October NewFO's

It's that time again!  What did you start in September?  Oh I'd love to hear!

I made oh gee how many? I made 12 Doggie Dresses for my friend's therapy dog.  Together they are both turning heads everywhere they go.  Two of the dresses were my own design.  This one off to the left with the butterflies and then one that looks like a mermaid.  Tigger doesn't do the later justice though.  So if you're lucky I'll remember to post it when I have a picture of the rightful wearer in it.

I also made a baby quilt for one of my sisters, who is due this month.  The quilt is reversible pink safari themed with raw edge applique butterflies.  It is quilted with loops of the butterflies flight patterns, the baby's name, hearts and a couple of stars.  It was a really quick and easy quilt so it's okay if it ends up loved to pieces.

I also put thread to fabric on this delightful quilt backing, which is part of my Lilly's Garden Quilt Project.  This back went fast but the front will surely take longer.  I have started cutting the fabric for one of the borders on the front but haven't actually started sewing the it yet.  I have another fabric order that needs to arrive first and there is one last embroidered block which is the center point that I don't have.  I'm worried about accidently cutting one of the embroidered fairy blocks to small so I've been putting it off.  Likely tomorrow or Monday will be soon enough.

Does anyone remember this?  It's my wall hanging River Art Quilt, showing our minor Florida rapids. I started it in June, and finished it this month. Everything is applique with just a little bit being raw edge, to give a more organic look to things like the palm tree in the upper right corner.

I've already completed 6 doggie dresses for this month, so time will only tell what I will have to share next time.  Until then, happy sewing.

Lone Star Day: October Afternoon

Lone Star Quilt awaiting Swirl Art

I got the Lone Star Quilt all squared up!  What a job that was!  I marked everything first and then went back and trimmed.  Thank goodness I did that, or when I did what I thought was a quarter turn but was really only an 1/8th turn I would have cut a corner right off.  With the way my glowing rays radiate you see the corners look quite a bit like sides.

This quilt is a behemoth!  I thought the final size would be something like 100" square.  Not on the life of this quilt apparently.  Instead it is 112".  What a big beast!  At least it will look good on someone's bed in the future.  I don't even think this will fit my quilt frame at all.  I believe the advertised width max. is something like 106" square so I'll need to measure that and find out.

After I finished squaring this bad boy I realized that if I have the printer print one side of each scrolling edge instead of the entire corner the printer will not have to be as wide as I had thought.  Instead of needing a printer that can print 42"+, something that will print 18"+ (most likely the more common 24" printer) width would be fine.  So now I just need to check my assumed measurements to the quilt scrolls to be sure it will fit how I was hoping and if not scale the scrolls up a little (Eegads!).  But that is surely a job when my arms ache a little less...

I've been so busy with other sewing projects that it really was nice to spend a bit of time on this quilt that otherwise would have stayed put away for another time.  Just think I can check off "Square Quilt"!  That alone will make it a more welcoming project for next time!

Jayne says she's hoping planning to have her Lone Star done by the new year.  Isn't that a marvel?  Personally if I have the scrolls done by the New Year and thereby the flismy top will be done I'll be a happy camper.  There just isn't enough time once the holidays start hitting.

Lonestar Day: October

Good Morning!  How has everyone been?  As you may have noticed I've been busy.  I ordered my Fabrico pens from a company whose "reading between the lines" reviews said "buy only if it doesn't matter when you get your stuff".  Well the price was something I couldn't pass up, so I went with that.  I was delighted that only a week or so later here came my two Fabrico Pens, I truly hadn't been expecting them yet.

These are much nicer than I had imagined.  They fit in my hand well, which will be good considering how many hours I'll spend holding them.  As you can see the wide cap flares so you don't need to be paying much attention to tell one end from the other.  They aren't fat like a prismacolor marker and I will be looking forward to working on the scrolls.

That wont be today though.  Yesterday I made 3 doggie dresses and have two more to do so those are all over the sewing room table.  I am hoping to square up the Lonestar Quilt today, which is a challenge I have not been looking forward too.  I'll check in later to let you know how that went.  Happy Sewing!

Lilly's Garden Quilt Back

Lilly's Garden Quilt Back Flimsy

The first shipment of fabric for Lilly's Garden Quilt arrived Saturday, right after I'd put Earth Turtles on the quilt  frame, so I knew I needed to hurry up already so that I could work on something new and more fun.  I don't have the embroidered garden centerpiece for the front of the quilt so I went ahead and pieced the back first.  These are 16" pinwheels on point, but instead of putting the blocks in the center and using plain setting triangles I instead made pieced triangles.  This added a bit more math and effort but I feel the results are worth it.  The fabrics I selected for nearly the entire quilt are wonderful batiks which were very nice to work with.  The swirl and the large block fabrics both had more purple in them than I realized from their swatches but the effect works well together.  I also think that my choices of quilting threads will pull the tones of this back one way or another depending on the colors I select.  What do you think?

Earth Turtles Are Finished!

Hawaiian Applique Earth Turtles

My Earth Turtle Quilt is finally finished!  I started this quilt as a concept long before I put thread to fabric, but   the actual applique work began May 2011.  Talk about a Good Finish!  It is reversible as you can see below.  Everything is raw edge as taken from it's twin my Hawaiian Ocean Applique Quilt which you can see here.  This time I quilted it to look like grass in the background, with echoes over the border and only in the ditch for the turtles themselves.  This gives them that little pop that is so nice.  This quilt is a different color palette than I normally work with and I feel this quilt is that much more intense for the change.

Earth Turtles Reverse

This quilt is a nice twin/twin XL as you can see it runs edge to edge on my full size bed, easily comfortable for an adult or child sleeping in a twin size bed.  It is an Hawaiian Applique Quilt in that the fabric is folded multiple times and then cut as you would a snowflake.  The fusible web I used made it a challenge to cut, so it was good to have DH's help with that.