Simple Baby Quilt

This past week I whipped up this simple half square triangle baby quilt.  I love this line of fabrics, it really makes a sweet baby quilt.  

The HST's are all made using the tube method.  It makes the process so quick and easy.

I did not lay out the quilt before I started sewing the squares together, just picked them up randomly while I chain pieced.  This it totally not the norm for me, I am usually really picky about layout.  This process was freeing, though.

I then quilted it on the diagonal, a quarter inch from the seam.  It is bound in the purple that I used in the quilt and the back.  (I really love the fabric)

This little baby quilt finishes at 35" x 40".  

Bee Blocks for the Jersey Shore MQG

I am part of the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild and we have such a fun group of women.  We decided a bit back that we wanted to do a bee in our group.  It has been fun making the different blocks for the different members.

June - Cindy gave us the blue fabric and asked up to make some block with it.  I went for the Octagonal Orb by Elizabeth Hartman.

July - Diane asked for a firework block which is like a modified asterisk block.  She gave us all black blocks to use as the background.

August - My month, I asked for large hexagon blocks in scrappy monocromatic colors.  I gave each member a template to use for size along with a bit of fabric to get started and said that any way they want to sew it is perfect.  For an example I made one with 2.5" charms and another with batik strings.  

Here is a selection of the hexagons I got back.  Love them all!!  I have a few more I got recently that I haven't taken pictures of yet.

September - Rose (mom) asked for courthouse steps blocks with a red center that she gave us and green steps for a Christmas block.  You didn't have to use Christmas fabrics if you didn't want to.  

October - Kat asked for any block, but she wanted us to use black fabric that she gave us and accent it with bright colors.  I'm calling mine the semi-circle of geese, a blend of the paper pieced circle of geese and straight traditional geese.

I am really enjoying making a different block each month for the different members.  I can't wait to lay out all my hexagons and decide how I am going to put them together.  I am thinking I might sash them in a white on white so they all stand out on their own.

New Puppy

The end of October was an eventful time in our house.  We got a little puppy from a rescue, just 13 weeks old.  The poor little thing was so scared (and stinky!) that she barely moved or made a peep the first couple of days.

First day home after multiple baths

After she came home it took a couple of days to come up with a new name for her.  We decided Maggie was a perfect fit for her.

Cuddling her puppy

 Poor thing was so scared that she barely moved when the boys came to meet her her first day home.

But she has since started to come out of her shell.  She loves her toys and chews everything, including the kitchen table and the cabinets.

She finds fun places to play in the yard, that is when the wind, leaves, neighbors, and squirrels  don't scare her, haha.

I even made her a super cape for Halloween.  Super Maggie looked super cute, but she was not a fan of her cape.  She tried to hide it behind the wood pile.

I look forward to making her a little quilted blanket when she gets out of her chewing phase since she loves to be covered up.  

  

A Lovely Year of Finishes - October FInish

I finished my October A Lovely Year of Finishes project pretty early in the month.  I am pretty thankful I did because this has been such a crazy month.  I chose this wedding gift that I didn't get done before the wedding.

I fully completed the hand stitched project for my friends Kayce and Brad.  I was in their wedding last month, they are such a cute couple.  The orange ribbon hanging it is from my bouquet from their wedding, seemed perfect to use.

Now to just put it in the mail, I am kinda a slacker sometimes (which explains the fact I didn't write this post or link it until 13 minutes before the deadline! oops)

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Bed Quilt

Here is my second entry for Bloggers Quilt Festival.  I am entering my Flight of the Seagulls quilt into the Bed Quilt category.  This quilt looks so pretty on a twin bed in the summer, perfect nautical quilt.

This quilt was made for the bonus challenge for Project Quilting, Tradition Times Three.  Here is the original post.

There are 6 sizes of flying geese in this quilt and I love how they all move around the quilt.  The name comes from the flight patterns of seagulls, it has been shown that they have no rhyme or reason to how they fly.

It is quilted with a repeating wave pattern that just goes all the way down the quilt.

The photos were taken at a local marina and on my father's boat.

Quilt Stats:

Flight of the Seagulls

54" x 75"

Pieced by me on my Brother machine and quilted by me on my Simplicity machine with Coats and Clark machine quilting thread.  The batting is Pellon Nature's Touch cotton batting.   

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Quilt Photo

It's that time of year again over at Amy's Creative Side.  It is time for Bloggers Quilt Festival.  This post is for Quilt Photographer.

I have chosen to enter my All Framed Up on the Jersey Shore quilt. (Original post here).  I loved this pattern and how it really lets the fabrics stand out.

I took these photos at a little beach down the road by my house called Butler Beach.  Seemed like the perfect place to show off this quilt that features batik fabrics made to be sold right here on the (real) Jersey Shore.

It is quilted by me on my home machine with wiggly lines and waves.  

And it backed by another batik print that has a sea grass feeling.  

This quilt was given to my Dad as his 69th birthday gift just a few weeks ago.  It was the first quilt of mine that he had seen and reacted to so it was perfect.  And now I can say each person in my immediate family has had a quilt made for them.

 Quilt Stats
All Framed Up on the Jersey Shore
52" x 52"
Pattern - All Framed Up by Melissa Dunworth at Sew Bittersweet Designs
Free motion quilted by me on my home machine using Coats and Clark thread.
Pellon Natures Touch 100% cotton batting.

Wedding Gift

I had another wedding this month and decided to make the bride and groom a little hand stitched project.  The bride, Aggie, is originally from California and the groom, Steve, is from New Jersey.  I have seen all over Pinterest and in stores state items so I decided to make the project with their states.

I started by printing out outlines of the two states and then I pinned them to the fabric.  Then I stitched around the states with a chain stitch.

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I added in some dashed lines, their names, and the wedding date to finish the project.

I cleaned up the back with another piece of the grey fabric that I pressed and stitched a finished line around. At that same time I machine stitched the tag to the back with a note to the happy couple.  I whip stitched it to the back for a nice clean finish.

It was a fun wedding that apparently I didn't take any photos at :(  Oh well.

So one more wedding in a couple weeks that I won't be able to make, but I need to whip up a project for that, too.