Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Work In Progress Wednesday



Today is WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. So, here's what I am working on right now.

1. Cheddar Bow Ties Leader and Enders quilt.




You may remember that Bonnie of Quiltville challenged us to make a cheddar bow ties quilt using leaders and enders. Well... there are only a couple of months left and I have only finished 100 of the 3 inch blocks. That's a long way from being enough for a quilt, but its a good start!

I lost interest a little, but when I saw THIS POST showing some finished blocks, I was motivated to get started again.

2. A simple Sock Monkey quilt, using 5 inch Sock Monkey charm squares and 2 1/2 inch sashing strips. I will also add a coordinating border, just not sure what color yet. There are lots of bright colors in the squares to choose from though... green, red, yellow, blue, brown, etc. I hope I have something on hand that will look cute.




3. I want to finish the handquilting of the Grandma Quilt this summer, as well keep up on the Quilt Alongs that I am doing. One is a Block a Month and the other is a Block a week.

The Grandma Quilt in the quilting frame has made a good place to lay parts of other projects!



So there you go! What are you working on?

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Road Trip Quilt Along

Sewing By Moonlight


I've been looking around the internet for a summer quilt along and I think this will be it.

Em of Sewing By Moonlight is going on a road trip this summer and will be posting the instructions for a quilt block each week representing different states that she will be traveling through.


I love that she has already posted pictures of the blocks so I can get some kind of idea of what to expect. The block for Virginia will be released Friday and I've already been able to check out the instructions.

The quilt blocks we will be doing are shown on the Road Trip Quilt Long Flickr group HERE, along with the website where the instructions can be found.

Some of the blocks are unusual and a few require paper piecing. Some of simple, and others are more complicated. I am looking forward to learning some new quilting skills.

I have some Batik FQs and scraps and am thinking about using some of those. I'm not sure yet! Since its a Sampler Quilt, I could use different fabrics for each block. I'll decide as I go along.

North Carolina's block is not on the list! But. I can look that one up myself and incorporate it into the quilt somehow.

Do you have any Summer quilting plans?

Friday, May 25, 2012

Bloggers' Block of the Month for May

Can you believe I've already made the Bloggers' Block of the Month for May? It just came out this morning. I am usually at least one or two months behind!

HERE is the link for all the blocks at Canton Village Quilt Works, if you are interested in making this quilt. I made mine with Winter/Christmas fabrics, but you could choose any fabric.



This month's block is the jewel box pattern and can be found HERE at Cabbage Quilts. Wow, there are 48 pieces in this one block. I don't think my schedule would allow me to make an entire quilt in this pattern! But, I do love the way it looks.

Here are all nine blocks so far. I'm getting really excited about this quilt and can't wait for the block to come out each month.



Happy Friday!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Spring Quilt Festival 2012 - Jacob's Dream

Its time for the Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side. The festival starts today and lasts for a couple of weeks, so there's plenty of time to enter and look at all the beautiful quilts!

The quilt I am entering is "Jacob's Dream", which is the quilt I made for my son, Jacob, earlier this year. I made this quilt in masculine fabrics of all kinds using the Jacob's Ladder quilt block.

"JACOB'S DREAM"






Love the blue skies:



On a chair in the kitchen in the sunshine:









On a bench:






My son, Jacob:





Sweet Dreams!


Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Quilt Well Used....

When I make a quilt for a gift, I want the recipient to REALLY use it! No worries in that regard for the Graduation Quilt.

Before:



After:



This is another good reason not to obsess over ironing the quilt top and quilt backing. Once it is quilted, washed and used, you will never know how well you ironed it!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Block of the Month for March and April

I spent a little time in the sewing room this morning catching up on the blocks of the month I am doing. You may remember that I chose to make mine in a Christmas/Winter theme.

The website with all the links for the blocks so far is HERE at Canton Village Quilt Works.
These are the most recent two:


Here are all eight:


Only 4 more and we'll be putting these quilt blocks together.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Graduation Quilt

I finished putting the binding on the Graduation Quilt last night and took advantage of a warm sunny late afternoon to do another quilt photo shoot.


I am really pleased with how it turned out.


When you use repurposed shirts for some of the fabric in a quilt, it really designs itself!


For the borders I just matched up some fabric with a couple of the colors of the shirts. In this case the red and yellow ones.


Its time to start planning my next quilt!