Quilt Top Finished and Basted

I finished putting together this quilt top a few days ago. I quickly put the back together and got it basted. Now I am ready to quilt, I just need to find the time. Hopefully soon.

A Quilted Stocking

I finished up this stocking earlier this week because we are going to making it as a class at the Viking Sewing Gallery in November. It was fun doing the stripes. I love the look. I quilted each stripe with a different style.

I'm going to try and make 2 more so the whole family will have new stockings this year. Scott and Troy will not be getting the pink fabric in their stockings.

I really love the Barbara Jones of Quilt Soup - Over the River Christmas fabrics. They are the stripe on the cuff, the green trees with snowflakes and the red with white snow flakes. I may need to pick up a few more from this collection. I found them at www.fabric.com.

Patchwork Progress

I'm making slow but steady progress on this quilt. I've been strip piecing rows of Kona Snow White with a color strip. Each one makes about 5 pairs of blocks. But every time I get to this point I keep seeing another color of fabric to add, so I make more strips. I think it's going to be really fun when it's done. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll get this top finished.

A New Start

When we got back from vacation I was ready to sew, so I decided to start a new quilt. Here's a glimpse of my Friday progress. It's going to be a fun baby quilt.

Vacation in Williamsburg, VA with some Quilt Shops

We just got home last night from our trip to Williamsburg, VA. My sister lives there so we were visiting and vacationing. We went to Busch Gardens and Water Country (felt the earth quake on Tuesday while at Water Country). We were also able to stop at 3 quilt shops on the trip. The first was Nancy's Calico Patch in Newport News, VA. I found the 3 fabrics above at that shop (the gray is Kona Ash). No pictures of the shop, we had my son Troy who is 5 and my niece Anna who is 4 with us. Hard to get pictures.

The second quilt shop was Love 2 Quilt in Williamsburg. It was located in the Village Shops close to Busch Gardens. I found some Amy Butler there that was 40-50% off. I also couldn't resist those Aunt Grace purple polka dots, so fun.

Our last stop was yesterday at Kelly Ann's Quilting in Warrenton, VA. We stopped there on our journey home. I found some great fabrics there (pictured below). It was a really nice shop, and we got to meet Kelly Ann while there. She recommended the Black Bear Bistro for lunch which was great. It was a nice stop on our way home.

And here is a picture of Anna and Troy. They were so excited to see each other they were like this the whole trip, very silly. (And don't you just love Troy's shirt, it's my favorite)

New Fabric in the Shop - Children at Play

I just got 4 new bolts of Children at Play today, they're listed in my Etsy shop. These fabrics are so cute, I love them. Check out Sarah Jane's shop on Etsy, she has some great children's prints available. I love her designs.

Around the Zoo Completed

I finished my "Around the Zoo" quilt. It's a baby quilt with fun zoo prints.

I quilted it with swirls in the circles, which was lots of fun to quilt. And I also did squiggly diagonal lines between the circles.

And for the back I just used the Alexander Henry 2D Zoo print. The binding is a Kona solid (I can't remember which shade of blue).

A few fabrics and a pin cushion

I recently participated in Carla of Lollyquiltz charm swap. The cute fabrics above are the ones I received.

I also couldn't resist picking up these fun fabrics at Sew Fresh Fabrics. I love those little books.



And I picked up this pin cushion at JoAnn's the other day, I just loved the meadowsweet fabric combination. And look it matches my sewing machine.

A Quilted Tote Bag

I finished this tote a little over a week ago. I really like how it turned out. I love the greens, blues and grays.

Here's a close up of the quilting, I used swirly loops.

And I quilted the handles with straight lines.

And added a double pocket on the inside. This should make a nice bag to carry this summer.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Quilt - May 2011

Here is my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival - My modified Bento Box Quilt. I used Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms mixed with a few Kona solids. I also used a solid for the binding.

And here is the back. I think I like the back better, it's just so simple and clean looking. I need to make a quilt with a front like this. I love the 4 blocks together with the solids.

In case anyone has noticed that I haven't been blogging as much as before it's because I started a full time job in March. I am now the manager at the Viking Sewing Gallery inside JoAnn fabrics. It's a great job, selling sewing machines, a perfect fit for me. If you're in Greensburg stop by and say Hi.

Scrap Quilting Bee

My fabrics arrived a week or so ago for the Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Quilting Bee. I love opening packages with fabric, so fun.

And here is the 12 1/2" x 12 1/2" block that I put together. The block is going to be used to make a Quilt for the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.

