Two Months ?!?!?!

Wow, I did not realize that it has been 2 months since I last posted. So much has happened, though not on the sewing front. The main reason for that is we found out we are expecting baby #2! Apparently, what happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas ;). We were in Las Vegas for my cousin's wedding, which was spectacular. My cousin always said she was going to get married in Vegas (and not one of those quickie, drive-thru weddings, a full on destination wedding in Vegas), and all the family came in for it.

This was my and my husband's first time in Vegas, and we loved it and want to go back!

This is us on the party bus on the way to the rehearsal dinner. 

As for the baby news, due to the little peanut I have been extremely exhausted for the last two months. I have barely had energy to get through the work day, and every evening I just come home and crash. Sewing has been non-existent in the household, but that changed today since I am finally feeling a little better (it also helped that the hubby took the kid away for four hours so mommy could have some peace and quiet). I finished quilting the starburst quilt, so all that's left is the trimming and the binding! I'll be back soon with more updates and a look at another one of my finished quilts from last year.

Houndstooth

As part of this blog, I want to create a record of the quilts I have made. My grandmother has made over 200 quilts in her lifetime, and she has a list of most of them, and pictures of some, and I so wish I had a better record of the wonderful quilts she has made to be able to look back on someday. I hope that by recording my quilts here that I can pass on my legacy to my granddaughter one day.

To start, here is the first quilt I ever completely finished. It is a lap quilt I made for my mother-in-law. It's not the first quilt I ever started (I still have 2 or 3 WIP's that I started in college), but it is one of my favorites. It is a houndstooth pattern that I modified from somewhere. I created it in 2013, machine pieced and quilted, using solid colors.

Since everybody in my family are huge Alabama fans (and it's where both my husband and I graduated), this pattern was very appropriate. I want to remake this one some day but double it to use when we go tailgating. 

Deal Me In!

This week has been very productive week for sewing! Last night I got my mom the help me finish adding the borders to the Starburst quilt. It looks great and I'm happy how it turned out, even if some of the points are a little wonky (I won't tell if you won't :).

Next up is sandwiching it and quilting it. I have a wonderful light green minky for the backing. My goal is to start quilt it this weekend. 

I also got the next sampler blocks done! This is one of my favorite patterns, the card trick block. I love how the block looks so different just by changing the colors of the fabrics. 

Revolutionary

I was worried about the contrast of the fabrics in this block, but I think it turned out great. The colors are pretty close to how they actually look, and most of my points are even! I have a hard time with points sometimes, but I'm getting better. These sampler blocks are great practice. 

Roaring 30's

I was't going to put white in this quilt, but this block just begged for it. The solid color really makes the patterns pop. I need to add more white from now on. 

Mod Squad

This block just doesn't photograph well (not that anything really does under fluorescent light, on a wooden dining table, at 10:00 at night). The colors are actually more vibrant, and the two blue and green patterns are on a white background. The blue background is also more blue and less black as it shows here. I really like this block. 

Beale Street

This block. I love it. I am so glad I picked this combo of colors. 

Rainbow

These colors are a little more vibrant in person, and you can tell a much greater contrast between the light yellow top right card and the light green background. The rainbow blocks are always the first block I do, so it's my practice block. This block came out a little wonky, but not too terrible. 

So that's another 5 blocks for the samplers! I might finish the tops in the next 5 years! 

The 350 Blocks Project

Since my last post, I've made another 10 blocks for the blue and tan quilt for my husband, which I think I'm going to call Points and Bars. That brings the total up to 57! I hope to get it done in the next few months, at least have the top pieced by our anniversary in July. As part of helping me stay on course, I am participating in the 350 Blocks Project on Prairie Moon Quilts. It's just a way to check in and make sure I'm on track, the goal is to make 350 quilt blocks this year. Each month  a goal is set, and quilters report in on their progress. March's goal is 30 blocks, which I have hit, but I'm behind for January and February, so my over all total is low. Here's how it's shaping up so far:

Points & Bars: 57 Blocks
Family Samplers: 10 Blocks (2 per quilt)
Starburst: 6 Blocks (I'm counting each point of the star as one block, as I had to sew them together to create the whole star)

Total of 72! I hope to make 8 more so I can get back on track for the year. Some of the other quilters have already made upwards of 200 blocks! I am in awe of their abilities. I may not make the 350 goal, but I hope to have at least a good head start on the sampler quilts and the others that come up along the way!

Back At It

Well the last few weeks have been horrible on the sewing front. Between craziness at work and our whole family being sick, I haven't had much energy/time to do any sewing. Last night I finally got back on track. 

For the starburst quilt, I sewed the borders into strips so I can attach it to the main body. This weekend I'm going to get my mom to help me pin and sew the borders on. Since I just hand stitched the star down, it's not perfectly square, so two sets of hands measuring and pinning will hopefully make it come out right. Here is what the border will look like once it's on:

After that I just need to add a thick solid purple border then I can quilt it. I am still unsure about how to quilt it. I've gone back and forth on quite a few different designs and nothing has stood out yet. Still have some time on that though. 

The other thing I worked on is a quilt that I started back in November of last year. It was requested by my husband to go on our bed. It is a take on a pattern I saw in one of my magazines. The original one had navy and ivory blocks, but I expanded my palette a bit and included more tans and different hues of blue. I also used linen for the rail fence blocks, for a different texture and a bit more weight to the quilt. The blues I pulled from my stash, various quilt shops, and even stole some from my grandmother :).

 In all it has 20 different kinds of blue fabric. I had to cut 4 quarter square triangles per block, with 178 blocks in total. I think it took me almost two months to cut out all those triangles. Now I am piecing the blocks together, and then will sew them into rows like this:

I'm slowly making progress on these blocks. I have 47 done, so only 131 left!

Starburst

So I know I said I wasn't feeling the starburst quilt pattern I had begun, but after talking with my mother-in-law, who loved it, I decided to revisit it and try again instead of completely redoing it. 

As a recap, here was the original design:

And here was my take, with the lone star pattern:

I changed it a bit as I was sewing it up, and put all the greens in the center with a purple ring around them.  Putting the star together wasn't so bad, I did rip the seams a few times to get everything to line up, but seeing as this was my first time to make this pattern, it ended up ok. The issue came when I tried to do the y-seams to add the sold border around the star. I just could not get them to work right. Now that I've stepped away from it for a few days, I'm going to try again.  If it doesn't work, I'm going to just appliqué the whole thing down onto the purple back ground fabric. Then I just have to make the two borders, add the backing and quilt it. We'll see how it goes, and if I have to go to plan c :) 

Colors!

I'm still working on building the fabrics for the samplers. Here are the collections I have so far. I also want to name each quilt, so I don't have to keep saying my grandmother's or my mom's. Here is the first stab at the names (subject to change at any time:). 

Revolutionary (my grandmother's quilt)

Tan, brown, navy, light blue, and deep red. 

Roaring 30's (my mom)

Various 1930's reproduction prints

Mod Squad (My sister-in-law)

Teal, aqua, lime, purple, white

Beal Street (mine)

Brown, teal, tan, and aqua

Rainbow

Rainbow colors! (Duh;) 

I have the next block cut out and hope to have it pieced today. 

The Dusting of 2014

Well, it has been a very cold, very tiring week. I live in Birmingham, AL. If you've seen the news and the weather down here, you should know it's been horrible. I work for a hospital (although I am not in the medical field, it's a long story), and I got stuck here Tuseday night. Now, I am very thankful that I was able to stay at the hospital, where I had food and a cot to sleep on, and that my husband was with me (he works for a company that is contracted by the hosptial, so he was able to make it here). However, my 14-month-old son was at daycare near our home, about 45 mins away. We tried, but we could not make it to him. I know there were many, many parents in our situation, wanting to get to their children but not being able to, and that is a horrible feeling, a feeling of helplessness. I hated it, I barely got any sleep worrying about him. I must say, our son is a trooper, he really is a wonderful baby and rolls with the punches. He had a wonderful time, even got to bed on time and slept all night. I don't think he even realized what was happening. We are so blessed with him, he is such a good little boy. 

Anyways, we didn't make it home until late Wednesday after making it to daycare to pick him up. After such a tiring day, we stayed home yesterday, just playing and relaxing as a family, and it was wonderful. I did manage to cut out a few more blocks yesterday for my samplers, and I hope to sew them up tonight. I also worked on the starburst quilt, but that quickly became a horrible mess, which I will write about in a later post. I think I am changing direction on that one. 

Here is a picture when the snow was just beginning: 

And here is the next street over, about 30 minutes later: 

The roads were completely snowed over at this point, and were quickly turning into sheets of ice. It was a night mare. My husband and I tried to leave to get to our son, but after 4 1/2 hours in traffic and only making it about 3 blocks, we turned around and went back to the hosptial to stay it out. That was the hardest decision we've ever made, but we knew we couldn't stay the night in our car on the side of the road. 

This is the new baseball field about three blocks from where I worked. That truck on the right had just went sideways as he was turning through the intersection and almost hit a car coming the other way. 

All in all, we got through it, and I think the entire region learned some hard lessions. But we are southerners, and we keep going. Soon the city will thaw out, and we'll be fine. 

Starburst

Inbetween all the sampler blocks, I also have three other quilts in various stages of completion. The first one is a baby quilt my mother-in-law requested for one of her good friend's new granddaughter. The only parameters she gave me were that she liked classic patterns, stars, and the quilt needed to be purple and green.

While I was in Louisiana visiting family over the holidays, my mom, aunt, two cousins and myself went to the local quilt shop there (my family can never do anything without at least 4 people being loud and having fun anywhere we go). I found some fat quarters of some lovely purple and green batiks. I'm not usually one for batiks, in fact I had never even purchased any let alone used some in any project before, but I felt drawn to these colors and fabrics. I decided to purchae them knowing I would need them for the baby quilt. Once we got home, I got down to designing the quilt. I use MS Publisher (oldschool), and came up with this pattern:

It's my take on a lone star block/pattern. I love that it's traditional enough, but still vibrant and cheerful, perfect for a baby girl. I haven't decided yet on what background I want, it's between the white shown above or the purple: 

or the green:

I'm leaning towards green but the purple is very pretty too. I guess I'll see which one's my favorite once I've finished the star. 

