Well I said that I needed to get cracking on these quilts, so I'm happy to say that I have one finished. It went even faster than I thought it would...probably because I haven't made a quilt since at least April and I've missed doing all the steps to create a finished piece...not just a block or a row. This quilt was made for a friend who wants to give it to another friend and hoping that they are both happy with it! Neither had any input in it, so I'm always a little nervous in the end. But I like it, so I can at least be content with that.



I used many of my favorite fabrics in this and I'm happy to say that I had all the fabrics in my stash! Woohoo! It's always good to do a complete project with the supplies that you already have. I've been wanting to a strip quilt like this for a long time, so I took advantage of the carte blanche that I had been given to design this quilt to use this technique. I love the simplicity that quilts like these have, but of course color, pattern and placement is just as crucial in a quilt like this as other more complicated pieced ones. As always, one of my favorite steps was laying out the different strips and seeing it all come together.



I used lots of different blues for subtle changes and some bright greens for contrast. The navy and brown solids help give some weight to the pattern and provide a break for the eye from the other patterned fabrics. And what's a quilt without some polka dots?! I think that I could put a polka dot in everything that I make and be happy!



I did an echo quilting of the stripped pattern because I love the simplicity of the look and feel that it suits a baby boy better than some fussier quilting options. And for the backing, I had the perfect blue fabric with little white stars that was just begging to go in a nursery somewhere. It's actually a decorator fabric, so it was 60" wide which makes life a little simpler when basting together the layers of the quilt!



The binding I pieced together from left over strips from the top of the quilt. I had to cut them down a bit and then make one large strip of them all, but I was happy to use up all the fabric that I had cut to finish up this quilt. Woohoo! Always good to end up with the perfect amount of fabric. That so rarely happens to me. ;) And as always I hand stitched the binding closed for a pretty and perfect look from both sides. It is a great way to finish up a quilt with some peaceful sitting in front of the tv and hand stitching. It never fails to make me very content.




Well, there are at least two more baby quilts that I'm going to try to get done in the near future. I've ordered the fabric for the Amy Butler love quilt and I can't wait to see those fabrics in person. I've got the design picked out for that quilt already and I'll give you previews as I work on that. And I still need to make the baby quilt for my own little one. That one will probably be the most work. Agh! And I have about 3.5 weeks to do all this. Hopefully all my sewing projects with go as smoothly as this quilt did.

Well I've been on the computer all morning anyway, so I figured I should update my newest creations. I've been a little behind because my laptop is pretty much dead and I'm having to use my husband's computer...but that's a whole other story and the good news is that a new laptop is on its way! Yeah! Hopefully it will be light years faster than my old one. It really was old.

Anyway... having a dead computer has made me get up and sew more I think...either that or I'm just nesting through sewing! A little of both probably. :) The item that I was most determined to finish was the bumper for the baby crib. I used all the ladies from the Bee Modern Block exchange to help me make the blocks for it, but I was still pretty intimidated to start on it. I've never made a bumper before and although I had collected many different patterns and instructions for making one I was still worried about it. I was prepared for everything to go wrong...and you know what? I don't think anything did! That's pretty incredible for a new sewing project with so many ways for something to go wrong!

I was pretty meticulous in my sewing and planning and I'm sure that helped in the long run, but I am still amazed at how it turned out. I don't think that I'm going to want our little girl to ever get it messy! And that's not very practical now is it. I was worried about everything from running out of fabric, to color choices (something I am RARELY worried about), to sizing issues. But I persevered and came though with a decent product. I essentially made a really long pillow case that I sewed shut in pieces as I inserted the foam. Here's the final product...I thought about taking pictures as I made it, but I was too nervous sewing it all together to want to capture it on film!












You can see lots more pictures of the bumper here!


And you can finally see the crib sheet that I made (one of them) and a peak at the crib skirt I made. It all looks so pretty together...I am happy with them!




