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!

Don't you just hate when...

You do this?

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

I Spy A Crumb Patch Top Complete

I have been on a roll!  Yesterday, I finished the swirly feather border on the Tree of Life Quilt.  I ran out of thread twice.  After going through a 600m spool of Superior Threads, I went to my LQS to get more.  They were out of the color I needed (figures).  The owner looked through her personal stash of thread and had a portion of a spool of the right color and gave that to me.  I was thinking I was good to go, but I ran out again!  The border is really thready.  I decided not to try and get another replacement so I found a color close enough in my own stash and finished it.  Afterwards, I put on the binding.  I have one inner border to finish and as soon as that is complete (inspiration has not hit yet) I will post tons of pics!!!

As if binding and quilting weren't enough, I also ironed and folded my prairie points.  The motivation was still there, and at 9pm last night I began to assemble the I Spy a Crumb Patch borders.  It turned out great!

Now on to assembling a quilt back.  I found some alphabet fabric in my I-Spy stash so I am going to try and mix that with some colorful solids and see how it goes from there!

I-Spy a Crumb Patch top complete

Last night I was able to finish the I Spy a Crumb Patch quilt top.  I am really happy with it and know exactly what fabric to purchase for the border (a bright but deep colored blue).  A while back I saved a link in my RSS feed for prairie points and I think that would totally look cool in this scrappy quilt.  Pieces of Rana's Life is a great blog and this tutorial makes it look easy!  I was going to put on a 1" finished border in blue, then the prairie points (scrappy of course), then a 3" finished border using the same blue.

Here is the quilt top

In other news, I was going to start the Tree of Life quilting, only to realize I skipped an important step:  I forgot to purchase coordinating thread!  I am going to take care of that today or tomorrow.  Gold for most of the body and brown for the tree. 

Happy Quilting!

HSTs-a-plenty

Today, in bits and pieces of time, I was able to iron and trim down the HSTs for I-Spy a Crumb Patch.  Here they are all nice and pretty!

As I was starting, I remembered I had a gallon sized bag full of untrimmed HSTs leftover from my Pineapple Blossom Quilt.  I had used Bonnie's method of sewing that extra line on my corner squares and then having a bonus HST left when I trimmed.  I decided to take them out too to press and trim.  I really liked her Charlotte's Baskets quilt (minus the sashings I think) so why not at least get things started!  I ended up with almost 90 HSTs and a bunch more to finish up!  Not bad for a day's work!  My HST's finished up at 2.5" so my blocks will end up a bit bigger than shown on her website, but I think it will turn out just lovely!



Tonight I will be basting my Tree of Life quilt.  It has been a pretty satisfying day!

I Spy a Crumb Patch

I am finally able to quilt a bit again after a lovely vacation and a hectic week!  Lately, I have been busy making...

Pickles!  Lots of pickles!  Pictured are a jar of hot garlic pickles and my grandmother's sweet bread and butter pickles.  Cucumbers are plentiful this year so I have made a few batches already!  Yum!

Also, a while back a friend of mine mentioned how much she loved the Crumb Patch Quilt.  She is pregnant and due in early August, so I want to make her something.  I really, really detest repeating patterns normally, but this is for a special person.  I had a lot of I-Spy novelty fabric sitting in a box after I completed my son's I-Spy (and a gallon sized bag...I swear the stuff reproduces!), so I decided to make a smaller I Spy version of Crumb Patch!  I will probably replace the outer flying geese with either 4-patches or just a ring of fussy cut I-spy blocks so it will be a wee bit different.

Here are the 9 patches.  I guess it is time to start the HSTs!

In other news, the batting has arrived for the Tree of Life Quilt, so I will begin the embroidery (yes, I have been putting it off) tonight as I watch TV!  I am so excited to get this one completed.  I will be giving it away in mid August and can't wait!