For Baby Nellie or lil' nel

This weekend I finished the last of this round of baby quilts and this one goes to baby Nellie .

I had been wanting to try this raw edge circle quilt ever since I saw Allison's tutorial for it over on her blog, 

Cluck, Cluck, Sew.

Have you ever stopped by there?  

If not, you really should.  

Its one of my favorites.

Here's the full front view.  Its pretty small.  Nellie's mama told me that Nellie's been using her big sister Jane's Auntie Tyra quilt laid out on the bottom of her pack and play so this is (almost) pack and play dimensions.  Its also a good size to drag around once's she's on the move.

All the fabrics are leftovers from my Single Girl fabrics and I'm quite happy to say that I didn't purchase one square inch of new fabric or even batting for this quilt.  

Although I really love the fabrics used in Allison's original.  

If I could go back in time I would buy out the American Jane Recess line and hoard it forever.

I've been LOVING Nettie's curved corners over at A Quilt Is Nice and had to try them out on this guy.

I didn't take the time to make true bias binding tape and I think next time I will.  It turned out fine but the corners do have a slight pucker to them because I didn't take the time to do it.

Nettie seems to have been particularly inspiring to me this week because I also tried out her quilting straight lines tutorial for my quilting design.  I really like how it turned out and it was nice to depart a little from my typical stippling.

There is something so sweet and quaint about a baby named Nellie such that I can't hear her name without hearing in my mind poems about little girls with ringlet curls referred to as lil' Nel.

So I put lil nel on the back to mark it as her own.  In a home with three older sisters I'm sure she'll need help claiming things once in awhile.

I really liked how it turned out and it came together quite quickly once I got going on it.  A nice distraction from my pile of single girl curves beckoning me.  Sort of cleansed the palette and now I'm ready to dive in for some more.




Today I linked up with:

Pajaro Valley Quilt Show

Saturday my sweet husband offered to hang with the kiddos so I could attend the Pajaro Valley Quilt Show at the Santa Cruz County Fair Grounds in Watsonville.  Yay!

Hello!  There I am!  There were some beautiful quilts on display.  Most were of the traditional sort with a few art quilts thrown in.  Not too many of the modern quilt variety.

Here are some of my faves...

This double wedding ring was beautiful and this picture hardly does it justice.  It was actually the one I ended up voting for in the viewers choice category.  Mostly because I loved all the old feedsack fabrics in it and the story that went along with it.  It was pieced by a grandmother years and years before and then found by the granddaughter a year before her wedding. The mother (of the bride, daughter of the piecer, follow me?) took it and together with some friends repaired and finished the top and hand quilted it in time to present to the grand daughter for her wedding.  

Don't you love that?

They even embroidered the bride and groom's names and their wedding date.

If you're noticing a trend already as evidence of my love for vintage prints, its true.  This Dresden plate design was all hand quilted.  Sigh... so, so beautiful.

They also had this lovely hexagon quilt.  You KNOW I had to take a picture of that one.  This was also hand quilted.

They had some great scrappy quilts that reminded me of my commitment to stashpact11 and how I have totally fallen off the wagon there.  These lovelies helped me renew my commitment. 

(I should clarify that I jumped back on the stashpack11 bandwagon AFTER I already went through all the vendors which I don't feel bad about because everything purchased was for a SPECIFIC project I have in mind and they were all such screaming deals.  But more about that later.....)

One more scrapper..

Okay ONE more shot of the scrappers.  I really love this triangl-ish quilt on the left.  What is the name of those blocks? 

 I feel like there is an ad that is always in American Patchwork and Quilting that has this pattern?  Anyway I really like it.  Its like a triangle's answer to the postcard quilt 

(which I've been really wanting to do by the way.  One more on the to do list...)

They had a bed turning which was a lot of fun too. 

One of the things I love so much about quilts in general is just all the history linked to each one.  This was a fun way to hear the stories that went along with these beautiful quilts.  

Most were vintage, 20's and 30's era quilts. 

I did a quick sweep through the vendors and bought a few fat quarters and half yarders that were really good deals.  I had to really restrain myself since everything was priced so great.  My favorite vendor was actually this lady who finds vintage fabrics and notions and sells them.  She had AMAZING and beautiful fabrics.  I bought two.  My favorite is the one of the right.  Both are just shy of a yard and I got them both together for $5.  How about that?

She also had a bunch of old orphan blocks and cutter quilts.  I loved this pile because all of them had embroidered onto them 

who had made them.  

This one on the top was made by "mother."  Love that.

Since I knew Josh was sacrificing important study time to tend the boys all morning

(he's taking his qualifying exam for his boards this May, EEK!)

when I looked at my watch and realized I'd been there for about two and a half hours, I figured I ought to hurry home.

But then as I was walking out I thought, I'll just do a quick cruise through this last building.

Uh.  It turned out it was the "Bargain Garden" and it was piles and mountains of scraps and old fabric that they were selling for $3 a pound.  

Since no one loves a good deal more than my Joshua, I figured he wouldn't begrudge me a turn through the bargain garden and in I went.

I mean look at that!

