I’ve got my Merry & Bright quilt top and backing sandwiched together and pin basted.  I went to my local quilt shop today and got a cool gold toned (but it’s not shiny or anything like that) thread for the quilting.

Here’s a peak:

Front

Pieced back

Now I just need to find the time to quilt this baby.

We are back from vacation, and my sewing machine is back from getting a good cleaning and tune up…yay!  I managed to finish quilting the Ellie Fun quiltop, and now it’s on to the binding.  I’ve got the binding sewed on to to the front and now am in the beginning stages of hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.

I usually like to finish a project before starting a new one, but I was feeling the need to be creative a few nights ago, so I broke out my Merry & Bright layer cake and got started.  I’ve got the quilt top done, and last night I finished piecing the back.  It’s a gift, so you’ll have to wait until December to see the completed project, but I may give some sneak peaks!   I just love this line…so much so that I bought a layer cake for myself to someday turn it into something fabulous, but my quilt will have to wait for another day.

Merry & Bright by Sandy Gervais for Moda

The Ellie Fun quilt top is now done, and I love it.  The elephants are just adorable.  The pattern was pretty simple, and it didn’t take long to piece.  Now I have to figure out what color thread to use for the actual quilting.  Any ideas?

I pieced the back with all the leftover fabric and bit from my stash, and I love how the back turned out.

I got my Rocqua Rhythm quilt top done today.  The fabric is Farmer’s Market by Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller, and the pattern is Cubic Rhythm from the Spring 2009 issue of Quilts and More.

It’s bright and cheery, although I do wish that I had made 3 blocks of the cherries and put those on the diagonal…note to self, need to get a design wall set up.  I still think it looks great and is the type of quilt to put a smile on your face.  Now I just need to piece the backing and I will put this one in the cue to get quilted.

I absolutely love Lila Tueller’s Woodland Bloom fabric line.  I found a zig zag pattern in the Fons & Porter Baby Quilts, Winter 2008 magazine that I thought would be perfect.  I used 1 jelly roll plus another 10 strips or so to make the quilt bigger than the originally published finished quilt of 47 x 47.  My quilt is 67 x 72, and I absolutely love it!  It’s not quilted…yet.

384 Parrallelograms

I’m so in love with Camille’s Jelly Filled pattern, and this was my first quilt using that pattern…except I used fat quarters instead of a jelly roll.  On Super Bowl Sunday, one of the local quilt shops had a super sale on fat quarter…$1.25 each!  Needless to say I shopped ’til I dropped.  I bought a whole bunch of what I call shabby chic fabric, and I used the the Jelly Filled pattern.  The pattern is for jelly rolls, but you can easily modify and use fat quarters.  2 strips that are 2.5 x width of fat quarter = 1 jelly roll strip, approximately.  You can get 3 jelly roll equivalent strips from 1 fat quarter.  Great way to use up fat quarters too.

The quilt top measures 60 x66.

While I was taking my beginner quilting class in November, I caught the quilting bug and made this quilt top.  This was the first time I went to the quilt shop and picked out the fabric all by myself…huge accomplishment.  I was a bit overwhelmed at first, but then I remembered my teacher saying “start with a fabric you like, and go from there.”  That’s exactly what I did.

The pattern is Fat Quarters Gone Wild, and the quilt top measures 59 x 60 and is not quilted…yet!