little Libby's (almost) quilt top

Steiger let us sleep in Saturday morning (bless you child)... so instead of napping during his nap (like I've been doing lately), I decided to sew.

As you can see in the photo, the sun was setting, so it isn't the greatest lighting, and I still need to trim it up, and (possibly) add some borders, but I was so excited that it was an almost quilt top, I had to share.

I'll have a tutorial for how to make those diamonds soon, but I doubt I'll write up a full pattern for this.  There was a lot of pulling ideas out of my tushy playing it by ear that went in to this quilt.  

I'm kind of stressed about how I'm going to trim it up...

My sister-in-law posted some new pictures of Libby for me... it was just the little push of motivation I needed. :)

It is definitely reminding me of when her big sister Molly was brand new...

(To save from confusion -- that's Molly above, in 2008, and below was Molly at Christmastime... next to the tree skirt I made her mama...some of you have met Molly before, with this quilt...)

I had big plans...

I can't really believe it's Friday.

I had big plans for my week "off" (do Moms ever really get a week truly 'off?')

Steiger and I did spend lots of time together... but in the sewing department, this is all that I accomplished:

Kelly's Good Folks Ode to the HST

I knew I wanted to approach my HSTs by value (like this block), but a fellow busy bee beat me to that design.  So I improvised a bit, and decided that the little touch of kona ash in the middle helped accentuate the design motif better.  And it gives the block a focal point too... I was quite happy with it, as was miss Kelly. :)

And Amy's peachy-plummy mermaids.

Amy wanted HSTs or flying geese for her blocks, and I actually went to the block library on EQ7 to come up with a design idea.  I did a few of them up on the computer, and Amy picked the mermaid background.  I was a tiny bit shy of having enough, but I think it still looks good... I hope she thinks so too!  I love the double frames; this quilt is going to be so pretty.

This weekend, I'm really hoping to get some time (and energy) to work on my niece Libby's quilt...

She was born February 23, at 3:33 pm... 6 lbs, 12 oz., 19 inches, and all kinds of preciousness.

I'm only sad I am still two states away.  

little lovebirds

Yesterday I got to give a dear friend of mine a quilt.

It is for her soon to be born baby girl.

A while back, she had sent me some links to bedding sets she liked.  One of them used the Lovebirds fabric by Dena Designs for FreeSpirit.  Using that as my starting point, I bought a few coordinating prints from the Leanika collection, and added in some blenders from my stash.  The gray in the diamond blocks is Kona Ash; the design inspiration came from a quilt in Material Obsession.

I tried a little something different with the quilting for this one -- adding a little free-motion cathedral-esque flower in the center of the gray blocks... I thought they looked adorable with the cross-hatching.

Here -- I'll show you on the back too:

(The back is what was left of the Lovebirds yardage, combined with some Kona Crush in aqua.)

You might recognize the scalloped edge from another baby girl quilt I've made before... I think I'm going to make it "my thing" (but feel free to copy) on baby girl quilts.  I really like it... and with a biased binding, it's not  hard to do at all.  I also went with a directional border.  I LOVE directional borders, and so long as you use the left-over yardage in the backing, there's no waste (though it is easier to do with your centerpiece being the WOF or less).

Inspired by the label Krista included on the pillow cover she sent me, I decided to try out my machine's alphabet stitches.  In case you can't read it, it says:

"Welcome baby girl

♥ ♥ ♥ with love, Tracey ♥ ♥ ♥"

I've decided it's also "my thing" to add a strip of the selvage to my labels; I've been doing it on most of my quilts lately, and really like it.  I save a section of the name, and of the color dots... and it's just so cute.

Oh, and the mama of this little quilt's recipient loved it...

...but I knew she would.

______________________________

I have this week off (yea!)

On the sewing agenda -- 

• Finish up my niecey's Sunkissed quilt (she'll be arriving Wednesday, if not sooner -- her quilt though won't be arriving with her unfortunately)
• Make some bee blocks.
• Work on my Make Mine Modern swap package.
• and finish my Urban Lattice quilt (I got the backing fabric this week).

On the mommy agenda -- 

Enjoy this little pickle as much as possible.  Because even though I'm only working three days/week... I definitely miss him.

