Monday, January 27, 2020

Houndstooth Round Up . . . .

First, thank you for all the welcoming comments on my last post, it felt great to get back to blogging but even better to hear from so many blogging friends, thank you for your support and kind words. 

The last few months I've gotten on a houndstooth quilt kick.  I've always loved the look of houndstooth quilts and had several different patterns for this block but it was the Missouri Star Houndstooth Made Easy YouTube video that convinced me that this was a quilt I would enjoy piecing, and I did!  



This is Lifetime Quilt Number 270
I've named it Red and White Houndstooth
It finished at 57" x 70"
The fabric is Moda Bella Solid 9900-16 Christmas Red and 9900-98 White Bleached.
It has approximately 437 pieces.


The Jenny Doan video goes with  5 inch blocks for her houndstooth quilt.  I went with 3 1/2" blocks and used 1 3/4" strips for the diagonal stripe block and trimmed them to 3 1/2".

 A request for a houndstooth baby quilt started this whole journey and this is my first effort.


This is Lifetime Quilt 267
It's named Riley's Houndstooth
It finished at 45" x 45"
I used the Missouri Star Houndstooth Made Easy video for my pattern
The fabric is the heart fabric from The Good Life by Bonnie and Camille for Moda
The blocks finish at 3"
There are approximately 561 pieces

I wanted to make a personalized quilt for the new baby but couldn't figure out how to add a name to the houndstooth pattern, so I made a second quilt.


This is Lifetime Quilt Number 268
I've named it Oh Baby - Riley Elizabeth
The pattern is by Anka's Treasures from her Little Quilts 4 Little Kids book.
It finished at 42" x 50"
The font for the letters is Sign Painter

Riley Elizabeth is a beautiful and healthy addition to a very good friend's family. 


Nothing makes a me happier than pictures of babies on quilts! 

So after I made two houndstooth quilts I figured out how to add a name and keep everything looking neat and not losing the feel of the houndstooth design.  I also cleaned up the partial block pieces on the outer edge, I prefer this cleaner look.  



This is Lifetime Quilt Number 275
It's named Parker's Houndstooth Quilt
It finished at 51" x 51"
The blocks finish at 3"
The fabric is The Good Life by Bonnie and Camille
It has approximately 660 pieces
The name font is Sign Painter 



Navy and grey seem to be very popular nursery colors this year, for boys and girls. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

I'm Back!

Happy 2020!  I'm so happy to be back blogging.  

Last summer I started having trouble updating my blog.  Things limped along until November when I was finally unable to do anything at all with my blog.  I thought this would be a good time to just stop blogging, so many quilters have.  But then, on a whim around the first of the year, I looked back on the quilts I made during the last decade, and enjoyed reliving all the ups and downs of each finish and realized I enjoyed documenting my quilting journey, even if I was the only one reading it.  So I hired some professionals who fixed the behind the scenes issues and I sprung for a facelift while they were at it. 

Everything seems to be working great now, and I have some finishes to catch up on, but I thought I would kick off my first post of 2020 with my latest finish.


This is Lifetime Quilt Number 274
I've named it Sweet and Swell Mr. Snowman.
It finished at 53" x 53"
The fabric is Sweet Christmas and Swell Christmas by Urban Chiks for Moda
It has approximately 770 pieces. 



 The whole project got started when I saw this pillow kit by Chrissy from Sew Lux Fabric.  I loved the green stripe fabric with the snowman.  So I ordered the kit.



I did't really need another Christmas pillow so I ordered more snowman and green stripe fabric.


And made this.

It took me a couple days of looking at my design wall before I decided to add the geese and the outer border.  I had a limited amount of Swell and Sweet fabric, scraps really, to work with, but in the end I think that forced me to create a simpler top, which I'm really happy with.

I don't really have many winter themed quilts, I look forward to having this one hanging in my sewing room next January.

And finally, I have always used Designer Blogs for my blog needs, I am not very savvy when it comes to the workings of my blog, if you're in the need for some blog work I highly recommend them.  There is a link to their website at the bottom of my blog.  This is not a paid endorsement.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this is the first of many more blog posts this year.