The Stars and Planets Aligned... and a Scrap Quilt GetsFinished

Finally!!

A dry, sunny day when 2 of my quilt holders were home.  Yay!  Time to drag out some recent finishes and take some pictures.


First up is a sweet little quilt top I finished today.

This little string quilt has been in the works for a while,  Every once in a while when the strings called, I pulled out the pastel ones and made a few blocks.  They called again today.  When I realized I just needed 2 more blocks to make a decent sized little quilt, I decided to finish it up.

I had just enough of this little rose fabric to border it.  With the border the quilt measures 45 x 57.

So soft and sweet.  I have been working on this one with the intention of donating it to our local foster care system.  It will be a tough one to give away.  I will just have to picture some sweet little girl hugging it tight.  Scrappy quilts really are the best!

Next up is my scrappy purple tulip quilt.  I used all the purples.  Every shade.  If it was purple, it went in.  And the background fabrics are scrappy too, lots of different low volume prints playing together in there.

The pattern is a free Cloud 9 pattern found on their website.  It is called the Amsterdam Quilt. I can definitely see myself making this one again, the blocks go together easily and are a great use of scraps.

I am tempted to hand quilt this one, I think that is what it wants.  I will be setting it aside for a while to see if that feeling sticks. :)

Next up is my scrappy bear paw quilt.  It just needed that final border and I got that on this morning.  This is such a bright fun scrappy quilt.  Anything went with these scraps as long as they were bright and colorful.  I used a brown background which is a new thing for me, but I really like it.  It allows the scraps to just pop.

This one is pretty big at about 92x94.  I really, really like scraps.  Can you tell?

And finally, a real finish.  I just got my Star BOTM back from being quilted by Cyndi at The Dancing Bobbin.  Since all of the colors I used were based on the amazing butterfly fabric featured in a couple of the stars as well as the backing fabric, I thought it only appropriate that it be quilted with butterflies.  And I just LOVE it!  Thank you Cyndi!

I mean seriously, is this fabric not AMAZING!!!  I just love it.  And yes, I did save every single tiny piece that was trimmed off.  It will find its way into many more scrap quilts.

Thanks for stopping by for some show and tell!!

Tracy

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts.

Spools and Spools of Liberty Love

Oh my!  This quilt has been in my mind for about a year now when I saw it in Liberty Love by Alexia Marcelle Abegg.  I have been squirreling away pieces of Liberty fabric and other lawns and florals that I found.  I have also been tucking away little bits of whites and black/grey materials for the spools.  It has all been sitting in a basket just waiting.  Last night the pull was too strong to ignore and I decided to just make one spool to test out the measurement changes that I wanted to make in mine.  One spool lead to one block, which lead to five blocks. And well, I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those quilts that I just can't stop making until it is done.

This quilt appeals to everything I love about quilts.

The variety of prints, the scrappiness and the theme equal quilty perfection.

5 blocks down, 20 to go.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy

Playing with low volume and two flimsy finishes.

Good Morning!  I have lots of goodies to share today...

First up, a small low volume sample for our LQS.  Cyndi, the owner of the store wanted a little sample to show customers how to incorporate low volume fabrics into their quilts. I volunteered.  A quick little scrappy quilt is always fun and gratifying.

Here is a picture before I tacked down the binding.  (I forgot to take one after, oops)

Please excuse the terrible picture taken with my phone. 

This was made with 44  5-inch squares of low volume fabric as the background.
The stars are made from scraps; a 5-inch square and leftover triangles from other projects. 
It is bound with a grey and white dot.
Quick and fun.

I was also able to finish up a couple of quilt tops.

First up is my quilt top for the Irish Chain Twist Quilt Along over at Happy Quilting.

I got all of my blocks and rows sewn together, now to decide how to quilt it.  Any suggestions?

The colors turned out great together.  So springy, don't you think?  I just LOVE the green!!

And finally I finished up my delectable mountains quilt.  The fabrics are just so fun together.

This started with a few pieces from Urban Chicks that I just fell in love with.  Hello feathers! And the rest came from my stash.  Yay for stash busting!

This quilt makes me happy.  I have always been drawn to scrap quilts, so busy quilts like this that mix together fabrics from all over just make me smile.

