DMQG October challenge

Last night was our monthly meeting & our challenge was to make a fall inspired mug rug. then we also swapped our finished mug rugs. I love these type of challenges!
I knew i wanted a scrap buster, and so I turned to flicker for some inspiration & also tried reverse appliqué (shown at our August meeting) and this is what I came up with:
my mug rug being shown off by Robin, who picked mine first (but then was stolen by Angie 2 minutes later lol)



Dont worry, I actually took pictures of my process while I played around making this mug rug so I'll post a tutorial this weekend!
I picked this BEAUTIFUL mug rug made by a new member Charlotte- what talent!




I also splurged & bought a few new quilting books

*10 minute blocks
and
*Pieces of Pie (a la mode)
Excited to try these quilt patterns!


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Coming up for air ! (with a quilt!)

I'm alive! Not only did I survive that insane weekend of weddings, but my BFF's baby shower (with completed baby bedding & a quilt!) and also moving 2 days later!
we've now been in our new house 1 week & sadly I haven't touched my machine since moving it in. My craft room is still in boxes. Boy am I anxious to quilt my fall quilt ! I've got a few more boxes & rooms to set up before I can get to that though.

enough of that- I must show off a very special quilt! my BFF is due later this month with a baby girl (who I am hoping will be my future daughter in law- I'm a mom of 2 boys- I can hope right??) I have been eagerly waiting for this little blessing for our sweet friends for the last 5 years & she'll now be here shortly. so making her bedding & such a sweet quilt really meant something special to me! and what a quilt to finish off the 2011 baby quilts with !


A fairly simple quilt, but wow do the colors pop with this simple design!


I really racked my brain on quilt designs... For Jes' birthday last year I made this vintage kitchen inspired quilt - I knew I had to make another stacked stripe quilt, but for Kinsley. I know how much jes cherishes my quilt, I was hoping Jes would get the connection with the pattern ;)




Quilting on this quilt was such a breeze, I think I'm really mastering stippling & meandering. I've always done my own quilting but sometimes I get a hiccup in the process, but I'm proud to say- the last 4 quilts I've mastered my technique- what a great feeling that is! I did a very tight stipple design on this quilt.


Mommy to be & Kinsley's quilt







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Procrastinatitis- it's an illness...

My best friend's baby shower is this coming weekend....of course I'm doing her baby bedding, which is not finished .... yet. Bumper is complete. Quilt top is complete. so I have to do the skirt & finish the quilt. yikes. It's 1 week away. I know I can get it done...however the next 9 days will be complete chaos in my mind although I might not show it. I have my regular work this week, as well as my freelance work, so a VERY busy week for me, and 2 days after Jes' shower - we move! yikes! Needless to say my plate is full. and about to spill!

OH did I mention I'm also HOSTING her shower?? ha, I can hear you laughing now.... well thankfully Jes has some wonderful friends who offered to help host as well, and these girls are really pulling through for me.

So wouldn't you know it, Friday night I hit a creative wall...well really i just couldn't decide how i wanted to design her darn crib skirt. I know i'm being picky & just need to do it already, but I just want it to be perfect. of course. I have the fabrics & all. It'll come to me in my sleep, i just know it! ;-)

So just keep laughing....I haven't bought any new fabrics in quite a while as I wanted to finish some unfinished projects before splurging anymore. I've done SO great...until yesterday... stopped by my LQS and I've always wanted a fall themed quilt that I could leave out all season long, well i came across a great combination I paired together (didn't even have a quilt design in mind yet)

I really love the precuts that Moda designs, but sadly this LQS doesn't carry many, so I just paired what I thought would make a great combination.

home elements in orange by mark limpinski for northcott fabrics

Joel Dewberry Woodgrain in Green

Four All Seasons- Fall by Andover Fabrics (Kim Schaefer)

Yellow diagonal check by Moda Lily & Will

Halloween Night Dot Black/Orange by Minick & Simpson for Moda

Just enough fall tones, the colors are out of my normal range (I am not an orange kinda girl!) but the Black & orange polka dots give it just enough for halloween too :)

So i really expected it'd sit on my shelf & not get done until the very end of fall- well....sadly last night, I was so inspired by these new fabrics and procrastinated so much- what did I do???? i finished my quilt top. and just to make it worse...today I pieced the back! This is awful, procrastinating..... almost like a sickness...I mean who is this productive when they procrastinate?? I'm not going to allow myself to baste it until after I finish Jes' quilt. girl scouts honor!

