checking in...

Just had to stop in again, since I miss this space, and quilting in general.  The last few days I've been looking especially longingly at my fabric, and thinking to myself that soon I will find the time!  Meanwhile, above are a couple photos of the fabric bundle I put together for FabricSpark for January.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and can't wait to make something with it.  I think I'll maybe add a few more darker greens, although it depends what pattern I end up using...  the nice thing is, there's still a few of these bundles available!  So if by chance you like it, then it can be yours!

And just to prove that I have been doing a tiny bit of sewing, here's a glimpse of a quilt block above.  Can you guess what it is?  It's from Simply Retro!



And then a baby quilt that I've been very slowly handquilting over the last few months.  Now I think I have a baby to give it to, so that should speed it up!  Hopefully I'll be back soon with finished photos on this one.

Simply Retro - Dapper

Here's the Dapper quilt from Simply Retro.  If it doesn't seem quite familiar, I changed one simple thing...can you guess what it is?  This was my least favorite pattern in the book, but when I thought of eliminating the vertical sashing strips, and then reversing the colored/background fabrics, it made all the difference for me.

In the original, the pinwheels are white, whereas in mine, they are printed.  Clear as mud?  Anyways, now I really like this pattern, as I always love pinwheels.

It's backed in a voile, which makes it so silky and soft, and I free motion quilted it in a swirly pattern, which I haven't done for awhile.

Here's a mosaic of all the quilts I've made from Simply Retro so far.

If I really do make every one in the book, I've got 5 more to go, but there's two that I'm contemplating leaving out... so that would be 3 left!

Bright Vintage Inspired Quilt

How's this for a bright quilt?!  I made this one with Quilt As You Go method.  It's a great way to use up small pieces of batting, as these blocks were cut to 6 1/2".  Also a relaxing way to use up scraps.  You hardly need to press anything, I just give a quick once over to each block when they're done.

To finish the quilt, I just quilted in the ditch.  It ended up around 40" square.  I can see it looking so cute in a baby's vintage inspired nursery, with white paneled walls... it would definitely be that POP of color!

I used my precious piece of Strawberry fabric from Heather Ross.  It feels good to be slowly emptying my shelves, whispering to myself that there will always be more pretty fabric!

Simply Retro Quilt #5 - Sweet Life

I finished up this fifth quilt from my #quiltthebook challenge.  Actually I finished it a few months ago and failed to blog about it.  Here it is now though, cute as could be in Tiger Lily fabric by Heather Ross.  I downsized the blocks quite a bit on this one.  I must say I love these tinier versions quite a lot.  They still did not feel at all too small or fiddly.

I promised I'd write down my measurements for cutting these smaller blocks, so here they are.

Tiger Lily center block - 6 1/2 x 6 1/2

Tiger Lily outside pieces - cut 4 - 2 x 2
                                            cut 4 - 2 x 4

White background fabric - cut 4 - 2 x 2
                                            cut 4 - 2 x 4

You can use the instructions from the book and just substitute these sizes.  I cut my sashing at 1 1/2 wide.

The finished quilt ended up at 38" x 38".  I quilted in the ditch on this one.  Sometimes I just like how that looks as opposed to decorative quilting.

As far as my challenge to quilt through the Simply Retro book,  I'm back on track!  I have an idea for my least favorite pattern on how to change it up a bit, and maybe make it my new favorite... So hopefully I can start on that next week.