What's Going On In the Sewing Room?

I was looking around my sewing room the other day and this is what caught my eye...

Hooray!  Finally a thread catcher and pin cushion that matches the lovely minty green color of the room.  Pattern is here.

I love selvages!  My two jars, separated lights and darks, are getting full.  I need to make more selvage blocks!

 What to do with these cross stitch finishes?

 These bags contain scraps from projects that I have been reluctant to separate.  I need to bravely dig into some of these this year.

 And in exciting news, I've started two quilts!  More fun details to follow!

 Looking around the sewing room I noticed what I thought was an over abundance of low volume fabrics.  So I cut a bit up thinking I was finally going to make that low volume scrappy quilt that's been on my wish list for a while.

 Hmmmm...seems like it is more like a "not quite a low volume" quilt. But I will continue!

 Progress in the sewing room has been slowed down by beautiful winter weather here at the lake.

Wishing you a lovely day wherever you are!
Kathy

2017 Quilt Finishes

Hello quilting friends!  One of the reasons I started this blog five years ago was to document my creative evolution and catalog finishes.  This post is a recap of the quilts that I finished in 2017. Admittedly not as many as in previous years, but I'm OK with that.  It was a very full year starting off with a prolonged surgical recovery, the arrival of my first grandchild, an amazing wedding weekend celebration and lots of time with family, friends and my neighbors, the loons. No really, we live on a lake.

Hope you enjoy this recap!  I have linked back to the respective blog post containing more details.

My grandchild's first quilt from Nana.  The Goodnight Moon quilt.

Soon after his birth, I had to make this one.  I'm thrilled to see it being used each month by his parents to photograph his growth.  

The only quilt I finished this year as part of my plan to have a quilt in every room of my house is this Shimmer quilt.

Making an economy block quilt has been on my to-do list for a while.  Having a grandchild does create an excuse to make quilts!

Another pattern that has been on my wish list, is the Country Chic quilt.  This one was a shower gift for my son and new daughter in law.

Speaking of babies, my son's long time roommate and his wife welcomed their first baby and I dipped into some very special fabric for this very special family.

An adorable one year old in our family was gifted this quilt on her first birthday.

Last, and the grandest of all finishes for 2017, is my Tula Pink City Sampler Quilt.  Started in 2014, this was the year I finally quilted and bound this beauty.  I haven't had the opportunity to properly photograph this one yet so there isn't a finished quilt blog post but there will be soon...I hope!  Here's the post when I finished the quilt top .

Wishing you a year of full of good health, creative happiness, smiles and kindness.
Kathy

After All Those Quilts I Needed A Few Quick Finishes

I'm thrilled to report that all three of the recently gifted baby quilts (for my grandson, for a one year old and for a very special newborn) were received with great enthusiasm in their new homes by the parents if not also the little ones!

With the holiday season upon us, there just isn't time to start any major projects and I have (so far!) resisted the urge to whip up any gifts.  I keep a little basket on my sewing table of "maybe" projects.  I dipped into the "maybe" basket and found eight leaf blocks I made last year .  Voila!  A very long table runner to give to my son and daughter in law to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in their new home.

I quilted this in a leaf motif (of course) and added a little color to the back.

How wonderful (and surprising!) that it perfectly fit their dining room table.  It's almost like I planned it!

And a few of these for the grandson for fun!

That chenille backing is so very soft!!

But I really am itching to start another quilt...

Finished - River's Quilt

This is the third of the baby quilts I blitzed through in September/October.  Did I mention that my son  married in September?  Gotta admit I'm pretty impressed with myself that I started and finished three quilts during this period!

River is the newborn beautiful baby daughter of another son's college roommate.  Our son and Marty were roommates all through college and we couldn't have been more excited when Marty married beautiful Angie (our son still takes match making credit for that).  And now there is River.  So, of course I had to make a quilt.

You know the fabric, Nightfall by Maureen Cracknell.  So very lovely.  The pattern is a sized up version of the Foxfire quilt. I did a little math to make the center blocks 6.5" so I could keep the owl intact (thank you greycatquilts for that idea!).  It finishes around 54" square.

The backing is a soft bunny fleece.  Why not?

I quilted it with a meander loop pattern in a salmon color.

No kidding, Art Gallery fabrics have the most wonderful feel. Made even softer after a wash.

I quilt a heart into every quilt that I free motion quilt.  These may not be quilt show quilts but they are made and given with lots of love!

Have a lovely day!
Kathy

Finished - Madison's Lattice Quilt

This cutie is the second of three recent finishes for some special little people in my life.  This was Madison's first birthday gift.

The pattern is Amy Smart's Lattice Baby Quit, a free tutorial on her web site, Diary of a Quilter. It's a great use of charm squares and the on-point placement of the blocks makes for a fast and interesting finish.  

This is the third quilt I've made with Amy's pattern. In each case I added a little something to make the quilt unique. In my first year of quilting I made this quilt for a cat lover in the family, adding a border and piecing the back.  A little later I made this baby quilt and added some dancing elephants for fun.  For the current version, I extended the length enough to appliqué the birthday girl's name to the quilt.

It was a wonderful reason to use a charm pack of Aneela Hoey's Posy fabric with a few additional squares from the stash.

The backing is a soft flannel, even softer after washing!

Again, a simple meander quilting just adds to the softness.

Happy Birthday Madison!!

Finished - I Spy Economy Block Quilt for Grandson

Hello!  It's been a while since my last blog post and I have so much to tell you!  Life has been full and busy but I've managed to fit in some creative time.  I started three quilts a few weeks ago and as they are all in the process of being gifted I will start sharing these with you.

I've been wanting to make an economy block quilt for some time.  As this quilt is for my little grandson I wanted the focus block to be large enough to get his attention.  Using this table by The Littlest Thistle the center blocks are cut at 6.5" resulting in a finished 12" block. 

It took more time to troll my fabric stash for the right combination of colors and fun fussy cut motifs than it did to sew this one up.

The backing is an unbelievably soft minky from Michael Miller.  With simple meander quilting, this is one very soft and cozy quilt!

So, this is my grandson's third quilt from Nana and he is just six months old.  At this rate, how many will he have by the time he is 18 years old?!

Finished - Chic Country Wedding Shower Quilt

I have a list of quilts that I want to make.  Don't we all?  The Chic Country quilt by Sew Kind of Wonderful has been near the top for some time.  I've been waiting for a special reason to make this quilt. Then my son got engaged to lovely Amanda and a wedding shower quilt was just the perfect excuse!

 I enlarged the quilt adding one row to the length and width.  Perfect size for cuddling!

The quick curve ruler is easy (and fun!) to work with.  The primary fabric is Maven by Basic Grey.  

To personalize the quilt I added some special fabrics that would be unique to this couple.  Here's  some delightful Winnie the Pooh fabric for these two Disney fans.

A dog print that sort of looks like one of their dogs.

They both share a love of Star Wars.

And of course my family's Peanuts affection can't be overlooked.

And homage to their six chickens.

The quilt backing is my favorite Carrie Bloomston's News Print fabric.

I wanted the quilt to be very soft so I just stitched in the ditch to emphasize the circular movement.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt.  More importantly the future Mr. &Mrs. love it!

I was SO close to keeping this quilt as the colors would works so well in my home!!

But I love these two so they get to keep the quilt and I will enjoy visiting it!