Back in the Saddle!

Hello,

It has been so long since I posted.  I wish I had taken a picture of my daughter's teacher quilt after it was quilted and bound.  Her teacher LOVED it!  And she really appreciated it as she quilts when she has time.  I have handprints to make four more quilts for Jenny's second and third grade teachers.  

But first, I decided to do one for myself :)  I went to Moda Bake Shop and found one I loved!  You can find the pattern here.  It is very easy to follow, but I did learn some new lessons.  I wish I had taken pictures all along, but I didn't.  Here is where I am now ...

I went with a different color pallet, I used two French General favorites jelly rolls.  Then I went to my LQS to find the color I wanted to use as the sashing.  Finally, I tried starching my fabric before cutting.  I still have some work to do to effectively use this method.

Above is the quilt on my design wall.  I have sewn the top two rows, but not the rows together.  I am so excited that I am getting my points to match!  It's the little things that make me happy.

After I finish sewing my blocks together, then I will get started on my borders.  My goal is to finish this up by Halloween.  Then I have a quilt to make for my brother-in-law for Christmas.  

I will update you soon!  Thanks for reading!  Jackie

Finally Finished!!!

Oh my goodness, I can finally say that I finished a quilt I started making two years ago for my daughter's first grade teacher.

Keep in mind, I am a new quilter.  Okay, I say new quilter, but this is my fifth finish.  The others I made were not even close to being this difficult.  Those are all little individual 1.5 inch squares that were cut and sewn together.  I saw something like this on Pinterest, and thought, "That's cute ... I can do that!"  I had NOOOO idea how difficult it would be.

These are the hand prints of all the students in J-bug's first grade class, along with the teacher's.  Below is a picture of the heart.

Then I used freezer paper to make a stencil and painted the saying below.

 I'm kind of disappointed, some of my letters globbed together through the stencil, and it didn't do that on my practice run.  

Oh well, I am proud of it!  I know her teacher will love it!

Thanks for checking in!
Jackie

I'm Back and ready to work!

Hello!

It has been a long time since I posted.  Sorry about that.  I have done some quilting here and there, but not tons.  I am trying to get back to a scheduled routine with everything as that will allow me to have time with my family, work and of course, quilt!

Here is what I am working on now.

It is going to be a quilt for Jenny's first grade teacher.  Yes, Jenny is now half way through with second grade, but I will still get this done!  I had an idea of how it should be done, and went with it.  But when I revisited it, I realized that it just wouldn't work.

So I got out the graph paper and made it work!

Now I have to go back and trim down all the hand prints so they are 7 inches across instead of the 8 inches I had already trimmed.  This will also make a few changes on the borders.  I ended up with an extra handprint block area, so Jenny and I are going to make a paw print for their school mascot.  Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Quilty Heartbreak and Healing

My last post was about the wonderful quilt I was about to send to Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.  I got the binding on, and was ready to send it off.  All that was required was a quick wash and dry, then Post Office here I come.

Then came the heartbreak.  Even though I used a very mild detergent, good fabrics from a quilt store, color catchers and cold water, the red from the back of the quilt faded onto a few select strips of fabric on the front.  They were bright pink.  I couldn't send this quilt ... what to do!!!!

I called my LQS asking for suggestions, washed the quilt again with cold water, tons of color catchers and straight oxi clean.  Now my bright pink strips are light pink.  Still don't feel like I can send it.  My daughter and my husband think I can ... but I won't.

I don't know if you can see the pink in the below pictures ...

The pink is on the white with the little black shapes and the keyboard looking fabric.  Oh well, I guess this one was meant to be mine.

Here is the one originally intended to go to Happy Chemo, (this is still a flimsy, I have an appointment on a long arm machine to quilt on the 28th and it will be taken care of then.)

This one is a disappearing nine-patch.  I worked very hard to have the pattern I wanted with the hearts going in a cross-hatch direction.  Before the black/white/red quilt heartbreak I promised since I was sending my quilt off, that my daughter could have this one for her 7th birthday on the 7th of June.  Can't take it back from her, she would be upset, plus I have another block that I am going to quilt so her American Girl doll will have a matching quilt!

This leads to the healing.  After the first two washes of the first quilt, when the pink was not fading at all ... I went to my LQS and got a jelly roll of Moda's Simple Marks Summer, by Malka Dubrawsky.  While I liked these prints, they just were not my usual style.  I was extremely upset and thought that maybe I should break out of my box for happy colors.  If they could help me smile, maybe they could do the same for a chemo patient.

I am VERY pleased with the way this one came out.  As Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict told me, this is a great pattern to learn quilting on.  I was much more careful with my seams, ironed as I went along and before I knew it, quilty healing had happened.  I can only hope that this quilt will do the same for someone through Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.

This one will be quilted at the same appointment on the 28th, then off to Happy Chemo it goes.

Thank you for the WONDERFUL experience Sarah!  I promise that Happy Chemo will receive more than one quilt from me.



Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie

All but the binding

I have been working on a disappearing nine patch for a charity quilt being led by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  I finally finished the flimsy, pics to follow, and life got in the way and I realized I wouldn't be able to finish that one in time to send.

Good thing I work on multiple projects!  I had another quilt that was half way quilted and then would be good to go once I got the binding on.

This is the very first quilt I have made.  It is a 1600 Jelly Roll race quilt that was intended to be for me.  Turns out I liked the back better than the front.  (The back is the top picture.)  You can see my little helper holding up the quilt.  Poor thing has a cough.  At least she is covering her mouth ... I promise I will wash this before I send it off!  (Sorry ... I don't know how to turn the pictures so they are right side up!)

I just did straight line quilting along the horizontal stripes of fabric.  Not so bad for a first effort!

Welcome to my #1 lifetime quilt.

Thanks for stopping by!
Jackie

I working on it!!!

I am working on  my H2H charity quilt, I promise!!!

What you see above is where I have all my 5" blocks cut and pinned together to begin my 9 patch blocks.  I finished sewing all those and pressed my seams open.  I know there is a debate on that, but I chose to press open because I didn't want to have to do the fun little issues that can come up when I am joining my blocks together.

I had planned to go to a friendly little quilt store a friend had recommended to do the quilting on their long-arm but couldn't get a reservation until the 28th of JUNE!!  I  guess this one is going to get straight line quilting so I can get it off in time.

Gotta go ... time to pin my nine-patch blocks together before I start making them disappear :o)

Thanks for visiting!
Jackie

Inspiration Block

Since my darling hubby, light of my life, is hanging out with our precious munchkin, I got to quilt today!  I created my inspiration block for my H2H charity quilt.  Munchkin decided she liked it better than what she picked out and wants it for her :o)  I may go back and get more fabric ... she does have a birthday coming up!

I made a disappearing nine patch, and if I calculate it correctly, the blue and green will stair-step across the quilt.  At least that is the effect I am going for.  I was trying to have the hearts all go the same direction, but that didn't work.  I am going to try and continue with what I have going on, then they will form a diagonal pattern as well.  Maybe I should have taken pictures as I sewed to make sure I hit it ... oh well, too late now :o)  The back will be the solid purple tie-died flannel with the hot pink binding. 

This is the first thing that I have made that I have to keep an eye out for matching corners.  Kind of proud of myself, most of them are pretty darn close. 

I cut my fabric using a rotary cutter and ruler, but I think I am going to try and use my Silhouette Cameo.  It is supposed to be able to cut fabric, and I can have it cut my 5.5" squares for me ... they will be much more true than the ones I did. 

Thanks for visiting!
Jackie