Seeing Stars in Central Park

This has been one long work in progress - it's taken me over a year to finally finish this puppy!  I used two Central Park by Kate Spain charm packs and a Kona can't remember the color yellow as the sashing.  

I just bought Angela Water's new Free Motion Quilting book which gave me tons of ideas.  I think I just didn't know how to quilt this and that's why it took me so long to finish.  I attempted to do a paisley design from the book.  It turned out well, but I think I need tons more practice before mine looks like hers!  

I have been just using all prints for my backings lately and I wanted to break things up a bit.  What better way then to use the solid from the front?  

This is my entry in the Aug edition of the My Precious QAL hosted by Kelly at Kelbysews.  I just love Kate Spain's work, especially Central Park!  I've been on the lookout for more, but sadly it seems to be sold out everywhere :(  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to buy a ton of Cuzco to make up for it!

Happy sewing!

Carlton's rug mug

I've been working on hexies in my free time at work, not really knowing what I would do with them when I was finished.  I'm using scraps from Little Apples and have already made a wallhanging that's in my kitchen, so I decided my cat, Carlton, needed a matching placemat for his food dishes.  It's basically just a mug rug about 8" x 14".  I sewed the hexies onto a muslin background in red with a thick blanket stitch on my sewing machine and echo quilted a little bit.  Very zakka style, no?

My Precious Part 3

I've had this quilt top done for awhile now, pushed to the back of the pile, waiting to finally be loved.  I found the sweetest, perfect vintage sheet to use for the backing and I am proud to say I've finally finished my precious vintage sheet quilt!

The pattern is called New Wave by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh,Fransson!  I was in a couple vintage sheet FQ swaps awhile back and these were some of my favorites.  One of them is the same print my mom had in college :)  

For the quilting, I just followed along the block edges 1/4" away from either seam.  Kind of boring but I feel like I've been stuck in a quilting rut lately, doing mostly straight line stuff.  My new quilting book from Angela Walters came in the mail today, so I'm hopefully going to start quilting more creatively in the future!

Flea Market Fancified

Just a quick peek at my Flea Market Fancy + other DS Quilts project.  I can't wait for this one to be all sewn up!  I'm kind of nervous because this is the first time that I chose fabrics for a pattern that weren't all in the same collection.  Hopefully I have good color sense :)  Once I'm done, I'll let you know where you can get this awesome free pattern so stay tuned!

My current list of projects:

Finished!

Nada

Completed tops needing backings & quilting:

Modern Meadow Urban Cabin

Sew Cherry Over & Under

My Precious Tufted Tweets 

Simply Squares Vintage sheets 

Central Park Charming Stars

Cherish Nature- Flights of Nature

Vintage Sheet New Wave 

Hunky Dory Pandora's Box

Tops in pieces:

My Precious Neptune

Sew Cherry Snapdragon #2

Flea Market Fancy Sampler

New projects this week: 1

Finished projects this week: 0

My Precious QAL Round 2

For Round 2 of the My Precious QAL, I decided to use my Neptune charm pack!  I had a plan for this little charm pack for quite some time now, but didn't really have the motivation to do the math until this great kick start.  I'm using a grey solid to border each charm pack and then the DS Quilts dark blue/aqua print as the sashing in between.  I picked up some Tula Pink Prince Charming for the binding and backing.  Since there are a few projects on my plate right now, this baby will probably be waiting awhile to be completely finished.  

Happy sewing until next time!

I love Ikat :D

Have you noticed all the great ikat prints popping up?  They're everywhere - quilting fabric, home dec fabric, wallpaper...  I think the colors and designs are so fresh and powerful. 

When I saw this Lanikai fabric from Dear Stella, I thought to myself, 'Self - you must WEAR that fabric!  And pillows.  You must make pillows.  Maybe stretch it over a canvas for wall art.  Hmm it might make a good tote bag too.  You should probably buy a whole bolt.'

I didn't buy a bolt, nor did I make all the things I said I would out of it yet, but I have made this awesome summer skirt.  I used Elisabeth's tutorial for The Elastic Waist Flirt Skirt which is based on a J. Crew skirt.  It went together super quickly (even though I had to do math) and the greatest part is that it has pockets!  I think I'll be remaking this skirt in the adorable lobster print from Crabtastic in the near future :)

Finish it up Friday

Everyone loves a finish!  This quilt is made from vintage sheets that I swapped for on Flickr and used Oh!Fransson's Mod Sampler quilt pattern.  I had made this quilt using 1930s repro prints too - one of my first quilts actually.  I love seeing how different they are even though the blocks are exactly the same!  

My favorite part of this quilt is the vintage sheet on the back.  Isn't it mod fabulous?  I quilted with straight lines in a diamond pattern and along the sashing too.  I really love this quilt, but I've decided to give it to my dear friend Caitlin who really came through for me in a desperate time of need.  I'm pretty sure she'll think it's as fabulous as I think it is :)