Four and Four Quarters

If you are looking for the giveaway go here. :-)

Although Robin's pattern calls for five yards OR ten half yards OR twenty fat quarters, I decided to mix things up choosing four yards and four fat quarters. And now that I have my four quarters, I couldn't resist the urge to get this quilt going even though I already started A2's quilt. Late last night I finished cutting everything.

Backing, blocks, and binding all cut and ready to go. The list of things that need to make it to the machine continues to grow!

Speaking of those Kona solids...while cutting I happened to stack the red onto the blue only to realize that the red was significantly shorter. So I measured them. My Kona tomato is a full two inches shorter than the other three colors. Interestingly, the tomato color is 44" wide which is average for fabric. I guess I'll just look at the other colors as a bonus.

My Christmas List

I have five quilts I need to have done by Christmas. One for each sister (3), one for my mom, and one for my sister's boyfriend. Each of the five is in a different stage of the process.

A2's quilt fabric is in line for the wash.A3's quilt fabric I showed you a couple months ago. I am making some finishing touches to the pattern I designed for this quilt before cutting it up.
A4's quilt is in the process of being pieced.My mom's quilt is on pause. It is the black and red string quilt I've shown before. There is something about string blocks that I love and something about them that I hate. The part I didn't like so much started getting to me and I put this project aside for awhile.Finally, A2's boyfriend's quilt I am still purchasing fabric for. His is the guitar themed quilt I've mentioned before. I still need three yards of fabric before I can get started on his. The pattern, Five, Ten, Twenty, is just waiting for its turn.

It is an ambitious goal for me, but one I really hope I can reach. I don't want any of them to see their quilts before Christmas so I am hoping that posting progress on here will help keep me accountable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Memory Scraps Quilt

On Monday afternoon, I found out I was one of the winners of a Memory Scraps charm pack over at Just Ramblin'. Thanks to the amazingly fast U.S.P.S. the package traveled half way across the country and arrived in my mailbox yesterday. How can anyone not like the mailman when they bring treats like this...
I happened to have the fabric pictured at the bottom, which I think coordinates with the charms quite perfectly, in my stash. There should be enough to use for backing plus some.
Combined with these scraps from the magical box of squares and scraps I've been digging into lately, I should have enough for another charm square baby quilt.
I have quite a few other quilts that really should come ahead of this one, but the ease of piecing the pre-cut squares is almost too much to resist. We'll see how long I can hold out.

More Eye Candy

The stash for my color wheel quilt is slowly growing. The four bottom are new.
Fabric for a quilt for sister 3. She wanted yellow, pink, and animal prints. I've pulled my inspiration from one of my favorites on flickr for the pattern. Simple, but striking.Another yard for sister 1's boyfriend's quilt. Going to use my five, ten, twenty pattern from my giveaway winnings from Robin's birthday. I'm thinking maybe some solids would go well with this and the guitar words fabric I found.
I'm thinking the goal will be to make them each a quilt for Christmas. That's four more quilts before December. Don't know if I'll be able to manage it or not, but I think I'll try.

Big Sale, Big Finds

As scheduled, I made my way to my LQS yesterday for their 'date matching' sale. Not only was all regularly priced merchandise 25% off since it was the 25th, but they also had clearance merchandise up to 75% off.

So what did I find?

Backing fabric for 'Musical Pinwheels'...Backing fabric for my log cabin bed quilt...Fabric for a colorwheel quilt to be made in the future and a spool of thread for piecing...
The prices and service were great, they even offered me a free half yard on both backings since they were the end of each bolt, but they didn't have many modern or novelty fabrics so we decided to hit another LQS a few cities over. They offered a much larger selection, but also had higher prices, no sale, and not so great service. I found a few batiks on their sale shelf that I really liked though so it wasn't a worthless visit.
I was quite pleased with my findings and brought everything home to admire. I pulled out the tops that correspond to the backings I had purchased only to discover that the Musical Pinwheels top doesn't match the back. Mind you, I took a swatch of the pink to the store and in the lighting there it matched, but in the lighting here at home and with the whole front, the pinks are different. So into the stash that fabric goes. I'll have to try again for the backing.

Let's Make a Deal

I want more fabric. I love all the beautiful designs, colors, and textures I find when fabric shopping. I happen to know myself though and know that I tend to buy and hoard things and never end up using them. So I negotiated a deal with myself. I would set a goal and when I reached it I could buy more fabric. Then came the difficult part of setting a reasonable goal. Something not too hard to reach, but also not too easy just because I wanted to go shopping. I've thought about it for a couple of days and here is what I have come up with:
1)Make and attach binding to disappearing nine patch.
2)Iron and cut Camelot fabric.
3)Piece Camelot top and back.
4)Make Camelot binding.
5)Iron and cut Princess fabric.
6)Piece Princess front and back.
7)Make Princess binding.

Its sort of a lot to do, but I don't think it is unreasonable. I'm hoping to work on ironing and cutting this week which should be a good start.

My Stash

With all my unpacking and organizing I have managed to create a tiny little crafting space for myself in my bedroom. There isn't too much room for growth at the moment, but I'm hoping there will be in the future. The top three cubes hold my stash. The middle three have (from left to right) finished quilts, finished knitted baby blankets, and WIPs. The bottom holds knitting needles and a tiny fraction of my knitting supplies (the rest are in the basement in containers), my scraps, and apparel and other misc. fabrics. I am quite proud of my neatly folded and sorted stash and look forward to adding to it. There are a few more things that don't fit in the shelving unit that I have to continue to work on finding a home for, like patterns, thread, rulers, etc., but I plan on continuing to adjust and organize until it all fits.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Oh my...it has been nearly three weeks since I last posted! In that time I have accomplished many things, though few are quilting related. First of all, I finished school. Then I moved. Then I helped my sister's boyfriend move. Then I helped a friend with her move. Finally, this...
Graduation day. On Sunday I graduated with my Master's degree. I can't tell you how happy I am to finally have it completed.

