variations on Geo Pop

 When my friend Jayne, over at Twiggy and Opal started sharing her Geo Pop pattern in different variations, I decided to see how small I could make one! I pulled out some of my solid scraps and made this citrussy version...

Each block is 1 1/2" finished so the mini finished at 9"x12". pretty small but, of course, Jayne made a smaller one hahaha, which you can check out on her instagram.

Our Improv small group is doing a placemat swap. In August I needed to make a placemat for my friend Anne who had chosen pink and green. I enjoyed making the Geo Pop so much I decided to do a variation of it for Anne...

This one measures 12"x18".  Anne brought me this placemat (my chosen colors are black and white)

I love it! It will be fun to collect different placemats from my friends over the next few months.

Of course I didn't stop there with the Geo Pop quilts. A new great niece was on the way (she has since arrived and her quilt has been delivered). I thought a pink baby sized quilt was in order.

I quilted it with a simple grid on my domestic machine. 

Can you tell I really love this pattern? Jayne really hit it out of the park with this one!

bunny bags

The McKinney Modern Quilt Guild was having a bunny bag/basket swap at our April meeting. When I saw this pattern at QuiltCon, I knew it would make the perfect bag! First I made the pink one on the left, as a gift for a friend. Then I found some leather cording I had bought a while back, and made the turquoise polka dot bunny for our swap. The cording worked great! Both of these were filled with little sewing treats.

Then I decided I should probably make one for each of my grown kids and pop some Easter candy inside. My bunny bags began multiplying like rabbits!

In the end I made seven. My oldest daughter was visiting friends for Easter weekend and I couldn't very well send her one and not send one for each of her friends, could I?

These were a fun little make, quick to do and used up fabrics from my stash.... bonus! Hope you all had a Happy Easter.

Finish Along first quarter finishes

I'm so happy I have been playing along with the 2017 Finish-along! It really motivates me to get things done. This quarter I challenged myself to complete five specific items.

And I finished all five! Yay me! 

First up, my word of the year quilt (which still isn't hanging on the wall but it is FINISHED!)

My Liberty EPP Plus project became a beautiful pillow which I love to look at every day...

And another pillow finish! Our scrap swap project for the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild that now lives with Chris...

I love the way my Modern  Mystery Block of the Month quilt turned out!

And this shirt is too comfy! I'm almost sad it is quickly getting too warm to wear it here in Texas...

So that's it for the first quarter! I'm linking up at Rhonda's Ramblings.

Off I go to make a list for the second quarter!

Liberty EPP plus pillow

One of my first quarter goals for the finish-along was to take strips of this beautiful stack of Liberty:

make them into plus blocks:

And make it into "something" which quickly became a pillow:

there's something about Liberty prints that's just so yummy, isn't there? And English Paper Piecing with Liberty Lawn? Oh man! they stitch so beautifully. I really enjoyed this project.

I used a pretty pink grunge from my stash for the back, and bound the edges in one of the Liberty prints that was just too big for the EPP piecing:

This is my fourth finish for the first quarter in the Finish-along. One more to go!

My Small World - a finish!

Last year, the quilting world was in a tizzy. Everyone was searching for the special issue of Quiltmania that had Jen Kingwell's My Small World quilt pattern in it. Add me to that list. I searched every Barnes & Noble I had access to. Had friends looking. I couldn't find it anywhere. I was bummed. Then I heard that Jen Kingwell was going to release it as a stand alone pattern in the fall! Hooray! I bought it the day it became available. I thought "someday I'll make this" and I tucked it away. That was that. Or so I thought.....

Toward the end of the year, Nicole announced on Instagram that she'd be hosting a quilt along after the first of the year. I only hesitated a minute. The pattern is daunting.... but maybe, with the encouragement of other quilters. I could do it! Yes! Yes I could. I started digging in my fabric stash. Bought a few novelty prints that I knew I'd love to add and off I went!

