Donations for Moore

If anyone is wondering about quilt donations for Moore, Oklahoma, my Project Linus chapter is located in OKC and is currently collecting blankets. My coordinator is really good about getting donations to the people who need it, not just Project Linus.

They are collecting quilts and blankets at Beth's Quilt Shop - 115 N Main Ave, Blanchard, OK 73010.

They take everything from tied fleece blankets to quilts. 

A simple blanket made of two 1.5 yard pieces of flannel sewn together, turned right-side out, and top stitched takes less than an hour for a 44x54" snuggly blanket. {And you can cram a bunch of those in a flat rate box!}

There's also ways to donate monetarily, or locally.

Weekly Progress - To Market

No, not Quilt Market! But the house is officially on the market! So...now I just have to make the beds and keep up with the dusting. And finally have some free time to...wait, what was it that I do in my spare time?

Oh, yeah - I used to sew! Not just cut out t-shirts every now and again!

That's all I did this week. It's not that bad, considering it's three out of five columns of a t-shirt quilt. Slice up a couple more and I'll have it ready to baste by the end of the week.

I monogrammed a bag front for a friend. She's making the Weekender - brave woman!

Design Wall still hasn't changed - big shock there. Assuming I don't get shut out of my house too much for showings, I'm going to dedicate an afternoon or morning after I finish the t-shirt quilt to this. I miss my own projects!

I made a couple 1.75 green RSC blocks as leaders/enders. And I did start ironing the dark blue bin. I think I'm only going to pick five, and five from the "other" blue bin - I don't want a lot of blue even if it is the majority of my scraps.

Oh, and Victor II? Totally passed the Dude test. All he said was, "wow, Victor looks better already!" Of course he does, sweet boy, Momma has great medicine. It helps that Victor II has the same habit of hiding in the shark's mouth.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Rainbow Sherbet - Finished!

I'm on a roll! Deadlines, you force me to complete things.

This is Rainbow Sherbet, one of my favorite quilt designs EVER. In fact, this is my second one.

It's a Jaybird quilt, originally in a magazine and now in her book. Yes, I bought the book for this pattern. {But the other ones are pretty good too.}

When my mother-in-law came to visit last September, she brought a huge stack of batiks with her. In exchange for an impressive amount of yard work, I agreed to make her a wall hanging. She browsed my books and patterns and was drawn to this one, because she has awesome taste.

I showed her the scrap variations on the pattern, and she decided on a ROYGBIV one, but with grey instead of black. {A grey Moda Marbles, to be exact.}

The quilt came together in the week that she was here, toiling in my dirt. I think there were times she doubted how it was all going to come together, but this is is definitely a Monet.

Clueless? Literally?

Tai: Do you think she's pretty?

Cher: No, she's a full-on Monet.

Tai: What's a Monet?

Cher: It's like the painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess.

The batting/backing were a conundrum. It's a wall hanging....a 76" full size quilt wall hanging. I wanted to go light. But still stiff enough to hold its shape on the wall. I ended up using fusible fleece with no backing. I think it was the right decision - the fusible part will help keep it from sagging, but it's much lighter than a typical quilt. Backing probably wouldn't have added that much more weight, but...

Quilting, well... Quilting is always a conundrum. I wish I could free motion quilt, but I can't. Not for lack of practice - I just don't think in doodles and feathers and "free" things. I can't even draw stippling on paper.

{Sidenote: as a kid, I colored designs on graph paper and played with my math teacher mom's tessellation blocks. Never doodled.}

I considered a couple different straight line designs, but in the end, I stitched in the ditch. Yes, it's a copout, but this thing is going to be in a second story entry way. No one is going to see the lack of quilting.

It probably should have been quilted down the middle of the colors as well - the fleece got loose after washing - but, I was going for lazy lightweight.

In the end? I love it. I will always love this pattern, even if it paralyzes me at the quilting point. {Those negative spaces deserve awesome quilting! In fact, if you're my family reading this, a great birthday present would be forcing me to make this top and have it custom quilted.}

I'm really excited that it'll be greeting everyone who walks into my MIL's house - I can't wait to see it up there! OMG, I just realized my MIL did this on purpose to get me to come visit the quilt her.

Linked:

Blogger's Quilt Festival @ Amy's Creative Side

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quilt Matters

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt {FAL List}

Weekly Update - Fusing Things

Lots done, but very little sewing this week.

