Always something new to learn...

Happy Thursday!

One of my favorite quilt bloggers, Rebecca, is starting an online Quilt Class and it's absolutely free. She has a great blog that is always full of inspiration for me AND the fact that she lives in Australia just makes it all the more hip to me. She's on the other side of the planet yet shares the same passion for fabric and quilting that I have. When I read her blog I imagine her speaking with an adorable Australian accent. If I interact with her I'll have to tell her to imagine me speaking with a slight southern drawl. Ok, my accent may be more than slight, but hey, it's mine and I love it!

Anyway, here's the scoop. Quilt Class 101 will begin April 6th and run every Wednesday for about 12 weeks. Even though I've been quilting for 9 years now and feel like I've learned a lot in those years I'm anxious to follow her sessions. I love to see how other people work when they are sewing and quilting. I can always pick up on a cool trick or two.

Check out her link and see what you think.

I'm looking forward to a Saturday Sewcial this weekend that my quilt guild is sponsoring. I think I love that it's called a "sewcial" a little more than I should. It just cracks me up. We're going to be working on a scrappy strip quilt. Yes, I know I already have 17 unfinished projects but I thought I should start another one. This one should go together pretty quickly and I've already got my strip sets sewn together. Yeah! Wish me luck.

Happy Wednesday!

It's Wednesday and I'm happy to report that since last Wednesday I was able to finish my Single Girl quilt top and the raggedy quilt. Two projects down, 12 million to go!

Although making raggedy quilts is not my most favorite type of quilt to make, they are so nice to snuggle under while watching a movie on the sofa. I'm hoping the sweet lady I made this for will love this quilt as much as I love mine. Back when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter I came down with pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for 4 nights. My husband brought my raggedy quilt to the hospital for me to use while I was there. I was so surprised when he walked into the hospital room carrying that quilt. I was touched by his thoughtfulness. That is one of the most comforting items he could have brought me and I didn't even ask for it!

This is the latest version of the raggedy quilt. I snipped all the edges but took the picture before washing and drying. I pulled it from the dryer this morning and it looks and feels great but I didn't get a picture. I decided that at 6:45am it was more important to get the girls to the school bus on time than to take a picture of a quilt.

I am so excited to get started on my next quilt along. I'm using Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hill fabric line and Kona Snow for my Supernova quilt.

Completed tops awaiting binding:

My Picture Day quilt came back from my long arm quilter and now all that's left is the making and attaching the binding.

Ongoing Projects:

My current focus is on the design for a twin sized football/baseball quilt. I drew a rough sketch in AutoCad of what I wanted the design of the quilt to be, but I left too much to my imagination - or lack thereof. I was hoping to make an improv style quilt with wonky squares but I found out last night while cutting the fabrics that the improv style is not as easy peasy as it looks on the internet. I kept feeling like I needed a pattern or picture to look at. Breaking out the crayons and coloring the sketch before moving forward will help tremendously.

All in all I would consider last week a great sewing success. It gives me such a feeling of accomplishment to finish a project before starting on another. Yeah!

Single Girl...Complete!

I had a very successful quilting weekend. The top for the Single Girl quilt along is now complete. I'm happy with the final result but the process was definitely not my favorite. Thankfully this was only destined to be a baby sized quilt. My quarter sections were so wonky and uneven that sewing them together really bugged me, irked me, and made me itch. I like for my quilts to be all nice and square and this was anything but that. Apparently that's just the nature of this quilt though. I've read on other sites that imperfection is expected for this quilt.

I added a small border around the outer edges so that when the binding is added there will be a little white space between it and the outer rings.

Now I just need to piece up a backing and decide how I want it quilted. That is guaranteed to be much easier than the top.

Look at this. My 4-legged quilt rack grew a head on the side. Those little bare feet melt my heart.

I'm planning on going to the Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop one day this week with a sewing buddy of mine. I'm looking forward to seeing what my favorite quilt shop has in store for me!

Happy Sewing!

WiP Wednesday

I made some great progress over the past week. Yeah me!

Ongoing Projects:

1. Single Girl Quilt along. This quilt has been a great challenge and fun to make. It's amazing to me that I can sew a bunch of little pieces together in an arc and then sew them onto another curved piece and it all fits. Check this out:

See how the ends of the arc don't touch the edges of the white fabric?

