i love fabric.

It's addiction... but hey, I figure it's better than drugs.

This is a CD rack I purchased at
Hobby Lobby for fat quarter sized pieces

I originally had this built to separate a large room
for two kids with cubbies for books/toys.
I love it when kids move out!
Then there's more room for my fabric.

The rack on the wall is also from Hobby Lobby
They called it a towel rack.
I call it a quilt rack!

Snowflakes

I wasn't going to blog about this quilt because I can't find the pattern (I modified it from something in a magazine) But it's been cold here and I'm feeling all wintery... plus no one's blogged for a bit.

I like to change out the quilt in my entry way for each season. West Texas doesn't have much of a winter... so I need all the reminders of snow I can get! The blocks here were a bit of a pain with all the points, add in the fact that I am NOT a perfectionist and you get a recipe for a not-perfect quilt. But I still carry on.... I love star blocks!

Pink Roses on Black

I made this quilt especially for my dear mother-in-law who is in an assisted living home. Her favorite color is pink and she loves flowers. When she was still in her home, they had lots of roses, irises, and other types of flowers planted in their yard and garden. I didn't have a pattern, but I knew I wanted to use the fabrics with the pink roses and also the "white-black-white" striped fabric (three sections in the middle of quilt). Using from my stash, I added the small blocks between these stripes -- VOILA -- this quilt was born. I originally had planned to make a lap quilt, but it turned out much bigger as I just kept changing and adding as I went along. I almost didn't have enough of the outside border fabric, so the bottom border is pieced with about four or five sections. The backing is the bright pink fabric used in the tiny border separating the black-background fabrics. I also used this fabric for the binding. Cathy quilted it using a panagram with rosebuds and hearts -- so perfect!

Handwarmers... take 2

Judy knows that I LOVE black and white fabric (and have LOTS of it) so she shared this pattern with me a couple of months ago. I wasn't too motivated to get it done until I saw Judy's post and fell in love with it again!

Here's a quiz:

what's wrong with this quilt?

comment if you can find it.

I once heard that the Amish do one block wrong

on each quilt to show humility.

I do one block wrong on each quilt

because I make mistakes.

lots of mistakes.

Note the buttons. The pattern also shows 8 white button

between each star point. I'm NOT doing that!

And now I'm addicted to funky backs.
Thanks, Jen.

Dear husband and evil dog helping me baste.
Don't know what I'd do without one.
Would love to try to do without the other.

Snowmen in the Woods

So I made this quilt this past summer for my sister-in-law who LOVES snowmen......

of course I am just now getting around to finishing one for me!

This is a very versatile pattern and can be done many different ways to suit your own taste. The pattern is a combination of rotary cutting and piecing, paper foundation blocks and applique. It can be found at http://www.quiltmaker.com/special/patterns

I'm glad I finally got it done now that it is the end of January and down here in Texas we are headed into spring! : )

Quilt for a New Cowpoke

Bliss and I have a friend who just adopted a little boy from Russia.........any excuse to make a quilt!

We used a vintage-looking print for the large blocks with little cowboys and cowgirls and trimmed them out with a pieced sashing of smaller squares.

I backed the quilt with a snuggly flannel and appliqued his name.
A fast and easy keepsake!

e.t..... I'm here! Just not sewing much. And it hurts.

OK.... I don't have a finished project to show. I am a loser.

Life has gotten in the way of quilting. (and yes, that makes me grumpy:) But here is a display idea for everyone:

Put up your wallhanging (larger sizes won't work with this) using straight pins in the top corners. It takes some effort, but the pins WILL go into drywall. Then put a nail above the wallhanging on each corner. For the decorative look, I purchased 2 unfinished rosettes from Home Depot and painted them black. Hot glue a large paper clip to the back and this hangs on the nail.

ET phone home.

hey girls...
3 days with no post.
it's YOUR turn.
Susan? you have some adorable quilts. it's ok if they aren't finished. we ALL want to see em.
Judy, Bliss, Stitch-in-the-ditch...
has anyone taught Pam how to download pictures yet? I really want to see her amazing redwork all finished... Is it finished yet?

ok.
love ya.
sorry i missed quilting at kathy's yesterday.
i thought of you with fondness while i folded my laundry...

i went scrappy. (and i'm happy).

