Dirt bikes

It feels a little strange to return to business as usual after the devastation that ripped through my little corner of the world yesterday, but I suppose that's what you do. We were very fortunate and never even lost power, so I busied myself with my dirt bike quilt while I watched seven hours of severe weather coverage.

When I found out I was making a dirt bike quilt, I immediately remembered this quilt by Rebecca of Chasing Cottons. I thought the Michael Miller Extreme Team fabric would work well in an orange dirt bike quilt.


So, after lots of thinking and sketching, I came up with this plan. I just had a few fat quarters to work with, and one of them had a large-scale print, so I wanted to leave it in tact. That print became the center framed block. From there, I did some simple patchwork and added the little road.


And here's the top! I'm proud that I was able to execute my plan. (If you ever wonder why people sell simple quilt patterns, it's for people like me! The very basic math here just about melted my brain.)



This is the center panel. It's not exclusively dirt bikes, but I imagine the little dude I'm making this for will appreciate the other extreme sports too.



In addition to the orange solid (Kona Tangerine), I added in some blocks of Kona Aqua, which closely matches the icy blue accent in the Extreme Team fabric. I also added a few squares of Kona Ash just to round it out.


I have to admit the road was a last-minute addition to my plan, but I'm so glad I included it! I believe it makes the quilt, in my humble opinion. And I can just see the little boy who receives it driving his cars up and down it.


I had the pieces spread out on the floor when Luke woke up from his nap. He said, "Mommy! I like this one so much more than the one you made yesterday!" First reaction: Ouch! But then I remembered that he's my target market for this quilt, so he should like this one more than my Bottled Rainbows.

I'm thinking I'll continue the road motif on the back, but I'm not sure how to quilt it. Any ideas?

W.I.P. Wednesday

Wednesday again! I felt pretty productive this week. Let's check the list.



Finished:


Block for Sew Beautiful bee


Ongoing projects:

Dirt bike quilt for Margaret's Hope Chest

This is my plan for the dirt bike quilt. Dirt bike quilt? Yep! I signed up to make a quilt for Wrapped in Hope, a part of Margaret's Hope Chest that provides birthday quilts for children with a parent in prison. I'm making a quilt for a 3-year-old boy who requested an orange dirt bike quilt. Luckily, I know a thing or two about 3-year-old boys (but really just a thing or two...everything else about mine is a mystery). I got started on my quilt top last night, and I'm pretty excited about it! More soon.

Bottled Rainbows

Well, I finished the quilt top and got it basted. Then I jumped in with some straight-line quilting. And it's pretty rough. The intersections got really lumpy. I think I need to come to terms with the fact that my machine and straight-line quilting are not friends (maybe on smaller quilts, but not ones of this size). So I think I'm going to rip out the stitches and come up with a new plan. I really like what Crystal did with her hand-quilting, so I might try that (this will be come a long-term project!).



Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt (I was thinking about straight-line quilting this one, but because of my troubles with the Bottled Rainbows, I'm considering a long-arm.)
Bottled Rainbows

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

Good news: I haven't added any new projects to my list. But...I'm soon going to be sans quilt-along, so I'll be needing a new one soon! Does anyone know of any starting up?

Head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Rainbows: bottled up

I finished up my Bottled Rainbows blocks. I definitely left the difficult ones (scrap-wise) for last. Some of these are a bit of a stretch, but I think they'll work when the quilt is put together.


Pink worked out pretty well.


Hope Valley+Central Park+Soul Blossoms=Cerise


Okay, the first 3 weren't too hard.


Anna Maria Horner must like this ruby color. Many of these scraps are from her fabric lines.


Indigo...yep, I cut into my new Denyse Schmidt fabric for this one.



Last and also kinda least...eggplant! I really love this color, I just own very little of it. I briefly considered ordering some fabric so I could create some scraps, but I decided that wasn't the best use of my fabric budget. So I decided to distract you with the donkey. What he lacks in purpleness, he makes up for in cuteness. And, hey, his boots are purple!

I'm just a few seams away from a quilt top!

Circle of geese

For her April Sew Beautiful bee block, Brooke asked each of us to make her a Circle of Geese block (tutorial here). Now, I'll admit this was a challenge for me, but after a few Stuart Smalley-style pep talks, I figured it out.


Brooke picked out some really cool fabrics for these blocks. They're going to make an awesome quilt!

W.I.P. Wednesday!

I'm back with another installment of W.I.P. Wednesday. I was nervous about joining at first. And, sure, this weekly post helps remind me of the fleeting nature of time, BUT it's helping me focus on turning my to-do list into a to-done list. (Confession: I was feeling pretty clever about that last sentence...until I realized I ripped it off an Ace Hardware commercial. Moving on.)



Finished:


Supernova! It was starting to feel like I hadn't finished a big project in a while, so this one was particularly sweet.


April VIBees block. Corey precut all of the fabrics for us, so this dresden came together pretty quickly!

Ongoing projects:


Bottled Rainbows quilt-along

Just one Bottled Rainbows block this week. 10 out of 16 blocks finished.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee (I finished 1/4 of this one last night, so I'm hoping to mark this off the list soon.)
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

As always, head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Supernova in Central Park

Lee posted the final instructions for piecing the Supernova top on Thursday, and I couldn't wait to get this quilt finished up.


