Overdue Finish

I finally finished a long overdue NICU quilt. This was made from gorgeous flannel fabric I won from Sharon at Vrooman's Quilts. The fabric is "Wild Ones" from Connecting Threads.

I love the color palette and it's so soft. I have enough left to make another baby quilt and it's in the works already.

Because the colors are so vibrant, I wanted to do a simple pattern. I feel that the fabric is better showcased this way.

Thank you Sharon!!

Hot Springs Area Quilt Guild

My quilting buddy Janice, our new friend Cheryl and I all took a little drive to Hot Springs last Friday to attend a quilt show. My very first one!! I enjoyed it so much. One, well because I'm quilt obsessed...but two because it afforded me the pleasure of spending time with two like minded friends. I'm amazed that we never ran out of things to talk about. *grin*

Anyway, this is where we went. And this will be a photo heavy post, so be warned.... *wink* I'll make them smaller and you can click on them to view the full size photo if you like.

We Ooohed and Aaaahhhed constantly as we looked at all the beautiful quilts. And we spent quite a bit of time searching out perfect fabrics for Cheryl's next project. I bought one little fat quarter but could have spent a fortune. All that fabric, all those tools....well, you get the idea.
Here are a few of the lovely quilts we viewed.

 One of the first ones we saw and of course it caught my eye due to having a grandson on the brain most of the time. LOL.

  Loved the variegated thread in the quilting on this one!

 This star quilt inspired Janice and me to do something like it for one of our 2014 BOMs.

 

  Lovely colors and work.

 A lady standing beside us while we were viewing this quilt disliked it immensely. All she could see when she looked at it were swastikas.  Very disturbing.

 I love the idea of this quilt, even though I'm not big on black and white quilts. Love the design of it.

 Another star quilt. I feel drawn to them for some reason.

 The back of the star quilt above. Some of the quilting on these things were unbelievable.

 Lovely Christmas quilt.

 Kaleidoscope. I want to do one of these someday.

 More stars but an easier pattern I think. Love the orange around the edges that make a border unnecessary.

 Just look at the intricate quilting in these two photos.

 Amazing!

 Gorgeous primary colors make this sampler pop. The quilting was all geometric shapes. Really fun.

 Wonderful Arkansas Razorback quilt. 

And last but not least of my photos..... This quilt isn't anything out of the ordinary at first glance. You automatically know it took a lot of work, but it was made from scraps with no real pattern except for the blocks themselves. 

 When we looked closer, and then read the description, we learned that the entire thing, from start to finish, was hand done. It took FIVE YEARS. We thought she deserved first place. None of the quilts we liked best won anything though. And we didn't get to see all of them. We got hungry and left to eat. We intended going back, but our feet hurt and Cheryl needed to get ready for work, so we left Hot Springs. 

An added bonus was that we saw some ladies we knew from Rison, and my sister's mother-in-law as well. I wonder how many others that we knew were there and we just missed them. It was a wonderful day.

Bea Blocks for July

I'm doing Beaquilter's sampler quilt along and here are my second two blocks.

The Flying Geese were no trouble at all, but this was only the second star block I'd done and I admit to having a tiny bit of trouble with it. Not the actual putting it together, but I kind of got a little confused on the cutting. I must have misread the instructions or something. In any case, they are done and I'm almost caught up with everything.

I finished this little flouncy dress for Little Miss Klaire last night too. Can't wait to see if it comes anywhere close to fitting her. I made it a little larger than I thought she needed so she'd have something to grow into.

I've never done the little snaps in the crotch so that was a learning experience. I love the fabric. It's Fly a Kite by Riley Blake and I got it from Tonya at Ozark Fabrics and More Fun Stuff on Facebook. She also has a website. Fantastic prices!!

What did you do this weekend?

It Is Finished....Finally!

After about 10 months of on and off again work, this summer quilt is finally on the bed.

I would have been finished long ago, but I did a ton of decorative stitching.

It has no batting, I just used lightweight flannel for the backing. I didn't bind the edges, I just folded them over and hemmed them. Saved time and it was much easier.

A big shout out to Sharon who coached me on this a couple of times!! I'm very happy to be finished with this one. The man cave is good to go now....well, except for a new set of curtains... Ha.

A Few Little Things

I finally finished my summer quilt. Yay Me!!! No pictures yet, but they are a comin'.

These are a few other things I've been doing.

A dress, inspired by the Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. I can't wait to see if it fits Klaire.

One of my two BOMs for July. A paper pieced star.

A pretty little paper pieced Goldfinch. It wasn't hard, but for some reason I kept having "issues" with it. I'm please at how it turned out though.

Tomorrow, I work on another little dress for Klaire. Stay tuned.

A Block Here, A Block There

As I quilt along on my Winding Leaves summer quilt, I take a break now and then to do a block for fun. Here are a couple I did this week.

 This one I named Wisteria Morning. It's basically a Drunkard's Path paper pieced with a little something extra. I didn't like the solid circle in the middle, so I added extra lines to the piecing and wound up with more interest.

This one is Jack's Diamonds that I found on Quilter's Cache. That place is amazing with so many free blocks! I fussy cut all but the pinwheel in the middle. That was challenging but effective.

There are so many blocks I want to try. And I will eventually. I have my friend Jan to thank for my ever increasing love of paper piecing.

The Middle of June Already?!

I looked at the date of my last post and it was way back in May. Hmmmm, I'm slacking...well, not really, but it seems that way. I've been working on little things here and there. I was getting ready to go on vacation and had little alterations to make on some of my clothes, and I didn't have time to really do much sewing for fun.

I did get my second June BOM done before we left.

I didn't notice the left lower corner of the jar was off until I looked at the photo. Dang it! So I tried again, but I didn't have enough of that lovely blue for the background. I altered the dimensions a little and added the large darker blue border.

I don't like it as well, so I'll use the first one in my quilt. I think. Not sure yet. ;)

I also joined another quilt along by Beaquilter. I like most of the blocks, but one or two I'm going to alter or do my own thing for. Bea is very good at tutorials though, so her quilt alongs are always fun. Here are my first two blocks.

I've decided to do each block in a different color for a rainbow quilt. It will make it easier to use up some of my stash and not have to buy more fabric.
I am planning to do the Deck-Ade the Halls quilt along too, but I still have to find a background fabric that moves me. (And one I can afford)

I have my summer quilt pin basted and ready to start quilting. I'm anxious to get it done. So many projects so little time!