Stitching Basket and a Finish

Joann.com had these on 50% clearance a few weeks ago and this one caught my eye. I've never owned a sewing basket before but I thought it would be a great way to store my new stitching supplies & projects for easy portability. Not to mention that it's just plain cute too!

When I unlatch the top it looks like this with a handy pincushion and pocket for my embroidery hoop.

I so LOVE the removable plastic partitioned tray. It's deep enough to hold the thread that I'm currently using and I'm sure I'll fill up the sections quickly. I'm using one for a thread catcher (I'm terrible at leaving bits of thread on the sofa!). Underneath there is room to store my project and the pattern. No peeking at that until the Embroidery Blog Hop!

And, at the very bottom is my collection of Presencia thread... with plenty of expansion space.

I finally have a DONE! on my March Goals and just in time for Easter decorating too. This Easter Egg Table Topper is made from swapped Happy Blocks with cute Egg centers.

I grid quilted it with variegated pastel Sulky thread. My favorite block is surrounded by adorable Easter bunnies. I wouldn't have chosen a few of the darker fabrics myself but that is how you roll with swaps.

This backing fabric will give the topper an extended life after Easter.  I have so many pretty big floral fabrics in my stash and I'll be hard pressed to feature them all on quilt tops.

This is the table it will top, after it's washed it will lay much nicer but I'm not that patient today!

I'm linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching@Kathy's Quilts.

Last February Finishes

I have 3 UFO Finishes to share with you on the last day of February. Is it just me or did February fly by? I know it's a short month, but still... it seems like it just started a few days ago.

First up is my paper pieced "Log Cabin in the Pines". I ended up doing very minimal quilting on this because it's a small topper and I wanted the paper piecing and the cute border fabric to stand out. I might go back and add some wavy lines of smoke coming out of the chimney now that I look at my photo, but I ended up taking out a line of quilting through the middle of the border because it was distracting.

This is my February finish for A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I'm calling this Happy Block quilt for Project Linus "Scrapped Up Animals". It's got a little of bit of everything in the block borders!

The centers are a bee print, a monkey print and one with dogs & cats (also kind of random). I added to the randomness by quilting it using unevenly spaced lines - something different and I think it works with this quilt. I used green thread on the top and teal on the back.

I pieced a leftover FQ of the monkey print to make the teal paisley backing fabric wide enough and found a medium green print to use for binding.

"Polka Dot Cats & Dogs" alternates Happy Blocks with the polka dot squares. It makes me think of a dalmation now that I'm looking at the photos!

I love this bird print flannel for the backing. I had originally picked out a B&W binding but went with the red print at the last minute. I like the contrast.

I did my favorite wavy line walking foot quilting with white Auriful. I need to remember to take a picture after I wash these because the last quilts I donated with this quilting design came out of the dryer looking amazing with the wavy lines of crinkles!

Last night I realized that I've finished over 1/3 of my UFOs since 10/1/12!  As you can see in my UFO Countdown on my sidebar, I'm down to 60 from 94. I still have a long way to go... but I'm feeling pretty darn good! And, best of all, I'm having lots of FUN doing it.

Tomorrow I'll recap my February quilting and prime the foot pedal for March. I'm linking up to TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Finish It Up Friday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, A Week of Finishes, First Friday Finishes and Link a Finish Friday.

It's a 3 Finish Friday!

It feels great to cross 3 more UFOs off the list!

"Boxed in Brights" alternates Happy Blocks with bright squares of fabric. The black and white prints came from a FQ swap and the brights were from my stash. I used a fun print of small eggs on black for the binding.

I love this over-sized print on the back!

I used black King Tut thread on the top and white Aurifil on the back for quilting with walking foot waves.

"Rainbow Sherbet - Hold the Lime!" is yet another Yahoo! Stashbuilders Happy Blocks swap quilt. I had asked for borders to be only shades of yellow, orange and pink for these blocks. LOVE this color scheme and I found a perfect peace sign backing fabric.

I used wonky wavy lines to quilt this - orange Essentials (Connecting Threads) thread on top and white Aurifil on the back.

"Purple 9 Patch on Lime" was made using the pattern Nine Patch from the book "Even More Quilts for Baby" by Ursula Reikes. It's backed in a cute daisy print with bumblebees sniffing the lime centers.

I grid quilted the center of the quilt and the lavender inner border with lavender Essentials thread and white Aurifil on the back. The border has 2 wavy lines along each side.

These quilts will be donated to Project Linus, are UFO Finishes 11, 12 & 13 for 2013 and put me at 7 towards my goal of 50 Kids Quilts for the year. I'm linking up to TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Finish It Up Friday, Let's Make Baby Quilts and Link a Finish Friday.

WIP Wednesday - Kid's Quilts

I had such a blissful day of quilting yesterday! Bright sunshine (although cold!) to get things off to a great start with 3 quilts for Project Linus that I had sandwiched on Monday night. I am trying to be resourceful about coming up with ways to make basting quilts less of a dreaded task and I think I might be onto a few things that I'll post about another day.

And, I tried something new... listening to an audiobook! My library offers downloads for 3 weeks using an iPhone app called OneClickDigital so I set that up and browsed their library. I enjoy John Sandford's detective novels set in Minneapolis/St. Paul and they seemed like a good fit for quilting along to. So far, so good!

I took these pictures mid day before I lost the good sun. One done (I washed out the color a bit so you can see the wonky waves of thread better)...

One at Mr. Juki...

 One ready to go on the floor!

