Go Four It!

My Go Four It! quilt top is done!  Whew!!

This pattern came from the April edition of American Patchwork and Quilting.

It is put together with just 2 different blocks set on point, some setting triangles and a scrappy border.  The blocks are made up of 4-patches and squares. It took 162 blocks.  That is a lot of blocks.

Once I got them all laid out I added the triangles and started sewing rows. Nesting all of those little seams took some time, but it really kept all of those little pieces in line.

Here it is before the borders went on. I just love all of those bright colors!

 
This was a fantastic stash buster.  But somehow my scrap piles don't seem any smaller.  Amazing how that works.

The back side of the quilt.  Lots and lots of seams...

These shots were taken outside in the last few intense rays of sunlight.  It kinda washed out all of the low volume fabrics making them disappear.

A closer view...

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy

1 Hour Baskets everywhere!

Have you seen these cute little baskets that everyone is making?  They are adorable and so quick and easy to make.  If I had an available shelf, I would fill it with these little baskets, one for every WIP. 

The pattern by Hearts and Bees is available for free on Craftsy!

For the first one, I followed the directions exactly and it took just under an hour.  Isn't it adorable?  I am a sucker for gingham.

For the second one, I decided to add a decorative band at the top and some pretty decorative stitching.  I just measured the finished exterior panel to get the new measurements for the  padding and lining.  This one took just over an hour.

And for my  third basket I used the last few scraps from my charm pack of comma (left over from my wedge quilt) to make a 6x7 inch panel. Then I added some yarn dyed linen to finish making the exterior panel.  Again, once it was done I just measured my finished panel to see what size to cut the interior lining and padding.  Easy Peasy.

I am so pleased with these baskets.  I would make a dozen more if I only had the room to put them on display.

My quilty friends and I got together this weekend to sew, talk and laugh, and they joined in on the basket fun as well.  Here they are with their creations.

I just love my quilty friends!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy

WIP Wednesday: Avant Garden 2

I finally decided on a sashing fabric for my Avant Garden part 2!  Yay for helpful quilty friends!

Although this was not my original plan, (I planned to use a cream rather than a white) I am very pleased with how it turned out!

And believe it or not, even though this is the second quilt I've made from this fat quarter bundle, I still had leftovers.  To my friends this will not be a surprise because they know that I save every little piece.  Yesterday I played around with my leftovers (including 4 whole fat quarters) and started to piece a backing together. The cream is leftover from trimming another quilt backing.  All I need now is a little more cream - 20 inches for the left side and 8 inches on the top and bottom and I have a back!  I just love a pieced backing - it makes the back as fun as the front.

This is all that remains of the fat quarter bundle.  Not bad.  These sweet little nuggets will be going into my scrap bin.

Thanks for stopping by!
Tracy

Linking up to Freshly Pieced

Soul Searching Finished

My Soul Searching quilt is finished! This is one of the quilts my aunt quilted for me on her long arm, all it needed was to be bound.  But, other projects kept getting in the way and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to bind it in. With help from my quilty friends I finally decided on a black/grey binding and it's perfect.

This quilt is from Kathy Doughty's Making Quilts and is a fantastic stash buster!!
Every last piece in this quilt was from my stash

It is quilted with a clamshell design.

It is so fun to see all the fabrics from previous projects playing together.

Thanks for stopping by!
Tracy

Irish Train Twist Finish!!

Whoop Whoop!

My Irish Chain Twist Quilt is quilted and bound, and I love it!

This quilt is the result of Melissa's Quilt Along to promote her new book.
I am so glad my friend Cyndi suggested that I quilt along.  I would not normally have chosen this quilt along because of the applique, and it ended up being a piece of cake!  So thank you to Melissa for a fabulous tutorial and Cyndi for pushing me along.

Instructions were included for different sizes and and color schemes.  I chose queen size because I love a big quilt and picked a controlled scrappy look.

The colors turned out great.  And the fabric I found for the back was PERFECT!  It echos all of the colors from the front beautifully.  Cyndi quilted it for me on her long arm.  I picked a flower pattern that matches the flowers in the backing.

I bound the quilt with a bright pink that really makes the applique petals stand out.
I wish you could feel how soft this quilt is.  I was a little worried about the applique being too stiff, but it drapes beautifully.
The only think left to do is pop it into the washing machine so it can get all crinkly!

Thanks for stopping by!
Tracy

A finish, maybe?

I love scraps.  All scraps.  I want to use every tiny little bit of fabric.  Very, very little makes it to my trash can.  My friends know this and very generously donate their "trash" to me.  And I am thrilled with every little piece.

Last week my friend Cheri cut into a delicious layer cake of Aloha Girl to make a big hexagon quilt. (I can't wait to see it) She saved all those tiny little triangles for me. They were just big enough to cut a 1.5 inch square from.  Yippee!  I knew immediately what I was going to do with them.  I whipped out Lori Holt's new book Farm Girl Vintage and made her 12 inch stars with the patchwork centers. 

I added the sashing and borders and fell in love.  This is just how I pictured it.

But now I love it so much I am wondering if I should expand it a bit more.  It finished at 43 inches square, not really big enough to crawl under.  Hmm.... I may have to stare at it for a while until inspiration strikes. 

Suggestions welcome!

Thanks for stopping by.
Tracy

WIP Wednesday - Avant Garden part 2

I started working on those Avant Garden leftovers this week.  My original vision was to use Camille Roskelley's pattern Sweet Life from her Simply Retro book.  I thought it would show off some of the large patterned fabrics great.  But... her pattern calls for 12 1/2 inch squares and my leftovers were only 10 inches.  So after a little math magic (who says you won't use math after school?!), I reworked the pattern to create a slightly smaller version!  I also adjusted the directions to make "no-waste" flying geese so that I could use up every piece of my fabric.  Yay for no waste!!

Originally I was going to use a cream background with a brown/cream sashing.  But, this sat for a week before I started and when I did start it was late one night after putting the kids to bed.
Result - I started cutting into my go-to white and piecing.  I was 3 blocks in before I remembered that I wanted to use cream.  Boo.  Unpick and try to redo? No.  I didn't want to risk stretching those seams. Oh well.  Maybe a cream for sashing?  We'll see..

I was super excited to get that last black pieced yesterday and couldn't wait to get it spread out on the floor!

Oops!  One short. Back to the machine one more time.

That's better!

 

I tested out a cream as sashing last night.  I'm not liking it.  Not enough contrast.  I'll play some more today...

Thnaks for stopping by!

Tracy