Sunflower Pig Quilt Finish & April OMG

 My piggies are done! This is a Lori Holt design that uses her pig block available on Fat Quarter Shop and several blocks from her Farm Girl Vintage book. I am so grateful to my sister for gifting me the gorgeous kit and to my mom for helping me with the longarm quilting. It is a super bright and sunny day here--almost too bright for pictures, but I could not resist getting this posted because a lot of you have commented that you were in love with it too. It is hard to believe we woke up to two inches of snow yesterday, but it is sunny and brisk today.

This is an up close of the center pig and sunflowers. I used my mom's Handiquilter 16 longarm and her scallop groovy boards. I wanted an allover design because the focus really is the cute piggies and happy sunflowers. Sunflowers happen to be my favorite by the way.

 After washing, it measures 50 x 53 inches. I plan to hang this quilt in my house along with some other bright and cheery quilts for the rest of this spring and into the summer.

Here is my label--an extra piggy that I embroidered the info onto.

 These are my pencil pouches that were part of my April OMG goal. I have all of them done and just need to put some goodies inside them.

I also finished my 8 tea towels for Administrative Assistant's Day. Check out everyone else's April OMG goals here:

http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/04/one-monthly-goal-april-finish.html

I am working on a retirement quilt for an amazing teacher that is finally retiring and I am binding some quilts for my favorite local quilt shop, so my hand work for Slow Sunday Stitching will continue this evening:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/04/slow-sunday-stitching_30.html

We have tomorrow off, so it is a short work week--maybe I will get some more done!

Pyramid Baby Quilt Finish

 Look at this finish! I got my invite to the baby shower on Friday, April 14th and it is tomorrow, April 27--so I had less than two weeks to start and finish a baby quilt. I talked to the mama to be and found out she is decorating the nursery with black and white with Kelly green as an accent and using geometric shapes. I thought a pyramid design would be perfect. I have not made a triangle quilt in 20+ years, but I thought this would be doable. I spent the entire evening of the 14th cutting and then the rest of that weekend sewing rows together.

 I spent the whole second weekend machine quilting. I just followed the seams and used my presser foot as a guide.  I started the hand binding on Sunday night and finished it up Monday night. 

I washed it up last night and wrapped it up tonight.

Just in the nick of time! After washing it measures 48.5 x 52 inches. I hope the mama to be loves it!

Triangles & Tea Towels

Look what is almost done! I finished piecing my Equilateral Triangle Quilt this week and spent yesterday pinning and quilting it.

 I quilted it along the seams just using my foot as my guide. I have not washed it yet because I need to sew the binding down, but I this it will shrink up nicely. I am using one of the Kelly greens for the binding--it should tie it all together nicely. For Slow Sunday Stitching, I plan on spending my evening sewing the binding on this one. Check out what everyone else is up to here:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/04/slow-sunday-stitching_23.html

I bought a black minky for the backing. The baby shower is Thursday, so I will get pictures and measurements when it is all complete and washed.

Administrative Assistant's Day is Wednesday, so I spent today machine appliquéing some tea towels for all of the secretaries at my three schools. I bought hand soap at Bath & Body Works during Spring Break, so I am ready with time to spare.

 Eight tea towels and coordinating hand soaps all done.

I should make a few for myself soon.

I had lots of sweet comments about my Sunflowers & Pigs top this last week. I bought a lovely green for a border and a pink for the binding. I hope to get the borders on it this week--so stay tuned!

Under Construction

 Howdy! So I found out on Friday I have a baby shower at work in less than two weeks. Crunch time for sure, so I stopped at Joann's and the fabric store on my way home from work Friday. They are doing the nursery in black and white with Kelly green and geometric shapes, so I thought this design would be perfect! It is a free pattern that you can find here:

http://www.freshlyhandmade.com/2014/01/purple-and-turquoise-triangle-quilt_28.html

I am making this one slightly smaller than the pattern with 25 triangles across and 13 rows. I think it will be about 52 inches square. The cutting was pretty time consuming, but I got it done Friday night. I figure if I can finish the top today, I will buy a minky backing when it is 60% off at Joann's on Thursday, and get it all quilted and bound next weekend.

Last Sunday, I got my Sunflower and Pigs top done. It is is so cheerful and happy! The pattern calls for several borders, but I don't think I want it that big because I think I want to hang it. It is already about 48 inches wide, but I think it needs another border--maybe a 2.5 inch aqua one. What do you guys think? Any advice on borders and quilting would be appreciated.

I also finished my pineapple mug rug this week. I made the pineapple using Jackie Padesky's tutorial from Instagram @jackiepadeskyquilts, but I pieced mine to  finish at 1 inch instead of 2.

I snagged this Rae Dunn Aloha mug at TJ Maxx and some Moose Munch to go with it. It was a gift for a friend at work. I am already embroidering another one that I will work on tonight for Slow Sunday Stitching

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2017/04/slow-sunday-stitching_16.html

So much to do and not enough time!

Scrap Zone

 I have been on my Spring Break this week, so I spent the week quilting and shopping. I made this quilt top, Town Square from Lori Holt's Quilty Fun book last year when I was teaching a BOM class. I decided to finish it up for a new spring tablecloth.

 I quilted it horizontally using the wavy stitch on my Pfaff. I quilted it about every 1.25 inches.

 I bound it completely by machine using a red from my stash.

 The backing I bought several years ago and it is my favorite combination turquoise and red.

Here it is finished and on my kitchen table!

 I trekked up to Grand Junction for some serious shopping. First stop was the sewing machine shop where I got a a machine quilting guide and a new extra wide quilting foot. The foot will help me do straight-line quilting about 1/2 inch apart--that modern, but simple look.

 I went by another sewing machine store/quilt shop and bought some Bonnie and Camille half yards for my stash

and these blues for my football quilt.

I had a gift card for Barnes & Noble, but I really don't buy books so much anymore even for my classroom--kids just don't read like they used to and I read on my Kindle Paperwhite from the library. I grabbed a couple of my favorite magazines and bought a spring tote bag--they did not have it in turquoise, but the coral with Gerber daisies was lovely. I hit many other stores, but it wasn't really quilt related or very exciting.

I am trying not to start any new quilting projects--I need to finish my UFOs. I made pig blocks and sunflowers quite awhile ago, but I was not sure about the other blocks I had planned to use in the quilt...I changed my mind and now will make some Furrow Blocks (flying geese) as shown in the Sunflower Pig Quilt pattern.  It is a good thing it is rainbow for the RSC17 April!

April OMG Goal

 I already got a great start on my April OMG Goal. My goal for April is to get a bunch of handmade gifts done. First up are pencil pouches for my fifth graders. I work with kids for three years, so we are pretty bonded by the end of elementary school. I like to give them each a personalized gift--in the past, I have given book covers and little baskets. This year, I decided to make personalized pencil pouches. I asked each student for favorite colors and put their initials on them. I made 19 of them this weekend and I made 8 last weekend. I need to make two more--I need clarification on what initial to use and a color for the other one.

I am working on this mug rug for a gift for a friend. The pineapple is a 4x7 inch block. I am hand embroidering the quote right now and I hope to quilt and bind it this evening.

My other gifts I need to complete are nine tea towels for my school secretaries--Administrative Assistant's Day is Wednesday, April 26th. 

Well, I think that all these handmade gifts are plenty for my April OMG Goal. Check out what everyone else is working on here:

http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2017/04/one-monthly-goal-april-goal-link-up.html