Out of the closet and finished!  I don't know how long this lingered in the UFO pile but it is out and finished.  YAY!  My son's dog is visiting today and could not figure why I would spread the quilt in the driveway.

While this was in the washer I pulled the next UFO out of the closet.  I have been reading Angela Walter's books and am using these projects as quilting samplers.

I am linking this up to Amanda Jean's 'finish it up Friday'

climbing out

I've been in a bit of a funk for awhile now.  Haven't been keeping up with the blogs I love to read and certainly have not been blogging.  I'm figuring the only way to get out of the funk is to climb out, so I am starting to get back into a routine.

This is  a quilt I made for my nephew.  I saw a pic of a similar one somewhere and figured I would do some applique.  Generally I don't like applique but this was just circles and it was fun to do something different (not that I am lazy and didn't want to piece them!)  The orange circle doesn't show well in the photo.  It really does have dimension and has some fun quilting in it.  A plus was he loves it and now my other nephews want their own quilts.  One of them even wants to be hands on for his.  That will be really fun.

I have been sewing and started and finished several projects that of course I didn't take pictures of. I got seven quilts in the mail to the Sandy disaster relief, that felt good.  A couple of them were new finishes and several were UFO's that I hauled out and finished.

Now I am working on cleaning some of the UFO's out of my closet.  Then I can start on my stash.

Using up some scraps

I was using up some batiks that have been in a drawer for years and cut off so many of these triangles I thought I needed to sew them together.

 This went together fast then I quilted them with pebbles.  I like the look of pebbles but phew!  they take alot of time and lots of thread.  I am really glad I tried them on a small piece before I went straight into a queen or king.

Hopefully soon I will get the original top quilted, but I sure know it won't be with pebbles (maybe boulders)

Ugh, tomorrow starts 5 days in a row of work.  I haven't had to do 5 straight for a long time.

Lazy??? What the heck!

A few weeks ago I finally got my copy of 'quilting modern' by Jackie and Katie.  I gotta say I love this book.  I really want my boss to get it for the store, so I made a quick sample from the book. 

I straight line quilted it. ( In retrospect I would have done something a bit more creative but I really did want to get it into the store.)  So I was showing it to my boss and she was NOT impressed and called it lazy.  LAZY????  I think she was talking about the straight line quilting.

Is there really anything lazy in quilting?  Just an hour before she and I were looking at some panel fabric that had just come in and she was saying you don't even have to cut them apart and sash just put a border on and pft, pft, pft it is done.  And what about using the computer on a long arm to do your quilting for you? Or a stitch regulator!

I think all these things make getting the job done a bit easier.  There is a time and place for each one of these shortcuts(?).  What is lazy to some people may be the only way another person can finish a project.  It all depends on skill and comfort level and personal preference.  In defense of my boss tho, she is an amazing quilter and I do learn alot from her,  maybe even 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all'.

and yet another baby quilt

 What is it that when I hear about someone I know having a baby that I sit right down and make a quilt.  It is especially bad when it is my first grandbaby,  man, that kid is going to be covered in quilts.

 I love the colors in this quilt.  The quilting is just crazy windey (that sure doesn't look like the right spelling but I can't figure out how it should be spelled!) roads.  When I was doing the borders I was imagining telling him that is how he will be driving in a couple years.  Crazy!

The backing is super soft flannel.  Yum

 This is a quick little improv piece I made this weekend.  It measures about 2 ft square. I hand stitched a couple yellow lines to continue the diagonal piece in the middle over the machine quilting lines I did.  This is the smallest quilt I have ever made.  Usually I make queen or king size.  It was fun to be able to start and finish in a weekend.

I work at a LQS and they have no samples with solids so I thought I would bring one in.  I bound it like an art piece.  That was the first time I tried this kind of binding.  I like it  for hanging, I think it makes the edges look cleaner.

