Let's Book It April 2016

The end of the month and it's time for my favorite link up, Sharon's "Let's Book It" over at Vrooman's Quilts. We all buy those patterns, magazines and books, then too often they sit there. I've been going through old magazines and passing them on finally, but this month I dug up a pattern that's been waiting patiently to be made. 

If you're on Pinterest, you've seen the Sea Glass Quilt

The pattern is from Talk of the Town and it's available on Craftsy.

This one's been on my bucket list for a long time so when I was asked to make a baby quilt with this pattern, how could I say no? Force me to make a beautiful quilt I've wanted to make for a long time :) 

We discussed colors and we were sticking close to the original colors with a little pink or Coral (Key's girl Cori's real name) thrown in, when she told me she wanted to pull colors from the quilt to plan the nursery. Stop everything, what!? That was a lot of pressure. 

So I pulled out the big guns

Yep, 96 not a wimpy 64 and yes I labeled them since Cori and I colored a lot together and she would "borrow" my crayons. Mom note: coloring after school together got me more conversation then the usual "nothing went on at school today". 

I did this

Three colors to pull from in all shades.

Then made this

I love this quilt as does the mom, I think it's possibly the prettiest quilt I've ever made. 

Quilting was outlining with petals quilted into the open white spaces. I found the perfect backing of similar flowers, you can't really see it in the picture, but there's touches of pink and lilac there. 

Huge success and I can use it for my Let's Book It, bonus! Please jump over and visit Sharon and all of the other linkers (linkyers?). 

To make all of those petals, I turned under the edges, lots of burned fingers from the iron even using my stick thing. I had just finished this when I received my friend Lara's book Crafted Applique - New Possibilities. Lara blogs at BuzzinBumble and she came up with a new idea for doing applique which doesn't fray. I'll be part of her blog hop on May 3 to review the book, but right now I can tell you I'll be doing this quilt again without burned fingers using Lara's method. 

Later Gators,

Dana 

Let's Book It March 2016

I had to think before I typed in March since that doesn't seem possible, but yep, it's true we are at the end of March and it's time for the end of the month Let's Book It link up. 

I feel like I may have cheated this month, but really this link up doesn't have any rules, if it's on your bucket list than you're good to go. I've been getting rid of tons of magazines, but this month I wandered off and did a tutorial from Happy Quilting blog, it's also a free pattern on Craftsy. 

This is Melissa Corry's Double Dredsen. If you're on pinterest I'm sure you've seen it tons of times, it's one of those pins that resurfaces and makes the rounds over and over. 

I love Dresden's, but I'm not crazy about the big centers that happen if you use shorter blades, that giant circle in the center leaves me cold, so when I saw what Melissa did with these centers I had to make them. 

I used a fat quarter pack of candy colored fabrics and floated the Dresdens. 

The center was so easy to do and really changed the look without the big glob of color you usually see in Dresdens, even using a white center wouldn't have made them as pretty as these turned out. I'm thinking now that putting a color under the Dresden and finishing it this way could be pretty too and I may try that in the future. 

Please visit the other people joining Let's Book It and think about joining in yourself, it's your bucket list, as easy as that. 

Later Gators,

Dana

Problem with Scraps? Maybe

First Sarah started talking about her scrap problem and she shared pictures of her scraps in tubs. O.K. maybe I need tubs to hide them. I don't, I have an old zippered bag that a store bought quilt comes in that I haven't been able to zipper in years and the overflow goes into reusable store bags.

Then I found some of my scraps in the yard which means they're falling on the floor and getting mixed with dog toys.

Thanks Mom, we love new toys! Am I in trouble? 

Time to start using up some of those scraps, before I could even get started Debbie posted her wonky star and a link to the tutorial from Missouri Quilt Co., perfect timing and I was off.

First I planned on using the plain white blocks like the tutorial, but adding color is always my way, plus use more scraps, so I framed all of the white squares.

When I laid it out for sandwiching I decided maybe just a touch more color was needed, so I added the border, more color and more scraps used. :)

Quilting was just outlining the stars and these swirly thingys (that's the official name, I swear) in each of the white spaces, they were fun to make

I feel like it was a group effort, Sarah made me aware and Debbie sent me in the right direction, so thanks you two, I wouldn't have done it without you.  
This quilt didn't even make a dent in the scrap piles so I'll be searching for more fun and interesting ideas. I know there's always log cabins and strings. Oddly, the two books I have for scrap quilts have quilts made from an entire line of fabrics, huh, I wish I had scraps like that :)

Later Gators,

Dana

Let's Book It Feb. 2016

Not only does Sharon's Let's Book It party help me clean out old magazines and patterns, it also tells me another month is coming to an end. February being "the little guy" really crept up on me, surprise it's over. It's been crazy busy around here the last few months, we both have new to us vehicles, mine tried to kill me after I had it two months (that was fun), lots of trips to the Vet, Maya has developed some allergies which the Vet can't figure out and the amazing daughter flew all over the country to interview for her post doc, residency, fellow (pick your terminology they're all basically the same). Stressful for me but wonderful for her, she saw snow in Wisconsin which she hasn't seen since her first time when she was four and discovered it's cold, this time she learned it's slippery, LOL. In a few months she and I will be traveling to find her a place to live, not in Wisconsin, but no longer two hours away, sad but exciting.  

With all that I forgot that I pretty much avoid new quilt magazines since the goal is to get rid of the ones I have and I found myself in front of an array of magazines and this one caught my eye.

