How is this Possible??

It's Friday again. . . and the last day of January! How did this happen? This month has flown by!  Did you have a productive month? I had one finish.

I guess that is better than none! I also finished a flimsy,

and have the scrappy bargello 3/4 of the way quilted.

I really thought I would have the scrappy bargello done by now, I guess sometimes life just gets in the way!  Doncha just hate it when that happens?? :)

I am also sharing with you today a quilt I finished for one of my favorite nephews (I said one boys not THE favorite!).  He drives a big rig in MN and I thought he could use a quilt for his truck to keep him snug and warm :) This is the first quilt that I did not use any pattern, I just winged it :) I used a Boundary Waters by Moda layer cake (flannel), yardage from the Boundary Waters line for the borders, binding and back bought at Missouri Star Quilt Co and I used wool batting.  Here it is:

Here is a picture of the entire quilt taken with my phone.

Those white flecks on the quilt are SNOW! :)

I picked this line of fabric because my nephew is an avid hunter, fisher and all around outdoorsy kind of guy :)

This quilt was his birthday gift - not only did I remember, he even got it early! LOL

The blocks were made by stacking three different prints together, slicing off a triangle on both sides, mixing up the fabric so I had three different blocks from the stack and sewing them together.  The intent was to have wonky diamonds in the middle of the wonky X's.  Do you know that some of those seams on the diamonds actually lined up!! What's up with that?? Typically I have to work at having seams match up, I didn't want them to and they did!! This happened just enough that I thought it kind of looked like I was having issues with sewing the quilt together LOL.  What would I do different? I would make a paper template for slicing those corners off or measure the sides of the triangles to make sure they were all the same . . . lesson learned :) Honestly, probably nobody but me noticed this but I do have to say it did bother me some.

My Janome seemed to be having tension issues when I started quilting.  I was doing straight line quilting so was using my walking foot but could not get rid of the eyelashes on the back.  What's a girl to do?? I thought the thickness was too much for the Janome so decided I'm going to use my industrial sewing machine!  Poor baby has been sitting there unused for months (well unused for sewing but it makes a pretty good place to stack fabric and batting LOL)! Jealous I am sure of the workout the Janome had been getting ;) The Artisan did a WONDERFUL job! It is a walking foot industrial so I can't free motion with it but I can do straight line quilting with it! Honestly, looking back on it I don't think the tension issues had a thing to do with the Janome, I think it had to do with the thread I was using. . . but I found out I can do straight line quilting on my industrial (and give the poor girl some love) and it looks AWESOME :)

I hope you all have a productive quilty weekend and for those of you in the deep freeze, stay warm! I won't even tell you what the temperature has been here in AZ. . . . I don't like to rub it in ;) 

Linking up with Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday, and 

and Lily's Quilts for

Until next time, keep on quilting!

And Sew It Goes...

Today I am going to give you an update on the scrappy bargello adventure.  After much consideration, I decided I was going to do a spiral in the middle of the bargello and then after the blue border, I will do straight line stitching radiating outwards.  This top has issues, that inner blue border has a couple of pleats due to the stretching of the inside portion. . . yikes.  No matter what I tried, there was no fixing this so I am now going to revert to my word of the year ITLLDO.... this is not going to make the quilt function any worse for its intended purpose - warmth :)

Here is a picture without the borders to let those of you new to my blog what this top looks like:

The pleats in the blue border are on the left side.  You can't see them, but trust me, there are there!

I decided the spiral quilting for the middle portion was doable on this top after reading a tutorial on spiral quilting done by Crazy Mom Quilts.  I liked the thought of doing the very center of the spiral with the FMQ foot and then switching to the walking foot.  A couple of things I have learned the hard way.... :

1.  The direction in which you do your spiral makes a difference!!! I went the wrong way - what does this do?  It means the bulk of the quilt is ALWAYS in the throat of the machine!! UGH!  I am dealing with it but I am getting a workout!

