String Quilt Blocks

With all my quilting this weekend I ended up with a replenished stash of scraps. Naturally I made a few new string quilt blocks to add to the pile....

A plethora of projects

I have about 8 different quilts going at the moment, most of which are stacked on top of my ironing board. The big squares are the basis for Paty's "mix-matched"quilt, and there are a couple of gnome blocks on top that.... I also have my string quilt blocks, my underwater sea adventure quilt blocks and two new quilts I started this weekend (both "math" quilts, with plus signs as the main design).

Not exactly sure when I plan on finishing all of these, but at least I have something to work towards!...

Math Quilt

It really has nothing to do with math, except that it reminds me of plus signs, which reminds me of math....

Sleepytime

Back in 2007 my brother ended up being my roommate for about 2 months, before he set off on another one of his random adventures. And while 2 months may seem like a short amount of time in which to accumulate a lot of random stuff, my brother managed to not only do this, but to also convince me he should store said things in my apartment after he moved out. Now, a little over 2 years later, I decided it was time to clean out his closet and actually put the clothes to use. So I cut them up and made pillowcases out of his old button down shirts!! So much more functional than feeding silver fish!!! Thanks RyRy:)

Purple Bow-tie Underwater Sea Adventure

This is my new purple underwater sea adventure quilt. The little bow-ties are all Heather Ross fabrics, and all (obviously) depicting ocean life. There are mermaids, seahorses, lobsters, octopi, turtles, etc. and I love it!!! For the reverse side I want to have larger blocks of each of the fabrics, so you can really see what they look like. Of course I'm still a ways off from finishing this quilt...

A Grandmotherly Quilt

Gnome Homes

Two gnome homes down, an undetermined number to go...

No scrap left behind....

I decided to put some of my scraps together to #1 cut down the size of my scraps bag and #2 try a new quilting style. I love the design the quilt blocks make, especially since there is no real pattern or rules or color scheme... just one strip of pink in the center of each block to tie all the blocks together (and make there appear to be actual squares within the quilt). Not having anything to figure out also makes this go pretty fast.... of course I won't have enough scraps to finish an entire quilt for a while, but its nice to have a stack started!!

Almost there....

I finished layering the UM quilt for my brother, and managed to sew the layers together (albeit poorly), so now all I have left on this one is the binding. I just need to figure out what fabric to use and then find the time/energy to bind it. I'm kinda over this one already!!

Layering:

Top side stitched:

Back side stitched:

Topside UM Quilt

The sun came out for the first time in months today, and I think it inspired a higher level productiveness in my apartment!! I finally finished the top layer of my brother's UM quilt, and I cut all the pieces for the back side. It should be pretty fast going to get the whole thing put together, I'm just way too energized to do something like that (or maybe its the three cokes and entire pot of coffee I just drank...).

Crafty Cat

Malcolm finds sewing very relaxing.

Another one down

Hooray.... I finally finished the top layer of my goldfish quilt!!

For going into this with no clear plan I actually really like the way it ended up!! The colors also look great together (not expressed very well here with my bad iphone pictures taken in a poorly lit room). The blue is the Kona Robin's Egg, which has quickly become one of my favorites, and the rest are a mixture of bright blues and browns. Some of my favorite squares are featured below (I think 7 out of nine...).

Now on to the next quilt top...!!!

The Making of a Goldfish Quilt...

After about a week without sewing a single stitch, I finally finished adding the top and bottom blue pieces, and cut the middle blue pieces for my stripes. Once I get those sewn together I'll add the outer most blue pieces and then add the solid white stripes to the mix. I was pretty unsure about how this was all going to come together, but I think now that I can more accurately visualize the stripes as a whole I actually really like it.

I think for the back I'm going to keep it pretty simple... I'd say 90% solid white with one single stripe of blue (with a little square of goldfish).

The binding is a total mystery.

This quilt has also been reminding me of that old zebra rainbow stripe gum. I don't think they even make it anymore, but that stuff was really good. Now I want zebra gum....

Additional Stash Additions...

This is what happens when I go to Miami and JoAnn's Fabrics is having a sale...

Stash Additions

My new Munki Munki fabric (and hedgehog...).

Goldfish I have Loved

Its a terrible photo but here is a general idea of the goldfish quilt I just started. I'm going into this without any real sort of plan, other than using blues and browns as my color scheme. So far I like where its going, and almost wish I wasn't leaving town this weekend so I can work on it more!:)

Bento Squares

I finished sewing each of the squares and have now put them aside to focus on other quilts (and to let my eyes rest from the insanity of this one). I still need to add the border strip around each block, and then decide if I'm going to use any sashing. But as of right now I don't expect to come back to this project for at least another 2 weeks. I need to let it fester before moving on to the next steps.

In other news, I think I found an owner.

Charmed

These are my new charm packs (technically one charm pack and one jelly roll). While they don't look like much now, I'm pretty excited about them! Just knowing that each one is going to become a quilt makes me want to pull them apart and start playing with all the pieces. Soon though... soon.

Bento Box - works progress administration

I finally cut my squares into fours, and spent a lot longer than expected laying it all out. Apparently its not nearly as easy as it looks to mix up quilt squares... its actually quite exhausting (which is why I'm now replenishing my strength with ice cream).

Here's the progress thus far:

In other news, these are my awesome new fabric scissors!!! They were part of my Christmas present from Adam's family, and I've definitely put them to good use with this quilt!

And this is why Adam and I get along so well... he plays video games and I sew, and its like hanging out while each doing our own thing:)

The Stitches in the Technicolor Dreamcoat

Guttermann thread is so pretty in and of itself that I decided it needed its own home to proudly display its bright beauty (can I get another adjective please??). The only problem with putting it on display though is that I now feel like I don't have enough. And thus the cycle of shopping continues...

A torrid love affair

Kitties love quilts...

but sometimes that love is just too much to bare.