New Baby Quilt Project

 Our girl asked me to make a quilt for a sweet friend expecting her first baby. She said they are decorating in a soft color palette, reminiscent of Peter Rabbit. I have a lot of fabric, but for the most part, pastels are  lacking so when I saw this Bramble Patch collection I thought it would be perfect. I initially bought a Layer Cake

Such sweet prints!

but once I settled on a design, I purchased a fat quarter pack on a 30% off sale as well as a few different cuts to finish things off. I cut everything into 5" squares in order to make the best use of the Layer Cake and I am alternating them with pinwheels. I hope it turns out the way I am picturing it. 

And yes, I'm going to have lots of leftovers, but that's a good thing because I think there a few more baby quilts hiding in here

But for the time being, pinwheel-ing continues!

New Jelly Roll Project

 I've brought home a lot of Jelly Rolls through the years. 

Jelly Roll Admission

I don't buy them anymore and have been working on releasing them and turning them into quilts. Last week I ran across some 2x4 quilts online and that led me to this tutorial:

2x4 Quilt Tutorial from Film in the Fridge

It uses fat quarters, but I was determined to use a couple of Jelly Rolls. I've had these 2 Posh Pumpkin Jelly Rolls since 2013 and suddenly I felt they just needed to become a 2x4 quilt.

And then on the very first cut, I made a mistake. I made a cut at 3 1/2" instead of 4". Sigh. But that ended up being a good mistake because it allowed me to make 3 blocks from 2 strips instead of only 2. If you make one though, beware that there are literally NO scraps so cut carefully:

I pulled a few coordinating pieces from my stash for some of the blocks because I like the options better:

And the blocks came together quickly. Long-stashed jelly rolls and a tutorial that's been around a while made for lots of fun, mindless sewing which I must have needed because I loved every minute:

I threw a few blocks out on the bed and I like the way this is coming together. Nothing fancy. Just a beginning of a good, Autumn snuggle quilt. 

It crossed my mind that a design wall might come in handy, but I think I'll just live dangerously. 😉

A New Quilt Project

 After a long, dry spell, I have been able to spend some time in my sewing room. I figure that's worthy of a quick blog post. 😄 I decided to make a couple of Americana-esque quilts for a couple of my folks' friends and neighbors. I was determined to use what I had and I spent 4 days pulling, sorting, cutting, and pressing fabrics. I wanted as as much variety as I could get and I was tempted to do a little online shopping, but I held firm and stuck with inventory on hand. I ended up with 22 different fabrics of each color and I cut 6 - 6 1/2" squares of the reds and blues and 12 - 6 1/2" squares of the neutrals. I'm leaning towards a simple hourglass design:

I had forgotten how much fun it was to begin a new quilt!

Next Project

On Tuesday I pulled out this project that's been in a bin for many moons:

The strips of dark fabrics were already cut but I still needed to cut them down into the designated squares so I worked on those. I also pulled some neutrals and got those cut:

Lots of cutting! :

This is where I'm headed:

It's in this book:

I like so many of Carrie Nelson's patterns. I liked a lot of her Schnibbles patterns, but I never made any because I was too busy making big quilts. I made 2 of her Pick and Choose quilts:

                                    

And this one (Ginger Belle) is on our bed - I made it bigger than the original pattern so that it would fit our King-sized bed:

This one is another one I want to make:

I'll make it larger too - and this one:

One more:

I want to make this quilt from her Farmhouse Favorites book too:

Yep. I'm a Carrie Nelson Groupie. 😊

New Project

The other morning I woke up to this text from our girl:

"Brooke told me yesterday that Nat's gonna be a big sister; she's due in July...
So this is my formal request for a baby quilt."

I'm tickled our girl asked me to make a quilt for these friends and co-workers. They are going to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender. I love that. Life seems to be so micromanaged these days - I think it's nice to have a surprise tucked in there every now and then.

It DOES make choosing fabric for a baby quilt a little more challenging and I spent a lot of time looking online. Then I found this print at Hobby Lobby.

I think this could work and our girl said she loved it. I found a few prints to coordinate:

But I need to settle on a pattern before I move forward. I may make something similar to this quilt I made a few years ago:

Or I may make a triangle quilt for a more modern look, but in that case I need a few more coordinates so I turned to my stash:

Time to play!

