I have a lovely stack of quilts...

And they need binding!

Five quilts in my UFO pile.  I've picked them up from my long-arm quilter, Janelle, and I'm determined to finish them before I start on a new project.  The new project will be a Meadow Quilt.  I did take some time yesterday and plotted color placement.  I'm pretty satisfied, but I'll most likely fool around with it a little more before I start cutting.  An interesting thing about the Meadow Quilt, is you don't use your rotary cutter very much!  Very old school.

May your bobbins always be full,

Auditioning for Swoon

I bought the popular Swoon pattern a while ago.  But other quilts and life keep getting in my way.  I'm committed to making my own Swoon quilt and I joined the Swoon-a-long, over at I'm a Ginger Monkey.

 

Yesterday I took a few minutes to "audition" the FQ bundle of Echo that's been screaming at me.  I love this fabric.  I eliminated the the two with pink, for this quilt, two FQ's had to go, after all.  This morning I laid out the groups of two I'm thinking of working with, on background fabric.  I eliminated  white and cream right away.  I think I like the first one, the coal background.

The second one, on charcoal, isn't bad, but I think coal has it.

I'm also thinking that most of these prints may be too large for the pattern, oh, boy.

Here's a Swoon quilt from Fussy Cut, you can see it's a large quilt.  Maybe this fabric will work. 

I'll have to think, some more.  What do you think?

May your bobbins always be full,

Little Forrest Wall-hangings

Finally!  I finished sewing on the binding and hanging loops on all three of the Little Forrest QAL wall-hangings.  I made the loops extra long, in case we ever want to insert a large twig or small branch for the hanger.  I purchased a magnetic curtain rod for our front door, (the door is steel), at Lowe's.

The two below are going to my daughters' homes.  I sure hope they like them.  

As you can see, all three are slightly different.  When I was laying them out, Bob thought they should all be the same.  He also didn't like that some of the corners were empty.  Bob has a great artist eye, but I'm the chief quilt artist in residence, so my lay-out stayed.

May your bobbins always be full,

Second finish this week!

Can I get a Whoop-Whoop!

Another finish, today.  I have quite a few WIPs, just waiting for binding, so I should have a lot of finishes this week!  Because of Bob's health, I'm no longer working part time at B&N, so MORE quilting time for me.

This quilt is the result of my first ever QAL, A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along, with Angela of Cut to Pieces.

The quilt measures about 68" x 78", I'm average height and I had to stand on my tippy-toes to pin it to the fence the long way.  I like how it looks both ways.

I always piece my backs, with rare exception.

How about that blue California sky, and it's about 90 degrees, here in Murrieta.

I'm linking to This Week @ Love Affair with my Brother

May your bobbins always be full,

a catch-up

In March, I signup up for a Handmade Pay It Forward with Janet at Entropy Undone.  Yesterday I received this great gathered clutch.  I really love it.  I've already completed my Handmade Pay It Forward, that I was obligated to do, for signing up.  My 3 winners have their surprises.  I'm sure I'll do another, soon.

This is the first wallhanging I quilted of my Little Forrest QAL.  It's not perfect, of course, but I'm very please with it.  I'll try to get the other two finished today, so I can get the bindings on.

I used this spray for basting.  It worked really well, I was pleasantly surprised.

May your bobbins always be full,

Dead Simple Quilt Along

These are my fabrics for the Dead Simple Quilt Along.  Below is the photo I used for my inspiration.

May your bobbins always be full,

Little Forest Quilt Quilt-Along - My fabrics

These are the fabrics I'm going to use for the Little Forest Quilt Quilt-Along.
Now, I'm anxious to get started.

May your bobbins always be full,

Yet another QAL!

Grab your favorite fat quarters and let's start quilting!

Call me crazy, but I appear to have jumped with both feet, onto the QAL Bandwagon.  This is the 3rd one I've signed up for, in as many days.  This is it!  (Probably.)  I usually don't have projects in progress; I start something and finish it, before moving on the the next thing.  I'm afraid that's over, for now.

 Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along - 27 Sep 2011 to 27 Mar 2012

by the fabulous Konda of Moose on the Porch fame.

Here's the information you need to get started:

Fabric Requirements:

16 Fat Quarters
2 1/2 yards background and border and sashing fabric
optional 2 yards addional border fabric -- this makes the larger size quilt
5 yards (6 yards for larger size) backing
3/4 yard binding (for both sizes)

Size of Quilt: 65" x 84"

This will be a great way to use some of my stash  Above is Summer Song by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake Designs FQ bundle, I've had it for awhile now.  This may be a good time to use it.

May your bobbins always be full,

Another QAL!

This one is called Dead Simple Quilt.  The idea is to make a Dead Simple Quilt, very quick, very easy. BUT the interesting thing will be the palette.  This is how it'll work, according to Lily, the hostess, "Each person picks one palette from Design-Seeds (or any other palette maker or makes their own palette) and then rummages around in their stash for a selection of fabrics matching that palette. We then all make a Dead Simple Quilt where the palette, not the piecing, is the star of the show."

I looked at Design-Seeds, and I wasn't enthralled, so I turned to Big Huge Labs.

I may change my mind about everything, but this is the photo and color range I'm thinking of:

#b7ac5a

gimblet

#8f8124

lemon ginger

#6c7b38

dingley

#94a768

green smoke

#8ea17a

sage

#a9ad77

neutral green

#6b6f5d

willow grove

#998980

heathered grey

#0e050c

#28202c

black russian

#5e8173

cutty sark

#aa599a

#a1b69b

spring rain

#947159

limed oak

#7e4d58

cosmic

 I should be able to pull these colors, or most of them, from my stash. What do you think? Beside the fact that I'm a little crazy to start two QAL's at the same time.

May your bobbins always be full,

Little Forest Quilt Along

I'm joining the Little Forest Quilt Along, it's being hosted by two quilters, Linda and Stephanie.  Check them out, if your interested.

May your bobbins always be full,

Rainbow - A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along

The Top

and

The Back

These are the top and the pieced back of A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along.  I used a lot of the leftover bits and pieces from the top for the backing.  I'm really pleased with the way it turned out; once it's quilted, it'll measure about 70x70".  I was a little frustrated along the way because the instructions were eked out over 6 weeks, it was too slow for me.  I made an entire other quilt top and bottom during that time.  However, I am very grateful to Angela for doing this QAL, I learned a lot!

May your bobbins always be full,

A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along - Progress

I got all my strips cut for the ZZ QAL,

and they're sewn to the white background strips.

Now, I waiting for the next step.  Patiently waiting!

May your bobbins always be full,

A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along

I've decided to do the "A Zig and A Zag Quilt Along", hosted by Angela of Cut to Pieces.  I've been thinking of doing a rainbow quilt, and zig zag quilts are one of my favorite things to make, so this is perfect.  I've spent a couple of days ruminating about the fabric choices and settled on these.

I pulled everything from my stash, except the dark purple! What do you think?  I have lots of medium purple but no dark purple; a trip to my LQS remedied that situation.  This morning, I'll start the cutting.

This is the first quilt along I've participated in,

May your bobbins always be full,