Lately

Tommy is on summer league swim team which has a rigorous but fun schedule. 

Here he is backstroking to a second place ribbon!

Can't take credit for the picture, my hubby took this one. 

Tommy is one happy kid being able to swim nearly every day. The team experience is made better by having a fun and encouraging coach, an organized group of energetic people running things, and a nice group of swimmers his age.  The whole experience has been nice and very family oriented, we were so lucky to find all of this so close to home. I see a lot of pools in my future as I think he is going to join the year round team in the fall.

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In my "non-pool" hours I have been working on this:

love the giant houndstooth prints!

It is made using Vintage Modern fabric put out by Moda, designed by Bonnie and Camille.  The pattern is Camille's called Hopscotch. I have been waiting months for this line of fabric to come out and I was not disappointed! It is so soft and feminine I loved making the quilt. All it used was as jellyroll and a couple yards of fabric. Now to quilt it....

My first T-shirt quilt

My daughters friend Austin graduated from high school today. I made him this t-shirt quilt over the last 2 months and actually had it finished to give him on his graduation day. If only all my projects were so timely!
It was an educational process. I have never had a lot of appreciation for T-shirt quilts in all honesty. I get the special, preservation of the memories and all but, they never really "moved" me so, in the making of this one I gained some respect for them and actually found I enjoyed some of the designing aspects much to my surprise.
It worked out well and I can see making another one for each of my children in the future.

In the works this May...

I have been spending my "free" sewing time working on a T-Shirt quilt for a good friend of my daughter's, who is graduating from high school. He rounded up a good amount of tees but half are black and he really , REALLY wants dark green sashing between the blocks.  I am worried the whole quilt will be too dark so I have decided to put in a few patchwork and applique blocks in to brighten it.  

The receiver is a Violin player ( thus the music fabrics)

Challenging to "brighten" a quilt without making it girly!

I made these three blocks so far with the Lazy and Loving it! book by Joan Hawley. After two failed attempts at this block I broke down and read the excellent directions in the book and BAM! perfect block! Why didn't I do that the first time? 

Go figure huh? You can make this block finish at up to 18" using the Lazy angle ruler, this one finishes at 15 which is perfect for coordinating with some of my Tee shirt sizes.

Check out my Ed Emberley owls in the block above! ( some  have graduation caps on!)

I know these are a little childish but with the little caps on I couldn't resist. My hubby and I both noted that these owls look a lot like the ghosts in the old Pac-Man arcade game. Don't they???

I am planning on a block with the year on it for his graduation year but that will be machine appliqued on and he is Jewish and wears a necklace with the Hebrew character for life on it so I am thinking I might put that on a block as well.

Hopefully it will be enjoyed by the graduate in time for graduation! 

French Braid

Dolores made this beautiful (and if I may add VERY photogenic) quilt using the French Braid book and even added some fussy cut appliques on it of flowers and vines! Isn't it gorgeous?

 Dolores teaches both the French Braid technique and the machine applique technique at the shop too.

 I tried a new border technique because it sort of looked braided too and it used my curved cross hatching ruler that I love! I saw a tutorial on how to do it here. Check it out!

 Dolores really nailed the light to dark gradation didn't she?

I love how it turned out!

More Lazy Angle

This little cutie was made from scraps from my stash of fabrics leftover from recent (and non recent) projects.

The pattern uses 5" squares or a charm pack which would cut down on cutting a lot, I however used my stash so I had a good deal of cutting but I think it came out cute.

It is made using the Lazy Angle Ruler from Creative Grids too!

One just for me

I am still pursuing my Lazy Angle Ruler obsession and gave myself this week to do the quilting on this little sample I made.

  The pattern is Taffy by Jaybird quilts and, the fabric is from Riley Blake's line called Daisy Cottage. I love the butterscotch yellow color lately featured in the large center blocks of the quilt.

 Here is the quilt once it was quilted, 
I used two layers of wool batting:

 I used Bella 98 solid white fabric for the diamonds and I knew I wanted to practice my feathers in them. It takes a lot of control and I am getting better but still I am as ever, "a work in progress".  I did them free hand ( without drawing ) so they aren't all identical but I wanted to see how close I would be and if it would look cohesive this way.

 Back of quilt:

 Details shot from center of quilt: 

I am pretty happy with it and am excited to be working on the binding later this evening!

Jody's Quilt

This quilt had great, bright colors, lots of Kafe Fassat Fabrics and prints mixed with batiks. 

See, who says you can't mix batiks with prints????

It was a really great marriage of fabrics and a blast to quilt.

Here are some before, during and after shots:

 After the background feather and wavy spokes were added:

After the neon green was quilted with spirals mimicking the batik fabric design:

 Flying geese border before:

 Flying geese border after:

 I decided to create a design in the outer border that mimicked the dimensions of the triple 1" border in the picture above. The hardest part was getting the lines perfectly even and straight. Love my longarm rulers for that! 

Then I had to evenly space the zig zag so it came out whole and ended evenly at the corners. 

Each of the four sides of the quilt measured a little differently so some borders were tight and some I had to fudge by stretching out the zig zag. Overall your eye doesn't see the 1/8" differences dispersed here and there, spread out along the sides to make it come out even. This was obviously not Jody's first piecing job either, the differences were small making my job much easier!

 Then of course stitching the line (hopefully) perfectly because I was using contrasting thread, was a challenge but that green looked so great on the purple I couldn't resist!

 I used a white lead in my Sewline pencil to mark with and it wiped of easily with a damp cloth after I stitched my lines. 

 Then filling in the triangles with loops to emphasize the design:

Back of the quilt:

 Center Medallion, textured with pebbles and radiating lines emphasizing the center star design:

This quilt was really fun to work on. 

I got to use chartreuse green thread!

I looked and looked at this quilt and suddenly realized the main colors work so well together because they form a triangle on the color wheel! My color teacher Reeze  of Morning Glory Designs would be so proud! Just like primary colors red yellow and blue will always catch your eye when placed together so will the colors between them: orange, green and purple.  

Thank you Jody for letting me play with your quilt for a while, I sure enjoyed it!