Lavender Blue Baby Quilt Finish

 This baby quilt has been quilted, bound, and is ready for the baby's arrival in September. I wavy stitch quilted it along the triangle edges. After washing, it measures 42 x 49 inches. Here is the free tutorial I used to make this quilt from: 

https://cluckclucksew.com/2017/05/lavender-blue.html

I used a lavender fabric from my stash and put a strip of aqua down the middle to make it wide enough. I used my Pfaff's alphabet to embroider a label. The purple binding was leftover from another project.

 Our sunflowers are still blooming and I could not resist sharing a few up close shots.

 The variety of colors is gorgeous.

 We are planning on harvesting seeds for next year's patch which will be bigger!

 One plant had fallen over, so my hubby cut the flowers and put this vase of them in our kitchen window. I am so ready for fall--I have had enough of 90+ degree weather! I am ready for football, sweaters, pumpkins, coffee all day, flannels, etc.

I could not resist getting a pumpkin spice cold brew and a pumpkin scone yesterday morning to celebrate the finishing the first week of school.

Here is a little preview of my secret sewing for the FQS---it will be featured here on September 12th! 

Enjoy your long weekend!

Sports Baby Quilt Finish

My friend Matt has a new baby. Matt is also the dad of my former student, Connor, who drowned in May...The family lives and breaths sports mostly soccer and basketball. Matt used to teach PE at one of my schools, but now runs one our town's rec facilities--so obviously sports theme seemed a good choice.

 Our town's high school colors are read and black, so I used those colors with gray as the background. I put the baby, Cooper's name on the pennant. 

I used some of the embroidery stitches on my Pfaff for all the detail stitching.

 I really think the gray background worked well. 

My patchwork squares finished 3 inches, so I used them for the grid quilting with my Pfaff's large wavy stitch.

I put the family's surname on the bat along with the year.

I used a gray plush backing which is a double-sided minky. I did go ahead and use Warm and Natural batting, so it is extra heavy. I figure this baby will be at many sports events and could use a plush, heavy quilt. After washing, this quilt measures 42 x 51 inches. I am looking forward to dropping this one off this week.

Have a great week!

Summer Sunflowers

 Our sunflower patch is in full bloom this week! A couple of the plants are over 12 feet high. 

My hubby planted several types.

 We have orange ones,

 yellow with orange,

 smaller varieties,

 heirlooms,

light yellow,

and this maroon kind that looks purplish black. We are thrilled with how they look! My hubby is already planning on a bigger patch next year. Several of our neighbors have stopped by to admire them and the funniest comment was, "Are you growing Jack's beanstalk?" That was before they had started blooming.

 I was officially back to work on Thursday, but I have been slowly working on my classroom set up for the last few weeks. I altered Lori Holt's cross stitch design "Eat. Sleep. Stitch. Repeat." to "Eat. Read. Sleep. Repeat." I have a frame ordered and will display this in my classroom. It was fun to cross stitch again especially a simple project with bigger Aida cloth--I used 11 x 11 count and DMC perle cotton  #8 color 310. You can check out everyone's Slow Sunday Stitching here:

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/08/slow-sunday-stitching_18.html

I like my classrooms to be cozy, cheerful, and comfortable for my students and me. I think we all work better in a pleasant environment. My home base classroom got moved and is getting a facelift--some fake plants, a chalkboard painted door, some burlap borders, some throw rugs, etc. I am using my sunflowers as my inspiration--black (I always like it as a neutral) with yellow.

Our daughter turned 21 years old on Friday! She is in Singapore on a research trip paid for by her university. When she returns in a week, she will start her senior year. Where has the time gone? 

I have a baby quilt to get done and some secret sewing for the Fat Quarter Shop coming. 

Have a great  week!

Lavender Blue Baby Quilt Top

It has been hot which has not helped my sewing mojo. This week though I worked on cutting and piecing the triangles for this baby quilt. I have a teacher friend expecting a little girl in September and she will not be coming back to work. She told me she was decorating her nursery in lavender and teal. I found this equilateral triangle pattern, Lavender Blue, on Cluck Cluck Sew's blog, here is the link:

https://cluckclucksew.com/2017/05/lavender-blue.html
It measures 44 x 51 inches right now. I pieced a backing and machine embroidered a label. I also pieced some batting scraps and I plan on pinning and quilting it up tomorrow. I already have a leftover dark purple binding from another project. I am pleased with how modern and fresh this top came out. I had to buy most of the lavenders because my stash was pretty lacking, but I just bought quarter yards and only used half of them. All the teals and aquas were in my stash.