And he's cute too. ;)

♥ day

A big happy Valentine's day from Steiger and his mommy.

We wish you a day full of love overflowing.

_______________________________

In quilty news -- I got the binding on this sewn on tonight (since taking this picture, I added borders and some pretty quilting)... I don't want to show any more, in case the mama of the recipient of this quilt is peeking... but it's so pretty.  And kind of Valentinesey too.

good day...sunshine...

Please don't hate me because I live in Northern California...

While so many of you are still buried in snow :( -- we've had six dry weeks, with many of those days feeling very Spring-like.

Today we're spending some time with friends, before the much-needed and appreciated rain (you forget I'm a farmer's daughter and now a farmer's wife) comes next week.

Yesterday, another gorgeous day, Steiger wanted to play outside.  I had a bunch of fabric that needed organizing, so I pulled my totes and piles outside, and sorted the pieces that needed to be put away.

I think this pile of grays was my favorite of the bunch.

While we were outside, the mailman came... bringing with him this lovely pile... destined to become a quilt for the baby of the friend we're visiting today.

I got started on a design right away.

(inspired from a quilt in Material Obsession)

Now I have two baby quilts to finish up this coming week!  The baby shower for my friend is next weekend, and my sister-in-law said it sounds like niece #2 will be a couple weeks early!

*eeps!*

WIP Wednesday - time is running out!

...and time is not something I have a lot of these days!  eeps!

My niece is due March 1; however, my hunch is that she won't stay cooking that long.

Thankfully, today is my last work day of the week; thus, I'm hoping to get this done during Steiger's naps (and maybe Jay will give me some sewing time this weekend too). :)

I also have a baby shower coming next weekend, for a dear friend expecting a little girl, that I'm waiting on the fabric in the mail for...

What's left for this one:



I need to miter the corners on the frames for the other four blocks (already made), cut my setting triangles, sash them up, back, quilt and bind!

Wish me luck! :)

I'm hoping to link this up to Lee's WIP Wednesday before I leave in the morning (I'm cheating and scheduling this ahead of time). ;)

Block party!

I'm entering!

First up, for the TRADITIONAL block category... my Bliss-y Dresden made for Kelly. :)

And in the MODERN category - 

pieced hexagons from the Material Obsession 2 book

And finally -- my CREATIVE block - 

a pretty little flower

Go check out the rest!

all work and no play...

...makes Tracey a grumpy dull girl...

It's true.  Since I went back to work a couple weeks ago, even if it is only three days/week, sewing has slowed way down. :(

BUT, I did manage to get a few more of my pickledish blocks from Aneela's quilt along.

This quilt is so hard to capture with pictures.  But it will absolutely be my favorite one ever.

♥

This quilt will be king-sized.  I think the plan is to make it 4 blocks x 5 blocks, with this as the border.  Or I might bite the bullet and make it 5x5.  Though I like the idea of having 14, rather than 19 more blocks to go. :)

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I'd like to add a couple notes for those who might be scared of this block...

The only curves I pin, are when I join the two arcs together to form "the eye"



I want the corners to match up perfectly, and so I pin.  Sometimes I pin the very last joining piece too, but other than that, these come together quite nicely sans the little pokey sticks.

from my friend

I got some happy mail this week (and in record time from Canada too!)

One day, Krista (of Poppyprint fame) and I were lamenting the fact that we hadn't been paired with someone we knew in a swap...
*bing!* (that's the sound of a lightbulb)...
So we decided to do a little side swap of our own.



She asked me if I wanted a pillow or a doll quilt... I requested a pillow cover with binding so it could masquerade as a wall hanging if necessary.

But since it matches my couch quilt, and another French General quilt I have in the works, I have a feeling it will remain a pillow (though I do need to pick up a bigger pillow form)



A final note --
Should you ever see that Krista has signed up for a swap -- join that swap pronto, in hopes that she might be your partner.

Her work... flawless.

Even the back of this pillow is gorgeous, and with buttons!



Thank you Krista!  I adore this little quilty project... adore, adore, adore.

(Now you just need to come to Quilt Market with E and I). :)