2. I did not take my Queen Supreme Slider off when switching to the walking foot. . . Oh that was a big mistake!! I now have several rips in the slider where I sewed through it :( I think I can remedy this with duct tape but that is a problem for another day!

3. Doing spiral quilting with a walking foot is much different when dealing with a large king size quilt than when quilting a smaller quilt! Part of this may be due to the fact that I am now fighting the bulk of the quilt in the throat of the machine - I guess I will find out if this is the case the next time I do this :) Oh yes, I will do this again - I love the look and I think I have made this way harder for myself than it needs to be . . . I am famous for this haha

4. The more often I stop and reposition the quilt the better.  For smoother starts, making sure that the needle is lined up to go the precise direction it should by checking out the stitching line behind the needle is very helpful.

Here are some pictures I took this morning of this monstrosity being birthed in my machine, at least that is what it feels like haha

It feels like this quilt is swallowing me up as I try to keep rotating it :)

In this picture you can see that I am getting very close to the edge of the blue border... YAY :)

The other thing I did when I sandwiched this quilt was that I spray based the back to the batting.  When I sandwiched all three layers together, I pinned the middle out to the blue border and then used spray basting for the outer portions.  So far this is working well . . . I am holding my breath that all will go well throughout the rest of the quilting of this quilt.... keep your fingers crossed!!

OK, I gotta get back to this - hoping to have most of the quilting on this done today. . . unrealistic? Probably, I am famous for unrealistic expectations of what I can get accomplished in a day :)

Linking up with Lorna for Let's Bee Social and Lee for WIP Wednesday.  Check them out if you haven't and if you are here from there, welcome!

      

 

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

 

Call of the Wild :)

Unfortunately, I did not get much done yesterday after I posted saying that I was going to sandwich the bargello.   It was partly life getting in the way of quilting and partly - I am not looking forward to spending that much time on the floor basting a king size quilt!  The life getting in the way part actually had to do with the project though, really it did!! I went to the LQS near my house to get more pins, I did not want to run out. . . When I got there, GASP - NOT ONE number 2 pin in the entire store!! They know me well (I know you are surprised about that haha) and I asked the owner's son if maybe they had a couple packs hiding somewhere.  That man looked all over the store LOL They have another store down the road about 6 miles and I asked him to call and see if they had pins.  They sell more sewing machines in that store than anything else sewing related so I thought I might just get lucky.  EUREKA! They did.  Back in the car and down the road I went.  The woman that runs this shop is the sweetest woman in the world! I bought, from her, both my industrial machine and my Janome and my sewing cabinet and. . . well, you get the picture :) I have spent hours in the shop with her just visiting and showing her the quilts I have made.  I had not been in since Thanksgiving so I knew this was not going to be a get in and get out visit :) When I got there she told me she had put in her notice after 28 years and was finally retiring!! SO glad I was on a mission to get those pins! We talked for an hour and I will go back to show her the bargello once it is finished.  There are no accidents in life and those pins brought me back to that shop so I wouldn't lose touch with such a wonderful person! Oh, and check this out, she mentioned she would be retiring right after her birthday in March - WHAT?? I asked her what day her birthday was - SHUT UP!! Our birthdays are TWO days apart! :) There is a reason we get along - and I thought it was because we both have red hair!! LOL

On to a quilt I made for my husband.  I wanted this quilt to be special and snuggly and warm :) I bought all of the fabric for this quilt at Stitch N Frame.  If you have not checked this site out, head on over there! She is have a most fabulous sale until the end of the month.  TONS of fabrics for under $5 a yard - name brand quality fabric.  I don't get paid to say this - I just love this site. Shipping is fast and the customer service is awesome.  I have placed orders over the phone (I went for a week or two where my computer refused to let me place orders.... I think my husband might have had something to do with that but I am resourceful! LOL) and they couldn't be more helpful.  Back to the quilt.  I did not have a pattern for this, I just cut big squares, played with the arrangement until I found the one I liked and sewed it together :)  Here it is:

As I said, I wanted this quilt to be special for the hubbins.  We have always had Siberian Huskies and he has always been partial to wolves and loves the outdoors.  I had purchased the panels months ago waiting for some kind of inspiration.  Then I saw these fabrics with the various outdoorsy 'themes' and thought - I can make something from that!  The panels and his height dictated the size of the squares.  I put the pieces of fabric on my wall in various different arrangements until I found one that I thought was pleasing and started cutting.  The quilt finished at 72" x 84."  The quilt top went together quickly but once again, I found that cutting those huge blocks is not as easy as one would think! I muddled through it and the top ended up surprisingly square haha.  The backing is Minkee and the batting is wool.  I quilted around the wolves in the panels and decided to just leave them with minimal quilting.  I then did a meander with paw prints and leaves in the mix.  I was a little worried about the thickness of this quilt and the tension being an issue when I FMQ it but I have to say my Janome did an awesome job with no tension fiddling - added bonus! :)  As I said, this was a quick finish, it took about a week start to washed and wrapped around the hubbins and the pups :) I'm guessing if you look really close at these pictures you WILL see dog hair! LOL

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Storyand Connie over at Freemotion by the River.  If you are visiting my blog for the first time, welcome!  Have a look around and if you feel so inclined leave a comment, I LOVE comments and answer them all by email :) If you haven't linked up with these fabulous parties, hop on over, link up and see what peeps are working on this week!

Until Next time, keep on quilting!

It's a Flimsy Finish Day :)

Before I start with my progress over the weekend on my quilt tops, I want to say that I participated in the Grow your Blog Party over at 2 Bags Full, the link is on the left sidebar.  There were over 600 participating bloggers!! How cool is that?? If you are looking for some new blogs to read, head on over there and check out all of the links!  I have spent the last two days hopping all over the internet :) Welcome to all of my new followers and readers!

I finished the Square in Square flimsy this morning AND I finished putting the borders on the Scappy Bargello! Not a bad start to the day :) You can find the information on fabric and pattern for the Square in a Square top here.  I have learned some interesting little tidbits when piecing the Square in a Square quilt, more on that after the pics!!  I did not take more pictures of the Scrappy Bargello, it is so big at this point I do not have a place big enough to photo it! I will take pics after it is quilted and I can man handle it more :)

Not the best full shot but I wanted to give the full effect AND I have close ups :)

Don't those batiks just sing? Xanadu by Moda, love the colors!  So I did not have enough of the gold fabric to use as sashing.  I used white Painters Canvas by Michael Miller.  The sashing finished at 1" and I figured out a new to me way to do sashing that made it WAY easier to match up those columns.  I'm sure there is a tutorial out there somewhere but I had never seen one, late to the party - that's me! LOL First, I figured out how all of the squares were going to be laid out.  Then I sewed the sashing strips to the bottom and right side to all of the squares except for  last row horizontally and the last column vertically .  For the last row, I sewed the sashing strip only on right side (but not to the last column of blocks) and for the last column I sewed sashing strips only to the bottom of the square (but not to the bottom square on the right hand side).  I then sewed the first three squares of each column (vertical) together.  Then I sewed each of the columns together - the top was now half sewn together. I then did the same thing to the bottom half.  Once the top half and the bottom half were sewn together, I sewed the top and the bottom together. What this did was give me one intersecting seam at all of the intersections of the sashing to match! I have done sashing the 'traditional' way and it looked ok but I have to say this top turned out way better and I did not have to rip any seams due to mismatched columns! Big woohoo! If you want to know more, and this makes absolutely no sense, email me or leave a comment and I will get back to you :)

OK the other thing I figured out when matching those seams - I did not put the pin all the way through so the pin came back out to the top.  Does that make sense? I put the pin in through the seam that was on top and then through the seam on the bottom, making sure that the edges of the fabric was matched.  I did this right before the fabric came to the foot (I have a pretty big bed so probably 3 inches prior to the needle).  I found that this gave me a very accurate seam match because I was able to keep the pin in until after the needle had passed the seam.  Again, I did not rip any seams and there might be three in the entire top that are about three threads off - not bad!

