Checkerboard Quilt, finished!

I finished my Checkerboard quilt! My long arm quilter did an incredible job on the quilting, I love it so much ❤️ My grand daughters went to the park with me to help me take photographs.

The sun was beginning to go down, so there is a golden hue on this photograph.  You can see the quilting really well, it's very dense and fits the quilt perfectly!  Marti @ Lynny Lou Crafts in Gilbert, Arizona, machine quilted it.

The wind was so wild, we weren't able to get many good photos :)

I shared my quilt at our Farm Girls quilt group where we make all of our awesome Lori Holt quilts.  In a previous post, I said this quilt pattern was in Lori's Project Planner. 

When I had completed my quilt, I realized that the pattern is also in Lori's book Scrappiness is Happiness.  I didn't recognized it because it has a dark background in the book.

Something that makes this quilt so special, is that it is made entirely of my scraps.  I organize my scraps the Lori Holt way.  1 1/2" squares and strips, 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" etc.  This quilt took 1 1/2" and 2 1/2" squares and strips.  I can look at so many pieces in this quilt and remember what previous quilt I used it in, or a dress that I made one of my grand daughters or a bag that I made.

This photo shows all the different low volumes and some of the fussy cuts and the pretty low volume print that I used for the border.

This was a fun quilt to make, I didn't have to worry about which color went where, I just grabbed a piece and sewed. It would have been a good leaders and enders quilt. 

Thanks for reading my blog, I'll see you next week!

Heart of the Home quilt along, finished!

 I finished my quilt top! It was a very windy evening, I did the best I could with the photos :)

I love the colors that I chose, and all of the low volumes.

I'm very happy that I was able to use my fabric stash to make this quilt. I took these photos outside after the sun had gone down, but the colors aren't true.  I have a lot of orange in the blocks but it doesn't really show.

I've made log cabin blocks before, but never in a whole quilt like this.  I like the effect it has, of color and low volume. I chose a low volume print for the border too.

Everyone always asks me what I'm going to do with my quilt when it's complete.  I have no idea!  Maybe I'll have another giveaway with the grandchildren. A lot of love and money goes into making these quilts.

Thanks for following, I'll see you next week :)

Heart of the Home quilt along

 This quilt pattern is in the February issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. It's also available for purchase at Sherri McConnell's shop on Etsy. A quilting Life.

I found some extra time, so was able to jump ahead of the quilt along.

I've finished all of my log cabin blocks! yay!!!

Sometimes you love a quilt so much that you can hardly wait to see it finished! Now I have to cut all the sashing and the inner border. I had forgotten that there was sashing between the blocks, so a little more work ahead before I sew them all together.

I'll show you my progress soon ❤️

 

I'm really enjoying this quilt along.  The speed or lack of is very doable.

We are in week 4, and I completed my houses. One of my favorite parts of quilt making is choosing the fabric colors and prints.

Hey are all my little houses, the heart of the home.

Below are all the center blocks for the log cabins, the stars, the hearts and the houses.

Tune in next week and I'll have some of the log cabin blocks made!

Heart of the Home quilt along

 

I'm sewing along with the Heart of the Home quilt along. 

I think that the quilt is so beautiful, it's designed by Sherri from

 A Quilty Life. You can find Sherri's post about the quilt along on her blog, I have it highlighted.  

Here is the schedule for the quilt along.  It's not too late to join :)

Here are the fabrics I pulled from my Quilty stash.  It felt so good to use fabric that I already have and I really like them.  Sherri used her line of fabric called "Strawberry Lemonade".  It would have been fun to have that pretty bright green, but I'm happy with what I have.

This is week 1, collecting fabric for your quilt.

Week 2 is making the star blocks, they are 4 1/2" unfinished.

I always love choosing fabric, and seeing which colors work best.  I use the clothespins with letters on them for making my pieces after they're cut.  If I don't mark them, it takes so much longer to figure out which piece is which and where it goes.  I bought them at Target for $1 or $3 each. I bought four packs :). 

Week 3 is what we're on now and it is the heart blocks.  They were very easy to make!

Next week are the house blocks and I'll see you then!

Happy Quilting!

 I'm teaching my grand daughter Kylie, who just turned 11 years old, to make a quilt.  I felt that she is old enough to use the rotary cutter 😩 and she's very careful :). Kylie chose squares from my large stash of 7" squares. Then she cut strips from white fabric and subcut them to the correct size.  it took one and a half sittings to cut all the background pieces.  She thought the cutting was very boring and wanted to get to the sewing! She chain pieced and really liked it!

Kylie chose the quilt "Framed" from the book Simply Retro by Camille Roskelley.

