Last year, I made my first quilt from my husband’s shirts as a PQ challenge and I had hoped to do the second one this week. However, life and sick kitties interfered. So, last night, I took some of the tiniest shirt scraps and made a little log cabin Christmas ornament.
For now, it’s hanging on my bulletin board but I think I’ll make one to go with each quilt.
Happy quilting,
Beth
P.S. Both Winnie and Gizmo are doing OK now.
Posted in Uncategorized
This week’s prompt was the hourglass…block, shape or other interpretation. This was an easy one for me. I love hourglass blocks. The accuquilt makes it so fast and easy to cut the 1/4-square triangles I need for the blocks.
I had a need for a doll quilt to gift to a new big sister. I decided to go with colors that matched the baby quilt. I used the Accuquilt to cut a fast bunch of triangles. They went together so quickly! I shrunk down the quilting design I used on the baby quilt, too. I’m loving this butterfly and loops.
Here’s the hourglass quilt which measures 18×24 inches.
Here it is next to the baby quilt…
And here it is on the doll bed. I used a Riley Blake stripe for the mattress and pillow and then made a little pillow case to match the quilt. I’m hoping it will be a favorite nap spot for a beloved doll or stuffy.
I was hoping that Gizmo would give it a trial nap but no such luck. He did, however, take a lovely nap on both quilts as I put on the bindings.
Here’s a closeup of the quilting.
Thanks again, to Kim and Trisha for a fun challenge week!
Happy quilting,
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
I love February! For a lover of hearts and pink and all things Valentine’s, it’s a beautiful month even if the weather doesn’t agree! Often in the Pacific Northwest, it’s also the time of year we get what I like to call “False Spring.” We get a few days of very pretty, hopeful weather that gets all the gardening people excited…then it settles down to rain for weeks. One of the other things I love is making baby quilts and there are a whole bunch of new babies on the way this spring. I found these adorable animal prints and wanted to capture some of that fresh, spring feel. I quilted it on my Qu’nique 21 Pro with a butterfly pattern that I’ve really been loving lately.
The faces of these animals are so very cute!
And those little paws are otterly adorable!
I am so excited to get this bound and delivered!
The back wall of my cubicle has been giving me the perfect spot to bring some of my smaller quilts out to visit the office. For February, I brought out this heart quilt that I made during a prior season of Project Quilting.
Thanks so much to Joan over at MooseStash Quilting for putting this all together! There’s lots to love on this hop, be sure to check out all these talented folks!
Monday February 19
Tuesday February 2
A Quiltery-For the Love of Geese
Wednesday February 21
Thursday February 22
Happy quilting!
Beth
The challenge this week was “Inside Out”. The idea was to take an element that was normallyon the inside and feature it on the outside. Once again, I struggled but half the fun of the challenges is to push yourself creatively. I ended up deciding on two inside out elements. The first was selvages. My early sewing days were in garment construction were the inside of a garment often had selvages. I used to love when a straight edge had a selvage because it meant I didn’t have to finish the edge. (This was in a pre-serger time of my life and, yes, I know it wasn’t good tailoring practice…LOL.)
I decided to make a selvege zip bag because it would be inside-out in two ways, selveges on the outside and the literal turning inside out of the bag.
The bag got a little bigger than I pictured and frankly, I’m not wowed. But, it is a cute little bag and I’m sure it will find a use.
Thanks again to Kim and Trish for a fun challenge!
Gizmo supervised the whole process and I’m sure he’ll test-sleep the bag at the first opportunity and report back.
Happy quilting!
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
This week’s challenge was to sky colors but not less than 10% sky blue. I had a million ideas but was very short on time. (I’ve got a t-shirt quilt that’s way overdue.) I had an idea I would have loved to do based on the title “Purp”le Rain” but it would have required a ton of time.
Instead, I used inspireation from our recent ice storm. While we were frozen in place, we were treated to some lovely sunsets over the ice so I tried to capture that in raw edge applique.
You can’t see the details very well but there are three different colors of fairy frost in the bottom
Here’s a picture of our neighborhood looking like a skating rink.
I decided I didn’t want another small wall hanging so I decided to make this one into a pillow. After I had finished it, I was reminded of a story my mom used to tell. She grew up on a variety of small rented farms in Montana. She told me how very still and quiet things were in the depth of winter and how lonely the sound of the train whistle was in the stillness. I wish I had remembered sooner, I could have quilted in a tiny curl of train smoke.
