Sew Sunshine

So....that is not going to get changed! Can't believe I didn't see that I had two similar houses together.   Well this has been fun putting these together but now the pieces all over the place are driving me crazy so I must get this put together....as is!! :) This is from the Hillside Houses QAL @ Pretty Little Quilts. I just grabbed a bunch of Kona and went for it without using the coloring sheet. Yep, there ya go!   Linking up with Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

  One of my local quilt guilds had a group of lovely ladies come and talk about various charity and out reach programs last month. At the end of the talk I sent out a challenge to design a small quilt for one of them.  I handed out graph paper with the optional sizes on it and told them to keep it modern and simple.  We hope to have them turned in by next meeting and with a little luck and some volunteers, I hope to turn at least one of the designs into a kit-able quilt kit for others to sew up.  I thought I better give it a go so here is one of my simple modern designs. This went together really quick and didn't waste much fabric. I was able to grab fabrics I had on hand to go with the cute butterfly center fabric.   Since the design was so simple I took the time to free motion mums all over in Aurifil gray.  I am getting better at free motion but still not great. I could make several more of these before I will say good. :) I thought a ...

Crossroads  52"x 52" It has been far too many months since the birth of my 'great' nephew.  I persevered,  put my nose to the grind stone, bit the bullet and got this little guy quilted.   This quilt is a kit with a bazillion kona solids in it by Robert Kaufman.  Super easy but how to quilt it was a baffler! I ended up with straight line directional quilting lines in Aurifil gray.  The white word fabric has the names of the colors in a 96 pack of Crayola colors. I thought it was super fun to put on the back of all these colors...until I wanted to quilt it. :)  The gray thread worked pretty well. Today I was so lucky to wrangle my friend Jen from Jennifer under the Juniper tree blog. We headed out for some adventures today including holding my quilt out near some cool train tracks.   After we spotted some quilty inspirations in the area. Totally fun quilt idea...right?  Then we headed to some fabric stores a...

      I actually finished something lately!  I absolutely love this little wall hanging. That is not why I am calling it " and There is Love" though.  This wallhanging is for a special niece and her new husband as of 6/20/15.  The design is by Liz Harvatine and it was a block of the month in Jan for the LAMQG.   I love this block.  I want to make it again and maybe bigger....someday!  The whole time I was working on it I was singing the Wedding Song so that is what I came up with.  This was super hard to give up but I am sure it has a good home!! 24 x 24 Matchstick quilting with Wonderfil Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday

I am so excited to have this finish. This is an improv piece I did for our local Modern Quilt group challenge.  I was not sure how this was going to go. I started out just piecing a few things and then the more I added the more it brought back memories of the bridge that crosses over the Missouri River near my childhood home. It is a rare double decker bridge that believe me, struck fear in my heart more than once growing up.     This is a view from the South Dakota side. The risers were running that section up and down until the 80's.  The lower level was originally for rail traffic but than never happened by the time the bridge was almost finished so it is one way traffic on top and bottom.  The bottom has a super scary metal grate for a huge portion of it...thus the plaid fabric representing the grid near the bottom of my piece.       Upper level with an up close view of the structure of the risers. I tried to inclu...

Last night our guild met up and had a little make and take mug rug project. I made this one up for the sample and just had the binding to finish.   I have been so out of tune with sewing for the whole month that it just feels good to actually finish something no matter how small.  :) Finally have a bit of sunshine to go with that little accomplishment! I used Allison's tutorial on how to bind back to front from her blog Cluck Cluck Sew Linking up with Lorna for Let's bee social and Lee with WIP Wed

I am getting way ahead of myself these days. I signed up for two classes in one week, I belong to 3 guilds now, and I am helping to host some improvisational sewing days at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.  The Saturday class I am taking there is with Victoria Findlay Wolfe and I can't wait!! All of this leads to little getting done and lots of things started and little getting done...did I say that already???? :) So my class yesterday was with Tony Jacobson, designer for Fons and Porter Magazine.  He designed the 3 Tours star quilt and so I signed up. It is a beautiful quilt design and very fun. However I am pretty much on a budget and wanted to do more from my stash.  Mine is not going to be the traditional look of red, white and blue but I think it will be pretty just the same.   I did manage to finish all of the star blocks and started to work on my striped section when suddenly our time was up.  So fun to sew with others so...

Well it is already 7 days into the month and I think I will need an easy finish for my goal. I have most of the front together on this one and waiting for some backing to come from Massdrop. I am not sure how I am going to quilt it at all so if you have any ideas???? pass them on to me. Keep in mind straight lines are really more my thing but that is because of a few limitations (I choose to believe that anyway) at the moment. The slide on tray for my Bernina is cracked so I am waiting for a replacement table with a big flat space to do some fmqing practice on. Not sure I want to risk anything too hard on this quilt though. This is going to be for a very special little great nephew! The pattern is Kite Flight by Robert Kaufmann. Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes @Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all Sorts

"Something from Nothing", a scrap quilt 51 x 52 1/2" Leader and ender method started early 2014 650 2 1/2 squares with bits and snips of binding ends   My goal was set HERE   I love all the bright snips of fabrics and I especially love that this was all throw away scraps. I should have made it bigger but with the mess of the stacks of 650 of these little blocks was enough AND this little guys is plenty heavy!! I spent all yesterday blocking it so it can hang on the wall. We will see if I get that done.   All stash scraps and scrappy stash backing too.  My stash is getting a work out this year and I am so happy!   My trouble on this one came with the straight line quilting. I knew I had to only quilt straight lines where the scrap corners were not. This is pretty bulky even though some of the seams are ironed open.   I started out with the idea of stitching down and then turning and stitching back up. I quickly saw ...

I finished this little "Streak of Sunshine" quilt for our local chapter of Lincoln Quilts for Kids  charity that gives quilts to kids in local hospitals.  I usually do bright but I had these soft cute peace sign prints in pink and green so went for it. Not great photos but I had to snap these before I gave it away. Hopefully it is on its way to help comfort a sick child.  Linking up to WIP Wed with Lee @Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee social with Lorna @ SewFreshQuilts