October Sewing and Quilting

I saw a pillow pattern on Quilting Digest.Com that I loved.  The one shown with the pattern is made with Fall colored flannel fabrics.  Since the last several quilts that I've made were using the same pattern, it seemed like a quick project that I would enjoy making.  Mine's not nearly as pretty, but I used the Fall flannel scraps that I had on hand.

 

See that cute little owl head?

Here is a link to the pattern., found on Quilting Digest.Com.  I felt like the pattern was way more complicated than it needed to be, so I came up with my own way of doing it.

In other sewing and quilting news, here is my most recent quilt, in progress.  Its ready for machine quilting which I'll start hopefully today. 

This one is made with all blue winter and Christmas fabrics.  I keep thinking about the song, "Blue Christmas".  Or someone who has the "Winter Blues". ...... A possible name?....Nah, I don't think so!

Maybe I'll be able to post the finished quilt soon.  I still haven't purchased any fabrics this entire year, but I did use the last quilt batting that I had on hand in this quilt.

Blue Scrappy Blocks

The scrappy color of the month of April at the SoScrappy Blog is BLUE.  Light and bright blue.

Here are my 4 blue blocks which are going to become a part of the rainbow colored quilt for my granddaughter.

The number of blocks for the quilt are accumulating slowly, but surely.  I now have 16 of the 20 needed.  I also started cutting the sashing strips.

I worked on quilts nonstop for the first three months of the year, but have slowed down some since the first of April.  My plan is to start pulling fabrics for another Christmas quilt for a Christmas 2021 gift.   I am thinking of more of a rustic cabin type quilt.  The fabrics will have some brown, beige and rustic reds in them.  I don't know if that makes sense!

Happy Sunday!

Scrap Color of the Month - GREEN!

Over at the So Scrappy Blog, the scrappy color for March is green.

Here are my 4 green blocks for the quilt I'm making for my granddaughter.  This makes a total of 12 blocks - 4 each of pink (January), yellow (February) and green (March).

 

There are a few interesting fabrics.

Oops!  Sneak peek at the Christmas Quilt in progress:

 

Have a great day!!!

Rainbow Scraps - PINK!

 I'm joining in the rainbow scrap challenge at SoScrappy and January's color was pink.  I am going to make my granddaughter, Victoria, a rainbow string quilt.  The blocks will not be laid out like this in the quilt, but here are the pink blocks I made this month.  I plan to do 4 blocks of 5 different colors.  I'm thinking pink, blue, yellow, green, and purple.  

February's color is yellow, so time to go through my 2 1/2 inch strips and pull out some yellows!

Teenager's Strip Quilt

 Now that my oldest grandson is 13, I decided he needed a quilt that is more suited to an older person.  The last quilt I made him was when he was in kindergarten!

My inspiration was this vintage quilt which appears to use every kind of fabric you can think of:

My plan is to use lots of plaids, solids and more for the blocks and a medium gray for the borders.  The blocks will be strips sewn diagonally to each other.  I didn't want to sew the strips onto paper and then have to remove all the paper.  I also didn't want to go to the trouble and expense to sew the strips onto fabric foundation squares.  I also didn't really want the extra weight of the foundation fabric.

So, I came up with this plan to simply sew the strips together and then cut them into squares.

These blocks end up being 13 inches square.  Here are the measurements of the strips needed for each square:

Three 2 1/2 inch wide by 19 inch long strips.

Two 2 1/2 inch wide by 14 inch long strips.

Two 2 1/2 inch wide by 10 inch long strips.

Two 3 1/2 inch by 6 inch long strips.

 I sewed the strips together like seen in this first picture.  The 3 longest strips are in the middle and then the other strips are sewn on each side of the center strips.  I just eyeballed them to center the smaller strips on the longer strip it was being sewn to.

After pressing the seams all to one side, I placed a 13 inch square that I had already finished on top of the strip set like this.

Then using a rotary cutter and ruler, I trimmed off the excess like this.

The finished block:

The outer edges of the blocks are STRETCHY!  But, if I had used paper foundations and then ripped off the paper, the outcome would have been the same.  Borders will be sewn in between all the blocks, which will stabilize the edges.  I will carefully sew the stretchy sides to the non stretchy borders, and I think it will work out well.

