blue strippy quilt, fabric ball and binding talk

I finished sewing the binding on the blue strippy quilt! yay!

I think I have a recipient for this one- though not sure yet...

I quilted a swirl all over it in blue thread

and I made a sort of scrappy backing, this blue "star" fabric was long enough but not wide enough, so I added this blue dotted fabric in the middle.

and Ball #7 is done, I used some Lorax fabric scraps :-)

here's the fabric basket I made a while ago with all the fabric balls, don't you just want to squeeze them and play with them?

Now I've been wanting to do a little write up about BINDING!

doesn't matter if you LOVE or HATE doing the binding. I really don't mind it at all, since it's usually the last thing and then the whole quilt is done!

This is my wall downstairs, where I usually have 3 quilts hanging, and this time they are close to the same size.

Okay, so this one has binding that's the same color as the outer border- but it looks like just a fat binding, it mimics the other burgundy borders in the quilt

see how skinny that outer border is?

it acts as a nice skinny frame.

here's one with matching binding also, since the border is so wide and the focus is all on the bargello design, the border is white and so is the binding, so that's not the part you focus on.

It would just look OFF if I have picked a colored binding, don't you think?

the third quilt, has a different colored binding

I chose the red instead of the blue to make another little "border" with the binding, I could have done it in blue I guess, but I like it in red like this. Really, I'm pretty sure I just used whatever fabric I had enough of :-) often I do that. there's nothing wrong with THAT!

If you are making a scrappy quilt too, who says the binding has to be all the same color, you could use strips of a bunch of different fabrics.

What do you do when choosing your binding?

do you pick the same fabric as the outer border fabric?

or pick something else that was used in the quilt?

or do you use whatever you have on hand?

here's another update on my 2012 list

#1 welcome to the hive-turned into a pillow DONE!

#2 lotus quilt- DONE!

#3 blue flower table runner- DONE!

#4 pumpkin star pillow- just needs to be stuffed and sewn together

#5 red mini star table topper- top done and ready to quilt DONE!

#6 Bunny table runner- DONE!

#7 wonky house block swap- quilted and binding attached, started sewing onto back

#8 giraffe wall hanging - still working on needleturn applique, mommy giraffe almost done

#9 pineapple black and blue quilt- giving these a break now

#10 Blue star quilt- top and binding done

#11 Pine tree BOM- MARCH is done

#12 Next Stitch STAR- Done!

#13 snowmen table runner- DONE!

#14 Elenar Burns star Go! die- pieces cut for a scrappy look- SCRAPPED!

#15 aqua owl- DONE! and made a pair of hotpads too for a neighbor

# 16 geese in a ring- DONE!

# 17 Bonnie Hunter ORCA mystery - top done- skipping the border

# 18 Little twister blue- SCRAPPED

#19 green, red, yellow flower quilt- top done, just taking forever removing the papers

# 20 small embroidered trees (4 blocks) - DONE!

# 21 spring swap blocks- got plans but no background fabrics ordered yet

# 22Making memories embroidered panel- needs to be made into a cute wall hanging

# 23 black, red white asian quilt- DONE!

# 24 color block swap- top is done, done and quilted!

# 25 fall leaf blocks swap- top done

# 26 Baby gingham dog boy quilt- DONE!

#27- a doll apples quilt- DONE!

#28(jan 2012) need to quilt 2 donation quilts- done and mailed off

#29(jan) bubble gum quilt kit won at quilt show - main quilt top done without border

#30 (feb) jelly roll quilt- DONE!

#31 (feb)5 x 1yards of beige/ black batiks- DONE!

#32 (mar) won 9 march BOM -dotted flowers -from pine tree guild- top and binding made

#33 (mar) batik quilt for McCalls - DONE!

#34(mar) #2 quilt for McCalls- DONE and shipped

#35 (all year) Round Robin swap -June sent out

#36(mar) Dr seuss baby shower gift- DONE!-gave to neighbor

#37 (april) blue strip pieced blocks - DONE!

#38 (april) won a pattern and two charm bundles- Baby quilt DONE!

