Too Many New Projects?

No.

Just enough!

I've been making Christmas quilts.  Lots of them.  And nothing but. They are finished. Christmas is past. Time to start something new.  Since I can't decide what I want to do most, I'm just going to go ahead and start a bunch!

A couple years ago I made this miniature quilt (12" x 12") from some scrap 1" HST. 

I love it still. This same design should make a lovely lap sized quilt.  Lovely enough to make two of them.  One with these pinks and greens....

 And another with these fabrics...



Figuring out which way to press is my biggest problem.  HST always mix me up a little (sometimes a lot).

These pinks and greens will be pinwheels and four squares...

Pinwheels and four squares for these, too.....

The Periwinkle Lane blocks are getting borders and each one will be finished as it's own little quilt for the laundry room wall.

This top is heading for the quilt frame.  I just can't figure out what to use for binding.  It's from a charm pack and I don't have any of the fabric.  Maybe I'll drag it to town to find something to match.  Or use white?  Have you ever used white for binding?

And I went shopping today with some Christmas money. FUN! I'm not sure what I'll do with these but they sure look good stacked up with my stash.  The black and red and yellow print is a bit wild, but it kept calling.... I had no choice but to get it.

Add a couple of commissioned projects, a stripey-strippy quilt to quilt for a "first-timer", and another gorgeous blue/green quilt by another special first-time quilter, and I have just enough projects to keep me busy, and happy. 

:)

Another Crop of Quilts

And now it's on to Christmas quilts.

Little Quilts

I've been playing with little quilts in between the big ones.  These sure do finish a lot faster.  And I'm loving the new embroidery features I discovered on my machine. 

I'm not sure where this one came from.  I haven't been to the beach in forever.  And the last time I wore a bikini was waaaaay longer ago than that!

 But, hey, a girl can dream!

My second little quilt attempt came out a little neater.

Being different sure makes one stand out.  I guess that's the good and the bad of it.

Stitching My Gratitude

I spent Memorial Day stitching my gratitude into this quilt that is for a WWII veteran. 

It was a pleasure and an honor.

Have you ever noticed (I'll bet you have) that when you thank a veteran, they usually get embarrassed and don't get why you are making a fuss.  They write a blank check that includes giving their life if necessary and then think it's not worthy of thanks. 

Thank you doesn't begin to cover it.

Happily Quilting Away

Three quilts finished . . . .

 and lots more on paper . . . .

Get Your Binding Ready Karen

.... it's heading your way!

Funky Froggy Flowers

The final challenge for this season's Project Quilting was "Large".  We had to use at least a quarter yard of a large scale print.  We also had to use at least one stripe or plaid. 

I had some large scale colorful frog print squares that equalled somewhere between a quarter yard and a half yard.   I chose one subtle stripe fabric and one stipe fabric that was just a little bolder.

Though I like the frog fabric, I didn't want my piece to be all about frogs.  I really wanted to  play with textures and that helped to disguise the frogs a bit but still let the colors shine.  I made three different kinds of flowers. 

One had petals that became very textured and bumpy through the use of Texture Magic and batting.  

Another flower had petals with batting and straight line quilting.  All of these petals were appliqued to the background with a zig-zag stitch. 

The three smaller flowers are circles of fabric each gathered around a circle of very stiff stabilizer that's just a little too big.  Gathering tightly caused the stabilizer circle to bow and bend a little, adding an extra element of texture to the gathers and keeping the flowers from laying flat on the background.  Yellow buttons are in the middle of the flowers.  
Several shades of green embroidery floss were braided together for the stems of the larger flowers.

Using the subtle stiped fabric I sewed a few dozen pleats very close together.  I cut a vase shape and sewed the pleats down along the edge of the vase.  Down the center of the vase I pushed the pleats in the opposite direction and again sewed them down.  This gave another element of texture and also formed a new look to the stripes.  Sewing the pleats was much harder than I anticipated but I love the look.

The piece was quilted with slightly curvy diagonal lines and bound with the brighter stripe fabric.  I thought I'd cut the binding on the bias but after the diagonal quilting decided to go with straight stripes.

The judges have a few good suggestions on how this could have been better... I might not be finished with it.

You can see the rest of the entries at Kim's Crafty Apple and at the Project Quilting with KimsCraftyApple flickr group.

The season had ended.  It was fun to see all the different interpretations of the challenges.  I loved having the challenge to make new projects and the judge's critiques were so helpful.  They gave great tips for improving and I seldom disagreed with anything they said.  I would find myself looking at my works-in-progress in different ways.  We all help out each other on our blogs but I think we tend to only make supportive comments.  The Project Quilting judges were anonymous - that may have made it a little easier to offer constructive critism.  Thank you to all the judges for your time and advice!

And thanks, Kim, for another great season!

Deep In The Middle

No finishes yet - just in the middle of lots of projects.

I did most of the work on this quilt, Ramblin' Rose in February.  This weekend the ric-rac stems have been sewn down.  I'm working on the flowers, then it needs to be bound.

I have a good start on my version of Sashiko for this week's WOW challenge - the theme is Japan.

Sharon from Kentucky made this Quilt of Valor.  I always audition several thread colors before starting to quilt.  White / off-white is seldom my first choice but with the red, white and blue quilts it usually seems to be the best.

The final Project Quilting challenge of Season 2 is large scale prints.  This looks large, doesn't it?  A striped or plaid fabric still needs to be added. 

These are pieces for a Quilt of Valor that is going to a wounded hero that I know.  108 rectangles that have one bit of blue and 54 rectangles of white/blue/white will yield sets of little triangle that will make 216 HST that are 1 3/4" square.  I'm still working on what to do with them.  Several red and white blocks are already finished... no pic.

This is probably the reason I have so many middles and no finishes ;)   It's almost finished.  Tonight?  Tomorrow?  Then I plan to have a week full of finishes.  

Mini Quilt Exchange - Practice Piece

Jennifer of All Things Belle (and the force behind Make It WOW) has started a flickr group for a mini-quilt exchange.   It sounds like fun!  Of course I joined.  And of course I'm impatient to get started, so I made a practice mini quilt.

I had one lonely flower made from a log cabin block.  It was one of my cast-offs from last season's Project Quilting.  All that was needed was a stem, with a leaf.  Fusible applique held the pieces in place while they were stitched down with an applique stitch.  No binding this time, just the front and back RST with the batting behind the front, stitch and turn inside out.  Echo quilting was done in one of my new favorite thread colors - antique.  A length of embroidery floss stitched to each side of the top for hanging completes the mini quilt. 

It's just 3" x 5" which is the smallest size in the mini quilt exchange.  The largest size is 15" x 15".  I might just make a practice 15" mini quilt tomorrow.

Want to join the fun? Just one project per month.  That's doable.  Come on.  Join in.  You know you want to. 

Olde Cedar Chest Finish

I made this last spring and it's just been waiting for binding for the longest time.

Just the right size for a large table or a small baby.

Meandering quilting with a soft, dusty rose kind of pink.

And it lays flat - love that!

Can't Wait To Dig In!

Doesn't this look like fun?!

I'm making this pattern.....

Rambling Rose

I just can't decide on a flower color, but I want it to be anything but red.  With the green ric rac for stems I thought red would look Christmas-y.  Maybe it should be a few colors????