Progress

 

I have been working on a couple of projects.  First is the hexagons for the baby quilt.  They are 4" x 4.5" hexagons so I can piece them on the sewing machine.  Definately fiddly and time consuming - but so much faster than hand piecing!

 

 

Piecing the hexagons together.

 

 

Pressing all of those seam allowances - not fun.

 

 

 

 

I got a backing all pieced for the x plus quilt.  As you can see I ended up putting together some scraps used on the front, filled in with some Lilly belle from Bari J (I love this fabric), and finished it out with some solid gray fabric between the pieced areas.

 

Then I got it all layered last week when Kelly was here to help.  I always spray baste when I am going to machine quilt.  It is soooo much faster than pin basting.  I think we had this all together in about 20 min.

 

Quilt all together and ready to quilt.

 

I started quilting along the straight seams of the pluses with my walking foot, 1/4" from the seam.

 

 

This is how it looked after quilting all of the straight lines of the pluses.

 

 

Then I decided to free motion quilt a swirl design in the diagonals of the x's.  It is fairly time consuming, so I have about 6 blocks done so far. 

 

Hopefully I can get more of the free motion done this week :>)

 

Looking forward to May, and hopefully some nice weather.  April here in Indiana was a cold, gray, rainy month, much more so than usual.  In fact, we had 8.59" of rain this April and the most rain ever recorded in the month of April was in 1893 - 8.60" of rain.  So we were 1 tenth off from the record wettest April.  Well, I'm happy to leave this wet month and get to some warmer weather!  Of course once the weather gets nicer I won't want to be inside working on quilts. :>)

 

Hope you have a great week, thanks for stopping by.

 

 

 

 

Really Random Rainy Thursday

It' been a really rainy, stormy day all day here.  So thought I would get a blogpost written and link up to http://aroundtheblockdesigns.blogspot.com/

Really Random Thursday.

 

 

 

This is our Granddaughter Cora tentatively trying out her new scooter.  Papaw is helping her keep balance...  she got the hang of it and thought it was pretty fun on our flat driveway.  She has on the cutest dress and pants  - the pants have a large ruffle around the bottom that is completely covering her shoes.

I have been making more maternity outfits for Kelly.  This is a dress that I made from a length of rayon challis from JoAnns for the skirt and a purchased tank (from Penny's) for the top.  We had seen a similar dress in the Anthropology catalog for over $200.00.  Our version less than $20.00!!

 

 

I gathered the rayon onto the knit top allowing a bit of a curve in front to go over her baby tummy.  I then added elastic along the seam to keep it snug to her body, but yet allow for her to get in and out of it.  You can see my X Plus quilt in the background.  I have the top and backing all pieced and am ready to baste it for quilting.  I like to spray baste, so I am waiting till Kelly can come help me as it is so much easier with 2 people.

 

I live in Indiana and last week was the Vera Bradley outlet sale in Fort Wayne.  Is is about 2 hours from where I live so a friend and I did a day long road trip to the sale.  We had so much fun.  Started early went to a quilt shop in Roanoke IN on the way to Fort Wayne.  Unfortunately I forgot to take some pics, but they had a great selection of fabrics.  Then we went to lunch and then on to the sale.  We were pleasantly surprised that we didn't have to wait in line - usually there is a wait to get in.   This is a pic of the sale above, - we are talking about a football field sized coliseum with 15 rows of tables the entire length of the floor stacked up with Vera Bradley - tote bags, purses, wallets, duffles, bookbags, lunchbags, cosmetic bags, wristlets, blankets, notepads..... yes, anything and everything Vera Bradley they have at 50 - 70% off. 

 

 

We shopped for 3 hours or so, I got a weekender bag to replace an old one I have been using for 5 years and loved.  Also got a purse for me and a purse for a friend and a backpack for my youngest daughter's upcoming birthday.  They give you large pink garbage bags as you enter the sale to haul around what you want to buy.  Most people grab inventory they are interested in and put it in their bag and then eventually go through the bag and eliminate what they don't want.  As you can imagine with thousands of (mostly) women what a madhouse it is.  Anyway, I ended up with very sore arms and shoulders from hauling my bag of goodies around the show.  Could hardly pick up anything the next day :>) 

 

 

 

After the VB outlet sale my friend mentioned she knew of this amazing chocolate shop, DeBrands, that was right on our way out of town.  So we stopped and had the most amazing turtle sundae I think I have ever had!!

 

This is a peek at the beginnings of a baby quilt for Kelly and Doug's baby.  No we don't know if it's a girl or not so I am making a girl and a boy quilt and will keep whichever isn't needed for a gift for a future baby.   Originally this was going to be squares but then I got the "great" idea to cut out hexagons.  These were cut on my Accuquilt Go cutter so it's not too labor intensive.  And they are 4" x 5" so they are large enough I can piece them on the machine.

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my radomness!

Fun with X Plus

Just an update on the X plus quilt.  I have been working on it for the last few weeks and really having fun with it.  This is one of the blocks - love the pearl bracelet print. 

Here is a pic of 9 blocks pieced.  As you can see having fun playing with LOTS of fabrics.  Started out using scraps from this quilt below.

 

 

But after just a few blocks I was raiding my stash and coming up with lots more fabrics. 

And here it is almost all 36 blocks.  I was debating on what size to make the quilt.  The block finishes at 10" and this was at 6 blocks by 6 blocks.  But I ended up deciding to add 6 more blocks to make the quilt rectangular so it should end up around 60" x 70".  I love all the fun prints and color of this quilt. 

I was going to try to get the blocks pieced tonight, but not sure that will happen.  Lots of storms, which makes it difficult for me to get to studio which is in an outbuilding. 

 

So check back hopefully I can get it together and ready to quilt by next week. 

 

Linking up with WIP wednesday with http://www.freshlypieced.com/2013/04/wip-wednesday.html