Folksy Flannels Workings

I have been busy. I am crafting a flannel baby quilt using Anna Maria Horner's "Folksy Flannels" collection. Hubby gave me a fat quarter bundle of the entire collection for Christmas an I am finally putting them to use!

Let me first say that I have been groping these flannels since Christmas. I have never worked with flannel before, but let me tell you these cut like butter and iron like a dream! It has been a pleasure.

You all know that I have a love affair with hourglass and double-hourglass blocks (as seen here and here). I had an idea to make a large scale hourglass quilt to really showcase the Folksy Flannels fabric, because boy is it gorgeous. 

Here are the flannels I chose for the quilt. I tried to pick girly colors so that this could be a girly quilt:

 (Each block was cut to 10.25 inches x 10.25 inches)

(Each block was paired up with an off-white solid flannel)

Now I tried cutting these blocks up without messing them up too much:

 (Cut #1)

 (Cut #2)

 (All sliced and diced)

 (Spent about an hour at the ironing board pressing all the seams)

Putting the quilt together:

 (Version No. 1. Notice that each hourglass block is paired up with the same fabrics)

 (Version No. 2: All mixed up)

Which option did I choose? 

 

(All mixed up! I think it spaced out the blues and yellow tones better and I love how it turned out!)

 (Blocks are all sewed together, pressed, and cut to 9.25 inches x 9.25 inches)

 (Piecing the quilt top together)

 (All pieced together! A complete quilt top)

(Getting ready to baste)

That is where I left off with this quilt. I am having trouble finding the right backing. Oh how I wish Anna Maria had solid flannels because these Joann flannels are not even a close substitute. A Hobby Lobby just opened down the street from my house, so I plan on taking a trip down there to try and find the perfect backing and binding. Wish me luck!

xoxo

Figgy Rail Fence Finito! / Finishing My First Quilt!

I finally finished this quilt!

It is the first quilt I have ever completed entirely by myself!! YAY (finally!). 

There were a few bumps along the road (like mis-measuring the batting and backing, a poor basting job on the corners caused some problems, etc). Overall I think it looks great. My fabric tastes have changed a bit since I bought that fabric (2 years ago), so I am not sure what I'll use the quilt for. The cats seem to have taken to it nicely. 

I ended up using a light brown tone on tone crosshatched fabric:

 (lots of strips cut and ready to go)

 (all pinned)

 (all stitched together)

 (I keep my binding on my 2nd thread spool holder, not sure if anyone else does this but it seems to be working well for me)

I got the binding on without any big problems. A few blips, but when you're machine stitching the binding I guess that will happen. Here is the finished product:

 (finished size is 48x48)

 (I love looking at quilt backs. I just think it looks so cool to see exactly what you did)

 (This pink fabric was my absolute favorite fabric from the pack)

And then proof of bad basting shows. I almost wasn't going to show this picture, but I promised to show all my failures. I don't really know what happened here but I was in too deep to fix it.  I must just not have paid much attention to basting the corners properly. I hopefully won't be making the same mistake again:

 

I really enjoyed starting and finishing my first quilt (without help). I have lots of quilts floating around in my head and have well enough fabric to get a few going.

OH! Did I mention that this knocks another item off my bucket list? Yesssss!


Check out my finished projects here.


xoxo
 

Did I mention that I am an accountant?

And guess what? TAX SEASON IS HERE! 

When I started blogging last year, I wondered how I would handle blogging and working overtime during tax season. Apparently I am not doing well. I also started the new workout craze called P90X. I know that some of you have heard of it, but for those of you that haven't, it is WICKED tough. It is about an hour or more a day.

MORE WORK + INTENSE WORKOUTS = NO FUN FOR LAUREN

Given that I am not holding up to my promise of new and exciting projects every week, I am going to try harder!

To start.... I received a generous gift card to a local fabric shop for my birthday. I got all these goodies:

 (1/2 yard each: "la fleur du lin" by Lecien, "A Little Bird Told Me" by Windham Fabrics, "Wee Play" by American Jane)

(Some more Anna Maria Horner - Good Folks!)

(1 yard each "Le Poulet" by Whistler Studios and "Wonderland" by MoMo. I plan on using these to make sewing room accessories like a pin cushion)

The rest of these are fat quarters and I have no idea what they are called and who they are by but I love them none-the-less. You will notice that I am attracted to some pretty bizarre fabrics. I am trying to collect fabrics for a vintage inspired quilt (I already have a ton of vintage in my stash from my aunt, so I am trying to supplement). Check it:

 (I love these dots! I bought 4 of these fat quarters for $1 each!)

 

 (I really really LOVE LOVE this one. I am not a super-modern person, but something attracts me to this fabric. If anyone knows where I can buy it by the yard, please let me know!!)

I am VERY excited about the stash additions. I bought a ton of the blue/ivory dots and the ivory/white waves and hope to use those on some upcoming baby projects.

Stay tuned... 

xoxo

 

 

Figgy Rail Fence Endings Part II

I finished all of the quilting on this baby!

 (Straight-line quilting along the border, back view)

 (Straight-line quilting on the border, quilt top view)

(Crosshatch quilting on the center, rail fence, portion)

So now that I have finished all the quilting, it is time to bind the quilt. This is where I am totally stuck! Nothing I pick out looks good. I spent a SOLID 2 hours staring at the quilt and trying to match it up with stuff in my stash and I have nothing. I am determined to finish it up this weekend, so I will have to make a run to the fabric store and find something that goes. I tried these from my stash, but they just don't do it for me:

xoxoxo