Saltwater Taffy

The finish update on my Saltwater Taffy quilt using the pattern from Fig Tree and some leftover fabrics.This quilt was a total stash project. I used some of the last bits of many of my favorite designer fabrics. Do you recognize any of them?
The quilting on the center block area is an allover swirly pattern, repeated in the outer border. For the white inner border I used one of my favorites ~ it looks like ric-rac to me.
I was determined to find a backing in the stash and had enough of this blue fabric for the width and decided to repeat the white from the front.
To make it a little more interesting I added this strip of elephant fabric I had left over from making the elephant Christmas ornament.
The binding is a leftover from "Flutterby" by Tula Pink.
Yup! Leftovers sometimes work really well together!

On a side note one of my favorite plants in the garden this time of year is my Beautyberry or Callicarpa. I love the color of the berries and the fact that they almost look fake. It is a real beauty!

A Room for the Girls...

Much of last week was spent finishing up this little redecorating project I started several months ago. HGTV always makes redecorating look soooo easy... but I guess they have a bigger crew than one!

Anyway I was determined to finish - so with a lot of running up and down stairs - it's just about done. I had several projects so I thought you might like to see the results.

Here's the room from the doorway. The walls are light gray and the curtains are sheers with a geometric pattern from Target. The bedskirt is a dark gray fabric from Ikea and made using this tutorial.
The pillows... I just love that Sprocket pillow from Cluck Cluck Sew. It's a free tutorial and really easy!
I decided to use stick on wall art, so there's no chance of pictures falling off the wall or being knocked down by little hands. They're cheap too! A pink square painted on the wall with vinyl decals from Etsy here and here. "M" and "E" are the girls' initials, but if you're staying in the room you can say it's for "ME".
This cute side table was from Home Goods. It was one of those things I looked at several times and in a panicked moment ran over to get it just in case!
We had this rocking chair that almost everyone has and found this tutorial and spruced it up (sorry I can't say pimped about this cute room!)
My husband and I have dabbled in wood working and built an easy book rack using this tutorial. I love how it shows off the books.
And on the opposite side of the room is an old dresser that I convinced my husband to let me paint white. You see he had painted it blue for his Mom at one point and then stripped it for me when we had our first baby. Now it's white and sporting pink glass knobs from Anthropologie.
Oh and you may have noticed the lack of a quilt in the room. I'm working on that!

Maddy's Big Girl Quilt

It's hard to believe, but my grand-daughter will be 2 in October. Almost time for a big bed!The top is done using the Sliced Coin QAL from Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.
My daughter picked out this beautiful and colorful line from Dena Designs called Kumari Garden.
The quilt was quick and easy and I loved making it ~ But all the time wondering ~ why do they grow up so fast???

The one seam pillow

I've been making pillows and pillow cases. Thought I'd share my quickest pillow ever!

Here's what you need:

• One square of fabric and one square of batting the same size as your pillow form. Mine are 16" x 16".
• Two pieces of fabric for the back, each the size of your pillow form x the size of your form plus 4". Mine are 16" x 20". Fold them in half wrong sides together matching the short edges.

Layer your batting square, the pillow front right side up, and the two backing pieces matching the raw edges. The folds will overlap in the middle. Pin all the way around.
Sew all the way around the pillow using a 1/2" seam allowance. Trim the corners and turn right side out.
Slip in your pillow form! Voila!
Making the pillow smaller than your form is a great tip for getting a nice plump pillow. The batting for the front and the double layers on the back, both provide for a nice stable pillow.

Here they are in place!
My Sprocket pillow needs some stuffing ~ hope to get that today. Then I'll be adding some cute buttons in the middle.

I found these at Michael's for $2.99. The buttons on each card stack - pretty darn cute!

Chintz

Another of the projects I worked on at retreat was this quilt. The pattern is "Chintz" by Fig Tree. I had the blocks made and pieced together but needed something for an inner border.Thanks to a Kona Cotton color card, I found the perfect pink ~ Carnation and waited patiently for my lovely mail lady to deliver it. Now the borders are on and I couldn't be happier with the results!
Most of the fabric is "Free to Grow" that I found at Quilter's Compass on my Summer trip to Wisconsin.
I changed out the heart included in the pattern for a daisy which is more my style and mimics the daisies in the border fabric.
And as long as I was ordering, my nice mail lady included this beautiful FQP ~ Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. She really is a sweet lady!!

Spaghetti Junction

This Rene with her quilt from retreat last week. She looked pretty cute last night in her shirt that matched the quilt and I couldn't crop her out :)

The quilt is from Living Large 2 by Heather Peterson of Anka's Treasures. The fabric is Prince Charming by Tula Pink. Rene added an inner border not included in the pattern.

