Friday, March 30, 2012

Friday Musings

I just ran into a post about the Festival of Half-Square Triangles, which is rather hilarious because yesterday I came up with an idea for a quilt, using said HST's...so I'm IN!

Check out the det's here:
http://www.canoeridgecreations.com/

I'm not telling what my master plan is, but as soon as I purchase my fabric for my idea, I'll get started and post some pics.  I'm so excited!

Also, I finished up quilting my 2nd baby blanket using the same pattern as I did for the Citrus Sunrise quilt.
I didn't follow any pattern for this, just kind of made it up as I went.  I'll post a tutorial on it later once I'm done with this one.  I've just got to finish the binding and it's done!  Woohoo!

I'm also super excited...I posted my Taffy Pull quilt pictures on Flickr and I've gotten tons of compliments on them, even from some lovely ladies whose blogs I follow religiously!  This is such a great compliment to me!  All you wonderful quilting blogland ladies are so awesome!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Hugs!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Taffy Pull Quilt - Pics

This quilt has been finished for a while, but I was waiting for some sunshine to take it outside and get some decent pics taken.  So, we took the kids, the quilt and the puppy to the park yesterday.  It was super windy, but I was able to get a few decent pictures.  :)


The back

The front on the grass

Resting on a park bench

This quilt was entirely made from the Ruby line by Moda.  This is one of my all time favorite lines of fabric.  I used a charm pack and a jelly roll, and Kona White for the sashing.  Red dots for the binding and a mish-mash of the same fabric line on the back.  I love this quilt - and it's all mine.  Muwhahaha. :)

Happy Monday!
Hugs.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Citrus Sunrise Quilt - Finished!

It's finished!  It's been washed and it's nice and crinkly!

The key block is from the Secret Garden collection.  That is my all time favorite fabric in this quilt.

Here's the back.  I love the back almost as much as the front.

What did you complete over the weekend?
Happy Monday!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Citrus Sunrise Quilt - In Progress

I ordered this stash of beauties from Pink Castle Fabrics.  I thought the colors were SO nice and warm and instantly reminded me of summer days soon to be.  I put the fabrics all together and Robot Husband said it was 'too busy'.   Once I put a border on it though, he said it looked better.  I think it's gorgeous.  It's a baby quilt size. 

I have been terrified of free motion quilting.  I made it a goal though to learn it and conquer my fear.  I decided to with this quilt.  I had practiced in the past, only to end up throwing a big fit and throwing my practice fabric under the table and running away hiding.  Apparently I forgot all this and just dived right in on this quilt.  First I attempted loopy lines.  They were fine, but I didn't love it with this quilt.  So, I unpicked 2 rows the entire length of the quilt.  Needless to say, I am a pro at unpicking.  ;)  Then I decided to do some stippling.  OMG!  It turned out!  Woohoo!  You have no idea how happy I am that together, me and my sewing machine conquered our worst fear!

Stippling

Here's the front.  Pardon my iPhone pictures...my memory card on my camera is full and I have yet to take my 4,000 pictures to be developed. ;)


I'm hoping to get this finished this weekend.  I'll post more pictures when it's complete!  :)
Happy Friday!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Wonky Houses

My friend Kristy and I (Hi Patchy!) took a Wonky House class at Material Girls.  Ohhhh.M.G.
These are SO fun to make.   Just get 1 1/2 yards of background fabric, cut out 12 squares, 12x12 each.  Then...RAID your scrap box!  Start cutting out house shapes, trees, grass, whatever you can think of! 
I finished mine last night and now I just need to put them together.

If you are a Robot Husband and don't understand the term - 'Wonky', let me 'splain.  Wonky just means that you can cut things and it doesn't have to be straight.  It's SUPPOSED to be crooked!  How fun!  And genius!  Cuz I can't cut a straight line to save my life.  I can't even walk a straight line, on a good day.  Anyway-enough about me.

Here are a couple of my favorites:
I love the little deer. :)

The kite is my FAVORITE!  Baby ric-rac is to die for.  If you know me, I'm obsessed with ric-rac.  Who knew they had baby ric-rac?  Um, I didn't.  I should know these things.  I also did one block using red baby ric-rac for a clothes line with little dresses hanging on them.  Yah-adorable.  ;) LOL.

Here's an annoyed bunny face - for good measure.
I was messing with her stuff and she hates that.  She's a little bit of a perfectionist in her play area.

Stay tuned!  I've got this quilt to finish up and one other one.
Hugs!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Snow! And a plea for your local Snowplow driver



I was sewing up a lovely little quilt last night - with beautiful pinks, oranges and yellows.  Reminiscent of summer.  Then, I looked outside.  The wind was howling and I kept hearing ice crystals hit my sewing window.  Hmmm.  The hubby called (he is a snow plow operator) and said the roads were clear were he was.  It was a MESS at our house.  People were getting stuck left and right, my poor neighbor attempted to go out and plow out our circle, only to have his snow plow fall off his truck.  I watched this storm ensue well  into the middle of the night.  It was quite the storm.  I guess Mother Nature is making up for all the snow she DIDN'T send us in the appropriate snow periods??  Humpf.

Now, on to the 'plea'.  My husband plows snow for a living.  Yes, he chose that profession.  We have several discussions after his 14-15 hour shifts about how he nearly escaped being killed by people driving stupid on the freeway.  Yes-the snow plows are GIGANTIC, but they can still get hurt, more tho-end up hurting drivers.  So, please-if you are driving on the freeway (or Bangerter!)  don't attempt to pass and cut off your local snowplow driver.  The wing plows alone on the snow plow weighs as much as a compact car.  Passing them could be super dangerous especially if you can't see the wing blades.  Plus could you imagine them having to slam on their breaks because someone cut them off, then the pile up that could happen?

I don't know how they drive those things to begin with.  There are about 400 buttons, 13 different gears, plus it's ginormous.  My girls and I got to sit in his truck one day.  It was super intimidating.  So because I love my husband and need him to come home every day after working 15 hour shifts, please please give some love to your fellow snow plow driver.  They are people too and have families and they are doing a service to the community - so you can go to work in the morning, get your latte from Starbucks and arrive safely to your destinations.

Thank you!
Snowy Hugs!  ;)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Quilts of Valor

If you haven't heard of the Quilts of Valor, check it out here: http://www.qovf.org/index.html
You can make a patriotic quilt and it will be donated to a quilt veteran.  It's a great cause for sure.  I had the chance of listening to a lady from Utah speak on the subject.  She volunteers her Long Arm and her time to put together quilts for donation.

I've started making Wonky Stars to put together a quilt top.  So far so good.  I've wanted to do Wonky Stars for ages and I got an awesome book that I am loving and it gives a great tutorial on Wonky Stars.
Sew to Swap: Quilting Projects to Exchange Online and by Mail
I got mine through Amazon, which can I just say, Amazon is amazing.  2 day shipping?  Seriously?  How do they do it?  It's awesome.


Sigh - I can't get this picture to rotate correctly, but anyway - you get the idea.  I have a total of 8 so far. :)  All of the stars are done using patriotic colors, prints.  They turn out really cute.

Happy Monday!
Hugs.