Isn't this pretty? I love it! I didn't get much quilting done this week. We are in the middle of painting our kitchen and living room and getting ready for new carpet, so our house is a complete mess, things moved around everywhere. Our furnace was not working Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon when it was fixed (very cold here in the middle of a snow storm). After Wednesday's carpet installation, I'll be sewing for my sanity again and hopefully enjoying my freshly updated house. About the block above, it is a pattern called Cathedral Square from Freshly Pieced. I purchased the PDF pattern and really wanted to make the quilt. One of our local quilt shops is closing (Muddy Creek Originals) and had a nice sale of 45% off everything, so I decided to get fabrics to make this quilt because I had to buy something. How can you possibly pass up 45% off????  Here is a picture of the completed quilt from the pattern. I did cut all the fabric for the quilt before the painting project began, and I have pieced together just a little, but I wanted to complete one block and see how it would look. I am very happy with it, and the pieces went together perfectly. It is a very nicely written pattern. I am making the lap size which means I have to make about 29 more blocks. Don't worry, I'll definitely show you when it's finished!
Thanks so much for stopping in and seeing what I'm working on!
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I just finished the last few inches of binding on this quilt this morning. The colors are so beautiful, I think, in this quilt. I am not a fan of winter, so I love working on a quilt with spring and summer colors in January. All I can think of is watercolor paints when I see the colors. I made this quilt top in June 2013 shortly after I won the Scrap Crazy Templates from the Creative Grids Facebook page. I was so happy to win something! That doesn't happen to me very often. The directions with the templates give very good instructions on how to use them to cut your fabric up, and one of the best ways that I like to use them is for layer cakes. There is almost no waste. You will see from my pictures below that I cut up the 10" layer cake squares, actually modified the cutting directions a little so that I would have that strip around 1" left at the top of my layer cake. I used those narrow strips in my pieced border. The little baggie shows the small amount of fabric that was discarded. I LOVE that!! I made 40 Scrap Crazy squares and designed the layout myself. I decided to piece 4 of the squares together to make 9 big squares. The 4 remaining individual squares went into the corners. I also designed the border myself using those little approximately 1" strips to add interest and color. The layer cake I used was called Bali Batiks - Lights. There were 40 squares with no duplicates, so a wonderful variety of colors and prints. The background sashing, border, and binding fabric is a very light green and white print. The back is a solid pink. It seems rather feminine to me, so pretty! I quilted this on the longarm over the last week using the pantograph Novaya Zhizn with white OmniThread. Yes, I'm not sure how to correctly pronounce that either, but I wanted to use it because it is a vine/leaf pattern, and the batik fabric has a lot of botanical prints in it, so it seemed like a perfect choice. I am very happy with the finished quilt! The gallery below shows the process of making this one. I hope you enjoyed that. You probably also learned some things about me - I don't like winter, I like to use up every inch of fabric if possible without throwing it away, and I love using my Scrap Crazy Templates. I have a third quilt in the works using them again.
Enough typing for now, my sewing machine is waiting for me! Have a great day! 
This is our new Rudolph Quilt. I just finished up the binding on January 2. The story behind this is that Lydia sometime before Christmas 2012 saw this printed panel of squares with the characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in JoAnn Fabrics, and of course she thought we should get it. It was a panel to make a fabric book for kids. Well, it was on sale so I bought it. I got it out this past fall and started thinking about what I would make - definitely not a fabric book! The squares were not all exactly the same size, but I figured I could trim them down to 9" or 8-1/2". I remembered my Scrap Crazy template set that makes 8-1/2" blocks and I had this pattern using the templates - Hometown Favorite by Karen Montgomery - that I intended to make, so I thought it could work. I went back to JoAnn's and got some matching fabric. I tried my best to match the bright, sort of primary colors that were in the panel. The back is flannel, the matching red with white snowflake print. It is so warm and soft - very good for snuggling up with. You like to look at blogs for the pictures right? So here are some I took while making the quilt, starting with chain piecing. I just wanted to get this quilt done before next Christmas, so I chose the pantograph "Spring Thing" which I was very happy with the result, and it went pretty fast. I love the border on this quilt that is made with the templates also. I have some awesome purple and aqua fabric which I am planning to use with the same templates and pattern sometime soon. Before we put all the Christmas stuff away, I'll show you the other two Christmas quilts we have on the couch. This small lap quilt was made with a charm pack and a little yardage from a Kate Spain fabric line. I made it December 2012, free motion quilted on my little Janome. The back is flannel, white with little green polka dots.  This is the snowman quilt. I honestly don't remember the name of the fabric line. Made it in January 2013. The pattern is "Taffy" by Jaybird Quilts. The back is pieced with leftovers and some gray Kona, free motion quilted on the Janome with big swirls. I'll be making this pattern again, too. I love the snowman heads, they just make me smile! Thanks for taking the time to check out my quilts! I'm so glad the Christmas decorations are all put away, and with the tree down I now have more floor space to lay out quilts to work on and photograph. I wish you all blessings in the new year!
As I think over the past year and everything that has happened, it is still amazing to me that I have a longarm machine in my house! This was a dream that I hoped would come true maybe in the next couple of years, but not this fast. I am so thankful and feel so blessed to be in the position that I am in now, and so thankful for my family and all the support they give me. This past week I have been quilting a piece that I am going to slice up and use for samples that I am going to take to some of the local quilt shops in the hopes of gaining some new customers. I had a couple yards of black and purple fabric in my stash, and I chose a variety of pantographs to display my quilting and some different designs available. I actually finished them up tonight and added some labels, so they are ready to go! 
It's a new year today, and I just couldn't help myself. I had to cut into some new fabric and start something new. I have been looking at my collection of precut fabrics and thinking and pondering over my patterns and templates. I decided to use a collection of 6" precut strips called "The Kaffe Fassett Collective" from Fall 2013. I got this at The Quilt Company this fall because I just loved the colors. I have a Dresden Plate template which I used to cut the pieces. 
I have enough to make 20 Dresden blocks. I have made individual Dresden blocks in the past, so I knew what to expect. They are time consuming, but I think the result will be worth it. I'm in no hurry! 
When I get the plates all made, I'll choose a background fabric and something for the round centers. I finished one. I took this picture tonight, hence the lousy lighting. 
I'm almost done binding my Rudolph Christmas quilt, I'll show that to you next time. Happy New Year!
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