{Post 1,067} Ivy's Quilt Finished

Ivy finished her quilt this AM!  I didn't find out until last night when she came to finish the quilting that her sister's baby shower is tomorrow!  Flip into fast forward.  We put the binding on last night and I showed her how to hand sew it to the back.  Maybe if you've been quilting a while you will remember how awkward and slow you were when you first started doing that yourself.  She was a trooper though and worked through.  She same over this afternoon so we could both work on it to finish it up.  It's in the washer now.

{Post 1,066} Pink & Orange Finished

If I hadn't seen this on my own design wall, I would hardly believe I made it.  Enough of previous dialogue.  38-1/2" square.  Without further ado, here are six pictures to peruse:

{Post 1,065} Top Finished for Modern Baby

This font is supposed to be orange!  Here are sticks 5, 6, and 7.  The top is complete...on to the quilting!

Special thanks to my hubby for helping me figure out how to bisect two existing sticks.  My method was making a slash and adding a strip of color.  He pointed out that I should REMOVE white fabric and REPLACE it with a color to keep the existing lines lined up properly.  What a genius!

{Post 1,064} Modern Baby Quilt

I wonder how well this font color will show up?  In case you haven't noticed, I match my font color to the item I'm blogging about.  There isn't a color on blogger for this quilt.

This probably should be on my secret blog, but the one for whom I'm making it does not have internet and probably doesn't know I have a blog, so I'm fairly certain it shall remain a surprise.

One night I asked the mother-to-be what type of quilt she'd like me to make her.  I usually (ok--never) ask.  I just make something and give it.  For some odd reason I felt compelled to ask this time.  She said something modern (yes, my heart nearly stopped) in bright pinks and bright oranges (yes, the ticker skipped a few at this comment).  I tried to act natural, like I made bright pink and orange modern quilts all.  the.  time.  Inside, I was thinking "What in the world?  How does one make a modern quilt?  Who would want a bright pink and orange quilt?"  

Well, I recovered and planned, and here's what I have so far.  My intention is to make this random...like pick-up sticks of various widths were dropped onto a white-on-white floor.  Here are pictures stick by stick:

On the last picture I did not crop out the edges of what started out being a square of fabric.  I am going to trim it down then add perhaps a couple more slices of color.  I was inspired by the designs in my new machine quilting book by Angela Walters.  All the quilts in there are modern quilts.  I am going to quilt each section with a different modern design.  Talk about being outside one's comfort zone!!

~Joan

{Post 1,063} Ornaments Finished

I finished the first batch of the selvage Christmas tree ornaments.  Now I'm wondering what to do with them!  I would like to sell some to support my habit (of quilting, that is).

Here are six of them:

As I was sewing the jute loops to the top with buttons, I was having trouble finding buttons small enough to use in my button box.  Then *aha* I remembered my small jar of buttons that I'd removed from the men's shirts I was using for quilts.  Perfect!

Making fantastic progress on my 3 identical secret Christmas projects.  Head on over to my secret blog to check them out.  If you need the URL, just email me.

~Joan

{Post 1,062} Christmas Ornaments

Here is a little idea I sorta copied from two pictures I have seen put together.  They are made from selvages, then used a pinked blade rotary cutter for trimming:

They will eventually all have trunks.  I ran out of steam.  Just can't get motivated today.  I made the two green with horizontal pieces first, then tried some diagonal greens, then made 8 of the diagonal cream, thinking they would show best against green branches on a tree.  I am going to make a short jute hanger and attach it with a button at the top.  I will probably list these on eBay or Etsy down the road.

So tired.

~Joan

{Post 1,061} Bad Blogger

Shockingly enough, it's been over a week since I've blogged. Bad, bad blogger.  I find I am running myself ragged (again still) and everyday life is just so daily.  

On the sewing front (which is about all I post about...do not be deceived--I have a whole, very full, non-sewing life) I have a couple finishes for the week.

One of our family friends is expecting a baby any day.  In my former (think summer) I'm-ahead-of-the-baby-quilt game, I got slack and totally missed this particular friend's quilt.  So I used one of Mary's Quickie Strip quilts with fabrics I had on hand.  This was so fast and ended up so cute (IMHO).  Without further ado, here it is with the Color Catcher fresh from the dryer (and it looks like it's a good thing it was in there):

Since the piecing was so fast, I did a little "fancier" quilting.  Variegated green/blue/red/yellow thread in the blue and in the red, white on the Pooh print.  

The blue stripes have a wavy zigzag...the red has my reverse curlicues.  The white has a new-to-me box stipple.  I don't know if the baby will be a boy or girl, so I made something kind of neutral.

The back--again, from my stash.  I used a light blue thread in the bobbin to match the color of the toile.

In more breaking news, I found out recently that my oldest daughter will be living in Wisconsin in an apartment for the foreseeable future.  I asked her if she wanted me to make her a set of seasonal wall quilts, and she said YES!  So this is the first one:

What a difference a little flash makes!  Same quilt:

~Joan