Scrappy Trip to Ethiopia

I finished up a quilt top this morning - one which I've been working one for a month or so. It feels good to turn a couple of blocks that I started as an experiment into a finished quilt top.

And this one feels even better, because it serves a really fun purpose!

It's for a raffle, the proceeds from which will help the Snyder family take a mission trip to Ethiopia! Shannon asked on Facebook if anyone had a homemade item they'd be willing to donate - and the Lord laid it on my heart that I didn't need this quilt. I started to make this quilt with no purpose, just to try it out - so this is the perfect use for it!

So, the last week or so I've been working to finish the blocks and arrange them. Many of the fabrics are ones that have some sentimental meaning to them, or are favorites of mine - the purple hydrangea fabric and two floral pieces are ones that I bought at the quilt store I worked at in high school. This morning I got all of the blocks pieced together, and now it's ready to be quilted and then bound.

It's been a great conversation piece with Micah - we've gotten a few opportunities to talk about Africa, and why we are giving this quilt away. Helping prepare him for more conversations about kids in Africa who don't have families?

I'm not sure when I'll be ready to quilt it though. I'm kind of loving it hanging in my dining room!

I'll share more details about the raffle when they have it all set up!

Popsicle and Progress

In early May, I took on a challenge, to try paper-piecing for the first time. I planned to make a summer-y mini quilt, following along with Jennifer's patterns. I made the first block - a popsicle - and realized that I really need to work on perfecting my 1/4 inch seam. The block's size was a little off. 

But I hung it up on my wall and didn't do any of the other blocks. Oops.

Last week, I decided I wanted to make a gift for a friend, and rather than starting something new I thought I'd work with this little block. My friend loves summer, but she's been injured and hasn't gotten to enjoy it like she should. So, I wanted to give her something to bring a little piece of summer inside.

It's a little quilted mug rug (coaster) for her morning coffee. This was a fun little project to finish up! The fabric that I used for the binding is one that my mother-in-law found at a garage sale - it's getting used in many different projects lately! 

I've been making slow progress on a few other projects lately too - like the quilt I started a year and a half ago for Micah's big-boy bed:

And I also started a scrappy trip around the world. 

This has been a really fun project to work on! I love how the scraps come together, and I never know exactly how a block will look until it's all put together. That can be a bad thing too, I guess, because I had to take a block apart and re-do it when the fabrics I grabbed didn't look very good together.

Because I don't have enough projects going at a time, I also started a baby quilt yesterday for a friend's baby - I'm in the very beginning stages, but it's always fun to put fabrics together and envision the final result. 

I'm planning to use Jeni Baker's tutorial for the Scrappy Star Quilt for this baby quilt. The blocks will be a little smaller, though, only 10 inches instead of the 18 that she used, which will make it a better size for a baby.

I can't wait to share more progress on the different projects I have going!

A Few Finishes

In the last couple of weeks I've done a little bit of scrambling to finish projects, so I could give them away as gifts.

My sister-in-law, Marci, is a teacher and is always bringing school work home. A few weeks ago, she came over and brought a bunch of papers to correct - in a cardboard box! So, I decided to make her a bag to carry her school work in.

I've been wanting to try the Cathedral Window pattern since I first saw it, in high school, so I looked up a few tutorials. It seemed more simple than I expected, so I got to work, and I love how it turned out!

All of the fabric I used was from my stash (and left-overs of my mom's), so I don't know what any of the fabrics are, except for the inside. It's Michael Miller,  Backyard Baby - Fun on the Vine, in Green. Originally I bought it for Micah's quilt but it was perfect for the inside of this bag. 

I enjoyed this pattern so much, that I made a second, for a friend who is also going to be a teacher:

Most of these fabrics are from my stash too, except for the coral, which I bought to use in Audrey's room, but didn't. I can't remember who makes it. The aqua is actually from a couple of yards my mother-in-law bought me for $1 at a garage sale! I love a good deal on fabric!

I also made a couple of pillow cases for graduation gifts, but forgot to take a picture of one. Here is the
other:

It's been a fun couple of weeks, getting projects finished! I have another fun little project to share in a few days. :)

Comma Quilt Top

We have a new quilt shop in town, and on its first day open, I made sure to check out her stock! I snagged a couple of charm packs of Zen Chic for Moda's line, Comma. I love the bright colors (yellow, green, orange) and how punctuation is used throughout the line to make up the majority of the designs.

