A few finishes friday and a giveaway and hexie friday

Oh it is wonderful to have a sewing vacation!!  I'm getting pretty close to having all the quilts for 100 quilts for kids completed, plus a couple of extras - so here's what I got done this week - quilted and binding done, all washed and just waiting for the rest to be completed.

Shower Stash Quilt #1 - panto is Pansies - free from Urban Elementz

Baby Stash Quilt #2 - free had dragonfly, flowers and loops

Baby Stash Quilts and Twins quilts were made from 2 packs of Bloggers Fat Quarters from the Fat Quarter shop.  They have a monthly pack which is awesome, 15 fat quarters 3 of which are solids.  The pattern is based on a pattern from Queen Bee Stitchified I used 3.5 inch strips since I only had 15 and I cut the lengths to be 18, 12, 6 - Add the solid white and you get two quilts out of each pack.  Plus enough for scrappy bindings for all with  a little left over for strings.

I've add the pantographs names to the quilts captions if your interested.  I like to practice pantos on the smaller quilts, but sometimes I just really like to freehand things.  So I tried a couple new patterns and really liked them, especially the overall dragonflies, flowers and loops.  I'll definitely try that again.  I'm trying to do a different pattern on each quilt. The twins were both the same though, I thought that was appropriate.

It's not too late to make a quilt or two for 100 quilts for kids, just click on the button in the sidebar and get the details, just need to have the quilt made and donated by the end of Sept, plenty of time left.

Twin Girl 1  - Cloud Nine Panto by Patricia Ritter

Twin Girl #1 back, nice soft polka dot minky

Twin Girl 2  - Cloud Nine Panto by Patricia Ritter

Look at that hot pink polka dot minky - yep definitely a girl

100 Quilts for Kids - #1 - freehand e2e swirls

100 Quilts for Kids #1 - back, love IKea fabric for the backs

100 Quilts for kids #2 - panto Ebb and Flow by Hermione Agee

100 Quilts for Kids #2 back - more IKea fabric, love it

 The top two are just regular string quilts. The next one is from last years QAL (sometimes it takes me a while :) But I really love the big string blocks.  Pattern is here

100 Quilts for Kids #3 - freehand e2e flowery things with curly center

100 Quilts for Kids #3 back - and this is the last of this fabric that I have

Oh boy with all those finishes I almost forgot about Hexie Friday.  I prepped all the hexies for the next round, little red flowers.  So what do you think are those green ones going to look like leaves?

Linking up with Angie for Hexie Friday is having a sweet giveaway, go check it out and see what others are doing with their hexies.
Linking up with Sarah, go stop by and see what everyone is Whooping about this week. Always lots of great inspiration over there. For those of you that like to FMQ, she's giving a book away. Christina's from A Few Scraps, is giving away a copy of her new book,  a great way to learn how to do FMQ. So stop by and put your name in the hopper for this awesome give away. 

Common Bride Progress

I'm doing the freezer paper Applique technique for the first time.  I have the first 1/4 glue and ready to stitch. And I have a few more of the 8 pointed star blocks completed.

I have a bunch of hexies all prepped but no further progress on this one.   Just got back late last night from IN, what a wonderful quick getaway.

Linking up with Judy, Connie and Fabric Tuesday, stop by and see what everyone else is working on, lots of inspiration over there. 

Kylie's Quilt is quilted

My friend Amy has a little toddler that is just ball of energy and cute as can be!!  That little one certainly needed a quilt as cute as she is.  This is the quilt Amy made for her, almost as cute as her little one (I mean ya really have to see her, she is adorable!)  What a great pattern and she always picks colors that look wonderful.  The quilt is from Debbie Mumm's Cuddle Quilts, Flutterby.  It took a while for us to come up with the design that works for Kylie's personality and fits my skill set, but I think together we finally got it.  Neither one of use could come up with something for the sashing so it was just Stitch in the Ditch.  Which will look awesome once it's washed.  The big blank blocks have a really soft corduroyish feel to them.  We decided on some flowers from the book and used those.  One block at the bottom has her name in it.  Simple swirls as a background fill.  CC in the big 9 patches with swirls in the center.   Diamonds on the sashing with flower like feathers in the half diamonds.    I hope she likes it.  I'm always so nervous quilting for others.

Flutterby - Pattern by Debbie Mumm

Cotton batting, Glide on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin.  I only used two colors on this top. I was prepared to use more than that, much more than that. But when I saw how the off white seemed to take on a different color depending on which block it was in, I just used that throughout for the center.  I used a darker pink on the sashing and the sashing SITD.

And here's some detailed pictures.

Linking up with  

Twinkle Twinkle Feathered Star

My first Feathered Star ever - not perfect but good enough for me.  Here's my progress on Common Bride - The center feathered star complete - I don't think you can even tell that center block is an inch shorter than it should be.  I just made the border around it a tad bigger and all was good. 7 of 24 8 Pointed star blocks completed, each one of them is an inch smaller than it's suppose to be.  It must be the center stars and the way I sewed them together.  I much have used a very generous 1/4 inch.  I did use a new 1/4 marking tool which I think I should have lined up the edge just outside the ruler, and perhaps used a thinner marking tool, all that can lead up to be an inch off on a block.  They were suppose to finish at 7.75 inches unfinished.  I was just under 7.  So I think I'm going to add 4 blocks, one to each side, and then adjust the border that comes before those blocks and all will be good.   Then after all that, the feathered star block is 1/4 in too big - ughhh.   I'm thinking I can ease in a 1/4 over 22.25 inches with no problem, I hope :)

I have 2 weeks of vacation and hoping to make some good progress on Common Bride.  Oh and we are starting our search for places to retire.  I want IN, cuz that's where I'm from.  My husbands want CO but I told him we were staying closer to the kids, so then he want IL, cuz that's where he's from.   My only require is that property taxes must be less than 500/ month.   We are paying outrageous property taxes here in McHenry, IL.    So we have a few explorations planned in both IL and IN, if you have suggestions I'd love to hear.  The requirement is 4-5 hours driving from Chicago.   We have a few years before we can both retire, but it'll be fun looking around and seeing what's out there.  Looking at things with a little bit of a different perspective.

Linking up with 

DWM - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - 8/12

Ok now I feel like I actually started Common Bride.  25  - 8 pointed stars.   Seems like a few of them have a bit more twinkle than others.  I made 28 and picked the best 25.  I think I should have made a few more!  Now I just need 200 4 patch units to start setting in those cute little stars.  The dreaded Y seam is not too far away.

Common Bride beginning

A little more done on the flower blocks, not sure where this is heading, but we'll see.

Flower blocks

My daughters friend is having twin girls, she wanted one boy :)  Have to get these quilted pretty soon, nice soft polka dot minky for the back.  Picture for some reason is really dark, that's a pretty purple at the top.

Baby Girl 1

Baby girl 2

And a few more hexies done.  I really want to create some type of border around the blue so that I can get a star going or something.  Not sure where this one is going either

Linking up with 

DWM - 8/5

Ok last of the quilts for 100 Quilts for Kids - that makes 8 quilt tops ready to be quilted - I better get busy!  My sister in law helped me with this one.  We put this top together in less than 2 hours - what  a team!!

100 Quilts for Kids - #8

And there was a finish.  Plaid Obsession #2 done- my husband actually quilted this one :)  When I asked him how he liked it, his response "I didn't hate it".  Well, ok so there's an option to do another????  So nice to have some help.

Plaid Obsession #2

Plaid Obsession #2 - back

I also did a little work on the flower blocks.  Still not sure where this is going, but I *think* it might be getting closer.

Flower Blocks

Most exciting, I finally started, it's officially going on the quilts in progress list - woohooo!!!  Ok all I did was cut some 1.5 in strips (50 different fabrics) and paired them up for 8 pointed stars.  Maybe I just get a 'woo' and save the 'hoo' for when I get at least one star together.  But it's a start and that makes me happy.

Common Bride is officially started!

Linking up with