On Monday my son and have a trip for his last orthodontic visit (he's been braces free for just over a year). It's in the same town where I drop off my Project Linus quilts, so it makes sense to chalk up some more UFO Finishes, clear some space in my closet and, most importantly, get some quilts out to kids in need!

What's Hot:

• Everything with a single asterisk on my February Goals List - more than a few projects underfoot this week.

What's Not:

• Everything with a double asterisk on my February Goals List (hopefully they are hot at my LAQ!)
• HGTV Pincushion Swap - good thing they aren't due until the end of March.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday@Freshly Pieced.

First Friday Finish for February

This is truly a happy quilt and I've decided it deserves a solo finish post. I'm calling this quilt "Color Me Happy" because I just LOVE everything about it!

Some of these blocks came from a Happy Block Swap on Yahoo! StashBuilders group and the rest I made to fill in enough blocks in this color range. These bright clear colors are so wonderful and I wish I had them all in my stash to recreate this quilt again and again.

This is my favorite block, isn't that chair fabric adorable?

I quilted this using freehand walking foot waves with white thread. So fun, fast and easy. I think it adds some nice movement without taking away from the pretty fabrics. The backing fabric was an an easy choice as it just seemed to mirror the colors in the blocks. I love using scrappy bindings on these Happy Block quilts.

"Color Me Happy" is UFO Finish #10 for 2013 and will be donated to Project Linus.

I'm linking up to TGIFF, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Finish It Up Friday and Link a Finish Friday.

Friday Finishes!

I finished the last 3 of 6 quilts for Project Linus this week. All are UFOs (of course) and that brings me to 10 finished UFOs on my countdown and puts my at 50% complete on my 100 Day Hustle goals. And... reward time - a NEW project start!! I haven't picked one yet but as I've been pulling fabrics from my stash the last week I've noticed a few many possibilities.

Super Bright Strings is probably my favorite of this group. It was really fun to quilt, I love string quilts and it made a string of dreary weather much brighter for me. So many crazy fabrics make this not only super bright but super fun. I used royal blue fleece for one step batting and backing for a cuddly cozy feel.

The blocks for Citrus Cats came from a Happy Block swap at Yahoo! StashBuilders group. I love this color palette and will definitely use it again. I like how the random blocks that are sashed in four different fabrics give this quilt a totally different look. The pieced backing was fun to make and I like the scrappy binding using strips of yellow, orange, lime green and turquoise.  

Under the Sea also uses Yahoo! StashBuilders blocks, has a pieced backing and I used scrappy binding in shades of blue. I didn't have any stash fabric that tied into the Sea theme so I went with the colorful print that matches the colors pretty well. My favorite things about this quilt are how the red centers pop and how the fun border fabrics echo the theme. There are several lighthouse, fish, shells, sailing and other nautical prints - great job by my swap mates.

Happy Blocks on UFO Sunday

I've got two more Happy Block quilts that I'm working on today.  Both quilts are sandwiched with pieced backings and I've started quilting Under the Sea first.

Under the Sea

Some months during our Happy Block exchanges on StashBuilders Yahoo Group we would use four different fabrics to sash each center instead of one. Citrus Cats has some of these blocks which really add a fun extra colorful twist to the quilt.

Citrus Cats

On Friday I made some blocks for Hurricane Sandy victims after reading this post over at Knotted Thread. These are super quick and easy to make using a tutorial, so don't hesitate to sign up if you are able!

Hurricane Sandy Blocks

I'm linking up to UFO Sunday@The Free Motion Quilting Project and Sew Darn Crafty @Sew Many Ways.

A Learning Quilt

One of my 100 Day Hustle goals is to finish and donate 6 of my UFOs to Project Linus. I really enjoy making quilts for kids so I can work with bright novelty fabrics and it's for a great cause. Double bonus!

This is "Bees & Cats" which stung me a few times yesterday.  Before I get into that, there are some things I really like about this quilt.  I love how the binding makes the turquoise centers pop.  I also like the range of value in this quilt a lot.  Pastels & brights don't always work so well together.

 

I used to be active in a Yahoo quilting group that did "Happy Block" exchanges.  Each month you would send 5 4" squares of your choice to other quilters.  We would keep one, sew borders on the other 4 and return them to each other  It was fun to get little squishies in the mail, figure out how to complement different fabrics and build a collection of eclectic blocks. And, they really are Happy don't you think? 

The downside is that sometimes the blocks are a little difficult to work with due to the fabrics used.  A mix of not pre-washed or washed, some maybe not all cotton, etc.  I fought some of these blocks every step of this quilt - they pressed funny & distorted easily.  Last night I learned that if they press funny they are going to quilt funny too. Usually I'm worrying about tucks on the backing but on this quilt the front was a challenge.  I also learned that if the 1st quilting line has a bad section so will every line that runs the same way.  Next time I will rip out the bad one and start over.  Oh, and start with a full bobbin.  No further explanation needed~!

I did my 1st pieced backing using 4 left over blocks and love it.  I learned how to finish off my binding using this awesome tutorial.  The binding was sewn to the back of the quilt, folded over and machine stitched from the front which is also new to me.  I'm really happy with how the front turned out and will get better at making the back line more consistent.  I stayed up late to wash it because I was letting those funny blocks get to me (silly I know!) and was glad to see it crinkled up nicely all over.

This really was a learning quilt.  Do I love it?  Not really.  But, will a child love this quilt?  Yes!

I also had to join in the mug rug craze... here is my shabby chic version sporting my favorite coffee mug.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday@Freshly Pieced.