I cut the charm squares in half, so they were 2.5 x 5 and sewed them into strips of 8. Then I trimmed each strip down to 4 7/8 x 15 7/8. I had some white fabric that has a subtle wood-grain pattern, and cut it into 16 inch squares. Using squares of the main star burst fabric as corner anchors, I pieced the top together, forming a colorful grid around the white squares.

Now it's hanging in my craft area, waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I contemplated putting on a border, but I think I like it the way it is. Now I need to choose a backing and binding, and quilt it.

For now, it's fun to look at while I work on other projects.

Orange and Teal Quilt

When I started planning the quilt I'm making for Micah's bed, I bought a bunch of gray, blue, green and orange fabric. Once I had it all together and had finished cutting, I didn't like the orange with the other colors.  So I set it aside and figured someday I'd use it.

In December, I got the sudden inspiration to piece together a quilt top using the orange squares I had already cut, and some extra blues I decided not to use in Micah's quilt. I also had some scraps (dots and a ___) that would coordinate alright, so I threw those in too.

This top has been sitting around in our house, waiting to be finished, as has a teal twin sized sheet that would coordinate perfectly. So, on Monday (I think... the days blur together a little bit), I sandwiched the quilt up, and I've been quilting it all week. 

I didn't have a piece of batting that was big enough for the entire quilt, so I improvised and used two separate pieces... so far I can't tell a difference, and there doesn't seem to be any lumps or anything where the seam is, but time will tell. I figured that since we were just going to use this for going to the park and around the house, I wasn't too worried about it.

I had fun with the quilting, using this as an opportunity to try some new techniques. I tried pebbling, which was pretty fun, but it sure used a lot of thread! And I also tried quilting words - I chose scriptures that are ones I really love and feel like our kids should know, and quilted them over the squares. It turned out alright. You can't read the words very well unless you spend a lot of time looking at it, but I like knowing that they're in there. From the back you can see the words a little better, but backwards.

Edited to add: Audrey started to cry and I forgot to type out the verses I put on the quilt! They are: 

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! - Psalm 34:8

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord  - Joshua 24:15

The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall have everlasting life.- John 3:16

Audrey made sure to try it out too. She seemed to like it!

We'll put it to use for the first time tonight at our softball game!

A Fall-Colors Table Runner

A friend had a birthday yesterday, and I wanted make her a quick gift. She's very important to our family, so I wanted to be sure to celebrate her a little on her special day!

I put together this table runner for her, after being told that her favorite colors were fall-themed.

I based it off of a block from a quilt I started in high school, but I couldn't find the pattern so I just made my own measurements. I used 5 inch squares of the flowery print for the center, 2.5 x 5 inch strips of the dark brown, and 2.5 inch squares of the tan. 

This was a fun, two hour project (in between putting the baby down for a nap and playing with Micah).

I ended up with some wavy edges - I think the culprit is that I pulled on the binding too much when I was sewing it on. I'll work on that in my next project and see if I can reduce the waviness. 

Happy birthday, Kathy! 

Baby Franklin's Gray and Yellow Quilt

Here are a few pictures of the most recent quilt I finished. It is a baby quilt (but kid-sized) for our friends' new baby, due in June. The gender is a surprise, so I wanted to make something gender neutral. Our friends chose gray and yellow for the nursery, so I used that theme and ran with it.

I used a Riley Blake line of fabrics - Maritime Modern by Marin Sutton, which I ordered online from Hawthorne Threads. I really like their website, and the more fabric you buy, the better price you get! I also used a few Free Spirit solids, Arctic White, Jade, and Lemon.

For the pattern, I ordered the 'Bizzy Kid' pattern from Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck Sew. I frequently read her blog, and I enjoy her take on modern quilting. Her version is very bright and colorful, so this is a different take on the pattern. 

When we went to my dad's house for Easter, I took my mom's sewing machine - which used to be my grandma's machine. It's one of the first computerized sewing machines, from the 90's. It's a Pfaff, and it's amazing! Much better than the Kenmore machine that I bought a few years ago. 

I used my machine to do all the piecing, and my mom's to do the quilting. It was fun to try free motion quilting again - it took a little practice to get the circles to seem somewhat circular!

I had so much fun making this quilt! I loved working on it, knowing that it was going to go to such a special little one. And I can't wait to share more of the projects I've been working on.