One more thing that I think totally helped with my accuracy with this top.  I used my accufeed foot (I have a Janome 7700 and this is their version of a walking foot. Honestly, I don't think I will ever piece another top without that foot attached!  Janome does make a 1/4" foot for the accufeed system. I do not have the special foot.  I don't like those side flanges.  So I fiddled with the needle position and the fabric position until I got the quarter inch, before I started piecing of course ;) Don't you hate it when you start with fabric that is exactly the same length and you get to the end of the seam and they are not the same length anymore?  This did not happen to me ONCE in piecing this entire quilt!  I would think any walking foot would work.  I know Pfaff has this built into their machines. . . NO I cannot go machine shopping LOL

OK, I am off to get that bargello sandwiched.... OY! I have decided I am going to do a spiral on the quilt.... I had thought about doing this but when I saw the tutorial Crazy Mom Quilts did last week, the decision was made! . . . I have done this on a smaller scale - this is a large king size top but I think it will be painful initially although using the free motion foot in the center makes a lot of sense to me.  You can bet you will be hearing all about it!

Linking up with Merelize over at Stitch by Stitch for Anything Goes Mondays.  Head on over and check out what other peeps are doing!


Until next time, keep on quilting!!

GROW YOUR BLOG!

Hello! It's Saturday and it is the big day for Grow Your Blog hosted by Vicki over at 2 Bags Full!! If you are here visiting from Vicki's site, welcome! If you have not heard about Vicki's link party, go over and check it out! She has over 500 bloggers participating in this event - 500!!  I'm sure you can find a new blog to love :)

I am a total newbie to blogging, I just started this blog on 12/30/13.  I had been thinking about starting a blog for months.  I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge to jump in and actually start blogging but from the minute I started I was hooked! :) So hooked I found I was spending more time in blog land than quilting!! haha I have gotten a little better with finding a balance between blogging and actually spending time quilting. . . I said to myself, self, you need to get a grip and make something because if you don't, you will have nothing to blog about! haha

I blog about making quilts.  I never in a million years imagined myself getting into this craft. Heck, I didn't know I had any artistic side that was screaming "LET ME OUT!"  I started by making a quilt for our over sized king bed because I was too cheap to buy a custom made comforter. . . Little did I know that I was going to very quickly develop a quilty, fabric, quilt gadget habit! That was 21 quilts ago! It might have been cheaper to buy that custom comforter!! LOL

I don't know that I have found my quilt 'style.'  I have always been a bit of a rebel (OK maybe more than a bit...), don't much like rules, can't follow a pattern to save my life and if someone tells me 'you can't do that' - I am totally going to do it just to prove them wrong! LOL I am drawn to modern quilts and love working with batiks.  I have been blogging about the process of making current projects with posts about the quilts I made before starting to blog sprinkled between here and there.

I thought it would be fun to share with you a some of my favorite projects to date.  If you click on the picture, it will take you to the post describing the process and inspiration and pattern if there is one.  Here they are:

I love comments! I read them all and respond by email.  If you are so inclined, you can follow my quilty adventure by clicking on the various follow buttons on the side bars or the bloglovin button below.  If you want to contact me by email, I can be found at quiltmusings@gmail.com.

If you have any suggestions on ways I can improve my blog, add followers (I never thought I would be so interested in how many followers I have but I guess in the end we all want to know that we aren't talking to ourselves. . . that would be crazy right? haha) or just make my blog more user friendly, I would LOVE to hear from you!! My email address is quiltmusings@gmail.com.

Thank you again if you have hung in to the end of this post!! haha

Until next time, keep on quilting!!

Ride the Wave!

Happy Friday! I continue to work on my Square in a Square blocks.  I have all of the blocks for the quilt top made, and now I am squaring them up to 12 1/4." I was going to skip this step but I truly hate working with pinked edges . . . and they have finished at just shy of 12 1/2 inches and it is just too big... I didn't plan this project very well :)  I have also decided that I am going to use the 10 extra blocks for the quilt back.  I think I have that all planned out. . . who knows how many times that will change before I finish haha AND I received the backing and border fabric for the scrappy bargello yesterday!!  Hmmm, the possibility of TWO finishes next week!!

