Quilting, Quilting, Quilting

I finished quilting the Granny Squares quilt for my friends wedding gift. I was so indecisive about the quilting on this one. At first I was going to quilt fans and include some hand quilting but couldn't find the right template for the fans and I was nervous about marking on the top.

Then I decided to do some free motion loopy quilting. I didn't like that at all.

Then I started hand quilting around the squares. I really liked the way it looked but I was having some puckering / poofing issues. After asking the opinion of my family they agreed that I should stick with the old favorite. So I picked all of the hand quilting and machine quilting out and settled on stippling. I guess that's a little boring but I know that it usually turns out great and it did! I do plan on hand quilting the other Granny Squares quilt I am making though. Now I just have to bind, wash and dry this one!!!

I also made 2 blocks for April for the Believe circle of do. good stitches. They were to be made with cool colors, blues, greens, purples and some kind of grey solid for the center and background. The tutorial can be found here. They were pretty fun to make. I'm looking forward to seeing the quilt that will be made with them.

That's all the sewing I have for this week. Hope y'all are having a great week and getting some sewing time!

I'm linking up with :
Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday
JAQS studio for Made By Me

Flea Market Fancy Granny Squares Cinco De Mayo Wedding Quilt

How's that for a title?

I finished the top for my friends wedding quilt. I used Katy's strip pieced tutorial but with fat quarters so I could make a variety of sets with fewer blocks because this is a smallish quilt. I was excited to lay these blocks out but when I started I just couldn't get a layout I liked. I finally decided on this diagonal layout of green, yellow, blue, green, yellow, blue etc... kind of... the blue block in the bottom corner should probably be yellow but I like the blue.. and looking at it now I think I could have definitely used more red but I'm happy with it. I have some Granny Squares left over that I will use on the back. Then I have to decide on quilting and binding. Any suggestions???

Hand Pieced Quilt-A-Long ~ Sashing and Border

Today I'll go over putting together the hand pieced quilt top. I am using 2 inch white strips for a finished 1.5 inch sashing and border. You can decide what size and color you would like. Also if you want cornerstones you would have to adjust this to your blocks measurements.I made this really simple and cut 2 inches by the width of fabric (WOF). You can also piece your rows together first then measure the length of your rows and cut the 2 inch strip by that number. One 2 in. X WOF strip "should" be enough for 2 rows but fabric widths vary so please measure first.

You will need:
8 ~ 2 in. x 6.5 in. sashing strips
5 ~ 2in.  x  length of pieced rows (3 for sashing, 2 for top and bottom border)
2 ~ 2 in. x WOF border strips (side borders)
Mark a 1/4 inch sewing line on all sides of all of the strips.

Piece together your rows putting a 6.5 inch sashing strip between your blocks.

Sew the 5 ~ 2 in. x length of rows strips to the top, in between and bottom of your rows. Trim off excess fabric from strips.

Take the 2 remaining 2 inch x WOF strips and sew them to each side of your quilt top. Trim off excess fabric from strips. Press your top gently.

That's it for this week. I think we will take next Friday off because hand piecing the sashing and border will take some time.  So the Friday after next we will layer, baste and talk quilting!!!

Here are the links for all of the hand pieced blocks:

Block #1 ~ Churn Dash
Block #2 ~ Jacob's Ladder
Block #3 ~ Ohio Star
Block #4 ~ Bear Paw
Block #5 ~ Granny Square
Block #6 ~ Shoo-Fly
Block #7 ~ Card Trick
Block #8 ~ Friendship Star 
Block #9 ~ Square in a Square
Block #10 ~ Log Cabin
Block #11 ~ Flying Geese Pinwheel
Block #12 ~ Honey Bee

The flickr group is here. Come on over and see all the other pretty hand pieced blocks.

Have a great weekend!!!

☆☆☆ Fabricworm Flea Market Fancy FQ Bundle WInner ☆☆☆

The winner of the Flea Market Fancy FQ Bundle from fabricworm is comment #418 ~ Paskiaq!

Thank you all who entered! Have a great weekend!!!!

I've been strip piecing Granny Squares for one of my best friend's wedding gift. I used Katy's tutorial here. Except I used fat quarters to get half the amount of blocks for one set. I'm making a smaller size quilt and I wanted to have a few more different fabric combinations. They whip up so fast. I have one more set to make and then I hope to put it together and quilt it. That's the invitation. It's a Cinco de Mayo wedding / birthday party. It is going to be so fun and I am really looking forward to it! I was going for blocks that have the colors in the invitation. Did I do okay?

I started this really early yesterday morning. Inspired by this picture on pinterest and watching Little House on the Prairie. I've had some of these prints for a while and I wanted to use them for something. It's a bit darker and grungy than I usually go for. I really like it :)

I'm also working on a lampshade for this Vintage Irmi Humpty Dumpty lamp. I found it last year at my local thrift shop for $5 bucks! I had been looking for one for so long but was not willing to pay the price for some of them I had seen on-line. It works and it is so cute. It just needs a cute lampshade to go with it.

My only finish for the week were these little quilts that I blogged about here. The purple one is for my friend's daughter. The quilting on the purple one looks so much better than the quilting on the scrappy one in my opinion. ♥ I am in love with hand quilting ♥

That's what I've been up to!

Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday  and JAQS Studio Made by Me.

Fat Quarter Shop Giveaway Winners ~ California Girl Jelly Roll

The winners of the Fat quarter Shop California Girl Jelly Rolls are :

Molly and...

Brenda!

Thanks to all of you who entered!

2 Little Quilts (from Amy's Sleepy Time Animal Pals pattern)

It's been a rainy, chilly weekend here. A nice weekend for snuggling and sewing.

One of my best friends is getting married on May 5. That is also her daughter's birthday. So I am making both of them quilts. I finished the one for my friend's daughter, a little doll quilt to go with the doll I am going to make her. I used Amy's (nanaCompany) Sleepy Time Animal Pals pattern. It is completely adorable. I found a couple leftover nine patch squares and the remaining strip sets from the baby quilt I made for my friends baby shower last year. It's funny that this time last year I was playing with the same fabric for the same people. I hand quilted this one. I love the way hand quilting looks.
 

I made a little name tag for the back.

And of course I had to make one for my littlest. I went with scrappy. I already had all of the squares cut so all I had to do was sew. I machine quilted this one. I should have waited to hand quilt it but my fingers were sore and I really wanted to see it finished. Not to mention that someone was waiting ever so patiently for it.

I think the bear looks a little upset about nap time in this one. What do you think?

I loved this little embroidery and I'm thinking of using one of the cute animals from it on a fabric basket made from Ayumi's pattern. I love to put doll quilts in them when I give them as gifts.

I also wanted to say thank you all for your well wishes for my ruptured ear drum. It's such a strange feeling, kind of like your under water or there are a bunch of cotton balls stuck in your ear. The pain is mostly gone but I can not hear from it yet and the ringing is annoying to say the least. I truly thank you all very much for your concern and reassurance.

I hope you have a restful Sunday.