Thanks again to Kim and Trish. It was fun to push myself out of my usual style.
Now, back to the t-shirt quilt!
Happy quilting,
Beth
My daughter’s great grandmother was the one who brought the tradition of saying “Rabbit, rabbit” first thing on the first day of a new month. This was supposed to bring luck for the month ahead. I’d never heard of it before and thought it was just a game she played with her grandchildren. Then I ran accross it in a Miss Read novel (which I highly recommend, by the way – quite a charming series about a school teacher in a small English village.) Somehow the tradition got translated from “White Rabbit” to “Rabbit Rabbit” along the way and thus the 1st of every month is referred to as “Rabbit Rabbit Day.” I’m not terrible superstitious but I love the fun of the thought and the connection to past generations. My own grandmother used to rub the newly-cut ends of a cucumber together to “get the poison out.” Of course I rub the end of my cucumbers after cutting them…not as poison control but as a sweet moment of remembering my grandma.
So of course I jumped at the idea to join a White Rabbit Blog Hop hosted by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt! I had the perfect fat quarter bundle just waiting in the wings…Riley Blake’s Down the Rabbit Hole.
I always love a fat quarter bundle. I loving have every piece of a collection and those little bundles are so fun to see arranged on a shelf. The shelf is getting crowded, though, and I was excited to have a little push in the direction of getting this one out to play.
There was clearly a pink and blue thing going on in this stack. I decided to divide them into pink/white and blue. I had some yardage for borders as well.
Last year, during the “Novel” challenge for Project Quilting, I used a fat quarter bundle from “Little Women” to make a log cabin quilt and I decided to do something similar with this collection.
Instead of a regular log cabin, I went with a courthouse steps style
The blocks are a big oversized, finishing at 15″ but that meant I could do a lap quilt with only sixteen blocks. I wasn’t thrilled with the look. I mean, I knew is would be “mushy” in colors but something wasn’t sitting right. I changed the layout to alternate horizontal and vertical placement and I liked it much better!
There are still quite a few white/pink strips left so I think I’m going to try some additional blocks with the blue and pink on one side and the whites on the other. I don’t have a size in mind but I’d love to get this at least four blocks by five blocks.
Many thanks to Carol for helping me move this cute little bundle from shelf ornament to project in progress! Make sure to hop over to all the talented quilters on this list to get a hefty dose of inspiration and, who knows, maybe a little extra luck!
JANUARY 22
Just Let Me Quilt
Inflorescence
Quilt Schmilt
Sew Many Yarns
Days Filled With Joy
JANUARY 23
Quilting Gail
Beaquilter
Ms P Designs USA
Words & Stitches
Lake Girl Quilts
Homespun Hannah’s Blog
JANUARY 24
Selina Quilts
Karrin’s Crazy World
Quilted Delights
The Life of Grammy
Quilting Between The Rails (Facebook Page)
Quilted Snail
JANUARY 25
MooseStashQuilting
Vroomans Quilts
Domestic Felicity
Pattern Princess
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Highroad Quilter
Kathy’s Kwilts and More
Milo has been closely supervising this project just in case any pesky bunnies get out of line!
Happy quilting!
The
Posted in Uncategorized
The Pacific Northwest is currently having a weather tantrum. Freezing rain started last Friday with (for us) quite low temperatures. I’ve been quite lucky in that heat and power have stayed on and I’ve been sewing away between cat-holding duties. Gizmo has some arthritis along with his heart issues and uses me as his personal heating pad.
He’ll snuggle until he’s nice and warm and then take over the warm spot in my chair as soon as I get up. He’s more inclined towards a little blanket or dryer- warmed clothes than he once was.
Today, it’s supposed to rain and thaw but so far the rain is just creating a very pretty, but scary, later of ice.
We’ve been told temps are heading for the mid- forties today but it’s just over freezing at my house.
So, winning….I won the fabric giveaway over at The Objects of Design. Molly, the ruling cat, picked these lovelies for me…
I’m so excited as I have a project this year that will test the extent of my blue stash! If you don’t read Sally’s blog, I highly recommend it. She has some great tutorials and her prose is super witty…and there are cats! I never leave without a smile.
