Friendly Foxes

Apparently I am in love with all things foxy at the moment and have finished my second fox quilt this year!  This quilt has been delivered to its new owner – an absolutely adorable girl that belongs to friends.  We had visited them late in the summer as they were getting ready for their little one to arrive and I noticed that there was as stuffed fox in with the baby items.  At the time they didn’t know if they were having a boy or a girl so I wanted something gender neutral.  I had just been getting ready to make the Fox and Friends quilt for someone else and upon ordering the fabric I also came across the kit for Kona Fox Kits by Sew Fresh Quilts at Mad About Patchwork.  I thought it was cute so decided to give it a try.

I must admit I did not like this quilt as I was putting it together.  I kept adding the leaves and piecing parts and still didn’t like the overall look.  However I am happy the say that once it was quilted and washed that I loved it and was happy that I didn’t through the whole thing in a pile and move onto something else!

I decided to embroider her name onto the tree like someone had carved it.  Then came the quilting, I really wanted to accent the overall design of the quilt and keep the quilting to a minimum (I was working with a minky back and wanted it to stay soft, not to mention I started the quilting with just over a week before to go before we would be delivering the quilt).

I quilted bark on the tree, veins on the leaves and outlined the foxes.  Then filled in the rest with simple straight lines, which gave both the front and back of the quilt a great effect.

The foxes are so cute and friendly even the deer are not afraid!

This is my first finish off my Finish a Long quarter 4 list (found here).  Now I had better get working on those Christmas projects.

Link ups this week: Fabric Tuesday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Lets Be Social

Finish-a-long 2014 Q4

Well I didn’t finish all my projects last quarter (I actually did better than I thought I would, which is great).  This quarter is all about getting ready for the holidays – for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to make a lot of gifts this year (smart right).  Most of these projects are presents for people, so I am not posting too much detail (I doubt most the recipients read this blog, but just to be careful).

1. A Coastal Cruiser pillow. (Finished –  Nov. 20th)

2. A Pillow (this one will go with the Coastal Cruiser house, so it has the same background, but will have a different subject) (Finished – Nov 24th)

3. Stockings – With the new addition to our household this year we need another stocking.  As my husband and I don’t have any at our house (Christmas was usually spent with one set of parents or the others) I need to make us some as well – at least they will all match! (Finished – Dec 19th)

4. Baby quilt – This quilt is for a special little baby that decided to arrive early – guess she couldn’t wait to meet her parents!  That being said now her quilt really needs to done and it is still in pieces (all the pieces have not yet been cut either!). (Finished – Oct 27th)

5. This quilt from my Guild’s Mystery Quilt series needs to be quilted and bound so it can go to its new home this Christmas.

6. A custom quilt for a friend!  I have made several baby quilts for her (she loves to give them as shower presents) and I finally get to make on for her to keep!

7. Why not through this on (would be nice to have it for Halloween) as it just needs to be quilted and bound!  I would love to be able to snuggle with my Ghastlies soon!

8. I also have a Ghastlies mug rug that needs to be finished for a present (no pic sorry as I am sure this person looks at the blog!).

 

Oh dear, 8 projects in less than three months – I better get to work!   Hopefully I don’t get distracted with too many side projects over the coming months, although I am sure there will be a few of those as well.

 

 

Fox and Friends Finish

A friend needed a quilt for a baby shower present and I had been eying this pattern for a while so it was a great chance to try it out.  I picked up a kit from Mad About Patchwork, the pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts and got to work.  The piecing came together quickly which was great.

The backing fabric is from Picture Pie which I think complements the top nicely.

For quilting I sewed 1/4″ on each side of the diagonal seams to form diamonds.  Then I quilted in the little girl’s name – Noelle.  I like that it is there, but subtle so it doesn’t take away from the racoons and foxes on the front of the quilt.  I love those racoons!

This quilt will be on its way to the new baby this weekend!

Linking up to:

 

Pillow Talk

Another finish!  I love how finishing off a project that has sat around the sewing room (mostly finished) give you a sense of accomplishment and the energy to keep going on other projects.  This pillow was that project for me.  It is an orphan block from a quilt (that is sitting waiting to be quilted) that I decided would make a good pillow – then it sat.  I have been working on several new projects for various people recently and feeling like I am not getting anything done (especially with a new baby in the house), so I needed something that I would be able to finish in a couple of naps.

I decided to practice my paisley quilting on this pillow, as I love the look but am still not confident enough to do it on a quilt.  I think it turned out fairly well, and while it was time consuming it didn’t take as long as I had initially thought.

Now that I feel like I have accomplished something I feel ready to tackle the rest of the quilts that are waiting with deadlines that are coming up soon!

This is my third finish for this quarter’s Finish a-long 2014 (original list here)!  Woo hoo!

Linking up to Needle and thread Thursday, Lets Be Social, Sew Cute Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, I quilt Thursday,

Monkey Christmas

I know it is a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but I am thrilled to finally have this quilt finished. It started 3 years ago when my Husband picked me up some sock monkey fabric with elf monkeys on it! I started looking and found some fabric to go with it and figured out a design. Then it sat, and sat and waited  for me to get to it. I came across it almost a year later and fell in love again. This time I got it pieced together in just a couple weeks, and it sat again.

Months later I got it out and did some quilting – strings of Christmas lights!  Again other projects came up and this one sat in the to do pile, waiting to be trimmed and bound.  I am excited to have this quilt for Christmas this year, finally after years of waiting!

This quilt is backed with some nice flannel to make it nice and cozy in the cold Canadian winters!

This is my second finish for the third quarter of the 2014 Finish along (original list here).

Quilt Stats:

Size: 54″ x 63″

Fabric: Santa’s Little Helper (Moda)

Backing: Funky Monkey Flannel (moda)

Quilting: Free motion Christmas lights, done on Juki

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursdays, Lets Be Social, I Quilt Thursdays,

Busy Busy

I can’t believe that it has been over a month since I last posted!  Things have been a little crazy here for the last few weeks – Little Girl is awake and playing more, we did a road trip to visit family and friends and my Husband managed to break his foot.  He is on crutches for about 6 weeks and then a walking boot after that.  Poor guy can’t carry Little Girl right now and it takes him much longer to get anything done with the crutches.  Needless to say not a lot of sewing has been done here recently.

I have managed to get some things done though.  Back in July I offered to organize a block of the month for my local quilt guild.  I have been spending time planning blocks, making blocks and writing instructions for those.  So far 3 blocks and 1 set of instructions done.  I am loving the way that they turning out and can’t wait to get working on the rest of the blocks.

Also before the broken foot incident I told a friend I would make a quilt for her for a baby shower.  I picked up this cute pattern at Sew Fresh Quilts and love the quilt.  Thankfully it comes together fairly easily so I am able to get some put together during Little Girl’s naps.  I can’t wait to see it finished and may just have to make another one for Little Girl!

Berenstain Star

It seems like I am in the middle of babypalooza right now – everyone is having babies ( and mine is only 5 weeks old) or has close friends having babies.  This means I seem to be making a lot of baby items these days.  The latest finish is heading off to a coworker of my Mom.  The Mom to be grew up reading the Berenstain Bears so it was easy to pick the fabric – the pattern on the other hand took some time to figure out.  Finally upon playing around on the Moda Bakeshop I found a great pattern I loved – Storybook Star.  I do love the incredible number of great free patterns on the Moda Bakeshop and they have great ideas for precuts.

The front uses a charm pack I had from Welcome to Bear Country and the backing is from the second Berenstain line – Bear Country School.  The green dot fabric is from Riley Blake and I love how well it goes with the other fabrics in the charm pack.

The quilt came together quickly and I quilted it straight line stitches inside the star and a simple stipple outside to try and highlight the star.  I love the straight line quilting and would do the entire quilt this way if I ever did it again.

The future owner of this quilt is due to arrive in early August, so I have a few days to figure out what to put on the label before I send it off!  Then I have 2 more baby quilts to make for fall arrivals!

Quilt Stats:

Pattern: Storybook Star

Fabric: Charm squares Welcome to Bear Country by Moda, Kona Ash, Riley Blake dots

Backing: Bear Country School by Moda

Size: 41 x 41″

Link ups:

Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

This is my first finish for the third quarter of the 2014 Finish-a-long (list of projects is here).

Finish Along 2014 Q3

Well, I am trying to make 2014 the year for getting some projects finished – my sewing room has become smaller, so I just won’t have the room for all my unfinished projects, nor the time I used to have to dedicate to them!  In an effort to keep working on projects and holding myself accountable for finishing them, I am joining in the Finish Along again!  I only completed about 1/2 my list last year, but that was better than finishing nothing and starting a bunch of new ones!

So for this quarter I have a couple of leftover projects and some new ones.

1. Hexagon pillow – I started this pillow over the summer and only have 8 more hexagons that have to be attached, then quilted to make the pillow cover.  As I am supposed to being doing a small demo on English Paper Piecing at my Quilt Guild Meeting in February I am hoping to have this  mostly done to show as part of the demo (adding borders, removing paper, ect).

2. Star Pillow – I need to get a pillow cover finished for this so it can go down on the reading bench to lean against!  My husband was nice enough to custom build the bench, so now I just need to finish up the pillows!

3. The baby Textures quilt – this still needs to be quilted and finished.  It has no real recipient, but it would be nice to be able to put it in the finished pile (and to have on hand for a last minute present, the number of people I know having kids seems to grow each week!).

4. Mom’s Pillow – After some renos last year, she is need of a pillow for some new furniture.  I am thinking a nice dresdren plate pillow would look great with the other grey and yellow flowers she has going on in the room.

5. Mystery Quilt – I made this quilt with the local guild this year and need to get it basted, quilted and bound.  I am hoping to use it as a Christmas present.

6. Star quilt – this is all nicely bound, it just needsto be quilted, in which case I need to pick a pattern to quilt it with.

7. Star of Bears – This quilt needs to be done in the next couple of weeks as the baby this is a present for is due Aug 5th!

8. Christmas Monkeys – this poor quilt keeps getting pushed behind other projects at every stage.  All that is left at this point is to bind it and remove all the basting pins!

 

That seems like a good list with a new baby in the house!

Pretty Petals

My local modern quilt guild decided to participate in the Modern Quilt Guild Micheal Miller fabric challenge.  This is the quilt that I made for the challenge.  They provided us with fat eights of 6 fabrics which are the main features in the front of my quilt.  I loved the fabric with the colourful wedges and used that to inspire the start of my design with the stacked wedges.

The back of the quilt was made by piecing the scraps together into a strip and filled with Michael Miller Coral solids.

For the quilting I decided this would be a great time to try a spiral quilting.  I had two designs and after a bit of debating I decided to center the spirals on the fowers on the the front and back of the quilt.

The binding took a little longer than anticipated due to our new arrival, but she makes an adorable quilt model!

Linking up to Finish it up Friday

Busy Busy

There hasn’t been a lot of sewing going on in my house right now, as we have been busy adjusting to a new routine.  The occupant of this room finally decided to move in just over a week ago and she has been keeping us busy ever since!  She loves her quilt  so far, and it is fantastic for snuggling under during midnight feedings!  I am so happy I had it finished before she arrived!

Hopefully she lets me catch up on some sleep and sewing soon!