More tops ready for quilting.

Here are some of the quilting tops I have finished in 2009, ready and waiting for me to get busy and quilt them.

Sew Around the World

Fantasmagorical Frames

Patriotic Pride

Beary Pink Baby

Journey of Life

Just a few, huh? I guess I need to really get busy quilting!!!!

But don't think that is all....oh no.... I just don't have pictures yet.

Still sewing

Just because I haven't been posting it doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.
I have been busy trying to finish up a few WIP's. But even while I say that I have also distracted myself and have been starting a few.
I joined the 9 patch block a day quilt along and have been going to town on that. (the first 2 pictures are week one and week two)

I find I can't usually do just one a day so I have used it to help me finish a 9-patch that I had started before to get it finished and it is almost done....yipee!
This one is one color with white which makes for a very antique looking quilt except this one is brights! It is all the leftover scraps from from my Summerlicious Starbursts.

Online Quilt Festival

How fun and inspirational, Amy of Park City Girl's is having a Blogger's Quilt Festival. She asked for us to post a favorite quilt and blog about it.
I love quilts and learn something new each time I make one. But the quilt I chose to use is my daughters quilt that she made at age 9, last summer. She is now 10



She wanted to learn how to sew and make a quilt. Quite a big project but we had the summer ahead so away we went. She chose her favorite colors bright and happy pinks and purples. She had recently seen me make a bargello quilt and wanted something like that so away she went sewing long strips of each color together. She loved operating the sewing machine but getting the hang of sewing straight took a bit, but with every strip she got better and better. At first I sat with her and helped her guide but soon she was doing it all by herself. I realized as she was sewing it our original plan needed to be modified and simplified for her to feel successful and not frustrated. So she cut the strips into 3rds and swapped one and added sashing (so no matching seams) She also wanted to use our leftover strips and then added a border. We took her quilt over to her Aunt Jaime's house to quilt it. I think running the big quilting machine was right up her alley since running computers is not scary at all but second nature to her. She didn't let me touch it, except to help her pin it on to get her started.


I love the confidence she has gained from sewing this quilt. She has even told me that she is going to help me get some of my quilts tops quilted and finished. (I have a tendency to get the top done but have lots and lots of unfinished "flimsies")

Happy Birthday

Joyze had a birthday....unfortunately I was not here for it. In fact I didn't even get her gift done before I left town, but it is done now....Hooray!
It turned out fun and happy and oh so fitting for her. She wanted a nice big bag for toting all kinds of things around. (Of course in her favorite orange colors)

I had fun buying a few bright orange fat quarters, using blue fabric for the lining that I already had and filling it with an old blanket instead of buying the expensive iron-on fleece (it worked great)

Newspaper Riddle

This quilt was inspired and started by a trip to Tucson for a quilt show. Jaime invited me to join her going with a bus load of women headed to Tucson. It was fun and awesome to see all the quilts and all the quilting supplies available to buy. At the show I fell in love with this "Bento Box" Quilt pattern and was anxious to make one. I purchased a jelly roll of whites and blacks, used a red material in my stash and went to town sewing. It didn't turn out exactly like I had in my mind. My black and whites are not quite different enough from each other. My blacks needed to be stronger, darker blacks and my whites lighter whites, so the quilt didn't come off with quite the romantic feel I was going for but instead it has a funner lighter feel. So my unromantic quilt turned into a fun, frenzy of ........ what is black and white and red all over? The NEWPAPER RIDDLE!

Just My Luck

It is a brand new month, the year is zipping by so I need to take off my valentines stuff and get out some St. Patrick's day stuff. I knew it was coming so I started on a great green quilt. I pulled out all the misc. greens I had and started thinking. At first I was thinking only about using green but as I stewing over ideas in my head I saw a beautiful multi-colored Irish Chain quilt. Now I have always wanted to make an Irish Chain and what better time than for St. Patrick's. I had always seen an Irish Chain with 2 and sometimes 3 different fabrics but this one had a multi chain. So off I started. I wanted it very mish-mash with no planning so I sewed a white strip to any green strip (2 1/2 strip x about 21 inches -or whatever I had) then I cut those into 2 1/2" double blocks and started putting them together in 3's (with either an extra white or green block. Next made those into a 9 patch then pieced it all together with extra white squares. This is a really simple quilt but with stunning results.
Welcome.....Just My Luck!!

Of course this is still a "flimsie" but I did get done the Table Topper I made to match which I am calling "Lucky Charm"

Lesson Learned: The thing I gain from this quilt is the importance of simple space (or solids) that is what makes this whole thing visually work. Space that lets the eyes rest and makes the color pattern POP out and SING at you. It all the colors were mushed up right next to each other all the time it would be so busy, but with the space it makes beautiful harmony. How we need our own space too. How much better we are to each other when we have space and time to be ourselves, to do things we enjoy alone and apart but then when we are together we are ready to pop and sing and just a much better person.

Bow Tucks Bag

I got to got to a class at Cutting Edge Quiltworks and learned to make Pat Sloan's Bow Tucks Bag. It was fun, Jaime and I got to go together and and we almost got completely done. I love my new bag. I used some fabric that I already had. A Black Denim material with believe it or not, purses stitched on it in a border at the bottom. A bright black, colorful multicolor. It's a fun finished project I am already using and enjoying!!

Check out these pockets!!!