3-1/2 pounds!

i finally finished piecing the top of my Dotty Dresden Plate quilt today--and since i don't like showing just quilt tops--i like showing the finished product--here are just some peeks.

the quilt is the cover quilt of the book Material Obsession and i decided to forego the red circles in the middle--and instead put prairie points on the border to mimic the blades of each plate. i think it turned out cute and it was fun to do prairie points which i hadn't done before.

but oh my, this quilt turned out to be a monster. it literally weighs 3-1/2 pounds! and measures approx 88" square (i also changed the setting from 6x4 to 5x5). it's extra heavy because of the applique work and the prairie points--so it's pretty much double the amount of fabric you would normally use for a quilt this size.


it's huge! i'm not looking forward to quilting it (with batting & backing it might be closer to 10 lbs when finished) but it's gonna be a beaut when done.

Jelly-Filled

as in up to the gills in jelly rolls. sigh. i'm a sucker for sales and i found these jelly rolls online for great prices. shall we take a look?

after Nicole of Sister's Choice Quilts blog pointed out that Martinique goes really well with the French General fabrics, i had to get some. it doesn't hurt that i'm a huge fan of 3 Sisters/Moda either. oh yeah, got a layer cake as well.


i've been seeing Verna (Kate Spain/Moda) all over blogland and this would make a pretty baby quilt. (one of my best friends in high school had "Verna" as a middle name and we would all make fun of it--too funny if it's becoming a hip name these days)


i've been eyeing Oz (Sanae/Moda) for a long time but couldn't commit -- so a jelly roll (on sale!) made perfect sense.


another 3 Sisters line, Aster Manor--i think it'll go nicely with their other Christmas-y lines.


i ended up buying 2 Rural Jardin (French General/Moda) rolls from two different stores--because i was worried that one store was saying it was in stock but really was out of it--and i also figured i could & would use both of them :-)


this is Blush (BasicGrey/Moda). i also have a layer cake of Sultry that i bought awhiles ago--they coordinate really well together. not that i know what to do with them.


sigh. all that shopping was fun! but i guess i should actually use some of them. i'm also blaming the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along for (re-)stoking my love of jelly rolls! something about that package of fabric brings a smile to my lips!

and on a practical level, i find that it's really useful to use a lint brush and press it over the tops & bottoms of the jelly roll. there's so much lint on them--it takes several sheets to really get the fuzz off!

Finishes!

Hooray! finally some finishes to post. this was originally called the VLJ quilt for my friend's b-day present--but she said the colors didn't "match" her furniture (!) though more to the point, she liked LHB's quilt more (and the fabrics/colors in that quilt). this has more of a blue tinge because the border fabric and the backing is blueish. i'm calling it my "Posh and Charismatic" quilt because it's the Posh and Charisma lines from Chez Moi (Moda)--yeah, i'm really clever. this was inspired by an Anka's Treasures pattern--Heather Mulder Peterson is a talented designer of patterns AND fabric! (good blog too :-)

well, back to the drawing board for VLJ (this is a 2-year old b-day present promise). and now wondering to whom to gift this quilt.

oh, and here are some oops. this is the back--i accidentally quilted over some scrap batting. (i work on a really messy table!)

and here's another oops. i'm usually pretty good about my backing extra big but i guess i skimped a little here--that white edge was about 3/4" that i had to add on.


i like this quilt a lot--but it's also going to be a gift. this is made with Tula Pink's Flutterby line--one jelly roll and lots of miscellaneous pieces, and around 2 yards of the border and sashing fabrics. hmm....i should really take a close-up one of these days--you can't see but the border has illustrations of a gorgeous bug. (oh, here's a pix from Tula Pink's blog--it's the 2nd photo).

i think the pattern is called a Friendship Braid--really fun and easy to make--but i was a little worried that the bias edges would get out of control--i was really lucky that it didn't. i do have an idea of who to give this to--a good friend who is needing a hug these days.

Block Party

lots of sewing done these days--my favorite part is piecing! as i said previously, my sewing machine had been packed up for a few weeks so i did a lot of cutting and trimming and now i get to do the fun part!

first up was block #4 for the Jelly Roll Sampler. this has been really fun & easy quilt-along. looking at this block though, i wish i had gone more scrappy. oh well, if there's leftover fabric, maybe i'll re-do it.



then it's this self-made BOM--have i mentioned this before? it's a freebie pattern from here --i totally appreciate how this person is offering a lovely free pattern--but gotta say, i don't like the cutting directions. oh well, maybe for the next one, i'll take the time to re-write it to my liking.

i've also finished piecing the top of Japanese Marbles and am in the middle of piecing the top of Dotty Dresden Plates. finally! actually, the next posts will show some actual finishes!

Quilt-Along!

Hooray! this is my first Quilt-Along--and it's the Moose on the Porch Jelly Roll Sampler quilt along. (i'm so lame--i couldn't figure out how to grab the button but you can click on the links above to check it out).

i haven't joined any in the past because i can't predict my sewing times--but these blocks look nice and simple so i think i can actually keep up.



i cut out blocks 1 & 2 during my sewing hiatus so it was a breeze to sew them all up yesterday. and block #3 is so easy (picture below), i sewed it together today in less than hour and that's with sophie "helping" me.


each block, from different designers, will be published every two weeks. the fabric is Simplicity from 3 Sisters (Moda).

fun!

Salad Days

doesn't that look like a head of lettuce? it's the trimmings from the Japanese Marbles quilt--i'm such an awful fabric-cutter--that it's easier to just trim down the blocks to a consistent size (almost always a smidge smaller than what the pattern says) after finishing the block.

my sewing space is the dinner table unfortunately--there's just no space in our house. and we've had friends over for dinner the last few weeks so my sewing machine has been packed up for 3 weeks. 3 weeks!!! however it was a good time to do lots of catch up work, rather than just piecing. so i prepped a few more Joseph's Coat blocks; trimmed down the aforementioned quilt; and also trimmed down the Dotty Dresden Plates. now i just have to piece them altogether. but of course i started a new project in the meantime...

Seconds

here's my 2nd Joseph's coat block all prepped--i'm only halfway done with the 1st block. i figure since it's going to be years before this done, i'll just showed the prepped blocks :-)



and here's the 2nd Beloved quilt. it's going to be made of scraps from the Lakehouse Basket quilt so lots of bright colors with white tonal fabric. i'm working on doing the machine blanket stitch around the letters right now.