A New Project

Last week I started a new project. I didn't NEED a new project. I have a long list of quilts I want to make and more project boxes than I am willing to admit to. And this project is not even on the list. Although technically, using my collection of jelly rolls is a goal. Why is it so hard to unroll a jelly roll? For me, I think it's just a case of finding the right project because when I saw this quilt

I grabbed this jelly roll

I searched for a pattern, but came up empty handed so I just did some figuring, cut those strips up, added a background fabric from my stash,

 and started making blocks

I didn't know how many I was going to make - I just figured I'd sew until I ran out of fabric so we'll see where that takes me, but for now, the stitching continues

Another New Quilt Project

There are other things I really ought to be stitching, but the leftovers from my triangle quilt top

were pleading for me to not stuff them back into the bin, lest they be forgotten. Choosing a pattern is often the most time consuming part of the quilt making process for me. I scroll through my saved quilts on Pinterest. I search out new ideas in the patterns I already own. I thumb through magazines. And wait for inspiration to strike.

This time it took 3 days. I love this quilt I found online:

It didn't take long to cut a stack of 5" squares:

And begin laying out the design:

Initially, I used a Bella solid for the tan, but I remembered I had this wood print and I debated back and forth about which to use.

The wood won out:

It makes the pluses look like they're hanging on a barn wall. I'll use the solid in another project with the last of these fabrics because it matches so well and I don't want to waste it.

I LOVE this design and no, I didn't use a pattern. I looked, but was unable to find one. I found the original quilt at She Can Quilt  so I just did the figuring myself. Laying everything out takes a while, but the sewing is quick and simple.

A few years ago I made a couple of Plus quilts and I've been wanting to make another since I finished these two, both using jelly rolls:

                                         

And this one:

                      

This top finishes at 58.5" x 63.5". I like the asymmetrical balance, but I would like to make it bigger without adding a border so I hope to play around with some graph paper and see where that leads.

A No Sew Day

We received another inch of rain throughout the night on Friday, into Saturday morning, saturating the ground and making for a lovely day to sew. DH had a Safari Club fund raiser to work, in another town, so he left at 6. The rain quit at 6:30 and the pups and I headed out on our morning adventure. It was such a pretty morning. Doesn't look much like a desert these days:

                           

Ya'll are going to get tired of seeing puppies splashing through the marshy water,

 but right now, this is my life and I'm not complaining.

                               

 I just get so tickled watching these two

When we got back to the house, I tended to some cleaning, called my mom to visit, and cleared the rest of the day to sew. I had big plans. Then the electricity went out at 8:30. Hmmm. What's girl to do? Why, cut out new projects of course!

Ever since I saw Carole's, at From My Carolina Home, mystery quilt from a few years ago, earlier this year, I've been itching to make it using 30's in my stash so I pulled out my bin and started cutting:

                                               

Then, still no electricity so I began to pull out fabrics to make this quilt:

                               

In this book, which is my favorite ever:

Pulling fabrics from my stash is probably my favorite part of making a quilt. It takes me forever, and in the end, about all I accomplish is making a big mess, but it's just such fun.

                                

I still need to cut sub-cut these, but there's just so much cutting I can do in a day. I cut on the dining room table and my back doesn't like it after a while. I need to fix up a table that allows me to cut at a proper height.
                                 

The electricity came on at 6 p.m., just in time to shut things down for the day. The electric company mudded their way out and eventually found a pole down. So not a stitch was sewn, but new projects are ready and waiting in the wings.

                                                     

Swayed by the Sea

I can go for a long time without bringing home any new fabric. Although my credibility may be in question here, as I brought fabric home in my previous post. :)

However, I love sewing from my stash and I tell myself that I AM making a dent in it. I am NOT tempted by all the fun fabric that flows into my inbox and across my blog reader.  And then it happens. I fall. And I fall hard. I saw this fabric line - On Deck by Lily and Loom - in a Craftsy sale email and added it to my cart before I blinked twice. Now, WHY a self proclaimed desert rat is smitten with a nautical line of fabric is anyone's guess, but smitten I am. And buy I did.

I've had this pattern for probably 5 or 6 years and have never found the right fabric. I'm a scrappy girl so sewing with an entire collection is rare for me, but when this came into my line of sight, I pulled the trigger and now this desert rat is sewing, singing a salty tune, and channeling her inner Jimmy Buffet.