Yesterday I put the final stitches in my binding. I'm so excited to share it with you!

My friend Sandy quilted it for me. I love how the swirls look like wind blowing through the sky...

I'm so happy I added that little rainstorm! And a smattering of yellow sunshine.

Those arched triangles were daunting! But I used @sewwhatsherlock's paper piece pattern for them and it worked like a charm!

I just love how you can add little fussy cut details to make this quilt your own. Some of my favorite details are my ballet studio and the Happiness Hotel in section one.

I used almost all fabric from my scrappy stash. Thought it would make a huge dent in my scrap bins but, no. There's still plenty in there.

This is my final finish in the third quarter of the 2016 Finish Along. A whole month early!  I'm so glad I tackled this project. It was great fun!

matching dresses

I haven't made matching dresses for my girls since they were little. Really little. As in, say one and seven? I do believe the last matching dresses I made for them had bunnies on them. So when they asked me to make them matching San Francisco Swing dresses in gray I thought they were nuts. And then I thought, what the heck? I mean, they live clear across the country from each other so the likelihood of them wearing them together is slim to none. 

So, the dresses are made and delivered and they both love them! Yay! Ally & I went out for a bit of a photo shoot today. She found this quote on a building that made her smile....

And Leigh Anne sent me this great shot from New York City (seriously, they have THE BEST graffiti there!)

 These dresses are my third finish in the 2016 Finish along for this quarter. I'm really happy about that. Oh, and if you need a giggle, check out these shots of Ally....

Have a wonderful day!

2nd quarter finish along plans

Today I am linking up on A Quilter's Table with my intended finishes for the 2nd quarter of 2016. 

First up, I want to finish my Lost Socks quilt.  I finished piecing it at my retreat in February. It just needs to be quilted and bound....

Second, the Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake fabric challenge is due in May! That one NEEDS to get done. Though I am less than inspired by the assigned fabric, I do have a plan and have begun putting it in motion...

It seems all of my friend's children and many of my children's friends have decided to have babies this year! I need to finish up 2 baby girl quilts this quarter. Since I am attending Lee Monroe's Hattie's Dresden class on Saturday, I decided to use that pattern to make one of the baby quilts...

The other baby quilt is still an idea in my head. It MIGHT use scraps from my pink & purple bin. Or maybe I'll go fabric shopping? who knows...

So that's it. Four finishes for the second quarter. I think I can do it! What are your second quarter goals?

First Quarter FAL

Back in January, I committed to finish five projects in the first quarter of the Finish Along. How did I do? Well, see for yourself!


1) Christmas Jelly Roll Race....

DONE!

read more about it here

2) Bee Block Quilt.....

DONE!

blogged here

3) Baby Quilt.....

DONE!

read more here

4) Trust quilt...

DONE!

5) Explore quilt....

DONE!

blogged

Whew! I finished them all! I'm linking up with the finish along here. Do go and check out everyone elses awesome finishes! Now off I go to make my list for the second quarter.

Intrepid thread challenge

In September I signed up for a fabric challenge over at Intrepid Thread. By the time the fabric came I had forgotten all about it! Ha. The fabric sat on my table for quite a long time waiting for me to be inspired. Suddenly, yesterday, I knew what I wanted to do! 

I worked all day and this little pillow came to life! I made a patchwork background from the mini charm pack we received, then used the other 2 fabrics to appliqué some orange peels. I had cut enough orange peels to do every square, but when I started to edit, and remove some, I liked it better! Sometimes less is more. 

I had enough cotton and steel fabric to do the back, with a little binding of the arrow fabric and a touch of ricrac peeking out, because, RICRAC! duh!

I wasn't sure where I'd put it, I mean, aqua goes ANYWHERE, right? But the pink was throwing me off. Then I put it on the living room chair for a photo op and it looked so awesome there with my Spice of Life afghan! So, I do believe that's where it will stay. For now....

Perfect spot to curl up with a good book I think!

