Swanky Easter Dresses

I picked up some fabric for Easter Dresses in the clearance section of my Local Quilt Store.

Swanky,

adjective;

elegant or ostentatious

Yes, a little early, but with 4 dresses to make so I figure I can't have too big of a head start.

WIP Wednesday

Hi there! Progress has been made this week, projects started and finished even. Here we go...

1. Ticker-tape Quilt - Aleah wanted to make a quilt for her 100th day of school project. We followed the instructions from the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along. It was a fun project to do together.

2. Colleen's Skirt - I bought this fabric at JoAnn's in September. I liked it because it has a bunch of colors and should go with almost any of her shirts. She was not cooperating so this is as good of a picture as you are going to get. :)

Good Progress

3. Civil War Quilt - I am caught up and finished making block #4 - Texas Tears

4. Grandmother's Flower Garden - I'm getting hexagons based and ready to take on my trip next week!

5. Crazy Quilt Blocks - I made 6 more blocks!

6. Pink and Yellow Diamond Quilt - This quilt for my niece-to-be has been laid out on my living room rug for almost a week, but half of it is sewn together now. I think it is coming together well. I love pink and yellow!

Stalled

7. Big Tree Quilt - needs to be quilted

8. Cousin Sacks

Stats

Started - 2

Finished - 2

In Progress -6

Keeping the Sabbath Day Quilty: or I think I am now an over the top Mom

Friday, Aleah our Kindergartener came home with a note saying their class was going to celebrate the 100th day of school and asking that each child bring a collection/display of 100 things (100 Cherrios, marbles, pennies, whatever). I was working on a quilt at the table when Aleah came home and she grabbed some of my scraps and said, "100 little pieces of fabric!" How could I say no?

Over at the Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along group they are making ticker-tape quilts. Basically, you glue your scraps of fabric onto your top piece of fabric, layer and sew around each piece about 1/4 inch in from the edge. The perfect project for Aleah's 100 pieces of fabric.

Friday night and Saturday morning, using the scraps from my hexagon quilt, we counted out 10 sets of 10 (you would think this would be easy, but it was the most painful part of the process). Life happened and we didn't work on it any more on Saturday.

Sunday morning our 10 year old asked if the quilt was going to be ready for school on Monday. I said the party wasn't on Monday (who would give parents only a few days warning?). I checked the note. They were suppose to bring them in on Monday. Augh!!

Now, I know this might seem silly, but we try to keep Sundays low key around here - a day for Church and family. As part of that I made the decision long ago that I wouldn't sew on Sunday (except for handwork, a girl has to have something!). But yesterday I broke down.

The morning was spent gluing. My husband worried that this was going to turn into "my" project, but Aleah glued over half of the fabric pieces and I only moved ones that strayed too close to the edge or where there were three of the same fabric really close together.

After dinner Aleah sat on my lap and we free motion quilted around each piece.

(I love that little face in the corner!)

Even Dad took a turn.

After the kids were in bed I bound the edge. It is sooo cute. I was going to take a picture of Aleah and her quilt this morning, but someone decided she was going to have a meltdown because her black sweater wasn't clean and it wasn't a photo shoot moment. You'll have to take my word for now, because it is still at school.

I was so proud of Aleah - for making the quilt, Not for screaming about her sweater for a half hour - and am glad she is taking an interest in sewing.

WIP Wednesday and First 3 Civil War Blocks

It seems like the fates have conspired against me and the sewing machine this week, but I was able to work on my Civil War blocks.

1. Civil War Quilt - I am all caught up on the blocks that have been posted so far. Yea! But I think making all of these blocks will be a learning experience in fabric choice and placement.

Block #1 - Catch Me If You Can (tutorial) I love these fabrics, but I don't think there was quite enough contrast.

Block #2 - North Star (tutorial) Again, I love the floral, but I think I would rather have had the points be the darker color.

Block #3 - Seven Sisters (tutorial) This was suppose to be straight applique, but I "cheated" and used fuse-able web and blanket stitched around them. I have appliqued before, but my points aren't very good and these were tiny stars. I figured better safe than sorry.
I have really enjoyed this project and can't wait until Saturday when the next block is posted.

2. Grandmother's Flower Garden - it's a'comin' 'long

Stalled
3. Big Tree Quilt - supper stalled!

4. Pink and Yellow Diamond Quilt

5. Cousin Sacks

6. Crazy Quilt Blocks

This week:

Completed: 0

Added: 0

Total: 6

WIP Wednesday

This has been a slow week on every front. Our 18 month old has been sooo sick that I spent most of the last week and a half snuggling with her on the couch, listening to Harry Potter on CD. She has improved to stuffy and I was able to finish these January bee blocks yesterday while she napped and played (yes!) with her sister.

For the Twist on Tradition Bee I made these pinwheel/log cabin blocks Emily requested. I think they will look really good all together.

For Megan in Bee Improvisational: house blocks. I. Am. In. Love. with these florals. She sent tons of fabric and I am sorely tempted to keep the leftovers. JK, Megan. :)

The Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt got placed on the back burner in December, but since Christmas I joined 23 flowers together. Slow and steady wins the race.

Join the WIP link-up with Lee at Freshly Pieced and see what everyone has been up to.

Civil War Blocks Enter the 21st Century

One of my favorite blogs is Barbara Brackman's Material Culture. Barbara is a quilt historian and fabric designer who shares regular posts about quilts, quilt dating and fabric. Some of my favorite posts are ones where she shows pictures of quilts gone wrong (Sunbonnet Sue, Lone Stars and More)

Do you ever feel a little out of whack?

Because 2011 is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, Barbara started a new blog: Civil War Quilts. Each Saturday, she will share pictures and stories from people who lived during the Civil War (she has an amazing collection of antique pictures) and a pattern for an 8 inch quilt block.

I LOVE history and antique stuff (one of my dreams is to work at a living history center) but don't have any Civil War reproduction prints and I don't really know if I want to buy any. (Although I must say there are some pretty coral pinks, reds and browns out there). But I still want to participate in Barbara's quilt along, so this is what I have decided to do:

• I will make a goodly number of the blocks out of my stash of Meadowsweet.

From Sandi Henderson's webpage.

• Add a two inch sashing in white to make them 12 inch blocks.
• When my month comes around in A Twist on Tradition Bee I will ask for 12 inch star themed blocks.
• Put the Bee blocks on point and alternate with my Civil War blocks.

I think I am in love with the quilt already! Now I just have to get sewing!

Happy New Year!

We had a great time visiting my mother in law in Washington DC this Christmas. It was our first time there and we had a good time (minus when the children were screaming) visiting the sites.

Everything was just beautiful. We saw these beautiful tiles in the Capitol building. My husband says I can make a quilt like them... humm...maybe in 2012. :)

Aren't they beautiful though? I thought about going to the Textile Museum, but they didn't have a specific exhibit on quilts going on and ... did I mention trying to go places with kids?

Anyway, we are back and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. I finished these blocks for Deb in our Bee Improvisational bee and need to get going on January's blocks.

I also have played around making crazy quilt blocks out of my girls' old clothes. These blocks are soooo fun to make. More exciting news and info on crazy quilts will be coming later in the year!!!!


And, because I know you have been dying to see them ;), the potholders my mom got for Christmas. I really like how they turned out - very cheery.

One of my New Year's Resolutions: Don't make handmade presents in December - let's get those all finished up in the summer. :)

Hope you are all having a great New Year!