Finishing Touches

Last Saturday we met at Sylvia's to quilt our breast cancer raffle quilt on her Qbot. It is so exciting to put those finishing touches on to a project. And this one was especially heart warming. Dillon, who is Sylvia's grandson, and also a student in Mrs M's class this year - stopped by to check it all out. He picked out the backing for the quilt.

Once we finished quilting it, Yvonne put on the binding. I'm working on a quilt label to add to the back. We want to make sure whoever wins this remembers that it was made for a very important cause. And of course we hope that lots of money is raised for Mrs. M's foundation. We hope to display the quilt next week at an education conference being held locally where nearly 200 educators will gather.

Bags, bags, bags

I just finished a cute little bag and have another nearly finished. I love these quick projects when I'm super busy, but still feel the need to sew a little bit.

The fabric in this bag is from the Arabella line of PB Textiles. I got 6 beautiful fat quarters from my friend Sylvia on my birthday back in March and have been looking for a fun project to use them. She knows how I love bright colors and these have my favorites: reds, greens, pinks, oranges. Just yummy! The one I have partially done is in black and white.

The pattern, called Wallet & Grommet, is from Maple Island Quilts in Burnsville, Minnesota. This bag can be made in less than 2 hours - start to finish. The directions are easy to follow.

More on the "Rolling On" quilt . . .

The top is done and we love how it turned out. 80 of the pinwheel blocks went together - 16 made by each of the 5 of us. Then a narrow white border and a somewhat wider bright pink border. Pam brought the quilt to school yesterday and showed it to Mrs. M, whose breast cancer foundation it is being donated to for a raffle. One of her students, Dillon, also was the one to select the backing fabric since his grandma (Sylvia) is one of the 5. He did a great job in picking out a fun pink/white print that feels almost like flannel.

Here we are - working on the quilt. . .

Rolling On Against Breast Cancer

Here it is - our raffle quilt for breast cancer awareness. This is a group project and we put together the top last night at Marilyn's. We'll quilt it on Saturday at Sylvia's. More about this project later and more pictures!

Spring Mini Quilt Swap

I've been working on my spring-themed mini quilt for the swap that I signed up for. I'm really eager to get my project finished and mailed - and also to get a package in the mail from my partner. Getting mail is so much fun!!!!

My mini quilt has pink, gold, orange - all on a white background. I finished the applique this weekend, but want to embellish it before hand quilting it.

I'll wait and post a sneak peek once I get a little further with this project.

A Secondary Benefit to Quilting

Yesterday morning I was starting to stitch down the binding on a quilt, and the method I love best is hand stitching. It's relaxing, and just comes out looking much nicer than when I've attempted to machine stitch binding. So . . . I was on the sofa in the family room, quilt draped over me, cat laying on part of the quilt, great "chick flick" movie playing on the TV, cup of coffee next to me and stitching away on the binding. I was totally relaxed.

My husband came into the room, stood and watched me for a few minutes without saying anything, and finally commented "you get a secondary benefit to quilting - you get to enjoy the quilt before you finish it". He does like to wrap up in a quilt, but usually doesn't pay much attention to the process of quilting. He just knows it is a hobby that keeps me happy and relaxed. But yesterday morning he finally "got" one of the reasons WHY it keeps my relaxed.

This weekend's binding was actually the second one I've worked on in the past week. The baby quilt was a recent finished project. I made the quilt for Jace - the first baby of my god-son Colin and his wife Jackie. I mailed the quilt to them on Monday morning.

The pattern is a log cabin - swirled - with each block made of just 2 fabrics. It was actually made with a jelly roll. It worked out perfectly with just enough of each fabric left to do a scrappy binding. The back is a yummy yellow "cuddle soft" so it will feel so good next to the baby.

While visiting a quilt shop a few months ago, I saw a quilt done this way, but I couldn't find the exact pattern. I'm sure it exists somewhere, but I just didn't find it. I had done a rough sketch in my purse-size notebook so I finally just sat down at the computer and played with it until it looked the way I wanted.

So here it is - my version of the Log Cabin Swirl. Click to download the pattern.

Stage 3 - Origami bag is complete

I finally finished the origami bag. The final stage required rings sewn into the corners and cord or ribbon threaded through. I hunted for interesting rings to use and finally found some at our local Ben Franklin Craft store. The rings are actually jewelry pieces, but work perfectly here. And I ended up using 3 colors of ribbon since I didn't find cord in a color that worked.