Happy 6th Birthday Ada (Plus Quilt)

I've had two big finishes recently.  Mackenzie's D-Love Quilt, and Ada's Plus Quilt. Ada's birthday was on the 11th, and let me tell you, I cut it close.  Truthfully, Willa is still waiting on her birthday quilt.  The top is done and is being quilted by Angela ( <3 ). In order to get this one done on time, I carried the quilt with me and stitched on the binding whenever I had a free minute.   I decided to bind it in RK's Quilter's Linen.  I love it!  I got warnings that the red, and perhaps the pink would bleed, so I doubled up on the color catchers.  As promised, when I took the quilt out of the washer, the color catcher was bled upon.  I pulled it out of the dryer on the eve of her birthday.    

In addition to the SJ fabrics there are some Moda Crossweaves and Pezzy prints.  I'm still heart broken that the crossweaves are being phased out of production.  They are great solids!  I love texture and rich vibrant colors, and the crossweaves have both.  I used some of the Jewel prints from Lizzy House.  They make great "almost solids" and are perfect for a color quilt like this.  There is a LouLou Thi in there.  The hugs and kisses are very much like the Jewel prints.  All the dots are Michael Miller.  

I have no idea how big it is, but here is the front. I cut the charms into 4 inch squares instead of 4.5 inch squares most plus quilts utilize.  So mine is a bit smaller than most. I used smaller cuts in order to have some left over from the FQs I used to be used for the pieced strip down the back.  And as someone who has OCD (and not just the kind that people claim to have when they are picky clean about their house) using whole numbered cuts makes me feel better. 

On second thought, using the balloon print on the back was a little busy, but I love that little red-headed girl. Ada sends balloons to her twin in heaven pretty often, so I had to use it!  I love this print so much I've often thought about getting a tat of it.

I also scoured etsy to find a seller who had the fabric in order to make Ada her birthday shirt.  Each of my children have gotten a customized shirt for each of his or her birthday.  One day I'll make a t-shirt quilt out of all of them.  This is the 1st time I've customized the shirt to their birthday quilt.  Of course, this is only the 2nd year they've gotten birthday quilts. Willa has a love affair with poodles at the moment, so I could only have gotten her a poodle shirt.

 I have no idea how big the quilt is.  But some other details are as follows:  I quilted it with Auriful white 2024 I think.  You can't really tell from the finished picture, but the quilting is 1/4 inch from each vertical and horizontal seam.  I do have an Instagram of the in progress quilting.

Ada is my last quilt in Sarah Jane's Children at play quilt.  Her new fabric collection is just as cute.  I can already see that I'll have to force myself to work on my sewing skills to make some dresses from the new fabrics, but as someone who isn't a huge nautical fan, I don't see any quilts coming from it.

Willa's Doll Quilt

I finally finished the back to Willa's doll quilt. I pulled the hopscotch board in one of the fabrics out of the fabric and put it into a strip down the back.  I used the cream doll print that is featured in the blocks.

I've never posted a picture of the completed top, and I hesitate to post this one.  See that little hand in the above picture.  With his "help" I managed to not get a decent un-blurred picture.  That'll teach me to get out the real camera.  I coulda got a better pic with my Ipad.  But this'll give you an idea.  

It's already packed away in its box, ready to be shipped to Angela tomorrow, and I'm not going to wake it up to get a new picture.  When it comes back, I'll have plenty of pics to post!

Ada's quilt top is done.  Her birthday is May 11th, and last birthday of my year.  I'm hoping to have at least 1 done on time.  Especially since her appliqued birthday shirt coordinates!  The back is going to be Aqua Balloons.  I'm going to quilt this myself.  Not quite sure yet.  I'd like to quilt 1/4 inch along the seams, but I might try some diagonal lines.  WWYD?

I also finished my blocks for the 4x5 modern quilt bee!

Semi-Completed Project:

1. Sarah Jane Cross Quilt top
2. Willa's Doll Quilt top 

New Projects:

• Wacky Bentos (yet to be started)

Projects in the Workbox:

1. Houndstooth Tubes 
2. Love You to the Moon Word Quilt (worked on this one since I last posted.  I need some advice on that one- later)
3. Shot Cottons Wonky Log Cabin 
4. Spiderweb
5. Rainbow Diamond (I completed 4 blocks)
6. (and 7) Sarah Jane Family Panels (Waiting on the embroidery fairy)

Bees:

-Sew Bee Wonky- finished March and April blocks

-heal.do.good stitches- Ribbon star

Another Sarah Jane Quilt

My last Children at Play quilt is a plus/cross quilt.  In addition to the CAP prints, I also used some Jewel prints from Andover.  I really really like them.  I'm using Pezzy Prints, the last of my cross weaves.  I'm bummed that Moda isn't going to be making these anymore.  I love them.  Right now I only have the rows paired.  I sure do wish I could figure out chain piecing.  I'm doing it square by square, row by row.  When I even try to do the rows 2 squares at a time, I forget which way is up.  I have to do a lot of unsewing, so for now, I'll just do it the long way.  I hadn't planned on posting it, but Ada insisted on inspecting the progress, so I decided to snap a quick pick on the iPad.  I have the Parade Panel from this line to be used in the back, and I've seen some great scalloped quilts like this one.  I want to try it!  I'm not sure my sewing level is high enough. I wonder if I could talk my LQS into doing a class.

Not very interesting, but here are the other rows- on my handy TV table. And there's my new pinnie from Bee a [modern] swapper- in use!

So- that's it. I still have lots of WIPs I haven't thought of in months! This quilt will be Ada's birthday quilt. It's coming up in May. So it's pretty high on my list, as is finishing the back of Willa's quilt and getting it sent to Angela.

