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Friday, January 31, 2014

Catventquiltalong

Back in the beginning of December Oh, Fransson posted that she would put up one cat pattern per day for December and she called it Catvent!  Cat Cuteness!  

I made a few


But then time became my enemy, and I had to put away the fun for the more pressing Christmas sewing.  I got back to them earlier this week, as I had already made 4, I at least wanted to get a mini size of cat faces.


I decided I could go with a pillow and not have to make all 25 cats, although I might make more one day.


It enjoyed picking out the color for each cat, my newly organized scrap buckets helped.


I made 3 buckets of colors - red/orange/pink, blue/green/purple, black/white/gray/brown and one for solids.  It was so easy to find the right scraps.  I bought these containers at Walmart and they stack up nicely.

I had an 18" pillow form so that is the size pillow I went with.


Each cate had a name, and these are the first 8, I have two of the first pattern, I must have liked it so much I made it twice.  So I actually have one small cat face left over.  He might be a coaster one day to match the pillow.

I used minky on the back, in case the recipient wanted extra softness.

Keep Calm and Quilt On!
Mary

Friday, January 24, 2014

Economy Blocking

Just to be able to sew for fun I joined in with all the quilters and instagrammers who are making Economy Blocks - something I have always know as Square-In-A-Square.  I'm not sure how the name was changed, but it was and no one calls it Square any longer.  


I used Tula Pink fabric for my centers, as I had a stack of charm squares from a swap.


The first round I chose all black and white fabrics, some with text.


The outer section of each block are mostly Tula Pink fabrics, I have thrown in a few others for the colors.  This one is my favorite so far.


I have 23 blocks finished, I am making the 8" blocks 
4 1/2" center
5 1/4" for the first round, cut on the diagonal twice for 4 triangles
4 7/8" x 2 for the outer section, cut on the diagonal for 4 triangles


Not sure how many more I will make, I'll just go until it feels like the right size.

Keep Calm, and Quilt On!
Mary


Thursday, January 9, 2014

Finish in '14


Let's see if I can get some of my finished tops quilted and out the door in 2014.  I'll keep a tally on a sidebar and and add as they get done.  These are finished tops and blocks that are ready to be made into tops that I'm challenging myself to complete.  I'm going to put the ones I want finished in a basket and keep it handy, to work on as I can.  To be honest, I'm a great starter, not such a great finisher.  

This is for a new family member, he's about 7 months old now.

This is not a traditional styled baby quilt with brights and child prints, but colors I am drawn to for their warmth; browns and beiges.  Nature colors in the fall and winter, I find them to be just as pretty as spring and summer colors.  


The added blue cools down the tans and browns.  I am in love with the postage stamp block that I used for this quilt.


I finished this top back in Sept 2013, but I made most of the blocks at the end of 2012 and some in 2013.  I just had to add a few in Sept and add the border.  Next time I'll go a bit bigger, this is about 52" x 52"


I quilted a grid style through the blocks, keeping it simple, and went around the border a few times with quilting lines to frame the quilt.  

This gets shipped off tomorrow for the little mischief maker.  

Finish in '14!
Keep Calm and Quilt On
Mary

Monday, January 6, 2014

Cheers all to 2014!

I'm not going to put any blogging resolutions on here - I know me - I will not keep them!  Baahhhaaa!  No really, I was feeling a bit of burn out at the end of the year, trying to think of things to say without just saying, 'here's my pictures'!  

I'm working on a plan to have more of my blog updates scheduled, which will help me with loading photos on the computer (such a pain).  But I will still do some spontaneous blog posts too.  Probably more of those than scheduled I think.  

Also, a blogging problem I am seeing more an more, Instagram.  It is so easy to post a photo and get instant feed back that it then seems redundant to post things on your blog.  And you just use your phone, versus having to load on to the computer.  However, those photos aren't the best, a lot of mine are night shots so the colors aren't true.  So I will save some things for the blog - and the special people reading - and not post everything on Instagram first.  If you haven't been on there yet, it is insanely fun and there are many swaps and quilt alongs happening there.  I see a movement away from Flickr - I am still posting there too, it is the best place for coordinating a swap and also some people don't have an Instagram account.  It isn't always easy to stay up to date with all the changes in the quilting / sewing community.

I'll show you this and I have some more saved items to post about later this week.  
I finished up most of the items for the Sports Nursery I showed you in November.







I am working on the quilt as the baby boy will be here any second.  Mama would like him to come home in his quilt.  

Happy Sewing All!  
Keep Calm and Quilt On!
Mary