It’s a 1st

Today I made my 1st mini quilt and pieced back. I have seen many people making mini quilts and doll quilts and I have always wondered WHY?? Well today I found out. Fast, fun, and you get to try new techniques on a small scale. Here is what I made…pretty simple, but it is a start :)

This is the front…

This is the back…

 

I am going to bind it in the strip print.

Tomorrow during the CGQC Spring Sewing Party I will be making another one for the NAME THAT QUILT give away. I have just enough fabric.

I have decided to keep this one because:

• I don’t have any mini quilts and I think this one will be cute on my wall.
• because I just think it is so darn cute!
• because I can :)

The best part of this quilt and the one I am making tomorrow is the fact that everything I used to make them with is scraps. The charms were left over from the BIG quilt and there were not enough to do anything with. The white fabric is left over strips from another project. The strip fabric on the back is the tail cut off of the binding on the BIG quilt. I love that I found a way to use up the scraps. Oh, even the batting is from scraps. I took 2 strips from the excess of the BIG quilt and pieced them together and then cut the size I needed :)

New Goodies

Gotta love a trip to the LQS :) I went to mine today to buy some fabric for the 1st RR block I am suppose to do. I couldn’t find anything that would go with it :( So as far as that goes the trip was a bust. BUT I did come home with some new goodies for me.

I couldn’t resist these cute polka dots

And I bought 2 more VERNA charms and some backing fabric to make a mini version of this quilt. I think the big one will find it’s home on my guest room bed, at least for a little while.

I think I will be playing with the polka dot fabric tomorrow at the CGQC Spring Sewing Party, but not 100% sure.

Yummy

I just love the way this binding turned out :)

Spring Sewing Party CGQC

UPDATE: 3:18 pm

I am finished quilting my mini quilt

It is a good thing that I decided to quilt on it while the pizzas were in the oven because after we ate I decided to get some meat out of the freezer for dinner. When I pulled out what I wanted a 20 lb package of frozen meat fell and hit my foot…OUCH! Thank goodness I have good reflexes or I would have a few broken toes. I managed to get most of my foot out of the way. I was hit on the very edge of my foot. Not enough to do damage, but still enough to hurt. So now I plan on going upstairs and working on binding my BIG quilt. I will check back in with everyone later.

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UPDATE: 1:50 pm

I am showered and back in my PJs (I know sounds lazy, but oh so comfy)! I still haven’t made lunch. hubby had to run to work and I thought I would wait for him. Turns out it is going to be a while so I am headed to the kitchen to make home made pizzas…YUMMY. Then I will be back to try and get this little quilt quilted before hubby returns. I think when he gets home the fam is going to go upstairs and watch a movie or 2. I may or may not work on bind until the movies are over. I will just have to see :)

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UPDATE: 12:49 pm

I have everything ready for quilting…

Even my batting is pieced together from scraps :)

 

Pinned, taped, and ready to go!

 

Before I start quilting I am going to take a break, make lunch for the fam, and get a much needed shower. I would love to stay in my PJs all day, but I do have to have a shower :)

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UPDATE: 12:14 pm

I have the back together and it is all from scraps. Believe it or not what I had left when sewn together made the EXACT size I needed for the back. Don’t you just love it when it all turns out?

Not sure what it is going to look like with the striped binding, but it is the best I could do :)

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UPDATE: 11:40 am

I have been piddling around, but finally have the top sewn together. Now I just have to figure out what I will be doing for the back. I can not make it the exact same as the other one because I said this was going to be a scrap project and I don’t have another one of those white squares for the center and I don’t have enough striped fabric scraps to go around one any way :( SOOOOOO I need to come up with a new idea to use what I have. I was going to cut into my yardage and got called on it by hubby. He said “man that sure is a BIG scrap”…LOL.

For some reason I can not seem to get a decent picture today. My camera is acting funny. You would think that it would be taking great shot since the sun is shinning. I must have messed up a setting somewhere :(

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UPDATE: 10:27 am

All the pieces of my star are finished and ready to be sewn together…

I tried to make this one a little WONKIER than the original one :)

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UPDATE 10:04 am

Ok I am making some progress. Here is what I have so far…

I actually cut my triangles last night when I made the other mini quilt…Does any one have the ruler I have shown in the picture? It is a Simpli-EZ Jelly Roll Ruler by Kimberly Einmo. I love this ruler. The markings on it make cutting charms, Jelly Rolls, and Layer Cakes a snap :) I have her triangle on too and it is also great!

 

Here are the triangle that will be the star points…isn’t the VERNA fabric just yummy. I really hated to not use these beautiful Bright pinks in my QUILT but now that I am making this cute little mini I am happy that they were left behind :)

Of course I have to have white squares for the background…Kona Cotton (my favorite white).

Putting them together…sewn and ready to trim…

 

I can see a star forming :) Don’t you just love it when you start seeing all your pieces coming together to make your pattern?

Ok, I am off to finish the rest of the star and decide how I am going to do the back.

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UPDATE: 9:15 AM

Good morning all. I am up, had a bowel of captain crunch (not exactly the breakfast of champions, but it will do) and I am ready to sew :)

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Friday 9:35 pm

I have decided what I am going to do for the Party tomorrow. I will be binding this little cutie.

This is the front…

 

This is the back…

The binding will be in the same striped fabric.

I will also be making another one identical or close to it for the mini give away quilt for the NAME THAT QUILT contest. If I have time I will try to make a second mini quilt (more than likely it will be in different fabrics) for the second give away quilt. Then I will probably wrap up the evening by finishing the binding on my BIG VERNA quilt.

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RSVP

I can not wait until Saturday. That is when the CGQC is having it’s Spring Sewing Party. I will probably be finished binding my VERNA quilt, so i think I will work on a couple of wall hanging with the left over charm squares. That should keep me busy, and maybe I will actually finish the project on Saturday. For those that don’t remember my Valentine project took forever and my machine ended up having to go in to the shop.

Now I am off to do some more sewing :)

A Little Shout Out

I love to hear when someone has done an exceptionally good job at something. So I had to share my fabric experience from this evening. I order striped fabric from Rossville Quilts to bind my latest quilt. It came in the mail this afternoon. When I received the package I knew what was inside so I didn’t bother to open it until this evening when I was ready to make my binding. Much to my surprise I opened up a perfectly cut and squared yard of stripe fabric. I didn’t have to do a thing! Thank you Rossville Quilts for saving me a step (one that I hate might I add). If you have never ordered from Rossville Quilts you should give them a try. They have some of the lowest prices and always have great customer service.

Name that Quilt--GIVE AWAY UPDATE

EDIT: I have decided that there should be 2 chances to win. In addition to the Name winner, I will randomly draw a second name from one of the comments of this post. The prize will be another mini quilt from the left over charms. For those of you who do not have a name suggestion please tell me about your favorite fabric line. Right now mine is VERNA.

I will choose the Quilt Name and have the drawing on Wednesday. Good luck :)

I need a name for my new quilt. I am HORRIBLE at naming quilts. This is where you come in. Help me name my quilt. If I choose the name you suggested there will be a prize in it for you :)

What is the prize you ask? Well, I had just enough squares left from my charms to make a Wonky Star mini quilt. Of course I don’t have it made yet, but I assure you I will by the end of the weekend.

Here is a picture of the charms that I have left. Some of them will be used in the mini quilt.

The binding for the quilt you are naming is going to be in the striped fabric on the left (pictured above).

Now, put your thinking caps on and NAME THAT QUILT!

I will post a picture of the quilt again AFTER I have the binding on and have it washed. Remember the squares are raw edge appliquéd so they will be frayed after washing. This will make for one soft, cozy, charming quilt.

I am in LOVE

With this quilt. I just finished the quilting, trimmed it down to the size I wanted it, and it is ready for the binding…now if only the mail would get here with my binding fabric :)

I can not wait to bind and wash this one. I just LOVE it!

For the most part the spacing turned out pretty well. I did learn a few things during this project. If anyone decides to make a quilt like this, I HIGHLY suggest pinning it with safety pins in the middle and then gluing down the corners (gluing first). I didn’t do this at first and had to go back and glue down the corners. I was in a hurry and ended up stretching some of the squares. So it kind of got out of whack, but not enough for me to be bothered by it in the end.

It took a while to get the squares spaced. I made 1 inch spacers from the cardboard inserts from a Layer Cake and charm packs (worked really well too).

 

All in all this was a FUN project, one that I am sure I will do again :)

Oh and thanks to everyone who left comments on the spacing and the BRIGHT pink squares!

I can’t believe it….

Ok, I about had a heart attack. I am organizing my patterns and printing out ideas. I wasn’t paying attention, and I heard something fall on the floor…My external hard drive!!! I just reformatted my computer and everything I have is saved on that external hard drive…pictures, files, school papers & grades, EVERYTHING!

I took a deep breath and picked it up off the floor and checked to see if I could access my files, NOTHING. The tears just started rolling down my face. Gone, all of it, gone…7 years of pictures, 2 years of school work and files, all my OneNote notebooks. DEVISTATION as far as I am concerned.

Just about the time I got my self together, I realized that in the fall the power cord cam out…I started laughing hysterically, plug the power back into the back of my hard drive and guess what? That’s right, it is all still there!!!!  I can not believe that it survived the fall, now if only my heart can recover :)

The Prettiest Scruffy EVER

Ok I know I am in VERNA mode right now, but come on, it has to be one of the greatest lines there is :) Anyway, while blog hopping this evening I came across this http://www.dollsfromtheloft.com/2010/02/theres-new-girl-in-town.html I couldn’t believe my eyes, it is just too pretty for words!

Need Help :)

I can't decide between 1/2 inch spacing or 1 inch spacing…what do you think? Top part is 1 inch. Bottom part is 1/2 inch.

Verna Quilt Update…

I have all the squares laid out on my sheet. I still need to perfect the spacing, but it is coming along.

This is how I had it laid out at first.

I wasn’t sure I was in love with the BRIGHT PINK squares. I only had 4 of them and to me it just needed a couple more so I took them out and now it looks like this…

not sure why the picture turned out so dark, maybe my flash didn’t go off? Anyway here is it without the BRIGHT PINK squares…what do you think? Layout 1 or layout 2?

Here is a better picture of layout 2 taken from the side angle.

I wish the charms had more of the bright pink squares, but each charm only had 1 of each fabric and I only had 4 charm packs…I am thinking without more of the bright pink I am liking the second layout better. Leave a comment letting my know what you think.

Off to get them spaced correctly, this should be fun….NOT

Friday Night Sew In—Part 2

After finishing up my NEPTUNE I decided to figure out EXACTLY what I wanted to do with the VERNA and other supplies I purchased. After some thought this is what I came up with. The back is taped down and the quilt sandwich has been made. I just have to get the charms laid out the way I want them and spaced right. When that is done I will pin them down and quilt it.

So far I have 2 charm packs laid out…just another 1.5 to go :)
but now I have to call it a night.

Got to LOVE 1/2 Price

I used my last piece of batting the other day when I made my NEPTUNE quilt. I told hubby it was time to stock up again. My friend CJ told me that Joann’s would be having a sale here soon and I should look into buying it by the yard because it would be $5.99, so I started looking. I went to the store today with my 40% off coupon in had, and wouldn't you know it, they were out of the White and Natural I wanted. So I got online to see what they offered. I saw first thing that they had an online coupon for 50% off. So I found several bolts, but nothing by the yard. I started figuring and talked to hubby. I bought a 90” wide 40 yard bolt of White and Natural for 1/2 off. With shipping and everything the cost came out to be $4.90/yard instead of the normal $11/yard. I am so excited! No more stocking up on all those packages of batting any more…wonder how long 40 yards will last???

FRIDAY NIGHT SEW IN & A FINISH

I got a head start on the FNSI. I managed to finish my NEPTUNE. It is all washed and ready to love.

 

Now I am trying to decide what else to do…

My next quilt project will be for the CGQC Spring Sewing Party. I am going to use my VERNA charm packs to make a charm quilt something like the following… Pattern and Quilt

For this quilt I will be using:

• several VERNA charms
• 1 full sized white sheet from Target (for the top background)
• 1 full sized yellow sheet from Target (for the back)
• Yardage of VERNA stripe fabric for the binding (ordered)

The yellow sheet doesn’t look as pretty in the picture as it is person. It is bright and beautiful, and matches the yellow in the VERNA perfectly! My camera was giving me issues and I couldn’t get a great shot.

Friday Night Sew IN

I will be joining Heidi and the other quilters for the Friday Night Sew In tonight. If you would like to join us, visit Heidi’s blog to sign up.

Tonight I will be finishing up my NEPTUNE Scruffy Quilt. I have the binding sewn to the front, and will be hand sewing it to the back to finish it. If I have any time left after that I will be getting my quilt fabric ready for the CGQC Spring Party coming up on February 27th. There will be a lot of prep work for the quilt I will be doing so I would like to get that out of the way, but 1st I have to make a little side trip to Joann’s Fabric store to get some thread, batting, and fusible web :)

Here is a picture of my NEPTUNE quilt as is…hopefully tomorrow morning there will be a picture of fresh out of the wash an dryer :)

 

I just have to say again how happy I am that I took this quilt apart and redid it. I AM SO LOVEING IT NOW! I know I say this about every quilt I finish, but this IS my FAVORITE one!