What's on the go:

- My wonky stars quilt (my first foray into quilting, inspired by Jenny!). At the quilt retreat a few weeks ago I finally got the top pieced together. This week I hand-stitched around all the stars with variegated thread, about the weight of embroidery floss.  Next up: I want to echo-quilt in white around all the stars.



 

- Pink square in a square (not sure on the name!) quilt. I have so much pink!  All from stash.  These blocks went together so fast! I chain-pieced just a couple at a time, during naptimes.  I'll probably move them around a bit more before sewing them together.



 

And one finished item!  My sister gave me a couple of bolts of tulle, and I had this black/white polkadot organza on the shelf from another project.  I'll be posting a tutorial for this circle skirt style tutu.  (excuse my crummy photos and bad lighting today!)  This has been nearly done for several weeks - today I finally had time to sew the ribbon on the hem.



 

A Scrappy Trip Around the World!

Finished!  I finally managed the free motion loops borders at a quilt retreat my friend organized a couple weeks ago - I think my machine behaved because it was intimidated by all the nice machines there!  My first large machine quilted quilt!  A learning process, for sure - I learned the importance of scant 1/4" seam allowances and accurate cutting, that using some cotton/poly blends is not the best idea, how to add borders and piece a backing, how to make a quilt sandwich, how to wrestle a large quilt through a domestic machine, how to free motion quilt swirls (though somewhat unevenly), how to add a label to the back...

 



 

Closeup:

 

 

Back:

 

And here are some interesting numbers for my quilt:

quilt top before quilting/binding: 53"x77"
number of blocks: 24
number of 2" finished squares: 864
total yardage used = 8yds:
- [24 blocks x 6 strips (144) @ 2.5"x16"] 4 yards (counting fabric at approx 40" wide, 16 2.5" wide strips can be cut side by side in one full width. 144/16=9 lengths of 16", so 144", which is 4 yds exactly)
- backing and binding = 4 yds

All the fabric is from my stash!  The biggest part of it, mostly "ugly" fabrics. The batting is part of a queen I bought for $14, and maybe a couple dollars on thread, so this quilt cost me maybe $10-12?

 

Bunny doll quilt & bedding

My inlaws pulled out my SILs old doll cradle for Abigail to play with at their house.  They also bought a doll for her for there.  The only problem: the cradle didn't have bedding anymore.  No longer a problem:



 

My MIL had also given me a stack of fabric, among which was this Daisy Kingdom fabric.  The bunnies I cut from a dress or pinafore panel, and the pale green with roses is the rest of the panel.  The wavy plaids are also Daisy Kingdom and coordinate great.



 

I made a simple white mattress with some poly batting inside, a set of tapered canopy curtains from the end of the dress panel, a patchwork pillow, and a little quilt.  The quilt was fun!  It was a fun chance to try my free motion foot again.  I did several different borders - a random wavy one, an orange peel design, and spaced scallops.  Then I outlined the bunnies and fence post and a few things...



 

Here is a close-up of some of the borders WIP. My machine actually had no problems doing free motion quilting this time!!  The only issue here is my unsteady hands.  By the time I was done the third border I felt like I was finally getting it!



 

Finished quilting the body of my Scrappy Trips!

 

This was a challenge to put through my little Babylock!



 

Back:



 

Now to decide what to do in the borders. I think I'd like to try something fun, not straight lines, maybe some free motion quilting.

More {small} quilty finishes

I've been having such fun experimenting with piecing and quilting techniques!

 Cathedral window pincushion. This one was so fun!  Used the tutorial here.




A couple of mug rugs. The smaller one is made from trimmings of my Scrappy Trips quilt (which I'm hoping to quilt soon!!). I practised free motion quilting on each of them, with varying degrees of success... The one on top I tried meandering with a loopy flower.



 And another mug rug, this one from trimmings from my Scrappy Trips quilt.  Somewhat funny that with the amount of fabric just sitting on shelves, I'm saving and using bitty scraps...  This one is self bound with the backing.

Spring Leaves table runner

A few weeks ago I saw this pretty table runner on Pinterest:

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I loved the idea!  But there were not really any directions or dimensions, so I just made up my own.



 

The background fabric is from a leftover lengths trimmed from my dining room curtains (5 years ago!), a cream, sort of slubby linen look.  I started with the vine - just took a strip of green, pressed the raw edges to the centre, and then pleated it in a wavy line as I went.  I cut my own templates for the two sizes of leaves and tried turned applique for the first time, and also used the blanket stitch on my machine for the first time.  It wasn't hard to find lots of blues & teals in my stash!  I think I may need to diversify a bit...  I echo-quilted around the leaves and vine and then did diagonal lines across.  I love it!  Now just to wait for spring to come...



 

 

Scrappy Mug Rug

When I was trimming my blocks from my Scrappy Trips quilt, there were lots of pieced strips 2" wide or less. I had a little fun with these scrappy strips this afternoon:



 

It's a little mug rug. I used a bit of fusible fleece inside, and it's self-bound with the backing fabric. Had a little fun practising stippling too - until my needle slipped out of the needle clamp, hit the plastic on the free motion foot, bent in half, and then broke. In the space of a few seconds, as I was stippling along at full tilt. Not sure why that happened... Thankfully the shank just dropped out on my work and the bent needle end stayed on the thread. Maybe I need to start using safety goggles!