Joan's Crumb Quilt

 One of my first projects on the blog was my Crumb Patch Quilt.  I wanted to incorporate a crumb block into a traditional quilt design.  I shared how I made the quilt for anyone out there who wanted to try it too and use up those little bits and pieces we all cannot throw away.

Joan of Keeping You in Stitches has done just that.  She used Thimbleberries fabrics and created something beautiful to look at!  I especially love that she used some orphan blocks in the crumby centers too.  There are star blocks and even a bear claw if I remember correctly.  Joan and I have become blogging buddies and I enjoy following her blog.  I think you may too.

So....go on over and check it out!  Perhaps it can inspire you too to take out your bitty scraps and make something fun and exciting!

P.S.  If anyone else out there has made one I would love to share it here!

Pets on Quilts Show

I thought I might enter a quilt in this show.  It is one you all have seen before.

This is Banner.  He is an awesome dog.  He is my Angus' uncle and is a Shetland Sheepdog.  He is a stud dog, cart puller, obedience dog, play actor, model, Canine Good Citizen, and so much more! 

I wanted to make him his very own quilt to take to shows or demos.  It has a silhouette of a Sheltie running in the lower corner.

Here he is on his little doggie quilt!  He is a sweet little thing...surely a BIG dog in a little dog's body!

I just had to edit my post to add my Angus in!

Here is Angus (center towards the front) with his mother (far left), sister Misty (second from left) and Mila (far right)



And since some of you may have seen the other doggie quilt I made.  Shine is Angus's other sister (not the same litter).  She has the same vibrant personality as my Angus.   She is only about a year old but she is already on her way to being a true show and obedience dog!  Her sister Misty is modeling it in the picture below!

Here is a full view of the doggie quilt.



Charlottes Baskets update

I am at the point where I am putting my string blocks on my basket blocks.  I have to go slow because of all the seams and the bias edge.  Lots of pins.  I love how they are coming out.  They will finish about 11" after I trim them.  Four down, 26 to go! 

I am going to put sashings in, but not sure what I want.  They will be smaller than in Bonnie's quilt.  I think perhaps only 1 to 1.5" finished.  I am thinking along the lines of greens, cheddar orange, or deep red for sashing/border fabrics.  Any thoughts?

Progress on Charlottes Baskets

I have been working a little at a time on Bonnie's Charlotte's Baskets.  I have 25 and was going to stop there, but have since decided to make 5 more for a 5 x 6 layout.  I have a few more HSTs to make and once I am finished with string blocks, I will get back to work on the basket blocks.


Here they are so far!  They are a lot of fun to make!  I really am liking my EZ angle ruler for making HSTs out of 2.5" strips.

My pile of string blocks is slowly growing.  Currently, I have a few under 40 blocks and I need 60.  I have made so many scrap projects this year that my stash of strings is really dwindling.  I really have to dig around at times for long strings that go in the center of the blocks.  My crumb pile, however, is growing steadily and waiting for some inspiration! 

I use a phone book for the foundation pages and I think I am up to letter "P."  That is a lot of string blocks over the last two years!  I am also learning and now am using a smaller stitch length so none of the stitches pull out when I remove the foundations.

Happy Quilting!

Crann bethadh (Photo finish)

I finally finished the quilting this weekend.  I only had to complete the inner border area and was being lazy about it.

Here is the frontal view.

A closeup of the outer border quilting.  I quilted the border from the back of the quilt so the direction of the swirly feathers were going the same as the braid.  This prevented me from having to put the bulk of the quilt under the throat of my Viking.

Here is the trunk detail.  Hopefully you can see it.  I did a barky, flamey sort of pattern here.  This was the best quilting I have done yet.  I am really pleased at how this came out.

The back of the quilt.  Not my favorite quilt back.  I think the batiks did not make for a good type of material for a scrappy back.  I think scrappy quilt backs work better with some fabrics being patterned.  I used all of my batiks though and they are out of my stash which makes me happy!

The swirly feathery border can be seen well from the back.

Time for a bath!!

I Spy a Crumb Patch is complete!