#39 wonky block swap -June sent out

#40(may) Civil War Legacies- DONE! extra blocks ready to ship out

#41 (may) blue and white lil' twister- top and binding done- fabric arrived

#42 (june) berry squares quilt- top done - fabric arrived

#43(June)neighbor gave me orange and green quilt top- fabric arrived

#44 (june) - circle in a star purple batik- black fabric is here

#45 (June) - Hidden forest- applique- black fabric is here, still missing batik bundle

#46(June) fabric balls - finished 7!

#47(june) pin cushion swap - ready to mail out July

Oh! I forgot that I'm part of the RED,WHITE and BLUE block, blog hop coming up soon

click on the logo to see the schedule.

I'm doing the 9th!

and I found this on FB a while ago.

That's MY life right now :-)

 

Dr Seuss The Lorax quilt blocks tutorial, quilt along and more

I'm about done with the Lorax blocks!

I have tiny scraps of the FQs left over, but I don't even want to make a border. I like it, the way it is.

remember it all started with this?

a FQ bundle :-)

the bundle had a panel and 9 FQs

I only washed the FQs, NOT the panel, since I haven't had much luck with panels staying straight once they are washed.

Here's my "pattern" - I made up as I went along

Trim panels to 7 ½” x 11” (Put one panel aside, you’ll only need 9 panels for top of quilt)

With each FQ

Trim long side straight and short end straight, then cut a 6” wide strip on the short end. Trim to 11”. (Scrap should be 6” x 5” approx.) Trim 11” strip in half to make two 3” strips.

Cut 4” length wise (approx. 16” strip) trim to 12 ½”, (scrap is aprrox. 2 ½” x 4”)

Cut strip in half to 2” strips.

Sew long strips to side of panels. Iron toward strips.

Sew skinny strips to top and bottom of panel blocks. Iron toward strips.

Block now measures 12 ½” x 14”

Cut 4” strips on the short end (approx. 12 ½” strips) trim to 7 ¼” and cut strip 2” wide (TWICE)

(scrap is approx. 4” x 5”)

Sew 2 pairs of 7 ¼” x 2” together on the 2” side, iron toward darker fabric.

(If using directional fabrics. Sew the pair together with A on top on one and A on bottom on the other)

Sew these strips to sides of panel blocks with “dark” fabric being upper right and lower left. Iron toward strips.

From 6” scraps cut 2” strips twice and trim to 5”

From 4” scraps cut 2” (6 times)

Match up the 4” and 5” strips to top and bottom, top (4”, 5”, 4”, 4”) and bottom (4”, 4”, 5”, 5”), matching with the side strips on the blocks, the two middle pieces are random.

Sew to top and bottom of blocks and iron toward strips.

Blocks are now 15 1/2" x 17"

Arrange blocks in a 3 x 3 layout.

Sew blocks together to make quilt top.

Top should be 45 1/2" x 50"

I also made another fabric ball yesterday

AND.... not that I NEED another project! (how many times do I say that??)

When I showed you the women of the bible quilt from the EXPO last week, someone was nice enough to send me links to this quilt- along, starting in September.

It's called Patterns of faith and here is the link. There's a link on there to join a yahoo group.

You also have to purchase the pattern- I bought the EQ file :-)

Then starting in September, each week will be a small bible study/devotional about the woman in the bible who's block you'll make that week. I think it'll be TONS of fun!

here's the link to the patterns, either a printed package, a pdf or an EQ file.

Who wants to join????

winner has been chosen

WINNER has been chosen.

random.org picked #9

"quilt happy"

she wrote

follow all and had to bookmark one to get them all

I sent you an email and also emailed fabric.com with your email address, so the certificate should get there soon!

Those of you who didn't win but still want to order from fabric.com, click the icon on the side to go to their site.

thanks for playing

 

Lorax and fabric ball and customer's quilt done

You can tell it's vacation time when I don't blog post every day!

Of course I can't avoid a little quilting or hand sewing :-)

I finally finished this customer quilt. yay!! it was a monster :-) 95 x 105" could hardly fit on my frame, but I managed:-)

I quilted an all over funky flower and leaves patterns

Today while the kids were at VBS, I just HAD to do some machine sewing.

so I started the Dr Seuss- the Lorax quilt. I cut out the panels and I'm pretty much designing it as I go. I will have a tutorial later for it I think.

here's the first part of a block

then I'm adding more borders to it.