I love it! Lee is a great quilt-along host. Her instructions are clear, and she had helpful tips along the way. If she ever decides to host another, I'll be first in line! I love the cheery, bright prints of Kate Spain's Central Park fabric, and I think it works well with the Supernova design.


For the back, I used some randomly sized strips of Central Park (influenced by Ashley's strip quilts and this quilt from Faith of Fresh Lemons) and one strip of Kona Aqua.


The binding is Kona Eggplant, and I used the neutral Cobblestone print from Central Park in the border.


I tried to do some fussy cutting for the center squares.


I asked Luke what he thought of this quilt, and he said, "It looks like all of the colors of Batman!" He kind of has a one-track mind.

We have a winner!

Thanks for all of your comments on my giveaway post! And a big welcome to my new followers! I love the enthusiasm for this fabric line. I couldn't possibly pick a winner, so I left it up to Random.org...

The winner is lucky #2! And that's Jen!

Jen, you should have an e-mail from me. Just send me your address, and I'll ship these up north!

P.S. I put my finished Supernova quilt in the dryer this morning, so I'll be back later tonight with some pictures (hopefully!).

It's a 197 followers/527 posts/new Denyse Schmidt fabric giveaway!

I was planning a giveaway when I reached 200 followers, but I say we call 197 close enough, okay?

By now you've heard of the new Denyse Schmidt line at JoAnn's. The blogs and Flickr are positively atwitter over this new fabric. (There's even a Flickr group devoted to it.) And, because I've never come across a bandwagon I didn't jump on, I high-tailed it to JoAnn's after dinner to find some for myself.


My store had all 21 prints, but I showed a tiny bit of restraint and only got a half yard of the ones I *needed.* (The quality is nicer than most of the fabrics you'd find at JoAnn's.)


On to the giveaway part of this post! I'm going to cut these into fat quarters and give one lucky winner a FQ bundle of the 11 prints you see here.

So...if you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post (international entries are welcome). Just make sure I have a way to reach you if you're the winner. I'll pick the winner on Monday using Random.org.

Thanks for reading my blog!

W.I.P Wednesday

I'm back with another installment of W.I.P. Wednesday (aka, dang, that week went by fast!).



Finished:
Spring wreath: So this one was never on my to-do list, but whatev. Still counts.


Mail off fabric for the AnneMarie's Kona Your World Swap. Done! This stack is off to a new home. (The fabric on top is Kona Amethyst. One of my new favorites.)

Ongoing projects:

Supernova quilt-along

I'm all caught up, waiting for the next set of instructions. (Disclaimer: I'm pretty much in love with this quilt already, so you can expect to see lots more of it.)

Bottled Rainbows quilt-along






I've entered my green period. I think that makes 9 out of 16 blocks finished.


Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Mail out fabric for Kona Your World 2 swap
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

Marking things off the list! Always feels good.
Head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Spring wreath

When I flipped the calendar to April, I realized it was probably time to take the heart wreath off my front door. (I put it up in February when I took down my Christmas wreath.) Around that time, Jeni posted pictures of her vintage sheets wrapped wreath tutorial and listed some kits in her Etsy shop. Perfect!


Jeni sent me a bundle of vintage sheet hems, and I got to wrapping. In less than an hour, I had a finished wreath. Easy and fun.


I added the rosettes, using this tutorial.


You could use any fabric scraps to cover a wreath form. I really like the Easter-y look of the vintage sheets! (And, let's face it, this will probably be on my door until Halloween.)

W.I.P. Wednesday {Gulp.}

This is my first time officially participating in Lee's W.I.P. Wednesday. I've held off thus far because, well, my crafty to-do list scares me. But I suppose that's a good reason to participate! So, here we go.

Finished: Hmm. Nada



Ongoing projects:

Supernova quilt-along

You've seen some of these before. I took some new pictures because the old ones made me feel like I owed Kate Spain an apology.

5 out of 9 blocks finished (Well, technically 5 1/2 out of 9. I made a cutting error on one, so I'm awaiting new fabric. Grumble.) Lee is posting the next set of instructions tomorrow, so I'd love to finish the last 3 tonight.

Bottled Rainbows quilt-along





6 out of 16 blocks finished


Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Red Letter Day quilt
Postage Stamp quilt

To do:
Dirtbikes quilt (in the mail by mid-May)
Mail out fabric for Kona Your World 2 swap
Block for VIBees
Block for Sew Beautiful bee
Blocks for do. Good Stitches
Houndstooth quilt
Deer quilt
iPod covers for my nephews
Baby blankets

So, looks like I should get to work, don't you think?
Head to Lee's to see what everyone else has going on.

Quilting along

This weekend I made good progress on my quilt-alongs.

Still loving Bottled Rainbows. I got all of my prep work done. The blocks are basted and ready to go when I get the itch to work on them. I finished up two yesterday:


Sunshine! I had more yellow scraps than expected. Love this one.


Emerald! This solid is a perfect match for Sanctuary, so I used lots of my scraps here. My favorite so far.


I started piecing my Supernova quilt too. I'm using Central Park for this one. Here's the rough layout for my blocks:


And here are the two units I've started piecing.



I was prepared to be confused when I put these together, but Lee's instructions are extremely clear and precise. It's actually pretty simple.

Side note: I've been using the Harbor Freight blades in my rotary cutter for about a month. They seem to cut well, but they're kind of hard on my cutting mat. Anyone else experience this?