A Little Fun Finish

(Wow!  I am not near the last joining Finish It Up Friday linky party!  I'm making progress!)

Happy Friday!  It is another beautiful spring day here in New England!  (Sorry, Minnesota!)  And the weekend ahead is expected to be just lovely for all those little cherubs celebrating their First Holy Communion, including my special friend Katerina.

This little bag (filled with a few goodies) is made of fabric that I purchased with Miss Katerina in mind.  You see, she is a beautiful, petite little girl who is fascinated by wild animals...wolves and foxes being two of her favorite!  I down-sized the same pattern I used here as I wanted to ensure she could easily carry it around!  The two main fabrics are Michael Miller Les Amis Socks the Fox and Sarah Watson Indian Summer Menagerie...so cute and special, just like Katerina.

Meanwhile, I am continuing to work on finishing my master bedroom decor, finishing the quilt was a REALLY big step!  Pillows for the bed...done!

 This fabric was the original inspiration fabric for the quilt colors.  I love the grey, blue, green combination with the strong white contrast.  Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the fabric...I purchased it at the amazing Fabric Corner store in Arlington, Mass.  I will research my scraps and update this post if I find the info.  I made the pillows with invisible zippers on the side using the very helpful tutorial at Sew Katie Did and leftovers from the quilt for the backs.

Standing a few steps away, the flipside of the pillows still work in the room.

However, up close, the quilting on the back of this pillow is AWFUL!  The little bubbles in the middle are fine but for some reason the swirls are terrible!  As this is the back of the pillow, I will call it "wonky swirls," flip the pillow over and not lose sleep on this pillow! 

Much happier with the quilting and style of this back.

 Now I have a few more decorative pillows to make and find some things to hang on all those blank walls!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Happy May 1st

When I began this quilting adventure a little over a year ago, I was puzzled by the number of projects so many of you have going on at the same time.  How could you keep all this straight?  How do you get a sense of accomplishment?  Well, I GET IT now.

Repetitive quilt piecing syndrome.  Hundreds of little pieces of fabric to cut, sew, press, sew, trim, press, etc.  Now, don't get me wrong...I LOVE all of this but a change in project really does help keep each project interesting and staves off RQPS boredom!

So, on that note, I have these three (!!) projects on my sewing table:

 A few hundred pieces of carved up beautiful Vintage Modern.

This lovely group of fabrics will evolve into a little gift for a very special girl.

and a pile of work-in-process Mama Said Sew, that I love, love, love.  In addition to these I still have six quilts on the waiting-to-be-quilted rack!  And I am happy, happy, happy about all of this!

It was a beautiful day here in New England.

Once a year, and only for a brief period, the trees on our street blossom with style.  Spring is officially here.

Linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday!

It's Kayak Time!

No sewing today!

A Really Big Finish

Finally!!!  The Seaglass quilt for my master bedroom is done!  Angst about fabric and pattern selection, hours of piecing and assembling, 12 bobbins of thread needed for quilting and three nights of TV watching to sew down the binding was all worth it!  I am so happy with the result!  (Sorry not the best pictures...such a thing as a too sunny day?)

 The info on this quilt:

Finished size (before washing):  88" by 80" for my queen bed
Pattern:  Garden Trellis Modern Quilt by Faith of Fresh Lemon Modern Quilts (I made more squares to size up to a queen).
Fabric:  Oh boy, lots of beautiful pieces that I collected over months with Kona White and Ash.  If you have a question on any specific fabric, I can search for the selvage.
Quilting:  Stippled on my Viking

I am working on coordinating pillows for the bedroom and will share pictures of the renovated room soon!  Another Saturday when I am sneaking in under the wire on Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday!  

PS  As a north of Boston townie, I am overwhelmed by the response from the quilting community (and others) to the awful recent events in Boston (if you haven't seen this, please pop over to Boston Modern Quilt Guild).   Wicked awesome.

Making progress!

It is finally spring here in New England.

So nice to plant some flowers.

The beautiful flowering azalea bush outside my bathroom window.  If a plant can be special this one is.  It was originally planted by my father at my parents home.  When they passed we uprooted this plant; it reminds me of mom and dad every time I see it.

After a couple of weeks of traveling, I am back to my sewing machine!  Yeah!  Here is the next project:

I had no particular goal in mind here, just to work on some happy fabric...and Vintage Modern certainly fits the bill!

Drawing diagonal lines across 288 squares (half of them are 1.5"!) is slow but a lovely mindless activity.

I am thrilled to be back working on the Seaglass Quilt...