I wanted to share with you a quilt I made for one of my nephews.  He spends most of his spare time playing in the water in the summer and in the snow in the winter so I wanted to make something with some waves in it :)  This quilt is made with the Split Seconds ruler by Creative Grids.  Yep, it's another Karla Alexander ruler :) You can see her giving a tutorial on how to use this ruler here.  There are several different styles of quilts that can be made with this ruler and it is fat quarter friendly.  This is the only quilt I have used it for to date, but definitely plan on trying out the other styles!  I used Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons (a mix of the dark and light fat quarter bundle) for this quilt bought at Hawthorne Threads (If you have not checked out this site for fabric, I highly recommend! Make sure to check out the sale items too! No, I'm not getting paid in any way to say this.  Fast shipping, usually ships the next day by 2 day mail - pretty instant gratification for shopping on line!).  The backing was pieced with left over backing and yardage from other quilts bought at LQSs. I used wool batting and the quilt finished around 52" square.  And here it is:

I FMQed it by following the curves in the piecing

Those white flecks you see are snow! :)

I love this picture!

Label in the binding and a peek at the back :)

This is one of the quilts that I did not get good pictures of prior to gifting.  My sister-in-law was gracious enough (read tired of being harassed lol) to take the three pictures of the quilt in the snow :) I think she did a great job and told her I was going to hire her! 

I quilted the quilt with black thread.... talk about nerve wracking! haha When I was quilting it I was not so sure about the choice of black since I thought every single little mistake I made was going to jump right off of the quilt. There are definitely jumps and not so smooth starts in this quilt but really, once it was washed, they did not stand out!  Amazing what washing a quilt does for hiding those pesky little jump starts, haha.

This quilt was really a lot of fun to make! I stacked four different fabrics light to dark, cut the curves with the ruler at a slant.  I did mark the cuts beforehand to make sure that I had enough width to get the 6 cuts in.  I started with squares that were 13" x 18" and they finished at 12 1/2" x 12 1/2." The curves are very gentle and very easy to manage, especially with a block this big.  This was the first time I had worked with shot cottons and I was a little nervous.  I was surprised at how thin they were! They are beautiful though, I don't think there is a way to photograph fabric to truly see the different colors in the weave.  I used A LOT of starch on the fabric prior to cutting.  I think this helped with preventing stretching of the bias as I was sewing.  I was very careful and went what I thought was pretty slowly, I was amazed though that this quilt top came together within two days! I sashed and bound the quilt with black shot. You can see the quilt I finished with the remainder of the fat quarters from the bundles here.

I had one major oops moment in making this quilt.... Doesn't there always have to be one? haha The first set of blocks that I cut, I very carefully marked where I wanted to cut and set out to cutting (a 45 mm rotary cutter works with this ruler, no need for a smaller sized cutter).  Cutting the curves was much easier than I had anticipated - I of course did not do any practice cuts as suggested in the video tutorial. I went to 'shuffle' the fabrics and, what the how did this happen??? I had cut one too many times!!! And I had NO extra fabric. And I was now in panic mode!  What am I going to do??  Well, after talking myself out of having several adult beverages haha, I decided I would just sew the two pieces of fabric together... an elemental design change right? lol Needless to say I was very careful with the next blocks! This also meant that I had to make the blocks a little smaller than what they could have been had the first four not had to be squared up smaller due to that extra seam. 

I really liked using this ruler and will make more quilts with it! I just need more time!!!

Linking up with Off The Wall Fridays, Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop!, LAFF over at Richard Quilts and Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.  If you are visiting from one of these sites, welcome! Grab a beverage and stay awhile :) I love your comments and respond to them all via email.  If you haven't checked out all of the wonderful projects people have finished, click on one of the links and get inspired!! 

Until next time, keep on quilting!