This week I need to work on some liberated churn dash blocks for a wonky bee. I don't know why, but I'm terrified of doing this block.  I'm also getting set this weekend to swap partners for the Pot Holder Swap.  It'll be a busy day of cutting and pasting from the google doc.  I sure do love google docs though!

About an hour ago, I got my swapped blocks back from Kari's Scrap Busting Group. We did wacky bentos. I made- a lot- of blocks. When I counted them out, it was about a dozen more than I thought I'd made. I'm dense like that. These are quartered blocks, so for each of my own blocks, I have 3 more to complete 1 16 in block. I decided to put 1 of my blocks in each of the completed blocks, and distribute the rest randomly. This one will go together quickly, but I guess technically, I've added another project. It will be the biggest quilt I've made to date.  We're doing Herringbone blocks this time.  Go sign up!

Preview:

Completed Project:
none

New Projects:

(2) Sarah Jane Cross Quilt, Wacky Bentos

Projects in the Workbox:
1. Houndstooth Tubes 

2. Love You to the Moon Word Quilt

3. Shot Cottons Wonky Log Cabin 

4. Spiderweb

5. Rainbow Diamond

6 & 7. Sarah Jane Family Panels (Waiting on the embroidery fairy)

Bees:

-Sew Bee Wonky- liberated churn dash to be completed

-heal.do.good stitches- pinwheels complete

- Bee a {modern} swapper- It's my month, and I'm getting some great blocks!

Micah's Tumbler Quilt

If I were a regular blogger, I'd like to think I'd have regular readers- if of course they had something to read- regularly. I'm funny, witty, smart, and quite humble, and not the least bit vain. (; But, I'm not (a regular blogger that is), so I'll have to live with my delusions.  I have so many works in progress, that I really should post more often.

I shared a photo through instagram a few weeks ago of how I organize my WIPs:

They're in those drawers to the right of my desk.  I don't have a better name for it than that.  To steal a homeschooling term, I call them workboxes.   I have, I think, 10 WIPs.  Realizing of course, there are people with more WIPs than I do.  I'd like to get to the point where I have more completed quilts than planned quilts.

One of those WIPs is this:

It's part of a top I've been working on for some time.  You can't tell it from my crappy photo (my lack of time to take and edit photos is #1 on my list of reasons I don't blog more often).  It's hot hot pink, not red.  I'm making it for a friend who lost a child in a car accident last year.  Her name will be the top half.  Dividing the top from the bottom will be a row of hearts.  I have to get busy making those hearts. I'll also overcome my fear of paper piecing and do a moon, or do a wonky one for the top half.  I really am pleased with how it's turning out.  This is a collaborative quilt, and much love to my ladies at the Word Play Bee.

You can see the other half of my soon-to-be completed top on my work table here:

There are too many WIPs to list here, but as I get them out and play with them, I HOPE to write about them a little more.  Willa's doll quilt is now a quilt top.  It's even got 3 more blocks than I showed several months ago.  I'm having it professionally quilted by Angela. I've got my appointment in May!  That means I'll have to get the back made quick like. Remember these blocks?

I'm very excited to report a big finish this week.  I started this quilt right after Thanksgiving.  It was to be completed by my son's second birthday, but that was over 2 months ago.  I have a love affair with Sarah Jane Studios fabric.  I got enough of it to make all three children a quilt.   Willa's doll quilt is Sarah Jane's Children at Play, and I have recently started cutting squares in order to make Ada a Plus Quilt for her birthday (in May).   Sarah Jane has a new line coming out soon.  Hopefully, I don't love it as much as this line, because I have plans to hopefully find yardage of this line on sale in order to make some floor pillows and curtains.

Micah's quilt is a tumbler quilt.  I decided to make one after watching the video at Missouri Quilt company.  I have Accuquilt Go envy, and since I won't be buying one anytime soon, I decided I could do a quilt just as easily without the handy dandy cutter.  The truth is, it probably would've gone much faster with the machine.  I made my own template out of template plastic and used the little neon tape you put on quilting rulers to outline it.  I cut dozens of tumblers.  It was quite time consuming.  My hubby spent a few days laying out the arrangement.  I looked critically at it a few times, but in the end, we settled on a layout we really both liked.  I put it in a drawer and neglected it- until last week.  I got it done pretty quickly, and I <3 it.

Not so close-up of the quilting.  I quilted it 1/2 inch from all the seams.  I sorta wished I'd done 1/4 inch seams, but I really do like it.  

I backed this quilt with a racing stripe flannel from this same fabric line.  it is soooo soft.  Here's a picture of my kitty helping me baste it (yup, still cheating) to give you an idea of the backing.  It was nothing special, and you can't really see the quilting in a photo.

I did finish a LOT of blocks for a scrapbuster swap.  I didn't realize that I'd made so many until I counted them out to mail.  I should be able to make a twin sized quilt once I get the swap back.  I was a modified- modified bento block box.  Realistically, we made log cabin blocks, and quartered them.

I worked also on my blocks for the 4x5 modern quilt bee.  I have two more to make before I'm done.  I may be late in getting my own stuff done, but I like to be early when working on a project from someone else.

Several months ago I submitted my application to join the do.Good.stitches bee.  It's a group that makes blocks and donates the finished quilts to a charity.  I was even asked to be a quilter. Not sure how I got into the classification as a quilter, but I'll do my best.  I'm a quilter in the Heal circle. I'm excited to participate in this bee, and I got my pinwheels made quickly!

I've got plenty to keep me busy in the quilting world, and here is to hoping I have something to report on again!