go! fabric cutter

Have you seen the Go! Fabric Cutter?  It's making quite a showing around blogland, so I was thrilled to get my hands on it and give it a go.  

The way it works is you run dies through the machine, they come in all shapes...almost anything you could hope for, and almost like magic it cuts your fabric for you.

I decided to really give the tumbler die a try.  I love tumbler quilts, but am lazy about cutting them out (you can see a great tumbler quilt on the box).

I find that it easily cuts 4 pieces of fabric at once.  You stack the fabric over the die (for this particular die, I use pieces of fabric that are about 8 inches square).

Then you place a cutting mat over the fabric (you will have a fabric sandwich).

Roll the "sandwich" (die, fabric, mat) through the machine (my kids LOVE to help with this part).

and just like that, you have the perfect tumbler block, 4 of them actually.

I have heard concern about the fabric wastage, I don't like to waste fabric either, so my solution is to cut the pieces as shown above.  All I will throw away is the top tiny piece, the rest will go to my scrap bin.  I quilt most often using scraps, so this works perfect for me.

this is what I am working on.  A rabbits and race-cars quilt.  I'm excited, I am debating on how large to make it.  I think it will be a smaller lap size for my 3 year old, maybe for Christmas.  I'm sure he won't be thrilled about it, but I don't think I want to give this one away.

I also tried out the hexagon cutter and tried piecing them with a machine, which can be tricky with those 3 seams coming together...but I found it to be much easier than I thought.  

There are lots of strings, but those can easily be snipped.

I have really had fun with this machine, look for a giveaway coming soon.  You can have one too! 

tuttle quilt

i almost feel like this post is unnecessary, since this quilt looks almost exactly like another quilt i made several years ago--i rarely make such similar quilts, but i had left over blocks from the first quilt, and i really liked that quilt and wanted to use those blocks, so i made another...i like this one just as much.

this quilt is for a friend's (who i don't see as often as i'd like) brand new baby here in denver.  i hope he likes it.  

i used a blue pindot on the back.  i love blue.  i also love zigzag quilts, and i have never made one to keep.  i'm thinking maybe one for a bed.  zigzags would look great on a bed...

winner

and the winner is Alisa who said, 

"Cute shop. I really like the Yellow White Stripes pillow. So bright and cheerful."  

I've sent you an email.  Thanks everyone for entering.

I'm not sure if it's summer or what, but I just haven't been feeling the quilting bug lately.  I am working on a baby quilt for a friend of mine, but I feel like I have to force my self to work on it.  I'll post it soon, it's just about there.

My daughter started school last week (my first), and I knew she wanted to wear a skirt the first day, I offered to buy her one or make one, and she actually chose a handmade one!  I was thrilled, and think it turned out really cute. 

I used the tutorial found here (really, really easy!)

be still shop and a giveaway--closed

--giveaway closed--

i am in love with the simpleness of this pillow!

my new friend sarah contacted me and offered some fabric to giveaway on this here blog.  Of course I was excited, who doesn't love a giveaway.    She has the most beautiful cushion covers for sale in her shop.  I really had a hard time picking a favorite, but I think I narrowed it down to this silver one.  It's lovely, and I really like the shape.

and I think this cotton tail one would be perfect in a baby or child's room.  It reminds me of peter rabbit and all of beatrix potter's books.

So, the giveaway.  Sarah has offered this lot of fabric (there's even some flea market fancy to win!).  Just leave a comment telling me which item in Sarah's shop is your favorite.  I'll pick the winner on Monday, August 23rd.  one entry per person please. 

market square!

I finished my flea market fancy quilt, and I LOVE it a lot.  Just simple squares, 3 inches each, randomly sewed together--I literally drew each square out of a bag, the only adjusting I did was to make sure that nothing exactly the same was next to each other.

It's a good lap size, measuring 52 x 66 inches.

I quilted straight lines about 1/4 inch from each seam.

I almost pieced together more of my hoarded flea market fancy stash for the back, but decided to save it instead.  I used some cake rock beach and sandi henderson in green instead.  

 I'm pretty sure green is my favorite color, it seems to be my go to color in a colorful quilt-- when I'm not sure what to use.

 for now we'll use it as a picnic blanket, it's just too hot to sit under it. I'm so happy to finally have all these prints in a quilt.

caught up!

i am caught up on amandajean's quilt-along.  phew!  i really don't love falling behind.

and now looking at this I see I messed up in the middle, bummer.  oh well, there is no way i am fixing it, it's not that noticeable, right???

another

I have definitely been bitten by the hexagon bug, and I couldn't resist turning them into this bib.  I love it.  

and this bib might have convinced me to make a hexagon quilt. 

I hope I don't go crazy.  

1.5 inch hexagons

bib pattern found here.