After several baths to help get the excess dye out of the reds, it is complete!  I was nervous for a while, but almost all of the bleeding red is now gone.  Only one block in the quilt decided it wanted to stay in the white.  I am going to treat the area and wash it again and hope to fade it out more.  Hopefully by early next week it will be in the wash and on its way to a newly born baby boy!

Here is the front.

 A closeup of the quilting.  The quilting was really simple.  I did a meander in the center and a little loopy thing around the outside.  I also used a walking foot in the inner border region.  Gray thread was used.  I find that grey is the best color for most scrappy projects.  It blends in with nearly every color!



A picture of the back. 

This was another stash buster.  I only purchased the blue fabric seen in the border and binding.  What was left of this purchase is already kitted up in another project.  I probably spent about 16.00 on fabric and another few bucks on Warm and White batting while it was on sale at Joanns.  Not bad!

In other news, I now have two (correctly) pieced Charlottes Basket blocks!  Having to fix the first one just tells me that I really don't want to make that mistake again!

Charlottes Baskets

I am oh so close to some finishes, so expect some nice eye candy soon!

Today I cut up some scraps and started a test block of Charlotte's Baskets (found here on Bonnie Hunter's website).  It is tedious but I like the final product.  Of course if you look closely you will see I sewed it together incorrectly!  RRRRRRipppppit!  I have enough fabric cut to make 25 blocks.  My blocks will finish at close to 12" because I couldn't bear to cut my HSTs so small.  I had quite a few left after making Bonnie's Pineapple Blossom quilt so my work was already half done!  As for the basket fabric, I purchased a bit SUPER cheap at Connecting Threads because the print wasn't straight.  When you cut pieces this small, it really doesn't matter!  I really love the deep red.

Stash and sewing space

Some of you in the blogosphere have shown your sewing space and stash.  I wanted to show you mine.  Seriously just a nickel tour.
Here is my stash.  This ALL of my fabric that isn't purposed for a project.  I have made many scrap projects this year and have not purchased much of anything that wasn't NEEDED for something (like border fabrics or a neutral). 

Here are my strip bins.  1.5", 2", 2.5"

Here is my crumb bin and two string bins separated by lights and darks.  Before I made my last two scrap projects, you couldn't fit ANYTHING else into the darks bin.  I have used up a lot of fabric this year and am so pleased.

My novelty fabrics.  Some of you may remember pictures from a while ago and know this has been greatly diminished.  Still, I do think they have reproduced.  The bag has novelty strings and the box has some FQs and bigger squares.  In my stash bin I have a Ziploc full of 6" squares for use in I spy or bug jar quilts.

My work space.  If you turn around you are in my dining room.  I have to quilt on my dining room table so I have space to drape the quilt.  In the closet, there are shoe boxes with kitted quilts.  The fabric in it has not really been cut up or anything.  I have a box with reds because I want to make a red and white scrappy irish chain with redwork.  I have strips for a scrappy 9 patch, a box with blue fabrics for my BIL's christmas present.  I also have one other bin with a ton of 2" HSTs for a basket quilt.  That is one of my next projects I think.

Look what I won!

I often do not like to try hard to win at a giveaway.  I might answer a simple question, but if I have to go through tons of hoops I just move on.  One blog that does have very interesting giveaways is Annies Ruby Slippers (I call it just Adventures in Oz).  While you put in some effort to join her Mystery Mondays, it is totally interesting, fun, and entertaining!  I just love the ideas she comes up with and look forward to them every week!  Recently, I won one!  Here is my loot!

I asked for blue because I am going to make a monochromatic quilt for my BIL (he is 13 lol) for Christmas.  He is into the Yankees so I want to make something with similar colors.

Also today I was cleaning my stash.  I have been messing it up recently with a lot of sewing so it was time to give it a quick fix.  I ran across these lovelies and really need to find something to use these in!

Soon, I will give you all a tour of my sewing corner.  Seriously that is pretty much it.  It isn't even a dime tour, more like a nickel tour!  Anyway, look forward to showing you where I create!

Don't you just hate when...

You do this?

Not the first time!  Looks like I have binding and thread hiding in my future!