My First Paper Pieced Project

I did this quilt quite some time ago for a little boy that I love dearly. I had the idea to do the sail boats because his Mom loves them. I had no idea what I was doing but I gave it a try anyway. I found the cutest fabric that I used for the strips in the middle and the backing. The sails are a navy check. I was very happy with the way it turned out because it was my first try. I am sure that I made a lot of mistakes while making it and have since then done a lot more paper piecing, it is addicting like they say. I tied this quilt because that is what the Mom liked and I had not yet attempted any machine quilting, not even stitching in the ditch. I can do some machine quilting now and I am slowly learning to free motion quilt, although I must say I don't think it is that easy to regulate your stitches. I just need to practice more, as they say,"Practice makes perfect".

Completed Green French Braid....

I finally finished the Green French Braid quilt and mailed it off on Friday. It should arrive sometime tomorrow or Tuesday. I thought I would put it up here with the binding on it to have a better photo of it. It came out nice in spite of the small problems that I had with it on many occasions. Just a lot of little things went wrong but it all worked out. It ended up being a double size quilt. It was supposed to be a lap size. I was supposed to put I think 12 braids on it and I only did 10 I think, maybe it was nine, funny now I can't remember. Well on to the next one.............

Another French Braid Quilt

This is my latest quilt. I loved doing the french braid quilt so much that I just had to make another one. I will get the backing for it tomorrow and finish it up this week. I am just going to stitch in the ditch on every other braid color up and down the strip around the outside of it and in the separator strips. It called for a 6 inch border but I thought the 4 inch was plenty. It measures 66X77. The brown I used for the edging and separator strips will be used for the binding. It is a Christmas present for my new sister in law. Her favorite color is green. I will have to ship it so I wanted to make sure that I got it done in time to do that. I would like to do another baby one in pastel colors and not in a graduation of color like this one and the last one but go blue, yellow, pink, lavender etc. on up the braid. Just so it could be used for either boy or girl. A friend of the family is going to have a baby in February and I want to make them a quilt.

This is not a hard quilt to make but I will make some changes in the directions for the next time. I will cut my strips longer than was suggested it would give a bit more room for measuring it to put the separator strips on. You measure from the center of the diamond out. This time I did cut the triangles a bit larger and it did help a lot. I also used some spray sizing and that helped too but I think if the strips were a bit long one would not have to use so much sizing on it. It is a bit tricky to put the separator strips on but other than that it wasn't bad.

You can see all my mess in this photo. I always have fabric all over the place. I am also working on a scrap log cabin and that is what all the scraps are.

A Trip

Trip Around the World, I love this quilt and it was a lot of fun working on it. I think I would like to make another one of these soon. I did this one a long time ago for my friends daughter. They have gotten a lot of use out of it but the little girl isn't so little anymore. I think she has outgrown this quilt about twice. I tied this quilt because I had not gotten into machine quilting yet.

All Done!

Click on photo to see larger!

The quilt is done and I think it turned out rather nice. I showed it to the ladies at the quilt shop and they really liked it. My husband wanted the red around the outside but I thought it was too much, then the more I looked at it the more I realized that he was right. Now on to the next one. It will be a baby quilt again, blues this time. I am excited about doing this one and look forward to getting started.

Psst: I made this quilt with some old fabrics from shorts, blouses etc. that someone gave to me plus I had some new fabrics out of my stash and some odds and ends that I had leftover from when I made little outfits for my daughter.

Another Quilt!

I have been super busy lately and haven't even thought about posting. I did something I have wanted to do for a long time and then after that I finished that scrap quilt I had been working on. I don't have it quilted yet but I put the whole thing together yesterday and plan on getting it quilted this week. This is my quilt table which is nothing more than two full sheets of 3/4 inch plywood with a bit of a coating on them to keep them from being so rough, on two saw horses. My husband's idea, good job dear! I have had this table for a few years now and when I am not putting a quilt together we just take it down and store it away till the next time.

