I started a new project (I really shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t resist).  I’m using a layer cake of A Breath of Avignon by American Jane for Moda.  I so love the colors of this line, and this fabric line definitely brings me back to France…love it!

I’m using the Sweet Garden pattern by Carolina Patchworks.  This pattern requires a good bit of organization and planning, so I organized my layer cake and then cut all the pieces.  I then laid out the pieces to my liking.  Now I just need to find the time to piece the top, but something tells me that this project is going to have to wait until July when I get back from vacation.  Before vacation I have so much work to do (you know for my part time job that actually pays me to do work), and I have to finish the binding on the 30’s Squared quilt.  Oh, and I also have to finish the binding for the Black, White, & Red Allover quilt.  I think a baby quilt for a friend may also sneek in the to do list.  Sheesh I have a lot to do!

I put the Black, White, & Red All Over quilt aside (for now), and started on a baby quilt.  My friend is due the beginning of June, and she’ll likely deliver sooner, so I wanted to be sure and get this done quickly.  She requested a blue and brown quilt, and never haven worked with those colors before I was excited….I love that color combination!!!!

I used the boy pattern of the Baby Mine pattern, and I got the whole thing pieced. It took me a few days to figure out how I wanted to quilt it.  Usually quilts “speak” to me and tell me what what I should do, but not this time.  Bah!

I’ve never marked a quilt top for quilting before, but I tried it this time.  I wanted to do some straight line kind of stuff.  I’m still kind of on the fence about marking, and while I really like how some straight line quilting turns out, by and large I’m an all over meander quilting kind of gal.

I’ll show pictures of the quilting soon.

I can’t believe it’s April already!

Over the weekend I put the Black, White & Red All Over sandwich together and pin basted it.

Then last night I got totally stressed out when I realized we are in April and I have to finish this quilt for a summer wedding, I have to start and finish a baby quilt for a friend’s baby due in June, and I have to start and finish another quilt before the end of June.  All this and I’m about to get super busy at work.  Needless to say I was a bit of a stress basket case last night, especially when I looked over at my newly pin basted Black, White & Red All Over quilt in which I used all of my pins to baste it.  So now, I certainly need to quilt that quilt, so that I can have the pins handy to do the other 2 quilts that need to get completed before the Black, White & Red All Over (and I most certainly was not about to take out all those pins!!!!).

Luckily today was a nice day and my daughter was outside playing with her friend, which meant I had some time to just quilt, and quilt I did!  The whole quilt is now quilted, yay!

Now I’m going to put this quilt aside so I can work on the other more pressing quilts.  I generally like to finish a quilt before I start another one, but I’m going to have to make an exception.  The binding and label will have to wait for another day.

I’ve always thought that the black, white, and red colorway was so striking.  But those colors aren’t very me in the sense that I wouldn’t really make a quilt for myself with those colors, but still, I’m always drawn to quilts with those colors.  So I decided to go ahead and make a quilt with these colors.  I’m really loving it, although this quilt isn’t for us; however, I’m certain that the recipients will love it too.

Here’s the layout.  The top is sewn together, but I don’t have a picture of the quilt top.  Hopefully I can get this sandwiched soon, because I’m excited to see the finished project!

I haven’t posted much about the Spring Flowers quilt, but it’s now pieced, quilted, and bound.  I had a date with the quilt tonight to finish the binding, and I had success!  It’s such a great feeling to finish the binding!  I still have to bury all the threads, then label it, then wash it, and then I can send it to its new home.

The colors in this quilt certainly remind me of spring, and I can’t wait for the new mama to open up this quilt for her baby girl!

When I finish this quilt up I’ll post about the changes I made to the pattern.

My next project is a baby quilt for my cousin’s first baby.  She’s having a girl and is due Feb. 11.  I’m so excited to work on a baby quilt!  I’ve been working on such big quilts lately that it’s going to be nice to work with one that is relatively small…quick to piece, quick to quilt, and quick to finish.  Baby quilts are so satisfying!

