A Finish!

I took a break from quilting my Bohemian Stripe to finish another quilt. This one has a deadline since it is going to be a birthday gift for a special little boy. I put the last stitches in the binding last night and had to wait until the sun was high enough to get a good picture before I could post this morning.

His birthday is in a little less than 2 weeks so I finished with a little time to spare. It measures 57.5" by 72.5".

The pattern is a variation of Turning Twenty. I used twelve fat quarters instead of twenty. The blocks are made the same way you do for Turning Twenty, but twelve fat quarters is not enough to do the same border as in the Turning Twenty pattern. So I used those pieces that were set aside for the border to create my own border using a thirteenth fabric. I'm pleased with how it turned out! I wanted to use as much of the sport fabrics as possible, which this border did. I don't have any of the sport fabrics left.

I asked him if he has a favorite sport or if he just likes them all. He said he didn't have a favorite. I was asking because I hadn't purchased a backing fabric yet. Since he doesn't have a favorite I used a flannel sport themed print. It has baseballs, basketballs, footballs and soccer balls on it.

The quilting is not fancy, just a nice all over meander that will hopefully hold up well over time.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finished Friday.

iPad/Kindle Case

Another weekend project was the iPad/Kindle Case.

This is an adaptation of a Snap Happy Purse pattern. The only thing I did differently was to resize it to fit my iPad. I tried to find the original pattern online but was unsuccessful. It is a new pattern, so that might be why it is hard to find. I'll look when I'm at work tomorrow and edit this post with the pattern information if I can find it.

I do not like the strap on this one. Next time I will do something different. Other than that, it is great.

My iPad, with cover attached, fits easily inside.

This will be one of the classes I will be teaching next quarter at my LQS. I love projects that can easily be finished within a three hour class period.

Quick Weekend Project

I finished a couple of small projects this weekend. The first was this Little Wallet. The link will take you to the pattern page. You'll need to scroll down quite aways to find it, but it is on the page.

The pattern is by Valori Wells and the kit came from The Stitchin' Post. A friend sent it to me. I have actually almost purchased this pattern myself, twice, but never did. So I was thrilled to finally get it.

It was easy to make and turned out well. The kit included plenty of fabric, the snap and interfacing required. It only took about an hour to make which included tracing and cutting out the pattern pieces. The pattern was clear except it made no mention of when to sew on the snap. This isn't my first little pouch/bag, so it was easy for me to figure out when the snap needed to be sewn on. However, a beginner might need a little guidance on this. I also added an extra little square of interfacing behind the snap sewn to the pocket that the pattern didn't call for. Probably wasn't necessary but definitely doesn't hurt.

Finishing

I have seven quilt tops done that need to be quilted! I've decided to stop piecing for a while until I can get a few of these quilted. I've started on the first one.

This is the front.

And the back.

Here is a photo of the entire top.

So far I'm just quilting the light colored section with the gray stripes. I haven't completely decided how I want to quilt the rest.

Mystery Block Fabrics

I'm teaching a Mystery Block class at my LQS starting next month. I can't show you the blocks I've made so far because that would spoil the mystery. I can show you the fabrics though.

There will be 12 blocks, one each month for the next year. Each block will use one of the fabrics in the top and row and some or all three of the fabrics in the bottom row. The pieces for each block are cut using our new Accuquilt Studio Cutter. Prior to starting this project, I had only used the cutter for strips or squares. All of the mystery blocks use triangles, diamonds and squares. I have been impressed with how easily these blocks are going together when cut so precisely. Everything lines up so nicely!

Kits will be available or students can choose their own fabrics and learn to use the cutter as part of the class.

A Tale of Two Charm Packs

Once there were two charm packs who longed to become a quilt.

The good quilting queen decided to grant their wish and sewed them into half square triangle units. She played with the half square triangles. While arranging and rearranging the half square triangle units they requested that the quilting queen try arranging them as flying geese units. The good quilting queen obliged and liked this arrangement, so she sewed them into flying geese units.

The good quilting queen decided to arrange the flying geese units into rows by color. The charm squares were pleased. Then she sewed the rows together, but this made an odd shaped rectangle (28" by 48"). The good quilting queen realized she would need to add some fabric to the sides to make the quilt a better size. She would have liked to use more of the fabrics from the charm packs but there were no more of these fabrics to be found in her kingdom. Alas, she found a suitable fabric hidden in a corner drawer of her castle. She cut side borders and attached them to the flying geese rows.

