Moda Be My Neighbor

 I finished machine quilting and binding my quilt, yay!!!

It's called "Be My Neighbor" and is a free pattern by Moda from 2016.

This quilt has a great story!

I have a group of Instagram friends, there are 8 of us.

They live in Tasmania, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Utah, and Idaho.

We used to make each other gifts for Christmas and birthdays.

After a couple of years, that got to be too much to handle.

Lynette found this pattern with 16 blocks and thought it would be a great idea to make the blocks for gifts for our birthdays.

Each name was drawn and randomly assigned two blocks.

Mine were the sailboat at the bottom and the house with the bird and mailbox at the top.

When it was Cathy's birthday in Tasmania, everyone made her their two blocks and she was able to make a quilt.

We felt like we were neighbors even though we were miles apart.

The other cool thing was that we had to use Fig Tree fabric and the same background fabric.

That way, all the blocks would match.

It's really such a pretty quilt, I'm in love with it!

I posted about my quilt in 2018, here.

I'm thrilled with my machine quilting!

I used a meandering feather, 

although I'm not sure that it looks like a feather.

Either way, I'm thrilled with the outcome.

The quilting is very dense and there aren't any ripples.

I used a lot of thread!

Another thing that makes this quilt so special to me, is the back.

I had an Alexander Henry piece that was large enough to use.

Don't the people looks like they're having a great time visiting, 

just like neighbors do?

I love how colorful it is too.

It looks much more colorful in person :)

The label is from a "Sweetwater" label group that I joined,

 it's called tagged and comes at the end of every month.

Kimberly Jolly mentioned it on one of her YouTube videos.

It's always  different and my name's always printed on it.

I added some Fig Tree fabric to frame the label and sewed it on.

I think I might have to change the date to 2018-2020,

I'll do some further investigation.

Every quilt has a story, this one is about friendship.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Thanks for following along :)

Awesome Ocean, Tony the Turtle

 This week, I finished all of my sea turtles.  All eight of them are named Tony!  I thought it would take forever, with his patchwork shell but I finished each one in about 30 minutes.  That doesn't include cutting though.

Again, I love choosing the colors and the prints :)

I still haven't gotten around to building a design wall, so I haven't laid all my sea creatures out in the order that they go in the quilt.

I only have two more fish to sew (eight of each color scheme), and then I'll start putting my little animal blocks together.  

I'm working on a secret project for the Fat Quarter Shop which I will post about next week.  It's a free pattern that they will be offering, so stay tuned!

Christmas Swoon

I really love this quilt pattern, this is the second one I made.

The directions are very easy to follow. 

These Swoon blocks in Christmas fabric, 

were finished two and a half years ago.

Yes, two and a half years ago!!!

I wrote about them here.

The sashing was cut and the blocks were sewn, what was the hold up?

I thought I would like the quilt larger, 4 blocks across and 4 blocks down, that meant 7 more blocks?

No wonder I never finished it!

When Covid hit and we were quarantined, 

I found my quilt ready to go. 

To simplify, I decided to sew it all together, 

scratching the original idea of a bigger quilt.

Since the quilt was so large and there was so much white space,

 I had a friend machine quilt it.

( I didn't trust myself!)

I used my larger cuts of Christmas fabric for the back.

I love the pieced look and I'm using up my stash!

I'm saving all the quilts I've made this year.

They're all sitting in a neat little stack in my linen closet.

When I have fourteen of them, I'm going to let all of my grandchildren choose one, beginning from the oldest.

I don't know how they will ever choose, 

I know that I would have a difficult time :)

Awesome Ocean progress, Salty Seahorse

I'm making progress on my Awesome Ocean quilt!

I just love these cute little seahorses, 

and it's so much fun choosing the fabric for them!

The Seahorse fabric on the seahorse!!!

I love these little pastel ones too.

I'm trying to get the colors to be hombre 

in each of the eight color schemes.

I hope the colors flow like I envision in my head.

 

I also made all 8 of the Kelp blocks,

but they aren't as fun as the seahorses!

Stay tuned for more...

Awesome Ocean progress

I'm back to making sea creatures for my "Awesome Ocean" quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.  I just love her animal quilts! Elizabeth always names her animal patterns too.

Below is Octavian Octopus.

I had a fat eighth bundle of "Reef" by Elizabeth Hartman, from a Sew Sampler box.  I looked on Etsy for some more fat quarters, but there was hardly anything left.  I had another fat eighth bundle of "Blueberry Park" by Karen Lewis, also from a Sew Sampler box.  Then I just went through my stash and looked for colors that ranged in the tones that I thought blended well with everything.

The purple octopus reminds me of Ursula, the wicked queen from the Disney movie, "The Little Mermaid".  The Rick Rack octopus is pretty cool too!

These are my Kelp blocks.  I hope that these colors and those of the all the fish give an hombre effect in my quilt.  That's what I'm going for :)

These are all the fabrics I pulled from my stash.  Purple, blue, teal, green, yellow, brown, pink and orange.

Next, I'm going to make "Salty Seahorse".  I'm pretty excited about him, it will be fun choosing the colors and prints.

Thanks for following :)

Name Banner

One of my grand daughters really wanted a banner with her name on it, to hang in her room. 

She told me that her favorite colors are purple, blue, pink and green.

I love choosing fabrics for a project.

I made sure it was really colorful 

and added "bee kind" to make it different.

Thanks to Lori Holt's "Spelling Bee" book for the patterns.

Sunday Picnic

I have made so many of these panels by Stacey Hsu.

The moment I saw "Sunday Picnic", 

I knew I had to make it for Lucy for her seventh birthday!

She loves animals and insects and is always wanting to tame wild horses that she saw in Arizona, 

or bison that she saw in Wyoming.

She thinks if she can just pat them, they will fall in love with her :)

Anyway, I think these little Mr. & Mrs. frogs are so cute!

They came on a panel with a quilt, a picnic basket, plates, napkins

and lots of food.

I began cutting them out, sewing and stuffing months ago.

I think the sandwich is cute too.

Bread, lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese and bologna.

Who knew that frogs loved bologna???

The plates are adorable, they look like real china,

and on the back it says "enjoy your lunch".

Mr. & Mrs. Frog have so much fun and delicious food.

A carton of milk, a sandwich, a drumstick, 

watermelon and strawberries.

They are going to be stuffed!

       I bought the panel on Etsy if you're interested in buying one.

It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

Who could resist Mr. Frog's overall shorts and bow tie.

I know that Mrs. Frog can't!

I assume they're married, maybe they're dating, lol!

Thanks for following along!