Baby Steps with Elephant Parade

My elephants are moving along!  All of the big and little elephants are complete and I've started on the frog and turtle.  I kept saying "Frosch und Kröte" while working on them (even though Frosch und Schildkröte would be more accurate).  This was a book I read in high school german class and translates to Frog and Toad. =)

I had a very difficult time selecting the greens!  Green is a color I'm drawn to and have an abundant selection. I could probably make a Turtle Parade!

Since it was Caturday, I'll share a picture of my sweet baby, Finn.  He was "helping"!

Quilt for Baby William!

Lisa is a longtime tennis friend and she had her first child last fall.  She played throughout her pregnancy-- all summer and part of the fall league!

I took part in a workshop held by the Mad City Quilt Guild on making a "Twirling Star" block.  This pattern is designed by one of our members, Mary Joy Johnson.  I was a little intimidated, because it involved a lot of bias edges.  But I starched the living daylights out of the fabric and we got along just fine. =)

It's a happy coincidence that I was able to make this a baby sized quilt and gift it to Lisa.  Also-- I used the Michael Miller challenge fabric from the Modern Quilt Guild.  I didn't get the quilt done in time for the challenge, but it was still fun using that fabric.

Here we are at our workshop (I'm in the black shirt):

The quilt in progress (I love my Featherweight!!):

 Auditioning borders:

Ta-daa!!

 And Baby William!!!  He's adorable!!

Quilt for Baby Paul!

Last year, two of my tennis teammates were pregnant.  They were both troopers over the summer and played while their bellies grew.  What's a quilter to do, but make each of them a quilt!

This is for Baby Paul, Sara's son.  She and I partnered in 3.0 doubles for nearly the entire summer.  He was born in December and I'm dying to deliver this to them.

I started it at a retreat in November and managed to get all of the blocks complete that weekend.  The top came together quickly and I was able to quilt it over Christmas.  Even the binding went on quick (not like me!).  The label took a bit of time to make, but it is really pretty and well worth the wait.  I splurged on the backing-- minkee!  It's really lush and now I want to make a couch quilt for me using it!

I bought a ton of new fabric to make this (a hardship, I know!).  And I'm happy to have leftover gray fabric in my stash.  In fact, it's what I'm using for the Elephant Parade!!

Next I'll post about the other tennis baby quilt!

Elephant Parade Progress

Baby Steps with Baby Elephants.  I was able to make some progress on my Elephant Parade quilt this weekend.  These guys are addicting and I wish I could work on this quilt non-stop!  I have all the grown up elephants done and all but 2 of the babies.  I pulled some fabric for the flowers, frog and turtle, but didn't take a picture.  Can't wait to see those come together!

Sunday Stash - Fat Quarter Bundle Edition

My stash is growing in bundles!  Historically, I haven't been one to purchase fat quarter bundles, but I seem to be buying more and more of them.

This first one is actually a prize I won from Stitcher's Crossing in a raffle.  It was to celebrate National Quilting Day.  I was one of three lucky winners. =)

These two bundles are from Modern Quilt Studio and were offered on MassDrop.  I couldn't pass them up, nor could I decide between the warm and cool bundles.  I bought both!

Lastly is another Massdrop purchase (that site is dangerous!).  Not the best photo, but I bought a luscious pack of threads from Presencia.  They named this color combo 'Majorca' for the island in Spain.  I canNOT wait to use these!

More catch up... Charity Quilts

In other quilty news from the last year...

I finished a wheelchair quilt for Attic Angels.  This quilt was made using my tumbler die from my AccuQuilt Go Baby! and lots of greens that I was tired of owning.  I think this will make somebody happy, especially because of the subtle nod to the Green Bay Packers with the 2 gold blocks. =P

I resumed another charity quilt that had been hibernating.  One day (years ago), I decided to take the fabrics that I was not interested in having in my stash any longer and make large nine patches out of them, with the intent of cutting them into a disappearing nine patch.  The nine-patches were sewn up and then went into a box to age.  This January, I pulled them out and cut them on the diagonal.  My plan was to make 3 quilts out of the blocks and use sashing.  But everybody that looked at the new blocks on the design wall said to "PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER" (they were shouting at me!).  The top is complete and I would like to add some bright borders (pink? purple? who knows!).  But I do know that I've gotten distracted and this is on the back burner again.

I had another long time UFO charity project that I completed.  I should call this quilt 'Christmas Miracle!'.  It's been in the works for ages!  The red and white squares were given to me when I was volunteering at the American Family Children's Hospital.  At one point (before my time there), volunteers worked with the kids to hand sew these little squares together.  They completed one quilt and these were the leftovers.  I supplemented them a bit and found the perfect complementary fabric in my stash.  It feels great to have this finished and ready to be gifted to somebody in need.

 

 

xoxo

Time flies!

It's been a year!!  I want to keep up with my blog, but I can never find the time to write down all of the fun sewing projects I am working on.

How to begin with catching up?  I'll start with my most recent project and work backwards...

Elephant Parade!!

Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts has the most fun QAL going on.  I'm a little late to the party, but better late than never!  I have all of my big elephants complete and 4 of the 14 babies are done.  The blocks are going together quickly.  Hopefully I can work on this until it is complete without getting distracted...

Unlike my Cartwheel Quilt.  =(  It's so close to being a complete top, yet I don't take the time to finish it...  Since the last time I posted about it, I've finished all of the blocks and assembled them with a filmstrip sashing, because it needed a bit more oomph. To finish it up, it just needs the outer film strip border and another lime green border.

I jumped aboard the Wild and Goosey bandwagon that is really popular on Quiltville's Open Studio facebook page.  I completed 4 parts and I'm not quite sure what approach to take with them.  I don't know if I  have enough scraps to qualify as lights?  I might do a more controlled colorway with grey or a solid as the background? 

The last update for today is kind of thrilling for me: I made a Sew Together Bag!!  It took a lot of brain cells, but it turned out beautifully.  I didn't take the time to photograph the inside after it was finished.  =(  I used Jeni Baker's Vintage Retro fabrics and gifted it to Krissy's niece, Ashley. 

I'll see if I can be a better blogger and write another post before a year passes! =O