July's Quilting Book Club project

From May through August, the Quilting Book Club has been working through four projects out of this book:

It is a great book filled with simple, fairly quilt designs and patterns.  I am enjoying improving my skills with these more basic quilts.  Plus, they're gorgeous and it is fun!!

For July, we are doing the "Knotted Squares" pattern.  It requires a Jelly Roll and a solid.  I chose to work with the Moda Hideaway line and some yellow Kona I had on hand. 

I've since been happily cutting and sewing.  I am really nervous about getting behind on the monthly projects so I have made a real effort to keep to the deadlines.  So far, so good. 

Here are the next two books that our book club will be working with:

First Quilting EVER!

 I've made many quilts, but have been spoiled by a quilting mother.  She has a longarm machine, so it was all to easy to just send my quilts to her.  However, since I am now not pregnant anymore and whipping out these quilts "too fast", according to her, she said I had to learn for myself!  So, I entered longarm training: an intense day long event to better familiarize myself with the machine and technique of longarm.  So, I quilted a quilt for the first time last week!

 This quilt is part of the The Quilting Book Club.  It is called Posie Patch and is from Amy Ellis' "Modern Basics book".  I used mostly Modern Meadow fabrics by Joel Dewberry.  The pattern is simple but has helped me improve my skills with triangles and matching up my seams.  It looks beautiful and I am really happy with the finished product.  It hangs in my sewing/craft room!!

 If you look close enough, you can see that the quilting isn't perfect... it is my first one though, but I really couldn't be more happy about it.  Using thread that doesn't show the quilting certainly helps.  I am excited to get another quilt on the racks and get going on my second quilting job!

In other news... I am getting excited to start putting these together:

Kick off to Stashtacular!

 Something exciting happened... I joined another group on flickr.  I know, I know, sounds crazy, but this one is therapeutic and perhaps NEEDED.  I joined in on Stashtacular.  I have pledged not to buy fabric for an entire month.  It's doable.

 Honestly I was thinking that I don't have that much fabric... I mean, I pump out quilts pretty fast, but from the comments I received after posting my stash pictures, I must have a problem!

My scrap bucket was overflowing as well, but I just went through it and narrowed it down to strips and squares so I feel a little more organized there.  Also, INSPIRED to make a scrap quilt.

The most excited part (for me anyway) for all this is that there are going to be lots of tutorials for things to make and PRIZES to be won!  I'm talking free fabric during my fabric fast!  So, you know I'm in. 

Joining Make Mine Modern Swap!

So, I have just joined the Make Mine Modern swap.  I know, another swap but I have been waiting for this one to open up because it seems like the swaps are really great and I am excited to make things for my partner!  Anyways, we needed to make a mosaic of things we like and our tastes and this is mine!

1. change purse, 2. Louise Pleated Wristlets, 3. Red and Aqua Winding Ways, 4. Australasian Bee Quilt Finished - front, 5. scalloped fabric garland, 6. "Spot On" Circle Quilt, 7. Doll Quilt Swap 10 Complete, 8. cathedral windows, 9. habitat by Jay McCarroll, 10. cosmetic pouch Riley Blake fabric, 11. Cascade Quilt, 12. Bumper in crib 1, 13. Supernova quilt, 14. Swap Ornaments from Amy, 15. DQS10 quilt finished, 16. For Make Mine Modern, 17. Breeze half apron 2, 18. Pillow in action, 19. Aviary 2 Quilt-FINISHED, 20. Blockwork Orange Quilt-FINISHED

FINALLY- I am worthy!

Just a quick note...  My mom finally deemed me worthy enough to man the long arm machine!  That's right, I am half way through quilting one of my quiltd for the first time!!!

June Bee Blocks

 June came with a lot of picture blocks.  Which I usually love, but I must admit that I am getting a little tired of them because I am running short on ideas.  Nonetheless here are some of the blocks!

For the Christmas Bee: for Wendi, she wanted pictures of Christmas.

 For Julie- She wanted houses./

 For Sally in the Aqua and Red Bee:

 For the Fat Stash Bee for Josee-- this was a fun block from a tutorial from Aneela Hoey.

 For the Twelve Month Quilting Bee for Julie:  She wanted people in their houses!

 Honey Bees Part Deux for Janeth-  Basic 9 patch

 Always Bee Learning Bee for Brenda- Quilt as you go!  This was a fun thing to learn, you actually are quilting your blocks as you are piecing them!

 Aqua and Orange Bee for Kristina:

 Aqua and Red Bee for Bek- Wonky Stars.

There you have it!

Blockwork Orange Quilt-FINISHED

 This was a great quilt to work on.  This quilt is the product of a swap I did called, "A Blockwork Orange".  We all used Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial of a crazy nine patch block and made as many as we wanted to swap. 

 I got mine back a month or so after handing them in and was very excited at all the great blocks!  I incorporated some more of the blocks that I made that included a square containing grey because I knew I wanted to used Kona charcoal for my sashing and border.  I love how it ties into the blocks so well.  I also bordered the block groupings with Kona Snow.

 This ended up being quite a big quilt and for some reason, the picture below is the best I got of the front of the quilt... (seriously!?!)

 It was really hard to find the right backing for this quilt and I am not sure I did it, but I found a fabric that had orange on an off white background.  I think it works well.

I bound the quilt with a scrappy binding made up of my leftover orange fabrics that I used for my own blocks.  I love it, it looks awesome. 

Still don't have a plan for this one yet!

Lovely Baby Quilt

 This is a baby quilt that I put together a little while back.  It was supposed to be a sudoku quilt kit, but when I assembled the rows, too many like colors were by each other so I had to assemble it a little bit differently... regardless, it is just just a bunch of charm squares sewed together!

 The fabric line for this quilt is Moda Lovely.

 After putting the charm squares together, it was clear this quilt needed a little something more, so my mom beat me to the punch and went ahead and appliqued some flowers on it... of course it looks great, complete with ric rac stems!

 My mom custom quilted this and I just LOVE it.  It may just be my favorite quilt job she's done so far!

 The back is also from the Moda Lovely line which is also what I used to bind the quilt.

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.

I actually made a bag!!

 I am branching out and it is a little scary!!  I was in desperate need of a new bag for church so I thought I would make one on my own.  I am a really good copier... I find lots of things to "copy" online, but I am not great at following directions.  I typically look at lots of tutorials and patterns and then do my own thing.  Often there is a bit of trial and error, but that's how I learn.  --- This is very much how my life is too :)

 So, I made this bag from a charm pack of Moda Modern Workshop (minus the dark browns).  I used some fabric that I had on hand for the straps, cuff and lining... though I don't remember what designer they are from.

I even made a pocket!!  Now that I have made one bag, there are a ton of things I would have done differently.  I would have used a thicker interfacing, I would have done a drop in liner and I would have added more pockets.  BUT, this is only the first!!!