Paintbox Squares: Orange & Yellow

I guess I can no longer deny
that I need to iron my blocks.
Not that I will anytime soon
but I desperately need to.
These squares wouldn't even lay flat.


But I love seeing fabric
that I've used before.
That yellow block on the far right,
doesn't seem like enough contrast,
but I used that very same print
to make a dress for Two!
I love that this quilt comes with
pre-made memories!

Paintbox Squares: Red

Here are my first paintbox squares
for the paintbox quilt along:


I haven't ironed them
or squared them up yet
(and in all honesty I probably won't)
but I like how they turned out!

Although I do have a big beef
with the amount of fabric
we were supposed to order.

Elizabeth at Oh Fransson
said one roll-up and a coordinating
10" square for each fabric.

So I bought 10" of each
coordinating fabric
so I could cut it down to
a 10" square.

Well, in what is probably a big
"duh" moment,
of course all I really needed was
a 2 1/2" strip.
Just like the jelly roll.

So really I bought 3x the amount of fabric
that I actually needed....

But that's okay.
I'm trying to build up
my scrap stash to either make
a ticker tape quilt

(picture taken from sew mama sew)

or even a scrappy square quilt
of just rainbow colored squares
for Baby Four
because I do love color
and especially rainbows....

So it's actually a positive thing.
Now I just to decide what to do!
Although I should probably
finish all of the paintbox squares first....

:o)

Paintbox Quilt-Along: Fabric Fun, part 1

Look what came in the mail!

It's my Kona Classics Roll-up

for the paintbox quilt-along!


I stopped at Joann's on my way to bunco
(and of course ended up being late)
and picked out 25 of the fabrics!

Here's what I have so far:

I felt like I bought every fabric
that even remoltely matched!
I don't know how I'll pick
15 more!!!

Stay tuned....

Paintbox Quilt-Along

Someone is doing a Quilt-Along
to a quilt that has been on my to-do list!

And not just anyone,
but the actual person
who made the quilt
I fell in love with!

Oh happy day!

She announced the quilt-along two weeks ago
and I have to special order some of the fabric
(my choice, not required)
which will put me even further behind.

So, in other words,
I'll be doing the slacker version
of the quilt along. :o)

And I'm not trying to keep you in suspense
but Elizabeth at Oh Fransson has asked
that we not copy her pictures.
Fair enough.

So go here to check out the quilt.
Or here for the link to the quilt-along.

Christmas Quilt Along: The Back!

I found the fabric for the back of the Christmas quilt!
Look at this gorgeous, burgandy nativity toile:


I love it!
(And it was 50% off!)


Because I don't want to pay extra for custom quilting,
I'll be quilting this one myself.

I met with my quilter today to discuss
the previous quilt's issues with her.
I'm glad to say all is well!

The relationship with your quilter
is much like the one with your hairdresser.
(Or so I've heard, since I actually go to GreatClips! :o))
She's learning what I like as far as quilting goes
and so am I.

Without going into details, it has all worked out!
She DID quilt the design I picked
but there are some options that could be changed
to give it more the look I prefer.
Apparently I'm different and don't like the default settings!

I did leave my next quilt with her.
For some reason I didn't take a "before" picture
so I will have to show you the "after" next week.

Little Bit Funky Quilt Along

I love walking into the family room
in the mornings and seeing this:

My kiddos snuggled up under my quilt!

I love the quilt, I don't love the way it's quilted.
I'm debating approaching the quilter....
I'm pretty convinced she didn't quilt
the pattern I picked, a wonky stipple,
and it has these perfectly round meandering loops.

We'll see. I actually have another quilt ready to quilt
and she's so dang convenient, I'll probably end up
approaching her about it and seeing what she says.

But in the meantime, my babies love snuggling up under it in the mornings. They couldn't care less how it's quilted and that makes me so happy!

Christmas Quilt-Along: A completed quilt top!

I love my quilt top!

(click on picture to enlarge)

Let me tell you about the importance
of copying in crafting!
If I hadn't copied the fabric from the pattern
to the best of what Joann's had to offer...
who knows how this would have turned out!
But I LOVE it!

I love it, I love it, I love!
I can't believe I made that!!!

How does yours look?
If you followed along,
leave a link in the comments!

The last step is quilting and binding.
Wahoo!!!!


ps. Sorry for the blogging break! Apparently I needed it!
And Stellan is doing FABULOUS! The surgery went better than they had ever hoped and my understanding is that he is now completely and forever free of his heart condition!

Christmas Quilt Along: Week 5

How do your big trees look?
A little gigantic, don't they?!?

This week's assignment is
tree trunks and tree block assembly...
step 4 &5 of the pattern (here).



Happy Quilting!
There's only one more step after this!!!

Christmas Quilt Along: Week 4

Last week's assignment was
16 small trees!

I don't know about you, but I butchered my first tree pretty good. Those directions were more than a little confusing and didn't create the tree at all like one would think you would create a tree! Thank goodness for forgiving fabric! If you look closely at the pic above, you can see the two diagonal lines where I pieced my fabric back together after completely slashing it the first time.

I've decided I'm going to start showing you the pieces I've messed up on. Crafting perfection is no fun. Stressing over perfection.... Who would ever craft?!? So my hacked up and pieced back together pieces are what make my quilt MINE. Not store bought. Made with love. I cut one of my courthouse square strips too short and had to piece it back together too to make it work. Oh well!

So don't stress about this quilt or whatever else you happen to be working on. If you're a little behind, if you made a mistake...just enjoy what you're doing. We're not working towards perfection.

This week's assignment is
step 3 of the pattern (here).

8 large trees!
You can do it!

Christmas Quilt Along: Week 3

Eight Courthouse Squares...check!

This week's assignment is
Step 2 of the pattern (here)

aka Small Trees!

16 of them
to be exact.

Have fun!
See you next week!

Christmas Quilt Along Week 2

Last week's assignment was the purchase fabric,
wash, iron, and cut.
So here's my fabric.
The four on the left are for the blocks.
On the right is for the trees.

I fully admit to copying the colors
of the quilt on the pattern
as closely as possible!
Hey, their quilt looks great for a reason!


I have a confession.
I cut all the tree fabric.
Then the fabric for the blocks.
Then I realized that we were
only sewing the blocks this week....
so I didn't cut the rest of the fabric!
If you are doing this quilt-along with us,
you know why!!!

So this week,
bring on the courthouse squares!!!

See you next week!

Just joining us? Pattern is here.

It's gone!

My quilt-along quilt is finished
and today I dropped it off at the quilters!

I made it to be the perfect length
to curl up on the couch in;
it's also a good picnic size.

I had a hard time picking out
what color thread I wanted.
Because I used such a variety
of light and dark fabrics,
threads that would show up on dark fabric
would disappear into the light fabric.
If only I had gone with monochromatic
like I had intended to when I walk
into the fabric store...

I ended up choosing a lemon yellow
and I can't wait to show it to you....

in about a week!!!

A new quilt

I finished my Quilt-Along Quilt!
I'll post that on Wednesday,
but when Kari at Ucreate
posted this quilt:

(picture from Ucreate)

I knew it was the next quilt I had to make!
So call me C-R-A-Z-Y,
but if I break this up into six steps,
I'll have six weeks to make the quilt top,
two weeks to have it quilted
and it will all be done by December 1st!
Seems like perfect timing!

A crafty, non-blogging friend of mine
is going to be making this too
so if you would like to join us
in a very informal quilt-along,
the pattern is here,

and for this week, your assignment is to:

1.) Purchase your fabric
2.) Wash your fabric (optional, I'm not doing it)
3.) Iron your fabric, if necessary
4.) Cut your fabric

Are you in?

Have you noticed?

Have you noticed
that I stopped posting
about the Quilt-Along?

That's because I'm so behind!

But now that the first of school craziness has died down,
my couch now looks like this:



It's going quickly
and I should have a completed
quilt-top SOON!

Quilt-Along: Week 2

This week's assignment was to cut all of our fabric into 2 1/2" strips.
Here you go!
You just can't beat the perfect edge of fabric that's been rotary cut. I love it!

And I definitely think that cutting fabric with the rotary cutter should absolutely count as a core strengthening exercise! Anyone with me here?

Quilt Along: Week 1

I'm so excited to do Little Bit Funky's Quilt Along!
She is sooo my kind of crafter!
"You're supposed to wash your fabric, but I didn't..."
"You can iron your fabric, but I didn't...."
That's my kind of girl!
(actually, I made those quote's up but you get the gist of it...)

So guess what?!?

I didn't wash my fabric.

I didn't iron my fabric.

But what glorious fabric it is!

This week's assignment was to gather all of your supplies,
including TWELVE DIFFERENT FABRICS!!!
That blue/green leafy fabric on the right was my first pick.
Everything else followed.
Quite different from the pink/lime green I thought I was going for!

Wanna Quilt Along?

There's still time! This is only week 1!

It's going to be great and at the end of six weeks or so...

YOU WILL HAVE MADE A QUILT!!!

Little Bit Funky's links:

Getting ready
Week 1