Hometown

I LOVE Moda's Hometown line by Sweetwater.  It is just gorgeous and I have a lot of it...let's just say those aren't fat quarters stacked up and leave it at that.   

I am still trying to decide exactly what sort of quilt to make but I also plan on using the extra fabric to make pillows for our sofa.  I have decided my house needs to be introduced to my style because I don't feel like it quite represents me.  We will see if I manage to pull off all I want to with this fabric!

DS Heaven!

If you are looking to enter my HUGE giveaway, you can find out how to enter and win one of 6 great prizes here.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I decided that I had looked at this fabric too many times without buying that I finally needed to take the plunge.  JoAnns' DS fabric line is priced about the same as the quilt store fabric, but I did get to use a 50% off coupon to buy the 5 yards of backing fabric I bought.  Score.

I know the DS fabric is very popular, but I just love how this fabric literally reminds me of going on a picnic.  So, I am going to make, what else?  A picnic quilt out of it!  Not sure exactly what design I am going to do yet... for now it is sitting on my shelf while I keep staring at it trying to decide what to do... but it is calling to me, so I am sure it won't be too long until I dive in!

Batch of Brownies Quilt- FINISHED

 This next quilt was really fun to make.  Mostly because I was in love with the fabrics and colors and that always makes quick work for a quilt. 

 I used Elizabeth Hartman's "Practical Guide to Patchwork" pattern "Batch of Brownies" (with a few modifications).  As you well know, I don't like to go exactly as the pattern says!

 Because I feel the need to have a quilt big enough to wrap myself in, I added some spacing between each block and each row and I also added a border to add to the quilt size.

 The fabric I used is from Art Gallery and is the Modern Affair line.  I bought it along with the Kona solids in a bundle from Sew Fresh Fabrics on Etsy.  Sometimes when my brain isn't working right or when I am buying fabric online and am not sure of the colors, I really love the fabric bundles.

 I used a fabric from the same line featured on the front for the back.  I LOVE the back!

 The quilting was done by my mom on her long arm.  She used a silver thread and I think it was the perfect match for this quilt.

Still not sure of my plans for this one yet... it's in my craft room for now piled on my shelf.

Bee Connected Next Month

For my new Bee Connected Bee, I am doing the first month... how awesome right?  Well, actually it was mostly because I had enough fabric and was ready to send out to everyone at a moments' notice.

Anyway, this fabric come from the Theory line as well as Modern Affair.  Those are also some solid Konas in the background.

This time I am asking for improv blocks.  I think that these quilting bees are best used to bring others' talents and abilities to everyone.  So, I love it when members can be as creative as possible.  The only real requirement I gave was that it needed to be 12.5" squared, needed to contain a bit of one of the solid fabrics and it had to include one square in the block.  I am eager to see what everyone comes up with.

This is an international bee so I probably won't get around to make this quilt until July or even August, but I will post as I finish things up.

Aviary Quilt

 I recently purchased Joel Dewberry's line of Aviary 2 fabrics in the yellow/granite colorway.  I just really liked the fabrics.  I purchased them from Hawthorne Threads who I find often gets some of the newer lines sooner and also has some other hard to find lines.  I also used Kona Charcoal and Bella Snow.

 I saw a pattern in a magazine that I loved, cut out and changed a few things.  I made the blocks a little bigger, and changed placement and layout a bit.  But I really love how this design shows off the fabrics.  I love this line so much that I didn't want to hack it up and lose the fabric design... I like this so much that I will likely use this or a similar pattern (because I didn't write down exact measurements-- I like to wing it:)) again in the future.

 What I like most about this is that the frames/borders/sashing (whatever you call it), are not all even.  One side is thicker/bigger than the others on most of these blocks.  I think it adds a dimension and a character to the quilt.

 My mom out did herself on this quilting.  It looks so good and fits the quilt fabric perfectly.

 It is a little easier to tell in the above pictures that four of these blocks actually makes up one large block.  I like that and think I will do something like that in the future as well.

 Close up of the quilting.

For the back I used Moda Bella Snow and pieced a section in the middle with the fabric I had left over.  I did the binding in Kona Black and I think it is really striking.  I love it!!

