I've been DYING to share these with you!
I discovered April Mae's Hello Sun Quilt Along back in October and decided it fit perfectly with the block of the month I was looking for.  So I made a couple for myself.  Then it came time to start thinking of Christmas gifts and I was in charge of finding something for my sister.  She requested something to decorate her apartment with and it still took me a week or two to realize I could make her these darling sun blocks.  My sister loves yellow and these blocks just seemed to fit her personality perfectly!  So I got to work right away.  I posted a sneak peak of the block backs awhile ago, but other than that I have been waiting kind of impatiently to finally post the finish products.
Here they are!

This is one of A's favorite things to say:

The whole set all together.  I had a really hard time giving these away!  I just wanted to keep them for myself!


January

February
I kind of love this text print!

March

April
I used fleece for the cloud.  I wish I had thought of it earlier.  I would have done the same for March...

May

June
I'm a little surprised, but I think this one is my favorite.

July
I like how the frayed edges look like waves in the water.

August

September

October

November

December

To make these mini quilts, I fused the background fabric onto fusible fleece (very carefully), then iron appliqued the pieces down.  Then I did the embroidery, basted a back to each one, and stitched the pieces down.  I used April's easy method for stitching the pieces down - I love how forgiving it is, and how CUTE it looks!  Perfect for these designs!  Then I sewed the borders on "quilt as you go" style and bound each mini quilt by hand (usually while watching a show with the hubby) - I think they look a lot nicer bound by hand. 

I added little hanging tabs on the back of each mini quilt.   
I think the backs look kind of cool with the images reversed. 

The backs are all made from scraps of yellows.  I didn't have very many pieces that were big enough for backings, so I pieced 12 log cabin blocks.  The mini quilts measure about 10 inches square.

For the big one, I added two layers of batting to the sun and letters (Trapunto style), to make them puff out.

And there you have it!  I made a set for myself, but they aren't mini quilts because I had already fused heavy interfacing onto all 12 of my background pieces, making it too stiff to quilt.  So mine will look very similar, only they will be going in a frame, rather than being bound and hung.

My boys are turning ONE today!  We did it!

We didn't throw a huge party, just a small gathering of family members with cake and ice cream and presents.  However, I didn't want to pass up the chance to make them something to show off their new age.

So I made these bibs.  The boys really seem to be going through them quickly lately, so I thought they would be appropriate.  And they are huge, which I love!  I used THIS tutorial from Kim at My G0-Go-Life on the Clover and Violet blog. 

I didn't add an extra layer in the middle, but I used flannel for the backs.  If I were to make them again for someone else, I would either add an extra layer of flannel in the middle, or back it with minky or terry cloth.

The numbers and stars are appliqued on with ultra hold Heat and Bond.  No sewing required!  I'm curious to see how well they hold up in the wash.

I sewed little snaps on them, since Bronx always manages to pull his bibs off if they are fastened with velcro.  I'm not sure how long the snaps will last, since they are just cheap snaps I bought a hundred years ago before I knew what I was doing.

Here's to one more year! Happy birthday babies!!

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts, so I can't show you much for awhile, but I can probably show you these yellow blocks I made.


Let's just say I was inspired by Jennifer's Scrappy Stash Quilt Along or something like that.  :)  Anyhow, I made a bunch of yellow/orange log cabin blocks.  They each measure about 11-12 inches square at the moment.













Hopefully they will turn into something else soon!  Thanks for visiting!

Here it is!


I finished my Storm at Sea quilt top awhile back.  I think it turned out awesome!  I pretty much love it.

All of the blocks were paper pieced using freezer paper - that's probably why everything matches up so well.  I like paper piecing.

Look at all those seams!  This quilt is going to be HEAVY.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it next.  So far it measures about 39 x 48, which is definitely not as big as I want it.  I've got a bunch more of the egg shell fabric, and I knew all along that I was going to add a border of some kind.  But that's about it.  I have no idea what kind of border to add, or how big to make it.  I've got a little bit of each color left over, but not enough to make another row.  Decisions, decisions.
Luckily, it is almost December and I am well into making Christmas gifts at the moment.  I think this one is going on the back burner until January.  Of course, if you have any awesome ideas about how to make it bigger, send them my way. :)

For more about the progress and inspiration behind this quilt, go HERE and HERE and HERE.

Linking up!

I finished these a few weeks ago for a friend who is having twin boys!

I've been meaning to try out Elizabeth Hartman's Sparkle Punch quilt for awhile now.  I was so excited to finally have a good excuse to give it a go!

Most of the fabrics used in these quilts was given to me by a neighbor who was trying to clear out her stash.  I was more than happy to oblige!

I quilted swirls in the stars and wavy lines in the negative spaces.  I love the crisp, clean, flat look of a brand-new, unwashed quilt. 

Here it is washed and crinkled!

The back is another design I've been dying to try for awhile.  I think I like it the best!

The squares mimic Rachel Griffith's "Scruffily" pattern.   The text print and the cars print are flannels, which makes the quilt nice and soft (although a little heavier and the blue flannel created lots of lint that stuck like crazy!).  I kind of like using flannel for backing. :)


And here is my Jigsaw quilt.   I used matching fabrics for this one.  I wanted the twin quilts to be different, but matching.

Silly story.  So I was lamenting the fact that I still don't have a walking foot for my Bernina when I discovered my little buttonhole foot.  It's got rubber grippies on the bottom of it for holding the top fabric in place while feeding it along at the same rate as the feed dogs on the bottom.  That's sort of like a walking foot, right?  SO I quilted all the straight lines in this quilt with my silly little button hole foot. :)  I had to stop every 3 inches or so to reposition the foot when I ran into the edge of the little hole.  Not sure if it was worth it, but at least I now I know. ;)

I used a medium loft polyester batting on these because I wanted them to be a bit puffier than normal.  However, although I loved how this quilt looked with the straight lined accenting the puzzle pieces, I decided it was a little bit TOO puffy in a sort of loose fabric kind of way.

So I added a little more quilting inside the pieces (I had to do this with the stars as well).  Here it is all finished up:

I used THIS tutorial for creating a raggy binding.  I used flannel for my binding so it would rag even better.  I kind of wish I had slowed down a bit and focused more on getting everything lined up perfectly.  There are some sections where the binding is skinny and some where it is fat.  It's not very consistent, but I think I will try raggy binding again.  It was fun. 

Mostly because I used my special rag scissors my mom bought me for Christmas awhile back.  I cut the raggy sections on BOTH quilts in like 20 minutes and my hand wasn't even a little bit sore!  I have GOT to try these out on a full rag quilt someday!

 And here is the back.  Same as the other quilt back, but with reversed fabrics.

I hope the recipient likes them!  I'm really excited to meet her baby boys.  Plus, I was really happy to have an excuse to make baby quilts.  They are so quick and easy, compared to the big quilts I have been working on lately!  Plus I get to try out new designs I have had my eye on.  :D