The bumper was a ton of work, but it's not the only thing that I've been doing. No siree! I made another blanket and burp cloth set for the little girl and this time I decided to add some pink because so many people have been giving me a hard time about how little pink I have in the nursery. My justification is that almost all of the clothes seem to be pink, so there will be pink in there eventually...but I digress. The blanket was more complicated than most that I make because I decided applique across the whole bottom of the blanket. Usually I just put one larger piece in a corner. But I'm an over achiever and I wanted more for this blanket. Each of the circles was hand gathered in the back to achieve perfect roundness. I machine appliqued all the pieces to the blanket to create a little modern garden. And yes, there is pink! But also purple, green and yellow. I can't get too traditional on you!





And then to top it all off I also made some matching burp cloths!





But wait...there's more! I told you that I've been busy! I also finished the December Bee Modern blocks. But wait you say, it's only November. Yes, but the bambina is due in December and I didn't want to not finish the blocks because of her arrival. And now I'm set until the end of January with this group and needing to sew. Woohoo! I love being on schedule (or in this case ahead of it!).

She sent us a very bright collection of Kaffe Fasset fabrics and solids. I've never actually owned any of his fabrics, so this was another new experience for me. It was great to work with some of them in person and see what I think. I loved her theme for this month as well. She is making an "X and O" quilt and wanted us to make a block of each. Too cute!

I knew immediately what my "X" block should be from her inspiration images. A string block that I've really been wanting to try. I followed this tutorial and I loved the method. I will definitely be using this in the future for a quilt.



My "O" block actually caused me a bit of anxiety and I originally started with a completely different block. I only finished a quarter of it though because I realized that I would not have enough of her fabrics to make the full block. I definitely plan on making that block design for another month though, so I've got it on the back burner. I eventually decided to make a quarter pieced circle block. Now I've done that a couple of times already for this group, so I was initially wanting to do something different. But I decided to do a very complicated version of the block and let me tell you, that was different enough! I did enjoy laying out the fabrics but it was a lot of piecing again. Hmmm...still not as much work as last month though, so I guess I shouldn't complain!



And some detail shots...






The two blocks together!




And I'm still working hard on more! This time I have a few baby quilts that need to get knocked out. I have the top pieced for a little boy quilt that a friend requested and I'm planning on basting it today and quilting it together this week! I'm still waiting on some of my blocks from the Bee Modern Group, but when those get here I'm going to do the baby quilt for my girl. And then there is another little girl quilt that another friend requested and she wants to use Amy Butler's new line Love! I'm going to keep myself busy in the next few weeks before the bambina gets here. Hopefully I'll be able to finish at least two of these quilts! My goal is all three, but I've been known to over estimate. ;)

There's a give away going on at Flea Market Fancy Freaks and boy would I love to get my hands on that fabric. I ADORE it! Here's hoping I'm one of the lucky winners!



Go check it out!

Despite the fact that I haven't updated the blog lately, rest assured, I have been quite busy sewing lately. Well not this week in all honesty, but I was cranking stuff out the weeks before. Some of the items I don't have good pictures of yet because they are for the baby crib. I finally made the crib skirt (which was loosely inspired by some current Pottery Barn Kids bed skirts for kids' beds that look like tutus!) out of a sea foam green organza. It's kind of hard to get a good picture though. :( But trust me, it's super cute!

I also made two crib sheets for the crib. Again, no pictures yet because I just picked up the mattress tonight and I want to let it air out before putting it in the crib. But I used some of my favorite designer fabrics and anticipate our little girl loving them. I know I do! I promise to post pictures when I have the whole crib put together with everything I am making.

I was also starting to get a little nervous that my little girl would not end up with any blankets or burp cloths despite the fact that I was making them for other people. Crazy! So I started cranking them out and I'm still working on a set. These are my flannel blankets that are bound with pretty fabrics and double flannel burp cloths. I'm happy with them and am excited to finally use some of my creations myself!

Some fun animal burp cloths and blanket. My husband likes these the best. :)



I love the greens in these. They are very sweet in person!



These have such a french feeling to me with the binding fabric and the little elephants!


A detail of the burp cloths. I'm using this elephant fabric in the quilt and bumper pads as well.