First, a winner of my giveaway, which I didn't get to this weekend because we were at a wedding and I didn't want to interrupt family time. {Okay, really, the hotel internet was terrible.}

Random.org says the winner is....

....18!

Rachel, who looks like she uses panels.

She said: "Selling a house is such a pain. Empty as much as possible out so it looks bigger. No toys or pets helps, too. Good luck! The panel is cute. I know a couple of expectant moms...."

Lots of good advice from you all! I wonder if burying the Saint will work for a non-Catholic. ;)

I'm in the final crunch of cleaning, and working my way through a pile of t-shirt quilts, but first I need to take care of Victor, who died made a remarkable recovery while the Dude was at school today.

Finished!

Fractured Four Patch

A peek at Rainbow Sherbet. Full post will be up in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

In Progress

Fusing and cutting blocks for the Raiders T-shirt Quilt.

The next stack...already measured and laid out on paper. Once the design is approved, I'll start cutting.

And in the RSC corner, I separated my blues into the suggested light/bright/dark. Except I don't really have a lot of what I'd consider bright. Which is okay - since they're wee little blocks, I don't want 30 blues compared to 10 of the other colors, so I think light/dark is enough.

As usual, the design wall isn't changing. Maybe someday soon...like when I don't have to run to three different stores to find a betta with the right coloring.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fractured Four Patch - Finished!

Just checking them off the list now! Look at me go!

This is Fractured Four Patch, a baby quilt for my sister...to give to a friend.

It was an experiment based on this block by What Comes Next. I used 9" (unfinished) starter blocks - cutting four pieces/two blocks from a quarter yard cut - for a 15" (finished) final block.

I debated using several different cuts, or just one each of the lavender/yellow. 

In retrospect...with the bigger blocks, probably should have gone with one each. If there were more, smaller blocks, the lightest lavender wouldn't stand out so much. (See: top right corner.)

And, it would have been pretty cool in two colors with all the twists and turns blending into each other. Mine are nice, but they are distinct blocks.

Also, if you make this as a full quilt, you should mark your ruler with the seams to line up. I trimmed willy-nilly figuring it would all match up in the end. It did...mostly...but it could have been done perfectly had I spent a little time with some tape.

I don't know if anyone can see it {I can, but I know which way to squint!} but I love the way the quilting looks on the back. It's just a double outline on the front, but it makes a cool pattern on the back.

The binding is straight-up perfection. As soon as my sister said "lavender and yellow" I knew that the binding would be. This stripe (Summerhouse Collection by Andover) has been in my stash forever - or at least, three years. And yet I still packed it off to the storage unit before the quilt was done.

I also made a ribbon blankie from the scraps.

45x60"

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quilt Matters

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt {FAL List}
Let's Make Baby Quilts @ Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Giveaway Day!

Hey, look, I managed to remember Giveaway Day was coming and left something out on purpose during the packing!

{Okay, not really. I have all my panels still hanging in the closet. But let's pretend I'm organized and prepared!}

{It's not really crooked. That's my mad camera skillz.}

Up for grabs: one 23x44" quilt panel by South Seas Imports. Slap some borders on it and it'll make a great baby quilt.

To enter, leave a comment with your favorite house selling tip. As a military wife, I have the moving thing down {going on #8 in 11 years!} - but I am a newbie and terrified by this house selling process!

Giveaway ends May 10 at 5 pm PST.

Check out more giveaways at Sew Mama Sew!

Weekly Progress - Moving Along

Finally, things are slowing down on the house, so I have some spare time to make some quilt deadlines! We are doing the last clean sweep this week, making sure all the paint is touched up, and possibly listing it by the weekend if our realtor thinks we're ready! Whew. That was a loooooooooong six weeks.

Finished!

Fireman T-Shirt Quilt

Almost finished!

Fractured Four Patch - just tying off the quilting threads from the middle sections. Why, oh why, did I do double lines?

Quilting!

Rainbow Sherbet - we're going to a wedding this weekend, so I'll get to hand this off to my MIL in person! {Woohoo, no shipping costs!}

Piecing

Raiders T-Shirt Quilt - yup, another one. This one won't fit my "standard" design, which is a little more fun but a little more work.

Design Wall

Haha, of course it hasn't changed. Depending on how I do on the deadline stuff, I'm going to try to fit in a Boardwalk/Cat Tails morning sometime this week.

Cutting

I cut all my green RSC blocks! Wait, that was April's color? And it's May now? And May is blue? And my blue scrap bin is...oh, whew, she knew that. Sorting it into three piles - I can do that!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure