I'm a Terrible Blogger: A Finished Baby Quilt

Y'all, I've said it time and time again. I still can't figure out how so much time passes without me realizing it until I sit down and count up the days! My days have been full lately with house renovations, but we are nearing the finish line on indoor work (YAY!) and beginning outdoor repairs and replacements as the weather warms up.

During all this craziness, I made a baby quilt for a friend of mine! We were college buddies and roomies and she blames me for introducing her to her husband (guilty as charged!), so I was so excited when she told me she was expecting. :)

Momma requested a gender neutral quilt since the gender wasn't revealed until the shower or right before. She wanted green and purple (their favorite colors) and animals were a must! I used the Triangle Hexies pattern by Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. Such a lovely pattern, I recommend it! :)

Momma-to-be and I were Animal Science majors and share a love for all things sheep-y, so when I spotted the sheep flannel backing, I knew it was a must!

I wish we lived closer together, but after graduation, we both headed back to our hometowns, which are about 3 hours apart. I made the trip to her baby shower though because I wanted to give her this little quilt in person (and give her a long overdue hug!). She loved it! I'm happy to say that she had her baby girl this past week and both are doing great!


Have a good weekend y'all!

The Last Commission of 2017: Queen-Sized Diamonds

Hey y'all! I've got another 2017 finish to share and this one is a big one! As you guessed, this was a commission for a queen sized quilt. I know I said I wasn't making anymore big commissions, but this was a family friend and I promised her a quilt before the ban was made, so I didn't break any rules! Lol.

She loved the diamond baby quilt I had made back in the summer and requested colors to match her bedroom: rusty red, earthy greens and browns, golds, and just a smattering of turquoise. This palette was WAY out of my usual tastes, but I thought it came together to be lovely. :) The sashing is an off-white/cream. I quilted it with Aurifil in Dove color, which blended well I feel like. It has become a fast favorite of mine, I can see why everybody raves about it!

As you can see, this monster was nearly impossible to snap a picture of indoors! I wish I could have got better pictures of this one, but like the pixelated heart quilt I shared last time, time was of the essence. Also, it was frigid outside and there was no way I was venturing out and dragging quilt holders (aka - my parents) with me. The woman I made this quilt for sent me a picture of it on their bed not long after delivery, which made my heart sing! She absolutely adored it and it made me so happy!

To make up for the crummy pictures, I had to include outtakes of Elvis being...well, Elvis. Lol. He loves being nosey and checking out my projects!

It's Good to Be Back

Howdy y'all, long time, no see, right? The month of May has been eerily silent here, both in posting and commenting. I wish I could say I've been busy sewing and creating and hadn't taken the time to share yet. Or even that I was making progress but nothing worth sharing yet. Honestly, though, heading into May, I was losing steam and just had to stop. I ran myself down to empty and it caught up to me, as it often does when I try to do too much for too long. I did the bare necessities to get by, then would hide under a quilt and just be. 

My desire to create was gone. Not forever, I knew that wasn't possible. But there wasn't an urge to play with fabric and tackle the WIP's I had planned to. I sewed a seam every few days or so, but it did nothing for me. So I would shut off my machine, whisper 'Maybe next time...", and retreat back to my quilt. Rather than force myself to sew miserably, I stepped back. Some days I cut fabric from a Craftsy kit I bought ages ago. I even started cutting into my Alison Glass fabric when I started feeling a bit more inspired. But for the most part, it was the same: Maybe next time.

Last night, I sat down and sewed. And my heart was happy. :)

It's good to be back, friends. Happy Sunday!

A Little Finish: A Charity Baby Quilt

Howdy y'all! I've got a finish to share this week! The Charity Quilt that you've seen bits and pieces of over the last month is finally finished! I had hoped to get some better pictures of it, but it has rained almost all week here so indoor pictures will have to do. :(

Fabric courtesy of Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation (I linked to her blog at the end of this post!)

This baby quilt started as a bundle of fabric I won in a giveaway. I love the cute little prints, but I never knew what to do with it. After hanging onto it for nearly a year, it finally hit me: a baby quilt! But for who?...To give away, of course!

Yes, I did do a quilt photo shoot on top of a dog kennel...it's been a long week!

This was just the mindless sewing I needed! Easy half square triangles, an easy layout, and easy quilting made for an all around soothing experience.

The backing is just the bigger cuts of leftover fabric, along with some smaller squares to make it a bit taller. It sort of makes it a reversible quilt!

The quilting is...I'm not entirely sure. It was inspired by some quilting I saw by Anja over at Anja Quilts. She says she hates actually quilting her quilts, but she's pretty darn good at it! This was a pretty quick and easy design, but I'm still not 100% sold on it. 

Even the binding was easy, which is insane for me! Lol. I love how scrappy the binding is! I almost used all of my scraps from these fabrics to make the binding, I'm so happy about that!
Now I just have to contact the local hospitals and see if any of them will take this quilt, along with some other things I've made! Have a happy Friday y'all!

My quilting helper *had* to do some quality control before this one gets lint rolled and ready for delivery! :)

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Needle and Thread Thursday!

This finish is my goal for OMG April, I'm linking up just under the wire with this one! :)

Also, this is another finish for the Quarter 2 Finish-A-Long list, which you can see here!

4x7 Challenge - Week 2 Check-In

Howdy y'all, another week has come and gone! Can you believe we are halfway through February? I've been sewing selfish every day this week for the 4x7 Challenge hosted by Berry Barn Designs, but I don't feel like I have much to report on. I've played with my hexies a little bit, but no progress worth photographing. Most of my selfish sewing time has been spent quilting my Orange Peels! I'm almost halfway done and loving it! :)

This quilt makes me so happy :)

Lots and LOTS of pivoting and wrestling with this one!

I also spent some time playing with my stash and making plans for future quilts. If only I could make all the quilts I want to! That seems to be every quilters lament, right? I've got fabric pulled and at the ready for two baby quilts and a pattern picked out for one of them. I've got lists for future quilts on what needs done, what needs bought, and the like. So much possibility on the horizon, I'll try to share some of those plans this week!

It's been too long since LBC had a photo op on here! Lol

What has been most fun about this week, however, was a trip to Jo Ann's with my Mom. She has decided to make a quilt. That's right! SHE WANTS TO MAKE A QUILT!! I can't contain my excitement! She had me help her pick out some supplies and has already let me know I'll be coming over to help her. :) She has two sewing machines at the house, so she said I could bring a project over and make it a sewing date! I can't wait!!

Here's to another week of selfish sewing guys, hopefully I'll have a finish to unveil soon!

WIP Wednesday: It's The Quilting That Never Ends

Howdy y'all, happy Wednesday! I hope everybody is staying warm; if it's anything like my town, it has been absolutely freezing lately. We finally got our first 'real' snow of the season that stuck, with a crazy forecast for the weekend (18 inches of snow in KY? What is that madness?!). I've been splitting my evenings between huddling on the couch for warmth, mature adult leisure activities playing Lego Marvel Heroes with Mr. LBC, and quilting City Blocks. I have quilted. And quilted. And quilted. Oh, and quilted some more.

NEVER AGAIN.

If I ever start talking about pebbling large scale again, virtually smack the fire out of me and remind me of this. Remind me of how I've quilted for nearly a month and this SOB still isn't done. (If you haven't noticed, I might have been muttering bad words at this quilt for a while. Lol). And with such dense quilting, this most likely won't be a cuddler, but a hanger. So in that future sewing room that doesn't exist yet, I'll have to reserve some wall space for this because with all the time I've put in, it's going to be appreciated, dangit! :)

LBC just couldn't resist. :)

I've nearly finished quilting though! I've got one more teal section left to go, which is a walk in the park compared to the pebble sections. I wanted to finish it tonight, but I tweaked my back at work yesterday and it's been giving me fits. So it will have to sit for another night before the quilting is finally done!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday and NTT!