I am proud of myself however, for actually using a quilt pattern out of a book I bought a few months ago- Camille Roskelley's book 'Simplify' I used the "Little Man" pattern. But I've just doubled the pattern really..and added an extra border too.

Now I'm really motivated to finish that baby bedding so I can quilt this new baby! I've decided it's going to be a housewarming gift.....FOR MYSELF! it'll be the 1st quilt I finish in our new house. I'm excited to get to snuggle up under it soon with my 3 guys with some cooler weather soon!

A quilt for Silas!

My sweet friend Elizabeth had her 2nd boy last week (baby #3 for her- she's a pro!) Her & her husband decided to not decide on a name for the little guy until he arrived (complete inconvenience to gals like myself who like to personalize every gift! lol)


But today Silas got a personalized gift, a sweet baby quilt. I made it pretty large for a baby quilt 50" x 50" is the finished size.



I really loved the fabrics we used- I did some baby bedding for Elizabeth earlier in the summer using some fun Ikea fabrics, gold cottons & navy blue as well. I've really been into gold & yellows this summer so I loved working on her bedding & quilt.




I broke out of my box & tried something new- i have attempted to quilt with minky a few times- not a huge fan of it, but I have managed. Call me crazy but I much prefer to free motion quilt over straight line quilting with my walking foot. I really wanted to attempt to free motion quilt with the minky on this quilt. I googled some tips on FMQ'ing with minky & found the best tips are in basting (don't pull it tight) and make the quilting a little more 'loose' than normal. I have to say I was impressed- it moved fairly easy with the machine, and I didn't get a single pucker on the backside. I had really debated about quilting the border which I normally would be consistent in my quilting across the whole quilt, but I really felt by only FMQ'ing in the middle it helped the border stand out even more. I think it would have looked great with just the simple quilting too, but to be honest I basted it late at night & had to use 2 pieces of batting.... So another reason for the free motion quilting was to insure that the batting stayed right where it's supposed to be! ;)




so again, another reason why I love quilting- it's always teaching me something I didn't know I could do :)
Even more- I love giving to such sweet friends like my friend Elizabeth. We spent so much time together this summer & her friendship has blessed me so greatly.... My only problem now is that I want to make a quilt for both of her other kids too, only because I love them so much!



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Little Apples challenge

So I took my little Apples mini quilt (our September challenge for the DMQG) to CA last month while my family was on vacation. yes I can leave my sewing machine behind, but I need to do something to keep my hands busy!
I took this mini quilt & hand sewn the binding. the quilt itself is a bookcase quilt, which was new for me. I'm pleased with how it turned out! love the quilting too :)




Perfect size for my little man to help me out!







Can't complain much while doing some hand quilting with a view of the pacific ocean & Balboa island!


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September challenge

The DMQG gave us a challenge in July & it is due in September. I'm not going to reveal my mini quilt until after our September meeting. But i will show you the backside! I wanted to try my hand with various free motion quilting patterns - so this was my first. Not sure I would do this on a big quilt because it was so time consuming, however it does look really great!




Now I am on the hunt for the right marking pen or pencil. I used 2 marking water soluble pencils (1 white & 1 blue) the white was still hard to see on the grey, but showed up on darker colors. The blue wasn't as fine tipped as I would have liked, not to mention I had to press kind of hard. So now I'm on the hunt! Any suggestions?



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Quilt Bedding for Lauren

My sister's friend Liz brought me her childhood bedding & wanted me to revamp it. Liz wanted something shabby chic for her daughter, Lauren's room. The comforter was an old Waverly print called "Darlington". The comforter was one solid print and pre-quilted like below. I made Liz a full size quilt, 2 standard size pillow shams and 2 throw pillows.
Since the comforter was pre quilted material, it wasn't hard to disassemble, it was just time consuming. In the end I found it quicker and easier to cut the fabric into fat quarter size pieces, then disassemble and cut the fabric into the sizes I needed.

I used a combo of fabrics that I thought coordinated with the Waverly print. The pink was the hardest to match, so using a combination of the pinks worked I think. The finished quilt is a full size 78" X 88".




The shams are standard size 20" X 27"