And they all lived happily ever after until the end of their days!

We're Back! (Photo heavy)

And where did we go?

We went to Disney World!

Our trip got off to a rough start. Our first flight was late which caused us to miss our connection. So we had to spend an unplanned night in Denver with no luggage. Luckily I was able to shift our reservations back a day so we still got to spend the planned amount of time in Orlando. The Disney folks were so nice about it and did not even charge me for changing our reservation at the last minute! I wish I could say the same for Travelocity and United Airlines. Suffice it to say that I will not be using either again any time soon.

On to the fun stuff. Could this be the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic?

Epcot

We stayed at the Port Orleans - Riverside hotel on the Disney grounds.

This is the best photo I could get of the cool headboards in our room. It was truly magical to watch in the dark! Look closely and you can see the fireworks.

We added a few more autographs to our collection.

Phineas and Ferb

Marie from the Aristocats

Alice and the Hare

We rode lots of rides. The very first ride he wanted to do was Space Mountain. I was sure he would bail on us but he didn't. We ended up riding it and every other roller coaster multiple times.

Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios

Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom

The plane from Denver to Alamosa is a small propellor plane. It seats about 20 people and two crew. There is no separation between the passengers and the pilots. It is strange to be able see out of the cockpit window. The boy sat in the first seat right behind the pilots. They gave him a headset to wear so he could hear them talking. The captain explained a bunch of the instruments to him mid-way through the flight. My husband was so jealous!

I didn't do any sewing on our trip. Too busy having fun!

Abacus Top Finished

I finished my Abacus top yesterday.

I don't know when I'll get to quilt it, but the top is done!

I haven't shown a photo of Miss Spooky Boo recently. Look at this silly cat sleeping in her toy basket!

What a sleepy face!

I'll be taking a week off from blogging next week. It is Spring Break for two thirds of our family and we have some fun plans. I spend a lot of time on the computer for my job every day and I will have to spend a little bit of time working every day even over the break. So I've decided to not to try to blog next week. I won't be doing any sewing anyway. I'll be back week after next with a report of all the fun we had!

Free Modern Quilts eBook

I'm reviewing another free eBook today. This one is from McCall's Quilting & McCall's Quick Quilts.

cover

The book contains patterns for three great quilts. The patterns are easy to follow and well written.

The last pattern, Lemon Squeezy, is a quilt as you go quilt and uses width of fabric strips on an angle. This would make a great charity quilt pattern and a great way to use up some of the width of fabric strips I have already cut.

The second pattern, Rainbow Rhythm, uses 5" squares and 2.5" squares. It calls for fat quarters but you could easily use charm packs instead.

Click here to get your free copy today!

Finished Self Portrait

It has taken me longer than I expected to finish this. I have other sewing related buttons, earrings and an L I was planning to put on the background. I was having trouble settling on a balanced placement for these items and realized that the real problem was that they were distracting. She doesn't need them.

The necklace required some courage, ingenuity and glue.

I cut it in half and used the fatest needle I had to poke holes for the necklace to go through. It took some time and fiddling to get the necklace to go through to the back, but I did it!

I put some glue on the back where the necklace pokes through to the back and then glued the rest of the necklace to the back. The glue dried clear so it is hard to see.

It isn't pretty but it works. I am considering gluing another piece of batting over top to protect the necklace even more. I'm not sure that will be necessary though. This will be mounted to a quilted background by stitching all the way around it right next to the binding. For now she is just hanging on my design wall. In a few days I'll check to see how the glue is holding. If it is loose I'll glue on the extra batting. Otherwise, she is done!

Abacus Blocks

I have all of my Abacus blocks up on my design wall. I have not committed to a layout yet. I'm still playing with them.

Above is the current layout. I'm not sure if I want to scatter the pink ones around or leave them in a row.

I've also been working on my guild challenge. The theme this year is "Colorful Colorado." I've decided not show any pictures of it here until after the reveal at my guild in mid-April since a few guild members do occasionally read my blog.

Finished Heart Pin Cushions

My two heart pin cushions are finished.

Same pattern, different fabrics and slightly different stitching. I did finish these differently than the pattern called for so I could use the sandbags I had already made. Luckily, they were the correct size.

The pattern includes four pin cushions. I plan to make at least one more for a class sample. I will probably make all four for myself.