Safari Baby Quilt

 A friend of ours and his wife had their first baby a few months ago. He is an avid hunter and was our Safari Club chapter president for a few years. He's also the service manager at the Ford dealership and I laughed when we took our truck in last month for a recall issue and DH and he poured over maps of an area where DH drew a tag for an Orex in January before they even checked in the truck. 

Just that morning, I had thought about hunting down some safari fabric to make a baby quilt for J & T. I went to look at emails and there was one showcasing this new fabric line and it included a 25% off your entire store purchase.

It could not be more perfect and the timing was serendipidous

I usually have a hard time settling on a pattern, but this time it was clear. I chose the Scattered Stars pattern

I scaled the blocks down from the original pattern when I made my Love You S'more x2 quilt and I thought it would be perfect for this project. I think this pattern is a fun way to showcase the fabrics

I backed it with Minky because Minky backed quilt seem to be the ones that are always reached for first. This is the first quilt Jackie or Sandy didn't quilt. We have a very small quilt shop about 55 miles from us and I thought I'd give them a shot. The owner does the longarming and she did a very nice job. She quilted a pattern called Animal Crackers that has safari animals in the design.

It finishes at 45 x 55

I hope this little quilt will be loved and dragged on many adventures!

Terrifically Tilda Quilt Finish

 In June 2022, the only UFOs I had were at the quilter's and I was ready to start something new.  I had been on a mission to sew up my collection of jelly rolls. This is a different type of fabric than I usually gravitate towards, but I'd noticed it in a few quilt shops back when it came out and I was drawn to the quilts made with it. I never bought any and by the time I decided to, I ran across 2 Tilda Plumb Garden jelly rolls on sale in 2020 and brought them home. 

I don't buy Tilda fabrics anymore because they are more expensive and I really have come close to reaching my capacity for stash storage anyway. And I finally decided I love fabric so much more once it's in a quilt so I am challenging myself to use what I have and that's pretty easy to do when I've got so many great choices. That led to these becoming a Jelly Strip Stash Buster Quilt. 

You can find the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew HERE. I didn't want to think, I just wanted to run fabric under the needle and this fit the bill although it probably took me longer to pair up fabrics than it should have. 

Still, 42 blocks came together over the course of about 10 days. And then it sat. For almost 4 years. Yikes. But I finally dug it back out in March and made another 39 blocks

I was short 1 block and cobbled one together

I still have the 2nd jelly roll, but didn't want to break it open for 1 piece. I cut a variety of the chambray fabrics for a scrappy binding

Sandy quilted a design called Asian Fan that complements the quilt top nicely

I was stumped for a backing. I couldn't find anything in my stash that I thought would work and I finally settled on this print that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't completely sold on it, but I really like it now.

I like the way everything came together and at 62" x 74", it'll make a good throw quilt

I'll have to come up with another plan for the 2nd jelly roll. But for now, I think this will work. I like this simple, modern take. It looks somewhat like patchwork which is always a winner in my book.

Tropical Twist Quilt

Last year I spent a few days cutting down my scrap basket for 2 quilts from this book

I finished the first one back in March. You can see that post HERE

And this is the second, little sister, quilt. It's called Knots & Chains in the book, but I'm calling it Tropical Twist

It's hard to see the quilting, but Sandy used a design called Spring Fling on it

At 62"x62", it's just a small lap size, but it packs a big punch with so many fun colors & prints.

So many happy low-volume bits and pieces

The hummingbirds were quite smitten with it

We probably have close to 60 birds and they are eating us out of house and home.

They really are the most fascinating little creatures

I backed it and bound it with the same print as the first one 

I would buy a whole bolt of that backing fabric if I saw it. Thankfully, I still have quite a bit left.  

                                                                  

Skeet gives his seal of approval although he's really inquiring about his evening treat.

Not my usual color story, but it just makes me so happy

This dirt road ranch wife must have been channeling her inner Jimmy Buffet while working on these quilts...someone please pass me my lost shaker of salt. 😉

First Ride Flannel Quilt

 Today I've got a flannel rag quilt finish to share.

Yes, it's July. Yes, it's hot. Yes, a flannel quilt in summer makes no sense. Yes, that's how I roll. 😉

However, we DO live in the mountains and our mornings have hovered at 57-60 degrees and I love nothing more than greeting the day out on the deck and a flannel quilt is good company on a crisp mountain morning

This quilt is part of my flannel bin project that I posted about HERE

It finishes at 70"x80"

This cowboy print has been in my stash for at least 15 years

Just a humble rag quilt

But I'm fairly certain it's going to be reached for often in the years to come

And those are always they very best kind.

Leap Frog Flannel Quilt

Earlier this spring I dug into my flannel bin, determined to clean it out and get the 15-30 year old fabric into quilts. I posted about the project HERE.

This is the first of those quilts...Leap Frog

The tan, speckled fabric isn't flannel, it's cotton, but it was perfect so I just threw it in.

Such a simple design - no pattern - I just tried to make the best use out of what I had. It finishes at 56" x 68".

I DID buy the Minky for the back though

Those frogs are absolutely delighted to have escaped into the wild after so many years and I'm fairly certain that it will accompany a particular little grandson on many adventures although June is not the best time of the year to cuddle with flannel. I'll save it for his birthday in November.

Land of Enchantment

As much as I will always be a Texas girl, I have to admit that New Mexico has a special place in my heart. It's where DH and I began our journey as a married couple. It's where our son was born. It's where the good Lord has set us for the second time. It's home.

The sunsets and sunrises are spectacular on a regular basis. 

The food is addictive and don't even get me started on how much I love fresh green chile! 

New Mexico has its own unique southwestern culture. There is a rich history here and it is reflected in the jewelry, fashion, architecture, fabrics, people, and landscape.

I'd been on the lookout for a quilt pattern that represented the Land of Enchantment and in 2014 I stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for while browsing through Flickr:

I contacted the lady who posted it and she was kind enough to  direct me to the designer who is from Switzerland, of all places!

Desert Winds

I planned to use a lot of Michele Watts' prints. She's is a local designer who had a few lines with Moda and I just happened to have some yardage in my stash.

I finally started this one in May of last year. Yes, I'd had this project planned for 12 years. It took a while since it's made of 2 1/2" squares and 80 x 98.

Once I started,  I was determined to stay the course. I didn't have quite enough of all the original prints so I scattered some Grunge fabrics throughout which appeals to my scrappy heart.

I ended up extending the patchwork border one more row

Once I had it pieced, I went in search of a backing. I didn't have anything in my stash that I thought would work. The minute I saw this print, I couldn't hit buy fast enough - it's perfect!

Then Sandy worked her magic

And I spent 4 weeks binding it. 

But it's now complete!

And apparently I need to pay more attention when I'm piecing! Good gravy!! I didn't even notice I had turned a block! I think I need to take a photo of every quilt top before it's quilted and double check for errors. I think those oopsies are charming in vintage quilts, but it's very obvious in this design. I keep wondering if I could take the quilting out of that one block and fix it. Have any of ya'll done that before? 

The wind DOES blow a lot here in the spring and those blocks could be construed as tumbleweeds and that one just tumbled in a different direction.

Sigh. Maybe I can just leave it displayed like this and call it art. 🙃