freshly quilted and waiting for its binding.

Now I just need to add a label and a hanging sleeve.

Judi from Green Fairy Quilts did the machine quilting.

I really love how this quilt came out.  Judi did a great job quilting it.  Soon it will hang in my parent's beach house. 

Twister Quilt Finished!

This weekend I finished putting the binding on my twister quilt.

I love the way it came out.  I used two It's a Hoot charm packs for the twister portion.  I then used coordinating fabric for the binding and backing.  The white around the outside of the quilt is a Kona white.

I quilted this little quilt on either side of the horizontal and vertical seams.  I was trying to think of some way to play off the twisting pinwheels, and realized that with this type of quilting, the quilting would go through the long point of every pinwheel.

 I love this mini quilt.  I think it would be a perfect baby quilt.  I know so many people having babies this year, so who knows, it could wind up being for one of them.

I can see myself making more of these twister quilts in the future.  They come together so quickly and look great.

Another Finish - Frolic Quilt

Well, last night I put the final stitch in the 400" of binding on my Frolic quilt. 

At 96" x 98", this is the largest quilt I've made to date. 

I showed some photos that Natalia fro Piece N Quilt took when she quilted this one.  There was no way I was quilting this one on my machine.

 

 I bound the quilt in the same blue as the cornerstones in the sashing. 

And here's the back.  If you've followed me for a while, you know that I like simple backs, preferably all the same fabric if possible.

I'm happy to have another finish for the year.  This makes 3 so far! 

Eva Package Quilt Finished

Last week I picked up my Eva Package Quilt that I had 4/5 of the way machine quilted.  I decided that it was high time I finished quilting it and marked complete.

I finally finished the quilting one evening last week and prepped the binding the following night.  I wrapped it around an empty spool of thread that I had just emptied while finishing the quilting to bring with me to retreat. 

While at retreat, I machine stitched the binding to the top and after dinner and a couple of margaritas the first night, I decided it would probably be best if I didn't try to stitch a straight line or use my rotary cutter.  I ended up hand sewing about 3 feet of binding that night while chatting with everyone.  The rest of the binding was finished last night.

I brought the quilt to the park this morning on my way to work and took a few pictures of the finished quilt.  I love how it came out and can't believe I waited this long to finish it.

 

I love the way the early morning sunrise hits the quilt in this photo and just makes the quilt glow. 

Here's the back.  Normally I like my backs to be all one fabric, but I wanted to use what fabric I had on hand, so I added the pink stripe to the purple for this back.  I love simple backings.  I added a label on the bottom right corner. 

Here's a closeup of the back and binding.  My quilting is FAR from perfect, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying the quilt. I got the inspiration for this quilting design from Judi at Green Fairy Quilts here.

And here's the front with the binding.

YAY!

412"

Yup, that's how many inches of binding I just prepared, 412" to bind my Frolic quilt that I recently got back from Natalia of Piece N Quilt.

It may not look like 412" of bias binding, but it is. 

Now to sew it on sometime soon. 

Yes, I'm Still Here

Life has been a bit busy lately and I haven't had much time to quilt.  Two weeks ago I was traveling for business and last week DH and I went down to Disney World for a long weekend.  It was DH's first trip to Disney and my 4th trip.  We had a great time but were tired when we got back. 

Something happened with my camera and I was only able to download about 15 pictures of the 200+ that I took.  I only have a couple of pictures from our final day at Hollywood Studios.  No pictures of the two of us, none of the flower & garden festival at EPCOT, none.  :(  It turns out that every time I had turned off my camera the photos I took right before that would get deleted.  The camera is only a few months old, so I'm really bummed about this.  I just wish I didn't lose all of my photos from our trip.

On a quilting front, I have one row left to quilt of my Eva quilt. 

After a lot of debate, I have decided to go with my first choice of binding for my "Fire & Ice" Quilt.  The maroon.

I'd like to enter this quilt into a couple of local quilt shows, so I'm trying to come up with a name for it.  "Fire & Ice" is the name of the Carol Doak pattern.  I think I want something that's fun, a nice yet bold name.  Any ideas? 

Binding Choices

I've been auditioning some fabric choices for my newly quilted quilt and I thought I'd ask for opinions.  I have my opinion and my DH has his, but I wanted some other opinions. 

Here are three choices pinned up next to the quilt.  All three of these fabrics appear in the quilt.

The purple is the background fabric in the star blocks:

 

The green in the darker green used in the stars, darker than the large patch of green.

 

The maroon is the one used with the pink in the stars.

 

I don't have enough of the light blue in the sashing to use for the binding.  I wish I did because I think that would look nice.  

Thoughts???  What one do you prefer?  Or would you go with something different?

Blogger's Quilt Festival

It's time for another blogger quilt festival courtesy of Amy. This time around I thought I'd showcase my newly finished Wonderland quilt.  I just finished putting the binding on last week so this is the first time I've show this quilt finished.

This quilt started as a get together with my aunt and friend Lynn.

As I continued making this quilt and just wasn't in love with it.  I continued to put it aside because I just couldn't get motivated. Finally, I finished all of the rectangles and arranged them on my design wall.

It spent about 3 weeks on my design wall where I moved things around to get an arrangement that I was happy with and I pieced it together.

At this point I still didn't love the quilt until it is that I quilted it using some straight line quilting.  It's the quilting that really turned things around for me on how i felt about this quilt.  After quilting it I loved it.

I then found some of the red dot fabric online to bind the quilt.

And now I have a finished quilt.  After making this quilt I really learned to not judge a quilt until after it's quilted.  It really changed things for me.