A little snow just adds interest...

Busy weekend

I'm after any 12.5 block I can make, and Amy's Creative Side's quilt along has been on my list a long time, and the blocks happen to be 12.5! So, I started that yesterday and was able to get through the first 4 weeks (two blocks a week.)

http://amyscreativeside.com/quilt-along/

The pictures are awful, but the blocks really are pretty and very bright.


I also got one more skill builder block done - "Breaking Out"
http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/08/block-8-breaking-out.html

That's it! Martin Luther King day today - a day to spend with my boys :)

Virginia Star

http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/08/block-7-virginia-star.html

Sold!

The Hoopla quilt has found a new home in Alabama - yippee!

Skill Building Continues!

 Arizona

http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/07/block-4-arizona-we-can-do-it-skill.html

Bad picture, but "Sugar Hill" by Tanya Whelan makes the best bow ties!

http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/07/block-6-bow-ties.html

Finally snow!

We finally got some snow here in NH, so it's starting to look a little more like winter!

Unfortunately, that means I'm back to photographing my blocks indoors, and the colors just don't look right photographed under low light AND on beige carpet...

Back to Skill Building!

Churn Dash - 

Pinwheels - 

The turorials can be found here:
http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/07/block-3-churn-dash-we-can-do-it-sampler.html
http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/07/block-4-pinwheels-we-can-do-it-sampler.html

A productive and colorful day!

I spent close to 5 hours in my sewing room today - quite a lot of time was spent cutting squares the wrong size and then re-cutting them, working with certain scraps that I later found I didn't have enough of, and finally ripping stitches out because I wasn't paying attention to either this or that... But, I still got a lot of good stuff done, and feel like it was a day well spent.

To start, I finished this quilt top by adding an additional row to make it 4 inches wider...

Then I made this Starflower block, using this lovely tutorial
(http://ellisonlane.blogspot.com/2011/04/starflower-block-tutorial.html)

Then, I started the "We Can Do It! Skill Builder Sampler" because I always need to work on my skills!
(http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/p/skill-builder-sampler.html)

 Log Cabin - block 1
(http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/06/we-can-do-it-sampler-block-1-log-cabin.html)

Value Nine Patch - block 2
(http://sewnbyleila.blogspot.com/2011/06/block-2-value-9-patch-we-can-do-it.html)

And here they are all together...

Sew. Happy. Quilt. QAL : Friendship Star & QST Pinwheel Blocks

Squeezed these two blocks in today. I am very happy with these - much of the fabric I've used has been from my early sewing days and it brings back happy sewing memories...

http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/2012/01/10/sew-happy-quilt-qal-tutorials-friendship-star-qst-pinwheel-blocks/

A busy, happy morning

I started the morning with a walk, and then got right to these fun blocks for the Sew.Happy.Quilt QAL
http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/sewhappyquilt/

 I'm going to try to use up a lot of my old fabric for these - soft and pretty...

Then I finished up the quilt top from Friday, though I think it's too narrow so will add a scrappy border to widen it. Right now it's about 34 x 54. Now tell me, is this a baby quilt or are the colors to wild? I think it would make a beautiful twin bed quilt if I had enough fabric to continue the pattern, but when the majority of my fabric has been bought in 1/4 cuts, it doesn't go that far...

Until next time!

I'm all over the place!

The new year has my head spinning with ideas, and I sort of feel like I have to start them all, all at once - without finishing any of them probably! So here's what I worked on last night and this morning. I will have to slow down now that boy #3 just got home from school and it's the weekend, and I must be motherly :)

I Looooove the colors - fuschia, lime, turquise with accents of red, burgandy, orange... I think I'll call it  "Heirloom Jewel."

Space Quilt

,

I had a few hours this morning to work on this and got the top done. I'm looking forward to getting a back on it so I can start the hand quilting. And... perhaps I'll put a little surprise applique on the other side too!

2012

Trying to keep busy since the boys went back to school yesterday!

I've joined the "Craftsy Block of the Month" with Amy Gibson and made the January blocks... bad picture, but they are pretty! For the first time ever, the block to the left actually came out big, so I got to trim it down to the correct size. The block on the right kept with tradition and came in just small - so frustrating!! I will have to fudge it when I put the blocks together at the end of the year when all the blocks are complete (or maybe I won't! I have a closet full of sewing bee blocks that I've never made quilts of...) 

http://www.craftsy.com/

I also joined Pleasant Home's "Sew Scraps Along" and started going through my scrap bins to make Nanette's Scaptacular Picnic Quilt (though it will probably be a baby quilt and not a picnic blanket...) I'm really excited for this project as I have 7 or 8 years worth of scraps in bins in my closet.

 


 

I've also made the December "Blogger's Block of the Month" block...
http://blog.patsloan.com/2011/12/pat-sloan-bloggers-block-of-the-month-my-block.html

And finally, I started a new quilt top, and got most of it done today - just have to add a fun scrappy border to bulk up the size a bit. It's the "spinning in orbit" quilt by Kate Henderson in the "100 pretty little projects" book.

Feels great to be sewing again!

The final quilts of 2011

These quilts are probably two of my favorites - certainly the most labor intensive and time consuming. The colors are as girly as can be, and hopefully my 7 and 4 year old nieces will enjoy them for a very long time!

Can't wait to start sewing tomorrow morning when the boys are all back to school. I'll have 3 hours to myself!