Meanwhile, Kylie's sister Izzy was supposed to be finishing up her embroidered butterfly.  This girl really loves color and really really loves puzzles!  She became entranced in sorting my notions into color order.

This is what she did....

I can't bear to use either one, for fear of messing up her neatness!

I hope we can get together this week, it's so much fun having them over :)

Stronger Together

 

I'm sewing along with Fat Quarter Shop.  In recognition of Black History month, Fat Quarter Shop asks a designer to come up with a quilt design.  This year the quilt honors little Ruby Bridges, who at 6 years old, walked through a mob of people to go to school.  I gave my daughter a children's book years ago, about Ruby Bridges.  I have loved Ruby Bridges ever since!

I'm making the quilt from Art Gallery fabric, Flower Bloom.  It looks 60's style and has a little girl theme.

This is the block for week 1, a square in a square. It shows the whole line of fabric, which I really love! I will be posting a new block every Thursday on Instagram and Facebook, so stay tuned.

This is what the quilt looks like, it's just 48 X 48.

I'm also making a heart pouch for every grandchild, for Valentine's.

These pouches are very easy and addicting to make!  They are by Center Street quilts on Etsy. I love the bright orange heart charm :)

I only need to make 3 more, maybe 4 or 5.  I like to have some on hand in case I need a gift for someone special.

Thanks for following along, I'll see you next week ❤️

Checkerboard Quilt

 I finished a quilt!  I've only worked on it at my Farm Girls quilt group because it's a Lori Holt quilt and that's what we work on in that quilt group. I think I've been working on it for a year!

This quilt is called Checkerboard and is made entirely out of scraps! 

1 1/2" and 2 1/2" scraps.  It didn't even make a dent! The border is leftover border fabric from another quilt I made a while back. 

This pattern can be found in Lori Holt's book, "The Scrappy Project Planner."  There's a section in the back with quilt patterns.

Here are some closeups of my quilt, you may see some fabric that you have in your stash! Sometimes I like to see scrappy up close :)

I even kept a quilt journal for two of my quilts.  I love what I did, too bad I didn't do that for ALL of my quilts!

Hopefully I've inspired you to make a scrap quilt and journal your finished quilts :)

See you all next week ❤️

Burrito Pillow case and the Crowley Pouch

 My daughter has 3 Dalmatian dogs and one little chihuahua. I usually have a mental note to look for fabric with these dogs on them. I've never had any luck until this last week when I went to Road to California. There was the most beautiful Dalmatian fabric I've ever seen so I bought a yard! I was going to make a pillowcase and wanted a little extra.  With the leftover, I was able to make a medium size Crosley pouch by Center Street quilts, with a little toadstool zipper pull. ❤️

I thought it was incredible that the Dalmation's body matched up on the front of the pouch!

Here's the pillowcase also. I thought that spotted fabric was perfect!

The pillowcase is a burrito style, almost magic the way it goes together and it's sewn with French seams too!

This is the best tutorial I've seen anywhere, for the pillowcase.

I went to Road to California for a quick trip, it's only a 5 l/2 hour car ride. Went with three friends and we had such a fun time together. We went to a lot of cute quilt shops too, bonus!

We bought these shirts for a retreat last year, it's fun to wear them when we get together for a quilt related event :)

I tried on a quilted coat. I thought it was really pretty, but would like a coat with a little more shape to it.

So, so many cool things to look at, and the quilts and the fabric!!!

This is Latifah Safari, she has her own quilt company.  I've loved the fabric she designs.

This is Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket quilts.  She had a lot of quilts in the quilt show in the exhibition room.

My favorite find at the quilt show, was Kristen Baluch of Little House Cottons.  She designed this fabric, it was the cutest I've ever seen!  I wish I could have bought everything! She designs her own fabric and produces it herself!  She has an organic cotton farm in India.  Kristen is also a storywriter and illustrator. Check her out!

That was a pretty action packed week!  Thanks for following and I'll see you next week ❤️

Lucky Cuff quilt

This "Lucky Cuff" quilt was a block of the month sew along for our Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild.

I didn't like it that much at first, but it grew on me! I bought the Kona solid, it's called Stone and the rest of the fabrics are by Lori Holt.  For the back of the quilt, I would like to piece it from the large pieces I have, of Lori Holt fabrics. 

I think quilts are beautiful before they're quilted, with the light shining from the back. They look like stained glass.

This is my friend Nedra's quilt, I really love the colors.

This is a quilt I found online.  It looks so different with the dark background, and bright colors.

I found this photo online too, it might be by the designer.

I wish I had photos of the other 13 quilts at our guild, each one was so unique.  One person even used scraps of the same color in each of her rows. People are so creative!