Check out our sunflower patch--some of the plants are 12 feet high and are beginning to bloom.

I stood out on the road to try and show you how big the patch is. Our lot is on the corner of a cul-de-sac and this part of our pasture is nearest to the corner.

For some reason, most of the blooms are on the end near my hubby's workshop. We have had a couple of strong thunderstorms in the last few days and got 1.5 inches of rain. There was one storm midday today for only a half hour, but there was a half inch in that short time. Hopefully, all the rain will help our garden--my hubby already has eight gallons of raspberries in the freezer. We have a bunch of zucchini and golden beets--that I just keep pickling them in the fridge and eating them in salads with our homegrown lettuce. I made zoodles (zucchini made into spaghetti style noodles) for the first time the other night and they were so delicious--we will be eating them often. The tomatoes and peppers are starting to trickle in. It is so easy to eat healthy with what we grow and what I can get from our local farms this time of year. 

I have 2.5 weeks until I am back to work, but I confess I have already spent a little time in my classroom that was moved--I get too overwhelmed and stressed if my work space is not organized. A little bit of work here and there will help keep me calm. I also have another baby quilt to get finished before I head back to work...

Good Fortune Finished

 I finished binding my Good Fortune Quilt last night. This one makes me do a happy dance! This quilt was my first time sewing along with Bonnie Hunter for her mystery after Thanksgiving and it will not be my last for sure. I have made other Bonnie patterns, but this one was far more intricate. I followed her pattern and color suggestions, I did opt to use a royal blue for my binding instead of a cream as she did. I only purchased my backing and binding everything else was from my stash. More information about Bonnie and her quilt designs can be found on her website here:

https://quiltville.blogspot.com

 Rachel quilted this one. I am not sure what the design is called, but it adds lots of lovely texture. I let her make all the quilting decisions for design as she has a good eye and is still learning about long arming. I have not washed this one yet, but it will crinkle up even more.

 The quilt measures 69 inches square which is on the smaller side for a Bonnie Hunter quilt. 

 I used our garden fence for these pictures and a couple of our sunflowers are starting to bloom. My hubby's raspberries are really starting to produce and he already has a gallon bucket full in the freezer--last year he had over eight gallons!

 This is the first sunflower that has bloomed in our sunflower patch. Don't you love the beautiful color? There were several honey bees buzzing around it.

Here is our sunflower patch. It is three rows wide and about 30 feet long. I would like to plant a bigger space in our pasture next year, but this year is our test run. A couple of weeks ago we had a big hail storm and some of the leaves got holes, but overall the the plants survived. Some of the giant sunflower plants are already eight feet high.

I snapped this picture of Fergie this morning. She was on lookout duty. Our dogs have their own room, it is our sunroom. It has very long windows that are basically eye level for the dogs when they are standing. I used to have a plastic wicker set in there, but they destroyed it and the only piece that survived is the coffee table which they often perch on to sit and see the backyard and pasture. Fergie is such a good watch dog!

 I picked up my To Spin a Star Quilt from Glenn, my other longarm quilter friend, yesterday. This was a scrappy pattern from Diane of Butterfly Threads. I pattern tested it for her this spring and made my version square. You can find the pattern here:

https://www.dianedknott.com/shop.html#!/To-Spin-A-Star-PDF-download/p/134474083/category=19199037

I am going to go back and dig in my stash for a binding as soon as I finish this post. Diane also emailed me about testing another pattern for her soon, so I can't wait to see what scrappy goodness she has created. Stay tuned!

 Glenn also finished quilting my Scrap Dance Waltz Quilt a few days ago. This was a pattern from Carole that you can find here:

https://frommycarolinahome.com/my-patterns/

This is the first quilt I have ever made for our bed! I have been quilting for 24 years and never made us a quilt--I know ridiculous. It is 104 inches square and I used Bonnie & Camille scraps with a charcoal background. I attached the charcoal for binding and I will be working on hand stitching that down for several Slow Sundays of Stitching. https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

As some of these UFOs get finished, I am trying to get more prepped for quilting. I have another month until I return to work and I need to make the most of it!

