Craft Book Month

Craft Buds is hosting a blog hop and link up party for Craft Book Month. It's a fun way to see projects from favorite books. I'm jumping in to show you our projects from Anita Grossman Solomon's Rotary Cutting Revolution. It is a few years old, but I'm still being inspired by it.

My largest completed project from this book was a quilt for a friend made with Anita's Arrowhead blocks in April. I had great fun attacking my batik stash in search of the more manly designs.

The pretty pink blocks were my test blocks and certainly didn't fit the theme of the quilt, so they became a Spring table runner.

 

When my daughter Julia decided to make a quilt for her boyfriend, she chose the Old Italian block from the same book. 

 

 Her Army boy loves his new quilt! She gave it to him at his graduation from boot camp in July.

 Of course there are UFO's, too. When I bought the book a few years ago, I started collecting striped fabric to make Xcentric and Concentric blocks.

The stack had gotten too large to fit on the shelf, so it was time to start stitching! Don't tell Julia, but I bought another stripe yesterday. (She tried to cut me off!)  I have an idea for how it could be a fun border for this future quilt.

 

 When Anita visited our guild in August, she taught the Anita's Arrowhead block, so out came my batik stash again.

If you can't take a workshop with Anita in person, her Craftsy class is the next best thing. And you'll get an e-book version of Rotary Cutting Revolution with the class. That's a great deal!

 

Thanks for visiting. Have fun hopping around the Craft Buds party.

Old Italian Quilt

Julia finished the Old Italian quilt for her boyfriend, Fred, on Monday. She did such a great job! We enjoyed the process using Anita Grossman Solomon's techniques from Rotary Cutting Revolution. She can't wait to show the quilt to Anita in a few weeks when she visits Ninigret Quilters!

Most of the prints came from the Big 10" Charm Swap. For the first round, back in May 2012, we swapped manly prints. It was fun (for me!) trying to match up prints that worked well together. 

Julia wanted to maximize the 10" squares to make larger blocks than in Anita's instructions, so we had to tweak the dimensions a little. These blocks finished at 7-3/4". (Julia was not happy with that. She prefers nice round numbers, but we couldn't squeeze another 1/4" out of them.)

The blocks in the center of the quilt incorporate Army prints. 

She used a piece of Army camo for the label. Fred wears a lot of plaid flannel, so that's what she chose for the back. It is one heavy, warm quilt! You can almost see the argyle pattern created on the back from quilting in the ditch.

 

After an 18-hour drive to South Carolina with his family, Julia presented the quilt to her Army boy today during Family Day. Tomorrow is boot camp graduation, then they will head home. While he finishes college and ROTC, Fred will be a musician in the National Guard band.

Congratulations, Fred!

Sew Every Day 20-22

 There was a lot of sewing going on this weekend, just not by me. Julia finished the quilt she's been making for her boyfriend, Fred. I'll post all about it on Wednesday as soon as I get a picture of them together.

Day 20: Quilting day.  Julia was having trouble wrangling the quilt, so I sat in for a few minutes to show her how to lift the weight off the bed. I can't convince her that the machine quilting gloves actually help. She was quilting straight lines with the walking foot, so she was OK without them.

Day 21: Binding day. Again, I sat in for a few minutes to get her started, but Julia wanted to do the job herself. She was happy to learn how to complete the binding by machine. She was afraid she'd be hand stitching the binding in the car on the way to South Carolina. This morning, she is on the way to Fred's graduation from Army boot camp.

 

Day 22: While Julia was preparing the quilt label, I made a fabric box. (My tutorial here!) Julia is traveling with Fred's family, and they will be spending a night at his aunt's house. This will be a hostess gift for her. I think it looks pretty cute filled with salt water taffy and wrapped in cellophane.

While Julia was busy quilting, I was removing this wallpaper border in Pete's room. It was cute when he was 7, but not as appropriate for a soon-to-be Marine. While he is away at Boy Scout camp this week, I'm hoping to get his room painted. And work on his quilt.

 

Stayed tuned for the boyfriend quilt reveal, coming soon!

Sew Every Day 13 & 14

 My "cottage" garden is bursting with perennials and scary looking iridescent blue bees.

 Sew Every Day 13: I stitched exactly 4 seams. I did a quick paper piecing demo at the RI Modern Guild meeting. Going to the meeting and shopping for fabric has to count, too!

Day 14:  I needed 10 more 9-patches to add to the swapped blocks for the layout I chose.

By dinner time, the large units were all pieced. It shouldn't take long on Monday to get the top finished.

Julia finished piecing the top she's been working on.

 

 She's really happy! The goal is to get it quilted and bound next weekend.

 When Bill was in his basement office last night, he heard something scratching the window screen. A turtle was trying to climb out of the window well! This morning, he found this baby snapping turtle dug into the mud in the bottom to keep cool. 

I won't be digging a hole in the mud for myself tomorrow, but I think I will need to move my machine back to my air-conditioned bedroom. It's going to be another steamy week.

Sew Every Day- 6

I pieced another top that I hope reads Modern. OK, maybe Vintage Modern. I was inspired by the Strip Tube Quilt at A Bright Corner. I really had every intention of laying out the blocks the way Andy did. Then I started to play and offered both layouts to my friends on Facebook and Instagram and they liked this layout better. The pattern goes together so quickly, I might try it again someday in the other layout.

