Finished - Ribbons!

I'm happy to announce that my baby blanket is done!  I'm hoping to get it to the family before the baby arrives even - it'll be a first for me.  I have about two weeks until the due date, so I might make it.  :)  The front is based off Off-track by Cluck Cluck Sew, but I made a few changes.

The back is pieced.  I do love pieced backs and thought I could do it on this quilt since it is being sent to a hot area and minky or flannel wouldn't be very appropriate.  I got a little bit more fabric, and I tried to use up what I had left from the front.  My back wasn't much bigger than the front, but it ending up fitting fine.  (Phew.)

I did some straight lines in the background orange (using my new rulers!).  I also tried to mimic the fabric pattern in the quilting of the ...buckles?  So in the picture below, there are small pebbles with the small dots, some large circles with the large circles (like the horizontal stripe), and some triangles.  With the triangles I tried to outline the triangles that were present in the fabric.  I didn't do a great job, but it is pretty consistent.  Also, big circles are hard to make circular.

This one shows the squares and rectangles that were done in the crosses (again like the horizontal stripe) and wonky zigzags.  I was picturing pristine zigzags in my mind, but it didn't turn out that way.  Not even close - so I decided they were then wonky on purpose.

Last year I made a boy quilt with orange and put it on the red lilies, so I thought I should do it again.

I kept the vertical color the same...it reminds me of a ribbon with buckles on it.

The binding is just a pre-bought sateen one, but it matched the blue in the fabrics wonderfully.  This is also my best binding by far...I'm not sure what I didn't differently, but it worked!

 The buckles are made from Simple Marks by Malka Durawsky for Moda.  There seem to be two different hues...this is the brighter line.

This was my June goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I'll also be linking up with Needle and Thread, LAAF, Whoop-whoop Friday, Finish it up Friday, and Freemotion Friday.

Quilt show in Shipshewana

Yesterday my mother-in-law, son, and I went to the quilt show in Shipshewana.  Here are some of my favorites.  (Watch out...the post is rather picture heavy.)  I like several of the tops, but I found myself noticing and taking pictures of quilting and borders a little more.  So I have several partial pictures.

 Crazy Compass, Meredith Yoder

 Wilderness Indian Village, Mary Lambright - I really liked the interlocking diamonds

Super Star, Marilyn Badger - I liked how the microstiple really brought out the design.

 Feathered Star, Meredith Yoder  - It reminds me of snowflakes.

 Florida Vacation, Doris Goins - Not only do I like the colors, but the quilting was really interesting too.

 Delft Garden, Gail Smith and Donna Derstadt - I really like the criss-cross border.

 Iron Will, Sandra Peterson & Lisa Burman - I like the circles around the stars.  Some of the squares are set on point.

 Patriots in Petticoats, Elaine Miller & Mike Barber - I like how the border looks like it is folded.

There were also several Farmer's Wife, Dear Jane, and Nearly Insane quilts in the special exhibition.  They were displayed on cars which was a fun medium, but annoying because you couldn't see the whole thing at once.

Miniature Bow Tie Quilt, Sandy Corbett & Ladies of Centenary Methodist Church

 Medallion Quilt, Vickie Davis - The people setting up the show tried really hard to match the quilt colors with the car.

Made it

I pieced the back of the orange quilt together and measured it out.  I had two inches total to spare in the up and down direction.  Hmm...that doesn't seem like enough.  But...I didn't have enough fabric to make it any bigger.  So I decided to just try it and deal with it if (perhaps when) it didn't work.

I put it right up to the edge on the top.  I ended up with about a 1/4" extra. (The shadow on the bottom is the extra.)

That meant I had about 2" left on the bottom.  It fit!

Progress

Here's some of my progress from the last two weeks.


All the T-shirts have fusible webbing on them.  I was a little disappointed in the interfacing...it took forever to fuse.  It's the first time I've used interfacing, so it could be normal, but I was hoping it would go faster.  But, they're all ready and I have sashing fabric, so I'm moving forward.

The orange baby blanket that I'm trying to finish by the end of the month is about halfway quilted.    I'm using my ruler base to make several straight lines.

I started cutting squares for the 1-up quilt.  I'm trying to be extra careful with these fabrics and not let the cat sit on them...it could be harder than it sounds.

Simply Solids - June

Here's the June block - I enjoyed making it.  I was glad that I had two rulers and measured some of the cuts from both sides though, because otherwise I would have miscut several times!

I went with a rainbow theme - it was just so easy to choose with six stripes!

edit: I forgot to give the tutorial credit! :s  You can find it on the Moda Bake Shop, it's called Simply Woven.

Odds and ends

Exciting things abound!

I finished up the baby quilt top (based on Off-Track by Cluck Cluck Sew).  It's bright!

I hung up Window Boxes by the quilter.  I had put a hanging sleeve on it for a quilt show, so I figured I might as well display it for a bit.  If I ever decide to give it away I can easily take it down.  I'm not hanging on to it for a special reason; I just haven't figured out a baby to give it to.  The castle quilt is almost finished too...my son decided to play so well by himself this morning and I had about two hours to work on it.  This was a complete change since lately I've gotten about fifteen minutes at a time.

I received my ruler plate!  My dad (and a person he works with) made it for me.  Isn't it beautiful?  I'm trying to figure out how to use it in the above baby quilt, but it might need to wait a little bit longer before I give it a real test run.  The front corners might need to be rounded, but we'll see how it goes.

Linking up to Let's get Acquainted at Little and Lots.

May accomplishments, June goals

1.  Finish HST quilt, ideally before the baby arrives.  I finished it as the baby was arriving, but due to a mail error it took an extra week to actually arrive at its final destination.

2.  Finish countdown and rocket.  I finished piecing it.  I still need to quilt it, but the quilting queue got a little long.

3.  Piece the individual squares for the fractured quilt.  Done!  I even got them all together and I love it.

8. Pillow for family room.  Since I had a ton of scraps from Fractured, I started piecing them together.

12. Baby boy quilt from jelly roll.   The cat would not get out of the picture.  I was lucky to get her on the side and not smack in the middle.

13. May Simply Solids block. 

16. T-shirt quilt (September).  This is my first time using interfacing.  I got it on three shirts before needing to change to something else.

17. Quilt castle quilt.  So far I'm putting Lollipop Flowers (Leah Day) in the nine-patch blocks.

For June, my number one goal is (for the Lovely Year of Finishes):

 

1. Finish baby quilt from jelly roll.  I need to fix the 2nd and 5th rows so they are offset, put everything together (with sashing), quilt and bind.  The baby is due July 7, so maybe I can even get it out before the baby comes for once.

I'd also like to try really hard to:

2. Piece the T-shirt quilt

3. June Simply Solids block. 

And the other things that are still on the list, hanging out:

4.  Finish countdown and rocket

5.  Quilt the fractured quilt.

6. make the wall hanging for office.
7. pretend to work on scrap quilt.
8. finish green coasters.
9. Aunt's throw. 
10. Pillow for family room.
11. Jeweled floors.
12. Picture quilt (finish by Christmas).
13. Quilt castle quilt 

14. Think about another baby quilt (October)

15. One-up mushroom (October)

I'm also linking up with Fresh Sewing Day.