pillow

Several months ago,  I did some pattern testing for Amanda Jean and in return she sent me this lovely pillow.  What a fun surprise...

I don't know about you, but whenever I receive a handmade gift, I sit and stare at it, trying to figure out if I can duplicate it.  Amanda Jeans workmanship is exceptional.  All the seams line up perfectly...encourages me to do better.

The style feels like something I would make myself, and it fits in perfectly in my little girls' room.

 Thanks Amanda Jean!

Shimmer Quilt

I finished my Shimmer Quilt as I rewatched the first season of Poldark , which is probably the reason I finished it so quickly.  Are you watching?  If not, I highly recommend it.

These blocks are pretty simple to make, and it was fun picking fabrics for each block.  I tried to stick with muted, less bright colors...and it feels perfect for fall.

 Yellow seems to be my go to color for binding lately.  This print is by April Rhodes, from her Bound line. (I just realized I used Bound fabric for the binding, it was meant to be).

 For the backing I used a Cotton and Steel print that I found for a steal at fabric.com.  It seemed a perfect fit to offset the bold colors on the front.

for the quilting, I stitched in the ditch horizontally and vertically, and then some diagonal coss-hatch. My quilting choices have definitely evolved over the years, I find myself trying to hide my quilting lately.

Quilt stats:

Finished size:   53.5" x 66.5"(after washing and drying)

Pattern:  Shimmer Pattern 

Fabric:  front: stash + back: cotton and steel +  binding: bound by April Rhodes

Batting:  Warm and White

Quilt donations

I finally went through my stack of quilt tops and purged.  It was time to get rid of some of them. I don't know about you, but sometimes the quilt top is as far as I want to go with a particular quilt before I lose interest in it. Sometimes I don't even get the blocks sewn together before I want to be done with them... and then they start adding up, and then they kinda stress me out, because I know I should finish them, but I would much rather work on something else (that was a run-on sentence).  

So after going through my stack of works-in-progress, I found several that I sent away to various charities.  I have also found several finished quilts that I plan to ship as well.  It feels so good to know they will be used and feels so good to have them off my to-do list.

Several posts ago, I asked for charity suggestions, and wanted to share them here in case you were looking to clean out your work in progress pile.  Each has a different area of service they focus on, and all appear to be wonderful charities.  

Quilts Beyond Borders

quiltsfromtheheart.org

Covered in Love

azblankets4kids.org

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