A Previous Quilt

I made this quilt between April and August 2014 for my daughter.  I had a jelly roll that I bought with her in mind and we collaborated on what background colors she wanted.  She decided on the cream and turquoise background fabric for the top and the beige for the backing.  This is a granny square quilt.

The front

The back.

Fun Crochet - A New Project Start

Now that the pesky knitting project is finished, I have given myself permission to have some fun with colors and I started a beautiful crochet project.

I started a granny square blanket and I'm using lots of colors in it.  The squares are three rounds with a beautiful pop of color in the center surrounded by cream colored yarn.  I'm using a G hook.  And of course, I'm using all acrylic yarn.  The cream surround is KnitPicks Brava Worsted and the color centers are also acrylic, some are the KnitPicks Brava Worsted and others are from Red Heart. These squares work up really quickly.  They measure four inches square and it will take approximately 160 to make a decent size blanket.

Planning Another Quilt Top

     Uh-oh.  I went on the Connecting Threads website again and found some fabric that I just love.  I thought that these fabric would make a very pretty pinwheel quilt.  They were on sale for $3.56 a yard.  I couldn't resist.  I purchased a yard of each of these.

   I also bought 3 yards of the same fabric in white.  The white was not on sale but it still was a very good price at $5.96 a yard.  All of the fabric plus shipping was $37.11.  Not bad for a quilt top.

 

Miniature Granny Square Blocks

   I've been playing with 1.5" squares and making these cute miniature granny square blocks.  I used the instructions here:  miniature granny square block tutorial

Crochet, Crochet Thread, And A Doily Video Tutorial

   I think I love youtube.  I was browsing through youtube the other day and I found a tutorial on how to crochet a doily from start to finish.  I found this last week when I was making my braided ear warmers.

   I love crochet but I have never actually crocheted a doily because the instructions just seemed so complicated, but I think I can follow along with a video to get this done.

    Here is the link to the first part of the doily instruction video (there are three parts), the other two parts will show up on the right hand side of your screen for you to click when you are ready for them.

    I have a set of steel crochet hooks and I'll be using a size 1.65 mm hook to make the doily and I bought some crochet thread for this project.  I bought two 1,000 yard skeins of Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread Size 10 from Amazon.  Each skein was $6.40.

   Before I start the doily project I wanted to get used to using a small hook again so I started a granny square using the thread and a 2.25 mm hook.  I enjoy crocheting granny squares and this will make a nice doily when I get it to a decent size.

Hanging Dishtowels, The Finish

      Yeah, I know, you are probably completely bored with the hanging dishtowel project, but I had to show the last of the towels sewn up.  The shorter towels are the remains of the one towel I cut in half.
      One more sewing note, my template for the fabric top that was drawn from tracing around my iron is the perfect size to get the two fabric pieces cut from a 10" square (think layer cake).  

     These were so much fun to make and really cheap.  I wish I had some more dishtowels.

Found: Fun Video Quilt Block Tutorials

   I have been enjoying the video tutorials on 3and3quarters.net blog by Amanda.  I watched several yesterday.

   I love the foundation paper piecing tutorial on the friendship circle block, link here.  She does a great job explaining foundation paper piecing and showed me a few tips I had never seen before.

   Another video tutorial I watched was her instruction on the morning star block, which is one of the blocks in her HST sampler quilt.  The link to that blog post and video tutorial is here.

  Thanks, Amanda for the inspiration.

Starting My Pinwheel Quilt

I sewed all my half square triangles pieces together to make my pinwheel quilt.  The next step is making my pinwheel blocks.


     Chain piecing fun.

Ready for assembly.

Bright Color Chevron Quilt Progress

    Here is the beginning of my bright colored chevron quilt top.  I have all my half square triangles made.  I'm starting to put my rows together.  I'm making each row with 14 blocks and I'm going to make as many rows as I can.

     I'm really happy with the bright colors in this quilt.

The Start Of The Pretty Chevron Quilt

I started sewing my half square triangles today.  I love the bright colors with the white.  This will be fun to make.

Preparing To Make Two More Quilt Tops

     Today I took some time to cut fabric from two more quilt tops.  I don't have a chevron quilt or pinwheel quilt and I love to make quilts with half square triangles.

    I'm making my chevron quilt with 5" squares cut from these bright colored fat quarters I had in my stash.  These are from the Free Spirit Collection I bought from Craftsy earlier this year.  I love the bright colors and I think they will make an awesome chevron quilt.

   I bought two sets of 100 - 5" white charms from an etsy seller.   I usually cut up my own yardage for projects but I didn't feel like it this time and took the easy way out.