And hmmm...there is another blanket as well that I must have decided I didn't have a good enough picture of. But I made that one two sided with a minky fabric on one side and flannel on the other. It's super soft and a little heavier than the flannel ones, so it should be good for the cooler months here.


I also needed to work on my blocks for the Bee Modern Quilting bee. The next month's fabric had already arrived and I wanted to work on it right away so that I could get it back out of my house! I didn't want to get behind and I knew that I had lots of sewing still to do for my own baby. Anyway, we got some super fun fabrics by anna maria horner to work with and she wanted blocks with either wonky stars, dresdan plates or hexagons. I've recently done both wonky stars and dresdan plates for this bee, so I decided to tackle hexagons. Whew! What a lot of work! After lots of research I decided to give the freezer paper method a try.

Here's all the hex pieces cut out with freezer paper.



The hexes needed to be entirely hand sewn. I haven't done much hand quilting, so it was interesting to do this. I did pick one of the worst times to try it because my fingers are so swollen from the pregnancy and I don't have the dexterity that I normally have. :) But I prevailed. First I had to wrap the seam allowances and baste them back.

Here's one hex flower that has been sewn together. You can see the freezer paper on the back and how the seam allowances are all hand sewn together.


and then from the front...



This was for a modern bee, so I wanted to make the block modern despite a fairly traditional hex flower. So I put it off center and pieced some borders around it. I like how it turned out!



But I couldn't make just one block! Come on...not when there are all those lovely hexes to use. So I made a major hex block. It really stretched me, but I love how it turned out!

Here's the back of the hexes all together.


And then from the front...


Then I had to put a border around it to square it all up and tada!



The two blocks look pretty good together too. So I'm sure that her quilt will be beautiful in the end!



And one last hex picture because it is so cool....here's the hexes in the light. I love how it looks like stained glass.


Future projects include the bumper and quilt for the baby's crib, another blanket and burp cloth set, and a whole other list of things. I'm also going to work on a couple of baby quilts for friends too. I'm not sure if these will all happen before the little girl gets here. She's due in about 6 weeks! When I look at that in sewing time it doesn't seem long at all! I need to get cracking!

Well life and particularly pregnancy have been keeping me busy. We were out of town for a week to visit family since we won't be able to go anywhere for Thanksgiving or Christmas...our little girl is due at Christmas and we won't be able to travel anywhere during November or December. But never fear. That will just keep me home and close to my sewing machine. So hopefully I will have more to share with you all.

But I have been busy since we came home both at the sewing machine and in the garden. Thankfully the heat is toning down a little here in the South and it is a little more enjoyable to be outside on most days. I'm not feeling too up for getting out my Fall and Halloween decorations, but I wanted to make sure that I did a little bit. So we bought some fun pumpkins and flowers for outdoors. I set up this little vignette outside the front door.







And the garden is just looking super happy right now! We have some beautiful climbing Mandevilles that are growing outside the front door. They are our second batch of the season because the unseasonable hot June just did in so many of our flowers this year and we were too busy with me being sick to baby the flowers along. But we're making up for it now.






In sewing news, I've finished my last row for the Row Robin Quilt Swap. This time I worked on a row for Carrie's flower quilt. I didn't mind working on this one and came up with my idea fairly quickly and thankfully had just the right amount of the right fabrics. It's amazing what working with some favorite fabrics will do for my piece of mind. LOL. But it can completely change my attitude about a project.



My tulip row which is pretty much improvised with a little guidance from a pattern for a MUCH smaller flower. Here's a detail of the tulip petals.



And here are all the rows for her quilt together. Mine was the last one to add to the group, so now it's up to Carrie to see how she puts these all together!




Another sewing project I was working on was a custom order for a set of burp cloths and blankets. They were ordered by the grandmother for her grandson and she wanted a sailboat theme as the parents have a particular love for them. We went with a red, white and blue color scheme and I think that they turned out really cute. And I finished them just in time for the new boy to enjoy them. He was born the next day to his proud parents!



A detail of the applique.



