Saturday, October 27, 2012

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012

I am so excited that it is time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2012 - I love looking at how creative everyone is.  Thank you Amy for hosting this wonderful event.

I recently made a baby quilt for a friend of mine.  She was having a hard time determining what she wanted to do for her baby's nursery.  She was very excited about having a girl however, she is not a fan of pastels or pink.  She had spent quite a bit of time on line trying to find baby bedding that she liked.  She was not able to find any that she liked that looked even remotely girly.

I found some fabric on line -Michal Miller Lagoon that she loved.  I then told her I could come up with the bedding for her.  She was thrilled and I was left wondering what I was going to come up with.

I decided to try a variation of the Stepping-Stones Quilt from Jacquie Gering in her Quilting Modern book.

I can't tell you how long the quilt sat on my design wall while I tried to wrap my mind around how I was going to get everything pieced together.  I had never done any type of improve piecing and I was afraid of really messing things up.  Once I had the mindset that it was abstract - and it was up to me I realized no one would really know if I made an error or not. After starting I realized it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

For the back of the quilt I based my design on something similar to Bijou Lovely's color block quilt.  I wanted the quilt to be able to be reversible. 
I have a friend who has a long arm machine and she was willing to let me use her machine.  I was terrified and fascinated all at the same time.  I spent the afternoon at her house working on the quilt.  I selected a pattern with varying sizes of circles to mimic the black polka doted fabric in the quilt.  I am looking forward to using her machine again soon.  I don't have the space for a long arm but I really want one.  Scary as I have been quilting less than a year and I have a fabric stash that several family members have hinted indicates I have a problem and should be attending meetings of some sort.

Front
Back
 
Quilt Statistics~
Finished Quilt Measures: 42X55
Quilted by:  Me - Cindy
Best Category ~ Baby Quilt, Favorite Throw
 
Now I am off to look at all of the other quilts and discover new blogs.  Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.

 




Time Flies

It's hard to believe that summer has come and gone.  It went by so very fast - Of course when one works 55+ hours a week and tries to keep up with an active preteen and teen it is to be expected.
Taking my niece, son, and daughter sea kayaking in the early morning in Resurrection Bay.
Bald Eagle looking for breakfast as the fog began rolling in.
R actually having fun without an electronic devise!
The sun is out and the sea is calm ~ beautiful weather for kayaking.
I wish I had taken a picture of the garden when everything was in full bloom - goal for next year.
Now on to some of my sewing projects - while getting ready to do this post I realized I have been really bad about taking pictures of my projects and what is worse is I have given most of them away before taking a single picture.
Front of sampler quilt for my niece M.
Back of quilt
 
Pillow for bedding I made for friend - she is having a girl and she does not like pale pink.  This was my way of sneaking a little hot pink in for her.  She loved it.
Coordinating pillow for baby's room.  I used the tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew - I used double sided fleece instead of felt.  I also made a crib skirt, valance and quilt.  It is my hope to post the quilt pictures later this week.
 
I have approximately 20 various projects in the works for the holidays - my goal will be to post an update at least every other week on my progress, or lack of.