The beauty is going to my friend Laurie.  She saw it, loved it, wanted to BUY it (she is so silly) and said she had to have it.  I was like "Really!? My quilt?!?" So we are working out a trade.  She makes great bags so I think I will be swapping for some bags in the near future!

Charms Framed

 I have to tell you, this quilt has turned into one of my favorite quilts!!  I just love how bright it is!  You really can't be in the company of this quilt without being happy!

 Lucy, who just can't help herself, on top of my completed quilt.

 This quilt was completed using 2 charm square packs of Free Spirit Fabrics' Tea Garden collection.  For the top, I cut each charm square in half and sewed in either Kona white or the pink colored Kona (can't remember what I used!).  I put the squares in groups of four, sewed them together and then framed them with Kona Corn Yellow.  Then I used that Kona green/blue (I'm sorry, don't remember that name either).  Really easy, and great result!

 For the back, I just used whatever left over charm squares were available and sewed them all together into a square.  Then I did the opposite framing as the front.  I love a pieced back!

The quilting was done with a varigated thread and I love it!  It shows up awesome on the bold/plain Kona fabrics.  I used the pink fabric as the binding and I love the way that it really pops!  I think it's great to be able to buy a couple sale packs of charms and throw in some on-sale solids and have a great quilt!

This beauty resides in our family room, usually found with a child inside :).

Baby Girl Quilt

 I made this baby girl quilt awhile back and it was really fun and easy to make.  I had all the fabrics in my stash and it was a really easy quilt to make up in my head.  Cut squares, frame squares, sew together.  Not hard.

 Still no recipient for this one yet, but I have a little someone in mind :).

 Quilting done courtesy of my momma-- the quilt back was a really cheap fabric that I bought off of fabricdepot.com in their clearance section.

Pooh Baby Quilt

 I have a lot of friends who have a lot of babies... apparently I am of the same group seeing as I am due any day!  So, I make a lot of baby quilts.  You will see them featured on here often, I am sure.

I made this quilt for my friend Trisha.  She recently had a little boy, Ashton.  I saw this fabric while I was at Hobby Lobby loading up on my Konas.  I just love the vintage Pooh stuff, so this caught my eye.

 It took me literally a morning to put this quilt top together.  I bought a panel, boxed those blocks in and made a few pinwheels, sewed it all together and tada!

 Mom quilted it, I bound it and it was a great gift from her and I!

Winnie the Pooh is so classic!

Blockwork Orange Quick Swap

 Last month I joined the Blockwork Orange Swap.  It was one of those swaps that you just had to punch out a bunch of blocks and mail them in and get others' blocks back in return.  This particular one was so fast and a total breeze.  I LOVED it!

 These crazy 9-patch blogs were courtesy of Oh Franssons online tutorial.

 They are really easy to do, almost impossible to mess up and you bang out 9 of these bad boys at the same time!  WOO HOO!

 Above are the group of blocks that I sent in for the swap.  I used fabric mostly purchased from Fabricworm.  They have bundles in almost every colorway so it was an easy pick for fabric for this one.  I also had some other oranges in my stash that I added in.

 Here are the blocks when I got them back.  I tried to play around with how I wanted them and thought I would probably lay them in rows like this, but opted for something else.

This is the finished top.  I put the blocks in groups of four and groups of six and laid them just like you see above.  Then, I framed them in Kona Snow and sashed and bordered in Kona Charcoal.  I am really happy with it and will post the finished product when it is finished being quilted and when I have the back put together.  Still not sure what to do with the back!

My month for 12 month quilting bee!!!!

March was my month to send out fabric for the Twelve Month Quilting Bee.  I chose to work with Ty Pennington's Impressions line and it turned out to be a really nice selection.  I purchased the fabric from Fabric Worm (which is quickly becoming a favorite shop spot for me because I LOVE their fabric bundles.... takes the guess work out of picking matching fabrics). 

 Each of the 12 members were asked to make one or two wonky log cabins.

 Here are the two wonky log cabins I came up with.  I am anxious to get this quilt completed!

I will post pictures soon of the completed quilt!