Well, when I put 9,999 pins in it...

and slowly sew it together - Voila - magic! Every time I piece the arc onto the white section I am just amazed that it really worked. I guess I'm easily amused.

Not too much more to finish before I have a complete circle.

2. The raggedy quilt is coming right along. I need to just bite the bullet and finish it up. There's only a mere 160 bricks that need to be sewn together. Easy stuff.

Completed quilts awaiting binding:

1. Picture Day quilt. I got this back from the long arm quilter and it looks great. I can't wait to get the binding on it!

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

There are 3 of these. I need to finalize the backing choices for all of them before I can send them off to the quilter.

Still in the design phase:

The fabric selections are finally complete for the baseball/football quilt. Now on to the drawing it up and dimensioning it.

I accidentally added a new project to my list. I joined the Supernova quilt along. I'm excited because I've decided to use Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hill fabric line for this quilt.

Quilt Along with Freshly Pieced...

Oh geez. I fell in love with this quilt the first time I saw it. Lee at Freshly Pieced is hosting a quilt along for it and I don't see how I can resist joining it.

I've really enjoyed my Single Girl quilt along and that makes me excited to join another one. I think the thrill of the hunt for the perfect fabric is what I enjoy the most and hunting for fabric for this quilt will be so much fun!

WiP Wednesday

WiP Wednesday

Lee over at Freshly Pieced hosts a weekly Work in Progress post. I'm joining her so I can make yet another list. I'm all about making lists.

Ongoing Projects:

1. My Single Girl Quilt Along kind of came to a halt on Friday night. I sliced my left pointer finger with the rotary cutter and it is VERY tender and well, I'm scared to use it. It hurts! I'm very anxious to get going on the quilt though. I have all the pieces cut that I need for the first section.

2. Making a Raggedy quilt for a sweet lady at church. I don't mind working with the brushed cottons, they are so soft.

In the Design Phase:

Still deciding the layout for a boy quilt for a twin bed. I'm going to have a football theme on one side and a baseball theme on the other side and I want to use a good bit of negative space. This one's going to be fun to design.

Here's a taste of the fabrics:

Waiting to be sent to the quilter:

1. Red & White Wonky Star. This baby measures 102" x 102". It's a monster!

2. I made this from the Color Splash fabric line by Hoffman and used the Just Can't Cut It pattern. I thought my oldest daughter would love the colors but she took one look at it and said "eeh". I'll probably put this one in the church auction that benefits the youth program.

3. This is the one I can't wait to have quilted! I've always wanted to make a Color Wheel quilt and finally did it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. For some reason the thought of using a template had me all freaked out but not any more. I've mastered that trick, and just in time too since I'm making the single girl quilt. This pattern came from the Joelle Hoverson book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.

Don't you just love how nicely ironed all my quilt tops are? That's what happens when they are folded and stacked for too long.

Waiting to get back from the quilter:

1. Red/Aqua wonky star quilt.

2. Hooty Hoot Kangaroo baby boy quilt.

3. Picture Day quilt.

On the Bubble:

1. Lilly Pilly - Applique Tree quilt - still collecting fabrics.
2. Love by Amy Butler fabric - still deciding what pattern to use. I think I want to use a pattern I saw on Film in the Fridge. I want to be able to have some bigger blocks that showcase the fabric.
3. Nicey Jane- still deciding what pattern to use. I just can't make up my mind but I think I'm getting close.

Wow! When I put all my little projects out like that it looks like I have a lot going on but really I feel like I'm doing nothing. I want to get that raggedy quilt out of the loop so I can really make some progress on the Single Girl. That's my goal for next week.

Happy sewing everyone!

Single Girl Quilt

Well, guess who joined a Quilt Along? Me! I've joined the Single Girl Quilt Along. Not because I'm single, but because I wanted to join a quilt along for a long time and this is the perfect quilt for it. It is a very daunting quilt pattern (in my opinion) and so now that there's a support group on Flickr! I'm all in. The quilt along is sponsored by 3 wonderful bloggers. They are Nova, Katy, and Megan and their blogs are just full of inspiration to me.

It took me forever to choose just the right fabrics for my quilt but I finally did it. I'm going with a plum/pink/orange color combination. That makes me happy!

For now I'm just planning on making a baby sized quilt but if all goes well I may decide to make a larger quilt.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!