First Blocks!

So, I have started the first blocks on my family samplers. I made two blocks for each quilt, and had started cutting the fabric for the third block which I had totally anticpated making this past weekend until I got the cold/sinus infection/upper respiratory problem from Hades. I could barely move this weekend. So, I only have 10 blocks for now, and hope to get back on track soon.

The first block I made was the Granny Square quilt, block #1.

For Mawmaw (my grandmother):

Mostly the tan and brown combo, with a little bit of navy blue and red thrown in. I love this color combo. 

For my SIL:

These are pretty much the exact colors I first brought together for her quilt. Teal, navy, aqua, lime green, with a little bit of purple. You can't tell it very well in the photo, but the center square has butterflies in it. 

For my mom (the 30's prints):

I'm not sure if I like this block yet or not. When I started working on her quilt, I didn't have many 30's prints, and this is what I made. Then I mentioned to her that I was thinking of making a quilt out of 30's prints, and she handed me a bag that had to contain at least 15 lbs. of fat quarters, some half yards, and random scraps of 30's fabrics! They are so much more varied and beautiful than what I started with, so I may remake this block. 

For me (blue and brown quilt):

This was the first block I made out of all of them, and it is my absolute favorite so far. I love the colors and the patterns. 

For the rainbow quilt:

I know this block looks kind of odd together, but as the layout of the quilt blocks makes the rainbow pattern, it works overall. 

I also made block #65, a basic take on the Road to California quilt block. 

For Mawmaw: 

I love the color of the blue in this one. 

For my SIL:

I must admit, the colors are quite as crazy looking in person as they ended up in this picture. 

For my mom: 

This is a better look at the 30's prints I originally had. I like this block better than the granny square, so I'll probably leave it unless it looks horribly out of place in the end. :) 

For me: 

Paisley patterns and I have a love-hate relationship. I use to hate them until my husband kept trying to get me to use them in more and more things and I made a quilt for his great Aunt out of a red and gold paisley pattern. They are definitely growing on me, and I love them in this block. 

For the rainbow:

A block of blues! 

Well, that's 10 blocks down, 350 to go! Did I mention I was crazy?

Family Sampler

I am crazy. Just know that now. For what I am about to say is, if not crazy, then a little nutso. I have dreamed up a plan to create quilts for myself, my mother, my grandmother, and my sister-in-law. And not just any quilts, oh no, that would be too easy. I am creating sampler quilts in 5 different color combinations. Each quilt will have the same blocks, just different colors. Each block is 9" finished square. Not too bad so far, but I haven't said how many blocks I plan for each quilt. I don't do anything halfway, and I want these quilts to bind us and last for years to come. So I have planned for each quilt to be made of 72 blocks. Yes, that is 72. 9 rows of 8 blocks each, each one a different pieced block, ranging from traditional blocks to modern stars to a few I designed. I have mocked-up each quilt in the different color range I have chose for each person. 

For my grandmother: 

She loves browns, tans, and blues. I also added dark red to break it up a bit. 

For my mother: 

This one isn't a great representation, as it is supposed to be made of 30's fabrics. My mom loves 30's fabrics, so I tried to create a mock-up of general colors and will then create each block based on those tones. I will also add in more white than is shown, to create a softer looking quilt. 

For my sister-in-law: 

She loves blues, and after questioning my brother, I also learned she likes greens and purples, so I added in lime green, green, lavender, and deep purple to this quilt, along with a grayish white to bring it together. Her quilt will have a lot of more modern prints and feel to it. 

And lastly, for me. I haven't yet chosen which iteration is my favorite, so for now I'm doing both, which results in a total of 5 quilts. Here are my two color options: 

I also love blue, but I love the brown, teal, blue colors together. This quilt will also include a lot of prints in those colors, and a few solids to create some clean space. 

And, lastly for a total different take on this quilt: 

Rainbow! I also love rainbow quilts. This quilt is inspired by the City Sampler quilt from Tula Pink in the organization of the colors. This one is all solids, no prints, in the hues shown above. It takes 12 different colors (the two yellows don't show up very different in this picture, but you can tell a difference in the fabrics). 

I have bought most of the fabrics for these quilts over the last few months, in planning to make something for the women in my family but not yet knowing what. I have also pulled a lot of fabrics (especially the solids) from my stash. I hope to have the tops for each quilt pieced by the end of the year (I told you I was crazy). We'll see what happens!

I haven't told anyone (other than my husband) what I am doing. I hope that by writing about it on here it will keep me focused so I can get through the blocks. This is also on top of any smaller baby quilts that I am planning or have been asked to make (which so far numbers 3). Here's hoping to a productive 2014!