What did I finish this week? I have so many things going on that it doesn't seem like I've finished much. I did finish up the binding on this small lap quilt which is adorable! Not because I made it :-), but the prints and colors are mellow and happy. The back is a soft flannel. The edge to edge quilting pattern of flowers coordinates with the fabric perfectly. It is just really sweet! 
The fabric like is Fly and Kite from Riley Blake. It was made with a small layer cake. I have seen similar quilt patterns online, and I just made this up myself to use a layer cake. The gals at The Quilt Company helped me pick the binding. I was trying to stay away from the dark brown, but they immediately thought it was the right color to use, and they were right! Every time Lydia saw this fabric she thought it was Pittsburgh Steelers fabric because one of the prints is the same as their emblem, though not the same colors, of course! Can you see it now? Right in the middle! Funny because I never thought of it that way until she brought it up. 
Swinging in the warm air, bluebirds, flowers, fresh strawberries..........Mmm.......... This quilt can bring on some happy thoughts! If you love it, it can be yours! It is for sale in my Etsy Shop. 
I did finish up something else today, but it is a surprise for another day. I also have a client quilt I'm working on which is going to be beautiful when it is done.
Today I'm linking up with: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts Thanks for visiting. Stop back again soon!!
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I finished quilting on this one. I call this a hybrid because I began making this about a year ago before having a longarm. Most of the quilting was done on the kitchen table with my little Janome. I didn't finish, always intended to but just never did. Now that I have the longarm there was NO WAY I wanted to finish quilting this big lap quilt on my little machine. So this week I loaded it up on the Innova and finished. It went very quickly and was so much fun to do (especially compared to maneuvering all that fabric on the kitchen table with a little machine)! Below you can see more pics of the progress on this quilt. The pattern is called "Key to My Heart," made with a jellyroll of the fabric line Bold and Beautiful from Benartex. The binding is stitched on the front and just needs turned and hand stitched to the back. One of the things I love about this pattern is it uses almost the entire jellyroll with very little waste. I made a colorful strip down the backing with the scraps. The crazy thing is, I made a second quilt with the same pattern in a different fabric line - City Block by Benartex. Same hybrid thing going on with it, too. It is loaded and not finished yet, but it will be another quick one! Wow! I just love those fabrics. They make me happy. I gotta say that little Janome is pretty awesome, too. It does a great job. So glad we have a big island in our kitchen to eat at when a quilt is overtaking the table!! I have another old quilt that I actually started hand quilting many years ago and didn't get very far - another potential hybrid. Now I am considering what I am going to do about it. I could leave the hand quilting in and load it on the longarm and finish, or I could take out the hand quilting and do the whole thing in the longarm. I'm kind of leaning toward taking out the hand quilting because then I could use better batting, and actually I would get a nicer, better quality piece of backing fabric. What would you do??? Leave a comment, don't be shy!
I am linking up again with Richard and Tanya Quilts Link a Finish Friday. Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend! 
This week I played catch-up with the block of the month that I joined in December!! This is the first online BOM that I have ever done. It is also the first quilt I will be making with all solids. See that big button over to the right? Click it, and you will be taken to the web page for more info or if you want to join. 
This is what the final quilt will be like. I really like the unique layout of the blocks. I also like the vice versa quality! Each month we will make 2 blocks of the same pattern, but one will be the white background with the colors being the design. The other block will be colors for the background and white for the design. Yes, NOW you get it!! I often ask my son Jakob what he thinks about certain designs. I can always get an honest answer from him. He really liked this quilt and how it looked so modern. I suggested that we (why did I just type "we"? I mean "I") could make it for his bed and redecorate his room next winter when it is finished. Of course he went for that idea! He helped pick the colors. We used a website called Design Seeds for the selection. It is a really cool way to look at color. There are really beautiful photographs there with color selections taken from the picture much like paint chips. Check it out if you have time. Below is the picture that Jakob chose to inspire our fabric colors. 
I ordered the solid fabrics from Connecting Threads. I have never tried their fabrics before. The prices are definitely reasonable, and so far the fabric is very nice to work with. I have had it washed for about a month now. So I finally pressed it and made the first 6 blocks. 