One of my favorite fabric lines is Butterfly Fling by Me & My Sisters Design for Moda.  This is the line I made my very first quilt (other than the wall hanging I made in my beginning quilting class).  This fabric is so fun and cute and it’s not babyish.

The pattern is Baby Mine by Camille Roskelley.  This pattern is a great deal because you get 2 patterns…one for a girl quilt and one for a boy quilt.

I’ve had the quilting done for the Urban Nature quilt for some time now.  The next step was binding.  Admittedly I was a nervous to do the binding mostly because at 95 x 95 working on the outer 1/4 inch of the quilt all the way around really made me nervous.  Today I decided to take the plunge.  And it really wasn’t all that bad.  Dare I say no more challenging than the 60 x 70 quilts I’ve done.

I’ve noticed lately that if the presser foot pressure is the same as it is when you sew or piece the top when you are trying to sew the binding it creates too much pressure causing the binding fabric to shift in ways you don’t necessary want.  (I realize I didn’t explain that well, but I’m not sure how else to explain it).  So I decided to experiment with the presser foot pressure, and I found that if I decrease the pressure just a bit the binding sews on beautifully.  For example with regular sewing on my machine the presser foot pressure is set to 6.  When I free motion quilt I set the presser to 2, and with the binding I set the dial between 4 and 5.  Anyway, I’ve never heard of decreasing the presser foot pressure for binding, but for me it made a big difference.

I decided to quilt the Bowl of Cherries quilt top with cherries.  I thought that would be cute.  And it is.

But it was way more work than I anticipated.  Stippling/meandering is so second nature to me that I really don’t have to think while I’m doing it…my hands just know what to do and it flows smoothly.  This was the first time I tried the cherries, and admittedly I probably should’ve tried it on a small quilt first, but I guess because I’m so comfortable with stippling/meandering I didn’t think it would be a big deal.

It was so much more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I had to really think about what I was doing and where I was going.  I’m sure it didn’t help that I was attempting this new technique on a quilt 67 x 74.  That’s pretty large and challenging to maneuver, and with quilting the cherries, I really needed to be able to move the quilt sandwich around so that the cherries wouldn’t all face the same direction.  One thing that I’m so glad I did was quilt from the back.  The backing (above) was just one fabric and far less busy than the top.  I’m glad I thought ahead to do that because with this technique being able to really see where you’ve been and where you’re going is critical (at least for trying a new technique).  So, it was a challenge, nonetheless, and I’m finally done—I’m so excited to be done with the quilting.

Now on to the binding and hand stitching it to the back.

It must just be this time of year, because I seem to have very little time to sew and quilt.  When I do find time in the evenings, I’m just too tired to do anything other than curl up on the couch under a quilt and watch some tv.

Even with the motivation to want to get this quilt started and completed on a pretty quick schedule, I’ve had a hard time actually doing it.  I need to get it done though, because it’s for my aunt who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’d like for her to have a cheerful quilt to help keep her warm during her treatments.  I also need to finish so that I can start and finish a baby quilt for my cousin who’s daughter is due to arrive in February.

Needless to say, I need to get busy.

For my aunt’s quilt, I’m using one of my all time favorite patterns: Jelly Filled.  I’ve had a jelly roll plus some yardage of Recipe for Friendship by Mary Engelbreit for Moda for about a year…just sitting and waiting for me to do something with…waiting for the perfect occasion.  I thought the cheerfulness of this fabric would be a good choice for this quilt.

It’s been taking me a long time to quilt the Urban Nature quilt.

It’s big.

It’s heavy.

Today was the home stretch.  One row 19 x 95 left to quilt.  Almost there…that’s what I kept telling myself.  Here I am about to quilt the very last corner and remove those last 3 basting pins!  I could barely contain myself.

It’s big.

It’s heavy.

Binding is next, and oh how that scares me!!!  To think that I’ll be working on the outer 1/4 inch edge of the quilt with all the quilt’s weight pulling against me as I sew the binding is really intimidating.  But I’ll have plenty of time to frett about the binding, because I need to put this project on hold while I get a couple others started and completed.  When it rains it pours!