Thanks for all of your advice.
In the end, I opted for FREE (and to stay in my pjs all day).
It feels good to know I finished the girls' beds without spending any money.
(Now I can spend money on the rest of the room.) :)

This is the end result.

My girls LOVE to show everyone the pillows that they designed.

I LOVE the sense of self confidence they get whenever they look at their bed.

I just made a basic Log Cabin. I cut all of my bright scraps/stash fabrics into 2.5 inch strips (or you could use a jelly roll). I started with a square 2.5 x 2.5 and added to it, sewing, cutting, ironing, sewing, cutting, ironing. I put a square of white as my last log cabin layer. I made 63 of these blocks and sewed them together in rows of 7 by 9. That's it.

Here's my tip. I didn't realize that you could sew a log cabin wrong. But you can. See my picture above. Be careful when you sew the 4th fabric on. It should be touching the 1st and 3rd fabrics, not the 1st and 2nd.

One thing I liked about this process was that I had a lot of 2.5 inch strips. I pieced them together for the binding. Overall it turned out to be a great way to use up fabric that I've had forever.

i need help (with the back end).

I made these two quilt tops for the new girl's room.

(Remember the pillows I showed you?)

The best thing about these quilts is that so far I haven't bought ANY fabric... it's all scraps/stash.

once again i opted for fast, cheap and easy.

(yes. I have been called a QUILT SLUT before.)

But.

Now I'm stuck.

I found PERFECT back and binding fabric at Hobby Lobby, but it wasn't even on sale.

I had planned on piecing the back with scrap pieces... but I don't know.

What do you think?

Can I back them without spending money?

or

Should I just go buy the fabric that I already found and love?

And, help #2... I'm NEVER real good at naming quilts. Any suggestions?

plus. I'm sick so I'm kinda all around poopy today.

Music Quilt

This took me forever to finish (over a year?), but it was finally mailed off to it's recipient before Christmas! We moved after I started it, and then my machine was broken for a while, and I stewed forever about how to quilt it. I also had to work at getting some oil spots off of it, either from my sewing machine or my washer. Grrrr. Sorry photos are kind of dark. I really must do something about the poor lighting and ugly paint in my family room.

This is one block (slightly wide). I free-motioned music notation symbols in the white areas where blocks joined. A straight black line of quilting goes diagonally through the black areas. Plus there's stitch-in-the-ditch around the "sheet music."

I improvised on the back. Since it is a square quilt, I made a "courthouse steps" with pieces of large music fabric scraps I had (I'm usually too cheap to buy backing fabric). The size of the steps depended on how much of each fabric I had.

This is where I got the pattern: http://www.trudiehughes.com/patterns.htm.

kid pillows.

we're re-doing my girls' room

so fun!

i had them each draw a picture and i helped turn them into pillows

they picked their fabrics from my scrap baskets

they cut out the shapes

i ironed and quilted

aren't they cute?!

i can't wait to finish them up...

Makayla's quilt

This is my friend Makayla (11 years old)

who just made her first quilt.

She did a great job!

I think every quilt should tell a story.

For a small portion of the binding, I used music fabric.

My oldest daughter (21 and serving a church mission)

was Makayla's babysitter and loves music.

I told Makayla this is to always remind her of MY Kayla.

branching out.

my daughter cut out her own letter, so it's a bit wiggley...

So. I'm making (err. copying) some pillows from Don't Look Now... and I decided to branch out of my comfortable stippling mode. I tried swirls and flowers AND some free-motion tracing. (I learned all of these by TRYING to copy Don't Look Now-- her quilting is AMAZING.) I'm still not sure how to make my swirls and flowers more even. BUT. I do LOVE the look of the tracing quilting. Usually, when I applique, I either satin stitch or blanket stitch around the object BEFORE I put the batting and backing on. This time I just ironed it on, SPRAY basted the batting and backing on and outlined the shapes with free-motion quilting. If I wanted a thicker line, I just went around the objects a couple of times. It was hard to stay straight- but not too bad. I LOVE how it makes my letters POP!

