Snowball Baby Quilt

I got started on the snowball baby quilt over the weekend.  With Christmas just around the corner there isn't much quilting happening.  Like most folks I'm finishing up work assignments along with holiday baking and shopping.  Here's what I've got so far.

Some fun faries!

Some yummy "goes with" fabrics.

A cute pattern. 




































And my first few snowballs.

The individual snowballs are 5" squares with 2" squares on the corners.  I'm stil playing with the arrangement since as usual I'm putting my own spin on that cute pattern.

Speaking of that pattern I had the reference wrong on the previous blog entry.  The pattern is "Tea Party" by Alison Newnam and Kaitlin Witte as shown in June/July 2011 addition of "The Quilter Magazne".

I had an intersting chat with my friend at Minka's Studio about storing fabric.  We both agreed it would be a good post so that will show up here and/or there sometime soon!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Chocolate Pillow Covers

I had just two blocks left after making the Box of Chocolates quilt top.  These are actually the original two blocks I made when I was trying out the colors with the pattern.

  I couldn't let them go to waste and didn't want to have to store them so I decided to make pillow covers.  To match the quilt I added two borders.  First a 1 3/4" strip of cream, then a 4" strip of the chocolate brown.

You can kind of see in the picture that the cream borders are a different shade from the cream I used in the block.  I actually dug up the original cream fabric and planned to use that but ended up cutting the cream I used in the quilt instead.  Once I had cut the strips I figured it would help to make them look more like they belonged together with each other and the quilt so I just went with it.

I think they came out pretty nice.  I'm going to bring them with me to the long arm quilter when I bring the top and see if she can do the same kind of quilting on all three pieces.  If not then I may just use them to try hand quilting for the first time. 

Now I'm ready to start the next project.  I should be working on the last two quilts for The Girls but the fabric hasn't arrived yet so I've got something else up my sleeve.  My sister was looking for a pattern for a baby quilt.  I came across this one in one of the latest issues of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting.  

It's snowballs and nine patches.  I just love the colors. I rummaged around in my stash and found all the fabrics I need so I've decided to see if I can make as a sample to show her! 

Stay tuned for more on the baby quilt . . . mine and Dutchy's.

Box of Chocolate - Borders

Just a quick post to finish up the Box of Chocolates.  Several attempts at adding borders brought me to this final warm chocolate brown around the outside.  I tried it with a 2 inch inner border of the candy fabric but it it was too busy.  So I ripped that out and settled on this one.  I saved the 2 1/2 inch strip of the candy fabric so I can use it as a binding.

Tomorrow I'll be calling the quilter to schedule an appointment.  She's booking into January now because of the Holidays so this one will be on the back burner again until next year.

It feels good to have completed an entire quilt top in just 3 days even if I did have a head start with the star blocks all done!

Box Of Chocolates

I had promised myself that since my birthday was on Sunday this year I was going to give myself the weekend off.  No housework, no laundry, no yard work, no shopping, no cooking - well, OK, I don't cook much any more but still I do occasionally make a meal.  But not this weekend.  Instead I planned to spend the entire weekend quilting.

Working on the quilts for "The Girls" has left me with several projects that didn't work out for one reason or another. 

Fortunately, I like all of them enough to finish for myself just not as gifts.  This one is the Box Of Chocolates.  Doesn't this fabric look yummy enough to eat?

I know spending your birthday quilting probably doesn't sound like much fun to you non-quilters but think about it.  If you have a hobby don't you always wish there was more time to just enjoy your hobby instead of trying to squeeze in a hour or two between the daily/weekly chores?  My mother of course is looking down from heaven with that look she had which said "you can't have any fun until the work is done".  Well not this weekend Mom!

I stepped into my sewing room immediately after work on Friday and have been happily sewing away ever since.  Initially I thought I would be working on one of the quilts for "The Girls" but then I realized I was waiting for some fabric to arrive from Keepsake.  That put a different light on things.

I'm sure you can relate to the stack of project in various stages of un-done.  Here's a look at the bookcase that's behind me when I'm sewing.  Naturally, I can't see it when I'm sewing so I kind of forget about it until I turn around.


Between the top of the bookcase and the bottom of the white shelf I've been tucking piles of fabrics that won't fit into the bureaus or closet where I keep my stash.  There are several works in progress just waiting for my attention.  That's where I found the Box Of Chocolates. 

I use these cool blue trays that come from one of the gals in a quilting class.  I'm not sure where she got them but they work really well for storing bits and pieces of projects in process.  And they slide neatly into that space on top of the bookcase!


I pulled out the tray with the Box of Chocolates and here's what I found.  Some pieces that were left over from the last time I had worked on the project, the instructions, and 8 finished blocks.

I pinned 6 of the blocks to the design wall as shown in the pattern.  Aren't they pretty!

The two remaining blocks had a different background fabric which I remember thinking was too white when I started but seems fine to me now.  What was I thinking?  Oh well, water over the damn. 