I used a pile of DS Quilts fabrics from JoAnn's from 2011 with some Kona solids. I need to get a border on it soon to control the bias stretch along the edges.

Julia has stitched almost every day, too! She's almost finished with the top of her Old Italian quilt.

 

Today, I need to machine quilt a piece I need for tomorrow. Remember Mod Bento? I'm planning to set up a table in my bedroom, one of the only rooms with air-conditioning. How are you staying cool while you sew?

Sew Every Day- 3 & 4

 Happy 4th of July!

In honor of the holiday, Julia stitched up some red, white and blue blocks. She will complete the last of her Old Italian blocks today and start arranging them soon. She's hoping to have the top done this weekend.

 I'm stitching away with Pat Sloan's Sew Every Day in July challenge.
Day 3 progress: finished the blocks for Chevron & On.

Day 4: Completed the top.

How do the Craigs celebrate the 4th? Julia and I are sewing while we watch the Bristol parade on TV. Bill is washing his car. And Pete is doing a Crossfit workout (including 60 burpee pullups) in memory of a recon Marine who died in 2006. Don't worry, there will be burgers and fireworks later!

Random Wrap Up

 I received an email recently informing me I had been awarded a Gold Star Badge by the staff of The Quilt Pattern Magazine. My friend and fellow Ninnie, Barbara Chojnacki, wrote a review of my blog for the June 2013 issue. Thank you Barbara and QPM!

I entered the Friendship Star Mini in Ellison Lane's Modern Mini Challenge.

Hop over and take a look at all of the inspiring minis! 

I've been busy painting furniture for Pete's room (I'll show you soon). The only sewing I managed to do was two more Girl Scout pillowcases for Julia and her best friend. I cut these out last May, along with the ones I gave to the other graduating seniors from my troop. There were other priorities, and these had to wait. (Genevieve got a whole quilt, so don't feel bad for her.) When I went to pull fabric for the one I needed last week, I found these and had to get them finished. I was NOT putting them back in the pile!

 Julia is plugging along on the Old Italian blocks and has passed the half-way mark. Add eighteen to the twenty that were done for the last post. Each pair is our favorite as they are being stitched, then she pulls out the next pair and we love them even more!

It's senior week for Pete, so we attended the athletic awards banquet. He was on the swim team for 4 years (captain this year), and ran cross country and track for two years. He learned to pole vault this year!

Next up: Graduation!

WIP Wednesday

 Hi there! I didn't intend for an entire week to go by without a post. Lots of good stuff is going on around here, but not much sewing. 

Finishes:

Julia and I took a class last weekend to make these cute Peek-a-Boo bags. Julia's is on the left, with the cute quahogs.

I used an orphan block on the back of my bag. It was one of the only blocks I made during Jackie's blogger's BOM last year in Fall 2011.  This post says I'm keeping up with the BOM. Ha! That was the last block I made. Month #2!

Last week, there were Boy Scout pillowcases; this week - Girl Scouts. I made one for the last remaining girl in my troop who earned the Gold Award and one for the top cookie seller in our area.

I made 10 giant tissue paper flowers for our Girl Scout Bridging ceremony. Each color represents a different line in the Girl Scout Law. We had older girls reading the script, and little girls placing the flowers in the umbrella stand "vase."

And now my job is done. After 14 years as a Girl Scout volunteer, that was my last event. I'm happy to be moving on, but I hope my Girl Scout friends will still invite me to lunch!

In Progress:
Julia finished a dozen more Old Italian blocks this week.

She's up to 20 blocks now. I was tempted to mix them all up to see how it will look, but I'll save that bit of fun for her.

In family news:
Pete went to his senior prom. He went with a bunch of friends (no date), so we had to pose him with Grandma.

His band played on Main Street during a 5K race. They were supposed to entertain the runners as they passed by, but by the time they got set up all the runners were gone. Oh, well. They played their whole set to the ice cream eaters and innocent bystanders instead.

We're gearing up for graduation. He bought a patch to attach to the top of his cap and I bought a lapel pin for his gown. He is one proud poolee!

After all this running around, I'll be happy to sit with a glass of iced tea and visit the WIP Wednesday goodies.

Finish it up Friday

 I didn't get a whole lot of sewing done this week, but I did manage to complete this top for Habitat for Humanity. I'll try to prepare the back and binding tonight, then set it all aside until we buy batting. I'm calling this a finish!

This is the X's and O's pattern from Missouri Star. We had a stash of 6" blocks donated by guild members years ago, and I found the tan in our outreach stash, too. This will make a great quilt for a 10-year old boy.

Julia has been playing with fabric, getting ready to make a quilt for her boyfriend. Most of these squares came from the Big 10 Inch Swap that Monica hosted on Flickr last year.

She decided to go with the Old Italian block from the cover of Anita's book, because the boyfriend will be an Old Italian man someday soon! The first two test blocks didn't turn out very well. The rotary cutter slipped on the blue one, making the center square not square, and the dimensions of the red one are off. One more test block is in order before we start full scale production.

 

The bleeding hearts are blooming this week. Those little blossoms are so cute!

 

We'll be in Boston tomorrow for the "To Boston With Love" exhibit at the MFA!

Now, hop over to Crazy Mom Quilts to see what everyone else finished this week.