It's been a while

It's been a while since I've sewn anything. Or really, produced anything. Lately I have only been altering my own clothes but not producing anything after finishing my last big project. I have plenty of projects I can sew up, but I just haven't.

This past weekend I had a couple of events that called for small gifts and made three blankets in two days. One, a gift for a brand new sweet baby girl.

The other, his & hers two-layer fleece blankets for a pair of English Bulldog puppies.

 

I am looking forward to getting more sewing done, getting some projects finished and up for sale in my shop soon!

Lindsey's Custom Quilt

Lindsey has finally received her quilt so I can share actual photos of the construction! Jesse had contacted me about making this quilt for Lindsey originally as a Christmas gift. No way was I going to make that deadline so we decided maybe Valentine's Day. Nope, that didn't happen either! We finally made it happen for their wedding anniversary in March. Jesse spotted a baby quilt I had made and wanted that, only queen sized. There was just one problem . . . that fabric line was two years old and it was REALLY hard to find! This pattern is made for jelly rolls so I was really hoping to find a few of those but no luck. I feel fortunate to have found most of the collection atone of my local quilt shops. Aside from three, all the rest of the fabric is from Kate Spain's Cuzco line. 

No jelly rolls so that meant cutting what felt like a million 2.5" strips. 

Those strips them were sewn together in 6-strip sections.

Then those were cut into 6.5" half-blocks, which were then combined to make the 12.5" blocks. 

Here they are all laid out, ready to sew together! I had some extras so I added an extra strip on the bottom. I don't think a quilt can be too big--I like to have enough to hang over the edges of the bed.

 Well, it turned out to be king sized so I don't think overhang will be an issue!

I've never done it before, but since I had so many scraps left over I decided to add a strip of scraps across the back of the quilt. The scraps included some from the original quilt that caught Jesse's eye, with some of the fabrics I couldn't get.

Off it went to the quilter! I prepared and applied the binding as soon as I got it back. I chose one of the fabrics I used in the quilt to tie it all together. 

The final product! I got the binding done on Saturday and it shipped out right away to Montana, arriving the day before Jesse & Lindsey's wedding anniversary! That was some luck! It was an honor to make this for them and I hope the use it for many years to come. 

Another Custom Quilt In Progress

I've said before that I love doing custom work. It forces me to step outside of my own tastes and to make something based on someone else's vision of what they are looking for. This particular project is a surprise gift for someone so I can't post all the pictures just yet.

The queen-sized quilt is still in process but I made a lot of progress today. I've never really tracked my hours when working on a project before, and I haven't with this one either but I do know that it took me at least four hours to sew 156 halves into 78 blocks.

The blocks are laid out on the living room floor now. I will continue tomorrow and hopefully get most of the quilt top together. I'll have a few blocks left over that I don't want to waste so I'll have to think of something to do with those. Stay tuned for more pictures of this big project!

RMHC Donation

The 3rd Annual Afternoon Out to Benefit RMHC is almost here and I will be donating two minky blankets again this year for the silent auction.

These are the two that will be donated:

I am proud to support the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Washington and this event is a great opportunity to spend an afternoon with a bunch of lovely ladies doing just that. Even more importantly, 100% of the money raised at this event goes to RMHC of Western Washington and Alaska! Let me know if you'd like more information about the event. 

QuiltCon

This year I headed to Austin, TX to attend QuiltCon.

QuiltCon is a huge quilt show featuring hundreds of modern quilts, dozens of lectures and workshops by leading modern quilters, shopping and more! Presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, QuiltCon is the largest modern quilting show of its kind.

While I wasn't able to get into either of the classes I wanted, the quilt show was amazing. So much talent--I was in awe. So many beautiful, fun and interesting quilts mixing color, technique and texture. The best part was that it wasn't just fabric selection or the pattern, but also the quilting itself was a work of art.

Here are three of my favorites:

For more information on QuiltCon click here. Looks like it will be in California for 2016 and Georgia for 2017. I'm looking forward to this show growing over the next two years.

More Inventory Added

Sometimes I sew up a storm and sometimes I go months without sewing a single stitch. I don't know what it is that makes inspiration strike or burn out, but here are three more items that I have added to the shop.

You can view them in my shop by clicking here: Froggy Face Designs