12 bobbins of thread and I think I have worn out the tips of the quilting gloves!  Yikes!

I've even started to work on the coordinating pillows!  Hopefully I will have a finished quilt to share with you soon...man, that is A LOT of binding to hand sew on!

I am on a fabric-abstinence BUT I just couldn't resist this (for OBVIOUS reasons):

Fabric is part of North by Northwest collection.  What should I do with this???

So happy to be back chatting with all of you!  Linking up with the fun linky party at Freshly Pieced!

Have a great day!

Fun with Dr. Seuss

Do you remember the very first quilt that I finished?  That quilt was for Savanna's grandmother (my daughter-in-law's mom) for her first Mother's Day as a grandmother!  Well, time flies by so quickly and little Savanna celebrated her First Birthday yesterday!  We were so thrilled to be invited to the birthday shin-dig and seeing the Dr. Seuss party invitation, well, I just knew what I had to do for the adorable Miss Savanna.

I found the pattern on the Moda Bake Shop, Easy Pezzy Crib Quilt.  by Allysa at Pile O Fabric. i have been wanting to do a simple squares quilt, being impressed with the dramatic results seen from others.  Given the nature of this fabric (yikes!), I thought a simple pattern would work great to highlight the fun fabric.  The rectangle for the name was a nice addition.  The quilt is small enough that one cut of fabric works perfectly for the back, no piecing required.  I quilted this with a 1/4" allowance on both sides of the seams with some smallish stippling to highlight the letters.  I am not super happy with the machine applique of the letters...my first attempt.  I just purchased a book recommended by the wonderful Nicole at Mama Love Quilts on machine applique that I am bringing with me on this weeks trip to California (I know, again to the Left Coast!).

Most importantly, the party was so much fun!   Savanna greeted us at the door:

 Proudly sporting her "Thing Three" shirt!

 Savanna has the same beautiful eye lashes as her aunt (my son's lovely wife)!

 Savanna's other grandmother made this amazing cake...oh yeah, different flavor for each layer.

My husband and I with the birthday girl who was an amazing good sport with all the people, cameras, and Seuss-acle excitement!

Another trip to California, another quiet week at KayakQuilting!  Rest assured, all this airplane time is perfect for percolating quilt ideas!  Have a great week!

California Trip Report

It was a great week in California!  My niece, Sarah, played in the annual USA Hockey National Championship in San Jose.  It was impressive to see so many strong young women competing at such a high level.

Between ice hockey games, we were able to play tourist including day trips to San Francisco, Muir Woods and Santa Clara.  I even managed to squeeze in a special adventure to a local quilt shop!  Oh and did I mention that the shop was Intrepid Thread!  Yes, the same Intrepid Thread that sponsors so many of my fave bloggers. I had a wonderful time browsing the shop and chatting with the lovely folks there, including the owner Julie.  The result:

Two new collections that I have been wanting to play with.

Three lovely selections from Joel Dewberry's Notting Hill collection.  A bag maybe?

2wenty Thr3e by Cosmo Cricket.  The patterns and colors in this collection have so much potential!  Gray/gold in my sewing room?  Something movie themed for my son the film critic?

And sometimes for no reason, beautiful fabric MUST come home with me.  And that describes the next six choices.  Heather Ross, Nursery Versery, Piggies by Kokka.  Really you have to touch this fabric, the texture is very distinct.  Next (as if I haven't had enough of green/teal combinations) is Tula Pink Lady Bugs. Adorable.  On the right is Michael Miller's Stitch Square in, yes, teal.

Of course you recognize Rashida Coleman-Hale's cranes.  Another fabric that has a lovely, unique feel.  I really should buy more organic cotton.  To the right of the cranes is another great stash addition, Urban Mod Triangularity.  Last but not least is the bottom fabric...aren't those wild animals great?!  Indian Summer Menagarie designed by Sarah Watson.  I am afraid this is going to be one of those fabrics that is SO special it will sit in the fabric stash too long ("is this project worthy?").

What a lovely shop with such nice people ready to help!  It is a good thing I brought the extra empty bag!  Great ice hockey, Pacific ocean fish, sourdough bread, redwood trees, cable cars, piles of sea lions, beautiful fabric and, most importantly, a week with my niece and her parents...it was a very successful trip!

BUT I did miss my sewing room.  So, as soon as I arrived home in Massachusetts, to stay awake after the red-eye flight, I started a new project!  I would love to share this with you but we'll have to wait a few days.  Stay tuned!

It's Wednesday, therefore: