Couple of things

1) I hate orange.
2) Also don't like things with cat prints.



3) OMG I wuv my orange quilt with cutesy widdle kitty cats!!!

I know, right?

The cat prints all came together in a fat quarter bundle. All the other polka dots and such were purchased separately. If I cut 9" squares, I can get four squares from each FQ (or 1/4 yard, whatever). I started cutting out squares for this one over the weekend.

The finished blocks are 7.5" and I need 48 of them to make a 45"x60" blanket. Last night I sewed together 26 blocks, so I'm halfway done after one night!!!

Here's my plan of attack:



Hack, hack.



Sew.



I think that last one is a little out of focus. Sorry.

One problem I came across is that really didn't like the light brown I was using. When I was picking coordinating fabrics I thought that the quilt needed some lighter value colors.



Bleh. It doesn't. I found some brown batik-y circle fabric that I had on hand, so I'm using that instead. Luckily, I'd only made two blocks with the light brown so I don't have that much to rip apart.

11th Birthday Quilts

I've been working on these quilts for my nieces for about nine months now, which coincidentally is also the last time that I blogged. I had scraps left over from the pj's I made for their birthday last year and I really wanted to make them something big and awesome this year.

I didn't have that many scraps left over from the pj's. I planned to use lots of white (um, about 9 yards worth), and I bought some coordinating solids to mix in. I made 12" wonky log cabin blocks for the tops. After I got them all sewn together I realized that I wanted them to be a little bigger, but I had run out of fabric. Then I remembered that I had MORE fabric!! I had some polka dot fabric squirreled away that I planned to make my sister some pj's with. Sorry sister, your pj's are now borders on the girls' quilts.

Katie's


Jessie's


I designed a back to go with the quilts too. The way I see it, why should the front of the quilt have all the fun?

back of Katie's



back of Jessie's



This was my first time to do straight line quilting. I went for kind of a plaid look with lines stitched .25" to 1.5" apart. I like how it emphasizes the log cabin on the front of the quilt. Don't like how it took forever to do.

At first I tried using my regular old presser foot to do the quilting. All the layers shifted and my beautiful quilt became a big bunchy mess. I think I spend about a day ripping out all of those stitches. So, I went out to the Viking dealer and bought myself a $90 walking foot (on sale from $130... gulp). Works like a dream. There was still a little bit of shifting, but I think that's my fault for not assembling the quilt just right.

The girls are also getting matching pillows to go with the quilts. I didn't come up with the design for the pillows, they're heavily influenced by something else I saw on the Internet. Remember, imitation is the highest form of flattery.





I had so much fun making these quilts. I taught myself a lot of new tricks and I think that I might have found a new "favorite craft" (sorry knitting).

The girls are coming for a visit this week and I'm really excited to give them their quilts in person. I think they'll love them.