Throwback Thursday!

Time to share another Blast From the Past!
Searching through photo archives, I selected snapshots of a few baby quilts to share!
All are made without patchwork,
A great way to practice free-motion quilting!

These were made when it was announced that good friends of ours were expecting twins.

I've gifted a lot of baby quilts over the year's, and always so grateful to receive photos later, of the babies with their quilts!

I stitched rows of 5" sailboats connected by waves on the blue quilt,
You will just have to take my word for it since they are not visible in the photos.

For the floral quilt, I followed the pattern of the print.
Spirals for each of the yellow flowers, outlined the pink posies, and connected them with loopy's.

I didn't even bother with borders for this third quilt:


Yellow flannel backing

Looks like I was stash-busting some JoAnn's fabric for all of these quilts.
I do love the big flowers stitched on this cute little bee print.

I was an Aurifil-lover before it was cool!

I may have to re-visit this pattern one day!

All three of these were made approximately 10 years ago(?), before I was aware of the wonderful online quilting community. Throwback Thursday, hosted by Jenn at Quarter Inch From the Edge, is a great way to share a bit of our quilting history!

Thank you Jenn!

Choosing Patterns to Free Motion Quilt

My goal for August is to complete Donna's Stars, a Work in Process for well over a year now. The stars were quilted early this year, and it has been waiting patiently since. I often stumble when it comes to making up my mind with quilting patterns, so it feels good to have finally made a decision about how to quilt the negative space! I'm learning the Seafoam Swirls, as coined by Angela Walters.

This weekend, I did maybe 10% of the total area and feel pretty comfortable with them now. Here is one of the smaller squares - definitely not perfect, but getting better...

I plan to use the seamlines to quilt patterns in the four central, larger squares, and will work on those next as I want to quilt the inner areas before the outer parts 'stiffen' up. Not sure this quilt will be complete by the end of the month, but I am shootin for the Stars!

Blocks on design wall, prior to assembly and borders

Linking up this week with:
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced,
WIP's Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden,
and with other goal-setter's at A Lovely Year of Finishes (#28)!

Hello Moon, a Quilty Finish!

The final binding stitches were completed this morning, and I set out to take some photos of Hello Moon, the 2013 BOM I participated in from April Mae Designs. I have blogged a bit about it this past year, most recently here.

The Vegas wind had kicked up by the time I prepared to leave, but being that it is a small quilt, 36" x 48", I gave it a shot indoors. Actually, I gave it a lot of shots in hopes that a couple may turn out well.

To capture the entire quilt, I took the shot we all try to avoid - on the floor (yikes!)

Indoor photography is hard for my little old point-n-shoot Canon, especially at any distance. This is the difference with and without the flash.
I chose a poly batting for this one. It will be stored for a long time, and I wanted that puffy look. Plus, the perfect backing turned out to be one of the few poly/cotton blends I had in my stash, so it was a good way to use up both..

My finish was down to the wire! - Hopefully I am in time for AYOLF  linky for the Finishes Party at Sew Bittersweet Designs !

I am also linking up with one of my favorite link-ups, with Lyn at What a Hoot for BOMs Away:-)
And with Marelize at Stitch by Stitch for  Anything Goes Mondays, another favorite, and well, because it is Monday! BTW, Marelize is hosting a fun giveaway drawing there!

Thanks for reading, hope you have a great week!
One more photo, I love this one even though it is a  bit blurry...

Sunday Breakfast

 Late breakfast today. Because I am from the Pacific Northwest, I am a bit of a granola girl. Even though city life is amazing there, most Seattleans are pretty outdoorsy at heart. Berries are one of the things I miss the most, and they don't grow like weeds here in the desert. In fact, they are amazing expensive here in the desert, so I buy mine frozen. I through mine on top of plain yogurt, leave in on my pink countertop for an hour or so, add granola, and think of home:-)

 

This morning I started more yogurt cheese. This turns out just like Greek Yogurt without the hefty price, and the longer it sits (in the fridge of course, not that pink counter!), the thicker, so it can be used like cream cheese in recipes.

We often made our own yogurt growing up, and I am on the lookout for a good maker.

 

After finishing the quilting up, the baby quilt needed to be blocked...

The edges were a bit wavy...

Should be able to add binding tomorrow. I used threads in colors that matched the fabric, and I used the same bone color on the back. I am happy that the colors don't show much,

 

 

 



FMQ Friday and May NewFO's - Edited on Sat. for Erin!

I missed the deadline for the Baby Shower, but thanks to QuiltBloggerLand technology, I can share up to date progress with my niece, Erin. Here is the quilt inspired by her baby shower invitation.

I am making this update Saturday morning, and since this post covers many of my projects this month, I am also linking up to Lily's Quilts for her Fresh Sewing Day Party!

 

 

Quilting Madeleine's baby quilt has been one of my favorite projects, it is really making me smile, but I stopped for a pause to link with FMQFriday.

I have only the background circles and border lines to complete today:-)

I first completed a little pillow sham to sample the techniques:

I stuffed the cherries trapunto style. I wish I had done this on Madeleine's quilt.

 

 

And I tried a raw edge binding. I actually like it and may use it for pillows, but decided against it for the baby quilt.

 

And more new projects (so I can also link up with Cat Patches!):

 

The first quilt top I whipped up for Baby Madeleine. I have decided to use this as a center for a full size quilt with large applique work that I have yet to draw...   More like a New UFO...

And another New UFO that was started and set aside this month, we did twisters in guild and I made a bunch of them without a plan as to how I will put them together. They may end up being pillows...

And I started and finished this quilt in a jiffy this month, thanks to the Vroom Vroom cheater fabric:

 

 

Free Motion Quilting / Finish It Friday

Lately I have been doing a lot of experimenting with techniques new to me.

This week I tried a FMQ tip that has been in the back of my mind for some time now, so I thought I would link up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday Party ..

I tried this sticker tip and stitched all around them.  It worked best stitching close to the sticker edges, and I wish I had done more than I did on my practice sandwich. The stickers did not catch the foot much, and I got pretty good at it by the time I completed the quilt, but I did wish I had placed the stickers closer together, and it probably took longer than it would have had I just marked it.

In the future, I may use the stickers for general layout, by placing them randomly to mark size and placement references for FMQ. Perhaps to mark a quilt, or to practice repetition.
And this may have worked better with smaller dots.

 

And to celebrate another finish, I linked with TGIFF, hosted this week at Quilt Matters, and with Crazy Mom Quilts, to share my curvy-pieced, minky dot-backed, and machine-binded baby quilt, three more new techniques for me:-)

 Many times I think I will do a binding by machine and end up doing my traditional, hand-stitched binding, but it seems suitable for this type quilt and the minky kinda hides the topstitch.

 I did not use a batting, and I quilted with large loops , and wavy lines. I used pins every 2", which actually made it hard to keep smooth stitching loopsies since the pins were always in the way.

 

Last week I was the lucky Quilt Along winner over at Christa's Quilts. When she mentioned I could opt for store credit rather than the titanium needles and batting tape (both of which I do want to try), I shamefully turned my winnings toward fabric from her awesome clearance section,

AND I qualified for Christa's Candy/mystery scraps as well...  I LOVE her store!

And I LOVE to find fabric in my mailbox!