Summer Break Projects - Part 3 - Dancing Pinwheels

Do you ever have reality staring you right in the face and almost miss it? I have known for several months that I needed to make a quilt for a friend who was going to have a baby boy this summer. I would think, "I need to order a bundle of blues from some fabric shop," and even go look for blue bundles, but I never actually ordered one. When my daughter began assembling squares for her scrappy quilt, she commented on how many scraps I have - particularly blues. I have two whole bins of blue scraps. Suddenly it hit me - I really DON'T need to order fabric. So I went through the bins and assembled some scraps, added some white from the bolt I keep in the stash, and started making pinwheels.

When I got them up on the design wall, I thought, "That's pretty boring. They need sashing." I decided to do sashing on two sides and rotate the blocks, creating a "Dancing Pinwheels" design. I decided I liked it better.

It didn't take long to quilt this 48" x 48" baby quilt. I quilted loops - which reminded me of the wind - and it went very fast. I bound it in the same blue stripe I've used so often lately (I'll be very sad when I run out!) Even better, the quilt was scrappy, and therefore "free," which makes me happy. And the finished quilt was gifted this past weekend.

A Little Light Reading - May Edition (and some quilting)

I knew it couldn't last...  After actually posting a whole week of consistent blog posts, I took yesterday off.  I was in the middle of a book (or rather book series), and just couldn't tear myself away long enough to blog.  I actually read the whole series of 3 books in less than 24 hours.  So, given that I spent most of yesterday reading, I thought I'd share my  reading finishes since my last light reading post. 

I actually did do a little sewing.  I started putting together this AMH Lazy Sunday quilt...

I made a baby quilt for a baby shower I attended on Saturday.  Baby Ciana's mommy and daddy have been waiting a long time for her, and we are all excited to meet her.  What better way to celebrate the pending birth of a sweet baby girl than a luscious pink flower quilt?  The fabric was part of a Daydream layer cake by Kate Spain.

This quilt was inspired by a quilt I saw at The Scarlet Thread in McDonough, Georgia while I was at Stash Bash.  Yup, even the fabric was the same.  I used my Hex-n-More ruler, and it was perfect for said layer cake.   The quilt went together super fast and I really enjoyed making it.  In fact, I had so much fun with it I made another one in green that just needs to be quilted.  Hopefully I'll get to that this week. 

February... is Gone ~ Just Gone!

February was just a w-i-l-d month here at the prsd4tim2 household.  It started out at the end of January with that crazy ice storm that invaded the South and produced icicles and even snow. 

Then I went to St. Maarten for a few days to visit daughter #2 in her new digs.  (Which was absolutely wonderful, and a glorious change after all the cold!)


And then I got sick... and nothing happened.

And then I spent  several days running up and down the Gulf Coast depositing and collecting family members from various airports to and from various trips...  and put more than 600 miles on my old van in 4 days - and didn't go anywhere.  But I did have daughter #2 and her brother here together for two days, which was super fun.  We had lunch at the buffet at the IP Resort on the way back from the airport in Gulfport, watched some movies together, and even went to the Pensacola Renaissance Faire and Pirate Festival as a family.  That's Arielle in the petting zoo with a Highland Cow.

But as for what went on in the sewing room, I'm a little befuddled.  I finished the bookshelf quilt.  That was on my list of 14 in 2014.

I made a baby quilt from leftovers.

I made a Newtown Auction pillow...

And matching mug rug.

And finished the Avignon Picnic quilt top...

It got basted, but not quilted yet.  That's some progress on a project that's been sitting almost 4 years, right?

I made Arielle a neutral table runner (at her request)...

And a turtle pinnie similar to the first one I made a month or so ago.

And I made some siggy blocks for a swap.

So, not a stellar month in the quilting arena, but still not entirely devoid of progress.  And it leaves plenty to do in March, right?

Pictures. Finally!

We finally had a non-stormy day when I felt halfway decent after spending a week in the house with a headcold, so I finally got around to taking "real" photos of my bookshelf quilt.  It is not too bad from the front.  It isn't really one of my finer efforts, although it turned out OK.  It should still keep someone warm, and that's important, right?

I'm not really sure if it is saggy, or if it is just the way it is hanging over the fence, but I do know that the durn thing shifted while I was quilting.  A lot.

You can see on the back that the white border on the bottom is anything but straight.  Oops.

The other end isn't so bad.  This was only the second of my basting spray attempts, so I don't know if I just didn't check it carefully enough before I started quilting, or if I didn't use enough spray.   Either way, I'm kind of bummed by the results.

This one is obviously a humility quilt.  But, it's done, and it is a 14 in 2014 finish, so I'll have to be content with that. 

While I was out there, I managed to nab a couple of photos of the Honey Honey baby quilt too.  Here's the tutorial for this one:

1.  Start with a 9-patch of leftover charm squares.
2.  Dig in your stash to find coordinating colors.  Add borders until it measures the correct dimensions for
3.  An outer border of charm squares.

4.  Back with a fun hearts-and-flowers (literally) print you find in your stash and didn't know you had.

5.  Bind with cool coordinating stripes you find in your stash and didn't know you had either.  Shopping the stash is kinda fun.

Voila!