Quilt Fairies

Do you have a quilt fairy? :) I sometimes wonder if I have a quilt gremlin! lol  I was working on my Square in a Square quilt yesterday morning and thought I had a visit from that gremlin... I realized I did not have enough of the gold fabric I'm using for the middle strip!! NOOO how could that be?? I started with two yards! I contemplated ordering more. . . checked the stash to see if I had more . . . nope. And just when I was about to place the order I looked at the table where I put scraps and right there on top, another half yard!!! More than enough, thank you quilt fairy :) Here are the blocks I showed yesterday, plus a few more, on my design wall.

Because I decided to cut the inside strip 2," the blocks are finishing at 12 1/2".... I have enough to make another row horizontally and vertically and have decided that is too big.  The intent was a big lap quilt.  I also decided I don't much like symmetrical quilts :) So thought I would cut the outside square down so the inside square sat wonky. . . this quilt is for my husband's aunt and uncle and when I asked him what he thought, he said he liked them better square.  We obviously do not share tastes when it comes to quilts! So now I am going to leave it at 5 squares across, 6 down and put a thin sashing between.  I'm thinking off white, unfortunately I do not have enough of the gold to do sashing too.  What do you think?

So the next question, what to do with those extra blocks?  I'm thinking pillows, or maybe a matching small quilt for their dog . . .  I'm guessing pillows are going to win!

I thought I would have this quilt sewn together by now... That was not in the cards.  I came home after being gone for a couple of hours yesterday and found water in the basement!  Now that will throw an unexpected scramble into a quilt making day!  The good news is that it wasn't a lot, will be fixed today but in the mean time, I am getting ready to have plumbers here all day today (yes, there are about 20 things I should be doing instead of writing this post!).  Unfortunately, I will likely get little, if any, sewing done today :(

Linking up with Lee over at Freshly Pieced.  You can find the link in the left hand side bar. Also linking up with Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation.

Until next time, keep on quilting!

A Good Start

I have half of the blocks for my next quilt done, YAY :) I decided after the scrappy bargello fiasco I needed something quick and 'easy.' No seams to match and I used pre-cuts so I didn't even have to cut! I'm using Xanadu by Moda (charm pack and jelly roll) bought at Missouri Star Quilt Co.  The center strip is Sunnybrook Farm by Exclusively Quilters bought at Stitch-N-Frame (BTW, for those of you not on a fabric diet, they are having and AWESOME Winter Clearance sale til the end of the month!).  I did have to cut the yardage for the middle strip :) I am doing the Square in a Square quilt shown in this Jenny Doan tutorial.  Here are the blocks so far:

I didn't take pictures of the blocks on my design wall because I couldn't get them to look right and I think the pictures taken outside show off the colors better :) It is at this point in the process that I start questioning the color combinations.... it always seems to work out in the end so I don't stress about it too much.  Does this happen to you?  The center gold strip is cut at 2" instead of 1.5."  By doing this, the entire jelly roll strip is used to go around the block - I do NOT need anymore scraps!! haha Because blocks are finishing at 12.5,"  I think I may just sew the blocks together instead of using Sunnybrook for the sashing.... If I sash it, this quilt is going to be huge and the intent is for it to be a large lap quilt (it is going to be a large lap quilt even if I don't sash). 

So far this quilt has gone together without any problems - YAY :) I am starching the pre-cuts before I sew which is working out well.  I like to work with fabric that is about as stiff as construction paper :) I find it really helps with accuracy.  I do have to say, it is a good thing that this particular pattern is not dependent on accurate cutting... The jelly roll strips measure in at 2 3/4 inches.... A word of warning, when you are using pre-cuts ALWAYS measure them before you start a project!  I have read a good amount on forums of people having major issues with projects that require accurate cuts, getting half way through and finding out their strips or squares are not accurately cut.