I also finished another fabric ball, it's small!

here it is next to the rotary cutter. I'll keep it for Sonja!

here's another update on my 2012 list

#1 welcome to the hive-turned into a pillow DONE!

#2 lotus quilt- DONE!

#3 blue flower table runner- DONE!

#4 pumpkin star pillow- just needs to be stuffed and sewn together

#5 red mini star table topper- top done and ready to quilt DONE!

#6 Bunny table runner- DONE!

#7 wonky house block swap- quilted and binding attached, need to sew to back

#8 giraffe wall hanging - still working on needleturn applique, mommy giraffe almost done

#9 pineapple black and blue quilt- giving these a break now

#10 Blue star quilt- top and binding done

#11 Pine tree BOM- MARCH is done

#12 Next Stitch STAR- Done!

#13 snowmen table runner- DONE!

#14 Elenar Burns star Go! die- pieces cut for a scrappy look- SCRAPPED!

#15 aqua owl- DONE! and made a pair of hotpads too for a neighbor

# 16 geese in a ring- DONE!

# 17 Bonnie Hunter ORCA mystery - top done- skipping the border

# 18 Little twister blue- SCRAPPED

#19 green, red, yellow flower quilt- top done, just taking forever removing the papers

# 20 small embroidered trees (4 blocks) - DONE!

# 21 spring swap blocks- got plans but no background fabrics ordered yet

# 22Making memories embroidered panel- needs to be made into a cute wall hanging

# 23 black, red white asian quilt- DONE!

# 24 color block swap- top is done, done and quilted!

# 25 fall leaf blocks swap- top done

# 26 Baby gingham dog boy quilt- DONE!

#27- a doll apples quilt- DONE!

#28(jan 2012) need to quilt 2 donation quilts- done and mailed off

#29(jan) bubble gum quilt kit won at quilt show - main quilt top done without border

#30 (feb) jelly roll quilt- DONE!

#31 (feb)5 x 1yards of beige/ black batiks- DONE!

#32  (mar) won 9 march BOM -dotted flowers -from pine tree guild- top and binding made

#33 (mar) batik quilt for McCalls - DONE!

#34(mar) #2 quilt for McCalls- DONE and shipped

#35 (all year) Round Robin swap -June sent out

#36(mar) Dr seuss baby shower gift- DONE!-gave to neighbor

#37 (april) blue strip pieced blocks - quilted and binding sewn on, sewed partly to back

#38 (april) won a pattern and two charm bundles- Baby quilt DONE!

#39 wonky block swap -June sent out

#40(may) Civil War Legacies- DONE! extra blocks ready to ship out

#41 (may) blue and white lil' twister- top and binding done- fabrics ordered for backing

#42 (june) berry squares quilt- top done - fabrics ordered for backing

#43(June)neighbor gave me orange and green quilt top- fabrics ordered for backing

#44 (june) - circle in a star purple batik- ordered black to make blocks

#45 (June) - Hidden forest- applique- fabrics ordered

#46(June) fabric balls - finished 6!

#47(june) pin cushion swap - ready to mail out July

do you know what today is??

It's 6 months until Christmas!! are you ready??? LOL

here my kids are sitting in their bathing suits from when they were in the pool. and it's going to be 99 or hotter friday and saturday, NOT looking forward to that- being 7months pregnant.

way too early to think about Christmas. I haven't even thought about 4th of july yet.

I don't have much to show either as far as quilting, I'm still working slow and enjoying the time home with the kids and getting in the pool with them too :-)

I did finish pincushion #1 but I can't show it yet.

and here's another fabric ball, 6 octagons and 8 triangles.

AND friends at church had a baby shower for me yesterday.

I feel so BLESSED! I'll show more of the goodies when I unpack them and actually get the baby room ready. I've already gotten lots of hand me downs and things from people, but of course it's so nice to get new clothes for her and DIAPERS :-)

and here's today's harvest! we hadn't checked the garden in a few days also because we had a heavy rain the other day, or maybe it was two days we had that in the afternoons.

almost time for dinner, but wanted to post something really quick!

I'm making a squash and zucchini quiche!

 

quilt sewing expo in raleigh

Yesterday, I went with two friends to the quilt and sewing expo in raleigh.

I had picked friday, because I heard and read that one of the editors of mcCall's but the Editor in Chief would be there and do a trunk show.

