Monday, October 29, 2012

Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival

Here is my latest finish that i actually wasn't going to blog about till i finished another one just like it for his brother... but i really do think this one is awesome so here it is.

It is a small twin quilt. The boys have bunk beds and what mom can get their kids to make the bunk bed, with this quilt it will cover the bed but thats about it, Its 52X70 they can straighten them out without all that tucking and room will look put together.

The two boys (5 and 6) are my grand children. They belong to Travis and Bridgette (one is his and one is hers but the cool thing is they are both ours! lol) I started them a while ago but just now finished this one, I have the border yet to put on and then quilt on the other one.


 The quilt is entirely from recycled fabrics. It is called Kisses from Paw Paw because the X's are from my husbands shirts (the man holding the quilt up) the white were sheets found in the bargain bin at goodwill. The yellow on the back was actually a sheet i bought recently at a yard sale. I love the texture of that sheet, its really soft.

I quilted it on my machine in easy straight lines.

I am hoping to have both finished by christmas so i can give them the  quilts this year. For now, its what i wake up to every morning, its hanging over the railing next to me... it makes me smile

Im linking to the 2012 Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Bloggers Quilt Festival Facts:
52 X 70
Special techniques:
made with recycled fabrics
strip piecing vs. blocks
Quilted by me on my home machine
categories: bed quilt, scrap quilt


Amy's Creative Side

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

quilting without a plan

I finally posted the last three finishes. I didn't take pics and because of this i quit blogging... i miss it and i miss talking about my quilting "for the record" i actually do look over my blog to see where ive been, when i started something. So... I had to put those three out there without pics, too the world....

we have opened zippys number 2. I am really proud of us because we are getting some awesome reviews and it is doing well. We need it to do three times as well as it is but each week we can feel it growing. Now its a process of figuring out how to run a store up there from down here and how to grow this one.

The title of this blog entry is quilting without a plan because... i have been working a little here a little there. Again i have no quilt batting... so i cant finish anything. So im not worrying about the borders that i need to do on the granny square quilt or trevors quilt... im not worried about 4 other quilts i have ready to quilt... im just playing with fabric.

And its perfect for my life right now because i dont think it could get any more stressful and i dont think i could take one more thing, especially my hobby putting stress on me. So... im quilting without a plan, Ive started a mess of projects, not really going anywhere with any of them... Im cutting alot of fabric into my precut stash and as i do that im sewing them together on a few things that have been swimming around in my head. (i really dont have room for all the "bigger than a crumb too small to fold with yardage fabric" so its all getting sliced and diced to go in my precut bins.)

So here they are...

1. 4 inch plaids. I love my 10 inch plaid quilt, i wanted another with the smaller scraps. So im cutting the chunks of left over plaids into 4 in. squares and here and there im sewing 4 patches. Eventually i will have enough to finish it.



2. 4 inch stripes. i loved the shabby stripes quilt i made sharon (the pic in the far right of my header) so much, im cutting all of my stripe fabric into 4 in squares and im making myself a shabby stripe quilt (note... the baby quilt i made last month was from this stash, i like my shabby stripes alot! lol)



why 4 inches on these. Because all my scraps on the stripes and plaids were smaller than 6 inches. I had used them pretty hard for the shabby stripes, soar and lonesome dove on the plaids. So... cutting 4 inch was easy with the 4 inch ruler. My precut scraps are actually 2 1/2, 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 because they play better with each other. the 4 inch squares dont play nice and after i get enough for these two quilts i will quit cutting this size!

3. speaking of them playing nicely together, this is 2, 4, 6, 8... ok there isn't 8 in squares but there are 2 inch, 4 inch and 6 inch squares and you cant grow up in the 80's and not say 2, 4, 6, 8! (laverne and shirley please) I have been putting together a random size block here and there and add it on. The other day i sewed together what i have so far. I think its about 1/2 done right now. I was inspired by this quilt by Karamat



4. plus sign. I have two quilts i made with the X (or the plus on point) but they had white background. I keep seeing this quilt and i had to start saving my precuts for it and well, i started sewing the 3 pieces together. Im using all of my 4 1/2 in precut stash that i have 5 of... so it may take a while to collect. I think i figured i needed 125 sets of 5 and i have about 30. I dont know if i will make it a true charm quilt (only one plus of each fabric) but i am going to make it as scrappy as i can!!)



5. rainbow strings... one day i started playing with my strings and decided to start this one. Its a pain in the patutie but i love it and cant wait to finish it.... another when i get the urge i make a peice or two of it.



ok 5 starts in a month... lol and i say im stressed and dont have time to quilt! It really is my stress relief so maybe thats why im doing so much of it. we have been REALLY stressed!

