Pink Plus

I feel such satisfaction in a good scrap quilt.  I started these pink plus blocks because my pink scrap bin was overflowing.  I probably should've kept going, because I've still got too many pink scraps.  

 I paid no attention to shades of pink and put them all in this one quilt...from the purply-pinks to the peachy-pinks, and I'm a little surprised that it worked out so well.  

 Polka dot binding.

 I love Sarah Jane's border prints, and I used this one on the back.  You can also see how I quilted it.  I  basically quilted straight lines, in the ditch along all the pluses.

I thought I'd share the measurements for this block.

each block finishes at 8 inches.

background:  4-3.5" square & 4-2" squares

plus 1-5"x2" rectangle & 2-2" squares

I kept my plus all the same fabric and tried to keep the background similar fabrics.  Some of the pluses pop more than others, and I like the effect.

Quilt Stats:

Finished size:  39.5"x43" (after washing and drying)

Pattern:  See notes above

Fabric:  front: scraps, back:  Let's Pretend by Sarah Jane, binding: Lucy's Crab Shack (Moda)

Batting:  Warm and White

Farmer's Wife Blocks again

It seems I get excited about my Farmer's Wife Blocks about every 6 months.  I finished up another batch and am so happy with them and my progress.  I'm actually seeing the light at the end of the quilt block tunnel.

Here's all of them...I have 64 completed.  My goal is 80, layout will be 8x10.  I think that'll make a good throw size quilt.

I love seeing the evolution of my scraps...This last batch, especially, took a more muted turn.  Not as bright, and I really like it.

previous posts about my farmer's wife

A couple Quilt tops!

I finished up a couple quilt tops this weekend!  Yay!  I'm chipping away at my projects. 

First up, this flying geese quilt.  I was mostly inspired by this quilt, but there are several like this out in the blogosphere.  I used the bloc-loc ruler for this one, and it was better than I thought it would be! I highly recommend it.

 I also finished up this quilt top, a great scrap buster, too.  (And while we are here, the leaves on my maple tree are shrivelling up on the ends, you can kind of see it in the picture.  It happens every year and I haven't figured out what is wrong...any tree experts out there?)

Star Wars Quilt

I finally have a finish to share here, and this quilt has been done for several months, just took a while to get pictures.  It's a HUGE quilt and big quilts are hard to take pictures of...so I put it off.  I also realized as I'm writing this, that this is only my second finish of the year.  I don't know what's happened, usually I've done more.  I guess I need to start finishing quilts, instead of starting new ones.

My son is a huge fan of Star Wars, has been for years, and I figure he probably will be for many more to come (especially with the new movies coming out).  So this was really fun to make and exciting for him--kinda.  (Let's face it, quilts aren't as exciting to my kids as they are to me...).

The pattern is actually a cross stitch pattern by wee little stitches.  Each stitch is a 1 inch square.  I started out doing a 2 inch square, but it was just getting too big, so I shrunk it down to one inch, and honestly it could probably be even smaller, but I don't love working with smaller...

 A blurry picture on my sons bed...he even accessorized it with a vader mask and cross bow for chewie.  

 I used black and white stripe on the binding.  

And I didn't quilt it myself...I tried, but after attempting 2 times, unsuccessfully, to baste it, I decided  to send it out.  I used Emily Session @ Emerson Quilting.  She did such a great job.  She quilted in concentric squares and I think it works perfect for this pattern.  I love it!

Quilt Stats:

Finished size: 92in X 104in

Pattern:   Cross stitch pattern found here 

Fabric:  Solids are Kona (not sure colors)  binding:  timeless treasures

Batting:  Quilters Dream cotton batting (from quilter)

Quilted by:  Emerson Quilting

Schools back

Well, summer got the better of me.  I didn't sew much at all, and what I did sew was very slow going.   We've been back in school now for a couple weeks and I have time again!  I'm having a hard time staying focused on one project...a little of this and a little of that.

First up, Shimmer.  (Pattern found here.)  I love picking fabrics to put together in these blocks, and they go together quickly.  

I couldn't resist April Rhodes new fabric line, Observer, and thought it worked really well with this HUGE block, it's 36 inches.  Pattern is from the Moda Building Blocks quilt booklet.  I don't want to make the entire quilt, but I need to figure out how to make it bigger.  I'm a little stumped on this one, so I put it away for a bit.  Maybe some inspiration will  strike.

And lastly I've been trying to use up scraps.  The never ending love/hate relationship I  have with scraps.  There are just so many of them, and they never run out.  I can't decide if I should arrange this pattern horizontally or vertically.

Actually, lastly, I'm wondering if anyone has a favorite charity they donate quilts to.  I would love to a place that takes quilt tops too.  Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Hatched Quilt

My friend just had her 6th! baby, a boy, and this quilt will soon be his.  I really love this quilt and I really want to make one in my size.  

It's similar to this quilt and this quilt, but I added sashing, horizontally and vertically, through the middle for some variation.  I also added a border.  It's really not very different, so I guess it's no surprise that I love it.

For the backing, I used this large black polka dot fabric, that I designed and printed myself through My Fabric Designs.  I love how it turned out, my husband says it looks like black olives, and now all I see are olives.  

I wanted an almost ombre effect, but it just wasn't working until I added the grey, and then the greens really popped.

 I quilted straight lines on either side of the seams. 

Binding is a black crosshatch that I've had for a while.  I'm not sure who makes it.

Quilt stats:

Finished size:  38in x 45in (after washing and drying)

Pattern:  Inspiration here.  Half square triangles.

Fabric:  front--from stash   back--my own, printed and designed at My Fabric Designs  binding--stash

Batting:  Warm and White

Stash Builder Box

I recently received a fun package in the mail from Stash Builder Box, it's a monthly quilting box that features fabric, notions, patterns delivered monthly to your door.   

The unique thing about this box is for every box purchased, they donate a portion of the proceeds to making quilts for children in need.  Isn't that great? 

Inside my box were notions, beautiful Riley Blake Fabrics and patterns.  I'm excited to try them out, I love the floral prints, and even more excited to see people helping people.  If you want to help out, other than the subscription purchase, you can find out more here.