   The other quilt will be a pinwheel quilt.  I've made three pinwheel quilts and they were all made with lots of fabrics so they looked old fashioned.  I gave all three of those away to family members so it's time for me to have one of my own.  Here is a picture of my very first quilt made with half square triangles.

    My pinwheel quilt will be made with two charm packs of Union Blues by Barbara Brackman for Moda and one of the pack of 100 - 5" white charms I bought already cut.  I love the Civil War reproduction fabrics and these will be fun to work with.

   With my fabric cut all I have to do is start sewing.

Floral Square Quilt Is Finished.

  Here it is.  I did all straight line quilting on my Janome using the dual feed foot.   It was super simple.  I did have to adjust my tension to 7 on the dial to get the needle tension to work nicely.  If I leave the tenion dial on Auto I get loops on the underside of my stitching.  Weird.

     The front:

   The back:

   I'm currently working on my secret project which I won't be able to share until it is gifted.  I'll be back as soon as I can with projects I can share.

Floral Square QuiltTop Is Assembled

 

  After making all the little odds and ends that I finished in the last couple of weeks, I finally got this top together.  It's about 56" x 56", there are 100  5" floral squares framed by 1.5" green floral tone on tone fabric.  

 

I found that as random as I tried to be putting my squares together, I still had a problem putting the rows together.  I found these three pink blocks hanging out together.  I won't be taking any of this apart to separate them since this quilt is just for me.

   I've ordered the batting for this quilt and I'm going to start working on piecing my backing together in the next few days.  

The Christmas Quilt Is Finished.

   Here it is.  It's kind of ugly but it will give me a a pop of red and green color in the living room during the holidays and it's something that the most destructive kitties in Christendom cannot tear up.  You can see the black/red/green poinsettia flowers on the binding material.  It kind of blends in with the top, but it shows up nicely on the back.

      I'm making fun granny squares to cover a pillow for my pink and green bedroom.  I'm using a 16" pillow form, pink yarn leftover from my afghan project, and the pink rose fabric leftover from my pillowcase project.

   I'll be working on vinyl pouches after I finish covering my pillow.

   I still have to varnish my barn quilt.  I want to do that job outside and I'm waiting for drier weather.

Granny Square Quilt - A Finish from Last August

         I had a couple of jelly rolls that I bought for DD.  I thought she might like to make herself a quilt at some point.  She told me she doesn't have a lot of interest in making a quilt (she enjoys making smaller, quicker projects) so I told her I would make the quilt for her.  The jelly rolls were called "Wilderness" and I bought them at Connecting Threads right after I started quilting in 2012.  I knew we needed some additional  yardage to go with the jelly rolls so I asked her for her input and she suggested the cream and the turquoise solids.  To cut down on the inevitable duplication with the jelly roll fabrics, I also added some of my stash that I thought would look good.  I picked the pattern, the good old granny square.  You can see I quilted it with my walking foot in a grid pattern.  The back is a dyed muslin (she picked that fabric out as well) with blocks I made especially for the back pieced into it.  I used the dyed muslin for the binding as well.  Of course, she loves it.  So glad I made this for her and she was able to help with the planning.

Past Projects - Quilt and Crocheted Afghan

I made this simple quilt for my brother in January this year.  I actually emailed him last year and asked him about colors and patterns so that he and his wife could have a say in the end result but they never made a decision.  So I made him this one.  This quilt is similar to the very first quilt that I made in 2012.  The quilt I made in 2012 was given away at a family reunion.  My brother really liked that quilt, so that's what I decided he would get.  He loves his quilt.  The back is solid dark blue with a few of the pinwheels in the center of the back to give it interest.  I did the binding in the same dark blue and the quilting is all stitch in the ditch.

You can see my quilt inspectors, Taffy on the table and Merlin on the floor doing their quality control inspection.

Since my brother does not let his wife use the quilt, I crocheted her an afghan and sent that up to her in August.  It's a one color afghan made up of 80 - 8" granny squares.  I made it with Red Heart Super Saver Solid Yarn (acrylic).  It's big and very warm.  She loves her afghan.  This is a picture of it spread out over my sofa.  

  I'm currently working on making a new harness for my dog, Wolfgang.  It's cut out but I have not done any stitching on it.  Once I finish the harness, I will be working on a pillow cover using some Laurel Burch fabrics I have been collecting for it..  I bought an 18" pillow form at Walmart last weekend for that project.  I have fabric for a quilt, I have fabric for a patriotic door decoration, I have supplies to make potholders to match my new kitchen curtains, and I also have some fabric to cover the new table top ironing board that I bought a couple of months ago.  That's a short list of things I want to do.  I also have one embroidery and two cross stitch projects ready to be started.