So I joined two friends and we drove to Raleigh.

we got there a little later than I expected, but not too late for the trunk show, so we first looked at quilts and then I figured I'd look for the stage.

this was a quilt at a booth near the front, each block is women in the bible! how cool is that.

And the verse I am the Vine you are the branches. John 15:5

some of these other quilts had some AMAZING quilting detail on them, I need to step up my game!

This was just a FUN quilt with carousel horses.

and again I looked at the dense quilting, gorgeous feathers in the border with two colors of thread.

a pretty fairy? quilt, her shawl was kind of loose hanging, pretty neat.

Kaffe- houses- I think I've seen this quilt before.

but haven't seen the quilted trees like this, how clever!

Then I turned around and behind me were two ladies who I recognized right away

BETH HAYES and SHERRI BAIN DRIVER from McCall's!!

they were such sweet ladies and quickly knew who I was once I mentioned my two quilts, we talked a little and my friend took a picture of us!

How cool to meet someone "famous" like that :-)

While they went to the stage I snapped some more pics of the quilts hanging

this one was striking, I really want to do a more advanced curved quilt- ONE day.

I love bright colors and this had lovely tiny quilting on it too

then a 30s flower quilt, I like this type of setting too for the blocks, maybe I can use the merge tool in EQ for that? never thought about that? hmm

These were quilts that had been published in quiltmaker magazine, I didn't recognize this cat quilt though, my friend thought they were pigs! especially the pink one and their big noses. I do think they had whiskers but you couldn't see them from a distance

I DO remember seing this one, it's cute.

Don't remember seeing this one, it was really pretty too.

Now Sherri Bain Driver started the trunk show with Beth Hayes helping hold up the quilts.

While we ate lunch, we watched the presentation.

Sherri was funny, how she talked about how she started quilting, because she thought it was a "thrifty" hobby.. LOL

She showed lots of quilts, I only took pics of a few and my camera didn't do a very good job...

Sherri likes browns and muted tones- I like brights, so I tended to take more pictures of the bright ones she made :-)

Another part she mentioned was how she sewed strips together into a good size chunk like a FQ then put it in the drawer- she mentioned this drawer a lot, must be a HUGE drawer.... LOL

I do remember seeing this one in their magazine, raw edge appliqued squares on top of a simple pieced top and the applique was stitched down as part of the quilting. I want to try that one day too!

though I really don't like raw edge applique, but I DO want to try it.

a fun bright nine patch quilt, I think she said it was from a swap

also nine patches from a swap where she set them in a star block, clever! that can be done with the merge tool in EQ7 too. and I like the triangle parts that flow into the border.

Now I can't remember the name of this type of fabric, some exotic name, she said it's sort of like fabrics from south america, anyways, cool results!

this one was the final one, just gorgeous!

she described how she designed it, very intrecate and time consuming, but just LOVELY!

GREAT show!

next to the stage hung this lovely sun burst quilt, I couldn't help looking at it.

This was a fun and funky quilt too nearby!

This one was painted- it looked like, very cute

One of the vendors had this hanging on the side wall! WOW

her whole booth was covered with these, she designed them all- in EQ!! wow...

just lovely! I snapped a picture, and then after the fact asked her- if she'd mind if I did that, I've run into SOME vendors that don't want pictures taken of their quilts- I guess so you can't go home and duplicate the pattern, I told her that, and she said Go ahead! and I laughed that even if I wanted to, there's no way I could copy that. LOL

Oh and I got to hear her labor story too, funny, how when you are huge and pregnant people will just start telling you their labor stories :-) I don't mind, I think it's interesting. LOL

so I DID come home with some goodies.

First- one booth had Go! dies for 40% off- I know this store, so I bought the apple core die for $24!

Then this KUMIHIMO braid kit for my daughter, once I showed her how to do by reading the booklet, she whipped up the keyring in an hour, and this morning made a different one!

I also bought this 3D cube, it's a kit with fabric and foam cubes.

You know those cubes when they keep folding in and out and you see different pictures etc. this one is like that soft a squishy! never seen that before- so I actually bought that for the BABY!

here's the braided string.

Now I need to go buy more yarn... I used to have TONS of yarn when I crocheted but when quilting took over I gave away tons of yarn to friends...

 Today I will work more on my customer's quilt and more on pin cushions for this swap!