Have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by,
Tracy

3 Donation Quilts

I've got the binding done on the first 3 quilts from last week.  I started with 3 donation quilts because they were small and scrappy so I knew that I could get them done pretty quickly.  Plus, I usually machine bind my donation quilts so that they are a little bit sturdier.

I'm super happy with how they turned out.

And the bindings are 100% scrappy!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy

Tone It Down - Finished!

I am on a role this month! I had so many "almost finished" projects that had to go on hold before Christmas in order for me to finish up Christmas gifts.  Now it seems like I am just whipping them out!  Such a great feeling.

Last year, I saw this quilt on allpeoplequilt.com and fell in love!  I love all things scrappy and knew instantly that I would be making it.  The top actually came together pretty quickly (maybe because I was obsessed with it).  But then sadly, it was added to the pile of quilt tops to one day be quilted.  It really is shameful how many beautiful tops I have just sitting and waiting to become a quilt.  So, a few weeks before Christmas as I was working all hours to try and finish up two hand quilted quilts (for my youngest son and my aunt), I decided to send 2 of my quilt tops to a dear friend who has started a long arm business.  How fun to get this back in the mail within a couple of weeks! I finished the binding last night and within minutes I found a boy wrapped in it on the couch doing homework.  Yay!!!

Here it is... my version of Tone It Down.

 I love that up close you can see all the fun little prints, but step back and you can see this great all over design.

 My sweet friend Shirley quilted an all over floral design that left the quilt nice and soft.

 It is backed with a sweet Gracie Girl print from Lori Holt.  I love the little telephones and the colors were just perfect.

Yay for another finish!

Thanks for stopping by,
Tracy

Colin's Quilt - Done!

Another finish!

   Almost a year ago, my youngest asked for a new quilt for his bed.  His only direction was that he wanted it to be blue (to match his walls) and green (his favorite color). After showing him a few patterns, he picked the pinwheel.  Together we dug through my stash and pulled some fabrics to start with, and then we headed to the LQS where I let him pick out a few more.

 I finished the top pretty quickly, but since this was for my baby it had to be hand quilted.  So....it took a while.  Other projects got in the way.  Christmas gifts got in the way.  But now it is done.  Hand quilted, bond and on his bed!

 Aren't these fabrics so cute?  He loves Converse sneakers - wears them everyday - so of course that had to be added.

He picked a blue batik for the back.  Darker than I usually pick for a backing, but boy does the stitching show up.

Thanks for stopping by!
Tracy

First Finish of 2015

Technically, this should have been my last finish of 2014.  It was meant to be a Christmas gift.  Life got in the way, as it often does.  But what a fun surprise it will be for my aunt!  I still plan on wrapping it up in Christmas paper and sending it her way.  She doesn't know it is coming.  :)

 This quilt actually started about 8 years ago when I made a quilt for my new baby goddaughter.  I wanted to make something light and beachy.  I liked the little baby quilt so much I decided I would make another larger one for myself.  We would match!

 I cut enough squares to make a twin sized quilt and put them in a ziploc bag to get to later. As it turns out, MUCH later.  I finally pulled them back out this fall and decided that it would become a queen sized quilt for my aunt.  I added a few more fabrics to make it big enough and got to work.

 The pattern is simple and went together quickly, but of course it had to be hand quilted which takes time.  Not something I always have a lot of with 3 boys running around.

But it is done, and I love it.  I feels so soft!

Quilt facts:
It finished at 81 x 95 inches.
It is hand quilted 1/4 inch inside each triangle and in lines around the border.
The binding is scrappy perfection.

Thanks for visiting!!

Taking a break.

I have been sewing like crazy this week getting ready for a craft fair this weekend.  It was nice to take a little time to sew something just for me.  I made a couple of blocks that have been on my mind lately.

I can't stand waste - especially pretty fabric.  I save every tiny little piece (anything an inch or wider).  For a while I didn't know what to do with it. Then I saw Victoria Findlay Wolfe's book 15 Minutes of Play.  Made fabric = perfect solution! I started to picture wonky stars made up of slabs of made-fabric. I pulled out my apple green scraps and made some adorable wonky stars in no time!

 How fun are those?

I have also been saving up some orange and black scraps for a fun Halloween spiderweb quilt.  I am so excited to see this one come together.

Ahhhhh, so nice to get some of those ideas out of my head and into reality.

Thanks for stopping by!