November 2011 :: Quilted Coasters

Missy's new quilting book had a neat project to make little quilted coasters. With the special new free-motion foot that Scott made for my machine, I decided to make some coasters using this wild orange printed fabric that is hard for me to use in quilts since in print is so big in such varied colors.

November 2011 :: Playing Around with Free-Motion Quilting

I have been eyeing a crazy new sewing machine, but in the meantime, Scott and I have been playing around with making my machine work for free-motion quilting. Scott gave me a nice piece of tape to keep my 'normal' sewing foot from pressing too hard when moving the fabric around, and I think that he is making me a special foot to try out right now! I also just ordered a $20 free motion foot for the Bernina 1008 that my family gave me for my 16th birthday. Should be cool to try out!

And here is the clear plastic foot that Scott just made for me:

November 2011 :: Another Pink and Green Quilt FINISHED!

November 2011 :: Another Pink and Green Quilt--Simon's Inspection

Couldn't help but share these photos...and Simon just can't seem to help himself either!

November 2011 :: Another Pink and Green Quilt

I wanted to make a simple, pretty quilt based around a really cute print that I had. It has been helpful to have quilting bees with Missy (we just had our third one this weekend) to keep my making progress.

I think that Simon has really been enjoying my increased quilting activity-you can see how he inserts himself into most of these pictures...

Here's the start of it:

November 2011 :: Green and Pink Mitered Squares

Finished this fun green and pink quilt when Missy and I had our second quilting bee a week ago :)

It is only about 45" square, and I finally get some fun color contrast.

With the help of a tip in a new book that I bought, I FINALLY figured out and got really nice mitered borders on my trim!

November 2011 :: Making Progress -- Green and Pink!

Making progress on the pink and green quilt!

Trying to keep up with Missy before our next quilting bee :)

Simon helping, of course:

Ready to sew together tomorrow:

October 2011 :: Fabric Shopping

A sale at the fabric store gave me a chance to try out some of the interesting color concepts described in the book that I recently bought. I noticed that nearly all of the fabric remnants that I have collected over the years are all sort of the same tone - not too dark, not too light, but pretty bright and in the middle of the value and saturation scales...which has led to a lot of similar looking quilts. I am excited to try out these new fabrics--dark pinks and oranges contrasting with very pale greens.

(Simon seems to approve!)

Summer 2011 :: Blue-Green and Dark-Light Frames

Happy happy birthday to our godson Henry! We made a black-backed quilt for his 2nd birthday for enjoying picnics in the park with his mom and dad. I've always used black as the primary color for my quilt backs for two reasons:

1. I want to make fun quilts for people without them feeling like I am trying to make THE baby quilt for them.
2. I want people to USE these quilts and enjoy them, and outdoor use is particularly great--and the black back prevents icky grass stains :)

I used a vinyl heat transfer to apply a little message on the back of the quilt.

Spring 2011 :: Bright Pink Diagonals

This diversely colorful quilt is one of the most wild ones that I've done so far! The teeny pink squares line up in diagonal stripes across the quilt. Simon enjoyed giving this one a test run before I finished it with the mostly black back with little sushi nibbles.

Spring 2010 :: Blue-Green and Orange-Yellow Log Cabin Quilt

This was another quilt where I used a lot of little pieces of a lot of different fabrics! Part of the fun was looking through all of my old fabrics, cutting little rectangles, and stacking them into 'random' little piles. This was probably my favorite quilt to date--I loved the mix of colors and the diagonal stripes.

Winter 2010 :: Baby Comforter

One of our smallest projects yet, but it is SO cute! I think that he likes it!