Oh baby.....quilts

I whipped this up a couple days ago just trying to use up stash that I don't particularly like anymore.  I figured our new grandbaby could use it as a play quilt.  We don't know boy or girl so I slipped in a square of pink as a thumbs up for a girl.  We will see if it worked or not.

Got rid of a couple yards!  Yahoo
I'm figuring for every quilt I make for our grandbaby I will make one for someone else's baby.  That should help diminish the stash.

The lost quilt made it home

I was beginning to think think this quilt had a new home and was trying to be happy for the new owner, but I wasn't doing well with that thought.  In fact I contemplated offering a reward of a new quilt made in the color choice of the person who returned my quilt.  But I didn't  think that was a good idea either.

This is my favorite quilt right now and it goes everywhere with me.  It has become a utility quilt cause I leave it in the car almost all the time so I get to see it.  A couple weeks ago we stopped at a hotel in Salt Lake and I brought it into the room because there were white bedspreads and we had our big dog with us and it was pouring rain, not a good combo.  Well, I guess because I am so used to seeing it all the time, of course I left the quilt in the room when we checked out and I didn't think of it till we were about 6 hours north of SLC.  Long story short, after many many phone calls to the hotel I finally got Erik on the phone and he got the quilt in the mail.  So today it arrived and I am so happy. The dogs are happy as well.
Hope your day is as sunny as mine.

GULP! or reality hits the eternal optimist

I

 I was on a roll. The quilting was going well, I was loving the spray baste so I didn't have to stop and remove a pin or manuver around it.  I am either a optimist or lazy and finished the quilting and went right ahead and bound it and put it on the bed.

I was admiring the back that I absolutely love and then I noticed it!  I am sure there were some choice words floating around the room cause my husband came in to see what was going on.  I guess he listens to me more than I thought cause he says "can't you just press it out?"  Gotta love them, right?

I  Well thank goodness the fold was near the corner (I seriously did think about leaving it) cause I ripped off the binding and the whole corner of quilting.  It was totally worth it.

I love this quilt.  This is a poor picture but the colors are pretty true.
Now I have to get some pillowcases finished.
This is the sparkle punch quilt by Elizabeth at Oh Fransson.  Her stuff is great.

Happy Cinqo de Mayo

Basting in the driveway

In the move I misplaced my cord to upload photos from my camera!  Then I forgot about blogging altogether with all the fun stuff to do here.  I have been doing a bit of sewing and wanted to get this quilt finished.

 So into the driveway cause I don't have anywhere else to spread out.

 This is my first try basting a king with 505.  Wow was it fast.  I learned some important things that I will use next time I spray baste

Now off to quilt this big bugger with my little machine. :)

2012 finishes....hopefully

Judy over at Patchwork Times is hosting a UFO finish challenge.  Since I have so many ufos I thought I would join.

Here is a list of some I would like to finish and some I really don't want to finish but I don't think anyone else is going to do it for me so I am reserving the right to start more quilts and use them to replace some of the below that I can't stomach finishing.  Especially the 'roundabout'

1. Zigzag

just needs quilting and binding









2. Tropical Sundance

needs almost everything





3. Scrappy hearts (I think this has been in a bin for 10 years)
4. Cowboy (in a container I have no idea where I left off)
5. lovin' these colors

Can't wait to start this again.







6.  Hudson's quilt



Well I have the fabric picked out!  Hope he gets it before he goes to kindergarden








7. Mod blocks

top finished, needs basting quilting and binding





8.  Uff da

I started quilting it but hate the quilting, not sure where I am going with this





9.  Seeing blue

top finished needs quilting







10. roundabout (in a box got stopped at the applique)
11.  blue strips

This now has a gaping hole in the top.  I didn't like the strippy look so modified it and  yikes!







12. Scrappy mishap- I had a great idea and miscut the whole thing,  it may end up at the landfill.

This is really just a housecleaning idea.  I really can't wait to start something new and if I hadn't spent an hour doing this post I probably could have.

Off to the sewing room.