City Weekend Square Dance - Waiting for Cora

This is my very favorite reason to sew.  Two of my very dear friends are welcoming their first grandchild in the next few weeks, and I couldn't wait to make the baby a quilt.  

I used Oliver & S City Weekend.  It was a fat quarter bundle that I got a few years ago at QuiltMarket and have been hoarding away for just such a special occasion.

My husband doesn't like the quilts hung up on our fence, but I love it.  It's just the right height for baby size quilts.

Front view

Blue for the sky, yellow for the sun, green for the grass.

Big striped backing

Adorable birds from Hideaway by Lauren + Jessi Jung

I have to say I am one of those who loves hand binding.  It's very relaxing but it also builds up the excitement, as you know you're getting closer and closer to another finish.

Blue Kaffe Fasset Aboriginal Dot for the binding

Here are some of the other Square Dance versions that I've done.  I have two others that I never took pictures of before I gifted them away.

Sock Monkeys

Seven Seas Organic

Forest Friends in Flannel

Do not look if you are prone to seizures - Psychedelic Quilt top!

For the first quilt I made out of this book, I chose the "Strip the Willow" quilt. I was able to finish the top this weekend, it worked out to be a pretty quick project. Maybe a total of 4 hours including the cutting and "fixing". I'm not the fastest strip sewer and I tend to stop and cut and press a lot to keep myself interested.



My only beef about the pattern is that it says you only need 4 WOF strips for each of the two sashings. This would ASS-ume that they are 44" wide. My fabric was only 42". Yeah, so, I had to trim the wider outer sashing by a 1/2" on each side to make it long enough. Other than that the pattern was well written and clear. It was a pretty simple one.



The thing is, the quilt came out CRAZY. I sort of realized this early on, but couldn't make myself stop sewing once I started. I'm always afraid that I'll never use the fabric again, since it's been cut once and I'd have to find just the right project for it.



It's loud, and might push you into a seizure if you stare at it too long, but I think I like it! Have you ever started a quilt, not been thrilled with your color choice or pattern, and just kept sewing??

Quick Project to Soothe my Ego

After my Cosmo Bag tragedy, I needed a quick, "easy" project to soothe my ego. I've had this book for some time now, and decided to try to use things from my stash to make a quick, smaller sized quilt.



It's interesting, you'd think that if all the quilts were made with strips, they'd all be pretty easy and not have tons of cutting, but that's just not the case. There are a few pretty complicated ones, so I went with this amended sort of rail fence pattern.



Like I mentioned in my last post, I decided to use a "design roll" that I got of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Thankfully, even though it was just 28 Strips, that was ok, because this book is about getting TWO quilts from one 40 strip jelly roll. PHEW! I tell ya', if I started another project and messed it up right out of the box, there would be some serious, sailor-like cursing going on.


I haven't sewn the rows together yet, but these are the blocks.



It's gonna be LOUD and sort of crazy quilt looking with all of these colors. I can't wait to get the rows done and see how they look.

One of my last winter weekends

I don't know where you all live, but here in CT it has been a strange, not-very-winter-like-winter. This was probably the last weekend for local skiing. Unless you go up north (VT or NH) it won't be cold enough to make snow, or keep what they did make...so we tried to enjoy it.

This is my step-son, who is a PERPETUAL teaser, chops buster and all around prankster extraordinaire. Lucky for me, Rob gave me this great photo opp. I NEVER get to pull one over on him, and he had no idea.



The best part though was, that he had a great sense of humor about it, and we both had a really good laugh.



I also have spent some time this winter making home made dog treats, and I think I've perfected this one recipe. I know how to alter it so that the texture is consistent and I can actually easily make these little disk shapes. I got the recipe here.



My daughter had her second horse riding show this morning, and she made such HUGE improvements, she actually took one blue ribbon home today. She was ecstatic.



And the tiny little bit of sewing I did manage to sneak in, was a strip based quilt that I started out of a Kaffe Fassett design roll I got on sale somewhere. Of course, I didn't realize that design roll means 28 strips, not 40. Thankfully though, I had enough to make the quilt. Once I get the top done, I'll blog about the book and the pattern.



Now off to watch the Oscars and eat popcorn. Not bad at all for a non-winter-like weeekend.