For the twin size I am shooting for, including the borders, I will need 20 of these blocks.  Only 2 more to go!  I just might make a matching one for this new teenager's younger brother.  Now that I have gotten into the swing of things, these blocks have been going together quickly.

A Little Quilty Update

Here are some Quilty Christmas Gifts from my daughter:

I love this, but it should also say, "Check Twice, Sew Once".  This morning I sewed two rows of the quilt top shown at the bottom of this post completely backwards!  I'll be un-sewing that tonight!

This is a daily calendar and on each day of the year there's a different quilt block or project.  Love this too!  I get too many ideas that I don't have time to do though!

Some fat quarters!  Can't wait to make something from them.

I'm making progress on the Rainbow Double Irish Chain quilt that I have been working on for quite a while.  I only need to sew the rows together and the top will be finished.

I took a break from quilting since the first of the year.  Its time to get back to work in "Debbie's Quilting Room"!

A Quilt Finish - Kindergarten Art Quilt

I am happy to say I am finished with this quilt, except for a label!  Its different than any quilt I've ever made.  I would describe it as bright, bold, and striking.  It looks like basket weaves.

Here's the original art work.  The quilt looks a lot like it! I should have turned the quilt the other way when taking the picture so it would match, but then it would have dragged on the ground. 

This picture shows the backing fabric.  It was the only fabric I could find that would work and it turned out to be perfect.  It has the same pattern as the front of the quilt, just no purple and red.

Now on to the next grandchild's quilt.  Here's a sneak peek.

I am linking this post to Monday Making at the "Love Laugh Quilt" blog; to TGIF Friday at Alycia Quilts. and Finished or not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching - Binding!

Today I am slow stitching the binding on the back of the "Kindergarten Art Quilt".  I am so excited to be so close to finishing it!  Can you believe these colors?  Its not my normal kind of quilt, but I love it!  It will be so bright and cheerful for a 6 year old.... the 6 year old who designed it with a blue ribbon winning art project!  

This was a simple pattern.   Not sure if it should be classified as a "Rail Fence" or a "Basket Weave".  I'll be posting pictures of the finished quilt in a few days.  


I should have been finished with it weeks ago, but just couldn't get motivated to work on it.  But later today it'll be done.  The quilting motivation bug has bitten me pretty hard.  I've already made progress on the next grandchild's quilt!  And dreaming of all the projects I want to work on.  Its been a while since I laid awake at night with quilting on my mind, but like I said the quilting bug has bitten me.

I'm linking this post to Kathy's Quilts "Slow Stitching Sunday."

Weekend Quilt Activity - The Kid Quilts

I finished pin basting the Kindergarten Art Quilt and began the machine quilting.

I also worked on pulling fabric choices for the next two quilts. One for our 3 year old granddaughter:

 

And one for our 5 year old grandson:




I bought a few pieces of the fabrics and then pulled matching pieces from my stash.

There's a whole lot of quilt activity going on around here!!!

Scrappy Rainbow Double Irish Chain Quilt Progress

I got started on this quilt about a year ago as part of Scrap Happy Saturday on the So Scrappy Blog HERE.   Each month there is a different color of scraps to focus on.  The color for April is Aqua.  So if you have lots of scraps, this might be a good way for you to use them.

These blocks are just laid out on the bed so that I can check the progress.  I always love how a pattern comes to life once you lay the blocks out together.

I would love to quilt some kind of special design in each of the white areas, maybe like THIS or THIS

Here are some of the different colored blocks.

Sometimes I have worked on the quilt as a leaders and enders project.  Other times it has been the main project.  I only need to make six more blocks in lavender.  I have already sewn some of the blocks together in rows, so it won't be too long before it will be a completed quilt top.

I'm playing around with ideas for quilts for three of my grandchildren.  They are 2 brothers and their sister, who lost their quilts in the house fire.  I'm planning to do similar, but in different colors, twin size quilts for them.

A good part of the enjoyment in quilting is in the planning!

Slow Sunday Stitching - Table Runner

Slow Sunday Stitching... Super Bowl Edition

I am linking this post to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

One of my favorite slow stitching activities is hand sewing down the binding on the back of a quilt.  In this case it is a quilted runner, so it won't take too long.  It will just be nice, slow and no stress sewing on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

This pattern can be found at Quilting Digest HERE.