hi again :)

Been busy and away from a computer...wish there was an iPhone app for Blogger!

In the past 2 weeks or so-
*pieced a brown/green quilt for a baby of an acquaintance. Need to get this quilted and finished before his parents leave the country! The focus print is giraffes-coordinates with the giraffe fur printed flannel backing.

*finally pieced together the striped hourglass top. This was a kit I bought from JoAnn's that was *supposed* to just be squares pieced together...I can't do anything that simply :) Even better-with the scraps left over, I created a 24x24ish log cabin/9 patch combo top that I'm going to finish into a quilt for Kaden. He's getting too big for his kitten blankie. Also-got a 9x9in block from *those* scraps! Not sure what to do with this one except add it to the odd block box.

*took the Kaffe 9 patches off the design wall (where they've been sitting for, um...a year???) and made a QUEEN sized top out of them! :D There's quite a bit of white (3" sashings between blocks, rows, and a border), but there's a lot of tealy blue & hot pink. I hope I can get this layered somewhat soon-just need to buy batting. So weird to need a queen sized batting and actually use almost all of it! This will be the largest quilt I'll ever attempt to machine quilt, so I'm nervous already. Not planning on anything fancy or majorly intensive-I want to love this quilt, not hate it because it takes so long to finish. Odd thing to say for something I let sit for over a year...

*finished one of the Chrysalis tops. I decided to keep the blocks separate & just have coordinating lap quilts out of them. Still need to finish putting together the jelly roll blocks, but the layer cake puzzle blocks were finished & assembled in one night. I like when I can focus & see a project through without the fun of being distracted-need more nights like that!

*started assembling the Hoopla blocks. Need to cut more setting triangles-this is my first time to set a quilt on point, so it's a learning curve.

I'm afraid that my little spurt here will leave a few tops lingering before they get quilted :/ I need to try finishing a project all the way before finishing another top, but it's always a lack of batting, backing, that *one* perfect border fabric... I should have enough scraps of batting to piece together for the Chrysalis & striped hourglass tops-I don't use pieced batting for tops with too much white or meant for someone else.

Going to baste the baby quilt in the morning for my Friday Night Sew In project! Parents are thinking they're leaving the 15th, so I need to finish this FAST. Batting scraps will be combined with Abby's scraps for Kaden's new blankie-he loves snuggling in blankies. Can't believe he's only 5 months old-thought he was closer to a year! Almost 7 pounds too, so we might have another chubby cat in the family :) It's amazing to see him jump across the room like he's flying-he's fearless. Stressful for mama though!

Kaden's adjusting well...

...to being a quilter kitty. I have a hatbox for him to sit on it he wants to watch tv (he loves sports!), but he's quite comfortable claiming my sewing table and making sure I don't get any work done. I mean...the cuteness! How can anyone resist? :)

*no sewing took place with precious little kitty parts near the moving bits of the machine*

Hexie quilt

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's started and put aside a Grandmother's Hexagon Flower quilt. I have one I work on in bits and pieces here and there with 30's prints and a green pindot. Heck, I even bought the hexagon punches that are SO ridiculously hard to find so I can use the same size hexies that I bought papers for a few years ago! (The original seller on eBay doesn't post hexie punches anymore.)

While I was dog/housesitting, I needed another project after I finished Abby's quilt. My machine was there, I had plenty of room to cut...so while at home, I grabbed a stack of girl's summer dress prints I had pulled aside during the reorganization of the stash. Most were about 1/4yd pieces, with a few 1/2yds mixed in. I remember a tutorial I found a few years ago where a lady made half-hexies using a 60 degree triangle ruler. To be perfectly honest, I've had NO luck using the ruler to actually cut triangles and piece them without a huge bubble in the middle :( But since these wouldn't be triangles, I figured it would be okay.

So I cut...

 and I sewed...

I didn't want to think about matching hexies-I wanted brainlessly simple :) If they matched up? Yay!

And it finished like this...

Well, that's part of it. It finished about 52"x68" after the 4" strawberry print border was added. Backing was a teal bedsheet picked up from Walmart at 11:30 at night because I wanted to quilt that sucker THAT NIGHT. I seriously completed this from cutting to binding in under a 24 hour period with tons of interruptions.

This quilt is full of no-nos. The fabric is, I guess it would be considered a pique?, that's likely a poly-cotton blend. The bedsheet backing. The high-loft batting (they seriously had no thinner batts at Walmart that night in a size larger than crib!) This might also be the quilt that my family has fought over the most (go figure.) My sister saw it while in it's flimsy stage, but my mom was first to see it finished-and she claimed it. I honestly thought I'd get to keep this because it's so colorful and loud-definitely didn't think my sister would want it with her calm green/blue/brown decor! But when I took it to her apartment for Paisley's picture, she said one day my mom would have to give someone else a chance to claim a finished quilt. Doesn't help she's been waiting on, um...2? Supposed to be birthday quilts. I need to work on this most recent one I showed her for her actual birthday this year...I just get too sidetracked with ideas and put it aside to work on them :(

Paisley loved it-she hopped on the bed as soon as I laid it out for my sister to see. Too bad her gramma took the pretty away from her...

But Kaden's quite enjoying it. If he sees it on my mom's bed, he hops on. If he's in her room when she goes to bed and covers herself with it, he lays on her feet/legs/back so HE'S on his quilt.

Ok, back to sewing. I have 2 projects going with some Chrysalis precuts, still have the Sugar Pop, the Gypsy Change, found a star quilt I started to quilt together then put away, made 16 patch blocks with the leftovers from Abby's quilt...I need to settle down and work on ONE project at a time. I seriously have 12 or so in rotation right now :/

Here's my sister's quilt that I've stalled out on-and I'm still in the piecing stage! D:

The blocks are so simple, it's ridiculous that it's taking me THIS long to work on them. They finish about 15" square, and I have the fabric for 20 blocks. Then I just have to figure out a setting so I can make those 20 blocks fit a queen-sized bed. I might send hers out to be professionally quilted-depends on my money at the time, I guess. Seeing as her birthday is New Year's Day, I probably should also take the holidays into consideration...I'm going to end up finishing this quilt to the end, aren't I?