A blouse for me (or not)

A while ago, I picked up Simplicity pattern 1013 . I had seen it on Instagram and really liked the different options in the pattern. This past week, I made one up, using a lightweight denim and a DS cotton print from Joanns.  I changed a couple of things, like leaving off the sleeve cuffs and adding french seams to prevent major denim fraying! It came out so cute!

front

and back

I love the way the back contrasts & dips down, so cute with leggings or straight jeans! Could be worn as a jacket over a tank or t-shirt or buttoned up as a blouse. There was only one problem.

Even though I made the top according to my measurements, it's too small. Boo. So I'll be passing it along to a friend. Maybe I'll make another in a larger size, as I really do like the look! So if you decide to try out this pattern, I suggest you really evaluate the sizing carefully.

Spice of Life CAL - Finished!

Well hello there! Remember me? Sorry I disappeared yet again. I'm full of excuses. First there was the torrential rain last weekend that totally prevented decent photo shoots for several posts I had planned. Then, on Monday, just when the sunshine returned, my gall bladder decided it was time to come out! Whoa. That laid me up for a few days (while the sun continued to shine.) Yesterday I finally began to feel human again! And, you guessed it, I woke up to gray skies and buckets of rain! Sigh..... So, indoor, gloomy photos it is! Sorry they will have to do!

Several days on the couch was just the excuse I needed to finish up my Spice of Life crochet along afghan. The only way to show you how enormous mine ended up is to spread it on my queen sized bed.....

58 X 88 way bigger than it's supposed to be!

Why did it end up so big, you ask? Great question. Did I add extra stitches to the rows? No. Did I add extra rows? No. Did I use US stitches instead of the required UK stitches? Indeed I did not. It's a mystery! But the fact of the matter is, the tension is even, it's gigantic and I love it.

It has found a happy landing spot on the back of one of our pretty chairs in the front room. I suspect it will wander into the family room on chilly evenings this winter. Seriously, it's big enough to keep hubby and I both warm!

I love the pretty soft green border (I had to buy another skein of light green yarn to complete it!) In fact, I love everything about this beautiful blanket. I'm so thankful to Sandra of Cherry Heart Crochet who created the lovely pattern, for her easy to follow directions, and the fabulous community of women she created on Facebook, Instagram and Ravelry to share our fun with. If you want to see more of these, check out #spiceoflifecal. It's wonderful how each afghan has a personality of it's own! I would love to make another someday soon.

And then there are the balls of leftover yarn from my blanket. What to do? I decided a simple double crochet (US) striped blanket would be the perfect way to use it up. And so I have begun....

Dottie Angel Frock

Always one to jump on a good bandwagon, when I saw a copy of the Dottie Angel Frock pattern (Simplicity 1080) just laying around at our local Walmart I decided to give it a go. 

I had been eyeing up all of the cute frocks on Instagram (they look especially adorable on petite little frames, skinny girls looking like they are heading out to tend the chickens & collect the eggs. For the record, I have neither a skinny frame nor a flock of chickens, but I digress.)

I have a couple yards of Liberty floral I've been hoarding that will be perfect for this, but I wisely decided to do a muslin first. I bought some sale fabric at Joann's, something pretty, just in case it actually fit & looked decent, I could actually wear it!

Check out that pretty pocket! I almost did it without the bias binding, but then I found this stripe in my stash and decided to make my own binding. So glad I did!

I also relied heavily on tips from my pal Mahriam, skip the contrast bottom (not suitable for, ahem, fuller figured shorties), lower the front pleats to accommodate a fuller bust. I also chose not to use bias binding on the shoulder seams or the hem, as that seemed pointless to me!

I made the tunic length. Honestly, it looked a bit like a frumpy apron on the hanger. Finished it up in one day and, wonder of wonders, it FITS and actually looks cute on me!

I will indeed be making one out of my Liberty fabric very soon. Meanwhile, I have a wearable muslin! Hooray.