All wrapped up and ready to go!




While out of town, I took advantage of the fabric stores and came back with a little collection of new fabrics. I didn't overspend...don't worry. But I love having the opportunity to see and touch all the beautiful fabrics in person. There is just nothing anywhere closer than an hour away from me so I order almost all of my fabric online. I typically don't get to see my fabrics until they come in the mail. Fabric stores are like jewelry stores to me! Sick but true!

Here's a great selection of homespun fabrics that I would love to work into a quilt for my husband someday. They are so soft!




Here's a sweet collection of fat quarters that I picked up here and there around the store.



And here's a collection of fabrics that I mainly found in the sale pile. Score!



Also I now have a whole collection of pink, white and black fabrics that they used to decorate with at my baby shower. I'm not sure what I am going to do with all of it!




Lot's of good fun! I'll be back soon to share the pictures of our nursery and accent wall. It will be worth the wait I promise!

I mentioned last time that I've been a bit delayed in my monthly sewing because of all the moving around we have been doing to get ready for the baby. So I've finally caught up a little bit and some things to share with you.

As part of the Bee Modern Quilt Group I am in, I worked on September's blocks this week. Aimee sent us a fun selection of fabrics with a focus fabric of Alexander Henry's Starling fabric.



I was trying to think of clever ways to include this fabric in the blocks for the month and come up with something different than I had done before. After all, part of the reason that I want to be part of a group like this is to work with fabrics that I wouldn't normally pick and try new piecing techniques. So once again I turned to curved piecing and tried to play with that a little bit more. I was fairly happy with how this block turned out and I thought that the color combinations were sort of French in style.



And a detail of the center:



And then being me, I wanted to make her another block as well. I found myself much more drawn to her pastel fabrics and birds, so that is what I focused on. With the pretty pink wood grain option and a bird fabric my brain naturally turned to a bird house. And then the other fabrics just sort of lent themselves to "grass" and "sky" both day and night. Here's what I ended up with:



and a detail of the house:



And finally, here's the two together. A little busy for me, but I think that is partially due to the fabrics. I just hope that Aimee like them!




And as promised, here is a sneak peak at the fabric selections for my blocks which is coming up next. I'm going to have the ladies help me make blocks for a baby quilt and bumper for our little girl due in December. I've decided to embrace the December baby theme and am going to have them make a combination of tree blocks and log cabin blocks. The color scheme is mainly blues, greens and greys.



And another grouping being sent off:



I saw this quilt layout and it inspired my selections...but of course I want to have everyone's individual take on the blocks.



I collected a bunch of images from Flickr that I want to share with the group as inspiration as well. I can't wait to see what they all come up with.

Hello to anyone actually reading along with me. I'm still alive and kicking in New Orleans although from my lack of activity on this blog you might not know it. Oh well. Pregnant life has had a number of challenges that have invaded my sewing life. One of the big reasons lately that I haven't been able to blog is because we're in the process of converting my sewing room into the nursery. We're combining the sewing room with the guest room. It's all turning out well, but it is throwing off my sewing mojo a little bit. I need to learn to start crafting in a new space. I'll post pictures of both rooms when I feel a little more under control with the decorating.

I'm also preparing for my month in the Bee Modern swap and that has been taking some time to get all the fabric ordered and cut up. But I'm right on schedule with that and I'll give you all a sneak peak at the fabrics soon! I'm really excited because I'm going to have them make blocks for the baby's quilt and bumper. I'll reveal my inspiration along with the fabrics. I have high hopes for these projects.

In other news, I recently put a couple of quilts on sale in my Etsy shop. I'm making room for more projects and am ready to share these pieces with others. They are both baby quilts that are probably more girl orientated and super cute. I have hopes of finishing more projects to add to my Etsy shop, but rather predictably that has not become my focus. I just love to sew! Selling my creations is helpful, but I don't like the pressure of needing to keep the shop up and running with new products. We'll see what happens to the shop in the next year with a new little one around our house.

I'm sorry that there are no fun pictures of projects this time, but I promise to make up for it later!