Sunday, August 24, 2014

Working hard to catch up!

And I finally made it!
For most of this year, I have been behind on my monthly Art Journals.  I kept track of my daily entries on my phone so I could recreate the days on the journals as I finished them. I only missed a few days...which most likely...didn't have anything too exciting happen. 

So drum roll please!

Here is July before I filled in the entries.
And with the entries filled in...
I do love this one with the flags waving across the blue sky!

And then August...
(these are supposed to be strawberries with a more rounded bottom)
I won't show the final until the end of the month is complete. 
Only a few more days!

And believe it or not...I have September ready early! Yippee!!
So there they are! 
A weight off my shoulders!
 Something to cross off my to do list!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Where Does the Time Go?

It has been a while since I have last posted. Life just doesn't seem to want to slow down. I have been spending some time in my sewing room which is always good! I have been putting off making the next baby quilt but will have to start on it sooner than later. I do have a bit of time yet.

So what have I been doing in my sewing room, you ask? Well, I have challenged myself into 1) sewing projects that I have purchased a bit ago and have been waiting on the back burner, and 2) using fabrics from my stash (much of which has been donated to me) and create. 

First, using a piece of fabric from my stash, I cut out as many 4" squares as I could (the pattern of flowers were in squares, so I cut them apart.)
After rearranging them on my design wall, I sewed them all back together. Then using this technique, I added the lattice on top. Thanks to Pat over at Life in the Scrapatch for the tutorial. 
The border is Kona Cotton Candy Blue, the binding and lattice is Kona Cotton White. The backing is a piece from my stash!
I also added a sleeve for hanging. 
The quilt finishes at 33.5" x 36"
I straight line quilted it along the lattice and in the border and FMQ a rose motif in the flowers.
A nice finish!

For the other part of my challenge, I dug out the fabrics that I purchased for a quilt that I saw in this magazine back in Feb/Mar 2011.
I fell in love with this retro feel fabric line called Early Bird by Cosmo Cricket. I went about purchasing some of the line and adding in other fabrics that I had that I felt coordinated nicely. 
I started on the split snowball blocks...80 blocks in total.
With every snowball block, you get 4 sets of 2 tiny triangles. I told myself that I wasn't going to save them this time. 
(I have several bunches of triangle cutoffs, ready to be sewn)
...But I couldn't help myself...
...they were just so cute...
SO...
I took some time off from the split snowball quilt to play with these...
Each HST is just 3/4" small. 
A mini flying geese...
Both the mini and the split snowball are ready to by sandwiched and quilted!

So that's what I've been up to, how about you?

Friday, August 1, 2014

One of two finished!

Besides weddings, we have a few new babies coming to join my extended family. They are keeping me busy making quilts! So just in time to celebrate one of the anticipated arrivals, I finished up the quilt and had a cute photo session!
We took a trip down to Morris, IL to meet up with my sister and brother in law and since I needed to document my quilt I thought it would be fun and different. 

So we headed to one of the local parks and took some pictures!
In several locations along the canal stood silhouettes sculptures. 
How perfect! Momma holding her baby carrying the baby's quilt!
I think they may be ready for a picnic and some playtime in the park Ü

Another location had this boy and his horse sculpture.
  
The block is a disappearing 9~patch. The main fabric is from a line called Gingham Safari which I happened to find here, Kona White, and some pinks and gingham from my stash. 
It is quilted using an elongated zigzag stitch on my machine. 
All labeled and ready to be gifted!
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts,
Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday over at Quokka Quilts 
and Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.