Machine Embroidered Quilt

This is a quilt that I did for one of my daughters. It was her first child and she was having a boy. I had just gotten a new sewing machine with an embroidery machine . My daughter likes sail boats so I did a sail boat theme. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the fabric that I wanted but my favorite shop had just the right stuff, as usual. I designed this on my quilt program and paper pieced the blocks after I put the embroidery on. I really love how it turned out. I made this in 2005. The back had sail boats I think, I have a photo of the back I will have to look for it. I machine quilted it which I didn't do a very good job but I had just started to machine quilt then and wasn't used to it. I did put some ties on it because it just gave it a nice look.

Pinwheel Quilt

I did this quilt quite some time ago. It is from an Eleanor Burns book. I love doing her quilts she makes it all so easy and anyone can follow her directions. I just finally got a photo of it. I made it for my friend about 6 years ago I think. The colors were darker than this when I made it, I think she has used it a lot and washed it many times. I can't remember too much about it but I did make it for her for Christmas that year. I did tie this one off. She loves the quilts when they are tied.

It was funny that was the same year we got our rural water line put in and on Sunday my husband and a friend were hooking the water up to the house and cut the phone line. Well the next day, Monday she came over to see what was wrong with the phone and to let me know that she had called the phone company. I couldn't let her in because I had started putting the binding on the quilt when she came to the door. She thought I was upset with her about something. That was in November and I couldn't tell her about it till I gave her the quilt. I don't know if she remembers that or not.

Sun Bonnet Sue Quilt

This is a very special quilt. I had made one quilt the farm one then I had the idea for this one and started it and stopped. After we had moved I got it back out and started in on it again. I wish I had a better photo of it. I think it turned out really cute. I did it all in 1930's reproduction prints.

The top square Sue has a bee near her and some flowers, I can't remember what all of the squares have in them one I know has a wagon another a puppy. I should have taken more time to take some better photos of it but at least I got this one. I may get over there again sometime and when I do I will see if I can take some better photos of it. Although if you click on the photo it will make it much bigger and you can see the different blocks.

One of My Quilts, a second time.....

I posted this quilt when I first started this blog. It is the first quilt that I quilted by machine. It was extremely simple to quilt and a good place to start. At the time I posted the only photo that I had was one of it not yet sewn together.

I am glad that I had a chance to get with my friend and see the quilt again. It still looks good and it was nice to see it again. They have taken good care of it and I know that it has been well used and will be used a lot more.

What is it they say about someone that makes a quilt? That they never should go back and visit the quilt again but I am so glad that I did see this one after about 6 or 7 years. The fabric has held up well and the stitching looks good too. There is a lot to be said about all cotton in a quilt.

Many Quilts

I finally got with my friend and took some really quick photos of some of the quilts that I have done for her and her children. I am so glad I did. I did not take my time and set the quilts up. The kids just laid them on the floor and I snaped the photo. I will be posting them in the next couple of weeks. I had forgotten what a couple of them looked like and I was amazed at how nice they still look after they have been washed umm-teen times.

The Quilt That Started It All!

This quilt is one I did for my God-son, it is the one that started all my quilting. I made this one up. I thought it was simple and I drew the patterns myself. I do think I had a bit of help with the drawing of the patterns but not much. I made this quilt I think in 1997. He was just about a year old when I finally started it and got it done. I didn't have a clue to what I was doing but I guess it turned out alright. I had done a sail boat with fish on the back so it was a two sided quilt but I had used "cheap" fabric for it and the fabric on the back did not hold up well. I had ended up re doing the sail boat one once and then like a dummy I left the "cheap" fabric there and just trimmed it up and added some new good fabric. Well needless to say, it fell apart too. Just last spring I re did the sail boat one and gave it back to him, I hope I can find that photo.

By the way, the big feet there on the left of the photo is the feet of the boy that I made this for. He sure is growing up fast! I have to hunt for that other photo of the sail boat quilt then I will post it.