AYOS and a little bit more - February

I loved February's parttern, it was Fig Tree's Mini Jumping Jacks.

I chose Pam Kitty fabrics because they're bright and happy.

The orange fabric with the flowers by the blue dot is Flower Sugar.

I used a text fabric for the sashing just because I love text fabric!

I love this color combo, it's the traditional Union Jack colors.

I'm Canadian and this used to be our flag until 1967 when Canada was 100 years old.

I used to draw this flag all the time in Elementary school and it was really hard to get the right dimensions because the lines are different widths.

This block should have had a yellow dot, so I'll be turning this one into a real little mini mini :)

Here are my little blocks :)

Each one measures 8 l/2" X 9 l/4".

I used an older Flower Sugar pattern for the back, and a black and white houndstooth to match the text sashing.

I machine quilted in the ditch, around the sashing and each jumping jack block.

The finished quilt is 21 l/2" X 29 l/2".

I really love it!

You can see the parade of other quilts like mine at A Quilting Life and Pink Pincushion.

Quilt Guild Name Tag

I finally joined a guild, the Sacramento Modern Quilt Guild.

I went to a meeting in January and it was great sharing a common interest in quilting, seeing other's projects and hearing quilting tips.

I made myself a name tag :)  I got the paper pieced pattern here.

I have a MQG name tag board on Pinterest.

I included all the things I love:  paper piecing, hand embroidery, Heather Bailey, American Jane and Heather Ross.

I wrote a new quote on my chalkboard for Valentine's :)

I smile every time I walk by!

Rebecca's table runner

I made a table runner for my daughter, and she wanted it to match her carpet.

Here are 3 separate views of her carpet...

These are 5 of the colors swatches that she sent me. 

I chose them for the main colors of the table runner.

I chose this color for the sashing, it matched up to Kona avocado perfectly!

I went to my local quilt shop and matched the color swatches to all the bolts of fabric.

I bought a half yard of each piece, and a yard of the Kona.

I cut 5" squares of the 5 main fabrics and cut some of them in half.  

The sashing strips are l l/2" wide.

I used a pattern that I got from my favorite quilt shop, Pine Needles in West Jordan, Utah during one of their quilt shop hops.

I put a 5" strip of some pretty "Liberty" style fabric on each end, with some matching rick rack.

I love how happy and bright this table runner is.

I backed it with leftover pieces.

It looks great on my black dining room table and shows off the photos of 2 of my sweet grandchildren, Maisie and Benjamin.

What I've Been Working On

My daughter received a Samsung tablet for Christmas over a year ago.

I told her I would make a case for it and finally got around to making it....

I'm not quite that pathetic, her tablet was lost for about 6 months.

One day her little one year old was playing in her bedroom and pulled out the tablet from between the cushions of the chair.

My daughter had looked there so many times, I guess it took the right touch :)

I wanted to make a vintage case, and found this adorable little Japanese print with 1950's style stuffed animals, perfect!

I don't know if she likes it or not, but I LOVE it :)

I chose a cute polka dot for the top of the holder and a teal colored zipper.

This is the back of the case.

Don't you just love those little vintage animals?

Can you tell how much I LOVE it???? Lol!

I've made this tablet case many times, just in different sizes.

Here is the link to the tutorial from Fresh Lemons Modern Quilts.

Liz has excellent tutorials :)

I really like the aqua gingham lining!

 The inside pocket has a polka dot lining.

This is such an easy case to make, I recommend it.

I'm very fortunate to belong to a virtual quilt bee, The Bees Knees a Quilting Bee.

April Rosenthal sent me this fabric with her new pattern, and I put it together and sent it to her.  

The colors and prints are so interesting :)

I'm working on lots of projects right now, but they just aren't complete enough to show you yet.

Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next Monday :)

Modern Instate - December & January

I finished up my Modern Instatebee, Hive 11 membership.

It was a great experience, I was sent 10 beautiful blocks and made 11 blocks every month for others.

(One of the ladies dropped out of the bee after she received all of her blocks, which was disappointing)

December's block was the Stacked Windmill, it was the most popular block.

The hive member chose red, aqua and gray, with Kona white for the background.

January's block was Trellis Crossroads, this is the first one I made.

There are 30 blocks in the quilt, so the hive member said that she would love 2 blocks if we had the time.  

She has 4 young children and works full-time as a teacher.

I thought that anyone with that work load and who is also a member of a quilting bee, and is very nice (Ha ha!) deserves at least 2 blocks!!!

She didn't want any reds, pinks or browns, and loves purple.

It was a little difficult not choosing any reds or pinks since they seem to be the colors I have the most of, and I don't have much purple, but I did my best :)

These blocks look really great together, with their bright, happy colors!

I loved this book, I highly recommend having it in your library.

They sell it at Joann's, need I say more?

AYOS and a little bit more - Kaleidoscope mini tutorial

Our challenge for the month of January, was to follow this tutorial by My Rainboots are Red, for a Kaleidoscope mini quilt.

I bought the Kaleidoscope smart plate ruler from Sharon Sebrow.

Sharon sent me a bonus quilt, which was really nice!

I made lots of half square triangles with my pretty scrappy fabric.

Do you notice my design board?

I use them all the time!

Lori Holt has a tutorial on her blog, Bee in my Bonnet.

You can make them in any size you want :)

This is what the ruler looks like. (ignore my legs...)

I cut and cut and cut...

 One of my blocks was imperfect, but I kept it.

I thought it might add some extra interest :)

I don't know if this is normal or not, but my corners were all cropped a little bit.

I love this cute little block!

I sewed a triangle to each of the 4 corners to form a square.
Forgot to take a photo of that step...sorry.

Yay, my squares are all placed and ready to sew together!

I enjoyed machine quilting with my walking foot.

I realize that some of my low volume fabrics weren't pale enough to stand out as much as they should.

The mini measures approximately 21" square.

I used it to decorate the table during my lesson at church, and some of the young women noticed it!

I backed it with a Japanese hexagon print, and the binding is a bright pink that I pulled from one of the scraps.

The tutorial was excellent, I think I would have been lost without all the wonderful photos.

I really enjoyed this technique and am anxious to make something else using it :)