Yep, I Am Doing English Paper Piecing!

In the past 3 weeks I finished 8  baby quilts  - follow this link to see some of them. 

My quilty confidence level has risen since I finished my Flowering Snowball quilt.  I have begun making a quilt I never dreamed I could make or even want to make, I am making hexie flowers and plan on using them on this quilt. I will need 225 flowers. I am sure this will take me a long time (about one year) to make. I thought I might be able to make one flower a day, now I'm not so sure as my finger tip is sore as I am not at all use to hand stitching. Guess I will have to invest in a thimble next time I go to town. I am enjoying the process. I am using 2.5 inch squares from my scrap bin to make these hexies. I still need to decide on a background fabric.

They are going to be scrappy with either a yellow or orange center. I am still struggling to get my stitches to be invisible ( probably need a smaller needle). Overall I am pleased with my progress. Plus it is a great way to use up the last bits of thread left on the bobbins.

Joyce, who lives in Washington state, lost everything in a fire - read how you can help here. 

Today one of the things I wanted to accomplish was to find a system to store my scraps and I finally found a way that makes perfect sense to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zsofdI96Ws

I am not comfortable cutting my scraps into certain square sizes as I might not use them. Cutting scraps into different size strips and then when I need a specific square I can cut it from my strips. For some reason this method of storing scraps just clicked with me.

I am going to track my fabric a bit differently, I am just going to report what came in and what I used since my last report. I am keeping track of YTD totals and where my finished quilts went in a small notebook.

 Not sure what goals I will set for next year or how I will record my finishes.

I do have one goal for the rest of this year and that is not to purchase any more fabric! I think I will be able to do that.

Baby Quilt #s 32 - 39

Audrey's mom, Joyce, lost her stash due to a fire.  Audrey is asking quilters to send her mom one fat quarter to help rebuild her stash. Details can be found here...

8 BABY QUILTS!!!!

I used this tutorial to make these baby quilts -
http://sewinpeace.blogspot.com/2014/01/flexi-strip-baby-quilt-tutorial.html

This baby quilt pattern is perfect  as it uses my left over backing pieces without having to cut them into smaller pieces. I consider this pattern a win - win as I get rid of the long skinny backing bits and some baby/little child gets a snugly quilt.

The pattern only calls for 3 - 5x40 inches of the focus fabric - just 15 inches.

I was able to piece one top in a hour, only 16 long seams.

They finish at 39x45 inches. Another plus is that I didn't have to piece the backing.

I had 32 10 inch pink flannel 4 patches sitting in a drawer for about 6 years, finally decided to use them. I made 3 quilts with them and am too embarrassed to share them. They are pretty bad. I thought about taking them apart but my success rate of unsewing flannel has been disastrous. Not sure what I will do with this 3 quilts, 

I had less than 1/2 yard of the bright fuchsia fabric that I wanted to use in a quilt and this simple chevron pattern was perfect. The background is multi colored dots with small pink hearts.

I had these 6 inch squares in a drawer and made this quick quilt. Cute little Mother Goose characters.

These quilts are going to Ronald McDonald's House.

Only 13 more baby quilts to go!

Linking up with Michelle...

September 7, 2014 - Stash Report - Flowering Snowball Quilt

I am thrilled with this Flowering Snowball quilt. It has 900 pieces. 10 blocks x 10 blocks. My blocks are 10 inches.

It is 97 inches square after washing and drying. I enjoyed every step of making this quilt. Picking out the 400 different fabrics for the petals, cutting all the pieces, pinning and sewing the blocks, rows and top together, even the quilting and binding were happily done. The big plus is that 96% of my seams match! I thought I would be lucky if I could get 50% of them to match.

Quite a few bloggers said that they didn't pin or only used a few pins when making this quilt, I used a lot of really skinny pins and sewed over them without once breaking my needle.  I did try only using a few pins but it just didn't work for me, couldn't get the pieces to line up.

I couldn't fit the petal template on the straight of grain on some of my scraps so I just put it in any direction it would fit and was very careful when handling them so they wouldn't stretch and get out of shape. My quilt lays flat.

Do I dare say that this is my favorite quilt? I really, really like the scrappiness of it. So glad I went with Kona silver for the background instead of white or beige.

When I first saw the quilt that Mary made (and you can see it  at her blog Molly Flanders)  I knew that I had to make one or at least try to make one. 

When I first began this quilt I was completely out of my comfort zone.

Take a look at Nicole's quilt - it is going to be gorgeous!

Linking up with Mrs Sew & Sow's Scraptastic Tuesday

Read about this weeks baby quilt

This is Ruby - 

She is 4 months old. I am going twice a week for training so I will know how to teach Ruby what she needs to know. Ruby comes with me. I don't want to have a 90 pound dog that doesn't listen to me. I want to be the pack leader.

We just finished one of our training sessions, that is why her tongue is hanging out. I can only get a picture of her after she is worn out otherwise she is too excited. She is sitting when told, we are working on sit/stay and come when called. She is learning quickly, so am I! She is a inside/outside dog. 

Once we have moved (feels like it is never going to happen) and she is a bit older I will have someone come out to teach her the boundaries of our property. 

Check out Judy's blog to see other stash reports

Added since last report - ZERO yards - I am not buying any more this year!

Added YTD - 79.62 yards

Used since last report - 23.52 yards

Used YTD - 378.93 yards

Net Used - 299.31 yards 

fabric not counted until quilt is 100% finished

Quilts finished in 2014 - 57

UFO - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - June - July - Aug - Sept - Oct - Nov - Dec

QOV - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - June - July - Aug - Sept - Oct - Nov - Dec

RMH - Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - June - July- Aug- Sept-Oct- Nov- Dec +19

Baby Quilts - 31 of 52 quilts 

Fat Quarter Shop - 4 out of 24 blocks 

Tula Pink - 120 of 120 blocks - made 20 extra blocks

Baby Quilt #31

This week's baby quilt top is from the book - Even More Quilts for Baby by Ursula Reikes. The name of the quilt is Sickle, page 46.

Here is a picture of the fabrics I used

Love the multi colored dots

This quilt took about 2 hours to make and is 36 inches square. It still needs to be quilted. This quilt will be given to Ronald McDonald's House.

At the beginning of the year I had made a goal to make one baby quilt a week.  I am a few weeks behind and will try to get caught up or even ahead. I still need to make 21 baby quilts before the end of the year.

Linking up with Michelle