Library Book Quilt

I got these embroidered designs years ago to make a quilt for the local library. it finally happened.

I hope the kids at the library get a kick out of it.

Monkey, owl, giraffe, turtle, dinosaur, dinosaur

One-eyed monster, elephant, frog, cow, dragon, robot

This cow may be my favorite. she's just laying in the field, enjoying her book.

I'm off to the Duck tomorrow for a few days and will get this quilted when i get back. will show more pics when it is quilted.

Block Rockin'

I finally have the top finished with the Block Rockin' blocks....celebrating all the Rock & Roll bands of years ago.

The blocks are 12" finished....so not very big at all. 

You almost need sunglasses...it is sooo bright.

Not looking forward to quilting that black and white .... i'm thinking i'll be getting dizzy looking at that.  this one might get a panto.

I don't know anyone in a rock and roll band....so don't know where this will wind up. maybe just with a kid that likes loud colors.

HSTeria week 2

I am beginning to like all these HSTs....who knew.

I will be out of town on Thursday for a few days so figured i better get this out here so i can hook up with Vicki on Friday....hopefully.

I made 158 white and red squares.....11 different patterns.  i still have about 60 more to sew together but don't know if i will get them done before i leave town.  but at least i have something done for this week.

Thanks again, Vicki

Last of the Block Rockin' series

I sort of lost interest in these for a while.....no big surprise...hahaha...but today decided to finish up the last two.

Floyd

Mercury

Now to put them all together. i'm thinking that black and white eye popping fabric for the sashing. perhaps orange for the cornerstones and the final border. it will either keep you from sleeping or give you nightmares....it is pretty loud.

I need a wild Rock and Roll buddy to give this to. 

Funky I Spy

I found this pattern in an old magazine.....it looks kind of cute.

I picked out a bunch of little kids I Spy blocks, put 2 borders on them....and "squared" them up all crooked and funky....i made the blocks 6"

I used almost all plain fabrics since it was for a small child.

I picked 4 colors that matched the block. for instance...the monkey block (below) has blue and brown and gold and white.ipbut the blue and brown on opposite sides and the gold and white on the other sides. i didn't worry about width of fabric. 

I made the blocks over-sized so when i trimmed them down to 6", i could cut them at an angle and make them all funky. i like them that way. but some are straighter than others. Elmo is kind of straight. the fabric strips were narrower on that one.

I still need to find something to put some borders on it. i'm going to do the borders like the pattern shows. i made 56 blocks and set them 7x8.  currently it is about 40x45".  i'm figuring borders will add another 6" to each side so it will be about 52x57 when finished. give or take an inch or 2.  a good size for a  small child to drag around and play with. there are lots of animals on there to look at....all blocks are different. 

I'm going to do another....larger.....for an older child with age appropriate pictures. no matter how many scrappy quilts i do....the scraps never seem to decrease.  sigh!!

OK....i added the border on this today. so, to make it complete....here is a pic with the border...

And a closeup of the border to see the animal prints. i must have bought a lot of this....i still have over a yard left.

Now it just needs quilting.

Empty spools so far this year

I like to keep track of how many thread spools i empty each year....i don't know why....just something silly to keep track of. anyhow.....i throw them all in a huge bowl in my studio as i get them emptied.....and today i had to empty out the bowl....it was overflowing.

So far, this year i have emptied 175 spools.  i'm not sure i should be proud or sad...that's a LOT of sewing    LOL

There are 3 large spools on the left from thread for the longarm. and the smaller ones under it are from the embroidery machine. 

The tiny black and white ones on the right came from a yard sale find. they all had some thread on them but not all were full. 

All the rest are from yard sale boxes....auction boxes....who knows where.  i have found when i get auction boxes and thread is in there.....sometimes they are dirty. i can simply pull off the top layer of thread and expose the new clean section and use the rest. these are great for piecing quilt tops. i don't really care what color i use....you don't see it anyway.   i have a couple hundred more spools to use up yet. 

And i have a couple hundred spools of embroidery thread....that seems to go slowly. and quite a few spools of longarm thread.....also goes slowly. 

So, who knows how many will be used by the end of the year. but i have a good start.

HSTeria .... week 1

My friend Vicki Welsh is having a quilt along with half square triangles....HST    we are to make as many as we like....the size we want....and report in on Fridays to see how we are doing.  i really don't like sewing HSTs....the corners never feed well through my machine. but i like a challenge....so i dug out the AccuCut machine and my boxes of scraps and spent a few hours cutting.

So far, for this week, i have sewn together....

90 red dots .... that's all i had of that dot fabric....wish i had more. this will probably be a baby quilt.

188 light green.....i have many more of these cut out...just need to sew them together. and i have some white ones cut out also and ready to sew together. 

I am liking this block and might use it for the light greens.

I also really like this block and would like to use it for the red dot squares but i only have 90 red dots and each block takes 16 .... so i can only make 5 blocks. so i either need to find more red dot fabric....don't really want to do that. or use some white to add to it. i have a bunch of white HSTs cut out. i will probably cut more red and mix the red and whites with the red and dots. does that make sense?  I know what i'm talking about, anyway. hahahaha

Vicki put this configuration out on her blog and i like it, too. i might have to do this one for sure.

I don't know how many quilts will come of this quilt along. we are making HSTs through July....that could be thousands of them. think how much stash busting that would be. hopefully this will make a good dent in the scraps.

Thanks, Vicki, for the inspiration to go for it and make some HSTeria.