So, what does one do with 5 days indoors? Do you need to ask? I spent most of my time in the sewing room….double bonus because heat rises and it’s on the third floor! I’m nearly done piecing a long overdue t-shirt quilt and hope to get it on the frame today. Tomorrow is back to work and next week we are falling down the rabbit hole with the White Rabbit Blog Hop.
Here’s hoping you are warm and safe where you are and that quilty things are happening for you!
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
The Pacific Northwest is currently having a weather tantrum. Freezing rain started last Friday with (for us) quite low temperatures. I’ve been quite lucky in that heat and power have stayed on and I’ve been sewing away between cat-holding duties. Gizmo has some arthritis along with his heart issues and uses me as his personal heating pad.
He’ll snuggle until he’s nice and warm and then take over the warm spot in my chair as soon as I get up. He’s more inclined towards a little blanket or dryer- warmed clothes than he once was.
Today, it’s supposed to rain and thaw but so far the rain is just creating a very pretty, but scary, later of ice.
We’ve been told temps are heading for the mid- forties today but it’s just over freezing at my house.
So, winning….I won the fabric giveaway over at The Objects of Design. Molly, the ruling cat, picked these lovelies for me…
I’m so excited as I have a project this year that will test the extent of my blue stash! If you don’t read Sally’s blog, I highly recommend it. She has some great tutorials and her prose is super witty…and there are cats! I never leave without a smile.
So, what does one do with 5 days indoors? Do you need to ask? I spent most of my time in the sewing room….double bonus because heat rises and it’s on the third floor! I’m nearly done piecing a long overdue t-shirt quilt and hope to get it on the frame today. Tomorrow is back to work and next week we are falling down the rabbit hole with the White Rabbit Blog Hop.
Here’s hoping you are warm and safe where you are and that quilty things are happening for you!
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
First, a much belated Happy New Year! My apologies for the silence here but the season got away from me and I way overgoaled. Anyway, here’s to a new year and a new season of Project Quilting! You can find all the details over at Kim’s blog here. This week’s challenge was “Birdhouse” and I was really struggling to get some inspiration. I decided on a modified wonky house and turned it into a row of little pink birdhouses. This quilt measures about 45×51 and features a border and back from my major garage sale fabric score this summer. We’re currently indoors with a spat of unusually cold weather in the Pacific Northwest. Luckily, I currently have power.
I quilted this on my Qu’nique 21 Pro which I recently added automation to. Now that I’ve moved past the, “Oh my gosh, what the heck have I done” stage of wanting the throw the whole setup out the window, it’s a lot of fun! This is one of the edge to edge patterns that were added with the recent software update.
As someone who has always quilted freehand, I didn’t know how I’d like automation but it’s really fun. While I could freehand something like those butterflies, it’s nice to watch the machine work while I work on something else!
Of course, nothing gets done in my sewing room without expert supervision and Milo was happy to lend his vast store of quilting knowledge to this effort!
Talk soon…much fun stuff coming!
Happy quilting,
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
There so much to love about the holiday season! There’s the time with family, the decorations, the songs and, of course, the treats! Thanks to Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt for treating us all to some great holiday inspirations.
I made a discovery lately…spice cake! I was looking for something to make for a morning meeting and stumbled across this recipe. New recipes require a test drive and there was not a crumb left of this one! This cake is quick and simple and, to top it off, gluten-free. I like to try out my gluten-free items on people who can eat gluten. I consider, “I couldn’t even tell the difference” to be the best test of gluten-free goodies. This one got rave reviews!
The recipe for this yumminess can be found here:
https://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gluten-free-spice-cake/
I did change the recipe slightly. I subbed in 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice and 1/2-teaspoon of cinnamon for all the spices. Also, be sure to let it cool completely before adding the powdered sugar. Otherwise, it just sort of slurps into the cake and looks sort of grungy.
I hope you’ll give it a try and let me know how it goes! Now take a look at these other great blogs and have yourself a lovely holiday.
I added a little gallery of Christas pasts for a bit of holiday spirit. Enjoy!
DECEMBER 4
A Quiltery-For the Love of Geese
DECEMBER 5
DECEMBER 6
DECEMBER 7
Happy quilting!
Beth
Posted in Uncategorized
/div>
January - 81, Feb. - 11, March - 10
2014 Block Count as of 1/31 - 81
I'm sewing along...are you?
Words & Stitches 