Shoofly quilt

This quilt was made entirely from scraps I already had.

I didn't use a pattern, just started making a bunch of shoo fly blocks.

It measures approximately 65x80

I love the traditional look and the small print fabrics.

a view from the back

and I stippled it all over.  I did this on my regular sewing maching (viking) and it turned out fabulous!

Then it goes into the box to never be seen again. 

I picked an ornament through http://www.uaidutah.org/ for christmas so this is one of the presents i'm giving to a young man through there program.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Quilt

yep I gave in.  My last post talked about how I was not going to start another project.
Well here it is!
I have to explain why I was all the sudden drawn to these granny squares.
I have been crocheting granny squares and when I would search on other granny squares and trying to get ideas on how to join them I would also get results for these granny squares!!  I didn't know they were called granny squares but they do look like granny squares (the crochet ones)  So I decided I had to make one....Oh and its a great project to use up your scraps too.

I tried to figure out a fast way to put them together rather then individually sewing each 2.5 square one at a time.   You know how on the trip around the world you can sew your fabrics in strips then cut them and magic occurs in the way you unpick them? Well I kept thinking how that would work out with these and couldn't figure it out. (Plus I couldn't find a tutorial on that so it must not be possible)

I did figure out how to save a little time. I strip pieced the outside squares.

So with each block you cut 2 10x2.5 strips of white and 2 10x 2.5 strips of your colored fabric.

I then iron them open and cut them every 2.5"   This saves time on ironing and cutting and also you don't have a bunch of thread tails....I hate those!

 Now you have a head start on your block and you can now select your inside blocks from the huge stack of scrappy fabric..

This is what it will look like.   And you can do a lot of your outside blocks all at one time. Have them ready to go!

I did find a blog that used the strip piecing method for her granny squares. Click here .  The reason why I haven't used her method yet is because I still have a bunch of 2.5 squares laying around that i need to include in my quilt. 

Meanwhile, I am still working on my sampler quilts...Not long after I lay them out do I get this...

I turn my back for a minute and look what I find. He thinks that I lay these out for him!

lol. thanks for looking. 

Click on the button to see more quilts in progress:

Wednesday WIP

I have been working on some sampler blocks:

Last friday was my birthday and I took the day off work and sewed all day long!

I made these sampler quilt blocks. They are so addicting. These particular blocks are the same exact block...only chose different fabrics! I love them.

The pattern comes from my Sampler Quilt called Golden Memories.

I actually made every single block in this quilt however I don't really like the colors and alot of the blocks came out different sizes.

In the picture they look perfect however they are not sewn together right here, they are just placed right next to each other....The blocks do not look this good in real life.

So here is what the instructions look like. You have to pay close attention. There are a lot of measurements involved.

The one on the left is my favorite block however I love the ones I made with gray sashing.

I haven't decided if I want to add pink to the mix. I want the quilt to be cheery and fresh. I don't want it to look like a little girl quilt and I'm thinking the pink gives it a little girlish feel. I do like the lavender and gray together though.

I think I'm going to finish the quilts with gray sashing which makes it more "grown up" looking.

Thanks for looking, I'm sharing this post with :

Finished!

Introducing my flying geese quilt:

I quilted this on my home machine using the straight line technique.

Instead of pinning for ever I used this quilt basting spray. It turned out well, I was very impressed, there was only one area where it puckered.

Right there in the middle but it doesn't bother me too much. Its on the back side.

Heres a little snapshot of the corners...they are my favorite.

When the corners match up perfectly you feel like you've done something right!

The colors are plain and not my favorite however I made this for my nephew. He is 8 so I didn't want it to be boyish or even girly but still kinda cool. I think I pulled it off?

 click here to see the previous post of this quilt

And here is the picture of the whole quilt.

It measures 50x70. Its already been washed and has a new home.

It was a gift for my nephew for his birthday.

Thanks for looking, Click on buttons for other projects.

www.betterofthread.com

     

What i'm working on now....

I finally pulled out my flying geese quilt out of the closet to finish! The original post was from August 2010!

This quilt has been waiting for 2 years!

I spray basted it and have been working all day on quilting it.

More photos to come....

Work In Progress

Who wants a cupcake? I am loving this project. I bought this pattern at the Home Machine Quilting Show

 

I love these patterns by Thankfully Sew. She has something cute for every season,  I made a Snowman from her pattern too.

This is what it will look like when it's finished. I did it a little differently with the gray background,

I still have a lot to work on, I'm going to put pom poms on it, add ric rac and buttons and I need to add the words "Happy Birthday" I can't wait to get it finished!

Oh and here is an update on the quilt that I was working on last week. Its completed!

Yeah, I know it looks wierd...I was just  undecided when putting it all together.

Click here to see more pictures and the story behind it. And as always, thanks for looking!

stars around town complete!

I can't believe this! Finally after almost 2 years its complete! I know going to the Home Quilting Show helped. And also the bloggers quilt festival was also an incentive to getter' done.

When I look back on this quilt it amazes me. 2 years ago I barely knew how to quilt. My grandmother taught me how to paper piece then she bought me this quilt pattern and my first quilting show...this is a paper piecing quilt, all the stars are paper pieced and so are the buildings, there is also a little bit of some needle turn applique....i really had no business attempting this quilt!! but I learned so much! Like how hard it is to quilt on the bias. when you paper piece that tends to happen.

Now that the hard part is over I have to decide how to quilt it.  I'm going to quilt it on the Long Arm I just don't know what design to do?

I wish you could see the detail in it, its much better in person

I think I might stipple around the blocks with the buildings..

Thanks for looking!

Click Here for a close up of some of the blocks.

Also, here is a previous post with some pictures of the blocks individually.

my quilting progress

I have had this quilt top finished for probably more than a year and have never quilted it!

I finally purchased the warm and natural then it sat in my closet another good month or too. My plan was to go to my moms and quilt it on the long arm....

Then it started snowing....And all I wanted to do is stay inside and sew! So I thought this would be the perfect project! So all these freehand meandering flowers are from my sewing machine...I don't think it looks half bad?

I'm still working on it so you won't see the finished quilt for another post or 2. I'm hoping to finish it up this weekend though.

Thanks for Looking!

not so perfect quilt

so I was working on the finishing steps of my simply pure quilt...

and you can see how great the binding turned out...

I love when the corners turn out perfect (only us quilters would notice that)

So it's beginning to look like a pretty good quilt right? Everything seems to be going my way...

then look....

I will never sew horizontal lines again! but the only reason why i quilted it that way is because my piecing went that ways so I used it as a quide...WRONG thing to do...the fabric just stretch and there was no way I could fix it. The new name for this quilt is "The Wave"

I made this quilt for my friend and it was for her baby shower....so all this wavyness was going on the morning of her shower...I first thought...no way am I going to give it to her, then it occured to me that I would be wasting all the fabric and I'm never going to find another baby named Bronco so I focused on the positive... she would probably love the fact that it said "Bronco" on it...and...she is not a quilter! Maybe she would think the wavyness was a special technique? hahaha. so I gave it to her and everyone loved it. No one noticed the waves! They all just thought it was amazing that I made a quilt!  Oh and that night she went into labor and the next morning Bronco was born!  So it turned out to be such a happy ending.