Threadology Twisted Top

Happy July! I was sewing along with the Fat Quarter Shop's Threadology Quilt Along, 

https://blog.fatquartershop.com/threadology-quilt-along/

but I fell behind and had put catching up on my summer sewing list. I was not sure about the large spool setting, but Melissa Cory showed an alternative setting that I fell in love with. You can find it here: 

http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/2019/06/threadology-quilt-along-quilt-top.html

Melissa just made multiple blocks from the original design, but I broke out an old quilting book and found some additional blocks to make. It measures 72 inches square with this setting. I dug into my Bonnie and Camille scraps and even opened my Miss Kate fat quarter bundle. Making this was my DrEAMi project for June for sure!

I have this B & C Scrumptious green floral in my stash that I will use for the backing and I already prepped the red Smitten binding. I just need to make my label and get it ready for friend to longarm quilt it. 

 Last year, I made the Postcard from Sweden Quilt and used my leftover solid scraps for another quilt. Since then, I have been drawn to solid quilts and I made my Pineapple Quilt with them too. On Pinterest and IG, I saw all of the Moda Modern Building Blocks Quilts from several years ago and I have been on the lookout for the pattern and even a kit. I had the pattern in my Amazon cart, but then last week @sherrysmart was having a destash sale on IG and she was selling the whole kit. It was like spotting a unicorn. I used my birthday money and bought it immediately. It arrived yesterday, but it will sit in the closet until I get some UFOs cleared and start on it!

 Another birthday money splurge was this vintage ladder! I have a taller one in my sewing room loaded with quilts, but I bought this one for a couple of quilts in our TV room.

 Rachel finished quilting my Good Fortune Quilt this week and I picked it up on Wednesday. I did not have a binding, so I bought this mottled royal blue that is in the quilt and frames it nicely. I am going to work on hand stitching it during the World Cup final for Slow Stitching Sunday. https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

Go USA!

Pineapple Day with FQS

Welcome! I'm Tanya Quilts in CO. I have been quilting for 24 years and I have had a pineapple quilt on my quilting bucket list for a very long time. When the Fat Quarter Shop was looking for quilters to use their new Pineapple Quilt Block Foundation Paper Pads, I jumped at the chance.

I have attempted paper piecing in the past and become frustrated with the method and the fabric waste. I have to be frugal with my fabric, so wasting it makes me crazy. Kimberly demonstrated the six inch blocks on her FB weekly livestream awhile back and there is also another FQS tutorial available on Youtube which I found extremely helpful. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpFFNhdv-sg&feature=youtu.be

I received the six inch pad first and started making blocks. It was slow going at first, but I did not make any mistakes which was encouraging. Lately, I have been making more quilts with solids and loving the results, so I used a variety of Bella Solids along with Kona White.  I used these two Bella Solids bundles available from FQS:

https://www.fatquartershop.com/peas-and-carrots-bella-solids-fat-quarter-bundle

https://www.fatquartershop.com/minecraft-sew-along-fat-quarter-bundle

and some random solids from my stash.

Using Kimberly'y method there was not as much waste as my previous paper piecing projects.

I will be honest, the blocks were slow going for me. I received the 12 inch Pineapple Quilt Block Foundation Paper Pad on June 3rd. I had decided there was no way I was going to use the FQS setting available here: https://blog.fatquartershop.com/pineapple-day-free-quilt-pattern-sew-along/

I made more six inch blocks thinking about a possible baby quilt. In the end, I made 49 six inch blocks! When I sewed them all together, my hubby thought it looked amazing. He thinks I should just display the quilt in our house--I agree. It was way too much work to give to someone for their baby to throw up on it!

I took it to some quilting friends to get their opinions for quilting and binding. It is only 42 inches square, but the consensus was that I should have one of our local longarm quilters custom quilt it. I think I will splurge on that and get on a waiting list to have it done (many are booked for a year or two out). It will probably take me that long to remove all the papers! I am leaning toward navy blue for the binding, since I used some in the quilt.

I am so glad I joined FQS for this sew along and got out of my comfort zone and did something from my quilting bucket list. I may even make some 12 inch blocks eventually, but it will be awhile! Thank you Kimberly and the Fat Quarter Shop for your great tutorials and foundation papers!