Latest Projects

This is a sneak peek at the latest quilt I am working on. For those of you who are family members, no fair telling, as this is a surprise anniversary present for grandma and grandpa Packard next July. Two of my sisters have taken different blocks to work on also. The pattern is Lori Holt's Reunion quilt. We have personalized it to fit our family with a four wheeler, projects, and our own deck of Make-A-Million cards! It will be so fun to see the finished product. The center block of the quilt is this family tree, complete with names on the leaves. They will be more noticable after I stitch the names on...

These may be hard to see, but these are the fabrics I am contibuting for the "I Spy" quilt swap that my daughter is heading up. She made one of these quilts herself a while back, and I loved the idea so much that I wanted to be in on her swap. The finished product will look like this.

It was so fun finding these fabrics. I usually don't look for these kind of prints for my sewing, unless I am making a quilt for my grandkids - which is exactly what this quilt will be for. (Although adults would probably love playing "I SPY" with it too!)

I'll be back when I get the rest of the squares for the entire quilt. Yay!

Super Saturday!!

Today I finished my "Be Attitudes" quilt top. I took the advice of my good friend, Sherri, and made the border a scappy one, using all of the border prints that came with the kit. I only want to put one border on the quilt, but they give you four different fabrics to put four borders on. I didn't want it to be too big to put on the wall, so I went with one border in all colors. I am in the process of putting together my quilt back, using a lot of different fabrics again. You know me and not being able to throw away scraps...

I also had the chance to head into Vegas to pick up my youngest daughter and had some free time to check out the sewing machine store that Sherri sent me to. I ended up putting $200 down on this lovely machine, a Janome DC3050, which I will make payments on until the end of August...then it is mine, all mine! Just in time for all of my Christmas projects to get done. Yay me again!!

FLANNEL - (just in time for a hot, Nevada summer!)

We've started our women's sewing group project this month and one of the quilt patterns that some of us are using is the "Fields of Flowers" pattern by Pieces From My Heart. I bought a flannel jelly roll of "Timber Creek Flannel" a few weeks ago with the intention of making some kind of quilt with it. I thought that this would be the perfect easy pattern for this cute, cabin-y line of fabric. I love the colors. I told my husband that I was going to make it and take to use at the family cabin. He said "Forget it! It's staying home with us!" What d'you know? He's converting!

New Fabric, a Sneak Peek, and a Project

The post office has been good to me this week. I received my "Hello Betty" layer cake (to match my charm pack) and the "Timber Creek Flannel" yardage to go with my Fields of Flowers quilt that I will be starting next week with the church ladies. The other yardage is from the "Portugal" line, which I LOVE! The first charm packs I ever bought are "Portugal" packs, 3 of them...so this should make a lovely quilt when I figure out which pattern I want to use.

When my daughter saw all of the fabric coming in the mailbox for 3 days in a row, she told me that I couldn't buy any more fabric till I did all of the projects that I had started...I swear I heard her say "You can't use the car until you have cleaned up your room!" Since when does a 21 year old tell her 50 year old mother what to do?! (The worse part of it is that I know she's right!) So, here is a sneak peek, and the only peek at one project I need to finish. I can't show the end result because this is ending up a gift for Christmas. Too bad!

I decided I'd better get a move on with an already purchased fabric and mind my daughter. So, here is a tablerunner that I have planned on making for a while, made out of a lovely "Louise" charm pack. The pattern came off the Moda Bake Shop. I love the way it is turning out. I used my extra fabric strips for the back again. It is pinned and ready to stipple...the only problem is that my sewing machine is 25 years old and doesn't stipple. So I am hoping that my good friend Sherri, will do it for me. Then on to the binding, and a project is done! One down, and about (?) to go!!

The Biggest Jelly Roll I've Ever Seen!

I finally got the binding on my tabletopper and can call it done. Yay for me! I'm glad that I went with the check for the binding, I stewed over it for a long time before settling on it. I need to get faster and better at deciding on fabrics - and this was only the binding. I also got my new Jelly Roll in the mail at an incredible price...I love THAT part, and it is the biggest thing I have seen in a long time, when you're talking fabric. It is the new line of flannel that Moda came out with. Yummy! I am going to make a rail fence quilt with it that my church group is getting ready to work on. Should be soft and toasty just in time for a hot Nevada summer!

Mailbox Goodies!

I have been buying a lot of charm packs online at unbelievable prices to supply my quilting fettish! I also bought another jelly roll because it was 50% off too. It has been a good week for purchasing, now on to sewing! I wasn't able to sew at all on Saturday (National Quilting Day) because I had a full day with grandkids and activities, but I sure thought about it! Maybe that counts...

Here's my stash - my daughter likes to make a mountain out of my jelly rolls!

A New Project

It's a real bummer when you finish what you're working on and you think you have nothing else to do. Actually, I have PLENTY to do - like vacuuming, cleaning, walking, etc., but who wants to do THAT when you can sew?! Soooo, I found some more fabric, actually Michaela found it, and started asking questions about what could be made with it. I told her the cut strips were perfect for making a "stripes quilt" that I have been wanting to work on. I had a little free time, so thought I would start it for her, as she was nervous that she would mess it up. Whatever. So here is the startings of it, I still have more strips to add to it. The colors in the photo don't do it justice. They are brilliant and rich. I'm thinking I might just make this for my bed. It would look great with the right border and some yummy pillows to match. Be back soon...

"Butterfly Fling" Fabric

Yesterday was a great day for sewing...and sewing I did! The kids had no school, it was raining most of the day (love those rainy Mondays) and so I got a jump on the wash to do and got busy on the machine. I have decided to make a quilt with these cute, bright fabric pieces. It will end up a fun patchwork look when it is done. So to begin, I had to sew these 9-patch squares together. Don't you love the colors? You know me...the brighter, the better. This should end up a pretty flashy quilt. Who knows, maybe it'll end up being more of a "grandma's house" quilt. Come back later for the next phase...

OH MY GOODNESS, OH MY GOODNESS!!

I have started collecting fabric for my projects (on sale, of course) and have enough of a "stash" to get something started. The packages of squares are 5" x 5" pieces of fabric with about 40 in each one. They are called "Charm Packs." They are from one line of fabric, which makes it nice when you are trying to coordinate your colors. I am planning on making a quilt with the three yellow ones. I will have to post about that later, because I have plans for other things first. The cute little rolls of fabric are called "jelly rolls" and contain 2 1/2" strips of all fabrics in a line of fabric. The pre-cut fabric makes it easy to assemble certain projects that might require cutting fabric into strips. The yardage was just a good deal. I'm not sure what will come from that, but SOMETHING for sure!I even bought me some Christmas fabric after the holidays when it was pretty inexpensive. Yay for me!!

But THIS is the first thing on my list of things to start...a table runner I promised Connie. It will be my first table runner that I have made. The colors will match Connie's newly-painted kitchen and are very rich in color. All I need is to find a pattern that will use both squares and strips so that I have little cutting to do.
I have also been stitching this block and got it finished in a couple of days. It is part of a Christmas quilt (I have changed THAT up a bit with pinks and greens instead) that comes a month at a time. Meaning a new block pattern every month to stitch up, which will be nice when I am working on other projects. I will be using the different fabrics for different blocks. This is a free pattern that I got from another blog.
So there you have it...the latest things that keep me busy.