WIP Wednesday

 I just have a few minutes to say hello. I've been sewing every day to get ready for a holiday craft show. I love these baby blankets made with flannel and minky. Please prewash your fabrics before making these. Don't ask me how I learned that lesson! I washed with Ivory Snow and they smell like babies! 

The blankie on top is for my sister who is now a grandmother! We can't wait to meet our newest family member. My sister is hosting Thanksgiving dinner which is why I am sewing today and not cooking.

I have a batch of fresh paper pieced lapel pins ready to go.

 

I love flannel infinity scarves. I wear them often through the winter. They are so cozy!

I wanted to have more quilty things on my table, so I made six mug mats to sell with matching mugs.

 

If you are in the area, I hope you'll stop by this great sale. There are almost 100 vendors! See the listing for quilts on the poster? That's me, so I guess I'd better get some actual quilts finished to sell.

Pete is excelling at boot camp. We are certainly going to miss him tomorrow, but we're so happy that he'll be home for Christmas.

Quick Baby Blanket

You know that feeling when you need the instant gratification of a quick project? That's how I was feeling this morning.

I dug out the minkie and flannel that I bought a year ago and made a cute blankie. I followed this tutorial by Melissa at Greener Grass. I cut around a Corelle lunch plate with a rotary cuter to round the corners. I did use a walking foot, so I had no trouble sewing this together. I was done in about an hour. Mission accomplished!

WIP Wednesday

It has been a red, white and blue week! To celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday and Veterans' Day, I've been playing with red, white and blue.

Finished: Pete's Album Quilt. Yes, I just posted about this. I wanted it to be a separate post from WIP Wednesday. Click here to read all about it.

New Start: I decided I need a cool tote bag for our trip to Pete's graduation, so I pieced some string blocks. Unfortunately, I'll need to set them aside while I focus on other deadlines.

Shipped: The itty bitty mini went off to my schnitzel and boo swap partner yesterday.

Top of the List: I'm booked for one craft show in early December and I really need to get to work! I have some computer work to finish up this week, then I'll be sewing full time for the show.

Time to Link up!

Pete's Album Quilt

 Pete's quilt is finished! I love how it looks on his bed. I'll get to keep it here for a while as he continues his training. He probably won't take it with him until he is assigned to a permanent duty station. This is not a true representation of his bedside table. When he's home, there would be a phone and ipod charging, headphones, and several knives of various sizes.

If you haven't already heard, my son will be graduating from Marine Corps boot camp in December. I'll give him the quilt then, and have his buddies sign a big label for the back. One month to go! I can't wait to be a Marine Mom!!

I'd like to thank my hive mates in the Modern Stash bee for contributing blocks for this quilt. We started with modern reds and blues. I added lots of oldies and goodies from my own stash, including a bit of Boy Scout fabric to honor his past accomplishments.

 

I totally love the back. The blue print is from the Quilts of Valor collection. It includes the phrases Thank You,  Miss You, Brave One, Home Safe, Proud of You. The bias striped binding is perfect.

It was fun to bring the finished quilt to Ninigret Quilters last night for Show & Tell. Pat, my machine quilter, happened to be holding the other corner. It is always fun to collaborate with her. There is so much you can do with a simple edge-to-edge design- resizing, flipping, shifting. We moved around the repeats until we got it right and it is exactly what I had in mind!

Quilt Stats:

Pete's Album Quilt

56" x 86"

Traditional Block, tutorial here

 Quilted by Pat Harrison, Ocean Waves Quilting Co

Pieced blocks from the Modern Stash Quilting Bee

Mini Swap Day

 I may be a little late, but I'm shipping out my swap package today for the Schnitzel and boo mini swap. My partner's favorite designer is Anna Maria Horner, so I've added two fat quarters. (I may have kept some for myself!) I threw in the key fob, even though it matches nothing. Partner, you have my permission to regift it!

 I received this wonderful package from Renae on Saturday. Can you believe this is her first mini? Thank you, Renae!

Isn't the embroidery fantastic? She said on instagram that it is a design from Urban Threads. I will certainly put the Aurifil thread to good use!

 

We had a great weekend, relaxing and celebrating. Providence dedicated WaterFire to all Veterans on Saturday night. It was a spectacular and moving event.

On a much smaller scale, we always enjoy our town's Veterans' Day parade and ceremony. It was a little weird that our kids were not marching. We've had someone in the parade every year from 1999-2012. I talked to a lot of Marines this weekend. I'm so excited to be joining the family!

Pete's quilt is done! I'll show it to you tomorrow after it stops snowing!

Red, White & Blue

 In honor of the Marine Corps Birthday (Nov 10) and Veterans' Day (Nov 11), I decided I would only sew with red, white and blue fabric this weekend.

