Loulouthi Garden - Finally finished!

I told myself I had to bind all my unbound quilts before I started anything new this year.  So now that the binding is on this quilt I can pat myself on the back and move on to something new.  Yeah!  I do love this quilt.  The huge flowers make me so happy.  I have to say that Anna Maria Horner is my favorite fabric designer right now.  The pattern is Modern Rose Garden by Carolina Patchworks.

I can hardly stand to look at these pictures with all that dead grass but I was too lazy to get in the car and drive somewhere to look for a better background.  Sorry.

Of course this was quilted by The Grandmomma.  She did a super job on it, I'm happy with the allover meandering she did.

I used Kona Ash on the back and just pieced a little strip of leftover fabrics from the front about 2/3 of the way down.

I want to show the fabulous details The Grandmomma incorporated into the quilting.  I love how she mimicked the butterflies and flowers in the fabric.

Happy Tuesday!

Loulouthi - meaning: flower, origin: Greek

Can you see me?  I'm doing the happy dance.  And yes, I do dance like Elaine on Seinfeld.  Bless my heart.  Anyway, I finished my Loulouthi quilt top last night. It is such a good feeling to finish a quilt top.  But, on the other hand, I am so enamored with this fabric line that I am kind of sad to be finished.  I feel like I need some more time to touch and feel this fabric.

I used a pattern by Carolina Patchworks called Modern Rose Garden.  It took what seemed like forever to cut out the pattern but once I started sewing it was a piece of cake.  I chose to fussy cut a lot of the squares and I had to stack my rulers against each other to get some of the sizes right for the squares and all that just adds time to cutting.  I felt like I was putting a puzzle together and that made it a little challenging but still fun.

I paired the Loulouthi with Kona Ash and I feel like it was a good choice.  I almost always have white in my quilts lately and I thought about using it here but the ash just seemed to add more warmth to the quilt and that's the feel I was going for.

Thank you to my sweet husband for helping me with the photo shoot.  I love pictures of quilts where the poor little quilt holder's feet are sticking out - like the quilt has legs and can walk or something.

Now I just have to find something else to make with this fabric and send this baby off to the quilter.  I'll let you know when she's all quilted and bound.  Happy Friday to you all.

WiP Wednesday - Loulouthi edition

I'm so happy to have some WiPs to report this week.  All is right with the world when I have a quilt (or 4) in progress.

Finished:
The paisley Color Splash quilt.  This one is going to a recent high school graduate.  I hope she loves it! (fingers crossed)

In Progress:
Loulouthi Garden quilt.  I spent all day Monday (which just so happened to be my birthday) cutting this one out.  I love to cut quilt patterns but I don't think I've ever spent as much time cutting a top as I did this one.  Whew!  I fussy cut a lot of the squares and then the sizes were odd so I would have to stack rulers together to get the size I needed...and well, that ate up a lot of time. It's going to be so worth it.  I'm so glad I have the design walls.  I don't know what I ever did without them.  Well, I do know - I made a million trips from my sewing machine in the dining room to my bedroom where I used my bed as the design wall.

Begging for a Backing:
Single Girl

Begging for a Binding:
Baby Hooty

At the Quilter:
Red/white Wonky star - can't wait to see this one all quilted up!
Superman/Batman

New Projects:
Summer Sampler Series - couldn't resist this one.
Bottled Rainbows - hoping to introduce this ticker tape style to my quilt guild and hope they like it as much as I do.  Should be fun!

On the Bubble:
Rubik's Crush

Purple for The Grandmomma

Fifi & Fido - 100 Quilts for Kids
Ironing board cover - I need a new one!  I want to make it myself out of fabric I love.  Why am I so scared to tackle this?  I just need to do it and quit stalling.

On the lookout - I've got my eye out for the perfect fabric to make:
Swoon
Chopsticks

And most importantly, Happy Birthday to my precious little 8 year old girl!  I love you Josie!  I thank God for you every day.  I would live every day of your life all over again.  You are awesome!  I can't wait to see what 8 has in store for us.

And of course, linking up to Lee at Freshly Pieced. If you have time please go check out all the fabulous links over there.

Friday Flickr Favs - Loulouthi edition

Boy, this has been a busy week, good - but busy.  This weekend just can't get here soon enough!  My mail lady delivered a gorgeous stack of Loulouthi to me this week and I'm just chomping at the bit to cut into it. I'm still waiting on a couple more pieces of fabric to complete my set but I'm sure they will arrive today.  I just know they will.  They better!

1. Loulouthi ~ Beach Huts Quilt, 2. Loulouthi Tote Bag - front, 3. handquilted.pillow, 4. lots of little triangles=lots of funky seams, 5. swoon quilt 1, 6. Juliana Palette, 7. finished.juliana.throw, 8. eleni.palette.quilt, 9. isabela.crib.quilt

I had such big plans to work on some other quilts that I've been planning, but I can't get this fabric off my mind so I'm going to have to push everything else to the back burner and start right on this.  Fun!  That's what this whole quilting thing is all about anyway, right?  Doing what is fun and what feels good.

Have a great weekend!