Catching up... part two!

Three smaller projects that I finished up! (They all count, no matter how small!)

I started these patriotic projects back in May or June, 2014... but life got in the way and I ended up putting them aside until late in the year. That's okay... now they are ready for when July rolls around again. :) These are the last "holiday" wall hangings and table runners I needed to have one for each major holiday, so YAY!

I used fabric in my stash for the backing on the table runner.

Most of the fabric came from a charm pack, but I added a few extras from my scraps to fill in the blanks

The wall hanging just has a backing of white and they both have a quick and simple label. I did the machine quilting at home, and the bindings were also done by machine.

And... I saw this cute nail polish wall hanging in a Fat Quarter Shop e-mail. (fatquartershop.com) It immediately made me think of my dear friend who cuts my hair and does manicures and pedicures in her home salon. I ordered the kit last summer, and in January, I sewed it up.

The only thing I changed about the kit was the binding. It came with a solid white. I thought this black and white added a little more oomph.

I was amazed by how much fabric came in the kit... way more than I needed! Thank you, Fat Quarter Shop!

The top pile is what was needed for the project. The bottom pile was the leftover that went in my scraps. I don't think the leftover white is in the picture, so there was even more than you see.

It really came together quickly and easily, thanks to the great pattern instructions.

The pattern instructions were easy to follow. It also came with two spools of thread... one to match the green and one clear for the machine quilting. All in all, I was thrilled with this kit. I copied the original quilting design and did a diagonal grid with my walking foot, which was so easy and pretty fast.

I drew the quilting lines on with a chalk pencil, which made quilting it go fast.

I hand-stitched the binding in the back this time since it was a gift, but still went with a fast, handwritten label.

My sweet friend hung it in her salon with a gorgeous wrought-iron nail polish rack next to it. It looks really nice! SO happy it was well-received. :) I had wondered if she would think it was an odd gift...

And finally... a fail.

I had some fabric left over from the Fall projects I blogged about a few months ago... the runner I put on my piano and the wall hanging. I figured I could throw together a quick improv table topper or hot pad for Thanksgiving dishes. So I started throwing it together and... it just didn't work. I got about halfway done and it really wasn't coming together into anything I'd want to keep (or give away, for that matter).

Yeah, it really just didn't work. I think I improv'd too much, even for an improv project. So I committed what would some quilters would consider the ultimate sin... I tossed it. I did check in with one quilter friend and she let me know it was okay (and maybe even good) to know when to let something go. This was one of those things for me.

It helped that I had other projects in the works which were more exciting. More on those later. :)

Catching up... part one... :)

I've finished a handful of projects in three months since I last posted...

The sun shining through reminds me of stained glass. So pretty. And yay! for the clothes line my husband hung for me in our back yard!

This is the Saturday Sampler from AQ back in 2010-2011. I blogged a bit about it back when I was still making the blocks while the class was running. I actually had the whole thing done and even quilted a long time ago - I think before 2011 was over. I just needed to trim it and add the binding, but for some reason it ended up just sitting around all this time. Lame! I finally finished it back in September or so (2014), but I'm barely getting around to blogging about it.

I really loved making this quilt. There were so many new blocks to learn about, and I love the colors and look. My friend and I both decided we didn't want to do the redwork pattern that the designer had in her original design. It was a cartoon-like duck pushing a flower cart. It was cute, but we both wanted something a little more grown-up. My friend found the design we ended up using. I can't remember what the three small redworks were originally (maybe fruit?), but we changed those out, as well. I think I had almost finished the original duck/cart redwork when we decided to change it.. and even though it was some wasted work time, I'm really much happier with what we ended up with. We also left off a bunch of yo-yo's that were in the original design.

We pretreated our red embroidery floss as instructed, but I still had the color bleed when I washed it. This is after several washings:

It never all came out, and without the sun shining behind it, it's not quite as noticeable. I would be much more upset about the color bleeding if I was giving this away, but since I was just hanging it in my guest room, I just let it go. (Sorry if you're now singing "Let It Go" in your mind!)

I backed it in white muslin because it's just going on a wall... and here's the label after being washed probably 5 times (trying to get the bleeding out). It's faded a bit, but that's okay.

I hung this Saturday Sampler in the guest room, where the 30's reproduction fabrics look really nice where the old photographs of my ancestors and my grandmother's old buffet table reside. It helps to brighten the room. :)

It was machine quilted by Stacey G.

I also finished this camping-themed quilt for my oldest son. He's a grown man and married, so it might seem a little juvenile... but he and his wife like to camp, so when I saw the fabric and sample at the quilt shop, I decided to make it for him. I purchased the pattern and fabric back in the spring (2014) at Broadbent's.

It's made in a Turning 20's pattern.

A simple backing.

This is my favorite block... the blocks had to be made from a panel piece, so that's where the bear came from. I was able to add extra borders to make it the right size, and I love how it turned out.

This quilt was also machine quilted by Stacey G.

So there are all the pretty pictures of it... but here are some pictures of my frustration with this quilt:

The center of these blocks were all cut from a panel, then a border was added to make them the right size for the Turning 20.

It started out being four columns by four rows, but I just could not make the blue canoe fabric work. The color tone just didn't come together with the other fabrics. I kept laying them in a pile together to see what the problem was, and it seemed like it would work...

 ... but when I finally laid it all out on the design wall, it just did not work at all. I was so frustrated by that point that I had no desire to unpick those blocks to add a different border, so I just tucked them away and made the quilt 3 columns by four rows. It was a bit disappointing, because I had picked the canoes for a specific reason, but que sera sera, right? (Maybe those canoe blocks will make it into a baby quilt someday?)

It still turned out to be nice size quilt for snuggling up for a tv show or book, so I'm content with the finished product. And I am happy that my son and his wife both seemed to love it. Here's a picture my son sent me when he got home with it:

Haha... that's his wife's arm there... and he probably could have spread the quilt more to the middle of the bed so they could share the warmth a bit... :) Luckily, I'm in the process of making a quilt that is for both of them... so his missus won't be shivering for long. She can just claim it for herself if it comes to that. ;)

More updates in the next post!