The pattern by the way is by Jennifer Chiaverini from the Elm Creek Quilts: Joanna's Collection which you can find here at Red Rooster Fabrics.  If you're thinking of making it be prepared for lots of cutting and lots of small pieces.  There are also 4 different borders that go around the outside.


When I started working on the project again Saturday morning I remembered it was the pinwheels that had stopped me.  I really like the pinwheels but I remember thinking at the time that there were so many half square triangles in the first block I didn't want to deal with pinwheels in the second block.  Now that some time has passed it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to make pinwheels but I really just wanted to finish this up.  So I decided to put the candy fabric in the center instead of the pinwheels.


Here's the block pieces all laid out and ready to sew.  I had planned to use strip sets instead of individually piecing all the squares and triangles but I had about half of the pieces already cut so I just went with it. 

The piecing went quickly until I ran out of bobbin thread.  I stopped long enough to fill up a bunch of bobbins.  Guppy was fascinated!  Apparently he's not been around to witness this spell binding event before.

With a dozen bobbins filled up the sewing and pressing went along smoothly.  Before I knew it I finished all six of the blocks and it was time to head of to bed.  Here's the finished block.

The yellow fabric has some words of wisdom that I really liked:

      Breathe more ~ Talk less ~ 

            Say more ~ Whine less ~

                 Love more ~ Fear less ~

                     Chew more ~ Eat less ~

                         Hope more ~ Breathe more

As I took a break from sewing to write this blog entry I found I was not alone.  Unlike her brother, Alice is not much interested in sewing but she can't seem to endure any attention paid to the computer when she is in need of some love and attention, which is always!  So she parks herself on my "mouse" arm until I'm forced to give her all the affection she needs.

All in all it's been a very productive weekend.  Here's the finished blocks all assembled and ready for borders.  There's still plenty of day light so I'm planning to get the borders on and have a completely finished quilt top tonight.

Right now I'm hearing the dinner bell so it's time to enjoy a special birthday dinner with the chef before heading back to the sewing room. 

Hope you have a much fun on your birthday as I'm having on mine! 

Getting A Little Help

Working with the bright colors for this latest project - Black, White and Brights - has really taken me out of my color comfort zone.  After making my color choices I usually like to make a sample block or two to get a feel for the techniques I'll be using and the color combinations in the finished blocks.  That's exactly what I did last weekend but the results left me less than thrilled.

Let's start with a single block.  It's easy to make and looks great.  I got the pattern from the Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial.  It's called X's and O's and you get a bonus quilt call the "Serendipity Quilt", more on that when the first one is finished!.

Then I tried some setting combinations.  First was alternating the black and white like this.  I even tried to add in a green triangle - you never know . . . But none of this was working for me.  And the harder I tried the worse it seemed to get.

There were also several variation in between but I was so focused on the design wall that I forgot to take pictures!  Anyway, none of them were working for me either.  Eventually, I just gave up and went to bed thinking usually the light of day makes things clearer.  Unfortunately, that didn't happen in this case. 

In the morning I stood at the design wall again and just couldn't get to liking it.  I was leaving for a business trip in a couple of days so I had a lot on my mind.  I decided that's what the problem was, I just couldn't appreciate what I was doing with so much else on my mind.  As it happened my business trip was just an hours drive away and once the meeting was over I'd have time to take a side trip to a local quilt shop on my way home.  So as I was packing for my trip I pulled all the parts and pieces off the wall and stuffed them in my suitcase.

After a successful meeting with the client I looked up directions to Bits and Pieces in Pelham NH.  I'd been there once before but was coming in from a different direction.  I remember thinking on that first visit that this would be a place I'd definitely have to come back to.  They have a wide selection of quilting fabrics and large bright, work room off to one side. 

When I arrived I found three ladies in the work room taking a break for lunch.  I placed my pile of pieces on the table and asked for help.  They invited me to sit down and talk it over.  We talked about colors and settings and all the other things that you think about when making a quilt for someone.  What kind of colors does the person like; what colors do I like to work with; what will the quilt be used for - wall hanging, cuddling, picnics.  As we talked I laid out the pieces so they could see what I had been doing.  We moved the pieces around, flipped them back and forth, tried different combinations and in the end came up with this layout:

The center makes a pinwheel, the colors make an X and the groups of blacks and whites make the O's.  Somehow seeing it there on the table and having other quilters to talk it over with made all the difference in the world.  I had made the right choices for colors after all and there are multiple variations on the layout that I can do.  One piece of advice I'll be taking is to make all the blocks first then pick the setting.

Maryjane, Carol, and Robin were very helpful indeed!  Thanks so much to the three of you for making me see that working outside my color comfort zone may be a challenge but the end result will be worth it.  A special thanks to Maryjane for snapping the picture and sending to me. 

I hope they'll all stop by here to see the progress and cheer me on.  Thanks for the help ladies! 

Anyone else got any suggestions about working outside my color comfort zone?