WIP Wednesday: If All Else Fails, Quilt the Crap Out of It

Happy Hump Day, y'all! Wednesday is upon us and I have a sneak peek at my current work in progress. If you have been around here much, you know that City Blocks has been nagging at my mind for a while. I had been throwing around quilting ideas for months with no success. Nothing seemed right. Then I ran across a pattern that has several names, though the two I like are 'boxy stipple' and (my personal favorite) 'the robot'. It works so well in those big sections of solid teal!

But how to quilt those improv areas? I sat at my machine for quite a while, swapping out thread colors repeatedly, lining things up, then balking because it just didn't feel right. I was so afraid of messing things up! Finally, I just had to give up the notion that I would find a perfect quilting pattern. Instead, I went on the flip side and decided to quilt the crap out of this thing. The only areas that won't be quilted are those little sections of color in the improv areas! I've been learning pebbles as I fill in the white areas with loooooooottttssssss of pebbles! It's fun and the texture is out of this world so far!

It's taking a while to get such dense quilting done, but I'm enjoying it. :) Hope y'all have an awesome day!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Finish It Up Friday: Mini Mini #2

Howdy y'all! Friday is here! Today, I was supposed to be sharing the primitive quilt and its new binding since my sewing machine is all better. But plans change. When I sat down to sew, for some reason, the last thing I wanted to do was work on a binding. The pull of a finished quilt wasn't strong enough to overcome this random dread. So I did what seemed best: I played!

I've had several mini mini ideas bouncing in my head since I heard about them. I immediately imagined the Supernova pattern from Quilting Modern in the miniature! I knew I couldn't make blocks small enough to make an entire Supernova in a mini mini, but I wanted to give it a whirl! This isn't quite what I wanted, but it's a start and I had so much fun with it. I didn't touch my ruler once; I just cut and stitched without abandon and it was relaxing. I was sad to see the clock ticking down to the last few minutes of my sewing time when I started putting the little 'blocks' together.

It's so tiny and wonderful, I can't wait to put it on my wall once it's finished. :) Hope you've had a productive week, sewing or otherwise!

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday and TGIFF!

I'm Back!!

Howdy y'all! So the sewing machine is back from the doctor today! YAY! I've been piddling with some hand sewing during my absence, but nothing worth sharing yet. Things have been exciting around here though despite a lack of quilty progress! If you've hung around this blog for a little while, you've probably gathered that our house is Mr. LBC and myself, along with LBC himself. A couple days after the sewing machine headed to the doctor, we had a new face join our family!

Hello world! My name's Elvis!

I work at a vet clinic and this fella came in as a recently adopted dog. He was nice to everybody, but he and I kicked it off right away. He spent about a week with the clinic before heading to his new home and, honestly, I was sad to see him go. But so is the life of a Vet Assistant! Imagine my surprise when I went into work a couple days later and he was there again! I thought something was wrong with him, but it turned out that the family's other dog didn't warm up to him like they wanted and they weren't willing to work on it more. So he was brought back to the clinic and put up for adoption again.

Sunning by the back door is the perfect time for a photo shoot!

Everybody assumed I would snatch him right up, but I didn't. My husband has been out of work so I was worried about being able to afford a dog, especially one of his size (50 pounds!). So I prayed about it. I just asked for a sign that he was meant to come home with us. And every financial obstacle that cropped up was taken care of somehow. So I took a leap of faith and brought him home.

LBC's face when he heard he was getting a new brother...and that his new brother was a dog!

It's been a major adjustment having Elvis with us, but Mr. LBC and I love him to death. LBC is still warming up to him, but at least he's not hissing and smacking the bejesus out of him anymore! Lol. I've been chasing him around like a toddler, trying to keep him from eating stray socks and couch cushions when we look away for a minute. In fact, I just grabbed a cotton swab out of his mouth right after I wrote that! Lol. 

I put my sewing machine through a few paces to finish quilting the quilt I was working on prior to the doctor's appointment and guys, the First Born is purring like a kitten! It's like a brand new machine and I'm in love all over again! :)

Glad to be back, I missed sewing and getting to talk with you guys! Happy Tuesday y'all! :)

A Cat With a Keyboard?

Hey guys, LBC here! I noticed Mom hadn't updated in a while, so I figured I would help her out! She's been working hard, but still getting a little sewing time in here and there, I promise! She keeps laying out little hexagons in the floor; I assumed she wanted me to lay on them and toss them around, but she didn't seem too pleased with my help! She's been quilting some on her Primitive/Americana quilt too. I've been guarding it while it's on the table, can't have anything happening while she's away! She told me she hopes to share a little finish tomorrow, so come back tomorrow evening and check it out!

Little Black Cat :)

WIP Wednesday: A Baby on the Way (Not Mine!)

I adore this print, it's hilarious! Lol.

Howdy y'all and Happy Hump Day! Like my title says, there is a baby on the way in my life, but it isn't mine. A coworker of mine is expecting to have a little girl in the beginning of November and her baby shower is fast approaching. This is the first time I've been around somebody who is pregnant from the very beginning. Her and her husband had been trying since around the time I started working with her; our entire workplace was cheering her on and consoling her as test after test was negative. We kept her light on her feet and smiling through the hard times until the day she finally got the positive test. :) We've ridden a roller coaster of pregnancy with her and it's been something else. Our part time doctor used his ultrasound machine and it was the first time I had seen anything like it...a baby, an ACTUAL BABY! Moving and dancing around on the screen!

I swear this picture wasn't blurry when I took it. :P

I knew from the start that I wanted to make her a quilt for her baby. She had admired a quilt I made for a Christmas swap and I didn't forget it. :) Her and her husband are big-time outdoors people, so I knew I wanted to go with that theme. What I discovered is that those types of fabrics are predominantly 'boy' themed. I did find some flowers to add though, so it still passes as girly, right? Hahaha.

A first for this quilt is that my husband actually helped me pick out some of the fabric. We were in a rush and stopped at Jo Ann's (which I hate having to do, rushing makes me anxious). It surprised me that he helped pull some fabric and seemed to enjoy it! After we got home though, I realized that we had nothing but busy patterns! I forgot solids or blender fabrics! I did manage to find a light gray in my stash and a dark grey polka dot fat quarter that seemed to fit the bill.

I found this pattern on Pinterest and figured it would be good to show off those bigger prints. It's a bit busy, but I kind of like baby quilts to be busy; it gives those little eyes so much to look at! The baby shower is at the end of August, so I needed something fairly easy to put together, but still fun and cute. :)

Throwback Thursday: My First Selfish Quilting

Foxy, bright patchwork. YES.

As I sat down to work on some sewing in hopes of finishing something for tomorrow (expect a late post!), I checked up on Blogger quickly before settling in. That's when I saw Jenn at A Quarter Inch From the Edge started Throwback Thursday today! It's a link up to bring up those old quilts that you made back before blogging, to give them a chance to shine despite being around for a while.

I would not have picked these fabrics to go together in a collection, but I love them all together. Funny how that works, right?

 HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?! I looked outside, only to see that daylight was gone...of course. I had planned on snapping outside pictures of my quilt for weeks and, wouldn't you know it, I didn't remember until the day of posting! I purposefully chose this quilt as my first TBT post for a couple of reasons. First, the other nominees are in other homes and I can't get better pictures than the few I had taken before gifting them. Second, this quilt is absolutely LOVED in our home. Before the Supernova came along, there was bickering over who got the quilt and who was stuck with a store bought blanket when we were lounging in the living room.

I adore the quilting on this, I've never been prouder of my FMQ!

But the biggest reason I chose this quilt is that it was my first bout of selfish quilting. I had made half a dozen quilts before this one and none of them stayed with me. They went to others in my family, which I don't regret at all. :) I stalled out on this quilt when all that was left was the binding and it sat unfinished for quite a while (at least a month, maybe more.) Finally bucking up and sewing the binding on got me back on my feet after a rough spell and got me back to sewing. This is the quilt I have snuggled under, cried under when I was sick, and laughed with Little Black Cat as he rooted around it as we tried it out right after I finished it.

SO. MANY. FOXES!

I got these fabrics as a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads back in late December/early January. It was actually my first 'designer' fabric purchase; I was so excited to get them in the mail!  The fox fabric on the back is from Jo Ann's, you might recognize that foxy face from my scrappy qayg pouch and scrap vortex slabs! I'm pretty sure that red polka dot binding is from Jo Ann's as well. :)

An asymmetrical pieced backing, no surprise there, right? ;)

This quilt is riddled with mistakes. A lot of my squares don't match up; I remember I was learning how to use my rotary cutter so no surprises there. Hahaha! There are puckers on the back and a small one on the front. The binding is kind of kinky in spots too (does anybody else have that issue where it gets kind of ripple-y?). You know what though? I wouldn't change a thing. :)

So what about you guys? Do you have any quilts that came along before your quilt blogs? If you do, why not show it off and link up at A Quarter Inch From the Edge?! Thanks for stopping by y'all! :)

WIP Wednesday: Sixteen Patches Piling Up

There are actually 9 of them, but my compulsive side couldn't put two reds beside each other. :P

Happy Hump Day y'all! I've had a pretty productive week on the sewing front! I've been snagging 20 or so minutes each day, an awesome way to make progress when you can't sit down for a long time. And even better, these 16-patches come together super fast! Chain piecing and an assembly line set up made for some productive sewing time, not to mention it's pretty relaxing too. :)
I'm still planning on alternating a 16-patch with a block of neutral, so this top should come together easy-peasy! These blocks finish at 12.5 inches square, so this will grow fast!

Plaids and gingham...lots of plaid and gingham

Thanks to everybody for your kind words last week also. :) I've stayed busy, made time for sewing, and found some fun workouts to do. I've got a finish to share on Friday, but I couldn't resist sharing a sneak peek! ;) Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

 

 

I need to give this a good pressing before I do anything else, it's all wrinkly! 

Where to Next?

After finishing my Supernova, I took a few days of piddling around to recharge. I fiddled with my scrap vortex stuff, but I didn't start something else right away on purpose. As much as I love sewing and quilting, I don't want to burn myself out. I took some time to read and think about where to go to next.

I'm pretty new at quilting. Unlike some, I'm still trying to figure out where I am with it. Some are strictly modern, some are strictly traditional. I have a feeling I'm somewhere in between, though I do like modern designs a bit better I think. So I've been browsing through a couple of quilting books from the library (I had to resist checking out Quilting Modern again! Lol).

The first book is called Quilting Happiness. There are a lot of ideas about being happy with sewing, finding inspiration, and other creativity ideas. I checked it out more for the patterns, but it has still be a fun read. There are actually several patterns I like out of this one! These two are my favorites I think. :)

I really like this take on a star quilt! The varying sizes really sold me on this one, as well as that gorgeous quilting!

The thought of sewing curves sort of terrifies me, but that's sort of why I want to do it. Snowball quilts are really interesting and pretty, I'd love to tackle one after I buck up and go for it. :)

The second book is called Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe. I was actually excited to find this one because there were a few names I recognized right off the bat (Cluck Cluck Sew and Blue Elephant Stitches!) There were some pretty cool quilts in this one, but I narrowed down my current interest to these.

RAINBOW QUILT. Need I say more? Lol. I love colorful quilts! And I need to work on my HST game and get better at matching points. 

I could see this one as a rainbow quilt as well, but it feels a lot more controlled and contained than the craziness that is in the HST quilt. 

Check out Sew Katie Did to see all of the awesome quilts she makes!

And I also found a pattern from one of the author's of Quilting Modern. It was actually supposed to be in the book but was cut before publishing. When I saw it on Sew Katie Did's blog, I loved it right away, but I agreed with what she said: It's an odd shape. I would definitely add another column at the very least. And as luck would have it, she shared a link so that the pattern can be downloaded for FREE! Woooooohooooo! I could see this quilt in the original turquoise and orange, or I could see switching out the orange for a red maybe?

So what do you guys think? I'm still up in the air on where to head from here. I want to challenge yet enjoy myself. I want to have fun picking fabrics (even if it stresses me out sometimes). And most of all, I want a quilt that I'll love to snuggle under. :)