Touch of Summer

Spring has been a very busy time of year at work for me which has limited my quilting time. School is winding down ~ next week is our final week! I'm so looking forward to summer! Hence, I named my newest quilt Touch of Summer!

The chevrons are all made with HST using the Always and Forever fabric line by Alex Anderson and Kona white. 

The backing is a white with blue polka dots that I found in my stash ~ perfect! The blue on white chevron is also Always and Forever. 

I finished sewing on the binding last night! I love the pop of red framing the blue and white chevrons! I don't remember the name of the binding fabric. 

This is one of the most densely quilted quilts that I have made. Without marking, I followed the lines of the chevrons every 1/2" so they are a little organic feeling (not completely straight). It is a perfect size for a summer quilt finishing at 47" x 50". 

It is my newest favorite! What do you think?

I'm linking here:

 

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I also finished the 6th and final book in the What's in a Name book challenge. The last title was to have something on a calendar. I chose to read The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. 

This novel is a story of friendship and the bond that is formed through the unlikely group of women at the Friday Night Knitting Club.  The main character is Georgia Walker, owner of Walker and Daughter, a local knit shop.  Georgia is a single mom of Dakota.  Anita is a older woman that befriended Georgia when Dakota's dad left her and helps to run the shop. This novel deals with many issues that women face and the strength and support that is found among friendship.  The ending was a little unexpected. I enjoyed this book. You can see other novels in this category here. This wraps up my book challenge! I hope you enjoyed my selections!

Another Friday night

If your looking for my entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, it's here.

Last night was the FNSI hosted by Heidi and Bobbie. I had all the intentions of getting a bit done. I had been playing with HST recently and finished this chevron top and wanted to have it sandwiched so I could quilt it on Friday night.

But that didn't happen since I was called into work a few extra days and never made it to my LQS to find the perfect backing.

Plan B was to work on my red, white, and blue blocks for the up coming hop and the block I signed up to make for Quilting for Kids. After work, I took a few minutes to visit blogs on the Bloggers' Quilt Festival when my husband comes home from work. I could tell something was up with all his activity and could over hear his phone conversation.

Swarm! 

He calls to me and asks if I wanted to go with him to get the swarm. 

[one of my hubby's hobby is beekeeping]

So we head off to find this!

So now the bees are safe and sound in a hive box and hopefully will happily go about making honey!

Back at home, there is still time to sew however this little sweetie comes visiting with our DD1.

We is such a sweet little guy and not much gets done when he is visiting except walks, play time, and snuggle time.

But I was determined to do some sewing. So when my DD1 took a little night nap, I headed to my sewing room and worked on this block.

A 12 1/2" Square in a Square block for Quilting for Kids on Flickr. It will be in the mail soon! 

This block was so easy to put together, I had a few minutes to look through my stash to see if I could find a backing for my chevrons before I called it 'quits' for the night. Look what I found!

I think it will work out perfectly! Now to work on piecing the back...sandwich and quilt!

Well, even though it wasn't exactly as planned, my night was quite productive! How about yours? Head over to Bobbie's blog to find out what other's accomplished.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

It is that time again when Amy from Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Bloggers' Quilt Festival (button on my side bar). Twice a year, Amy gives quilters a chance to 'show off' a quilt that they made. Thank you Amy! Tomorrow starts the Spring 2012 Quilt Festival.

If your visiting for the first time, welcome! I'd love for you to take your time and browse around my blog. I hope you find some things that you like and you'll come back again. 

For my regular readers, I so appreciate your words of encouragement. Thanks!

I love that this Festival gives me the opportunity to show off a quilt that I made before I started my blog which means, I most likely never mentioned it before or showed you pictures. Oh Happy Daisy is a quilt that I made back in 2008.

The gerbera daisy fabric by Lakehouse was the main fabric in this bright quilt. The daisies were fussy cut and the coordinating bright batiks were set in a nine patch. The black inner and outer border gave great contrast to the brights. In the middle border, I used all the bright batiks pieced in a piano key border.  

This quilt is FMQ with multi-colored bright thread in a daisy pattern. It was one of my earlier attempts at FMQ. 

The daisy pattern seen in the cornerstone (below) is repeated in each nine patch block. 

The backing is a bright green on green stripe and the binding is pieced with the batiks from the nine patches. It finished at 50" x 60". 

I hope you enjoyed my 'show and tell'!

Tomorrow, head over to Amy's blog to find the link to many beautiful creations. Go ahead, get inspired! 

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Tomorrow night is also the FNSI sponsored by Heidi, Handmade by Heidi, and Bobbie. Button on my side bar. Sign up on Bobbie's blog Crafty Vegas Mom and join me in a night of sewing! 

A May Finish!

Back in January, I followed the Sew Scraps Along with Jodi over at Pleasant Home. I chose to make the scraptacular picnic quilt following the tutorial by Nanette here. I had finished the top way back in January (here) but put it aside since I had other quilts that needed attention before I could finish this one. So after several finishes and a few baby quilts, I finally finished my Scrap-yard Picnic Quilt! 

It is all ready for the picnic season once the weather starts cooperating as it has been raining here for days. Today the sun came out and I quickly took some pictures before more rain comes. 

This quilt is completely made from my scrap baskets or stash including the borders, backing and binding. The only thing purchased for this quilt was the batting. So this is the 4th quilt in my personal stash challenge!

What have you been creating?

Oh Baby!

Last year was weddings...this year it seems to be babies! 

No, none of the couples that got married last year are having babies yet. 

Sew I have been busy making baby quilts! I already showed you the baby rag quilt that I made on a previous post. I also finished this cute quilt I'm calling Elephant March.

I found this cute elephant print that I fussy cut to fit the squares. I had been wanting to make a hour glass quilt for a while when I was inspired by this quilt by Jennifer. I love the way the coordinating striped fabric works in the hour glass. The quilting is a simple FMQ stipple. The binding is Kona Marine and the background is Kona White.

Another finish is this bright baby quilt called "Doing the Bunny Hop!"

The sashing fabrics are all dot from various fabric lines chosen to coordinate with the fussy cut bunnies.

The backing is a small pin dot in green.

The fabric for the corner stones and the prairie points is Kona White.  This is the first time I have attempted to do prairie points. I followed this tutorial by Heather at quilt.cook.keep

They were much easier to do than I expected. 

They are so cute!

 All three count as finishes in April! Yay!

What have you been stitching?

Note: Thank you for all the votes for my quilt over at the quilting gallery! It won 2nd place! I sew appreciate all your support!