 American Patchwork and Quilting Feb. 2016

Just look at that cover quilt, how could I resist, it's so bright and beautiful! 

The cover says Just 3 Fabrics, but I never noticed that, I was just so in love with that quilt. The 3 fabrics were Ombre which I don't have in my stash and wasn't about to buy, but it was easy to switch it out to solids and the quilt is still beautiful.

So much movement and color. 

The blocks were a log cabin style and came together perfectly. I finished it with awkward feather flowers (Debbie please don't look) which were fun but.... well, awkward. 

I used the left over pieces to make a pretty pieced back.

This quilt was just the color jolt I needed, next will be Dresden's for the March Let's Book It and hopefully my mojo will come back.

Please visit Sharon at Vrooman's Quilts to see all of the other projects, remember there are no rules, no finishes required just make something you already planned on making, how easy is that?

Later Gators,

Dana  

Let's Book It January 2016

Let's Book It is back for 2016! I was so happy when Sharon at Vrooman's Quilts said she was continuing, I'm more than half way through my stack of magazines so 2016 is going to be my year to reclaim that shelf space.

I've been sewing for other people since the beginning of December, being responsible and whining ever so slightly about wanting to play. So the responsible thing to do is not miss the first link up, right? The first magazine in the stack had the perfect quilt, lots of color and really fast piecing.

McCall's Quilting June 2009

Jelly Beans by Michele Scott

Of course I just happened to have all of these wonderful colors in my stash :)

Isn't it just too much fun, bright and graphic. I left off the borders because....well I'll blame Sharon. 

The quilting was just stitch in the ditch and an outline, not a straight line anywhere because wonky is just fun. 

I had it done in just a few days and settled back down to the repair quilt. If your interested, I did take the back off, ditched the very thin old batting, replaced the torn blocks and used a really light fusible stabilizer on the remaining original blocks (they all had holes in the centers from the ties). New batting and a stitch in the ditch and it was done. I did not tie it again, my niece is starting to quilt and I think if it's important to her she can add the ties. It came out feeling nice and solid again and I'm hoping she uses it, I don't want that much loved quilt sitting on a shelf in the closet, that's just sad.

Please join us for Let's Book It, it's something you know you want to do, meaning it's a quilt you already have the directions or pattern for, plus there's an adorable little car as incentive. Change that to Bob Barker's voice and say "and a new car!!!" LOL.

Later Gators,

Dana

Help Please

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and you've all recovered. 

I spent most of December working on a custom quilt that I happily put in the mail right after New Year's, huge and not my usual colors but interesting to make. 

Sorry about the pictures, the sunshine state is not living up to it's name and Brady is right behind that quilt waiting to burst through. The woman I made it for has a bunch of my smaller quilts that she uses for table covers when she has garden parties. She asked me about making a large one for her dining room, 60" X 80" with the design in the center and the colors matching her carpet. I sent her three ideas and she picked this one. 

This is the center which is 40" X 60". It was pretty interesting and challenging, and the best part is done, in the mail and on it's way overseas. :)

I have one more project to do before I can play my way, although I did whip up a colorful quick quilt for this months Let's Book It, I really needed to play with some brights. 

This is my niece's quilt, her mother sent it to me asking me to repair it.

Again, no sun so I took the pictures inside. It's twin size and pretty basic, large blocks and tied.

Some of the minimal damage

The worst damage

The backing is a sheet with the sides turned up to make the binding, most of the ties are gone and some of the seams are separating. 

At first I was going to hand sew new blocks to replace the old and no idea about the seams. It would have to be done carefully since it couldn't show on the back. 

Now I wonder if I can take the backing off, it's hand sewn at the binding, but nothing except a few ties is really holding it and with the backing off I can replace and repair, probably replace the batting, put it back together and retie it.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this idea? I don't want to dismantle and find out it was a huge mistake. It seems logical to me, but well... logic and I are not the best of friends. 

Ideas, tips, prayers are all accepted, throwing it in the trash or just sending it back are NOT an option. 

Later Gators,

Dana

Let's Book It Nov. 2015

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving week, with the cleaning, cooking, eating and company it's a crazy and fun week. 

I did my Black Friday bargain battles online and got the big stuff done, yay!

In case you haven't heard, Sharon has decided to keep Let's Book It going into 2016, December is off (thank goodness) but it starts up again after the new year. Thank you Sharon! You all know I love this idea. I've been using Let's Book It to clean out magazines and I try to use scraps or fabric that I've held on to way too long, this month was perfect for that. 

Love of Quilting May/June 2009

Sorry about the glare the assistants were helping about a foot away, so it was drop the magazine and shoot quickly.

The magazine in just out of the shot here. Thanks for the help you two. 

As soon as I saw this I fell in love, it's really all about the fabric and I had the perfect ones stashed just waiting for a water scene.

I've had that orange and blue forever, the blue border was left from a quilt I had just finished, mixed with a few other batiks it came out really pretty.

The sand dollars and starfish add more interest, but I think it would have been just as pretty without. Each color was quilted differently, matchstick in the sky, ripples in the water. I was gifted with a beautiful stencil of leaping dolphins a while ago and used it on the top and bottom of the blue border, I just couldn't get it to show up in the pictures. 

Think about joining us for this easy, fun linky party, I know some of you have made Christmas gifts or quilts from patterns, books, or magazines, that's all you need, how simple is that? If you can't get it done this month, well then I hope to see you joining in next year.

Later Gators, (did you see that the Noles won big over the gators? Go Noles!)

Dana