Sunday Stash - Shop Hop Finds

My quilt guild, the Greensburg Modern Quilt Guild had a shop hop yesterday. It was lot's of fun. Six of us toured 3 quilt shops around Pittsburgh - Quilter's Corner in Finleyville, Quilter's Depot in Pittsburgh and The Quilt Company in Allison Park. Here are my finds above. Lots of Amy Butler Daisy chain (at both Quilter's Corner and The Quilt Company), some charm packs of Moda Sugar Pop, I just love this new line, I found this cool alphabets and numbers print along with some Moda Bella grey solid at Quilter's Depot. The orange stripe Katie Jump Rope Jessica and I found in the 50% off section, wow what a find. I also found some of the Barbara Jones Summertime, another line I just Love!

Greensburg Modern Quilt Guild members - myself, Priscilla, Mary, Thea, Jessica and Corley. What a fun day.

Stylish Blogger Award

When I opened my email yesterday afternoon, there was an email from Jessica letting me know she had given me the Stylish blogger Award. Wow, thanks Jessica! Jessica and I met at the Greensburg Modern Quilt Guild, I love her blog, Sew Crafty Jess, she always has a fun project going on.

So here's the info about this blogging award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Award 6 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact the bloggers and let them know about the award.

Ok, here are 7 things about me:
1. I'm married to a great guy, Scott. We've been married 15 years, it will be 16 in September.
2. We have a son Troy who is 5, he brings lots of joy to our lives.
3. My favorite place to vacation is Maine. I love Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Island.
4. My bachelor's degree is in Applied Mathematics, it's amazing how much math is involved in quilting.
5. I recently became President of our local chapter of Newborns in Need (Southwestern PA).
6. My favorite season is summer, I love to wear flip flops and shorts.
7. The best thing I've ever eaten is Lobster Crepes at Maggie's Restaurant in Bar Harbor.


And now, here are the 6 blogs that I choose for the Stylish Blogger Award:


1. Janice of Sew Girly - I just found her blog the other day, check out her doll quilt swap from August - I love the little house with the clothesline.






2. Lynne of Lily's Quilts - I found this blog the other day when she featured her Hexagon Park quilt on Moda Bake Shop.




3. Mary at Molly Flanders - I love Mary's hand quilting, she does awesome work.

4. Krista of Spotted Stones - I love her modern quilts, very eye catching.

5. Crystal at Sonnet of the Moon - I love the Bottled Rainbow blocks that Crystal has made, I can't wait to see the finished quilt.

6. Molly of Bailey Girl Five - She makes fun, bright quilts, and her hand quilting looks great too.


Thanks again to Jessica for passing this award along to me!

Back to Nicey Jane

I've pulled the Nicey Jane (Sand and Pebbles Pattern) quilt back out to work on. I'm trying to assembly line the pieces now to make a little faster progress.

Here's the 1st main block that I have done. Now it just making another 8 of these. I'm working on the pinwheels above. And below I have a few of the first section ready to go (I'm mixing up some of the patterns just to make it more interesting).

Quilt Donations - Early Head Start Baltimore

Did you see that Cherri over at Cherry House Quilts is asking for Quilt donations for the Early Head Start Progam in Baltimore, Maryland? She's looking for 55 quilts to start to donate to the babies there. I'm going to help out by sending my Jungle Babies quilt. If you would like to help, check out this post Calling All Quilters.

Batting, Basting and Swirly Circles

I wanted to share how to join batting together. I always have a lot of odd sized pieces left over, and this way I don't waste them. I use my stitch 11 above, a zig zag that stitches across the zig and the zag. Just place your pieces close together and zig zag join them.

The result looks like the picture above. This stitch joins them very smoothly.

And here's a look at my basted quilt.

I'm quilting my circles with swirls. I love making these swirls, it's so much fun. I'm also going to add wiggly lines on the diagonal. I hope to have the quilting finished this evening.

New Fabric and a Quilt Top

Since my fabric diet ended last week, I felt the need to order fabric. I ordered 6 yards of Kona Snow, and 1/2 yards of the Sugar Pops Mod Trees and Ring Toss in gray. I thought that the little mod trees would be smaller, but they are about the size of a quarter. I just love how fun they are.

And here's my "Around the Zoo" quilt top, I just finished it this morning. I'm going to try to get it basted and start quilting this afternoon. It measures approx 36" x 42".

Around the Zoo

I started a new baby boy quilt this weekend and I'm calling it "Around the Zoo". I am attaching the circles to the squares with an applique stitch. I love all the fun blues and greens, and all the prints I'm using have circles in them.

Here's a close up of this cute giraffe.

And an update on my Soul Blossoms modified bento box quilt - I finished quilting it Friday and am working on hand sewing the binding on. I will show the finished product as soon as I get that done.

Sew Sara's Scrap Swap

I just signed up for Sew Sara's Scrap Swap. Go check it out if you are interested in swapping some of your scraps. I know I could use some variety with mine.

New Fabric

I just received these new bolts of fabric from Michael Miller for my Etsy shop. I love getting new bolts of fabrics. The Toot Toot with the little cars and trucks is so fun. I'll be listing these in the shop later today.