Baby Quilt and Wonky Log Cabins

I'm alive!!! :)  I have been so busy quilting, cross stitching, and reading the day away that I haven't made it on here in quite awhile.  Well, in my last post I told you all about a baby quilt that I have been working on for a very dear friend of mine and she has finally had her baby shower so I can now post pictures without worry of her seeing them.  So without further adue...

Here are the fabrics that I chose, the one on the left is the backing.  Her wants were blue and brown and sheep, and his one stipulation for allowing blue and brown, because for some unknown reason he doesn't like those colors together, was green included.

I think I did a pretty good job of accommodating everyone!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the final product before wrapping it up.  So next time I go over I will have to take another picture.  I used the pattern Lemon Squares from Fresh Lemons Quilts.  You can find the pattern HERE.  It was a lot of fun to make and fairly easy.  The idea is to put the blocks in no particular order, but I have a very hard time with that.  :)  So I put them in a pattern...I couldn't help myself.  LOL

On another note...I am a part of a "Wonky Bee" filled with 11 other wonderful, wonky women.  Each month is one lady's month and that woman is responsible for sending out a kit with fabric and a pattern for one block which the woman then returns after she is done making it.  Well, July is my month!  I sent off a wonky log cabin that I love!  And more importantly Hubby likes...kinda.  He's not really the "wonky" type...so he helped me find a pattern that he could live with.  :)  I found the pattern HERE.  Anyway...I have started to receive some of the blocks back and it's so exciting to go out to the mailbox every day and check to see if a new package has arrived!  

The first one I got back was Laurel's:

The second one I got back was Christine's from Quilt Monster in my Closet: 

This is the first bee I have ever been a part of and I can't express how much fun it has been...thankfully we are only half way through with the year, because I don't want it to bee over!  I will continue to post pictures of the blocks as they come in and then of course the finished product as well...which we have decided will be our new quilt for the guest room, which is one of the reasons to blocks are sew big: 18"x18".  I hope you all continue to enjoy the summer, I will be using every minute of it to get as much sewing done as I can before the school year starts! :)

Happy Quilting!

May BOM

I FINALLY finished the May BOM for my Wonky Bee!  I know...it's June!  All I can say is, at least it's still just the FIRST week of June! LOL  It was actually quite quick to put together and I really love the pattern!  It's simply that I have not had the chance to sit down and get busy on it before now.  I am sure that Cherry will forgive me...

 I really love the fact that I got the kit with the blues and greens, certainly my favorite combination, as my Wonky friends will soon find out next month when I get to send out my kits! :)  I'm very excited and have started gathering the materials and writing up the directions.  I still need to put one of the blocks together myself to be sure how much fabric to send in each kit.  This was a great project to fill the day with.  I alternated between sewing and reading.  Definitly a day of luxury that I miss during the school year.  I'm very excited to get this block off to the post office so that Cherry can get it all put together.  I'm quite anxious to see how all the others have turned out, and how wonderful they look all combined together!

Well, the school year has officially ended for our district, which means I can finally enjoy some much needed down time...translation: I get to quilt again!!! :) I have been working on a baby quilt for a very dear friend, the sister of my heart, for a couple of months now. The pattern is from Fresh Lemons Quilts and it is called Lemon Squares. I loved the pattern, and how it showcased the fabrics! I am not going to post pictures just yet, as my friend has not yet seen the fabric and even though she has assured my she will stay clear of my blog until after the baby shower, I don't want to take any chances at her not being surprised! :) I finished the quilt top today and will be starting to sandwich it all together very soon. I am also catching up on my May block for the Wonky BOM group that I am in. It is appliqué which I am coming to love! Although I have to admit, I think the reason I love it, is because I discovered how to cheat and use the machine along with heat and bond to appliqué the fabric. hehehe :) I am just not patient enough for hand appliqué.  I will post pictures of that very soon, the fabric is beautiful and the pattern is SO FUN!!! I am continuing to practice my free motion quilting, and am getting better, but not quite comfortable enough to use it on a quilt yet and risk having to rip it all out if it doesn't look quite right! The seam ripper is definitely my arch nemesis!  Well, off to start dinner and enjoy the evening. 
Happy Quilting!!!