Last month before we opened the store i did finish the three i posted about in my last three blog entries, i also finished the paw paw kisses of landons... but i will blog about that when i finish trevors matching quilt. I finished a top for a friends daughter (would finish that one if i could afford batting!!) I pieced the rows of dallas' soar, i just need to do the setting squares in the corners... easy peasy... i really should finish the flimsy on this one!

Oh and fabric swap! I was part of a swap last month I dont know if i even thanked sewsara!!! really the first of october has been a blur. But i got these 4 fantastic fat quarters from her, a bunch of scraps which i have already sliced and diced and used!!! and a adorable pin cushion! I love it.

I think i will wait a few months for things to settle down before i participate again, but i did enjoy my first "swap" experience!

phew... i got it all out there... this has been all cooped up inside and i couldn't blog because the pic thing was holding me up... i feel better now!

linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Monday, October 22, 2012

September Finish Travis Star

Another mid september finish (I had ALOT of time on my hands in september!)

I started this around christmas time so its about time i finished it. I carried it around with me for a while, but we were busy at work and I never got time to finish the binding. Yep... the binding has held me up forever!

This quilt is for Travis, one of Ralph's sons. It is from his mom and dads plaid shirts and I think the simple big star is perfect for travis!



The star is actually the back and the front is denim. I have 6 of these i have either finished or am in the process of. One for each of ralph's sons (and son-in-laws) This is finish # 4 of the 6. The denim is from jeans they gave me and jeans of their fathers. They are stained and i used those stains on purpose. This is a hard working family. Ralph horseshoes, Travis, Buck and Jonathan are linemen (repair electrical lines for the electric company) Chris is a helicopter mechanic for the coast guard, coleman at the time was in the coast guard as well (hes a college student now) Jess was in the army and now he paints houses. These were for them and i wanted the denim side to show their hardwork.

wow this camera pic is the ONLY pic i have of the star and ive already given it to him! again going to have to get better pics next trip home.

I really think this star is my favorite. They all were "experiments" or me trying to be creative and step outside of my comfort zone in my learning process. What i expect them to use these for is to take the kids to the pond fishing with them, keep them in their trucks for kids baseball and softball games... things like that.. to be used.


Another finish - baby boy quilt

I decided one weekend to try making something to sell. I made the quilt but i decided half way thru that i didn't want to sell it. I hated making something that i didn't know who was going to get it and i hated not "loving it" which being "generic" for someone to buy seemed unloveable to me.


I decided to donate it at the time... which made it loveable and i could finish it... lol update though, i actually kept it and it covers an old trunk in our bedroom so that Duke the dog can use it to jump up on the bed. Its perfect and goes great in the bedroom. I will have to make another for donation.

It is made from recycled striped shirts. I used the really soft yellow sheet that i love for the back (im almost out of it!) I decided not to donate it because after washing there was a small tear in the sheet and i had to patch it.. i couldn't donate it then! But i do  I love the softness of the colors with the dark blue pop.

again... bad pics but posting it "for the record" I have lost the camera cord in the move (again) and i cant charge the camera to take better pics! part of why i haven't blogged for the last month and a half... well that and we opened a restaurant... thats been a little crazy.


My Flower Garden Finish

I wrote this blog at the begining of september and was going to post it once i took pics... lol but i never took the pics. I am posting it now for "the record"

This one is finally to the owner. I had to talk ralph out of it but it now belongs to Adrianna our daughter-in-law. They just moved in with their grandfather to take care of him and they needed a nice quilt to make the bedroom theirs.

the funny thing is i didn't take any pictures of my finish! so ... im posting unfinished pics.


Next trip up i will see if we can get it outside and take some pics... because i would like them for my sake!

I kinda felt like singing pomp and circumstance the whole time i quilted it. It feels like i "graduated from beginning quilting with this quilt. My seams match, my quilting doesn't have puckers. I "designed" it myself and i think my construction method was pretty smart. (not pattern needed ingenious, but more tutorial because there is a really easy way to make it)


It is scrappy but i actually "matched" fabrics for this one... and i did have a theme, all the fabrics were from my stash and they were botanical. It is a perfect quilt for fat quarters. There were some value decisions as well to maintain the Irish chain through it.


I did do two borders on this as well, a mustard and then a blue... it was really pretty but i dont have a PIC!

I did stall on the process because i wanted to piece some of my floral sheets together for the back, i do not like sewing big chunks of fabric together... if its more than 10 inches of fabric i just have no idea how to cut it square and straight and sew it together without it being crooked. So... the back isn't perfect. I guess the back is the one area where i got a C on my final grade... but i did make it how i wanted and i did pass the beginner class!