January blocks above February blocks below 
And finally March 
Oh, that Bear's Paw block always makes me smile! I feel good to be all caught up with this project. Jakob is happy with it, too.
I haven't touched the longarm this week, but not to worry - I have two client quilts I received this week to be quilted. I am just waiting for some new thread colors to come in the mail for them. Did you know tomorrow - March 15 - is Worldwide Quilting Day?!? Truly - I didn't make that up - I read it on the Internet! I promise to observe and celebrate that special day! How about you? Thanks for checking in to see what I have been working on. I am linking up today with Link A Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts. You can go there and see what other quilters are working on, too. Have a great weekend and a WONDERFUL Worldwide Quilting Day!! 
I am so happy to have these pillows finished! I have had the fabric since last fall and just never did it. We have painted and redecorated a bit in our living room and kitchen, so new fresh pillows are a nice way to brighten up the couch! If you are new to quilting, pillows are wonderful projects to make to teach yourself new skills or try patterns and decide if you love it enough to make a whole quilt. They are also great for a quick project and a feeling of accomplishment! I have made lots and lots of pillows in my lifetime. My family members have received many of them as gifts. They are just good sewing practice. I had 16" pillow forms to use, but most of the blocks that I wanted to try were 12", and that was smaller than what I wanted. I spend a lot of time thinking about patterns and what I would like to make, and I also have some rulers and templates that I like to use. I decided I would use some of my Creative Grids rulers that I love, and I also used a half hexagon template. The fabric selection is inspired by that big stripe that you see. It was a piece of fabric on clearance at Fabric.com. It is actually a Vera Bradley print. I have never seen her fabric sold anywhere, so that was a surprise! I purchased the other coordinating prints at The Quilt Company, and I love how they all came together. The two yellow/gold prints are a little too close, and if I did it over again I would probably select something with a little more contrast, but I am pleased with how they came together. 
 I'll begin with this star design. I used 2-1/2" strips sewn together and cut triangles using my Creative Grids 60-degree Double Strip Ruler. You can cut triangles and arrange them in many different ways. It is SO FUN!!! I could just cut out a bunch of different triangles and play around with them for hours. When you use striped fabric it is EXTRA FUN! I have used this ruler for several projects. It is maybe my favorite. I quilted this with my walking foot on my Janome machine and just followed the hexagon shape around and around. 
 For this pillow, I used my Creative Grids 90-Degree Double Strip Ruler. Santa gave this to me for Christmas, and this was the first project I made using it. Again, I sewed two 2-1/2" strips together and cut quarter-square triangles with the ruler. When you put four triangles together it makes an 8-1/2" square. There are many design possibilities with this, and I can't wait to use it some more! You can see with that green leaf fabric, stripes can all a lot of interest. I quilted this simply with straight lines using my walking foot. 
 Oh yeah - I used those Creative Grids Scrap Crazy templates again! One square made up with the template set is 8" finished, so four of them were perfect for a 16" pillow. To quilt it I used a decorative leaf stitch that my Janome will do using green thread on the seams. 
 I really just made this up as I went, but I really like this pillow. I think it might actually look better as a whole quilt. Hmmm... someday. The center piece is actually made from arranging half hexagon pieces just so. I learned this from a tutorial by the Missouri Star Quilt Co. This template is a 10" half hexagon by Natalie Dawn for Missouri Star Quilt Co. It works well with layer cake squares with very little waste. It reminds me of the friendship braid patterns that are everywhere now. On the sides I just fussy cut some of the striped Vera Bradley print and again quilted with straight stitches and a walking foot. 
I like making pillows with the envelope style back so that they can be easily taken off and washed. I was running short on the brown fabric so I pieced some more stripe strips on the backs, and it really makes the back special, too. 
I'm ready to take a rest on my couch with my new pillows and enjoy my lovely living room. I got a Downton Abbey DVD waiting for me tonight after the kids go to bed. Sounds like a perfect way to begin the weekend! Thanks for stopping by :-)
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