Tuesday

Vintage Farm Girl Sampler Quilt

Vintage Farm Girl Sampler
Today I finished my Vintage Farm Girl Sampler quilt. A few weeks ago I took the quilt to my local senior center and used their long arm machine to quilt it. I just love the way the quilting complemented the top.

I planned on using green for the binding - the same solid green as I used on the back, however I didn't have enough left. So I headed to the quilt shop where I got the backing to get more. Unfortunately the bolt was gone. I searched for some other green since I really wanted the binding to blend in instead of stand out. As I looked around, there was a 1-yard remnant on the shelf and lo and behold it was the fabric I was looking for! I really felt lucky.

I sewed the binding on earlier this week and finished hand-stitching it to the back this morning. I hope it will qualify for the Wisconsin State Fair next summer.

Sunday

The 'Joy' Quilt

Today I finished up the 'Joy' quilt and I made a pillow cover to go along with the quilt. Working with flannel is a challenge for me and to add fleece to the mix just made the project that much more complex. Let's just say it wasn't all that fun dealing with the stretchy-ness of both the flannel and fleece and then add some tension issues when trying to quilt through the fleece and it was a recipe for frustration. After having the thread break at least a dozen times (whenever I stitched through the fleece) I finally figured out the proper tension setting. I'm not really complaining as all things difficult are learning experiences but I'm certain I won't be doing another fleece project any time soon.
So here's to kicking off the holiday season with a finished quilt and a matching pillow cover. I hope my client likes the finished project. I do love how whimsical this little cutie turned out.

Wednesday

My Latest Little Purchase

There's so much going on around here it seems that lately sewing has taken a back seat (yes, that was meant to be a play on words). Our neighborhood rummage sale is this upcoming weekend so we are cleaning out the garage, the basement, the shed, the closets and drawers and everything else that we can find to clean out. We've set up tables and price marked everything that isn't nailed down. We are ready.

Over the summer, I've been searching for the most perfect little 'me' car. I was hoping to find it sooner but every time I would come close to finding what I was looking for, when I inquired it would already be sold. Then Saturday night, I found this little sweetheart. I instantly e-mailed the dealership and asked if I could schedule a test drive. On Monday afternoon my husband and I took her for a spin and voila! On Tuesday I was taking her home. Since it's already fall I don't anticipate many more top-down days but I will enjoy the ones I can still get - in fact, it was probably better that it took me this long to find this - I got a better deal than I anticipated.

Doesn't this look like a fun way to go shop-hopping to quilt stores and for driving to quilt expos during the spring and summer? I think so.

Sunday

What's on the design board?

I've had this project waiting for me for quite a while (all summer long) and I am finally getting to it. It's a client project where the request is "can you make a lap quilt with my daughter's old pjs? Her name is Joy and it make a great Christmas present. Can you also incorporate the ruffles in the quilt as well?" After thinking all summer long as to how I was going to go about it, I came up with these large blocks.
I started with some fleece to use as the background fabric. I cut the fleece into strips and hated the bulk of the whole thing. I also wondered how I would quilt something totally made of fleece. I was trying to ignore my general dislike of fleece and come up with a way to make it work. It wasn't happening. So I dug out some fleece from my stash and stitched strips around the fleece. I liked the feel, but hated the colors I used. I tried using a soft pink like the Joy applique and I tried using a bright green that is also found within the applique. Both did not work. After a trip to the fabric store, I had the right colors for the blocks. 

I stitched the strips onto the fleece squares and ended up with the results shown here. I have enough Joy blocks to alternate with the plain dotted fleece blocks. I will end up with 4 rows of 4 blocks each. I think I really need to make this 5 rows of 4 blocks each. I definitely have enough fabric to make more dotted fleece blocks but no more applique blocks. I'm considering adding in some blocks framed with white fleece and maybe even adding back the soft pink block.  I will have to make a white block and maybe incorporate the ruffles then see how that looks before moving to the next decision.  The next think I have to consider is whether I should square up the blocks and make them wonky or just square them up straight. 

For now, I think I need to work on something else and think about it for a while. I don't want to make and decisions I will regret later.