I started string piecing these little blocks this morning and now I have enough for the top of this tote bag. I need a cool bag for the trip to Pete's graduation!

 I made a big mess, but it was worth it!

Pete's quilt is ready to bind. Which stripe do you prefer? Bottom or right? 

Pat did a great job quilting this. It is exactly the look I wanted, and I never would have been able to pull it off on my machine.

Ellie and I went to a guild rep meeting at the New England Quilt Museum yesterday. (Happy Birthday, Ellie!) The Fallen Heroes quilt was on display in our meeting room. This is one of seven panels. Each block represents a service member who died in Iraq or Afghanistan.  A story of the person is written on the back of each block.

I love the eagle in the center.

 

Enjoy your long weekend!

Semper Fi, Marines!

WIP Wednesday- Itty Bitty Finish

 I have two finishes to report this week, courtesy of my new weight loss plan. I realized that when I'm sewing, I'm not snacking. More sewing = less snacking = pounds lost. Win-Win!!

Earlier today, I finished an itty bitty mini for the Schnitzel and Boo mini quilt swap.  The flying geese variation blocks go way back to twiddletails' Geese in the Forest BOM in 2009. The original blocks were 6", I reduced mine to 3", and for this mini, I reduced them further to finish at 1.5"! This tiny quilt is only 8" square.

I always get nervous when it comes time to quilt these little pieces. I wanted something wavy, like the quilting on my 2009 piece.

On the back, I added folded triangles in the top corners for hanging (just insert a dowel or bamboo skewer cut to size).

I had fun photographing this little cutie on various backgrounds: green kitchen wall, rhododendron bush, yellow living room wall, gray front porch siding.

 The other finish this week was my T quilt. Read more about it here.

Next up: I picked up Pete's quilt today from the quilter and it's ready to bind. And our t-shirts for boot camp graduation arrived today. I'm getting so excited to see him again!

T is for Tina

I've wanted to make a T quilt since a fellow Ninigret Quilter, Fran, was making a mini T for her husband, Tom, about 20 years ago.  Fast forward to Anita Grossman Solomon's visit to Ninigret this past August. She showed us her new T block quilt and I offered begged to be a pattern tester (as if Anita needs a pattern tester). She sent me a copy and here is my completed T!

When it came time to quilt it, I wanted to somehow echo the T theme, so I quilted straight parallel lines in a large T shape. I drew the orange lines so you can see the shape.

Outside the large T, there are free motion flowers. I needed something swirly to contrast with the straight lines.

I used my new Halo tool for the free motion quilting and I LOVE IT! It is a Sharon Schamber product that I purchased from Pat Ferguson at A Quilters' Gathering last week. I had heard amazing reviews of this thing and it lives up to the hype. It takes a little getting used to, but it was a pretty quick learning curve.

 I have never attempted micro stippling until now. I felt I could do it with the Halo.

The only time I had any trouble was when I quilted the border on a side that was trimmed a little close to the edge (not the one pictured). The Halo slipped off the edge of the batting and got "stuck" on the bed of the machine. No harm done. I slid it back over and continued on my way. (I do use a teflon slider on my extension table. You need a big flat slippery surface to use the Halo.)

I'm using this striped binding on all my new bedroom accessories. (See the Sea Glass pillow here.)

 Yes, it's going to hang in my bedroom, but it looks so good on my green kitchen wall. My husband, Bill, wants to know when I'm starting the B quilt. Oh, I have a plan for him! Mwahaha!

Quilt Stats:

T is for Tina

Block designed by Anita Grossman Solomon

(Look for it in a future issue of Quiltmaker magazine)

Blue & green modern scraps, Kona white background, V&Co border

47" X 48"

Started September 3, 2013

Completed November 4, 2013

Road Trip

The Ninigret Quilters hopped on a bus yesterday for the 3 hour drive to New Hampshire for A Quilters' Gathering. I had never been to this show before, so I ignored my loathing for bus rides and joined in the fun!

With a half-quilted quilt at home, I was on the hunt for filler quilting inspiration. This amazing modern quilt by Rose Orr knocked my Red Sox off!

There was a lot more appliqué in this show than we're used to seeing, with lots of cool filler quilting around it.

This anniversary quilt by Carol Smith glows!

And then there's the haul from the fantastic vendors!

V and Co. yummies,

some necessary tools, including a Sharon Schamber Quilt Halo, 

aqua for Julia, plum and mustard for the mini swap, and I could no longer resist a bit of The Boo Crew.

On the way home, we stopped at the Quilted Crow, a really lovely shop.

 

 It was a wonderful, inspiring day!