Free Motion Quilting

I haven't posted in a few days...things have been very hectic and stressful. I am a fourth grade teacher and we are in the throws of state testing! Can you say UGH?!?! We just finished our writing test and are going to be testing reading and math in 3 weeks. So to destress, I do what most of you do...I sew! Or dream of sewing as the case has been this week! lol :)

I received a few packages in the mail this last week, so those dreams have plagued me every day at work! I have been itching to try my hand at free motion quilting for quite some time now. Hubby was wonderful enough to buy me this great book that I was drooling over at Hobby

Lobby several weeks back.

Well, as I soon discovered, reading only gets you so far... :) I didn't have a free motion quilting foot, so I set out to find one for my machine. There were several that I came across, but since I am SEW very new at this I decided to go with one that wasn't extraordinarily expensive. And.....it came in the mail a couple of days ago!

Needless to say, I am chomping at the bit to lock myself away in my sewing room and get to learning! But it will have to wait until this weekend when I am not ruled by the clock.

I also received another package in the mail on Tuesday. I had entered several give aways from the Quilters Blog Hop Party last week. Lucky me won TWO giveaways! :) One was the ribbonry quilt pattern from Candace at Double Nickel Quilts.

The second was a layer cake and quilt pattern from Corinna Jones at Crazyquiltgirl Fabric Shop.

I am sew excited about the beautiful fabrics and amazing patterns! I just can't wait for the weekend to get here so I can have fun playing with all my goodies!!! Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have some free motion quilting that I will feel good enough about to post pictures of! Happy sewing!

FNSI Recap

Well, I had a very successful Friday Night Sew In! I FINISHED Hubby's quilt...it has taken almost a year to get the whole thing done. Here is a picture of the entire quilt:

It is a pattern I found in an Irish Quilting magazine. The pattern is called Fields of Green. Then the boarder I actually found at Cabin Quilter's blog. She puts up a desktop calendar every month with a picture of a beautiful quilt to go with the season. Last year in March she had a gorgeous Irish knot quilt that I was amazed by. She was kind enough to pass the pattern on to me and I used it for the boarder on this quilt. Here is a close up of the boarder:

Originally I had wanted to put the boarder all the way around, however, it was taking an extraordinary amount of time to complete each block. It is paper pieced and was quite tedious. So after getting the top and bottom put on, I consulted with my wonderful husband, and he told me he liked it just the way it was and I didn't have to go all the way around! :) So after staying up until 3:10 am! it is now completed!!! :) I am very proud of the work and am quite happy with how it turned out. All in all a very productive FNSI!

FNSI

My first Friday Night Sew In tonight!! Very excited! I am very much looking forward to closeting my self away in my sewing room all night at finishing my hubby's quilt! I will post pictures tomorrow of what I got accomplished. :) Happy Sewing!

Much Excitement!

There was a lot going on this weekend! I did get some
quilting done. I finished the February and March blocks for my Wonky Bee. I felt very productive there now that I am finally all caught up.

February

March

I also worked on my hubby's quilt that I am making him...in the final stages of the machine quilting then only the binding left! He has been so patient with me as it is taking much longer than anticipated!

Then on Saturday there was a carnival at the school I work at, the first one for as long as any of us can remember...So needless to say the kids were very excited!

When Sunday rolled around I was exhausted but I pulled myself out of bed to get to church and I was very glad I did, it was a great sermon about studying the Word and prayer. Ran some errands with hubby and I even managed to get quite a bit of cleaning done on Sunday as well. All in all a very FULL weekend! Now I need another one to make up for it! :) Unfortunately, I will have to wait a few more days....