Who says you can't teach an old (err. I mean comfortable stippling) quilter new tricks?

two little monkeys.

i have two friends that are sisters, they live together, and they both had baby boys pretty close together. these are the quilts that i came up with for their two little guys.

i'm trying to get rid of the fabric that i have so i can buy new fabric that i love.

this was a great quilt to use up any of my blues... i used a green sheet from ikea for the back and pulled that around as the binding. i stippled one quilt and used swirls and stars on the other.

the monkey, i saw on a beanbag that was for sale (at THIS shop- Cocoon Couture)... my husband and i copied the basic shape and our little monkey's were born...
easy. fun. finished!!

chickens...

Thanks to Barb at the Quilters Corner Blog, I found these HILARIOUS chicken patterns. Available on the FatCat Pattern website... for free! (donations accepted) I love her style and there are some great things here. I plan to make 12, there are only 11 available on the site now but I'm hoping a 12th is in the works. Red sashing and a funky - yet to be found - red/yellow/black border. or series of borders.

flappin'

eggbert

Wouldn't this be great in a red/yellow kitchen?

I heart Buggy Barn.

Since love is in the air, I thought you might like to see my LOVE child.
This was a fun buggy barn that I made last year with stacks of black, white and red.
My favorite thing about this quilt was that I saw someone's quilt online, and I copied it WITHOUT the buggy barn pattern. When I was done cutting it out, one of my sisters showed up with the pattern she found at her mother-in-law's house. Oh well. Love it.

Love is in the air!

Out with the Christmas quilts and up with the Valentines!

I designed this quilt last year - Grey did the heart applique.

"strings" are small ric rac

The background is a variety of pastel pink/cream

5 blocks across by 7 down (8.5 x 8.5)

Each block is four 2.5" x 8.5" strips

The blocks alternate horizontal and vertical

Display idea:

Wooden letters from Hobby Lobby

Quilt is secured using straight pins into drywall

letters have large paperclips glued to back

then hooked on nails above quilt

Hand Warmers

A fun winter quilt! "Hand Warmers" is found in the book Holiday Wrappings: Quilts to Welcome the Season. As you can probably tell, the quilt needs to be quilted and bound -- and have decorative buttons added. But, I needed something on my wall for January, so it will remain there throughout the month! It will be so cute when done! It's a great pattern to pull from your black and white stash and the brightly colored applique mittens don't take much fabric at all. Now, the buttons may be another matter -- 96 white buttons (5/8") for around the snowflakes and 120 bright buttons (1/2" to 7/8") for on the mittens (3 buttons on each mitten). So, start collecting those buttons!

Sampler Quilt - Homespuns

This is the first sampler quilt class I ever took (again at the Bernina store). The 12 different pieced blocks used both homespuns and regular cotton fabrics. Probably not the best to begin piecing using homespuns as they tend to stretch. I finished the top shortly after the class, but finally had Cathy quilt it and then I bound it in 2008. Pam also took the class and made quilt.

Sampler Quilt - Bright

Here is another sampler quilt that I made from a class that Pam and I took at the Bernina store. She finished her quilt that same year; I just finished binding mine today! And again, Cathy did an excellent job in quilting it. This quilt was made with 12 different blocks and bright-colored fabrics. When we first began the class, I wasn't too thrilled with the bright colors -- but now I like working with brights and black and whites. I like the various widths on the strips I used in the border -- and the corners were especially fun to do.

Sampler Quilt

Both Julie and I took a 6-month sampler class at our local Bernina store a couple of years ago -- and I finally finished the quilt this past year (2008), with Cathy quilting it for me. We were to make three blocks from the same pattern, but I only made two -- and I used fabric from the Thimbleberries line instead of the fabric that was provided. I thought it was interesting to see how different blocks from the same pattern can look when colors or pieces are switched around. My mother liked this quilt, so I gave it to her when she visited in December.