Georgia's Quilt

I started this quilt for my friend's daughter a few months back....okay, back in September really. I was pretty much out of commission October and most of November (yucky sicknesses), so I'm finally getting back down to my quilt room.

Georgia turned 5 in November, and I had intended to give it to her then, but sometimes life (particularly those pesty viruses) can get in the way.

This pattern is called Wind Power from the book Modern Basics. It was a kit from a quilt store in Midway, Utah. It uses Penny Lane by Riley Blake Fabrics.

Here is the back:

Since the weather/sunlight was not cooperating, I took some inside shots as well. I'm hoping the weather improves and I can get a better shot or two before I give the quilt to my friend.

This quilt is pretty big - about 72" x 72".

Here you can see some of the quilting (just a basic loop):

Here you can see the backing as well as the binding:

Unpicking

The nice thing about working with 2-inch blocks is that they unpick quickly when you make a mistake...or mistakes as the case may be.

More to come soon!

Still A Blog Slacker

Not many posts recently...husband still has control of the laptop (he's busy watching the game tonight so I was able to steal a few minutes of precious computer time) and I have not been feeling well at all.

Since before my birthday (beginning of October) I have had one thing after the next. Lucky stars - kids have managed to stay healthy! I am breaking down and going to the doctor tomorrow, which I NEVER do.

I have not been quilting much recently either...every night I've been flat out on the couch with a fever and headache. So today's post is some photos taken at fotofly about a month ago. I cannot praise and recommend them enough. I have had nothing but super fantastic experiences with them.

My favorite shot of the afternoon...

Here's a shot of the fam...

My "baby" boy looks SOOOO grown up in these. I about fell out of the chair when I saw them (and then promptly got all teary-eyed).

A cute one of me and my big guy.

Hopefully I will be feeling better soon. I'm pretty sure my quilt room is wondering what she did wrong to deserve such abandonment. My MANY quilt projects are like ghosts in my mind at this point....haunting me. I even dream of them. Hopefully I can rest up this weekend and get back in the swing of things soon!

Silly Dinos

I decided to determine if my Cricut Expressions can help me reduce time when appliqueing. And, to my delight, it works! This cute dino was cut out using my Cricut and then appliqued on to the onsie (a gift for my girlfriend Lori who just had her baby girl).

I made this little shirt for Lori's son, who is almost 5. He LOVES dinosaurs (also very popular in my house) and thought I would make him a little something special. I did the T-rex the old-fashioned way, but used my Cricut to cut out the RaWR! text.

I'm very happy with how these turned out and love to have another gift idea in my repertoire.

Also super excited to see what I can get my Cricut to cut out of fabric. It seems the larger, less-detailed objects and fonts do well, but the smaller, more-detailed objects tend to not cut out as well. Still, this will save me lots of time!

For anyone out there wanting to try this out, I set my needle all the way down (I believe it was the 6 setting - regardless, whatever the highest number is what you want to turn your needle position to), speed set to slowest, and pressure set to highest. I also sort of went along with the needle and tried to keep the fabric down as much as possible (occasionally it would sort of hang up and the needle would catch it). I was using Heat N Bond, with Heat N Bond side down on the sticky mat.

If anyone has tried this, please comment on what success you have had!

Quote of the Day

Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation.

-Contagion (movie)

Giggles Quilt

It's been quite awhile since my last blog. Several reasons. One, my husband commandered my laptop so I have been without computer access for quite some time. Two, I have not had as much time to quilt as usual.

But, I have been working on this quilt for my girlfriend. She's having a baby girl and I wanted to make something special for her to match the baby's room. She was using these fun apricot and pink colors. I was lucky enough to have a charm pack from Riley Blake's line Summer Song. I was even luckier to find one of my local quilt stores, Cottonwood Fabrics, had a few bolts of this line left in their clearance section.

I was hoping to applique the baby girl's name, but they are not sharing the name they have chosen, so I improvised. When I think of my children as they were babies (or are babies as the case may be), I love their giggles the most. Such joy to hear a baby giggle! A great milestone and one I felt worth documenting.

Here is the finished quilt...

I've been doing so many gifts recently, which I love to do, but I was getting bored and wanted a challenge, so I took on flying geese. This is my first attempt, and I am really proud of how they turned out.

I was also really happy with how the applique turned out. The yo-yo for the dot on the i is also my first yo-yo. The quilting was also the first time I had done some small, filler quilting on my new-to-me HandiQuilter 16. I'm starting to get more comfortable with it and I can't wait to keep trying more and more!

Here is my friend, Valerie, after opening her quilt.

Another Finished Quilt!

This is SOOO exciting! I am actually finishing projects...of course, these ones have due dates - much like the mommys these are going to. Having a deadline always helps.

This morning I am taking this quilt to my girlfriend's baby shower. She is having a little girl. She is doing the room in a dark purple/plum-ish type color and I thought these fabrics would go well.

Here you can see the quilting a little bit better. This is the third quilt I have quilted using the HandiQuilter 16. I did a simple freehand loop and flower all over the quilt. I'm still getting comfortable with the machine.

You can see there is an assortment of prints in this quilt. I believe I picked up this custom charm pack from Quilts Etc. awhile back. There are some Moda It's a Hoot, which is one of my favorite Moda lines in quite awhile.

I picked up the border and backing fabric from Thimbles and Threads - a quilt store I just recently discovered that is right in my backyard! Who knew!? I'm so glad I found it. Cathy and Janet are so wonderfully helpful and nice.

Back to the fabric. The mommy-to-be is a hip, modern mommy so I thought this simple plum-brownish with simple flowers would be perfect for her and tie into the crib collection she purchased.

Here it is all ready to go!