Amidst all the papers, boxes, and hours in the car I was able to get a little quilting done. My red and black string quilt is coming along.
Some in progress blocks:
And some of the completed ones:
And I managed to baste the disappearing nine patch yesterday.

Oh! And when I arrived at my new address this was waiting for me...
My winnings from Robin. So many pretty fabrics and a great pattern she wrote herself.

I'm anxious to get some more done, but have a lot more boxes to unpack and commitments to fulfill before I'll have time to make much progress. We'll see what I can squeeze in here and there in the next few weeks.

Wordless Wednesday

Parade of Projects 4

The most important of my upcoming projects is a dorm quilt for my sister who is graduating next May. I'm planning and beginning a year early so it'll be ready in time to give her as a graduation present. I know how I operate and that I may need all that time. Plus I'd rather have it done too early than too late.

(I apologize this picture is sideways. I cannot get it to rotate.)

Fabrics: Michael Miller prints, Kona solids, and a floral print
Pattern: An original design I created. Blocks are 16 1/2"x9 1/2".
Size: Twin extra-long bed sized (I'm aiming for 66"x92")
Backing: Hot pink with a stripe pieced from the other fabrics
Binding: Black

She requested a French theme and hot pink. Everything else is up to me. I've (finally!) finished the design and now just have to get started.

That's all the confirmed projects I have at the moment. There are several others stewing in my brain, but they need to be firmed up a bit before I add them to the list.

Parade of Projects 3

Fabrics: Disney Princess Panel with coordinating calico and solid fabrics
Pattern: Pieced square border surrounding the panel
Size: Baby sized
Backing: Pieced but I haven't decided on a design
Binding: Hopefully the purple, but if there isn't enough than the blue

This fabric was purchased six or more years ago to make two matching quilts for a couple of little girls I used to babysit for. The story of the first quilt will come, complete with picture, later this week...

Parade of Projects 2

Project BFabrics: Misc. red, black, and white fabrics. Some scraps and some cuts specifically for this project
Pattern: Strip quilt, but I haven't decided on the block size. I'm thinking 8.5" unfinished blocks
Size: Lap quilt
Backing: Red, black, and white checked fabric
Binding: Undecided

The New Additions

My new fabrics arrived from fabric.com...
The one on the left is a guitar fabric I bought for a future project for my sister's boyfriend. He loves to play guitar and will appreciate all the guitar words. I haven't seen very many masculine fabrics so if I'm going to make a quilt for him at some point, I'll need to keep an eye out for appropriate fabrics starting now.
The fabric in the middle is a flannel print for a Noah's Ark baby quilt. Also a future project as it was requested by my younger sister who won't be having a baby for several years.
Last, but not least is dance fabric. Not sure yet if this will be for a quilt or a dance bag for one of my sisters. It is covered in dance terminology and I think they'll love anything I make out it.

Also in the package was a $5 coupon since they weren't able to send my tiger paw fabric. I'm trying to not buy any more fabric for awhile since I'm about to graduate and have yet to find a source of income post-graduation. If anyone is interested, it is $5 off of $20 at fabric.com and I'm happy to mail it to the first person that leaves a comment saying they would use it.

Too Good to be True

I knew it. That deal on the Stripey Tiger fabric was too good to be true. They ran out of yardage before getting to my order. :-( I'm bummed, but I'll just have to keep my eye out for another print or the same one elsewhere for my t-shirt project.

Adding to My Stash

Fabric.com is having a great sale. Until midnight tonight they are offering an additional 30% off of any clearance items (use code CLEARANCE323 at checkout). In addition, sales over $35 ship for free. And that is $35 before the discount. I ordered 8 yards of fabric and with the free shipping the whole order was under $30!

My favorite find, Stripey Tiger Paws, is a perfect for a project I have in mind. My high school mascot is a tiger and the school colors are black and gold. I've been wanting to make a t-shirt quilt out of my old t-shirts as there are so many and I never wear them anymore. They are just sitting at my parents' house in boxes. Anyway, I'm hoping to use this as the binding fabric. It is almost too good to be true that I found it. I just have to figure out if it is okay to mix old t-shirts with quilting cotton.
I got some other cute prints too that I will share when they arrive!

Lucky Find

A week ago, while visiting family, I was driving down the road, running an errand, when I passed the local quilt shop. A large banner hanging on the side of the building read "Fat Quarter Sale - Fill Your Stash!" with Saturday's date underneath. I quickly decided to take their suggestion and join them on Saturday in an attempt to fill up my stash.
I got there on Saturday, but not until about thirty minutes after the store had opened. Most every sale priced FQ was already sold and there were many unhappy women milling about the store. It turns out if you were not there when the doors opened, you were out of luck. I decided to look around a little bit and see if there were any other fabrics that caught my, even if they weren't on the mega-sale. While looking, I came across a tiny stack of the sale FQ that had been looked over. There were a few trick-or-treat fabrics, one other design I didn't care for, and this...
I quickly picked up several FQs of each print, debating how many I wanted. I ended up with a yard of the castle background and 1/2 yard of the map background. I left a few FQs on the table, but now wish I would have bought every last one they had.
I'm absolutely loving this fabric - its soft, bright, and so cute - and can't wait to make a little quilt out of it!