I came out spending $4.50 and got ALL OF THIS!!!

Most are at least quarter or half yarders and some even a yard plus.

I could have spent hours there but unfortunately, felt the need to get home so the husband could get to studying.

It was a ton of fun and has me thinking I'd like to join the guild that puts it on.  They meet in Santa Cruz once a month and I think it would be a lot of fun.  

<

So I've officially joined Flikr's Stash Pact 2011 group and I'm excited to get started.


Here are MY official rules/goals:

1. No new fabric purchases until I can fit my entire fabric stash on my lower shelf in the studio.
2. Exceptions:
• Fabric to back quilts
• small amounts to finish pattern
• Fill fabric for a pattern BUT ONLY if it is on sale (40% off or better)
• Finish all my WIP's (works in progress) and no starting new ones until current ones are done (at least the quilt top, quilting can happen whenever)
3. Design 12 original scrap quilts

So those are my goals.  So far so good.

In other news, the Color Wheel quilt is coming along nicely.

It was a quiet, rainy Sunday yesterday which meant that I spent a little time quilting and even got started on the binding. Whoo hoo!  Can't wait to get this beauty up on the wall.

I quilted it different than what was suggested in the book.  Mostly because I love how a stippled quilt looks and feels and didn't feel like putting in all the work to trace out the lines.

Usually I just use a basting spray to sandwich the layers but this time I decided to pin it with safety pins too.  I know lots of other quilters do this but I have to say, it didn't work out that well and I ended up with a bunch of wonky parts on the back.  I had to stop and pull out the stitches a few times which was annoying because I can't find my really nice, sharp embroidery scissors.  Luckily I found these guys (pictured above) which have an awesome hook thing on the end and that helped.

But it was still annoying.

Anyhoos.  My goal is to finish binding this baby today and then maybe even get it hung tonight after I put the boys to bed!  We'll see...

Stash Pact 2011

Hello my name is Tyra, and I'm a fabric addict.  I could walk the isles of quilt shops and fabric stores all day and just look at all the beautiful designs and dream of all the endless combinations in endless quilt patterns.  Lets just say its my happy place.

I have a habit of heading to the fabric store with the most innocent of intentions to ONLY buy what I NEED for a project and without fail, I leave with one or two pretty little quarters or half yarders to tuck in these here sturdy totes. 

Am I the only one?

Probably not.  Through three moves in the last four years I've whittled it down but have needed to make the commitment, the stash pact if you will, and really start putting these little pretties to use.

Last night I took that middle tub and spend some time folding and stacking so that everything was right here in my little studio, ready to catch my eye for some special little project.

I really like having everything right here now, next to my sewing machine and ready to go.  It looks so pretty and colorful right?  And that little cutie pie getting ready to taste the blues isn't too bad either.

Asher is quite pleased with mama's progress

We'll make Monday the official stashpact 2011 kick off as we start a year of putting all those pretties to use.......stay tuned

de-stashing and getting started..

(almost) all the quilt tops laid out and ready (and almost ready) for quilting

What do I write to start things out?  I've had a family blog for about four and a half years now and I've been itching to start a blog just devoted to my little creative outlet: quilting.  So here we are!

Over the last few months my serious addiction to fabrics has gotten to the breaking point and I decided that a stash cleanse was necessary.  Unfortunately I love all my fabrics too much to part with them in anyway other than quilted form and so began my year of scrap quilting.  Apparently I'm not the only one with this problem...  This year my goal is to work through my stash until I've whittled it away to a reasonable level.  Reasonable being one tote in my garage.  Or even better small enough to store on my shelves in my studio (read: corner of the loft/office/playroom).

I've had a lot of projects in mind to use up the stash on and its just become a matter of momentum to get going on putting those ideas into action.  And in the last week I've really made some good headway. 

My current project has been one from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts.  Oh how I love the projects in this book.  I got it from the library a few years ago when we still lived in Seattle.  Unfortunately somone had taken out the pattern page which made it kind of impossible to do half the projects. But since I loved it so much I went out and got my own copy and have been biding my time till I started this little baby...

I was TOTALLY intimidated at first by the circle and rounded corners.  In fact I remember turning to this page when I first got the book from the library and thinking, "well that's one I'll never do..."

Never say never right?

It actually is way easier than it looks.  Time consuming because you have to cut out all the individual color wheel pieces with scisors instead of rotary cutting but quite simple to piece.  But, seriously, a great way to utilize an oversized fabric stash.

Turns out I have a TON of blue and red fabrics (not really surprised there, two favorite colors) and I only had three orange which is weird because I feel like I'm really digging orange lately (wait till I post about the boys' room) so I had to go out yesterday and get three more oranges. (that's the sort of fabric purchasing we'll allow this year.  ONLY to FINISH projects!)

I have to admit.  I totally love it and can not wait to get it hanging on the wall right here in the loft studio (/playroom/office).  I love it.  I ran out of white fabric for the last quadrant but the plan is to run over to San Jose's Jo-Ann's tomorrow since I'm headed over the hill to my little mountain playgroup anyway.

Excited...