Progress for a Change

Baby quilt top is finished and it will be off to the quilter asap. I love that little center and I hope she can do something with butterflies and flowers in the quilting.I left plenty of float on the setting triangles and learned a few things on this one with doing the pieced border.
Next quilt project up for my group's challenge. We needed to use the center fabric in a baby quilt that will be donated to our local hospital for use in the Neonatal unit or if it is big enough the children's section for long term illnesses or hospital stays. I am NOT thrilled by my choices of fabric and I don't care for piecing with flannel but I will do the best I can to make something that will help cuddle and cheer up a little one who needs it.
I have a plan and I hope it works the way it does in my mind! LOL

Baby Quilt Update more progress

It's coming along as you see. I have pieced all of the nine patches and have the setting triangles cut and now am in progress of adding them to the sides.
Now you might be able to see more clearly the problem with the corners. I think I will stick to my original idea of adding background rectangles to finish the corners. I also need to trim down the strips once I decide how wide I want them.
I can't wait to get this one to my long arm quilter and see what she does...something pretty with maybe butterflies and flowers.

Design Wall Dilemma

Time is going quickly for my new Grd who will be arriving in May and the baby quilts need to be in progress! LOL
This is the first one that is actually in progress. The prints are much softer in person but it's OK for demonstration purposes. My problem is going to be the corners...my idea is to finish the side and top and bottom with their triangles and then add a rectangle of white fabric that I am using in the triangles...anyone have a better solution?
So much fun working with two of my favorite colors green and pink!

Help Find Lost Quilts

Well known quilt intructor Karen Combs was robbed in Texas and several quilts were stolen from her rental car.
Go to this link and read about it. If you live in this area in Texas keep yours eyes open!

Nowegiann Winner

An online friend Wenche did a fun quilt that she entered in the Norwegian Quilt Show (yes I think she is from Norway) and her sweet A Day At the Beach took 3rd place...even though I think it should be first! LOL
It is named 3.premie Wenche Martinsen : Strandliv (94x120cm)
Check it out!

Happy St Patricks Day 2012

I will be spending most of the day with my quilt friends and others creating quilt tops for use in donation projects. Our theme this year is Bow Ties and Four Patches. We hope to be able to create several quilt tops that will then be ready for various members to machine quilt and then donate them to places such as Project Linus, Women and Children's Shelter of Utah County and other places as needed.
I thought I would share a few Irish quilting links with you to enjoy.
Irish Quilt Festival 2012 Did you know they had a quilt festival? It looks like it would be a lovely place to visit!
Irish Patchwork Society's photo gallery.
The Quilter's Guild of Ireland

Civil War Rose Dream top Finish

I love how it turned out. I did a mixture of hand and machine stitching for this project and they worked together so nicely.
I probably should have used more medium looking fabrics for the small squares because where they come together you can't see that they are different fabrics. I will be sure to correct that with the class fabrics I choose
Inklingo made this project so do-able and I am pretty sure I can teach it with confidence to my group. Not sure if I am going to make a border for it as many Civil War era quilts didn't have borders.

New Friends Block of the Month March

Good thing about being the teacher for the BOM is that I keep up with the blocks!  LOL
This year I am working ahead to get the quilt done for a Christmas gift so I need to get it to the quilter the beginning of November...that's a good thing.  But sometimes it makes a better instruction time if I can show the block cut and ready to piece so that everyone can see where everything goes before hand.  So...I am making a demo block each month and the block on the left is the demo for March.  I pulled out some cute shamrock print and added a couple of greens and a nice bright yellow and white for a background.
I will probably turn it into a place mat for donation.

Civil War Rose Dream UPDATE

I meant to take pictures before I started this project but forgot however I thought I would share any way.
I volunteered to teach a lesson on curved piecing to New Friends Quilt Circle so I decided to do a practice quilt so that I have something to show them ahead of time.
Above you see my "hand piecing tin" where I have stored the pieces for this project and also the next feathered star. The part I needed to practice was machine piecing the curves as I actually prefer to hand piece stuff like that and with Inklingo that prints all my lines and matching marks it is so easy. This group doesn't accept hand piecing very well so machine it will be.
You can see a stack of blocks that I have used the machine to do the petal and backgrounds but after debating I will be adding the small squares by hand. There are two tiny seams to stitch and it would take me longer to get it all set up at the machine so hand it is.

Here are 12 blocks on my design wall just waiting for the others to join them.
I am not much for blue and brown but I had plenty of them in my stash of Civil War prints so I decided to use that color scheme. I am loving how they look so far and can't wait to get them all together.
Hanging my head in shame as I had planned to have this top finished and sewing together by Saturday night but...I played hooky to attend the US Dancesport Championship which is at nearby BYU. First of all I was good and packed my piecing thinking to finish up a couple more blocks by hand but....forgot my dang magnifying glasses and because the light was so poor I gave up after half a seam. Second of all I just couldn't get myself to start today.
However I did cut the pieces for the next Harry Potter block which is a doozy! LOL

Finger Pin Cushion

I made a new pincushion today...My sweet grson decided to practice his scissoring skills buy cutting the elastic through the one I had previously. LOL
They are very simple to make with a soda bottle cap, some narrow elastic, a circle of fabric, needle and thread and some stuffing or leftover quilt batting and hot glue.
I chose a fabric in remembrance of my sweet Muffy...and put it together this morning. I have another one in progress but thought I would share this one.
Maybe I should do a tutorial so that everyone could make their own? LOL
Oh, my! I have developed "old lady" hands in the past few years...can you get silicon in your hands? ROFLOL