Red Squared

Almost two months ago I asked for help on picking borders for this quilt. Since then it has sat in the WIP pile waiting for me to get a walking foot because I wanted to quilt this with lines.

I got my foot and finished it up! It come out as 49 x49. It is made from 2 charm packs of Rouenneries by French General for Moda Fabrics, border and backing are from my stash.

I am calling it Red Squared, (in honor of my daughters math homework). If you look close you can see the tag on the right side of the backing. This is the first quilt I have sewn a tag on.




Loving this fabric so much, I could not waste a single square, so I made up a little mini that served as practice for the walking foot and is now designated as a candle mat.

I am sharing this for Sew and Tell, be sure and check out the other projects this week! Also, be sure to check back on Monday 2/1 when I will be posting a give away!

Baby triangles = baby snowball

I have all 100 of the siggy blocks done! I had commented when I signed up that the question was if I was going to mess with all the little triangles that are left over. This is what I ended up trying with some of the white and a couple charm packs I had... raggedy snowballs. I hope the triangle edges will fray a bit when washed, and I think I will stipple quilt the patterned parts only, so the white will pop. I played with laying out with sashing but think I like it better without.

This is Sandi Henderson French Hat Box... so Shabby Chic! I ordered the fabric for a border and backing and now I just need to find a baby girl to gift it to :)

A name for my wonky rails

Roads of Rt 66 is what I decided to name this quilt. I was midway through the process, having cut all the blocks and laying them out to preview, when we did a road trip from TX to CA. When we got back this quilt reminded me so much of the road we traveled... mostly divided 2 lanes (grey), but in spots the interstate was red, I assume because the local clay soil, and often you would see the side roads, often the old Rt 66, and in areas just dirt roads. The fields lining the roads were golden dead grass, plowed fields, and in spots there was snow. I see all of these when I look at this quilt. (Don't worry if you don't. My husband was on the same trip and he thinks I am crazy)

I love the way it came together. I love the backing fabric which was from my stash. The two solids are kona cotton, Sand and Coal with pieces left from the block cutting. The binding is a small Andover print that is also used in the blocks. It measures 52 x62, but I have not yet washed it. (when washed it is 49 x 58 and all crinkly!)

One last time, thanks to Cheryl for the quilt along tutorial!

I am sharing this for Sew & Tell Friday, be sure to check out everyone elses projects too!

Trip to the Post Office

This is all headed to the post office! There is the bunch of Christmas scraps headed to the winner (finally), 200 I spy squares for Wendy's swap, and 10 noodles for 2 different swaps hosted by I'm just a guy who quilts on Swap-bot. I have the blocks for the siggy swap done too! This is going to be a fun next couple of weeks getting all the returns on these swaps!

These are the 10 sets of 20 4" squares for the I spy swap. This will probably end up as a charity donation quilt since my 12 & 15 year old girls don't play I spy much these days and I cringe at the thought of starting projects for 'one day' grand children.

I know that the west coast is getting lots of rain, and other parts of the country are still in the middle of winter, but it was in the low 70's here today.... perfect because I needed to defrost my freezer in the garage and I found that impossible last week when it was in the low 20's!

Whatever the weather, hope you are enjoying a great day!

Siggy Swap progress is being made. I hope to get all 101+ done tonight. I decided that I want to keep one of each color that I chose since I love all of them. These blocks are turning out to be very simple and the big question now is what to do with all the little triangle that you trim off! I started playing around with them, but I may just give them to someone more hard core than I am since those guys are pretty little and it take a lot of them to make anything!

I did finally pick a winner of the Christmas scraps, number 9 as chosen by my oldest daughter, and that was Pokey, who has been notified and scraps will be in the mail as soon as I drag myself to the post office!

I am all about joining things this year, and Nina Lise, also known as Mrs Moen is hosting a spring mystery quilt along! I love everything that Nina Lise does, and it all has a bit of a twist from something that I would try, so although I am scared :) ... I am going to go for it! If you have not visited her blog, I recommend it!

ready to mail

I got my cutting done for Kathleen's No Sew Block Swap and they are ready to send. She opened up another group so I am in 2 of them now. There was a poll for pastel vs brights and any green/pink won. Hope the pastel crowd is not disappointed.










I also found a second swap to participate in, Rachel's Modern Siggy. She is taking the first 100 swappers and posted a tutorial for the siggy block. This swap will result in squares for a charity quilt as well which is cool.


I started cutting for this with the materials I had out for the other swap only to run out of my favorite white fabric ... the Ikea sheet introduced by Crazy Mom Amanda Jean. I bought one to try out in October and have been cutting on it since and am SOLD on it. So much that I am considering braving the elements to go to Ikea today ... we'll see how brave I am.

What is your favorite white fabric?

First post of 2010!

What took 4 days to do, we did in 2 for the the return trip. After 2 weeks away, we were ready to be home!

I did a little knitting on the way home. For some reason I had these needles in the truck so I figured I should use them. I ran out of yarn after a couple hundred miles but was able to find some yesterday so this will be my project for rest of BCS bowl games.

I have not forgotten the Christmas scrap giveaway and will get the winner notifications out so the packages can hit the mail by end of week.

One of my goals for this year is to participate in some swaps, challenges and quilt alongs and the No Sew Block Swap hosted by Kathleen will be my first! I found it when Jane posted about it on her blog so I wondered, for those of you that do these,how do you find the activities to participate in? I know there are a couple blogs that list swaps, do you use those or do you just stumble on them like I did with this one?