The other thing that I am reminded of while working on this project is that I REALLY get bored with string piecing!! I know all of the benefits of string piecing (which is why I continue to do it) but I just get soooo bored with the process!  What about you?  Do you string piece?  Do you like it?  Is there something you do to make it more exciting?  If there is, please share!! :)

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday over at Quilt Story, Connie over at Freemotion by the River and Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts.  If you are visiting my blog for the first time, welcome!  Have a look around and if you feel so inclined leave a comment, I LOVE comments and answer them all by email :) If you haven't linked up with Fabric Tuesday, hop on over, link up and see what peeps are working on this week!

Until Next time, keep on quilting!

Striaght Out Of Line

Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was productive :) I actually took the day off from sewing on Saturday.  I was between projects and not sure which of the many quilts I have in my head on on my list of quilts needing to be gifted to start. . . just needed some time to think and ponder.  I knew one thing, it needs to be quick and easy!  After finishing the bargello (except for the border, you can see a pic and why I stopped at the border here and no it wasn't because I forgot my passport LOL), I knew the next project needed to be pretty straight forward and hopefully without a lot of fuss!!  I started the project yesterday and will keep you in suspense until tomorrow :) I should get a good way through it today and I don't have any pictures yet!

So what is Straight Out of Line? It's a ruler! This is another ruler designed by Karla Alexander.  If you have read many of my previous posts you know I am definitely a fan!! You can find a video of Karla explaining the different styles of quilt you can make with the ruler here.  I used the ruler for a baby quilt my husband asked me to make for one of the guys at work.  Here's how the conversation went:

Hubbins: Are you going to make a quilt for Ted?
Me: I hadn't thought about it but if you would like me to, sure, I can do that.  When is the baby due?
Hubbins: Two weeks.
Me: Wha what??

OK, I can do this.... My favorite go to girly fabric is Bali Crackers (pops or snaps) Kool Aid.  Just love the pinks purples and blues thrown in for good measure!  For the backing I used Moda flannel and minky.  This is one of those quilts that I did not get a good picture of before it went to its new home :(  I didn't even get a picture of it finished! So here are the pictures I have. 

So sad that I didn't even take a picture of the front after I quilted it!! :(

If you look really close you can see the quilting on this one.... I did an all over flower vine design.

Like the Curves for Squares ruler, I just loved working with this ruler! And no, I'm not getting paid to say that :) I watched the video several times and got to work! I had to get moving if I was going to get this done in what now was a little over a week due to having to wait for confirmation of whether I was making a boy themed or girl themed quilt....

There are a good number of seams to match when using this ruler. . . but really, that wasn't an issue.  I was very careful about my cuts and did use a pin at the seem intersections and it went well and was surprisingly quick.  I decided to use the left over 10" squares for the border.  I cut them down to 5" inch squares and made enough for the border.  The big squares went so fast I figured I had time.... The smaller squares went pretty quick too but what I had not taken into consideration was having the right number of squares on the border to continue the secondary design that happens with this ruler.... I obsessed with trying to make it work and in the end decided no one but me would notice. . . I'm guessing unless you go back and study the corners, you didn't notice either!  Well, that and there was no way to make it work, if the math doesn't work, it doesn't work!  Note to self, be a little more careful about pieced borders in the planning stages!!

I decided to piece the back too. . . Such a glutton for punishment!! haha I have days left to finish at this point, I had just received the flannel in the mail from Missouri Star Quilt Co and I did not order enough fabric.... What's a girl to do?  Well, I went to an LQS that has TONS of Minky fabrics and decided I would add Minky to the mix.  The cutting and sewing for the backing went quick.  11" squares (so I could do 1/2" seams, not because I was going to rag them but because I wanted to make sure if the fabric slipped some those seams were not going to come loose).

The quilting of this quilt went really smooth as well.  I was able to finish the quilting and binding in a matter of two days.  Good thing, I didn't have much time to spare!  Threw the quilt in the wash and ran to the store to get a cutesy bag and tissue. . . I was smiling just thinking about my husband walking into work with this huge baby girl themed gift bag :)

 Linking up with Merelize over at Stitch by Stitch for Anything Goes Mondays, go check out what peeps are working on this week and join in the linky fun :)


 Until next time, keep on quilting!