Calico Critters

Surprisingly, I was able to finish another quilt today. I say that because I have been in the midst of getting ready for a yard sale and didn't think I'd have time to sew this week.

I took what I think is rather ugly not so pretty fabric, and used it with some embroidered panels that I colored.

I once again tried my hand at fmq and had to fiddle with the tension, set my rhythm, and just experiment. I did something different around each animal.

Eggs around the chick, bones around the puppy, fish around the kitty and swirlies around the piglet. That was fun but challenging.

The puppy and kitty were printed panels and the chick and piggy were from a coloring book that I used to try and match them. It was a fun process and one I'll probably do again. I hope this simple quilt is pleasing to a young couple who are going through a trying time with their infant in the NICU.

I have been in prayer for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. My heart goes out to them and I am thankful I'm in my safe, warm, dry home right now.

Animal Fun

I finally finished a quilting project. It seems like I haven't finished one in so very long. This one is another with embroidered panels that my friend J gave me. She also gave me 95% of the fabrics used in this particular quilt.

I didn't realized I had misplaced two of the panels, and thought I only had the six left. Otherwise I would have made it with only four of the panels. The dimensions are not what I wanted, but it would make a nice crib quilt.

I kicked around the notion of trying some fmq around the animals, but talked myself out of it. Maybe on the next one.

My favorite of all the panels is this little elephant. I'm happiest with the way the crayon work turned out on him. I made two more panels to go with the two I misplaced. I used coloring book pages as templates and will put the four of them together for my next project.

First, I'm going to bind my postage stamp quilt, but that will have to be tomorrow. I'm also working on a pillow sham to match it.

I have all the strips sewn together and the quilting done on it, but don't have a photo of that yet. When it's all done and on the bed, I'll give you a look see. Enjoy your weekend everyone!!

How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm...

After they've seen Paris?.....ahem...anyone remember that song? It was before my time, but it popped into my head.

I finished a quilt using embroidered panels that I colored in with crayons. I have to admit, I really like this one. I've dubbed it Barnyard Shuffle.

My new quilting buddy Janice gave me the panels. I colored them in, heat set the ink and coated it with textile medium, and did a quick embroidery back stitch around and through them.

It was kinda fun coloring. I always loved it when I was growing up. Still do on occasion with the little one. Everything I used except for the panels were from my stash. I'm on my way to using some of it up.

I have eight more panels to make into two more quilts and I'm going to continue using more of the red and black in the second one. Not sure what else I'll add to it, as I want it to be different and I am out of the black polka dot.  On the third one, I'll be using some of the fabric Janice gave me with the panels.

This was fun and a quick work up. Thanks Janice for such cute panels and inspiration!

A Little Stitching Here and There

I've had to put quilting on hold due to needing a few supplies and time. But I have been able to stitch a bit every day. This is what I'm working on at present.

These are pre-printed panels that my friend Janice gave me. They were just white with the lines printed, and I used the crayon coloring idea to give them some pizazz.

Some of them were already stitched and I just had to fill them in with crayon. It was a little tricky and I'm still not happy with the kitty cat, I may decide to do a little more tweaking on her.

These are two I've stitched and they are ready to use. I didn't think I would like them while I was coloring them in, but I LOVE them now.

It's been soooo long since I embroidered anything, I was afraid my stitches would look bad, but I think they are fairly decent.  I currently have a calf in my hoop and can't wait to see how it turns out.

National Sewing Month

I'm told September is National Sewing Month. This is wonderful news, as it gives me a good excuse reason to sew every day. I have several projects in mind and in the works as you can see here.

Here on the bed (my design wall...LOL) I have six projects waiting to be finished. I am going to list them, and hopefully keep the list updated as I go along day by day.

1. Christmas wall hanging
2. Postage Stamp Quilt
3. Burp cloths for a baby shower
4. Enlarging my convergence quilt
5. Quilting a NICU quilt
6. Embroidering panels I colored with crayons for a baby quilt
(7. Possibly putting the panels together for the quilt if September doesn't run out of days)

I'm trying to piece the postage stamp quilt completely by hand. I'm in the home stretch now but think I will quilt it on the machine in strips as I go, instead of trying to maneuver the whole thing on the machine at one time. I'm not sure how exactly to quilt it, but I'll figure it out. If anyone has a good suggestion on that, I would be interested to hear them.

I normally make burp cloths from start to finish with fabric and batting, but decided to take the easy route this time since I'm in a time crunch. The baby shower is this coming Sunday.

I still need to get backing for the NICU quilt, and figure out exactly how I want to enlarge the convergence quilt. I wasn't able to find more of each fabric and will have to rethink what I had planned.

Sew, as you can see, I have my work cut out for me and sew I should get off this blog and back to work.

Happy Sewing!!
B