Great pattern and great quilt! Don't you think?

Some finishes...

I've got lots of new fabrics calling my name and several ideas I'm itching to try. But I thought I ought to finish up a few things before the sewing room gets overwhelming!

Last night I set together my "Swoon" blocks. Everyone seems to be making this ~ it's fun, easy and each block is like a mini quilt. This one is big (80 x 80), so it's finished for me ~ going off to the longarm quilter.

I did most of the quilting on this quilt last week on retreat and got the binding on. A little TV time and the hand stitching is done.
I'm happy with the quilting. I did straight lines between the blocks, then stitched vertically down the rows with a squiggle in the skinny strips and figure eights in the larger pieces. It was super easy!
The design is Urban Life from Crazy Old ladies Patterns.
I've said it before ~ always nice to finish!

Bricks Quilt

Also known as the "when are we moving to Florida?" quilt. I just love the colors though ~ so Summery. I used the idea from the Strawberry Fields Bricks Quilt on Moda Bake Shop, but changed up the sizes a little. The white squares are 3" finished and the rectangles are 3" x 6" finished.The backing looks like it was meant to be for this quilt. Actually I bought it on sale a couple of years ago for $5 a yard. I had 6 yards knowing it would make a perfect backing some day.
I quilted it in wavy lines and swirls...
kind of giving the impression of sand and waves.
Dreaming of my home near the beach :)

Catch up time...

After several weeks of traveling, I'm home again and catching up on things. Thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to.

The girls' dresses turned out really cute. When I made the sash on "Mary's Fancy Sash" dress from Girl's World, I thought it looked kind of big for a little girl. Turned out it was, so we just left it off.
It's really difficult to keep these two still!
While in California, I also attended the Long Beach Quilts International show. It was interesting because I was disappointed in how few modern fabrics I found in the vendor booths. On the way home I listened to an interview with Alissa, one of the founders of the Modern Quilt Guild. She said that she got the idea for the guild after attending the Long Beach show and seeing modern quilting poorly represented. Hopefully in time we'll see more and more.

I decided not to break any copyright laws and post the show quilt pictures (yes, I have a lawyer in the family, but he's way to busy to defend his Mom). I did get permission from Becky Goldsmith of Piece O' Cake designs to show this one. It was one of my favorite quilts in the show and it's published in their book Quilt A New Christmas. I'm so tempted to make this quilt - but it sure does have a lot of circles!
I brought my daughter a bag of fabric scraps when I visited and she came up with this awesome project. You can read all about how she did it on her blog.
Last week I was on a quilt retreat. We had a beautiful and productive week. Unfortunately my pictures did not come out well - too much wonderful sunshine. I'm going to try and round some up and try again - so hopefully I'll have some better pictures soon. For now here's a pretty set of blocks using "12 Days of Christmas".
I did a bit of sewing this weekend and made my daughter a new thread catcher. Her old one was dated - so 1990's! The fabric is Hullabaloo and I found a quick and easy tutorial here.
So now that I'm home for a bit, I've got a few projects planned including redecorating the guest room. The painting's done and I'm on to the sewing part. Yeah!

And I'm starting a new quilt for Maddy's big girl bed. The fabric is Dena Designs and I'm doing a "Sliced Coin" quilt designed by Elizabeth at Don't Call me Betsy.
So now we're caught up!

Quilting this and that...

Not too much sewing to report on. I just got home from a 10 day trip to California. Lots of playing and giggling and a bit of fabric buying. We made 2 trips to Maisonette and I added to my Loulouthi collection and my Joel Dewberry Heirloom collection.

This cute cupcake fabric will be a new pillow for the soon-to-be four year old. I made a "three" pillow last year and I was asked to use prettier fabric for this years addition. I hope these cupcakes (with some glitter that doesn't show in the picture) will suffice!
We also took a trip to the Long Beach Quilts International show. I'll have some quilt pictures next week. I did pick up this layer cake of Treasures and Tidbits by Piece O'Cake. I'm hoping it may work for this American Jane pattern I've been wanting to do.
I also bought an Oliver + S pattern for an adorable dress. I've heard their patterns are extremely well written - I'm going to give it a try - fingers crossed - it has buttons up the back!
So tomorrow I'm headed off on another quilt retreat. I'm feeling a bit unorganized, but I have fabric and a sewing machine - so I think I'm good to go.
Triangles will keep me busy!
And I squeezed in an hour today to start my STL Modern Quilt Guild challenge using Jay McCarroll's Habitat collection. We're allowed to add solids only. I'm cut out with 2 blocks made and I think I'm on a roll.